Mmmm! Nuclear Cappuccino

Atomic Cafe can probably be ranked in my top 3 movies from this course.  It has a very creative take on the documentary with the utilization of news reals, speeches, and government videos, but no narration or reenactments.  I think this serves to make the film seem even more credible than it would have been with a Morgan Freeman voiceover.  

I have to agree with Mr. Bennett in pointing out that anyone who criticizes the bias in the film is an idiot.  The whole point of a documentary is using the facts to make your viewers agree with your opinion on the topic.  

The director of Atomic Cafe does a superb job at revealing the ridiculousness of war(similar to Dr. Strangelove).  As a modern audience, we see how the government fooled Americans into believing that atomic radiation was easily avoided or treated.  This is highly thought provoking since our leaders can lie just as well today as they did 50 years ago. 

Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but I think that Americans need to try and find the faults in government today like we see in the Cold War.  If the hippies were able to do it, I'm sure we can. 

Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove was one of the films I liked most this year, mainly because its sense of humor was ahead of its time.  Kubrick's satire was very well balanced between maintaining a serious plot and adding comedy through the characters wherever possible.  The numerous similarities between this film and Runaway Train are due to the existential theme that we merely distract ourselves in our daily lives from the death we are all racing toward.  In Runaway Train death was the train crashing, and in Dr. Strangelove it's the doomsday explosions.  In both of the movies there are characters reading Playboys, eating excessively, women obsessing over their appearance, etc.  These distractions are our day to day pleasures that E's believe we should indulge in each day.  However, where Runaway Train used action and tension to present these ideas, Strangelove uses satirical humor.
One of the greatest parts of the movie was when the "cowboy pilot" rides off on the bomb, looking exhilarated.  He's one of many characters that portrays the macho "boys with their toys" theme, and this scene is the epitome of it.  While falling to his death(and that of millions of people on the ground) he still has a cocky excited attitude because he was able to successfully open the doors on the plane and drop this bomb.  Also, the phallic imagery associated with the large missile adds to his pride for how big and powerful he feels he is. ( lol )
In the end, the Americans decide that they're going to survive the doomsdays in deep mine-shafts, and the Russians will likely do this same.  Because of this the war will only continue in a hundred years, with most of this human population already annihilated.  This emphasizes the mindless stupidity that war is.  The fighting goes no where, no one will cave, and everyone ends up dead.  Yet even after "everyone" is dead, the fighting still manages to continue.  Kubrick does a flawless job at capturing this absurdity on film.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow...

A Simple Plan starts out with an enormous amount of symbolism, between the snow and the crows.  The snow obviously indicates the isolation and joylessness throughout the movie, and the birds are constant reminders that something bad is going to come any minute now.  They are constantly reminding us that death and bad luck are coming for our main characters.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm confused as to why every person in the film(and our class) acts as if it would be the obvious decision to leave or question the money.  Maybe I'm a bit rash, but I would take that money if I found it.  It's funny how people would act different when they are actually in a situation, rather than just discussing it.  This is exemplified by Sarah's behavior, flipping from the innocent housewive to the greed-crazed criminal mastermind!!  The greatest shot in the movie for me thus far is the smirk that appears over her face once she lays her eyes on the mound of cash on her diningroom table.  It sums up the cunning that will soon surface in her and other characters.

The Real DaVinci Code/Lying Hussies/A Single Man

Before discussing Memento, I just want to make one final comment on Dark City that no one brought up.  I found the shot of John tied to the round table very intriguing in its likeness to DaVinci's Vitruvian Man.  The director definitely did this on purpose, and it represented the exploration into humanity that the Strangers were attempting.  


Now, for Memento...
The greatest aspect of this film is the mixed up sequence of scenes.  It causes us to feel the film in the first person perspective of Leonard and his condition.  Like Dark City, I realized that the theme of Femme Fatale is an important one.  The only woman present in the film is Natalie(who we immediately are given a suspicious feeling about), and she is further revealed to be the main character who manipulates and uses him.  Leonard's wife is the other woman who is mentioned contuinuely in the film, and she seems to be the reason for his condition and all the trouble is going through.  So, you can see why these women(as well as the prostitute shown briefly) are leading to his destruction.


