Movie Evaluations

1. Sherlock Jr. was a not my favorite, on scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest I'd say somewhere around a 4. The black and white scenes, with the music was never something I enjoyed. Buster Keaton showed talent for the era.

2. M. was definitely one of my favorites this year, I love crime movies and detective flicks so this movie was the best, a 9 out of 10. The way the movie created multiple perspectives of both the police and the criminals made it suspenseful and exciting.

3. Double Indemnity, was a good movie with a 6 out of 10. I hate the femme fatale characters but they were the motivation behind how the male leads acted so it was necessary.

4. Seconds was awesome, it was intense for a 60's film and had a great story, 8 out of 10. The cast was small but the way they showed the scenes during the transformation was my favorite and really creative I thought.

5. El Topo was my least favorite film probably of all time, I did not make it all the way through 1 out 10. The story wasn't very strong and the weird flashes of foreshadowing scenes made no sense to me.

6. Do the Right Thing was a pretty good film even though I'm not a huge Spike Lee fan however it had a good story, I just hated how unnecessary much of the events were, but it was a political statement about how necessary much of the hate in the world was. 5 out of 10.

7.The Piano was interesting but really not phenomenal, it was cool to see how an actress that never has any lines can play the lead and still draw emotion from the viewer, also the music of the film really a much better view. 6 of 10.

8.The Devil's Backbone was not scary so I do not understand why it was rated as a horror but for a drama it was great. I thought the storyline was good and it showed the strength of brotherhood. 8 of 10

9.Zero Dark Thirty was my favorite film because not only was it an action film but a film about the empowerment of women. So it really was something everyone can appreciate. 10 of 10. 

The Softer Side of War

This film was so much more than just an action film, it was a drama and even more than that it was a story about a woman who comes into her own and is a empowerment statement for all women who are fighting for equality in "a man's world." This film had many apparent motifs that made this so much more than just the story of the greatest manhunt in modern history. This film made a statement that women are strong and capable just as men are, and the director did a great job of displaying this in different ways. There were a few things that stuck out to me that displayed the focus on the woman who essentially found and killed Osama Bin Laden, those being: Maya's actions in the interrogations, the focus on the conversations between only female characters, Maya's rise from being in the background to being the head of the show, and finally, the display of Maya crying at the final moments of the film. Each of these play an important part of the creation of this film and breaking down the modern gender stereotypes of women, especially in war.

The first event that made a clear statement to me was how Maya changed over the course of her time participating in the interrogations. At first she is scared, timid and unsure of the things she was witnessing as it is the first thing she sees after landing in Pakistan. However, she changes and during this change we see that she becomes hard, and driven to excel because she is fighting for the bigger picture. She even wears a dark haired wig when she does her interrogations, it is as if when she wears the wig she is cold and unwavering but when she takes it off she is able to breath and seems vulnerable again. This is the first statement of gender in the film, a statement of the modern woman, someone who can stand up for herself and be strong but yet still has the softness and appeal of a woman.

Next, the director, being a female herself, chose to focus many scenes not only on Maya but on the interactions she had with other women. These connections show the viewer that the director is trying to make people understand that the men aren't running the show, since throughout every bit of the manhunt that we saw, the women controlled the game, they made the connections and dictated to the men what the right moves were, when and where to go. Finally, it is Maya who takes responsibility for finding Bin Laden and is the one chosen to ID the body for the President. The scenes between only female characters gave intimacy to the film, and showed more compassion for the work that was being down, and I believe had a man made this film that these scenes would not happen, there would be a lot more gunfights or scenes of torture.

Also, Maya came from the bottom and ended at the top. We see this from the very first scene. She is always in the back of the scenes, distant from the action, her office is even in the farthest corner of the building. She was considered a lower level person on the case. There is a very critical moment in film when meeting with the director of the CIA to explain the details of the compound and how she was sure that it was Bin Laden's  lair. She goes to sit at the conference table and she is asked to move to the back of the room. I immediately noticed that she was not thought of as an equal even though the entire hunt relies on her work and her knowledge. However, at the end of the scene, she takes charge and asserts herself to prove that though she may be a woman, this is her life's work, this is her show and she won't sit on the sideline. From the moment she says "I was the one who found this motherfucker" no one takes her out of the center, she is the one who found and would be the one who "kills" Bin Laden.

