Man on Wire #MichelleNegron

Man on Wire 

Man on Wire, 2008, directed by James Marsh was a shocking film to watch. Using actual footage from the event seamlessly mingled with new re-enactments, filmmaker James Marsh masterfully recreates high-wire daredevil Philippe Petit's 1974 stunt: performing acrobatics on a thin wire strung between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Plotting his feat like a master cat burglar, Petit enlists the help of a motley group of friends as he calculates every detail, from acquiring building access to stringing up the wire, and manages to pull off an astounding crime. This movie had me speechless. But overall, it was a good movie. 

Sugar #MichelleNegron

Sugar

Sugar was made in 2008 and was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Like many young men in the Dominican Republic, 19-year-old Miguel "Sugar" Santos (Algenis Perez Soto) dreams of winning a slot on an American baseball team. Indeed, his talents as a pitcher eventually land him a slot on a single-A team in Iowa, but culture shock, racism and other curveballs threaten to turn Sugar's dream sour. I actually loved this movie, being a hispanic- baseball is a big thing and seeing him strive for that was amazing. Even with the troubles he went through, he managed to keep him and his family standing strong. He held his race up high. I recommend this movie strongly to everyone, no matter the race or sport you participate in. 

Psycho #MichelleNegron

Psycho 

 I actually enjoyed this movie. Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock, made in 1960 was a movie about Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), on the lam after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), is overcome by exhaustion during a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid the police, she stops for the night at the ramshackle Bates Motel and meets the polite but highly strung proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a young man with an interest in taxidermy and a difficult relationship with his mother. I don't want to spoil the movie but there is a plot twist at the end which is pretty creepy an self-explanatory. I did not know that there is a tv show based on this theme. Mostly, inspired but in the new centuries. I hope to actually watch more movies like this in the near future. 

Psycho, William Oliver

William Oliver

     Psycho is a Thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, and Vera Miles as Lila Crane.  This film had one of the craziest, most unexpected plot twists I have ever seen.  The movie is in black and white, which I feel helped added to the suspense that built up as the movie went along.  The protagonist of the movie, Marion Crane is killed by a woman about 40 minutes into the film.  Although I had never previously seen Psycho, this particular scene I had seen many times, due to how iconic it is.  It may seem very cheesy now, but at the time, the rapid cuts between different shots and audio screeching, give the scene a grisly feel, even though there is a lack of gore in the scene itself.
      Her sister, Lila and Marion's boyfriend Sam, then became concerned about Marion's well being and her whereabouts.  They bring in a private investigator to help them out.  But he is then killed by the same woman who killed Marion in the shower!  Sam began to go investigate the owner of the Motel they were in, Norman Bates.  They begin to argue until Norman hits Sam over the head with a glass.  He ran upstairs to find Lila. However,  Lila went down to the cellar. \Lila saw a women sitting down with her back turned. She went to tap her on the shoulder and it was Norman's mother's skeleton dressed up. Lila screamed and then came Norman with a knife dressed up like his mother! He tried to attack Lila but Sam came in and grabbed Norman before he could do anything.    
     After Norman was arrested by the police, it became known that Norman's mother had been dead for years, because Norman had killed her and her boyfriend out of jealousy.  But he had kept her body dressed up, and would talk to her as if she were still alive.  Over time he began to become his mother and was living with two personalities.  This is where the Psycho title comes from.  Norman never remembered killing Marion or the P.I, because his "Mother" side did it out of jealousy.  Norman Bates is Psycho.  

My True Thought on The Shining

As a member of the Metropolitan Business Academy Film Club, I watch movies every Wednesday and review their premise and overall plot. For the majority of the year the group usually has a common consensus of the movie, either being extraordinary or distasteful. This all goes out the window when it comes to The Shining, a Kubrick cult classic created in May 23, 1980.

