Prior Film Experience

Name: Kaysha Carrasquillo

Date: 10.7.16

Prior Film Experience

I consider myself an outcast from other teenagers in my generation. Yes, I watch films, but not as much as my peers. It's very rare for me to sit and watch something unless it truly catches my attention. If I were to watch a film, it'd fall into a drama, but more romantic genre. These kinds of movies are my kind of movies. They're sentimental, contain action, and have true stories that aren't like normal people, more like fairy tales. Movies that fall into this category that I absolutely love would be Titanic by James Cameron and the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer; these movies contain everything that I look for to really catch my attention. I spent about five years obsessing over the Twilight saga, just because it was my all time favorite at the time. This saga contained so much between drama, romance, and action.

Now being in Film Studies class, I feel like it has brought me to explore a new genre of movies, I'm watching movies that I wouldn't normally watch, like movies not from my generation. But so far the movies that we've watched like Rocky, Sugar, and Man on Wire are pretty interesting although they don't fall into the categories that I prefer. I feel like being in Film Studies will help me explore these different genres, and will encourage me to look into classic movies.

Man On Wire (Cameron Smith)

Man On Wire: Walking on Top of the World

    This film was great for a few reasons: 1) The cinematography itself was a work of genius; 2) The non-diegetic music and film-noir elements were just... awesome; and 3) It's great message inspired me! You'll see why the third one is so as I delve more into this. A documentary of a true event, this story is of a man named Philippe Petit who had accomplished the impossible. His dream: to become an expert tightrope walker and walk between the Twin Towers. With the support of his friends Jean Louis, Mark the Australian, Alan, David and girlfriend Annie, he would be successful in doing so. At times, the intentions of Petit are unclear. Are his dreams to achieve something great, to kick fear in the head and therefore become more of himself? Or is it simply a death wish?

    Philippe knew from the start that this was a life or death situation, but alas, he went for it and accomplished his biggest dream and experienced the greatest moment of his life. The entire message of the film is described in the words of Petit himself at the end of the film:

 Life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion: to refuse to tape yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge - and then you are going to live your life on a tightrope.

I personally think we should all learn from Petit's example and words. We should not be shells of ourselves; we should not aspire to nothing, and we should take risks. Who am I if I do not step up and face my fears? Who am I if I don't live life on a tightrope?

Gerald Mallison comparison of Rocky and Man on Wire

The Unseen Similarities between Rocky and M.O.W.

Two movies with different plots, stories, characters, and endings. Yet I'm telling you there are unseen parallels that will rock you to the core, but probably think I'm being an idiot. Let me explain by giving you the details that will make my point seem naive. M.O.W. is the documentary where Philippe Petit, a man with either big dreams or a death wish, discusses his life and the path leading to the depth defying walk. On the other hand Rocky features and underdog named Rocky Balboa after years of fighting in the underground finally getting the chance to fight for the World championship. From titles alone there connection is inconceivable yet when I watched the movies something clicked inside of my brain. Both describe the lengths that one is willing to put on the line in order to finally accomplish their dreams. Rocky obviously focuses more on the American Dream with and the trials and tribulations that come with the philosophy. Yet if you watch M.O.W. Phillipe talks about how he had to walk on the tower due to him feeling the act was his destiny yet to be completed, in a similar way Rocky explained to a sleeping Adrian in his film. Some may see this as mere coincidence but in reality this gives light to something everyone can get behind, a sense of accomplishing your dreams. The tasks both men fought so valently to obtain could easily be called insanity for others, yet the preserved due to their resilience and training. I feel it shows how no matter where you are in the world nothing is stronger, then a person driven to achieve the dream they've set their mind to. So even though one walked the Twin Towers and the other lost in a close spit decision battle, both made viewers and participants alike feel that they saw a man experience the dream of a lifetime. 

Man on the Wire

Name: Gabby Jeannette
Date: 10/5

Man on the Wire

If you ask me I think the award-winning documentary feature Man on the Wire (2008) was an extremely original and no movie similar or recreation can compete. The main character Philippe Petit (AKA the Man on the Wire) was living by his mind and free will, not a scheduled calendar/habits that most humans do.

