Psycho

Psycho was a story written by Robert Blotch and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was about a woman named Marion Crane who had embezzled money from her employer and had ended up at a vacant motel with a disturbed manager. Even though this old time movie was in black and white it had still made me want to know what was going to happen next. Like when Marion Crane had placed the money in the newspaper I had thought that Norman's mother was going kill her and take the earnings. I did not think that the money was going to be ignored ad placed into the truck along with Ms. Crane's body. The movie had also surprised me because I did not believe that the unknown killer in the movie would be the socially awkward motel manager, instead I was starting to think that he had contained a close relationship with his mother and she would not like any female competition. The thing that had kept me interested in this movie is that every time I had assumed one thing was going to happen , something different had happened.

Touch Of Evil (Julia Anderson)

Touch of Evil (1958)

In Touch Of Evil The movie was crazy. To me there wasn't just one theme, there was too much going on in this movie. So what happens to be really going on in this movie is that Police Captain Hank Quinlan is the police captain in this movie, he is the one that is "solving" all these cases. But what he really is doing is framing people for doing crimes they haven't committed. So now that someone is on to Quinlan and his games (Mike Vargas), Quinlan takes Vargas's wife and makes it look like she killed someone when she really didn't Hank was the one that killed the guy. But Vargas wasn't aware of that so he couldn't help her until she was arrested. Once she was arrested Hanks partner was the one that ended up turning him in. In the end it all worked out.  The most important thing to was trying to clear Vargas's wife and the lover of the guy's daughter when the guy was blown up. They knew that poor man didn't do it.  Quinlan did this to make a so called life for himself, he said that there wasn't anything for him anymore ever sense he lost his wife. He started drinking. To stop drinking he turned to his eating to keep him from being a drunk.

Prior film experience 1 (Julia Anderson)

I watch films but I have never really been into analysis part of the film after watching it.  I've been waiting to learn more about films why things are a certain way.

Rocky

Rocky Balboa was a small time boxer in Philadelphia. He started off at a gym with other mediocre boxers where he was then replaced by a black "upcoming" boxer. Before I continue , let me say , this film was highly depressing, maybe its just me. I mean if you look at his life style it makes you feel like you, yourself, are in a rut. He has no family, no one to actually socialize with. The only friend that I saw was the Meat guy and even he's iffy. Everyone takes him as a joke, even the kids on the street who give him no respect and its sad because Rocky seems like a good guy, always trying to reach out to people.  He got mixed up in some stuff I guess you can say because in the beginning of the movie he was like the messenger for a "gang" but he's such a push over that he didn't really fit the look. Heavyweight champion Apollo Creed's opponent was injured before their match so they needed to find someone who can replace him. It really was a fixed match because they purposely found someone who they knew Apollo can beat .  Anyways, they picked Rocky and suddenly out of "nowhere" everyone wanted to be Rocky's friend which was completely pathetic but what upset me the most was that he allowed it to happen , caved into all the fake support. Anyhwo, later in the story he gets into a relationship with the Meat Guy's sister and honestly I think they were perfect for each other because they're both the most awkward beings so their energy just kind of clicked. I forgot her name , but she was never in it for the attention, neither of them were,

they just wanted to get it over with. The fight started and Rocky was actually putting up a good fight to everyones surprise but of course Apollo won at the end and the movie ended with Rocky and his girl in an embrace which was cute.

Psycho- A Foreshadowing

In the opening scene of Psycho, a 1960 thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the viewers are introduced to the protagonist Marion Crane, portrayed by Janet Leigh, and her boyfriend Sam. In the scene they are at a motel together discussing their impending future. They discuss how they are unable to get married due to Sam’s debts. This causes Marion to steal $40,000 from her work where she is a secretary at a real estate agency. Instead of depositing the money in the bank as her boss had asked her she takes steals it and leaves work early claiming of a headache. Marion takes an unplanned trip and leaves Phoenix, Arizona to go see Sam in California.

At two points in the film so far the viewers have seen Marion in her bra, in the opening scene with Sam and after she stole the money. In the scene with Sam her bra is white because her character is still pure and innocent the white reflects this. Then after Marion stole the money, the color of her bra was black reflecting a shift in her character her image was tarnished and sullied, she was tainted by her misdeed.

