Formal Film Study: Western Films

For my Formal Film Study, I watched three Western movies. I watched Rio Lobo, True Grit (1969), and Unforgiven.

Rio Lobo was one of the last movies directed by Howard Hawks, made in 1970. The movie starred John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jennifer o'Neil, and Jack Elam. The movie opens on Union soldiers, during the Civil War, sending a train with the payroll through town. Confederates hijack the train on its way back and steal the gold. Col. McNally (John Wayne) hears of the Confederates hijack, and chases after them but is tricked and captured by the Confederate troop. McNally is forced to lead the Confederates out of Union territory but instead, leads them straight to a Union camp. McNally jumps Capt. Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and Sgt.Phillips (Christopher Mitchum) and questions them on the rat from his unit, but they give up no information. After the end of the war, McNally meets up with Cordona and Phillips and once again asks about the rat. Cordona and Phillips didnt know the rat's names but gave the best descriptions they could to McNally. McNally says if they ever cross paths with them traitors again to contact his friend in Blackthorne, Texas. Later, McNally is contacted by his friend that Cordona was looking for him and arrives in town, but before meeting up with Cordona, he runs into a young lady named Shasta Delaney who needed help catching the murderer of her friend. A posse from Rio Lobo shows up and tries to kidnap Shasta, causing a shootout that kills Whitey, Shastas murderer and one of McNally's traitors. Shasta reports of trouble in Rio Lobo where Phillips reported seeing the other traitor. McNally, Cordona and Shasta all travel to Rio Lobo and find that the town is corrupt and Phillips is in jail. They enlist help from Phillips father and try to save Phillips, but during their trip, McNally finds out that the leader, Ketcham, is the man he was looking for and captures him, planning on using him in a trade for Phillips back but runs into trouble when Ketcham's men capture Cordona. The movie ends in a shootout between McNally and Ketchams men, with McNally as victor.

 True Grit was directed by Henry Hathaway in 1969, starring John Wayne, Kim Darby and Glenn Campbell. The movie follows Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) and La Boeuf (Glenn Campbell), accompanied by young Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), as they track down Chaney, the killer of Mattie's father. Mattie hired Cogburn to track down Chaney and bring him back to Fort Smith to be hung for his crime, but La Boeuf wants to bring Chaney down to Texas to be killed for a crime he committed there. They decide to team up anyways and begin their trek to find Chaney who they believe is riding with Lucky Ned Pepper, a old enemy of Cogburn's. The three of them follow Pepper's trail for days, but due to one miss step going down a hill for water, Mattie finds herself face-to-face with Chaney. She threatens Chaney to come with her to Fort Smith, but Chaney refuses and Mattie shoots him doing minimal damage, but starts a shootout between Cogburn and La Boeuf and Pepper's gang. Mattie ends up being captured by Pepper forcing Cogburn to devise a plan to infiltrate Peppers camp. Cogburn attacks Pepper while La Boeuf saves Mattie but Chaney hits La Boeuf over the head with a rock, later killing him. Mattie finally shoots Chaney dead, ending the long journey, but is bit by a snake and becomes very ill. Cogburn saves her life and weeks later, visits Mattie to collect his reward money for helping catch Chaney. Mattie promises Cogburn a burial place next to her family, and the movie ends with Cogburn riding away into a valley.

Unforgiven was directed by Clint Eastwood in 1992, starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris. Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett), a young boastful man, visits Will Munny (Clint Eastwood), a pig farmer, seeking a partner for a job of killing two cowboys who cut up the face of a young prostitute. Will used to be a cold blood killer but sworn off killing and drinking after his wife died, leaving him with two children. Will declined at first but changes his mind setting out after the kid, picking up his old partner, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), on the way. The towns Sheriff, Little Bill (Gene Hackman), hears of the group of prostitutes reward for $1000 to whomever kills the two cowboys that cut up one of their own, he makes a strict ban of all strangers and fire arms in his town. Will, Ned and the Kid show up in town at night in search for the cowboy's location, but Will runs into Little Bill in the saloon and is beat up and is kicked out of the saloon. The three take shelter in a barn just out of town and nurse Will back to health. Three days later they ambush a group of cowboys killing one of the wanted men. Ned decides he can't follow through with their journey and turns home but is captured by Little Bill's men and is killed. Will and the Kid go on and find the other man hiding out in a cabin. The Kid sneaks up on him while he's in the outhouse and shoots him three times. Returning back to town to receive their reward money, they hear news that Ned was killed, setting off Will's violent past and Will heads into town to kill the Sheriff. Will walks into the saloon and kills Bill and his deputies. The movie ends with Will giving his final threat and riding out of town.

