Rebel without a cause- Kaysha Carrasquillo

Kaysha Carrasquillo
6.19.17
B3/Film Studies

              

Rebel without A Cause

Rebel without A Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray a film of delinquents in urban slum environments. The stars of this film are James Dean (Stark), Sal Mineo (Plato), and Natalie Wood (Judy), this film consisted of James Dean who was a trouble making child that moved to a new town looking for a clean slate, but ends up finding trouble anyways. As he tries to look for some stability, but creates a bond with a disturbed classmate (Plato), and ends up falling for a local girl (Judy), but she is already in a relationship with the neighborhood tough, Buzz (Corey Allen). Once Buzz finds out about Stark liking his girlfriend, he challenges him to a drag race. We already know drag races is where all the trouble begin, and even worse for a trouble child, that is supposed to be looking for a clean slate. I can actually say this had to be one of my favorite films, because it showed a realistic point of how high school can be, kids can be pressured into things and make wrong decisions due to others actions and "motivation." This shows how high school/kids can influence on others, and bring things to be worse for you. 

Jaws- Kaysha Carrasquillo

Kaysha Carrasquillo

6.14.17

B3/Film Studies

                            

Jaws

Jaws is an all time CLASSIC that I can actually say I have mixed emotions about, why? I like the concept of the film, but I also am terrified of sharks so I feared to watch this film. Jaws is a 1975 America thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's 1974 Novel. During a late night beach party on Amity Island, a young woman (Chrissie Warkins) goes swimming in the ocean. While swimming out near a buoy, she is seized by something below, it thrash and dragged her under the ocean. Chrissie was then reported missing, and her remains were later found on the beach by the chief of police, Martin Brody. The medical informs Brody that Chrissie was killed by a shark, Brody planned to shut down the beach but the mayor overruled because he feared that reports of a shark sighting/attack may ruin the summer tourists season. Brody's son Michael, Quint, and Hooper were sent out to kill the shark (Jaws). In the morning Brody called the U.S. coast guard, but Quint destroys the radio enraging Brody. After a long chase Quint harpoons two more barbels to the shark (Jaws), but the shark ends up dragging the boat backwards forcing water onto the deck, which caused the engine to flood. Hooper enters the ocean in a shark proof cage to inject the shark with a spear. When the shark (Jaws) becomes entangled in the wrecked cage and tries to attack again, Brody shoves a scuba tank into its mouth then takes Quints riffle and shoots the tank causing it to explode into pieces, and destroys the shark (Jaws). After this film was created Jaws became a sensation, this film became so popular and the name Jaws as well, but I will always have fear because of this movie, the graphics of this film weren't great due to technology back then, but still provokes me to fear sharks.

Full Metal Jacket #MichaelLee

When I hear about a gun slinging, bomb exploding, drill sergeant yelling, Vietnam movie, I think about this masterpiece put together by the almighty Stanley Kubrick. There's no better movie to describe the life of boot and after. Boot camp is a necessary step into becoming a soldier without it, you have no training and you might as well surrender right when you get there. Drill Sergeants are made to be tough and are taught to mold the strongest of soldiers out of the weakest of men and women. With the Vietnam War in full swing, many are drafted in and many join out of their free will. The first scene shows the boots getting their haircuts and entering 10 weeks of hell they'll have to get through together. 

After they get their first haircut, they land in the bunk room. That's where they first really get rounded up and screamed at by the Drill Sergeants.  As Drill Sergeant Hartman is yelling at someone, one of the privates murmurs a joke from Forrest Gump. Hartman quickly races down to the other end of the room yelling, "Who the fuck said that?' He soon finds someone to yell at and puts the blame on someone but Private Davis admits that it was him. Drill Sergeant Hartman proceeds to asks if he thinks he is funny. He then punches him in the gut and gives him the nickname Private Joker. Private Lawrence is someone is a fat, lazy kid who shouldn't have even been drafted in the first place. His nickname is Private Pyles. He has no motivation and every mistake that he makes gets put on everyone else because the Drill Sergeant caught him with a jelly donut in his locker. Everyone dislikes him and people beat him with soap wrapped in a towel. He soon lost his mind and started talking to his weapon. The only thing he found that he was good at was shooting a gun. He learned to take pride in his weapon. All of them pass basic training and make it through. Private joker is sent to Basic Military Journalism which of course he is criticized by the Drill Sergeant. Cowboy and Pyles are assigned to Infantry.  

