#jonathannewton Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause is a very suspenseful movie that portrays Jim Stark's (James Dean) lifestyle as he moves into a new town. Jim enters a new town and gets into lots of trouble as he begins to socialize with a pretty girl who socializes with a troubled clique. Overall Rebel Without a Cause is a great representation of how teenagers lived in the 1950's. One thing overlooked may be how each character dresses in this movie. Each character has a different type of clothing style that still relates to how people would dress in that time era. James Dean has a preppy type of look, while Judy has more of a biker type of style.

This movie portrays how these young teenagers wanted to live more independently. The social issues of each of these students causes them to realize that they all have something in common,theyall have some type of family issues. For example, you can notice how throughout this movie Jim constantly questions his father about how to become a real man. Judy is having issues figuring out that she is growing up and taking denial from her father. Plato does not live with either of his parents, but lives with his maid and has family issues because he has never had a full father figure during his lifetime.

Overall, Nicholas Ray had done a great job on this classic by giving it a black and white type of feeling while keeping this movie in color. He had also done a great job by giving teenage students something to relate to during this time period of the 1950's. I would recommend this movie to anybody who likes a classic type of feeling and would like to know how teenagers lived during the 1950's.

Breakfast Club Blog

This is film directed and written by John Hughes, starring Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. This film takes place in a highschool where the following five students are spending their Saturday in a library for detention. Each of these indivuals are apart and from different worlds. These highschool students are very relatable to at least one highschool peer we may have had an encounter with. These actors potrayed their roles well because this is one of the best coming-of age movies. They're all just a bunch of highschool students that so happened to do something that got them in trouble, and resulted to them dedicated one of their precious Saturday's to a day in detention. The principal assigns them as a punishment an 1,000 word essay explain "Who they are". They had eight hours to complete this assignment. At first it's just a clashing of their different worlds into one another's which causes tension, awkward silence, and keeping to themselves. But as time goes by they get antsty, and bored. All of them then smoked weed they loosened up, and opened up. They all share their stories, and why they are spending the day in detention. They then realize what they all have in common is wanting to be nothing like their parents, and having strained relationships with their parents. Allison admits to being a compulsive liar, Andrew can't think for himself, John gets abused at home, Brian attempted suicide because of a bad grade he got, knowing he'd get in trouble at home for it, and Claire is suprisingly a virgin (comes to a suprise because of the group of friends she has). John then verbally comes for Claire by stating she comes from a rich dad so she would never understand his lifestyle. He pushes her to the edge where she shouts back and breaks down in tears. After this they share the reasoning behind their personalities, as well as tears, laughs, and shouting. After this scene they all form a friendship with one another. Claire then makes her move on John an. they share a romantic moment. This is closer to the end of the movie, as it comes to an end Brian quickly writes on a paper the assignment that they were assigned before the principal returned. Detention is over and all of their parents came to pick them up, Allison and Andrew shared a kiss as well as Claire and John. She gives him her diamond earring to keep, and ripped a piece of a jacket for her to keep. The principal picked up the letter which read "In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions: A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal" where at the bottom Brian signed "The Breakfeast Club". While John crossed the football field; shades on, walking cool, on his way home he threw his fist in the air and the movie ended with a freeze frame of this scene. Up to this point I am still clueless as to why Brian referred to himself and the rest of them to "The Breakfast Club" but I enjoyed this movie it's a very good film.

The Breakfast Club - Jesus G

The Breakfast Club

     Given the fact that I've never watched this movie and only picked up on it half way through it, it came out to be a very interesting movie due to the clash of different personalities. This is what I believe made the movie very unique as it create a falling apart family sort of feel. 

     There was your nerd styled character, Brian Johnson, who was arguably the smartest academically. He used some logic but also deals with a lot of stress, He is greatly portrait by actor Anthony Michael Hall, as he was actually the youngest male actor in the movie. Smart, young, overachieving but all due to the amount of stress and pressure that is on his shoulder. There are people who can relate to this character as it shows the true reality of high expectations. No one is to say that is bad but can be damaging. This was greatly reflected on this character as he was what was expected of him but paying the price of wanting to end his life.

http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/misc/cameos/breakfast_club/index.html

     On the other hand, you have John Bender (pictured above on the right), played by Judd Nelson, played the bad boy. at the time being 25 years old. He was greatly portrait and presented pretty great as the attire that he wore presented his stereotype quite well. He seemed to be the one to do as he wants and almost calls that place home because he attends detention every Saturday. He expressed himself in this was due to the lack of healthy environment, as he stated that he got a pack of cigarettes for Christmas at one point.  I'd say that this was a good representation of what your typical rebel is as they are looked down upon from just about every other social clique and uses substance one way or another. 