Marion starts to become nervous and act suspicious once seeing her boss on her way out of town when she was supposed to be home resting. Voiceover plays in the background to reflect Marion’s thoughts and her eyes are wide and fearful. She pulls over and sleeps on the side of the road. The next day an officer taps on her window, startling her and suggests she check into a motel next time. Her behavior is very suspicious and draws his attention, she becomes paranoid he is following her, going as far as to purchase a new Ford on the fly with California plates. She pays cash and is very forward with the salesman which seems to further make her look suspicious. The policeman witnesses this transaction which further makes her look questionable, shady even. She almost pulls out in the new car she paid for with cash without her belongings, that's how much of a hurry she was in to get out of there. Once she gets her belongings she hightails out of the car dealership. Back on the road again, it soon starts to storm becoming difficult for Marion to see out the windshield and drive safely. Luckily for her, or unluckily depending on how you look at it she comes across a motel during her travels, the Bates Motel. Norman Bates the owner of the motel invites Marion to dine with him for a small meal after she checks in, and she accepts. Marion hears an argument between Norman and a woman she presumes is his mother while waiting for him to come get her so they can eat, as it is still pouring outside. Instead of dining at his home behind the motel, they eat in the motel parlor behind the main check-in. Marion can’t help but notice all the stuffed birds decorating the room and Norman tells her about his hobby of taxidermy and his life with his mother, Norma, who is mentally ill. Marion suggests he commit her and Norman blows up on her. Norman tells her some things about his mother and his relationship with her. During their conversation Marion seems to come to her senses and even admits her real name, as she used an alias, and she tells him the truth about where she’s from and going back too. Once returning to her room, Marion decides to go back to Phoenix to return the stolen money. She prepares to take a shower, unaware that Norman is spying on her from a peephole in the motel parlor. As Marion is in the shower, a female figure appears and stabs her to death with a butcher knife. Norman returns to Marion's corpse and believes his mother to be responsible for the murder. He begins to clean up the crime scene, putting Marion's body and her possessions, including the embezzled money, into the trunk of her car. He drives the car to the edge near the swamps, sinking it.

I found it interesting that Norman had a taxidermy hobby specifically for birds and the protagonist's name was Marion Crane, and a crane is a bird species. It was pretty clear from then on that she wouldn’t be making it to the film’s final curtain call, almost like a foreshadowing of her demise. I found the character of Norman Bates to be much more interesting though, as a loner with no one but his mother, he just screams psychopath. Things that he said were just weird, they left a tingling, shivering feeling like you know something is wrong. The character of Norman Bates just gave off a bad vibe. He was quiet and refined but sometimes those qualities are the ones you have to worry about the most. People who don’t socialize and are isolated can be a cause for concern because they don’t learn how to attach and create that bond that is essential early in life. It’s basic psychology.

Lisa,

It is here in your conclusion "slash" 'curtain call' that you really start to cook. As PI Arbogast says, "If it doesn't gel, it's not aspic." While the beginning and middle of your post are really well-written, they are essentially recall/retell. I want more voice, more, well, Lisa. How might you use your conclusion as a frame and, back fill, if you will? BTW I like your choice of graphic/image. "We all go a little mad sometimes."

MM

Sugar (Laszlo)

The movie "Sugar" is an appropriate choice for our theme on the "American Dream" and Hispanic Heritage Month because it is about a young man nicknamed Sugar from the Dominican Republic who's been playing baseball since his father died when he was very young. The movie follows Sugar's adventures as he gets drafted to a team in the United States, the Kansas City Knights. This is an appropriate movie for our theme "The American Dream" because there is no definite definition to the American Dream, but rather an individuals' idea generally on "making it" in America. The idea can shift one one person simply living a comfortable life in their own homes with a stable job and steady income to another person's idea that when you come to America you get famous! and rich! and people know you everywhere you go.