 Finally, as a finale to the film, the director, whose just created this "superwoman" and has made statement after statement that empowered Maya to ascend to the top of the team behind the manhunt of OBL, brings us back to the softness and the vulnerable side of women. It is a final statement that shows the diversity of a modern woman. The final scene where Maya boards a plane that was sent only for her and is asked where she would like to go, she remains silent and lets a single tear fall. This scene is so powerful to me, because this woman worked for 12 years to hunt OBL and gives up everything that a "normal" would want such as a family or a relationship, and she see things and does things that normally only men of war would see and do but yet she does not break. It is not til everything is over that it all sets in that she accomplished a historic task and is not allowed to relax, and she cries. However, she lets one tear fall, only one, that too is a statement of strength.

This film was fantastic and it truly was a film to empower women maybe even more than to be an action flick. Te director focused on scenes had broke down gender stereotypes and allowed people to see that women are just strong and powerful as the modern man is.

The Devil's Concoction

This film was definitely a blend of genres, it isn't just a horror film as its described in the plot summary. To me this film is not only a horror, even though it's not really scary, but it shows signs of a fable. I say this because the film begins and ends with the mystical talk of what ghosts are which is very much like an old folk tale but however our ghost is this disgusting zombie kid and that to me is where our "horror" comes from. The film contains scenes of the ghost appearing and disappearing, knocking things over, and scaring the boys of the mission. However, we see that this ghost is stuck because his business is not finished because his killer must be brought to his justice and the ghost actually is trying to warn the boys of the coming disaster to save them, that to me is not very monstrous. So I hold that this is more of a fable, a story that one can tell their kids with a moral that what you do in life, can make ripples even after death, so to me our ghost is here to teach the boys to stand up for themselves and learn to survive under tyranny, he's the savior not the villain.

*Insert offensive joke here*

The relationship between Ada and Barnes was tense, very tense at first because he claimed her piano but that is not the first time we see them together. I believe the relationship started on the beach, when he took her and Flora to play to piano the first time, because it is there that we actually get to see the soft side of Ada as she loves to play her piano and we see Barnes' too as he is first smitten with her as she plays. The agreement of keys for kisses is a tough one to think about, because we see that she is very reluctant to do anything with him but relents because she wants to have her piano so badly, the situation of course as you know escalates into the scene when they have sex for the first time, which in my opinion she didn't agree to just because she wanted the piano, he was good to her and didn't force her to lay with him, he asked and she agreed. She could have decided that she would only have sex with him if he gave her the rest of the piano as payment but instead she only chooses ten keys, why? Cause at this moment she made the choice, that the man would literally do anything just to be with her and after they have sex he decides that there will be no more bargaining, she'll either choose him or never see him again and she does, she chooses against her marriage and decides she actually genuinely loves this man and the piano was just an object. So no, I do not believe there was ever an instance of rape, except with Alastor attempts to have sex with Ada while she's still knocked out and for that, he deserved to be alone.

The Right Thing

I believe that the right thing to do hear is to not cry over spilled milk. The pictures on the wall of fame was not something so terribly wrong that it required a boycott of the pizzeria. Sal owned that shop and had the right to display whatever he wanted on the walls so that fact that one of his customers had to cause all that trouble about some pictures on the wall, a wall that he had no control over, makes no sense to me. The moral being don't start none, won't be none would go perfectly with this film. The fact that Radio Rashem died was awful yes but also the entire fight was unnecessary. Those men chose on their own power to enter Sal's place and start trouble, Sal didn't start the fire, he even tried to remain very calm and respectful. He would have probably listened to what the men had to say if Radio would have turned off his boom box but some things just cant be helped. Once the wheels were turning, there was nothing to stop them. It is hard to find the solution to what the "right" thing is but to me it's just minding your own and let the world go round. Don't cry over spilled milk.

