Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind

July 1, 2014

 

             Gone with the Wind is considered one of Hollywood’s best films. This movie is often in film critics top ten films. What the movie does is show an excellent equivalence of meaning between the source text and its novel counterpart. The novel’s theme of survival is seen through the eyes of the heroine of the movie, Scarlett O Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler. The film, like the novel, is about Scarlett O Hara, a spoiled Southern belle who uses her good looks and flirtatious ways to get her way.  Scarlett is in love with a man, Ashley Wilkes, who marries his cousin, gross, Melanie Hamilton. Scarlett marries men to get what she wants to get away from her sisters. Plus Scarlett loves money. The movie and novel takes place right before, during, and after the American Civil War. During the war the audience watches as Scarlett flirts with men and marries men in order to survive. One man sees Scarlett for who she really is, this man is Rhett Butler. Rhett Butler loves Scarlett and all her faults but ultimately, like Scarlett, finds the strength for his own survival. The author of the novel, Margaret Mitchell, was a grandchild of a woman who lived and survived the American Civil War. Mitchell’s grandmother taught her to use her brains for survival, something Mitchell imbued into the character of Scarlett in the novel and something at the screenwriter did with the movie script. The movie is universally loved because we all have to use our brain for survival.

            Scarlett O Hara famous speech, “As God as my witness speech” only proves the equivalence of meaning between novel and film adaptation. In the novel, Scarlett uses her wit, her intelligence, her southern belle charm to go try to secure funds from wealthy relatives. They turn her down. When this happens she marries Frank Kennedy, not for love, but for money. She did what she had to do for survival and to keep her family alive. Scarlett did what she said she would but it kept her alive and she survived the hardships and hell of war and despair. Scarlett was not the only survivor in the movie. The movie made Rhett Butler a survivor too. Rhett survived Scarlett and the war. Rhett used his intelligence and money to win Scarlett over and he survived Scarlett unloving attitude toward him. It took Melanie’s death for Scarlett to wise up to realize she loved Rhett. Rhett had to make a decision to fight or flight for survival and he fled. Rhett just “didn’t give a damn”.  Rhett put up his best fight and survived to live another day.  Scarlett’s last speech only solidifies Margret Mitchell’s and the screenwriter theme of survival. “Tomorrow is another day” Yes, life sucks at the moment but I will survive and I will fight for my place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard III

Richard III

June 24, 2014

      
                                                                               

       English playwright William Shakespeare took a perceived bad man from English monarch history and really played up the alleged evil uprising. Shakespeare’s Richard III is about Richard Plantagenet who had members of his family and anyone standing in his way killed off, so he could inherit the thrown of England.  Shakespeare’s play treads a thin line between a history and tragedy. Richard III is a history play because it tells the story right before Henry VII came to power and ended the War of the Roses, but it is also a tragedy because the audience gets to see the titled character go from a high place of prestige and power to a fall of corruption and innocence, in essence the tragic ending and circumstances of King Richard III. Richard Loncraine directed a film version in 1995 that stars Ian McKellen as the power hungry Richard III. What Loncraine does in this film is make Richard, still power hungry, but power hungry.

            Loncraine makes Richard III a man whose own deformity and family dysfunction a cause for the way Richard is. Richard’s pathology was caused by nurture not nature in these circumstances. The scene that makes the viewer want to root for Richard is when his mother, Cicely Duchess of York, tells Richard that he has been a curse for her and the family and that she wishes he was never born. With a mother like that who wouldn’t want to see harm done to th family. Mother’s are supposed to love and not hate their children. Loncraine makes Richard’s lust for power a result of his masculinity being stripped thanks to his withered arm, and his mother’s own hatred of her son. Richard is compensating for the one thing in his life that he knows he can obtain, if only with a little bloodshed. Shakespeare portrayed Richard as a man who Machiavellian ways was only used for one purpose, power. Shakespeare’s version of Richard III has a lot more bite and psychological depth to it, while Loncraine version simply shows a royal man who let women and his mommy issues cause his high rise into power and fast ride into death. Ian McKellen gives a good performance but was more than likely better viewed and developed on stage.  The movie updates the setting from the late 1400s to the early 1930s. Loncraine makes Richard out to be a character in the vein of Hitler, another man with mommy and a women issue, who was also power hungry. The updated setting worked somewhat but the dialogue was still taken from the original play of Shakespeare. Both Loncraine’s and Shakespeare’s versions shows the unnatural and natural ways in which power can corrupt.