     I bring the attention of these two characters because this movie ties well, with what I believe, the theme being that everyone, no matter how they present themselves, go through some sort of social pressure, and no one ever really has it is.

     On one hand, you have the bad guy, Bender who with all that he goes through, create a rebellious character into himself. He goes against authority and doesn't do what is asked of him. On the other hand, Johnson, was the polar opposite of him as he did ask of him and due to all this pressure, he wanted to end his life with a flare gun, hence the reason he ended up in this detention. So going back to it, it shows the different types of people in schools and how they are. It shows not only how they present themselves in the school environment but as well as their home surroundings. This created a movie that not only goes on face value but goes in depth of who we are as people and more importantly, why. 

     This movie did a great job on creating a theme of teenage pressure and portrayal. We, as teenagers, cope with all the differences that is asked of us, in different ways. Some of us will show it in a negative way by going against the authority and being disrespectful, some of us will meet the expectations while tearing ourselves apart, some others will turn out to be very quite and shy, some will be a class clown and this is all causes of the way we are raised and coping with the amount of pressure that is asked of us. The Breakfast Club was a great movie in the sense that it succesfully took the main typical students in a public school and explained in depth how they end up the way they do.  This movie was one of my favorite movies despite the fact I started watching it late. 

Jonathan Newton:The Breakfast Club

The breakfast club , written by John Hughes , contains a group of troubled students. These students live different school lifestyles but still connect due to the fact that they have some type of personal issue at home. For example, Andrew and Claire are considered as one of the popular kids in their school but what nobody really knew was the issues they had at home. Claire's parents constantly used her as a weapon against each other. Andrew was a good kid who always obeyed everything that his parents said to do.Allison in this movie is known as a basketcase and nobody really socializes with her often, but they never really knew much about her personal life and how her parents ignore her at home. John was considered the criminal in this movie but was never really known as the sincere person he can really be. His parents never really cared much about him and that had turned him into the person he is today. Lastly there is Brian who is the straight A student who was always known as the brain. He is very intelligent but not a hands on type of student.

 What I like about this movie is that it can still be compared to people in schools today. Each one of these students come from different cliques but still represent the same school even though they had never even socialized. Even in metro you can pick out 5 people in 5 different cliques and I bet they really do not know anything about each other at a personal level. 

Overall this is a great movie that portrays real life school scenarios and how issues at home can effect what type of person you can become and how you can be surprised about how much you have in common with another person who you would think lives a completely different lifestyle.

Breakfast Club- Courtney Bell

The Breakfast Club is a very good movie. I actually never seen it until now. I think the big idea of the movie was basically showing every body's stereotype and how the got that stereo type. It focuses on the story of their lives and the weird things each individual do. Each student talks to each other and learn more about each other and realize what they do and don't have in common. 

My favorite part of the movie was when they all was talking about what troubles they go through at home. just because your popular or you have bad behavior or your quiet or something doesn't mean there isn't any problems at home.

Breakfast Club

The movie The Breakfast Club was a very good one, though I've heard many people quote lines from that movie and people say it was a good one I've never seen it until now [run-on]. In my opinion, I think that the main focus of the movie was to show that all the stereotypes [one word] of how people look is not really how things always are. "You can't judge a book by its cover" has been one of the most heard phrases in my life [cliche?]. It has also helped me as well. This movie added another reason on why not too [one "o"].

My favorite part of the movie was when they were explaining how their at home life was. I can connect to this because even though people think I have money or am just a perfect kid, I'm not. I've gone through things; my at home life is far from perfect. People sometimes put on an act so people don't think any things wrong. But another phrase I hear a lot is the people who smile the most went through the most. You can't always assume that's my biggest pet peeve [a little confusing]. Bender assumed a lot about the others. For example,  about Andrew that he was Mr. Perfect and because he was a good athlete he did everything his dad wanted him too. It really wasn't like that his dad pushed him too hard he didn't enjoy it. Sometimes kids are forced because of there parents or aren't pushed enough like Bender whos parents don't care about him and tell him he's a failure. This movie is probably up there with my favorites now and I will definitely end up watching it again.