The Turncoat Caravel

The scene I've selected is the scene in the desert just after the death of the third gun master where the group was sitting in the desert and then suddenly just start making out with each other. I believe that this is the essence of the entire film, as it changes and evolves so quickly that the characters literally are changing alliances at the drop of a hat and we see that in this scene specifically. The scene begins with the connection between the two women, which pretty much develops from no where but yet they run off together after the presumed death of the lead character. The camera does close ups on them individual followed by a medium shot as they begin to make out so that in that moment we see that they've pretty much chosen each other over the man, until one of the women tries to keep her hold over the man by switching over to him. When we see those two together the camera gives us the depth shot so that we see the other woman staring down on them with her jealousy and this is pretty much a foreshadow of "I want this man dead." So this scene is a point to contention in the film, we know that something is brewing between the two women and that the man is going mad with guilt of the tricks he performed on the guns masters and now looks pretty weak to the women, so his life is now in danger.

Seconds, The Surgery.

The first scene of surgery when Arthur becomes Tony was, in my opinion, pretty advanced for its time, even though there was no blood or faceless body such as in Face Off but to some that could have been a very hard thing to watch during the time period. It was full of close ups on different parts of the body that would be receiving alterations as well as, on the plans that compared the old Arthur to the new Tony. The close ups on the various body parts made us understand the gravity of the process that was about to be done to Arthur, he was able to be completely transformed into the drawing on the paper next to the surgery team. It was as if someone was going to be creating their masterpiece with the fine attention to detail in both the drawing and the way the surgery was performed, meticulous and careful. This was a statement to art at the time, how it had become a craft of sophisticated tools rather than genuine creativity, Arthur's new body was planned and executed to the tee and though he became a work of art it was not genuinely inspired by anything except the Company's order to fill.  The music during the scene also set the mood for the scene, it made us feel on edge and suspenseful because this scene was crucial to the rest of the film, it had to be believable or the whole premise of the plot goes for nothing. As I said before this scene was probably the most important in the entire film so to really draw your audience in the music had to be something that was not totally scary but something that was just enticing enough to make sure they didn't want to look away.

Compare and Contrast, Hitch-Hiker

The Double Indemnity and The Hitch-Hiker had their subtle similarities but to me they were very different. The D.I. had a female lead and played very much on the influence of the femme fatale, where as the The H.H. had all male characters and focused more on the power struggle between the captives and the captor. Also, the settings were much much different, in the D.I. we only see a few places around the city, but in the H.H. we see massive landscape scenes in the desert and small towns. Finally, looking at the aspects of the crime, in the D.I. we actually are a party to the murder, and in the H.H. the crimes happen in the beginning and that's really all, there is not actually murder during the length of the movie. These differences may have been a difference in style because of the director being a female, she probably didn't want a female character so that she could avoid the femme fatale character. Also, the male dominant cast actually creates some room for higher physical conflict which doesn't occur except for a few moments when Collins just cant take it anymore.  Finally, we see actually detectives in this film not just a insurance man following a lead, making this an actual detective film.

The similarities were really only in the basics. The format is all the same, lead characters fall into a crime, and the a detective works to solve the crime, before another crime occurs. This is entertaining of course, but the most interesting scenes are the scenes that differ from traditional film noir style that I mentioned before.

Film Noir, Double Indemnity: The Women

The women of this film and of this genre are essential to the plot and are normally right at the center of the action, usually tied directly to the event that the story is based around, in the case of the Double Indemnity, the plot of and murder of Mr. Dietrichson. These women are playing helpless femme fatale characters but for the most part are actually something of the total opposite, cunning and dangerous for the men that associate with them.In this film we are two female characters, Phyllis and her step daughter who hates her. These characters hardly interact with each other but both make contact with our main character and affect the way he acts.