Falling into both the Horror and Suspense genres The Shining is regarded one of the scariest movies of all time. Unfortunately, I strongly  disagree and [hold] suggest the opposite opinion on the movie. Not only do I dislike The Shining, but I feel as a horror movie it should be seen as one of the worst. Our movie goes from a healthy and normal family of three, turning into a crazy and dysfunctional madhouse in the span of a few months after living in a supposed cursed hotel. This is one of my big grievances with the movie, the pacing changes constantly with little explanation or addressing.  For example, in the movie Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) is first given the Shining by Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) [Scatman has the 'shining', but Danny actually acquired the shining after his father drunkenly dislocated his shoulder], they don't say how he acquired it himself or they extent to the mind connection. Another example is how the wife (Shelly Duval) l finds it hard to believe that there was no women in the rooms upstairs [this is confusing], even though the entire hotel had been vacated prior to their arrival. Not to mention Danny having a history of trouble due to his sort of imaginary friend Tony (which is never explained thoroughly either [not true].

The biggest problem I have with The Shining, comes in the form of Shelly Duvall as Wendy Torrance. Never have I hated a character so much to the point of vomit before, but she came very close to achieving this. Every scene she is in leaves a bad taste in my mouth, from her constant whining to her swinging of a bat. In horror movies you should want the heroine to survive and tell the tale, this movie made me want Jack to kill her and Danny before dacing on their dead corpses. In conclusion, not only do I consider the Shining a completely overrated movie, but a insult to the horror genre. I jumped more in Insidious 2 than I did in this movie, and I slept through most of that film. My final thoughts, anytime you feel like watching a scary yet thrilling Stanley Kubrick movie, find his masterpiece A Clockwork Orange. As far as I’m concerned, you can through this in a trash bin with A.I and set both films ablaze, because I honestly wouldn’t pay for either one.

Sugar

The film Sugar focuses on a young aspiring Dominican athlete who dreams to play professional baseball.in America. His name is Miguel Santos however his friends call him Sugar because he eats a lot of sweets. Sugar learned to play baseball at a very young age, and the rest of the boys in his village play baseball as well. Sugar was taught a devastating knuckle curve and practiced it daily, he eventually was among those chosen to travel to America and play baseball. This film really goes in depth to portray life for an immigrant in the United States. Sugar was sent by the baseball camp to live with a white family in Indiana. It is a much different setting for Sugar, the american lifestyle is way different than the way he lives at home in the Dominican Republic. The change of scenery ends up being to much for sugar to handle in this one scene where he is walking around a mall. The camera goes blurry and the ambient noises begin to muffle. This one scene portrays pure anxiety perfectly. The scene really puts you in Sugars shoes. I cant imagine being in a place where everyone looks and talks differently than me. Its not being xenophobic, its just a major shock for some people, it called culture shock. The Midwest United States is way different than the east coast. When sugar runs away to New York City he feels more at home because there are many people there just like him. This film also shows the struggle people deal with to achieve the American dream. It is especially difficult for immigrants to achieve. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity but when you dont have the proper documentation that says you live here it is hard to live here. Sugar was in the United States on a temporary work visa. He was not a United States citizen. The film really shows us that you can be very good at something but your location plays a huge role in success.

Man on Wire, William Oliver

Man on Wire
William Oliver

     
     Man on Wire was a documentary directed by James Marsh.  It tells the story of Phillippe Petit, who was a tightrope walker, who always enjoyed taking risks.  This movie tells the story of his biggest risk; walking across the twin towers, on a tight rope.  The issue I had with this film was not the story itself.  I still find the fact that he was able to do this unbelievable.  The problem I had was the composition of the film itself.

     The film bounced back and forth between an interview, home videos (some I felt had little correlation to the film), and reenactments of the actual twin tower walk.  The film bounced around too much for my liking and I think it scrambled the story for me.  It began to become hard to follow, especially the home videos, some of which felt unrelated to the twin tower walk.  These home videos featured him and his friends doing various things.  Some made sense, such as practicing the tightrope, but others were just of Phillippe and his friends just playing around.   I believe this took away from the awe inspiring story at the heart of this documentary.  Overall, I would give the story a 4.5/5 but the film itself a 2/5.

