Self-evaluation of the viewing journal

First of all, I would like to say that when I thought about evaluating myself I searched through my ideas in an attempt to backup my point of view. I will be very specific since I looked for real facts while analyzing each of my posts and the time I posted them. I would give myself an A and here is my defense for it!!!!

1. I did all the posts assigned to the course and replied to other posts in order to see my classmates’ opinions. In other words, I didn’t leave any analysis incomplete, thereby allowing me to be up to date with the discussions and also to understand and deeply analyze each master auteur.

2. Concerning the timely completion I would have to strive hard in order to make this point clear. I can not say I did each of my posts on time because I would be lying, and as I said, I will defend my opinion with real facts, but I can truly say that I did the majority of my posts before or on the due date. At the end of the semester, I postponed some of my posts on weeks that I had too much work and exams of other classes but anyways, I followed the class material and discussion because I saw almost all of the movies before the day we planned to discuss them. I think I demonstrated this by participating in the majority of class discussions. I know I did two or three posts a little late, but as the professor used to say “It’s not the end of the world”, and I hope this is true !!!!!!!! I acknowledge the fact that some minor points could be affected during my evaluation because of these posts I made some days later, but I would compensate for this with the work I made for Bonus Opportunities about The last Temptation of Christ.

3. Concerning the quality of my posts, I consider I really did a great job in my posts and this is the reason why I made some off date, because I like to do things well and dedicate the appropriate time and effort in order to fulfill my aspirations. I consider the quality of my accomplishment to be more satisfying and relevant than the quantity of these. I followed the instructions very carefully and in some cases even searched for extra information in order to compliment my analysis. I also wrote more than 250 words in all of my posts because for me 250 words were not enough to express all of my thoughts and to make a good analysis without sacrificing essential details.

THANK YOU!!

What makes a Tarantino movie a Tarantino movie?

Throughout the course, we have studied the style and specialty of many auteurs. As we analyze their films, we could appreciate their approach or purposes in making that film. In other words, a film carries with itself the personal thoughts and ideologies of its director or auteur.

As we could appreciate, the theme of blaxploitation is present in Tarantino’s movie. Throughout Jackie Brown, we could appreciate that the protagonist is a beautiful black woman, and one of the main characters, Ordell, is a stereotyped black man with long hair. Physical characteristics of these characters are essential keys used by Tarantino in order to attract the public attention to the movie. Society makes us belief that mafia world are related only to black people, although this is not true in real life. In contrast to other auteurs, Tarantino is not a racist, but he is interested in black public, so he uses black characters in order to attract black viewers.

On the other hand, we could see that Jackie is kind of a pimp, intelligent woman, so he is not denigrating this character. The helpers of the “pimps” in this movie were all white, as we could see Melanie for example.

The use of language and other stereotypes in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, actually makes these movies also for the black audiences. Although the main characters in Reservoir dogs were all white, they followed the “black stereotypes” concerning to their vocabulary (for example, by using the word "nigger"), the cloth and the underground world they lived. Throughout Pulp fiction we could appreciate that the main characters are black, so once again we see how Tarantino uses Stereotypes (black people) using them as tools to portray his ideologies and thoughts about mafia world.

In conclusion, I should say Quentin Tarantino uses black people as tools to attract black audience to his films, as once he said, he made his movies for the black audience.

The portray of violence: Scorsese vs.Tarantino

As I saw both movies I was able to see the different methods that both directors use in order to portray violence. While one of them shows everything, the other is not that explicit.

In his film Casino, Martin Scorsese uses an explicit way to represent violence. In every violent scene we are able to see everything it involves. Nothing is left to the imagination; we see violence in every aspect of its cruelty, meanness and brutality. By doing this, we can really get into the movie and feel part of it. Everytime a violent scene is presented to our eyes, we could feel in our bones and flesh the same pain the character being tortured feels. This is achieved thanks to the cinematic elements used by Scorsese; as the music, the casting and characters, mise- en- scene and editiong.

Compared to Scorsese, Tarantino uses a different technique to portray violence. In Reservoir Dogs a great example of a violent scene is the one in which the cop is being tortured. First of all, Tarantino does not show every detail, Mr. Blonde cuts his ear but we don’t see it, he even uses a kind of joyful music while the torturing is taking place. Tarantino, in this scene, uses the acting and the sound to give it a touch of fun and at the same time letting the audience conclude their own interpretations.

