Film Genre History: Action

The film I chose that was released before 1960 was Akira Kurosawa's 1954 iconic masterpiece Seven Samurai. It is about a village of farmers who are constantly attacked and pillaged by a group of bandits. They decide to pool their resources and hire samurai to protect them. It stars the legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura who were both favorites of Kurosawa's to work with.

I chose Michael Bay's Transformers for the film released after 1990. It's about a high school kid who is caught between two rival alien robot factions that bring the fight to Earth. It is directed by Michael Bay and stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox.

I watched short excerpts of North by Northwest, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and Skyfall.

The way films have evolved between these two films is that they've between much more fast-paced and a bigger emphasis put on explosions and fast cutting rather than tight choreography and succinct editing. In Seven Samurai, every set-piece is well-choreographed and naturally evolves out of the story being told with an emphasis on the conflict between the villagers and samurai characters. In Transformers, as is typical of modern action films, the story is nonsensical and the characters are ciphers that are just vessels through which we can get to the next set-piece that was thought of before the script was even written.

History of Action Films

The original action film ever made is considered to be The Great Train Robbery which was released in 1903. It was the original action film and was very innovated in its filming techniques which had never been seen and legitimized film as a piece of art that can be used to tell stories. The earlist action films were swash-buckling adventure with heroes like Douglas Fairbanks in period films. After that action was portrayed mainly in Westerns. In 1954, Seven Samurai was released and is considered the most influential action-adventure film. Some conventions of action films today are seen in Seven Samurai. Inter-cutting between slow-motion and regular motion shots were used for dramatic effect and not just as a cool effect as in today's action films. Roger Ebert wonders if the beginning scene in which the action hero goes into a dangerous situation to show the audience of their prowess even though it's unrelated to the main plot is first seen in this film. 

The contemporary action film wasn't a staple of cinema until the 1980's with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis being some of the most famous action stars of the era. Before the 1980's, action scenes were utilized in thrillers or spy films which weren't really considered action films such as North by Northwest with the iconic dust-cropper scene and the Mount Rushmore final set-piece. In the 1970's with the rise of gritty, realistic films showing urban warfare and gang violence, action wasn't really a selling point of a film. 

Action blockbusters became the big thing in Hollywood after the tremendous successes of Steven Spielberg's Jaws in 1975 and George Lucas's Star Wars in 1977. Corporations saw the huge profit margins that were possible in the film industry so they started to buy up all the studios. They completely changed Hollywood from the director-controlled small profit film of the 70's to huge risk but exponentially bigger reward blockbusters in the 1980's.

The general convention of the action films are usually a male action hero being face with seemingly insurmountable odds. Female action heroes weren't a thing until just recently to keep up with changing demographics in cinema audiences. Females were usually the romantic interest of the action hero and weren't really characters other than usually being kidnapped and/or killed and having to be avenged by the hero.

Some directors famous for the action genre are James Cameron, Michael Bay, John Woo, Christopher Nolan, and Luc Besson just to name a few. Luc Besson usually writes the movies he's involved in recent years and doesn't get behind the camera much. He is famous for Le Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional. 

Powerpoint Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1P4gLOUunYwQ1vwPQX_yHpBmA2t8Rp5XoiO4HHHQmXBM/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

References

1. http://www.filmsite.org/actionfilms.html

2. http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-seven-samurai-1954

3. http://www.film.com/movies/whats-the-big-deal-seven-samurai-1954

Assignment 11: Casablanca & The Bicycle Thief

a) The cinematography in Casablanca is very beautiful in its simplicity. Like Roger Ebert say it's not a film filled with shots that would change the medium like Citizen Kane. The cinematography is one of Michael Curtiz's main ways to communicate the mood of the film to audience considering that he didn't speak a word of English. Ingrid Bergman is shot primarily from her left side and her isolated shot have a slight blurriness to them to make her look dreamlike.

b) The German anthem is played to represent the Nazis and is very militaristic to me. The French national anthem is sung and is very triumphant and brave considering the Germans were sitting in the same room.

a) It is shot in a very stark and realistic way compared to Casablanca. It is meant to show the realism of the situations of people in post-war Italy. One of the ways it challenges classic Hollywood narrative is that the hero is a poor person and it isn't a rags to riches so there isn't a "and they all lived happily ever after" ending.

b) The beginning of the film is very optimistic and the situation looks really good for Antonio. He has a job offer and method of transportation which is a lot in postwar Italy which was devastated by unemployment and poverty after World War II. The end of the film shows what can happen when unfortunate circumstances arise and the desperation that forces people to do bad things. All the optimism is long lost from the beginning and the future is looking really bleak.

Assignment 10: Citizen Kane & The Hay's Code

The Production Code

I don't think that movies can really affect someone's morals unless if they don't have anything to teach them that the morals presented in a piece of entertainment are morally unjustifiable and dangerous. There is always going to be outliers that can't separate fiction and reality.