Psycho #DamianHenderson

Damian V. Henderson Jr
A3


Psycho was a movie that kept you guessing. You weren't sure what was gonna happen next from scene to scene. And for an old movie it was quite entertaining. The movie started out as what had looked like a calm film. Marion Crane was what had seemed to be the main character in the beginning. She and her boyfriend Sam Loomis were inn her apartment fooling around when Marion had to go to work. She was a secretary and didn't make a whole lot of money. One day a man came in and he looked like he knew Marion's boss. He began flirting with Marion but Marion wasn't going for it. The men gave Marion's boss $40,000 dollars to buy something. The men was quite rich. He tried to persuade Marion into accepting his kindness by showing all $40,000 dollars in cash. Again Marion showed no interest. Marion's boss gave her the money to put in the bank. Marion told him that she wasn't feeling good and asked can she get the rest off the day off to rest in bed after she dropped off the money. Her boss said ok and Marion took it and went on home. She got to the apartment and looked at the money like it had all the answers to her money problems. She then packed her things and began driving. She drove like she knew she was doing something wrong. She looked at the money in her purse. Every two seconds. Then as she approached a red light, her boss walked across the street. And as he got to the sidewalk he noticed that it was Marion in the car. He looked confused because she told him that she would be in bed all day. But at the time he didn't think anything of it.

It was getting late and Marion was getting sleepy. So she decided to pull over and sleep the night in her car. The next morning a cop pulled up next to her car while she was still sleep and woke her up. He asked her a couple of questions like where was she going but she kept acting strange. The cop could tell that she was hiding something. But he had to let her go because she didn't break any laws. Even though he let her go that doesn't mean he has forgotten about her. The cop knew the car she was in so she feared that if the cop found out that she stole the money he could easily find her. So she went to the car dealership and bought a new car. But while she was there, the same cop had pulled up. She got in her knew car and pulled off before the cop could ask her anything.

She was out of town and on her way to a new life. But the time it was late and she needed a place to spend the night. Then she pulled up to the Bate's Motel. She instantly noticed the house next to the motel. She also noticed the man in the window. The man came down and introduced himself as Norman Bates. He ran the motel. He gave her a room and offered to make her food. He went back up to the house and Marion heard the loud argument  between him and his mother. He came back down with sandwiches and milk and offered it to Marion. They ate it in the back of the main office where Norman had his collection of stuffed birds. He explained the birds to her and how this was a hobby of his. He also explain the situation about his childhood. He talked about his mother and how she was sick. He said that she was upstairs in the house and that he had to care for her.

During their conversation she realized that she should do the right thing and return the money. She went back to her room in a good mood. she felt as if a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. She got in the shower and it seemed that the way she was washing herself off was like her washing her sins off. But instantly a women ran into the bathroom with a knife and started stabbing Marion! She couldn't help herself and died as the women ran out of the room!

Norman comes into the room as if he knew what had just went down. He instantly began cleaning up the mess. He cleaned up the blood and used the shower curtain to cover up the dead body. He put the body along with all of Marion's things in the trunk of her car. Including the money. He then pushed the car into the lake so no one could find the body.

Back in town people were looking for Marion. They knew that she took the money and they wanted to find her. Her sister Lila Crane was most concerned about Marion. She went to her boyfriend Sam to see if he knew about Marion. He was shocked to hear that Marion had stolen money, but he also wanted to find her to see if she was ok. Then came a private detective. He wanted to find out what happened to this girl. He went down to the motel and talked to Norman. He saw that Norman was acting suspicious but he left the motel to call Lila. He said he was going back to look at the house he saw when he drove in. He walked to the house and the door was unlocked. HE went in and went up the stairs very slowly. But suddenly and lady jumped from her room and stabbed the detective! He fell down the stairs and the same lady that killed Marion killed him. So now Lila and Sam are worried.