 On the final night while Private joker is on fire watch, he hears noises coming from the head. He walks in and see Private Pyles sitting down loading a magazine with live rounds. He gives Private Joker this scary and crazy look. He jumps up and stands at attention. He starts executing drill commands and very loudly recites the Rifleman's Creed. Hartman bashes in to the head and confronts Pyles and orders him to put down the rifle. He refuses and shoots Hartmen. He them sits on the toilet, grabs the butt of the rifle and aims down sights in his mouth and then pulls the triggers.

Joker is now a Sergeant and with the Stars and Stripes. He is sent with his combat photographer Rafterman to find his old buddy cowboy from Lusthog squad. Before he does though, he meets with a major. The Major criticizes how he has Born to Kill written on his helmet but a peace sign on his jacket. The Major asks which one is it. Joker says it has to do with the duality of man and how we all have two sides to our selfs. I feel this to be very true especially for soldiers. They may be very different men and women when on the battlefield compared to dealing with at home life. Different parts is brought out of them in different situations.

They finally catch up with cowboy and meet all whole amount of new people. They meet during the Battle of Hue. They end up going the wrong way and the leader, "Touchdown" is shot by sniper fire. A medic goes in but fails miserably as he is shot in the leg and they are left both lying there to die. "Mutha Killer", runs in a more tactical way unlike the medic. He hides up against cover asks the medic laying on the ground where the sniper is. Right when the medic points to which direction the sniper is, he is the sprayed with bullets. The sniper ended up killing cowboy too through a crack in the building. A clear shot to the stomach. Rafterman who was so eager to kill ended up being the one who took her down. The sniper was just a little girl. Rafterman was bragging about how he took her down and now acting all tough. Killing a little girl isn't really something to be bragging about even if it is to save your unit. It's harsh and they all wanted to leave the girl to rot instead of put her out of her misery. Joker shot her while she was praying for them to kill her. There's always two sides to the story. We do what we do for our country because we think it's right. They do what they do because that's what they think is right. There is a lot of decisions to make during war but someone of the most important you may come by as wether or not to be human or be a monster.

I believe this film perfectly captures war and how gruesome it can be. Many people say that there was no point in putting any more parts to the movie after the boot camp scenes. I hardly believe that to be true. Both parts of the movie depict what a soldier can go through within his first year on the job. It's a stressful job and not for the faint hearted. We have to been more respectful to the people who went there and tried to fight for freedom when everyone else doubted them.

FruitVale Station #Michael Lee

Fruitvale Station is among my favorite movies we have watched this year. Michael B. Jordan is an incredible actor. This movie follows the life of Oscar Grant, a struggling black male trying to support his daughter and girlfriend the best way he knows. The movie captures the last day of Oscar's life on earth before he was shot by police.

He struggles to support his family since he lost his job at the grocery store. He went to go get it back but the manager couldn't give it back. He is so desperate for money he almost goes back to selling drugs to his old boy. He them decides to dump the stash into the river. Honestly I think this was a good decision. Turning to drugs is never a good decisions and it only gets you into more problem but them again, oscar still got killed. Oscar, his friends, and his girlfriend go out into the city to party. While on the subway, he sees an enemy from jail and tries to fight him. The police are then called and they are all put up against a wall. As everyone is recording around them, the cops are yelling at them while oscar is on his phone talking to his girlfriend telling her his situation. The cop shot him at point blank range when his face was to the ground.

This cop must be out of his mind. Even if the cop mistakes his gun for a taser, it's unacceptable considering the fact the the taser is on the complete other side from the gun. That is exactly the reason why they are on different sides so you don't mistake them. I believe the cop should have gotten longer than an eleven month sentence because a daughter lost her father and a mother lost her son. Also, a family lost a piece they can never get back. Mistakes like these can't happen.

Jaws #Michael Lee

Director: Steven Spielberg

Screenplay: Peter Benchley, Carl  Gottlieb

This movie is about a great white shark that terrorizes a small New England beach town called Amity. After the kills a young skinny dipper, the whole town panics and runs to the police to look for answers on how to proceed with their lives. I personally love this film because of how real the shark actually does look in a lot of the scenes considering how old the movie is. The movie was certainly ahead of it's time. 