Citizen Kane

His radio influences are shown by his casting of all his radio actors that he always worked with. They all have really good voices as well. You can also tell in the dialogue that it has a different cadence and rhythm to it than in movies of that era. That is because Welles didn't like the phony sounding dialogue in films where lines of dialogue never overlapped with each other when people try to talk over each other or at the same time.

The scene where Leland comes in drunk after Kane loses the election is filmed in the low-angle style.

A very clever way in which Welles used transitions was the famous dinner scene in which the disintegration of his marriage is shown, every cut jumps ahead a couple years. Also there is a scene in which Kane as a child says, "Merry Christmas," then it jumps decades and Mr. Bernstein says, "and a Happy New Year."

Assignment 9: Early Sound and The Artist

In The Artist the camera work is very reminiscent of silent films because that's exactly what the cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman wanted to capture in the look of it. The way the camera is rarely moving and the coverage of the film isn't like the haphazard tons of angles we get in modern films. You can tell that the Artist was made in 2011, because the picture looks really clean and pristine. He shot it in color then converted to black-and-white in post-production because the shades of the blacks and grays seem much richer. There are also a couple of dutch angles used in the dream sequences which was not used in silent films.

The sound and music in The Artist can be compared to silent films because there is a almost constant musical accompaniment. You can tell The Artist was made in 2011 because there is a dream sequence in which the main character starts to hear noises which is very meta. Also, the score in the film is much more comtemporary because it really reflects whats happening on-screen instead of most silent films in which the music would have the same theme over every scene.

Intertitles are used in The Artist to portray the dialogue which is what silent films used. The only thing that shows that the movie was made in 2011 is at the end when you can actually hear the characters speak.

The editing in the film is reminiscent of silent films because they also shows the reactions to what is being said which is not what always happens in modern films. The editing in other aspects is very modern in which is it is much faster than silent films of that era. It is not MTV-style but it is not as deliberate as silent films.

I don't really remember seeing any special effects in the film. But I do remember seeing a lot of special effects in Melies' films but The Artist is not a film that wouldn't need special effects.

The acting is reminiscent of silent films in some respects because of the very expressive faces. But there isn't the overly dramatic theatrical acting of silent films. Which is why I think Jean Dujardin won the Oscar for Best Actor (also his charming smile).

Assignment 8: Horror and Suspense

a) I honestly don't think that M would really qualify as a horror film. If one is liberal with the psychological horror genre criteria then it could probably be put into that category based on Peter Lorre's character being very emotional unstable. It's shown when he's stalking a little girl but then she goes to her mom and he feels dejected. He goes to a cafe and get a drink and you see that he's really struggling with his mental health. He tries to drink and smoke to put his urges to rest but that doesn't work so then he starts whistling again and tries to find his next victim.

b) I chose Stanley Kubrick's 1980 masterpiece, The Shining. I would categorize this film as psychological because it deals with Jack Torrance's cabin fever and his gradual decline into insanity. Also, Kubrick is a master of using music perfectly in concert with the images on screen and would also fit the criteria because of that.

c) The use of music is very minimalistic in M. A lot of the suspense is built with the deliberate camera movements, editing, and Peter Lorre's whistling of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" when he's stalking his victims. Toward the ending when Beckart is hiding from the gang that is pursuing him all you hear is the sound effects which is very unsettling. In contemporary movies you'd hear the musical score blaring some generic suspense movie music to build tension but Fritz Lang took the opposite approach and it's very effective in my opinion.

d) In The Shining, there is the iconic sequence when the Steadicam is following Danny on his Big Wheel and there is a noticeable lack of music but all you hear is the sound effect of the plastic wheels going from the carpet to the wood floors which effectively builds the atmosphere of a huge empty hotel. That is until you get to the hallway in which you start hearing the music and Danny's horrified face. We get a shot of his eye line and he sees the twins and the music builds until he starts seeing the horrific images of there bodies slain.

e) The good characters are Danny and Wendy. The evil of the film is Jack's mental instability and what it leads him to do or attempt. The supernatural characters are really up to interpretation on whether they actually exist or are part of Jack's psyche. One argument for their existence is that there is no possible way that Jack could have gotten himself out of the food storage locker that Wendy locks him in after she knocks him unconscious. Also, you have that interesting last shot of the film which is Jack's character in a picture from the 1920's which would be impossible.

Assignment 7: Theories of Montage

Eisenstein's lack of affection for the continuity editing of the D.W. Griffith school of film are shown in the famous Odessa steps sequence. The Odessa steps wouldn't take as long as it took in the film to go down on. That tells you that Eisenstein wasn't interested in the geography and the characters' spatial relation. He was interested in juxtapositions of different shots to engage a person simultaneously on an intellectual and an emotional level.