The overall theme in all three movies is the strong antihero character in each movie. In Rio Bravo, McNally is doing good by returning the land that was stolen from the people by the corrupt sheriff, but is doing that by hunting him down and killing him. In True Grit, Cogburn is helping young Mattie track down Chaney so he can be punished for his crime, but he is doing it for the money and ends up killing many innocent men along the way. In Unforgiven, Will is getting revenge on the two cowboys for what they did to the young girl, but takes a violent twist in the end, killing everyone in the saloon for what they did to his friend. In each movie, the main character is ultimately doing what is right but getting there by killing a lot of men. They sacrificed their morals to help out the minority.

Another overall theme is the portrayal of a corrupt government. In Rio Bravo, the sheriff was going around, taking everyone's land from under them and not giving them any compensation. In True Grit, the sheriff's department wouldn't convict or try Chaney for his crime, and made up excuses when Mattie asked for help. In Unforgiven, Little Bill is a violent character who beats up any stranger without asking their business, and does nothing to go after the men who cut up the young girl. In all three movies, the government is inactive and uncaring, causing the people to go around them and fix their problems themselves. This also created the underdog story. Usually the group of good guys was outnumber by the bad guys, but in the end, they prevailed and won what they were fighting for.    

1975 Movie Project: The Deviant Man

The public saw him as a good, Christian man, but they were fooled. His family thought of him as the hard working father, but they were wrong. Matt was a returning Vietnam veteran and ran into money problems. He was recruited by a mob boss for his skills with lethal weapons for an unusual job. Matt was hired to kill those who disagreed with the boss. Its started off as just a job with a paycheck, but became an addiction for Matt. His wife Kim noticed a difference in his personality, and decided to follow him one night. She witnessed her husband stab a man in an alley and was horrified by the sight. She confronted him the next day and Matt was finally caught in his double life. In the end, he loses everything; his wife, his family, and his innocent image.

           Columbia Pictures presents “The Deviant Man”, a gangster film. Directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Jack Nicholson and the mob boss, Robert De Niro as Matt and Jane Fonda as his wife Kim.

De Niro was chosen for lead for his performance in Taxi Driver and his ability to play a strong lead role. Nicholson was chosen for his versatility in roles he's played.
The Deviant Man is rated R for violence.
The movie expresses the '70s film elements of the antihero and blurred idea of good and evil. The movie shows Matt as a hero because he is trying his best to support his family in a difficult time but he's also killing people. During the movie, the script plays with the idea that Matt's job is actually a good thing because he is making money for his family but in the end, the movie proves that what he was doing was wrong and therefore Matt lost everything.
I chose to write this movie because gangster films were popular at this time because, like always, violence is popular and sells.

MYST Post #4: The Eagle

The Eagle follows a young centurion named Marcus Aquila (played by Channing Tatum) as he tries to restore his father's reputation. Accompanied by his British slave Esca (Jamie Bell), Marcus travels through the mountains of Scotland searching for the lost Ninth Legion and the prized golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth, which was lost twenty years earlier. The Eagle was in Marcus’ father’s possession when it was lost in a unannounced war, therefore his father was considered a disgrace to Rome. After several days of wandering through the mountains, and meeting multiple groups of warriors, Marcus and Esca finally found the Eagle and fled in a hurry to escape from the Seal People, but Marcus gets hurt. Marcus frees Esca from slavery to save himself, but Esca returned with returns with the legionnaires who deserted the army 20 years ago just as the Seal People caught up to them. The two groups fight in a large scale battle with many casualties,ending with the Eagle rightfully in the Ninth Legions possession. Marcus returns to Rome, returning the Eagle to the ruler, winning praise from his country and clearing his fathers name.

I thought Kevin MacDonald did a great job directing the movie. The movie was mainly shot outdoors in fields and mountains, so almost every scene started with a wide shot camera angle to give the viewer an idea of where they were. What I liked about the movie was the fact that the 180-degree rule was broken. I liked the idea of seeing everything that was happening in the fight scene from all angles. I also liked how they played with the violence. Instead of showing the men stab through one another and have blood flying everywhere, they were more controlled by doing wide shots during the war scenes which showed the violence but made it easier to watch.