Both of them are different, they have unique ways of portraying violence. While Scorsese is very real and cruel at it, Tarantino can be thought at it as funny. Nevertheless, both are great at it.

BONUS OPPORTUNITIES: The Last Temptation of Christ

As the American film critic and screenwriter Roger Ebert said about the movie:

“Paid Christ the compliment of taking him and his message seriously, and they have made a film that does not turn him into a garish, emasculated image from a religious postcard. Here he is flesh and blood, struggling, questioning, asking himself and his father which is the right way, and finally, after great suffering, earning the right to say, on the cross, 'It is accomplished.”

This movie is about a humanized Jesus, the one alike to human beings in many ways. As a contrast to the other movies about Jesus life and history, this film showed us a human being named Jesus who is a sinner like us and who experiences every feeling and behavior characteristic to homo sapiens; such as depression, confusion, fear and struggling before accomplish the right way in life.

Scorsese’s use of cinematic elements to show us a vivid play of this million years old story hardly contributes to transport us to that setting. Mise-en-scene and sound makes us feel the duality of Jesus feeling throughout the movie. On one hand, there are soundtracks representing accomplishments, and on the other hand there are the kind of soundtracks used by Scorsese in order to make us feel sadness and confusion every time the character experiments failure. The open frame composition, characteristic of this director, allowed the characters to move freely in every scene, guiding our attention to their behavior and action, instead of the exaggerated use of costumes, decoration and other artistic touch that took away the importance of the characters themselves.

As a conclusion, I should say this is an artistic film. The message transmitted through it it’s up to the viewers, as religious values and ideals vary in each person, but no matter which are your personal beliefs, you should appreciate this piece of art.

Martins Scorsese Ideology expressed throughout his films

As many things in life, moral values or ideologies vary from person to person. A way to appreciate person’s ideologies is through his “works of art”. Throughout his movies: Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino, we could analyze the personalization of his thoughts, beliefs or ideologies hidden in his characters.

I think Scorsese’s purpose towards the genre is to show us the real and vivid face of the underground obscure world called: “mafia”. As we could appreciate throughout these movies, he presents to us the duality or the both extremes faces of mafia. On one hand, there is the world of wealth, power and millions. We could see this very clear throug Robert De Niro’s character; Sam and in the character: Nicky. Sam bought his wife’s heart with money as if it could buy love. But at the end of the story we could see she never fell in love with him, so what apparently could buy anything (money), resulted in a not useful weapon.

On the other hand, Nicky has a millionaire life in which he could manage everyone’s life or death with his power, but throughout the movie we could see how this character degenerates into a powerless man who died suffering in a cruel murder after seeing his brother deliration before death.

So, we could see how Scorsese demonstrates the consequences and suffering alive in this world. In other words: justice will always catch you, as we used to say: “eye for eye, teeth for teeth”. This fact is also seen in Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. At the end of Taxi Driver, we saw how Travis took revenge of the owners of the little prostitute and the man who abused her, ending up as a hero for all the country. On Goodfellas, we saw how Henry told all the truth to the authorities and all the members of the gang end up paying for their consequences in jail.

As a conclusion, Scorsese’s ideology is against the mafia world. He accepts is a “cool” world for some time; a world in which we gain a lot of money in an easy way, a world of beautiful women in love with you or, in simply words; a word of money, wealth and power, but he also show us the sad end of these people who will always pay the consequences of their actions.

Goodfellas; much more than a crime movie

There are 3 main things that are essential in order to categorize a movie into a genre; the setting, mood and format. Concerning to the setting, this is definitely a crime genre movie. The previous observation is based on the fact that the main character, Henry, and his gang were placed in underground places where criminal activities such as drug trafficking and murder compose the day to day routine. It is not a simply “crime film”, it is much more than that. It highlights the life and development of a crime figure, in this case Henry, pointing out every achievement or failure his gang passed through, including all the conflicts between them and other gangs, characteristic of criminal-gangster films.

