Ch. 16 - Reaganite Cinema

Reaganite Cinema is film that has rejuvenation in it, or a new start. As President Reagan campaign theme was that he was going to renew national identity and start with a new beginning. The theme of rejuvenation and starting over was found in many different types of movies during the 80’s. During the 1980’s when Reaganite Cinema took place after his recovery of the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate him. Reagan’s recovery was a symbolic enactment of the things that would come. In the movies they did the same thing. Like in movies series Back to the Future where traveling back in time, and then return with a new spiritual attitude. And in the movie Field of Dreams where the past comes to the future and old famous baseball players come to play on a field that Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) builds in his corn field. The gathering of all these baseball legends in his present time renews the spirits of the people in the movie. The Reaganite Cinema period was about renewing spirits and time travel was one of the way that they showed how thing were in the past and how they can be better.

Ch. 15 - Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese is seen as a director that went against the Hollywood grain because his films look at the collapse of any sense of coherent self. For example, his close-up of the Alka Seltzer pill dissolving in a glass of water in the movie Taxi Driver is symbolic of the identity in his works as a whole. The characters in his movies have no clue who they are, and try to be what they want to be in their mind rather than who they really are. An example is in Goodfellas, when the character Henry Hill is trying to be a somebody, like a neighborhood gangster, but through the movie he slowly loses that and becomes a nobody, living anonymously under protection. Other directors of the same time did not have characters like this. Directors like Spielberg and Lucas used non complex character that knew who they were. Also in some of their films the characters are indecisive, but by the end of the movie find out who they are and what they want, and keep it. Scorsese uses characters that are lost and can’t find their way. Also Scorsese did not follow the way the other films were being made at that time. His films did not go with the feel-good, happy-ending films that were being made in the 80's. In the 80's the Reaganite cinema tried to do away with alot of violence and sexuality, but Scorsese's film Cape Fear which was his most popular box office film, has all those thing they were trying to do away with. Most of Scorsese's films were about things that were not supported by Hollywood. His movies contained alot of drugs, violence, and sexual scenes. When it comes to the content of the film Scorsese has influenced alot of film makers. His work is kown for spawning the younger generation of hard-boiled filmmaking.

Ch. 14 - Counter Culture Strikes Back - Women's Movement

The Women’s Movement liberated women’s lives more, and gave women the opportunity to go to college and then get white-collar jobs. This changed how men treated the women. Men started to expect women to be more accessible. Also men with wives expected them to be lovers, breadwinners, and homemakers. Women complained that the sexual revolution benefited the men more than them. In the movies women were not supported as much, they appeared less in movies. When women did get a part in a movie they played the stereotyped roles of madonnas or whores. For example Jane Fonda played an unfaithful wife in The Chase and a prostitute in Walk on the Wild Side. In one movie Doris Day got a part as a white-collar worker as an accountant executive, but she also earned the screen persona of a sexual tease. Movies in the 1960’s did not contain more liberated depicted woman, and it was not until the late 1970’s and early 1980’s that women began to get the rolls of white-collar and blue-collar workers in film. I think that this was because when women first started to show their independence and began to become liberated it shocked the men. Men were not used to having their wives go to work or school. Men went to work and women stayed at home with the children and cooked and cleaned, but when that started to change to movie industry did not accept it right away.

Chapter 10 - Film Noir - femme fatale

From looking at the pictures in the film noir gallery at moderntimes.com the physical characteristics of femme fatale are women are used as a powerful part of the films. Women in those pictures are dressed and carry themselves to attract men. The women use their sexy style to be desired by the men, and so the women have a lot of control. In many of the pictures it show a man and a woman, and the men look as if they are in love with the woman in most of them. Also there are scenes with men being hurt while with a woman. That make me assume that the man was hurt because of the woman, or because he was protecting her. In another on of the picture it shows and man comforting a woman with another man’s shadow coming behind them. That shows that two men are attracted to that same woman, or that the man protecting her is putting himself in harms way because of his feelings for the desired women. The women in the pictures with the men also seem to not have the affection that the man has. It is like the men are chasing women who really do not care about them, like the women are playing games. The physical description I see in the pictures is close to how femme fatale is described in the book. Though some of the pictures I can not see how they relate to femme fatale. Femme fatale means “deadly woman” or “fatal woman”. The description of femme fatale is a seductive woman who uses her sexy looks, charm, and whatever else she needs to do to get her lover to desire her. Many times the woman puts the man in danger because of the way she carries herself. From how I saw the physical characteristics in the photos and from how the book describes femme fatale, I think my view and description of femme fatale is close.