So they go up to the motel and get a room. While Sam was questioning Norman, Lila went up to the house. She searched upstairs but didn't find anything. Sam and Norman started arguing until Norman hit him with a glass and knocked him out. He ran up to the house to find Lila. But Lila went to the cellar where Norman had put his mother. Norman ran upstairs and Lila had saw a women sitting down with her back turned. She went to tap her on the shoulder and come to find out it wasn't the mother. It was the mother's skeleton dressed up. Lila screamed and then came Norman with a knife dressed up like his mother! He tried to attack Lila but Sam came in and grabbed Norman before he could do anything.

 The police came and they explained that Norman he killed his mother and her boyfriend years ago out of jealousy. But he keeps his mothers body in his room. He dresses it up and speaks for it like his mother is still alive. When he met Marion he had feelings for her. But the "mother side of him," got jealous. So he dressed up like her and killed Marion. He was living two lives and having two personalities at once. It's safe to say that Norman Bates is psycho!

Rocky

Director John G. Advilsen and screenwriter and star Sylvester Stallone wanted to create a movie that was based on the American Dream. They wanted him to look like the underdog, so that in the movie he is achieving his goal and that everyone can do what they want with hard work. This movie takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1976, it's the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence.

The film starts with a boxing match with the "Italian Stallion" which is Rocky. And he just lost a fight. This is when you start to see that Rocky is an amateur who is trying to make a living off of his boxing career. As a result of that Rocky also works for a loan shark Tony Gazzo (Joe Spinell) 

As we get more into the film we start to see that Rocky has a soft and sensitive side. He takes care of two pet turtles and shows his love for animals. He also has a love interest in the movie and her name is Adrian. In the beginning she didn't show no interest towards Rocky but he didn't give up. He started of by saying jokes to her, then he took he ice skating. 

Rocky was seen as a hypocrite by most people and viewed as a bum. But he didn't take much to mind because he is too busy in his own world. At the end Apollo Creed decides who he wants to take into the championship. He doesn't want any of the one's that were called so he took the book and found Rocky Balboa, he was so excited about the name the "Italian Stallion " he already imagined himself winning. Rocky then had to do months of training in order to beat him but he had people on his side. 

Here came the day of the fight. Rocky thought he had a chance and Apollo Creed knew he had the win because he was much more experienced. This was a fight that lasted 15 rounds but ultimately Apollo took the victory. Rocky wasn't upset himself and he looked for Adrian. 

One moment that stood out to me was when Rocky had the opportunity to fight Apollo Creed and everyone wanted there share of fame as well. When he wasn't doing good nobody believed in him and that goes to show that they just wanted there share of fame too.

I never seen this film before but it did show me the idea behind the film which is the American Dream. It was a good sports movie in general. I also liked how it didn't stick to a specific genre but it had multiple of genre. Overall this movie was very inspirational.

By: Crystal Mercado   

Psycho #MichaelLee

Director- Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay- Joseph Stefano

This has to be one of my favorites movies of all time next to "The Shining". This movie has everything from suspense to shocking scenes. It's not scary to the common viewer nowadays but it's very interesting. It has just enough suspense to where you're sitting on the edge of your seat and just plot twists that you still wouldn't be able to wrap your head around.

This movie starts off with a man and woman getting dressed after having some "fun". They are talking of going away and having big plans together but the man isn't so sure because he is broke and is going through a really rough divorce. The woman ends up leaving in a hurry to go to work but when she goes to work, she's in for the surprise of her life. A very cocky man walks in to buy his daughter a house for her wedding present. He comes to pay the house in cash. I really don't know anyone who carries that much cash on him and even if I had that money, I would still never do that. This guy is going to getting a little surprise for being cocky. The real estate agent sends his secretary to go cash it. The funny thing is, she doesn't go cash it. She bolts and tries to go to California with 40,000 dollars in hand. That was a lot of money back then. To me, a 17 year kid, that's still a lot of money today.

When she steals this money, she doesn't leave town right away. She's thinking of the consequences of her action and thinking what could happen if she doesn't do her job. As she is playing all the scenarios possible in her head, she just decides to leave town. As she is leaving town her boss sees her in her car on the way out of town. She is not the best bank robber or the sneakiest robber alive. She is probably going to get herself caught. That's what get's me thinking, does that scene with the boss show that she is going to get caught in the future? Or maybe she disappear without a trace and that's the last time her boss ever sees her again.