My favorite scene from the movie was when Marcus meets Esca for the first time when Esca is being forced to fight a gladiator. Esca refuses to fight for his life and Marcus is intrigued by him. As the gladiator is about to kill Esca, from the stands Marcus shouts  to spare his life. The women and peasants follow his lead and begin to chant with him, followed by the entire crowd. I liked the use of the camera in this scene the most. When Esca was punched and thrown down, the camera fell with him. It was a cool aspect of filming that I had not seen before and enjoyed it. My least favorite part of the movie was the ending when Esca and Marcus are walking away and the say the classic Hollywood line, “What do you want to do now?” “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” The movie was believable in being in the time period but those last lines broke all credibility for me.

1930's Movie Post: Scandal

Scandal is a gangster crime film starring Clark Gable, Bette Davis and Basil Rathbone. Clark plays a detective who investigates the case of a criminal, played by Basil, who robbed a bank. The criminal, as the audience finds out, is an old childhood friend of the detective but their paths separated as they grew older. The movie follows the two perspectives of both the detective and the criminal as they chase one another. In the end, Basil is killed in a shoot out with Clark when he was cornered on his attempt to rob another bank.
We decided to produce the film under Warner Brothers because they were known for their gangster film during the time period. We shot in three strip Technicolor because during this time, a lot of the movies that were coming out were in black and white because it was cheaper, but we wanted to stand out from the other movies that were coming out.
Our film follows the Hayes Code by never showing violence, just implying it. In the last scene where Basil is killed, it shows them standing there in the darkness facing one another and then a graveyard with a head stone saying the criminals name. We went around the code by not showing the shots being fired but that he died by showing his headstone.
If I could change anything about the film, I would change the lead character from Clark Gable to Edward G. Robinson. Robinson played the gangster in Little Caesar in 1931 which was produced by Warner Brothers as well. Clark Gable was a actor for MGM in the '30s, so we had to trade one of the Warner actors in order to get Gable in our one movie. I would have made Robinson the detective because he is under Warner and has played the bad guy in another gangster movie so he knows how the criminal thinks which makes the chase scenes more intense.

MYST Post #3: John Tucker Must Die

John Tucker Must Die is a comedy romance that takes place in high school and follows a group of four girls who devise a plan to break the heart of John Tucker, the hottest guy in school. Carrie, Heather and Beth found out that they were all dating John at the same time and decide to use Kate, a not so popular nobody in school, to get back at him. They planned to have John Tucker fall in love with Kate and then at his birthday party, expose him for who he is and break his heart so he would know what it felt like. Kate was hesitant at first but was forced to go along by Carrie, Heather and Beth. Kate joins the cheer leading team to get John’s attention and lures him in by acting exactly how the girls tell her to. John falls into the trap and Kate and John begin going on a series of dates. Kate begins to fall for John but is snapped out of it when Beth shows her a video of John bragging to his friends that he was going to “score” with Kate and the plan is set back in motion. Now dedicated to bring John down, the group sets up multiple embarrassing moments that back fire, ultimately making John more popular. Katie feels bad and decides to tell the truth to John at his party and everything works out. John is not mad and they remain friends.

       My favorite scene from the movie is when the group gives John estrogen pills in his Gatorade, trying to embarrass him and undermine his confidence. John becomes all soft and emotional at his basketball game and therefore doesn't play as well. The team loses the game and blames it on John, causing his friends to turn on him. The scene is hilarious and is a turning point in the movie because it is one of the first attempts at cracking John that the girls try, and it’s one of their only attempts that works in their favor. The scene is based on the dialogue because that is where the viewer sees the change in John’s attitude.

       The movie lacks technique/style and cinematography majorly. The film has no true plot line that it follows and the underlying message seems to be put out straight forward, yet everyone in the movie are hypocrites. The movie was definitely not made for the visual aspect, but instead for the comedy factor.

       I would give this movie a 3/5 because it is a classic comedy that makes me laugh every time I watch it, no matter how many times I see it.  However, it has no real cinematic aspect to it. The movie has classic lines that are still being said seven years later.

MYST Post #2: Safe Haven

Safe Haven was directed by Lasse Hallstrom and is based on the book written by Nicholas Sparks. The movie starts with a young women fleeing from what looks like a crime scene and she seems to be the killer. She is trying to escape from the police by boarding a bus headed to Atlanta, Georgia and luckily chooses the one bus that is not stopped and searched by the police. The bus makes a stop in the small town of Southport, North Carolina and the woman decides to stay there. That is where the real romance drama begins. Katie, played by Julianne Hough, meets Alex, played by Josh Duhamel, and they instantly make a connection. Alex's wife died a couple years earlier from cancer, leaving Alex as a single parent of two children, Lexie and Josh. Alex does a couple helpful things for Katie and they begin to fall in love with one another. Katie's past comes between them, though, when Alex sees her face on a “wanted for murder” poster and is disappointed that she has been lying to him the whole time. Katie explains that she stabbed her husband in defense during one of his drunken assaults, and Alex accepts the story and vows to protect her. The movie ends with Katie reading a letter that Alex's wife wrote for "the girl" that tells her that Alex really must love her if she is reading the note, and to take care of the children and to take many pictures to document the good times.