Anthony,

I would add to and break up your second paragraph and add a relevant image.

MM

The Breakfast Club, Elaine N.

This movie will always be my all-time favorite movie. In particular this movie touches on what high school is when it comes to friends and cliques . Each kid is part of a different social group: Claire belongs to the popular girls; Andrew belongs to the jocks; Brian belongs to the nerd group; John belongs to the dropouts because of his bad behavior; Allison would be a "nobody " because she has no friends at all.

It is sad that high school can be full of stigmas for certain kids. We should be allowed to explore friendships in our four years. The students I believe exhibit every type of behavior a high school student experiences . John would be the rebel for no apparent reason, every high school students at one point deal with wanting to go against every rule in the book. Claire and Andrew feel peer pressure by the other members of their cliques. A pressure every student feels, the pressure of wanting to be accepted.

Overall, this movie is all about the kids who never would have crossed paths. But at the end of the day learned something new about each other and that no one is really better than each other.  I would recommend this movie to anyone of any age it is just a good enjoyable movie, anyone can relate to.

As a high school student myself, I can fall into many stigmas. But I tend to stay away from the title by being a person with many friends and hangout with many groups. Honestly, I hate the title of being "popular", it makes me feel superior to others, which is not what I want to feel like around my friends and other people.

High school students usually go through a stage of being a "rebel" refusing authority orders. I think it is because we are  young and trying to find ourseleves.

Rebel Without A Cause (Laszlo)

Based on my first viewing of this movie, I'm not sure what to think. The plot seems to be a little hard to follow; it's back and forth between emotions and the constant music that plays throughout [consider revising; awkward syntax]. Watching this so far, I'm reminded of when we watched Psycho. Not sure if that's the music only or if it's the idea of death and the suggestion from Judy and the parents of Jim suggest running away.

I like that Dennis Hopper is in this movie, although I'm pretty sure his acting career isn't that far off the ground at it's production. Monahan was nice enough to point out that he was in the film. I've only seen him with long hair in Easy Rider and current [more recent] pictures of him with white hair.

The scene where Plato is mugged for his address book is a little amusing to me simply because they didn't have phones [be more specific] back then and my first thought was about why he had an address book with him to begin with and then it occurred to me that, duh; they don't have phones.

About the production of this movie, I have to question it for two reasons; the aforementioned lack of attention and a scene (until the point I've viewed it to now) where Jim is laying upside down on his couch and the camera shows an upside down view of his mother coming down the stairs and in the same shot, the camera straightens out. On first thought, one would think that the camera is meant to represent Jim's point of view but after the camera straightens out you can see the mother crouch down to a still upside down Jim. I've yet to figure out the significance then of the camera view.

Probably stereotypical of the time period, but the leather jackets all seem to be worn by the bad guys - the guys trying to (avenge Buzz's death?)

Man On Wire

The documentary Man On Wire is a 2008 British American documentary film. This film was directed by James Marsh, the documentary was shot in 1974 about a young man named Philippe Petite who is a self taught wire walker who was 18 at the time discovered that the Twin Towers was being built so it was his goal to walk across, he was so determined he practiced all the time. He made plans to help him succeed his goal of wire walking across the Twin Towers. I was so fascinated to see such a young man at the time so interested, determined, and dedicated to wire walking. He put all his time and effort into something he loved. He taught me a lesson watching this movie, to always follow your dreams and to never give up, no matter how hard it might be, just don't give up.

Trains,Planes and Automobiles: Elaine N.

This was by far the funniest movie I have seen that dealt with bad luck.  At first I was sort of confused on how Del was so quick to become comfortable with Neal on a plane ride. I could relate to those people who speak to you on a plane. But in reality you want to be left alone to relax and enjoy the ride. The film really had me thinking on how sometimes these bad things do actually happen to people. An example, would be the plane getting delayed, it is terrible because one just wants to get to their destination. But the weather always causes it usually being snow. Neal, I imagine has never had an encounter with someone like Del since he gets creep out many times. It was funny how Del is a crazy sleeper, snoring loud and just being a mess. But the movies not only has funny parts, there is also emotion, heart warming scenes. The last scene was finally when Neal had an eye opener moment. He realized Del's wife had passed away and he had no where to go for the holiday. 