Goodfellas is under the subgenre of mafia or gangster films. We can prove this with many facts. It is relevant for this discussion to highlight the fact that the term “mafia” is present in the world since the nineteenth century with the name of “Cosa Nostra”. It was born in Sicily, (an autonomous region of Italy in Europe). Scorsese makes emphasis on one requisite to be a part of the “made men”, or the men who are highly ranked and considered leaders. They should be 100% Italians, which symbolizes that this organization grew up in this country, and explains why Henry and Jimmy could not be made man. This contributes to the fact that we were dealing with the mafia world. At the same time, one of the most important requisites to pertain to a certain mafia was to obey a law of silence, as the film constantly showed us.

During the scene in which Henry was in a trial because the police caught him sending cigarettes, he denied everything about his “gangsters friends”. By his actions, Henry represents in a very clear manner that loyalty and respect are absolutely necessary to form part of the gang. At the time the jury was off there was a characteristic Scorsese shot. Henry appeared in the middle, and all the members of the gang embraced him in a unifying hug, filling the complete frame. It creates unity between them, and at the same time, sound contributes to make the scene a happy one in order to emphasize their loyalty as members of this violent crime organization.

In conclusion, gangster films involve a type of “society ideology”. It presents gangsters as poor people who transform themselves into criminals in order to achieve success and demand respect. Goodfellas clearly shows us the transitory transformation of a child who grew up in a religious, overprotecting family and the manner in which he constantly admired the men with power, wealth and authority which overtime lead him to become one of them.

Explicit, Implicit and Ideological meanings in "Taxi Driver"

An analysis consists of a series of interpretations and thoughts which lead us to understand the essence of a fact or idea. By analyzing things in life, we could extract different meanings which made up our values and beliefs.

Throughout his movie Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese uses different types of cinematic elements in order to transmit to the viewer a social theme. There are some explicit and implicit meanings involved in this movie, as there is ideological meaning.

During the scene in the taxi with Travis, (a lonely and depressed man who returned from war), and Palantine, we notice how their interaction demonstrates some of Scorsese’s ideals expressed throughout these two characters. The shot reverse shot allows us to analyze this conversation and its meaning. When Palantine asked Travis about his opinion of society and how government can improve people, Travis criticizes Manhattan Streets using raw words: “A good government should clean streets from all scum, he should flush them in the toilet”. Right after this opinion was expressed, the shot reverse shot permits us to see Palantine’s reaction, which was one of agreement with Travis, so we can see how these opinions carries with them an explicit meaning of the scene. We can clearly see the anger or bad feelings Travis has towards the bad side of society, and it is understandable this character feels that way after returning from war. We can see it was exposed in a very clearly and detailed manner allowing us to extract in an easy way the essence of it and to understand that this movie presents us the “bad side of society”, full of suffering, injustice, prostitution, drugs, and life in the streets.

At the same time, it involves an ideological meaning, as this scene is portraying Scorsese’s personal beliefs and moral values expressed trough these two characters.

On the other hand, at the end of the movie, when Travis was appearing in all newspapers we could extract another ideological meaning: “The heroes are the ones who fight for a good cause”. Although Travis killed many men, it was for a good reason, so he was in the right path. It allows us to understand Scorsese’s thoughts, as he is showing us the victory of good people and the death of bad people at the end of the story. At the same time, cinematic elements contribute to make this meaning clear. The music track was one of victory as the camera was focusing a close up on each article, so it adequately expresses its message. It also has implicit meaning, permitting us to perceive that his goal was achieved. Hence, once again he feels as an individual with human feelings, as he was transformed in a hero to that “Scum Society”.

Scorsese's versus Kubrick's Style

We have just appreciated how cinematic elements are used in different ways between a variety of directors, each with his own style. Throughout Mean Streets we could discover how Martin Scorsese’s style is very different and at the same time, similar to Stanley Kubrick's Style.

We could see how these two directors construct their movies in a way in which we are the ones who “determine the end”. In other words, their movies offer freedom of interpretation hence a similarity between them.

On the other hand, they use cinematographic elements in different ways. Scorsese shots a single scene from multiple angles, each taking place in extremely short periods of time, allowing us to analyze the scene from different points of view. His shots are very different from each other and his camera angle positions are so different and rare, sometimes we could not recognize which shot he is using. In contrast, Kubrick is very strict when taking his shots. In spite the fact that he uses different camera angles, all of them seem to be very similar.