In "Sugar", the protagonist, Sugar, is recruited to an American team from where he's been in the Dominican Republic. The movie makes it seem that everyone in the DR is looking to get out of there and go to America and play baseball, but so few actually get to go. There is a little bit of irony portrayed by a few of the characters about twenty minutes into the film when they go out from their little enclosed training course past curfew and get drunk for fun. The night ends on a serious note, however, when they all proclaim "Screw baseball!" because all of them have been there for the closer end of a decade. The irony presents itself the next day when they're throwing up all over the field and hung over for the game. As expected, they got a talking to from one of the managers or something like that... but only two of them. After the stern speech, the vibe turns into friendly and celebratory as the manager announces that they're being sent to the United States.

I really like this movie for the ending, which came a little unexpected to me. The way that I thought this movie was going to turn out was that Sugar would go to the United States and being one of the best players in the DR before, would either really suck in the States or flatly  trump everyone and like the American Dream can be seen, make it big and get his family out of the DR and support them in the States altogether. But NO! The movie took a little bit of a twist of both to create an ending I did not see coming. At first Sugar was pretty good and was striking people out but the fame was kindof getting to his head and he started forgetting about his girlfriend back home and fell for this white girl that was the daughter of the people he was staying with in Iowa. (A volunteer home almost) The girl basically rejected him and that was the start of Sugar's downfall. After the girl, his friend Jorge ended up getting booted from the team because he was injured and couldn't play as well as the others. At around the same time, one of Sugar's friends from the DR and the same training team replaced him but this new guy was better than Sugar, too. What do you know happens next? Sugar gets injured and put on hold. At this part in the movie, you can see a sort of pattern of the players on the team; they were treated as if they were simply parts to a machine and when they couldn't perform? They got switched out for better ones. The pattern can be seen that Jorge was dropped and then Miguel gets an injury and a better player is boarded. I saw this as a bit of foreshadowing to Miguel getting dropped next. Which is almost the same as ending the movie or killing off the main character, like in Psycho. 
A pleasantly interesting turn took part when Miguel ran off from the team to join his friend Jorge in NYC before getting booted. It was nice because at least Sugar also knew that it was going to happen. In NYC, he even starts working in the same place that Jorge worked at, although he did not even get a hold of him because the number changed.

The movie ends with Sugar meeting up with Jorge eventually and going back to play baseball but not with any major teams. Rather, a scrap team if you can call it that. The team consisted of players from all sorts of big teams, including even the Swings that he played for before but the team was not competitive. All of the players seemed to have gone through the same pressures that cracked Miguel and were now on the team to have fun, which is all they all ever seem to have wanted to begin with.
This is why I like the movie, because it twists the theme of American Dream into what it and life should be all about the whole time: having fun and doing what you really like. It had a happy ending, but not a Hollywood ending.

Prior Film Experience2: South Park.. Laszlo

One of my favorite shows to watch is South Park. For those who don't know, South Park is a cartoon-ish show, primarily about four fourth-grade boys named Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny who live in a small town named South Park in Colorado where strange, ridiculous things always happen to the four kids. These things include a magical Christmas poo called Mr. Hanky, an accidental trip to Afghanistan, and Barbra Streisand collecting ancient medals to create Mecha-Streisand.I love watching South Park not entirely for its satirical content, but the thought of what's going on behind the scenes as they're recording the sounds and voices and the thoughts or chill they must have to create each episode. For example the episode "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" is a play on Scooby - Doo. At the end of the episode when the mystery is solved, Fieldy states that the ghost images were created using a candle and q tips, and their ship was an illusion caused by two squirrels and a flashlight. Now, scooby doo was a pretty funny show but at least it made sense. Where's the sense in that? But I still think it's great because of how little sense it makes and the lack of given insult.If you've ever seen South Park, you will also notice that the graphics aren't quite the best but if you ever have a chance to watch the pilot episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" you'll have a blast picking apart the episode for the construction paper cutouts that it was made of. Trey Parker and Matt Stone used construction paper for the first episode of South Park because they were asked to create an episode but were not yet funded with the animation program. Another fun fact about South Park is that there was a sort of pre - episode to even the pilot. Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been working together even before the production of South Park and one day they decided to make a gag episode of sorts that they called "Jesus vs. Santa". The video was one of the very first viral internet videos and a producer at Comedy Central saw it, and gave Trey and Matt a call. BAM. South Park :)