Jaws

 

Jaws

 June 17, 2014

Peter Benchley, author of Jaws, first published his novel in 1974. The movie version, directed by Steven Spielberg, was released in 1975. The movie is filled with suspense, some humor, and some gore but is driven by the performances of the characters. The story of both the movie and the novel, centers on one town, Amity, terrorized by a great white shark hunting its prey. One major difference between the novel and the movie is the way the characters are portrayed and the likability of these characters. What the movie does that the novel does not is focus more on character motivations on why they are hunting down the hunter (the shark). The main characters of Hooper, Chief Brody, and Quint are not very likeable in the book, the audience does not really care if they live or die. While in the movie, the characters are likeable and whether they are nice or not the audience generally does not want to see harm done to them

The main protagonist of the movie and novel is Chief Martin Brody. Chief Brody in the film is an outsider who must defend his town from the killer shark that threatens the lives the people that live and visit the island. In the movie, Chief Brody is very afraid of the water, even more so than the shark but in the end must face his fear of the water to save the day. Chief Brody in the novel is a native of Amity island and not such a likeable character. Brody, in the novel, lets the job come first and his wife and family come second. In the movie, Spielberg makes Brody a loving family man who hunts down the shark, not only because it’s his job, but as a way to protect his family from the force that comes close to attacking his family. Spielberg switches the dynamic of Brody to make him likeable; also he wants the audience to root for Brody in the end when he faces the monster.

Matt Hooper in the novel is an uptight rich shark expert. Also in the novel, Hooper is a snob who has an affair with Chief Brody’s wife, Ellen, and constantly bickers to Brody.  The film version has Hooper as a young man who comes to Amity to help Chief Brody and becomes friends with the water phobic chief. Hooper is the man of reason and expertise on the subject but the tables are turned when he meets Quint. Hooper and Quint are both alike and different. Hooper is book smart, with some scientific knowledge, but Quint is a man who has come to face the animal they hunt personally and knows the true nature of the natural water predator. Spielberg made Hooper, like Chief Brody, more likeable because he wanted to portray scientists as being helpful and relatable, not some cold unfeeling professional as the stereotype suggests.

Quint, in both the movie and novel, is very much like Captain Ahab. Quint, in the novel, is just as mean and unrelenting as the shark. Quint, in the novel, kills innocent creatures from the sea; much like the shark kills innocent people that enter the ocean. The Ahab comparison is more predominate in the book. Ahab and Quint have the same demise, both character get tangled up in the ropes, after they harpoon there beasts, and are taken down to the deep waters of the ocean and drown. The end comes to Quint, like Ahab, and the audience is generally happy to see two bad characters meet their fate. Spielberg still makes Quint kind of a jerk, but a jerk with a back-story that makes the audience realize why he has become the way he is. Quint, in the movie, tells the story of how he was on the ill fated USS Indianapolis and how the sharks swam all around him and killed the friends he loved. This is why Quint goes after the shark, not only for the money, but as an act of revenge for his loved ones and the past that still haunts him. Spielberg switches the evil Quint, in the book, to a man who is damaged because of his past terrors in the ocean. Spielberg changed the characters unlikeable qualities in the novel, to likeable in the movie to sell the movie and make a movie everybody would enjoy. Spielberg wanted the audience to cheer for Brody at the end when he kills the shark and not feel sorry for the shark.

 

 

Memento

Memento

April 2, 2014

            Christopher Nolan’s Memento takes the viewer on a weird journey into the backwards life of Leonard. Leonard has retro-grade amnesia where his short term memory is non-existent, so he takes photographs as a way of remembering, well somewhat remembering. Leonard is ultimately trying to discover who raped and “killed” wife, or is he? Leonard is an everyman, or to be politically correct, everywoman. His journey on the surface is trying to find the “bad” man who destroyed his life, but that is on the surface. Leonard’s ultimate journey is to keep his life going? The fact that he is just trying to catch “John G” is of no-consequence. Leonard is ultimately just trying to keep a purpose in life, instead of sitting in a mental hospital not knowing up from down. Leonard ultimately loses his own identity by keeping going after “John”. Leonard’s sole purpose in life is to find the man who did him wrong, like some bad Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western.  Leonard is consumed for the quest or journey for truth and revenge that he forgets to dig deep within himself to find the truth. Is Leonard really Leonard anymore since the accident? What has become of the man that laughed at his wife’s obsession with the same book? Leonard has become the modern Captain Ahab, a man so obsessed with revenge that he drowns with very own obsession. (side note: Quint from Jaws is twist on the Ahab character). Leonard never really changes in the movie. From beginning to end, Leonard is an amnesiac version of Sherlock Holmes, but is Teddy his Watson and Natalie his Irene Adler? Leonard’s lack of changing is due to the fact that filmmakers don’t really want the audience to care for the character. If the audience cares for the characters, then that same audience will be clamoring for a sequel. Like most sequels, the sequel to Memento would royally suck.  Leonard is out for revenge. Leonard’s life was taken from him in one big thump, and as a result he is constantly stalking out his prey. Leonard’s revenge is an exercise in futility, because he will never remember getting his revenge and as a result the mystery cycle continues on in a big messy and confusing loop. (Kind of like this blog post) Revenge is a concept at one time or another we want to exact on our enemies. Leonard is the perfect man for the job. Leonard will kill but won’t remember doing it, his conscious is clean like a new born baby.

