[James Cameron] jump, I jump

James Cameron truley outdid himself. The epic movie TITANIC, the most expensive movie made at the time, shows how dedicated and non-willing to sacrifice quality Cameron is. The movie took a long time, over 200 million dollars, and much collaboration to get it done. This article explains some of the efforts Cameron put into the film.

One of the main challenges he faced was how to make a [almost] real-life Titanic ship, film it, controllably, and sink it. Since there wasn't a studio big enough to do all the filming in, Cameron had to actually have a 9/10 scale model of the Titanic built. Trying to limit the time it would take to make it, he only filmed from one side, having the other side raw- pipes/scaffolding and all. This shows that he was a very creative director, trying to make all ends meet and still have the final product be amazing. The facts that he hired Titanic historians to overview the interior of the model ship, actually took 12 dangerous dives to the actual Titanic shipwreck site, and spent so much time and money making it look acurate historically show the dedication he has as a filmmaker and how articulate he is in his ideals.

I also believe that Cameron stepped out of his box on this film. In the past, he had made mostly sci-fi thriller type of movies. Titanic seems to be drastically different, with a passionate love story at the heart of the movie. It shows that Cameron is able to produce an enormously sleek, beautiful film after all of his alien-type movies. I'm very curious to see if any of his techniques from Titanic will carry over into some of his other films!

Do The Right Thing?

In the film Do The Right Thing, the use of color was very effective. The whole film takes place in two of the hottest days of the year, which is shown very vividly through the brilliance of the overall colors of the film. The buildings are all red/orange and everyones' clothing is (are?) boldly red or neon blues. I think that the colors in the film really help the audience to relate to how hot it is, and how crazy tense everyone starts getting because of the heat. The colorful backgrounds seem to make everything happy looking, but could also be interpreted as just plain loud- which happens to affect how people act.

The Battle of Algiers

The Battle of Algiers was quite a film- a documentary style drama of the battle in Algiers. I read an article from the New York Times regarding this film and would like to say a few words about it.
First of all, the article goes into great depths explaining that the pentagon had a formal viewing of the movie a few years back. I think this is relatively interesting because I highly doubt many other political movies such as Legally Blonde or First Kid are shown very often. I don't really know why they would want to study the film- it seems very secretive and I don't like it. I think that the director of the film should probably be flattered that his film was so realistic and unbiased (to some degree) that official people wanted to study it.
Second of all, the debate of torture is brought up. I think the way some of the people explained their methods and reasons for torture were sneaky. However, I think that the current administration shouldn't be looking to past examples and movies to tell them that torture is bad. I really think that they should make their own choices, and preferably make GOOD choices. Enough said.

DO NOT READ if you plan on seeing "THE MIST"

Just another disclaimer, I will be talking about the ending of The Mist in this post, so don't bother reading it if you're a person to complain about endings getting ruined or whatever.

The movie Chinatown, when it was finished, gave me a feeling very similar to the feeling I got when the movie The Mist ended. Both were utter despair, lack of justice, completely horrifying endings. In Chinatown Jake (Jack Nicholson) leads the police and Noah Cross (John Huston) to Evelyn Mulray (Faye Dunaway) who is trying to escape with her daughter/sister. She ends up being shot, and the evil rapist/dirty father Noah takes the innocent daughter/granddaughter away. Everything is twisted and nothing turns out ok in the least. In The Mist the movie ends with a desperate act; in hearing the so-thought sounds of their own death coming upon them, David (Thomas Jane) with only four bullets lets his son, potential love interest, and two elderly members of their town have the 'priviledge' of being shot, thinking that he'll be killed soon by a monster/mist thing. However; the noises turn out to be a rescue crew of army people, leaving David to emotionally wither away in the regret of killing four people.

Yuck.

As Chinatown and The Mist both ended, I couldn't help but think... why? I would like to know why directors/writers/whoever think that having the most pessimistic ending EVER would make someone pleased with the movie. If it's to make the audience realize that dang they have it off pretty nice, it doesn't work. If anything it makes you get into the head of the person who is forced to live with lies and horrors for the rest of their lives.

Kiss Me Deadly

In 1999, Kiss Me Deadly was inducted into the National Film Registry which requires the film to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Personally, I think it was for sure aesthetically significant, in the last scene especially. Who would have thought that in 1955 they had the technology to film a flaming screaming box?!

Robert Weston has a nice sum up of why it could possibly be a perfect film noir,
"Frankly, it's got everything. The predominance of darkness and nighttime? Check. Morally ambiguous protagonists? Check. Existential underpinnings? Check. Dramatic compositions influenced by German Expressionist artists and filmmakers? Check, check, check."

I think that if for nothing else, the film should be acknowledged because of the crazy low budget it had, with respect to how well known it has become. With a budget of only about $400,000 it's one of few, besides maybe Monty Python and the Holy Grail ($400,000) and Napoleon Dynamite ($400,000), that has become so successful and known to film people all over.

Film/Plum Noir

With such a beautiful flowing name (Film Noir) I expected the genre to be just as beautiful as my new nail color (Plum Noir). However, as the color Plum Noir is hypnotizingly gorgeous in its depth and richness, I felt that the Film Noir, Out of the Past, just couldn't surpass that standard.

I thought that the movie was 'good', but I think I wasn't expecting all the bluntness and hostility. I don't think it's a genre for me. Yes, the suspense and mood was fun to get into, but I did not like starting off my day in shock that all the characters died leaving me in a somewhat heavy mood. So really, the film was just lacking that plum richness- the color/mood of a little bit of hope and dreaminess- because it was a very brutal ending.

Eternal Sunshine

Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com wrote this review of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind which I found a little bit interesting. I'll highlight the main point she tried to get across, which was basically that she didn't like the movie, but I personally think that she loved it and she was just sad that it ended.

It's as if young filmmakers fear that their audiences will become bored with a
movie if they don't have a clever mind-boggler to wrestle with along the way. In grappling with these perplexing riddles, we're supposedly exercising our intellect. But isn't it also possible that we're using them as a handy diversion, a way of
distancing ourselves from emotions that might be too strong for us to deal with
easily? Labyrinthine plots are supposed to stimulate us. But are they really
just distracting us from the work at hand -- the work of feeling?

I think she's onto something there- in the way that this film could have moved away from the psychological aspects and literal mind erasing, and moved more towards the feelings and emotions Clementine and Joel. However, I think that the movie is very 'feeling' related, and I don't know how you could watch the movie without being very involved in the feelings between the Joel and Clem.

But just as there's a difference between knowing things and being informed,
there's a difference between going all the way with a movie and going only as
far as is convenient or comfortable.That said, I suspect that whether they recognize it or not, audiences yearn for movies that can make them think and feel.

Although she has a point with the whole 'going halfway' film-making , I think she pinned the wrong movie. I think that Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind has plenty of feeling and thinking and does it very well. You'd have to be a buckthorn tree to not be able to see the emotion behind all the 'thinking' scenes and the feelings that come along with them. I think maybe people are just too wrapped up in knowing exactly what is going on and when everything is happening, that they miss the underlying themes and moods of the film.

So in your opinion, do you think that movies these days are trying to nix out the 'feeling' parts, and that audiences need to be entertained in an intriguing mind-boggler way?