As she drives down the road we notice the story playing out in her head. The voices get deep into her head filling her every thought. I then notice that maybe the voices in the background isn't the story playing out. It honestly could just be her hallucinating of what could happen. By her facial expression we can tell she has gone mad. Is she a trustworthy person? Can we trust the way she is portraying the outcomes?  She sleeps in her car which wasn't a very good idea on her part. A cop walks up the window and knocks, she jolts up and tries to start the car and drive away. The cop tells her to shut her engine off and give him her license and registration. By now, the cop is very suspicious of this woman since she slept in the car. The cop tells her there's motels just up the road. The woman isn't helping her case at all. She is acting suspicious and then she drives off while the officer still has her license.

She ends up stopping in the nearest town to sell her car and get a brand new one. She's in a rush and usually when someone wants to buy a car they want to wheel and deal for a better price. She agrees to pay a sum of 700 dollars with the trade of her own car. The car dealer is very suspicious at this point because she doesn't just agree to pay the sum he wanted with no argument but she also paid in cash. While all this was happening there was cop across the street watching her every move. I believe she could've at least just kept driving until she knew that the cop couldn't catch up. Everything she does is so sloppy and I wouldn't trust her to break me out of jail or pull a heist for me.

She ends up taking the advice of the cop who was suspicious of her actions and finds a hotel. The hotel is very secluded. It's far from the highway and very empty. It's called Bates Hotel. This hotel looks like something straight out of a horror movie which I guess "Psycho" would be considered a horror movie when it first came out. She meets the person who runs the place, Norman Bates. At first, he seems like a nice person. It's funny how the hotel has 12 rooms and it also has 12 vacancies as well. He put her into the first room. Before she starts settling into her room Norman invites her up for dinner for that night. She kindly accepts his offer. After Norman leaves, she takes the money out of her purse and wraps in newspaper and puts in on the cabinet. She hears arguing from the house, you can hear an old elderly lady scream from the top of her lungs that she doesn't want anyone up into the house. As she is walking out of her room, Norman meets her and knows that he was in a bit of trouble.

They eat dinner in the back of the office. This scene really does kill me. It amazing and it's where you really get to appreciate the outstanding acting from Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. They go back and forth at each other with sort of criticism like for example Marion said, "a man should have a hobby." Norman took that as a sarcastic comment and it was blows at each back and forth. But the most important thing that was said was, "we all go a little mad sometimes." That quote right their carries weight throughout the whole movie and carries weight throughout reality. When Norman says that, you can see Marion face start to to sadden. She's realizes that she went a little mad. She dashes out of the room and heads into her room and something weird happens. Norman removes the painting off the wall and starts spying on her through the wall and then after he is done, he puts it back up. I question wether this movie is a comedy or a horror.

One of the most iconic movie scenes in history is right here in this movie. It's in the shower scene where Marion decides right after she has her conversation with Norman, she'll do. She takes her clothes off and steps in the shower. She starts cleaning her self off, you can see a shadow in the curtain of a lady wielding a kitchen knife. The lady rips the shower curtain open and stabs Marion and kills her. Now what I don't understand about this scene is that she turns around and does like a full spin while she is getting stabbed. Like why, do you wanna get stabbed in the back in then stabbed in the stomach again. It just doesn't make sense. But, that's what does make the scene even more iconic till this day. The mother was apparently the one who murdered the notorious Marion. Norman is going to have to be the one who has to pick up the pieces. Instead calling the police on his mother he decides pick up the body, clothes, and anything else that remained and get rid of it. He stuff Marion's body in the trunk of the car and drives it into a big mud puddle where it could sink to the bottom where no one could find it.