It is clear the fact that Kubrick uses a close frame composition throughout his movies. In this kind of frame, the most of our attention is concentrate on design elements, as costumes, setting, background and all these kind of things involved in mise-en-scene. A good example of it could be Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut. We could see how design elements are the forces that controlled the characters and their meaning. In Full Metal Jacket, most of the characters were ideas, instead of individuals. They were a mass of soldiers without individuality and design elements, as were their uniforms, expressed the meaning itself. It is the same in Eyes Wide Shut. The characters in this movie barely had conversations, but design elements were the essential key in this film in order to get its message. It includes the scary masks, the nude bodies and sensual body postures.

Scorsese is very different in this way. His open frame composition allows his characters to move freely as individuals, so most of our attention runs towards the characters, and as an effect of it, they are the ones that carries the message of the film. We could see this throughout his movie Mean Streets. Design elements were very simple and normal, while characters deep feelings and thoughts made them “the key to get into the essence of the film”.

Acting in "Full Metal Jacket"

Acting is a very important and formal element in any film. By the acting method, characters would create a performance in which they seem to be real people in daily lives. In Kubrick’s movie “Full Metal Jacket” the acting method was a very unique one. The group of soldiers created a heavy impact on me, as I felt I was one of them during the training and on combat. In other words, their performance has the big power to make me go beyond the screen and feel the same they felt by being part of the Marines.

My favorite performance of the movie was the character “Private Pyle”. Kubrick chose a very good actor to represent this character in every single way. He was the perfect style of “the dumb and fat” guy which everybody makes fun of. His physic characteristics were very appropriate to play this role because he was chubby and he has a baby face, so we could believe he couldn’t be efficient doing exercises and heavy work. During the scene when they were training and Private Joke was trying to help him pass “the gate” we could see in Pyle’s body language and gesture that he was very tired. We could analyze his facial expression and see it represents fear and loneliness, as he was stock at the top of “the gate”. As we have learned, the body position and face expression of a character could talk more than words.

At the scene where Joke was teaching Pyle how to dress his bed, he seems extremely innocent. I thought for a moment he has mental illness as he was very rare. He didn’t talk too much and it was like he lives in his own world, a fact that in my opinion, strongly contributed to created this role of, as I mentioned before, the “fat and dumb guy” suffering in silence.

It was a very big surprise for me the transformation that the character of Private Pyle suffered during the movie. The “dumb” guy was transformed in the monster or “bad guy” of soldiers. My favorite scene of the entire movie was the one when he killed the leader and then killed himself. The elements of film all working together make this scene a very impacting and mysterious scene. When he was in front of the leader his face language was one of power and anger, and his eyes transmitted hate. The music was one of mystery, which contributed to make my hairs freeze as I didn’t know what was happening. On the other hand, the lights were very low, they were often off and the camera make a very strong close up to his face.

I think Kubrick’s intention creating this character or role was to make us see and feel all the suffering and pain a person like him carries inside, which all at a moment, exploded as a bomb of facts, making the viewers get in shock.

The use of Sound in "A Clockwork Orange"

I am very impressed how the use of sounds in film could transform a scene in every single way. Kubrick's work in sound for this film was a very unique and amazing "artistic touch". In my analysis, I chose different scenes in which, in my opinion, we could appreciate how the sound contributes to make them spectacular scenes.

One of the scenes I consider very strong was when they raped the first woman, in sight of her husband. They told the woman they had an accident and because of that reason they had to use the telephone. At this moment, the music was off and the background was silent, although they were having a vocal sound: Dialogue. Right after Alex and his friends enter the house, the music started playing. The amplitude or loudness of the sound during the scene was a very loud one. The magnitude of loudness was increasing as they get closer to rape the woman. The sound was complex, as we could see; it includes their laughs, the Beethoven music, and their shouting. It was music of happiness created in order to allow the viewers to think they were having fun of what they were doing. I think Kubrick’s wonderful sound purpose for this scene was to create a contrast of a wonderful dichotomy. On one hand, the “bad guys” minds demonstrate they see the situation as a funny one. On the other hand, there were the minds of the woman and her husband which see the situation as a serious and horrible one. The music contributes to transmit their emotions at the moment Alex was violating her. Kubrick transformed the music from being a funny and cool one , to one of mystery and horror. I think Characterization is also present, as Beethoven musical score where associated with Alex and his “bad guys group” every time they were committing a crime.