One of the most controversial characters in the movie is Mayor Larry Vaughn. Instead of Listening to the the Police Chief to close down the beach, he lets the beaches stay open so that he can make more money. Greediness is certainly is bad virtue at times. Don't you think that it would be safer for the people if the beaches were closed until the shark is caught? I think so. So the town also has a meeting with the Police Chief and Mayor. A ship captain named Quint offers his services to kill the beast of amity, of course at a pricey cost of ten thousand dollars. Remember nothing is free in this world. The Mayor turns down this offer and send the ship captain on his way. So the shark is still swimming out there ready to feed on whoever decides to swim to far from the shallows. 

No one is actually swimming in the water out in a nice day. Everyone is just laying out on the beach waiting for someone to be the first so that everyone else could follow. The Mayor walks ups to someone he knows and tells him and his family to go in the water. As they enter the water, everyone stares and they goes running after them to go enjoy the with them. The ice has bee broken but but soon that won't be the only thing broken. The Chiefs son wants to take his boat out into the water but he says no. The Chief says to take it into the pond where it is safer, Oh the irony. While the kids are on the boat they see a man on a little fishing boat attacked by the shark. He dies and luckily the kids make it safety. What's annoying is that it takes another death to get the whole town to realize that this shark is a big deal and that it needs to be taken care of. 

So the town is on full time watch but fails to catch the right shark. They catch a tiger shark which do eat meat mind you but from what the scientist found out, they are dealing the a Great White Shark. Now the whole town is is really panicing. They decided to take Quint's deal and The police chief and scientist rides along with him. After a couple hours on the water they find him a hook him onto a barrel so they can keep track of where he is. The Ship captain ends up getting swallowed whole and the ship pretty much sinks. The police chief shoots a air tanks thats in the sharks mouth and blows him up.

This movie teaches a valuable lesson, don't wait for it to happen the second time to actually do something. They couldn't saved the second person's life. 

JAWS

                                                         Arthur Abeshouse, Date: 6/14/17

     Jaws is a 1975 American horror/thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name. When it came out to be a horror movie in 1975 it is surprising to think that after watching it, there was more to this film than you could have expected from the title and poster of the movie. The pure terror that is constantly reoccurring through a mechanical shark keeps the audience at the edge of their seats while frustration builds off the shark's incredible power. Spielberg did a brilliant job of concealing the shark until nearly the middle of the film. This creates incredible suspense as the audience waits for the next attack, scaring them away from the ocean. With limited technology, the mechanical shark look fairly realistic but I did not expect it to look so real in the water and later on the boat. This realism adds to the terrifying sequences of attacks as it looks like a real shark that could come back and attack you. Apart from the shark attacking is the incredible development of the characters themselves. As the film progresses so do the characters, we watch as Chief Brody loses his fear of the water and eventually bests the evil that is the shark. Also, we see a growing relationship between Hooper and Quint as they compare scars which leads to the Quint's monologue telling the story of the USS Indianapolis. This story had been analyzed, improvised, and delivered brilliantly through Robert Shaw which commenced the damage to The Orca. The overall journey of the three crew members took the audience to a place they will never forget.

The Breakfast Club

                                                     Arthur Abeshouse, Date: 6/14/17

     The Breakfast Club revolves around five high school students kept together in detention, where they are required to write an essay explaining who each of them thinks they are. Though they see through this exercise for the shallow, poorly judged attempt to induce conformity that it is, as the day wears on they really do come to learn something about themselves most notably, that they were not as different from each other as they had thought.

     Hughes himself was an outcast at school, and happy to admit it. He said it gave him the opportunity to develop better musical taste (something which shows in his films), and it apparently also gave him shrewd powers of observation. Though they are archetypes with a predictable assortment of problems at home, the young people in his story all come across as real easy for fellow teenagers to identify with and poignant for adults to watch, as they make so many familiar mistakes. There are the sports star an A-grade student, both of whom hate the way they're pushed to succeed; there's the popular girl, secretly miserable because of the breakdown in her parents' marriage; there's the destructive rebel, a victim of violence at home; and there's the sullen, goth, who, for all her remoteness, is the only one who really seems comfortable with who she is sadly, this leads to a misjudged ending where we're told she'll really be happier when she's been made to look like everyone else. Over the course of the film they move from mutual mistrust to a sadness that, once it's over, they may lose their new friendship as they return to their former cliques.

     What makes this film still stand out today is the way it explores teenage relationships with the edge of cruelty that has come to dominate the genre in latter years. True, some of the characters are mean to each other, but there's always the sense that they are all decent people underneath. It's a remarkably optimistic portrait of a generation which, their principal remarks in concern, will be running the world one day. Now that they really are of an age to do so, that generation might do well to look back on The Breakfast Club and remember what it was like when friendship meant so much.