Lila, Marion's sister, is worried sick because of her sister running off stealing a whopping 40,000 dollars. She came to question Sam, the guy she has a sort of secret relationship complicated relationship with. We all know Marion was headed Sam's way with that 40,000 dollars. A private investigator also stops to asks questions about where was the last time they say her and did they know where she was. The common answer was they didn't where she was and they had no idea she was capable of something of this magnitude.

This private investigator will stop at nothing till he solves this case. He stops at many places till he lands straight at Bates Motel. He walks up to the door and there's Norman. Of course, Norman says that he has 12 vacancies available to room in. The private investigator is only there to talk business though. When the investigator asked to see the book where everyone signs in, he tries to shy away from the subject and talk about something else. The investigator ends up convincing him on seeing the book and there's here name written right in ink when Norman said specifically he hasn't seen her at all. He has been lying to us. At this point Norman is very nervous and doesn't know what to say say. You could say he is caught and has to tell the truth. But for the most part, he sticks to his story.
This investigator also notices that this Norman has a mother. He defiantly pushes Norman to get him to talk to his mother too. Norma isn't having it though. He left to a payphone to talk about what happen about what he found out at the Bates Motel. He is eager to continue his search and decides to head back.

The investigator tries to head into the home of the Bates Motel. He wants to talk to the Mother so he can get more information about Marion. What he is going to find out is very different than he thought. He walks up the stairs of the home and immediately gets stabbed by the elderly women. His body flops back like a rag doll and well, he is dead. Without hearing from the investigator for a while, Lila and sam are worried that he might've found something. They want to head there too. I think that's a bad idea but it's a free country, right? They find out from the deputy sheriff that the mother of Norman Bates is actually dead. Now I know what you are thinking, who could be the old lady then. Just wait, trust me it's a good ending. Sam and Lila head into the Bates house too so that can find the "mother". Lila ends up in the basement where he sees the so called mother but her back is towards her. As Lila treads carefully. She grabbed the mother by the shoulder and turned her around and there she was, a Skeleton. What? Yea, I know. She was a skeleton. As she screams for her life, someone comes behind her with a knife and grabs her. Sam comes quickly and saves her. The mother was really Norman Bates in a dress.

Now here's the really tough part of the blog. Where I have to find an overall conclusion. Well this movie is very unique and had many plot twist so please bare with me. I think this film taught us a few things. When Norman Bates said, "We all go a little crazy sometimes". I feel that relates to all of us. As American people we work and nothing but stress is on our shoulders. Sometimes we lose it and we just have to come back to reality and realize that we need to really think things through before we go ahead and do them like Marion did with stealing that 40,000 dollars. Another lesson could be, don't be a cocky jerk. Maybe the guy in the beginning had it coming when the money from him got stolen. He did say he never carried more than he could lose. Overall this movie is one of my favorites and has gone done in history. It has one of the most iconic scenes and one of the most iconic plot twist of all time. The movie is true to it's name and i've never enjoyed watching a movie so much in my life.

Alien

Ryan Bowens                                                     10/23/16

Alien

I've always heard of this movie but never seen it. I even heard of Ripley but didn’t know anything about her but after this movie I can understand how amazing this movie is was. I assumed this movie wouldn’t be as great as all it’s hype but I was truly wrong. This movie was great and very suspenseful thanks to the director Ridley Scott who also directed Blade Runner another amazing movie from what I hear. I personally really enjoy space movies because you can do anything because nobody knows what’s up and the dangers. And when the alien first appears the first question on my head was how are they gonna kill that? The alien was truly terrifying when it up it’s mouth and it had a tiny version of itself come out gave me chills. I search up the actor who played as the alien in the first movie and his name is Bolaji Badejo. He did a outstanding job as this creepy monster. Spoiler but I thought that there was only going be a few people left alive but Ripley being the only survive, one of her crew mates being a robot and having to self destruct the ship she on and then to end up on a different ship thinking she same only to defend off another alien. This movie really shows how dangerous it can be in space and how we don’t know nor understand what’s out their. Also this movie proves that Ellen Ripley is one of the greatest female protagonist.