          My least favorite scene from the movie was the scene where Katie and Alex meet for the first time. I didn't like the scene because of the camerawork. The shots and angles used didn't match the events happening in the story. The scene was very important because it was the first time Alex and Katie meet, establishing the “love at first sight” factor. The scene should have been shot in close-ups and medium shots, but instead was filmed in wide and extreme wide shots. The camera was placed three aisles back in the convenience store from where the actors were standing. I didn't like the use of the angles because it made me feel distant from the character’s conversation instead of within it, feeling the connection made and the instant love in the actors’ eyes.

          I went into this movie with the impression from my friends that the movie was an amazing love story. Knowing it was based on a Nicholas Sparks book, I was prepared to possibly cry, like I have in all his other book-based movies. I personally don’t like romantic movies, so I was a little skeptical to see it and was disappointed in the movie. I didn't like the Hollywood fantasy and unrealistic plot line. Also, the dialogue was very awkward. I usually like movies that have an awkward main couple because to me it is more realistic to real life couples, but this couple just didn't seem to work at all. The pauses between the lines were too long making the conversations drag on for what seemed like forever. The movie just didn't seem to flow smoothly and jumped around from scene to scene.

          I would give this movie a 2/5 because it was unrealistic, choppy and just like every other love story movie made.  The morale of the story was sweet -- that Alex truly loved Katie and, instead of leaving her when she made a mistake, he forgave her and helped her with her problem.

Formal Film Study: Stephen King Book-to-Movies

Stephen King is a contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy author. He is also considered a screenwriter, columnist, actor, television producer and film director. He has published 50 novels, including seven under a different pen-name. His books have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books. Stephen King is most known for his books Carrie, The Shining, Misery and It. I decided to study the movies Stand By Me, Misery, and The Shawshank Redemption..

Stand By Me is based off King’s book The Body. The drama comedy follows the story of four young boys who set out on a hike during Labor Day weekend of 1959 to find a dead body of a missing boy their age. The movie begins with a man looking at an article about an attorney who was stabbed to death. The man then goes into a flashback of his childhood with the story of their adventure. After hearing about the body from his older brother, Vern tells his friends about its location and they decide to find the body and become heroes of the town. During their trip, though, they run into many obstacles that begin to tear their group apart, but they always find a way to forgive one another. When they finally find the body, they decide that t is best to leave the body where it is and make an anonymous tip to the police about the body. In the end, after the hike, the group of friends all go their separate ways with their paths never really crossing again.

Misery is more of a horror thriller with the main character psychologically insane. A famous author named Paul Sheldon gets caught in a blizzard on his way back to New York from Colorado and ends up veering off the road and crashing his car into a ditch on the side of the road. He is thought to be dead by the viewers, but he is saved by an unknown person who prys him out of the totalled car. Sheldon wakes up in what looks like a guest room in someone’s house and is greeted by the smiling face of Annie Wilkins, his biggest fan. Annie explains how she saved his life and now she is dedicated to nursing him back to health until the roads reopen and he can go to a real hospital.  But the truth is, she has no intentions of letting him leave her company or her house. When Annie finds out that Paul had killed off Misery, the main character of his most famous novel series, Annie gets very agitated and things get very tense. She forces Paul to write the next book in the series where he must bring Misery back from the grave and chooses her true love. Paul begins to see that Annie is insane and tries to escape...but she has locked the doors and shut off all outside communication. Meanwhile, the local sheriff is on the case of tracking down the missing Paul Sheldon.  Annie ends up shooting the sheriff after he discovers Paul locked in her basement. As Paul begins to finish up his new novel about Misery, he asks Annie to get the three things he always has when he finishes a novel. Annie is so excited that Paul wrote Misery back into the novel and that the novel is almost done that she begins to let her guard down. Paul seizes the opportunity and attacks Annie. They fight for a while and Paul ends up killing Annie in the end.