A word I would use to describe this movie would be a coincidence because after the men always agree to stay away from each other it just so happens they end up back together. My favorite scene would be when Neal drops those 17 F bombs at the rental car place and when he finally gets home. The scene that was full of bad luck was when the car caught on fire and was still taken for a drive through the cold.
I would recommend the movie and it is really bad since its rated R, it is only because of the language in the movie. The movie is enjoyable and will have you laughing. 

Alien- Corey R.

The concept that is "leave no man behind" is not in my vocabulary. In the movie alien, 7 crew members were in hyperbolic sleep on their space tow truck, the Nostromo, when the ships motherboard, Mother woke them from their sleep to go check out this distress signal that the ship picked up. Wanting to ignore the signal because they were on their way home from a 7 year expedition in space, the crew members went back to sleep but Mother woke up the crew again, saying that they wont get paid if the dont check it out. So the crew checks out the planet that the signal came from, but upon landing, the ship was damaged. The crew was stranded on the planet until the ship was repaired. So some of the crew members decided to explore the planet. Upon exploring, they found a desolate spaceship, the origin of the signal. Ripley, a member who was 3rd in command of the ship found out the distress signal was actually a warning telling them to stay away but it is too late some of them members had already boarded the alien ship. Once they reached the alien ship, one of the crew members Kane, found a crack in the ship, inside the ship he found many eggs. Being curious, Kane observed on of the eggs and an alien popped out and attached to his face. Ripley not knowing what happened she insisted that they stay in quarantine for 24 hours until everything is set. But Ash opened the latch and let them in. Have you ever stopped to think, that if Ash never opened the door, Kane would have died out there and most of the Crew would have been save.

Psycho - Elaine N.

 

Psycho, was the best movie I have seen in black and white ! The film had me thinking so many things at once. When I saw the title Psycho, I imagined it would be the main character Marion or Sam since Marion really wanted to show their relationship publicly. Marion to me was the Psycho because she stole $40,000 and bought a new car asap. The cop that pulled her over had some type of suspicion towards because he followed Marion to the dealer, which was strange. Then, the hotel comes to play and off the back Norman is extremely weird. It was as if he had never seen a women by the way he would stare at Marion.
The way Norman would talk about his mom it would be in the tone as if very low and not much said about her.  But he was proud to say a son is a mother's best friend. Which was strange because not every son and mother relationship is like that especially because he is an adult.
When people would go into Norman's house, I knew for a fact they were going to die. I did not expect Marion to die in the shower, I thought it would be because she was in the house.
I never expected Norman's "Mom" to actually be Norman himself. I knew he was strange but wouldn't expect him to have Dissociative Identity Disorder, meaning multiple personality disorder. I liked the ending because it was unpredictable,

Prior Film Experience: Submarine

At first glance Submarine is a pretty average coming of age film with a protagonist of a sub par teen boy, whose goals are to lose his virginity before his sixteenth birthday and to keep his parents together. This movie is cliche in the sense that it kind of mocks cliches. Like every other teenager, Oliver, is self obsessed, but not in an overly obvious way. From the very beginning of the film he admits that he imagines how people would react to his death. He pictures candlelight in memory of him at his school and girls sobbing over his death. In this fantasy he comes back saying, "Don't ask how. Just know that I'm more powerful than ever." This scene really gives you the feel of the dry almost cynical humor that ensues through out the film.

 This movie focuses a lot on Oliver's budding relationship with Jordanna, who is at first seen as a manic pixie dream girl with no purpose other than to take Oliver's virginity and up his social ranking. Since, Oliver is our protagonist we view her as he views her. He obviously sees Jordanna through rose colored glass as exemplified in the cheesy montages of their time together set to Alex Turner's melancholy soundtrack (which by the way is probably the main reason I love this movie). Then we discover how dynamic of a character she is once she confesses to Oliver that she's been struggling with her mother having a terminal illness. He realizes she has her own problems and is her own person, not just an extension of himself.

This movie not only realistically portrays adolescence through it's plot and characters' actions, but is also visually honest. The teenagers in this movie actually look like teenagers and the cast isn't unrealistically attractive. Submarine is relatable, full of great quotes, and has fantastic music, that make it a must see movie.