  Phyllis is the wife of Mr. Dietrichson and claims that he is awful to her and the she cannot stand to be married to him anymore, she is beautiful and knows how to use that to her advantage. We also know shes intelligent because before marrying she was a nurse. At the same time, we learn that she may have been responsible for the death of the first wife of Dietrichson because she was the attending nurse when that woman was in the hospital. So with that knowledge we know that this woman has motive and knows how to get what she wants, and if she was responsible for the death of the first wife, will do anything to get it. So this character wants to kill her husband but needs help and not only that but wants some kind of benefit, that's where our insurance salesman just happens to stop by and fall for her beauty. Its all down hill from there, she's won. After all the events unfold we find out that she's not even been faithful the him, she's gotten him to kill the husband while she's been sleeping with man her stepdaughter was in love with. A truly evil woman, she even attempts to kill our main character, who then kills her after he's been shot once.


   The step daughter is another woman in our film, she's the symbol of innocence, the honest voice. She is open about her dislike for Phyllis and even for her own father. She is secretly seeing an older man, who we find out is also seeing her mother, but this girl is not evil. She losses both parents at the hands of the same woman, but she is only a pawn. The lead character only befriends her to attempt to keep her quiet and help ease the pain of what she's going through and what he had done. She is good essentially but I think that had we explored this character more she could have come back to take action against Phyllis in the end. It's the innocent ones that can really surprise you.

M. Theives v. Police

The parallelism in this movie was extremely well thought out and to me very interesting, I loved this film. The way that the story went back and forth between scenes of the police and the thieves having pretty much the exact same conversations about the murderer was fantastic. This theme really showed the depth and the immense thought that went into making the story whole and cohesive. I felt liked that the story was focused more on the hunt of the murderer rather than a background of him or a mystery to find out who he was. I think that this made the story had to place in a certain genre because it wasn't a mystery, or a detective story; it was instead a story of cat and mouse. However, it had two facets to the chase. The first was obviously the hunt for the murderer by both the police and the criminals, but then the second was between the police and the criminals. The both played off each other to accomplish the end game of catching the murderer, which as we know now backfired on the criminals because even though they caught him, they were also betrayed and all captured together at the end of the film. I also loved how the thieves recruited the help of another union of the city, the beggars, while the police reluctantly had to accept that the people of the city were going to try to capture the murderer themselves, as we see the scene where the old man tries to befriend the young girl and get her home safely but is stopped by the mob of citizens. Each main group, the police and the thieves, had their own supporting cast. These pairs really brought the story together and made the hunt of the murderer have so much depth that it was suspenseful, who was going to get to him first?

Sherlock Jr.

1. One gag early on that I believe was probably extremely hilarious back in 1924 was the gag losing the money. The main character wants to buy three dollar candy, but only has two dollars. As he's looking for another dollar someone comes along and has lost one, so he gives one he found to her, then a second woman needs one so he gives it to her. Then finally a brutish character comes along threatens him for his money, then gives the one dollar back, and takes a wallet of the the trash our lead was sweeping and walks away with it. This was humorous and entertaining to watch because our character, had he been doing his job, would have found the money and had all the cash he needed. The camera movement in this whole first part of the movie varies, we close ups to introduce all our characters, as well as staging shots so we understand the surroundings we are in, which changed from a moving shot of the street to, medium closes up with the theater scene.

2.We see an example of a film within a film, self reflexivity at the theater scene. Our character not only displays but cleans a sign for a five part film series. This draws the viewers attention to it immediately and is very effective at doing so. This is a prime example, though very simple. I believe that it was so because this movie was made in 1924 and people weren't trying to make over complicated films at the time.

My name is Josh Hipp, I'm a third year student at UC majoring in Organizational Leadership. I chose this class because it seemed both interesting and I am a great lover of film. Also it fit my Gen Ed requirements. I think this class will be pretty entertaining if the first meeting was a sign of things to come. As far as expectations for this class, I really just expect to learn more about film, while enjoying great in class discussion of movies.

Thanks,

J.