The Shawshank Redemption is a drama about an innocent man stuck in jail. In 1947, banker Andy Dufresne was convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary. Andy befriends the contraband smuggler, Red, who gets him a rock hammer so Andy could make chess pieces. After Andy overhears a guard complaining about taxes on a forthcoming inheritance and informs him about a financial loophole, Andy ends up becoming the prison’s bookkeeper.  Soon he discovers that the warden was collecting kickbacks. Andy continues to loiter the money using an alias on behalf of the warden.  Years later, a new inmate, Tommy, comes in and joins Andy and Reds friend group. He reveals that an inmate at another prison claimed responsibility for an identical murder, suggesting Andy's innocence. Andy approaches the warden with this information, but the warden refuses to listen...realizing that he would lose Andy’s bookkeeping skills if let go. He instead places Andy in solitary confinement and has a guard murder Tommy, under the guise of an escape attempt. Andy refuses to continue with the scam, but the warden threatens to destroy the prison library if Andy doesn’t go along. After Andy is released from solitary confinement, he tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican Pacific coastal town. While Red shrugs it off as being unrealistic, Andy instructs him, should he ever be freed, to visit a specific hayfield near Buxton to retrieve a package. The next day at roll call, Andy’s cell was empty. Furious, the warden throws one of the rock chess pieces at a poster in the cell and the rock went right through it. Andy had escaped through a tunnel he dug in the wall with his rock hammer behind the poster. Andy was finally free and went to live out his life in Zihuatanejo where he would be met up by Red in the future.

Both Stand By Me and Misery were directed by Rob Reiner, a director, actor and producer. As stated from The New York Times, William Goldman says ’'His films have a certain comedy style, coupled with a sweetness and toughness,”. Rob’s films have a funny aspect to them but are more complex than what is shown. In the movie Stand By Me, the boys are not just going on an adventure to find a corpse, they are coming of age and heading into Junior High where they will ultimately split up. Also, when the boys find the corpse, the main character, Gordie, is faced with the flashbacks of his father blaming him for his brother’s death.  Thats when the turning point of the movie happens. Instead of becoming heroes by finding a dead kid’s body, they decide to become heroes over something truly noble. Although Misery does not have as much comedy throughout as Stand By Me, it still has funny segments. Misery has more of the horror aspect. Rob’s cinematic use in the movie is more of a gritty look. He uses many closeups of the main character, Annie’s, face that shock the viewer when popped up on the screen. The overall mood he set for the movie is much darker than Stand By Me, and with every scene it leaves the viewer thinking they know what might happen next.  Usually, they are wrong...the movie has many twists that you don’t see coming.

The overall connection between the three movies is that each of the main characters go through a traumatic and life-changing event.  Gordie, in Stand By Me, at a very young age, sees the dead body of a kid near his own age.  This triggers memories of his father saying that it should have been Gordy that died instead of his athlete brother.  He convinces the rest of the group to leave the body alone, instead of returning it to town and becoming heroes.  In Misery, Paul Sheldon nearly dies in a horrible car accident, only to be rescued by an insane superfan and held hostage.  He struggles for months to keep Annie convinced that he is rewriting his book while he tries to figure out a plan of escape.  He ends up killing Annie and uses his ordeal to inspire a new best seller.  In Shawshank Redemption, Andy is wrongfully accused of murder, then sentenced to life in a run-down and corrupt prison.  While he was in prison, he uses his time to do good things for other inmates, like helping one get his diploma and establishing a prison library.  He bides his time, eventually becomes a trusted prison employee, only to use the warden’s corruption to bring down the warden and set himself up for life after he escaped.

MYST POST 1: Now You See Me

 

 

Director of "Clash of the Titiains", Louis Leterrier returns to his roots with his new action movie "Now You See Me" starring Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Morgan Freeman. Opening up the movie with the individual stories of a cocky street magician (Jesse), his former assistant (Isla), a once-famous mentalist (Woody), and a slight-of-hand artist (Dave). During each of their shows, a stranger in a hoodie slips each of them a card with a date and a New York address on it. A year later we are in present day at a show in Las Vegas where the group is headlining under the name The Four Horseman. As the big finale, the group picks a audience at random, or so the audience thinks so, to be transported to his bank in France in a elaborate illusion.The next day the Four Horseman is brought in by the FBI to be questioned about a robbery at the bank featured in their act the night before. The movie goes on with more stunts the group pulls that returns the money that was stolen from the public by a greedy investor to the rightful owners. The movie ends with a plot twist that the FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) investigating their case was actually the one pulling the strings.
I liked the movie and found it entertaining every second it was on the screen with never a dull moment. The illusions make you wonder how they were performed, making you forget you are watching a Hollywood movie and transporting you to Las Vegas, in the audience of the Four Horseman's show. It was also interesting that the script had Morgan Freeman as a ex-magician who explains to the FBI agent how the group performed each trick. There is a love story within the action filled movie between Mark and his assistant in the case. The movie ends with a cute scene between Mark and his love throwing a key into the river in France locking away their love and secrets forever. The last line leaves an open ending for a possible second movie.
I would give this movie a 3/5 for its ability to keep you on the edge of your seat for the complete duration of the movie. Also I appreciated how the love story that was intertwined was very subtle, really only popping up within the last five minutes, making the movie a true action movie not a romance. 