You can see the exploitative level in which Eisenstein cuts the film. You see a child fall and see him bloody, after that he screams out for his mom which is meant to manipulate the viewer in the cheapest way, but it obviously worked. Also in John Hess's Filmmaker IQ video about Soviet Montage he explains the Marxist Dialectic way that Eisenstein was going for in his theory of editing. You see soldiers marching down steps and cut to people running away down the steps and you get the idea of "Oppression" into your mind.

After that the Battleship Potemkin that was mutinied by the oppressed shoots the Odessa theater and it cuts to 3 different shots of stone lions that are progressively rising up to portray the proletariat rising to revolt against the Tsarist government. That sequence obviously doesn't have any continuity but gives you an abstract idea if you think about it. This is how Soviet montage was used because they lack a narrative momentum and have to do with ideas. Joseph Goebbels loved the film as a propaganda piece and was very influential in his involvement with the propaganda agency of the Third Reich.

Assignment 6: Early World Cinema

a)       Dreyer chose the final days of Joan of Arc because he wanted to show the Christ parallels of the character. They were both people who said blasphemous things and were summarily executed for it. I think he also wanted to show the trial like the judges were perceiving it as well. They didn't see the battles or anything and were just there for the trial. Also, there is no real recorded history of how she was in battles. She's become a somewhat mythic figure. The trial was actually recorded and it is known what actually happened.

b)      Her acting was really fascinating and one of the greatest performances I have ever seen. Her acting seemed really different from the acting of that time because it seemed that she was really naturalistic and authentic. Actors during that time would act as if they were in a stage play and pretty much act for the camera. Falconetti's performance seemed like she was naturally reacting to what was happening and to the characters which is what acting has become today.

a) The subjective camera has "to capture and reflect to the audience the emotional turmoil and suffering of" the character. One shot that is influenced by that technique is in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver when Travis Bickle stares at a bubbling cup of water to reflect his character's psyche that is slowly bubbling up to foreshadow his burst of violence later in the film. In Metropolis, you see the subjective camera on display when Maria is being pursued by the scientist with the flashlight and you experience it through her eyes.

Assignment 5: D.W. Griffith and Oscar Micheaux

a)       D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation starts with a prologue about how bring Africans to America was the cause of unrest and the Civil War because whites and blacks shouldn't have to live by each other. It is about 2 families who live opposite of each other on the Mason-Dixon line. The sons are friends because they went to boarding school together. The Civil War starts and they fight on each other's respective armies. A couple of them die then reconstruction begins and black people are freed so they and the carpetbaggers cause the South to go into disarray. Then the Ku Klux Klan gets formed and saves the South by not allowing black people to vote and putting them in their place.

b)       Oscar Micheaux's Within our Gates is about a light-skinned black lady Sylvia as she travels to the North to try to get funding for a black school. She gets hit by a rich white woman's car and she decides to donate money to the school. We then get a flashback to Sylvia's history where her adoptive parents get lynched for a murder they didn't commit. Meanwhile, the murder victim's brother goes to try to rape Sylvia but then he finds out that she is his daughter from an affair with a black lady, he's been the one putting her through school.

c)       The Birth of a Nation is effectively a racist propaganda film that posits that the Ku Klux Klan was a good for the South. It is a masterfully made film that argues for evil. On the other hand, Within our Gates is a film that tries to deal with the issues that black people have to deal with now that they are free but then not really equal citizens. It is not as affecting as The Birth of Nation because it didn't have a immensely talented filmmaker like D.W. Griffith behind it. It is essentially a decently made film that argues for equality. The ending of Within our Gates shows that white people being sexually aggressive toward black women was much more prevalent then the opposite that is portrayed in The Birth of a Nation.

d)       The Birth of a Nation actually led to a revival of the Ku Klux Klan and the film was used as a recruitment tool. People who were ignorant of the history of the Civil War ate the film up and perceived everything in it as true and probably pushed efforts to equalize black people into society even further back as the film portrayed them as not being worthy of the vote.

e)       It made the people who were supportive of the film react extremely to the point that Klan members would dress up and ride in full regalia in New York City. Also, the NAACP's effort weren't that successful but it did raise the profile of the NAACP as a organization who'll fight for black people's equality. Their campaign did successfully persuade film censorship boards to spring up in cities such as Boston and Chicago to ban The Birth of a Nation.