Touch of Evil

Makayla Bigard
11/17/16

The film A Touch of Evil (1958) is one of the best film nior made.  Directed by Orson Well, who is arguable the greatest director of all time.  For me I was not familiar with his work, matter of fact I had actually never heard of Orson Well before watching this film.  The plot is both complex which at times made it hard to follow.

The film starts out with a Mexican narcotics officer Ramon Miguel "Mike" Vargas (Charlton Heston) and Susan Vargas (Janet Leigh)  were on their honeymoon on the Mexican-US border.  That's when an American building contractor is killed after someone places a bomb in his car.  With the potentially Mexican bomb happening on American soil, Vargas took interest in investigating along with American police captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles), Police Chief Pete Gould (Harry Shannon) and District Attorney Adair (Ray Collins).  Over time Vargas begins to believe that the investigation is being corrupt by the other officers on the case.  He begins to put himself and his wife in jeopardy when he tries to reveal the truth. Throughout the movie there the film nior and background music kept things suspenseful.  Making you question the truth about the main officers and their motive.   I think the movie definitely fit for the time period it was made but for this generation it's very different from what we know about mystery films.  

Prior Film Experience

Ryan Bowens                                             10/23/16

                          Prior Film Experience

When I watch a movie in the past I would either watch a movie because it looks cool or I think it going to be funny. I loved and still do love action, comedy, adventure movies. Some of my favorite movies are superhero movies like the Avengers or Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice. I like movies that make me laugh like Big Trouble in Little Chinatown. I like movies that make you feel like you're questioning the world like I Frankenstein or Odd Thomas. I even watch movies from different countries as long as it has something i'm interest in like Rurouni Kenshin or Drop. I never really thought about a hidden meaning or how much a character is colliding to a conflict. But now that I matured and thanks to this class. I can appreciate what happens in the movie more, look for the hidden message, putting the pieces together before the main character does. I can’t yell at the screen and expect the character to move but I could figure out what’s going before something happens.

Z Rogers Past film experinces

My favorite type of movie were action movies and anything comedic. My favorite movie to date is probably Toy story 2 just because  it’s something very nostalgic to me and I have yet to find any faults in the movie as of yet. I don't watch movies with any critical aspirations as doing that makes things seem boring very quickly, so I mostly avoid the view of critics or higher cinematography concepts  since it felt out of place to talk about something that I don't understand. My favorite movie so far is  an animated sequel. The reason for this is because I already like these characters from the original movie, so there is already a connection between the characters, and their personality doesn’t have to be developed and that’s what I personally  prefer this  in a lot of movies because it makes it easier to enjoy a story when I don’t have to be constantly be reminded of other people’s personality traits. The main characters were also toys hence the name of the title.  

Z Rogers Touch of Evil

Film Noir

Bordertown

Consensus: Corruption, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles) even when you know someone is guilty you must still follow the proper legal procedures. IRONY: the outcome is opposite or near opposite of what you expect. For example, Quinlan’s downfall could have been avoided had he not ‘framed’ Sanchez, who was in fact guilty.

Opening shot is both famous for its technique and for its establishment of the plot. It was really long (continuous tracking shot before the bomb went off; before the development of the steadicam which was introduced in 1976 Rocky esp. training sequence when he runs up the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art).

DRAMATIC IRONY: tension building device by which audience members are privy to knowledge that characters do not. “There is ticking in my head.”

THEME: undercurrent of racism; Quinlan is a racist cop, ‘You don’t talk like one, a Mexican I mean.’ ‘I don’t speak Mexican.’

Quinlan: has been planting evidence since [turning point] gets drunk/makes a deal or alliance with the mob boss Uncle Joe Grande. Q becomes brash and more aggressive when he drinks. [was on the wagon since wife was murdered]  claims that strangulation is the perfect murder; wife was strangled and then he strangles Grande. But since he is intoxicated/drunk he leaves his cane at the crime scene. Mise en scene- the close up shot of the sign on the door, “Stop! Leave anything?”

Vargas (Mexican), the head of the Pan-American Narcotics task force, played by Charlton Heston (white dude)