Review of the Reviews

       Critics MaryAnn Johanson and Peter Rainer both wrote a review of the movie The Big Year starring Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin. MaryAnn's review was a positive review focused on the plot of the movie and the use of its comedy. She gives the full plot story in detail, explaining the objective of the movie and the back stories of all the characters to help setup the tone of the movie. MaryAnn states that the use of the comedy was well thought out and was "human-scaled" compared to the slapstick comedy in most movies nowadays. MaryAnn also focuses on the actors and how they truly performed the characters in the movie well and made them believable. http://www.flickfilosopher.com/2011/12/the-big-year-review.html
Peter Rainer on the other hand had nothing nice to say about the movie. Admitting that he thought birdwatching was a meanwhile past time, he was unsure if it was the best idea for a movie script and this movie surely didn't change his mind. Peter's review focused on how director David Frankel and screenwriter Howard Franklin were unable to pluck our heartstrings and tickle our funny bones at any point in the movie. http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2011/1014/Steve-Martin-Owen-Wilson-and-Jack-Black-star-in-The-Big-Year-movie-review 
       Having seen the movie, I would have to agree to agree with Peter's point, "experts at neither tickling, plucking, nor draining". The movie, for me, didn't really strike and emotion or feeling while watching it. The movie was just average and the plot didn't stand out as extraordinary or rememberable. I also do agree with MaryAnn's point, " their comedy small and human-scaled rather than broad and slap sticky"' The movies comedy was very realistic and were small jokes that could be made by every day people.
       If I had never seen the movie, based just on the reviews, I would be more convinced by MaryAnn's review. Her review was more convincing because she gave a full explanation of the plot and the characters. Also she explained in depth exactly all the points she thought were what made the movie special. Also, she made a great point of the alternative meaning in the movie, the birdwatching was a metaphor for people watching. She also foils the characters giving new life to them and understanding to the movie. MaryAnn's review was very detailed and convincing in the positives of the movie The Big Year.
       If I were to write a review on The Big Year, I would certainly include the comedy aspect and the alternative meanings in the film because knowing the metaphors help viewers to appreciate the movies script and plot so much more. On the other hand though, I would include that the movie is intended to make you laugh, cry a little, and feel sympathy for the characters but the movie doesn't covey the emotion very well. I would also mention that the movie is about three men roaming across America tracking birds, trying to be the one with the most unique birds on their list at the end of the birdwatching season.

Film Intro Survey

1. What was the first movie that had a strong impression on you?
     - The movie Totoro because the animation was creative and interesting.
2.What are 4 of your favorite genres?
     - Comedy, Mystery/Thriller, Action/Adventure and Western.
3. What are 4 genres you least like?
     - Drama, Romance, Biography and Silent.
4. What are your five favorite movies?
     - Totoro, Perks of Being a Walflower, Lizzie McGuire Movie and the Sandlot.
5. List three characteristics of what you consider to be a good movie.
     - A smooth flowing plot throughout the movie, plot twists and well-develpoed characters.
6. What are your five least favorite movies?
     - Harry Potter, Twilight Saga, The Conjuring, The Love Guru and The Scary Movies.
7. List three characteristics of what you consider to be a bad movie.
     - No plot line, poor actors and anachronism.
8. If you have any favorite directors, list them.
     - Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Mel Brooks.
9. If you have any favorite actors/actresses, list them.
     - Logan Lerman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Melissa McCarthy, John Wayne and Jenifer Aniston.
10. List 3 films that you consider important for people to see.
     - Titanic, Forrest Gump and Into the Wild.
11. What's your oldest favorite movie?
     - White Christmas.
12. What is the best movie you've seen in the past two years?
     - Argo.
13. What's the next five films on your "queue"?
     - The Way Way Back, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Silver Linings Playbook, 42 and We're the          Millers.