Assignment 3: Early Silent Films

a)      It took so long to become movie stars because movies were considered a gimmick and a passing fad at first so people didn't take them seriously. Another reason was that the companies making the films would just give you the title of the film and the company that made it. They didn't want to put any actors' names on it because they wanted you to have brand recognition. Also, they didn't want a reason to pay actors more because they were suddenly in demand.

b)     I believe it is considered a break-through film in America is because it tells a story with innovations not seen before in movies. It probably was one of the first films to shoot on-location as opposed to in a studio where it is much easier to film because they could control the light and wouldn't have to worry about weather hazards. It also uses cross cutting to show two different things happening at the same time but in different locations towards the end with the bandits on the run and the telegraph operator being awoken by his daughter, I assume. The final shot of the film with the leader of the bandits firing straight at the audience must have been shocking and it's been homaged in several subsequent films, the most famous homage probably in Goodfellas, when Joe Pesci's character shoots straight at the audience in the last shot of the film.

c)     The Edison Trust was basically a bunch of companies who had the power coming together to form a monopoly on who could make films and distribute them. The independent film makers eventually won because they understood that people wanted to see the films based on the story and performances and not how long it was.

d)     The Lumiere brothers were probably the first documentarians because they shot everyday things on-location. They would just set up a camera where some action would probably take place and let things happen. There was probably a lot of film that was scrapped as in any documentary but there are some great moments that are captured such as the two kids who are fighting over something I couldn't make out but that seems exactly how pampered kids act today which shows that we haven't changed much at all in more than a hundred years. The famous urban myth about the train arrival film is that when it was shown to an audience that everybody was frightened by it, it sounds silly but I doubt it. It seems like those myths that come up that tries to make people back in the day look silly and naive.

        Thomas Edison's films on the other hand were pretty much re-enactments of feats of strength or everyday events done in a studio. I think it was meant to see what our seemingly menial tasks of everyday life looked like. He also filmed some athletes and showman doing entertaining things like dancing and twirling a wand. Whereas the Lumiere brothers were capturing real life as it happened on-location, Edison's films were capturing re-enactments of real life in a studio setting.

       Melies' films were the most radically different from the other two film producers. He had an emphasis on storytelling and visual tricks to tell fantastical adventure stories. They were very theatrical and A Trip to the Moon was really a satire on imperialism it seemed to me. It had that theme underlying the adventure you were taken on which is what the greatest films eventually would be. The magical effects were visually dazzling and the film as a whole was very charming. As The Great Train Robbery was probably the first Western, A Trip to the Moon was probably the first science-fiction film.

Assignment 2

a)         I chose Adaptation and it came out in 2002.

b)         Adaptation was directed by Spike Jonze and is a film about the process of writing a film and the main character, Charlie Kaufman, is the fictionalized version of the screenwriter of the movie. He is tasked with adapting a book about flowers but then suffers from writer's block. While he's reading the book that he needs to adapt it shows the story of the author going to Florida to interview the man the book is about. Kaufman's brother in the film lives with him and is attempting to write a screenplay as well but with all the Hollywood conventions that Charlie hates.

c)        I saw it on Vudu because I bought it a while ago.

d)        I think it's the main premise of the film in that it's written by Charlie Kaufman and the main character is Charlie Kaufman and the script he is writing is exactly what is happening in the film. At one point Charlie goes to a screenwriting seminar and is neurotically narrating all his perceived inadequacies, then the film abruptly cuts to the presenter saying that narration is the worst tool that a hack screenwriter can use to "tell" instead of "showing".

e)        I think what made him so popular is the amazing amount of dangerous stunts he did. Also, he always plays helpless and naive characters that you could really empathize with which is helped by his face for which he is famously referred to as "The Great Stone Face".

f)        I think Sherlock Jr. and The Purple Rose of Cairo are pretty similar in what it portrays in the meanings of film experiences. In Sherlock Jr., Buster Keaton's character works as a projectionist at a local movie house and fantasizes about being the greatest detective in the world in a film. That is what a lot of films aspire to do, I believe. His character imagines himself in the role of the main character of the film which is really postmodern and ahead of its time. The Purple Rose of Cairo does that a little bit toward the end but for most of the film Mia Farrow's character uses films as a way to escape the hopelessness and inadequacies of real life. There's a hilarious line in the film where she says, "I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything." That line speaks to one the themes of the film which is that people fantasize about characters in film but they aren't real and don't resemble real people. One of the characters from a film she loves leaves the film and comes into the real world and a lot of the comedy comes from his interactions and discoveries of the real world. Every time he talks about how something should happen like they do in films then Mia Farrow shoots him down by saying that in the real world everything doesn't work out perfectly.

          Adaptation is different from those films because it is actually about the process of making a film. The main character's inadequacies in life crossover into his writing and he suffers from writer's block because he doesn't want his script to be a conventional Hollywood movie. The direction he wants to take the script is something he doesn't believe will be successful because he thinks he's so inadequate in everything he does. His job is to write films but he's trying to adapt a book, him and the author of the book can't find something to be passionate about and the only way he actually becomes passionate about the script is inserting himself into the script which he then calls "self-indulgent."