Nolan may also be sending the message that you can't trust anyone in the world, even yourself. Obviously Leonard can't trust or believe any of the other character's in the film, but we begin to question if he should even trust himself.  His notes and tattoos could be deceitful, or he could even be schizophrenic.  Nolan really does a fantastic job at hinting at the larger truth without allowing us the luxury of seeing it.  This keeps your interest and forces you to wonder what will happen next(or, what has happened already).




On another note, I'd like to tell you about one of my favorite movies.  It's "A Single Man," directed by Tom Ford(2009).  The movie's based off of a Christopher Isherwood novel from the early 1960s, and it truly does it justice.  It's set in 1960s Los Angeles, and is about an English college Professor who has recently lost his partner of 19 years and is planning on committing suicide at the end of the day that the film begins with.  I don't want to give too much plot away, but the film has an amazing story and is shot very carefully.  The entire movie is in a dull, almost gray tone; but whenever our main character, George, encounters a person or experience that shows his some of the beauty and meaning in life, vibrant color spreads across the screen and the entire tone changes.  In addition to that, every single shot in the film could be stopped and used as a photograph, like you mentioned about the amazing cinematography in The Seventh Seal.  It's a very thought-provoking film that deals with the ideas of growing older, allowing people into your life, and finding new meaning in life .  If you can, you should watch A Single Man as soon as possible! *I know that it's currently available On Demand with Fios and Time Warner.

Noir Ville

Dark City is probably the most entertaining film we've watched in class so far.  The way the director has used Film Noir techniques to show a sci-fi plot is very interesting.  The best example of this is that the entire movie is very dark, yet that aspect is actually expained as being due to the aliens.
The most obvious theme in this film is We Have No Control Over Our Lives.
There's not a single character in the film who is able to control their fate in the direction they would like.  Murdoch can't remember who is hem, get to Shell Beach, or control the abilities he has, so he's constantly searching for the answers he wants.  His 'wife' is trying to get him back and figure out if he's a killer.  The Doctor is being manipulated by the aliens to do their work on the humans.  And, even the aliens themselves are trying to gain control of their lives through the humans.  The whole purpose of this "city" in the movie is for the aliens to find an answer to prevent the extinction of their species.
This theme is portrayed several times through the symbolism of the maze.  Dr. Schreber is first shown toying with mice in a lab maze, and this image is mirrored later with the wide shot of the entire city's labyrinth design.  Of course, this leads us to the idea that all the characters lives are being controlled by something larger.
Mr. Bennett mentioned in class when we started watching Asphalt Jungle, that all film noir films deal with characters who have siutations much bigger than themselves.  So, it's appropriate that the theme of a modern Film Noir-influenced film like Dark City should be the lack of Control Over our Fates.

The Asphalt Jungle

Although I didn't know the name of the genre before Monday, I always thought that Film Noir was very cool and interesting.  Like westerns, without seeing a film noir movie ever, I still know what it should be like: black and white, dramatic, in a city, with gangsters and "tricks."  The Asphalt Jungle is very captivating from the beginning, and there isn't even much plot until you get further into the film.  It's the characters that make the movie so great, with there vices and flaws in abundance.
Emmerich reminds me of Kane in many ways, especially his relationship to his wife.  Like in Citizen Kane, Emmerich has this large house with servants, but his wife is sitting there bored and neglected.  In that way, I think Emmerich may be the anitthesis of Louis.  Louis is a total family man and can't help but brag about his baby and wife.  However, Emmerich is trying his hardest to ignore and cheat on his wife, seeing her as little as posisble.

Unforgiven

There was only one thing that I noticed in this film that wasn't said in class.  There were many similarities between it and All Quiet on the Western Front.  The first scene I realized that in was when Will shot Davie(I think that was his name), and he layed there dying and crying out for water.  They all watched as he slowly died and Will demanded his friends bring him water.  Also, when Schofield Kid kills the guy in the outhouse, his guilty response and hesitation in murder reflected that of the young soldiers in World War I.  These similarities show that both films contain the theme that murder is a horrible event.  Whether it's in a war, or done by a cowboy-hitman, no man can bare to take the life of another.  Here you have some of the "meanest, rootin, tootin, sons of bitches," yet they can't even kill a man without reveal their human emotion.  Only in the final scene do you see Will kill without feeling, but that is "justified" by his revenge for Ned.