The movie shows the struggles, growth, and accomplishments of Philippe and his crew. The stunts got bigger and bigger until he did the stunt that was unimaginable to most, tightrope across the Twin Towers. That mission on it's own could have been another movie. The crew faces a decent amount of difficulties like having to hid from security, general fear of walking the rope, etc. As usually Mr. Petit completed the task.

This movie open my eyes and showed me that it's okay to be risky and do what you want instead of what is planned. Anyone can watch this movie and learn a lesson, you don't just have to be an insanely risky tightrope walker, no matter who you are you'll definitely be able to take this movie and use the lessons in your own personal life.

Sugar

Name: Gabby Jeannette
10/5

Sugar

Not all dreams come easily. In the movie Rocky, it was simple: he was invited to the match, trained and then he moved on from there. But in the movie Sugar the american dream didn't come as smooth and steady as that. Sugar Santos and his friends were a group of driven baseball players that got chosen to come to America and play on teams. For a while all was well, even though throughout this entire process Sugar faced many struggles. When he got to America he had to learn the language/ communicate. But not only did he have to speak the language he had to learn how to hang out with others. On top of those day to day challenges, Sugar injured his shoulder. With a fear they would kick him off the team he left on his own so he didn't have to bare that news. Slowly but surely the "dream" started to decline: money got low, jobs got mediocre, etc. Luckily, Sugar Santos came to the conclusion that running away wasn't what he needed to do, he needed to be on a field playing baseball like he was sent there for. So being the driven player that he was, Sugar started to play for a minor league team and accomplished his dream. In the end of it all the "american dream" may not have played out as it was planned nor did it go as smoothly, but it ended up happening.

Sugar

The movie Sugar was a movie about a Dominican name Miguel "Sugar" Santos who wants to be good enough to play major league baseball over in america, right of the bat to me it felt slow and it kinda made me bored watching it I understood that it was slowly going to introduce us to Sugar and show us what his goals and motivations are but I couldn't be bothered but when he went to america that's when I started to watch because it started to show Sugar adjusting to america and having to adapt to a new change, he had to know enough English to get by and get his word across, he has to work harder since he was one of the few who skipped rookie and went straight to Team-A seeing as he was that good enough, dealing with the occasional racism and so much more that it got me actually watching the film because it gave me a reason to watch but that's just me but slowly as the movie goes on it is shown in the movie that Sugar is being pressured he not doing that well in baseball to the point where he starts using drugs to play better, knowing that he is going to get replaced by someone who is a better player than him which turns out to be his friend from the beginning of the film was the slowly but surely replacement for Sugar, it got to the point where Sugar was afraid of not being good enough and being replaced so not allowing the inevitable he left for New York to meet his old friend who helped him out when he came to america. Now when he goes to New York he has to deal with what he's going to do he knows he needs a job and a place to stay but near the end everything starts to work out for him, the ending to me was amazing everyone including me thought he was either going to make it to the championship and win or become the best player but no, the ending was him playing a local baseball game in New York with a place to stay and is still supporting his family in Dominican Republic many people did not like the ending but I liked it because it showed that life is not a single path you take but rather just many paths that can lead you to new things, you never know whats going to happen next and the fact that the movie was able to have what I say is a good ending while showing that it was still worth while through out the whole movie even though he didn't become the best player because if Sugar is happy with the way things are going  then to me the movie did a good job.              

Man on Wire Justin Law

Justin Law

A3

Man on wire is an inspirational film that shows how the man Philippe a French man got the courage and how determined he was to completing his goals. His number one goal in this film was to walk a wire across the Twin Towers in New York. To achieve this Philippe had many obstacles to overcome. Phillip was such a determined man he overcame these obstacles no matter what was the situation or what anybody said, such as in the beginning of the movie he had found an ad talking about the world trade center. This inspired him to walk across the two buildings on a wire. But he ran into many problems such as how he was going to get up to the buildings without anyone knowing. Then he got the idea to disguise as construction workers to get all of his stuff up to the building. This was one of the many problems he came across, but over came in this film. I can compare this film to Rocky. Man on wire and rocky both have the same concept. In rocky he had a goal and objective that he trained for and accomplished. Even though people didn’t believe in him he still went for it and succeeded. As in Man on Wire Phillip wanted to tight wire walk across the twin towers he also had to train and come up with a plan to accomplish his goals. In conclusion Man on wire is a good film to recommend to the average person with a taste of Documentary and Biographical Movies.