I would pick this Leonard's theme song, Ordinary World by Duran Duran. The song fits him. I will include the lyrics down below.  Ordinary World is one of my favorite songs. 

Lyrics for Ordinary World

Came in from a rainy Thursday 

On the avenue 
Thought I heard you talking softly 

I turned on the lights, the TV 
And the radio 
Still I can't escape the ghost of you 

What has happened to it all? 
Crazy, some'd say 
Where is the life that I recognize? 
Gone away 

But I won't cry for yesterday 
There's an ordinary world 
Somehow I have to find 
And as I try to make my way 
To the ordinary world 
I will learn to survive 

Passion or coincidence 
Once prompted you to say 
"Pride will tear us both apart" 
Well now pride's gone out the window 
Cross the rooftops 
Run away 
Left me in the vacuum of my heart 

What is happening to me? 
Crazy, some'd say 
Where is my friend when I need you most? 
Gone away 

But I won't cry for yesterday 
There's an ordinary world 
Somehow I have to find 
And as I try to make my way 
To the ordinary world 
I will learn to survive 

Papers in the roadside 
Tell of suffering and greed 
Here today, forgot tomorrow 
Ooh, here besides the news 
Of holy war and holy need 
Ours is just a little sorrowed talk 

And I don't cry for yesterday 
There's an ordinary world 
Somehow I have to find 
And as I try to make my way 
To the ordinary world 
I will learn to survive 

Every one 
Is my world, I will learn to survive 
Any one 
Is my world, I will learn to survive 
Any one 
Is my world 
Every one 
Is my world

Rear Window .

Tommy Doyle from John Carpenter's Halloween





Rear Window

March 24, 2014

       Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window gives the viewer with an interesting point of view. The audience often sees things through the eyes of L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries, which causes the audience to question what they really see. Is what Jeff seeing really real or is it just his imagination running wild due to boredom? The audience ultimately learns that Jeff was telling the truth all along. Jeff is not that old creep staring at the pretty young things outside his window. The audience at first should question whether or not Jeff is telling the truth, or if his perceptions of reality are alerted by his surroundings. As Jeff weaves the story for his friends, he puts himself and his friends in danger. Jeff does not know everything; as a result there are pieces of the puzzle that he must leave others to figure out. This creates the danger in the fact that what if he accuses an innocent man of murder. Jeff’s own boredom with life could create chaos for an innocent man who did nothing to Jeff.  Jeff’s own impotence, in the case of the missing Thorwald woman, causes him to seek help from his girlfriend and nurse/ friend. Jeff is causing these innocent people to stand in for his own cowardice. Even if Jeff wasn’t injured, would he really just be an armchair warrior trying to solve a “murder” to spice up his own mundane life or would he be Sherlock Holmes? Jeff’s fetish is that he likes to watch, he is a voyeur who enjoys watching and watching others in danger. Jeff often looks at a woman called Miss Torso. Miss Torso is a pretty young woman who dances provocatively in front of her open window. Jeff is enthralled by his neighbor, just like his enthralled by solving murder he did not see. Jeff is a photographer, who makes a living off of stalking his victims and taking their essence in the form of a picture. Jeff voyeuristic profession curbs his appetite for the flesh.  While Jeff is locked up in his own cage, the cast on his leg, the beast is clawing at the wall begging to be let loose. Thorwald loosens the chain but doesn’t let out the animal. Jeff kind of releases his own tension through the use of his nurse and girlfriend. Jeff goads Lisa and Stella, the nurse, to find evidence and have them report their findings to him. Jeff is vicariously getting his thrills by putting his loved ones in danger.  Rear Window is an exercise in how a dangerous mind and a dangerous point of view can skew reality.


 

Side Notes

  John Carpenter, director and writer of Halloween, uses a lot of Hitchcockian techniques in his films as seen in Halloween:

·         Doctor Samuel Loomis. Sam Loomis is the name of Janet Leigh’s boyfriend in Psycho.

·         Jamie Lee Curtis plays the main heroine in Halloween. She is the daughter of Janet Leigh. Janet Leigh plays Marion Crane in Psycho, who gets killed in the famous shower scene.

·         In Rear Window, the detective is named Thomas Doyle. In Halloween, the kid Laurie Strode is babysitting is named Tommy Doyle.

·         Carpenter also uses crane shots and dolly shots much like Hitchcock does in his movies.

·         Rear Window was remade as a TV movie in 1998. Christopher Reeve plays the James Stewart character and Daryl Hannah plays the Grace Kelly character.  Christopher Reeves final role.

·         The movie has spawned imitations some good, some bad

Good imitation

Fright Night (1985)

Bad imitation

Disturbia (2007)

·         The TV show Castle has a homage episode dedicated to Rear Window

Fright Night (1985). Fright Night draws inspiration and adapts from Rear Window. Fright Night is a great movie and a great companion to Rear Window. Avoid the remake of Fright Night, if possible.  Fright Night has a young Amanda Bearse, Marcy Darcy from Married with Children, in it. The cast also include Roddy McDowall.