Another scene I consider a great one was when he was cured and people were making tests on him in order to see if he was really cured. When the blond woman topless was getting close to him, the music was one of suspense, tension and mystery. I think the purpose of that specific music was to make the viewers be nervous because we didn’t know if he was cured or not. Once again, image (the woman topless), and sound worked together to create a strong impact in the viewers, so they were co expressive.

Editing in 2001: A Space Oddyssey

As we already know, editing is an essential key in every movie. In "2001: A Space Oddyssey", editing is easily appreciated.
First of all, in the opening scene in which we see the monkeys jumping and screaming around, we can see a fade out, fade in editing. The shot grows dark for a moment and then, out of a black screen, grows bright.
Also, there is a lot of constructive editing. In the scene in which the hybernated men were dying, this type of editing is evident. In this scene we see many different shots that were set together to complete a sequence. We see the computers, the men, the red light and at the end the computers again, letting us know the men no longer have vital signs. All of these different shots contributed to form the entire scene. Another use of editing that caught my eye was the use of shot-reverse shot. It was used very clear at the end of the movie. We see the man eating, he then stands up and we can see him facing the camera but when the shot changes we can see the right side of his body. This technique was used to maintain continuity in the scene so that the viewer could be aware of everything that sorrounded the character at that precise moment.
Editing is a fundamental technique in the making of a movie, every shot taken is indispensable so that each scene fully accomplishes its meaning.

Cinematography in "Dr. Strangelove"

First of all, I think it is relevant to define the term cinematography and the things it involves. Cinematography, a word that comes from the Greek: "Kinesis", which means movement and "grapho", to record. Its discipline involves the lighting and camera movements when recording movies for the cinema.

From the movie "Dr. Strangelove "I would like to chose the scene in which Dr. Strangelove talked to the audience about a new human specie. The movement and used of the camera made the scene very interesting. First, it captures the viewer''s attention as the camera got very close to Dr. Strangelove. The zoom on his face invited us to see every detail on his face, including his expressions. Right after, the camera turned to a different point, capturing him from a low angle position. This low angle position was very interesting and mysterious at the same time. I think cinematography features were very useful at this point because the purpose of the director of cinematography was to make Dr. Strangelove the center of attention during that moment, which makes the viewers pay attention to his speech. Therefore, his goal was achieved. During this low angle shot, Dr. Strangelove was talking to the other characters and all the attention, the camera and lighting was concentrated in him and his words. The brilliant lights were illuminating his face while the background had minimum light. I should specify that the lighting during this scene was artificial. So, once again I could say cinematography made this scene unique.

I would like to say that concerning to the cinematographic properties of shot, which involves the film stock, this movie was black and white. It makes more real the fact that it was criticizing the cold war fears, which took place a long time ago. So, it contributes to make
"Dr. Strangelove" look as if it was created during that time when the cold war was taking place.

Mise-en-Scene "Lolita"

I think it is helpful to the reader to understand the "Mise-en-Scene" term in order to analyze the purposes of the author when using such techniques. It is a French term that originates in the theater. It refers to everything that goes into the composition of the shot, such as the framing, movement of the camera, lighting, etc. I chose the scenes right after Charlotte died, when Humbert took Lolita from the camp. Although at first it was not clear, it is obviously Lolita wasn't "an innocent girl". She said to Humbert he didn't care about her because he has never kissed her. Right after she said that, the scene was close with a strange sound and the image was turn to the outside as the car took its way through the street. It was left to the viewer imagination to create what happen then. When they arrived to the hotel, she told him in the room she wanted to play a "game" with him, but the game was never told to the public. Once again it was lead to our imagination. On that scene the light were not bright, creating a romantic atmosphere and the camera turns off immediately she turns near to Humbert face so the viewers couldn't see what happened next. The body language or movements of Lolita showed the director wanted to create a "flirty girl" as she was sit in a flirty position. Her voice was also created with the intention of seducing Humbert. It could be seen she was a 14 year old girl with the mind of a 40 year old woman with bad intentions. These Mise-en-Scene techniques are very useful to the directors to create the scenes and characters intended to express his particular ideas and atmosphere.