The War Film - Women's Roles

The purpose of women roles in typical war films is to bring sexual dynamics into the masculine war films. War films are mostly about battle and war, but women bring the typical Hollywood plot that centers on love, into the film. In war films women are usually desired by the soldier, and sometimes two or more soldiers. By soldiers competing over the women it makes the women’s part in the movie important, and it provides a good romantic structure for the movie. In the movie Hot Shots the character that Charlie Sheen played and his rival pursue the same girl. Because they both have sexual relation with the same girl they form a relationship with each other, and their rivalry become a form of not sexual competition, but of exchange. Women also cause many threats to men by bringing the emotional element known as a man’s vulnerability. Usually in war films, men with wives end up dying before the end of the movie. This suggests that the women bring vulnerability to the men and end up destroying the man. The role of women in war films brings sexuality to it, and helps form a romantic structure between them and soldiers in the movie.

Chapter 8 - American Comedy #3

A slapstick comedy is the type of comedy that involves exaggerated physical violence and activities. Slapstick comedies are films that use physical violence to make the audience laugh. The term “slapstick” refers to a club-like object with two wooden slats. When hit by it the “slapstick” makes a loud noise effect that does not require a lot of force. The beginnings of slapstick comedies come from the Renaissance period, and many believe that it has been part of all comedy genres since the middle ages. The style of comedy was explored even more during the “golden era” of black and white silent movies. Silent, black and white slapstick comedies directed by people like Mack Sennett and Hal Roach, and that featured people like Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and the Marx Brothers really made the slapstick comedy famous. These were some of the heroes of slapstick comedy. Also some other well known for being in slapstick’s were the Three Stooges, the Keystone Kops, and Laurel and Hardy. Charlie Chaplin was one of the most popular for his slapstick comedies. He had developed his Tramp character early in his carrier. His character consisted of baggy pants, large shoes, a tight coat, a small hat, and a small mustache to make him look older. Chaplin then started to direct and edit his own films after a year at Keystone. He continued to write his own comedies and signed a deal with Mutual Film Corporation and he wrote twelve comedies in eight months. Another influential person during the slapstick comedy period is Buster Keaton. Keaton was known for his banana peel routine, and in the movie Sherlock Jr. he tried to get his rival to slip on the peel, but he did not fall for it and Keaton ended up slipping on it. I think that slapstick comedies were such a successful movie vehicle because of the physical violence. The physical violence is so animated that it makes the violence funny. Also since some were made silently the expressions on the faces and during and after physical parts made them funny and likeable.

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny is the movement for expansion west of the Mississippi River during the 1800’s. The movement turned into the age of the “Cowboy”. Manifest Destiny was the right to move west to the Pacific Ocean. Manifest Destiny is reflected in westerns in the way that westerns show the fight for the western land with other people trying to settle in that land. Westerns also show how Cowboys fought with the Native American over the western land, because the Native Americans were there first. In Westerns they lead you to believe that violence, gambling, and prostitution is what is happening. Like in the movie Stagecoach, were the people come from the east to the wild west were that outlaw type of behavior is going on. The Stagecoach symbolized the push toward the west, and the linking of the west to the east. Films like Dances with Wolves in 1990, Ulzana’s Raid in 1972, and The Last of the Mohicans in 1992 all showed the conflict between the Whites that were moving west and the Native Americans that controlled the land before they came. Manifest Destiny is also shown in films like Union Pacific, Kansas Pacific, and The Iron Horse were the evolution of the west was shown. Films showed how the railroads represented uncontrolled eastern capitalism, and movies like The Great Train Robbery, were attacks on these trains was shown. Manifest Destiny brought up controversy, and changes in the west, and Westerns were made to show what Manifest Destiny did in the west.

The Great Train Robbery

Option 1 - The Great Train Robbery.

The Great Train Robbery was released in 1903 and was a film without sound. It was directed and written by Edwin S. Porter. The characters in this film are the four bandits who hijack the train. They are John Manus Doughrety Sr., Gilbert M. Anderson, Justus D. Barnes, and Frank Hanaway. These four men hijacked the train and had it stopped down the tracks where they made all the passengers get out of the train. The bandits took money and valuables from the passengers. One passenger tried to escape and was shot by the bandit played by Gilbert M. Anderson. The four bandits then left with just the front car of the train. A little girl discovers that the clerk at the station is tied up and notifies the sheriff. The bandits escaped to there horses and rode off being chased by the sheriff and his men who catch up to them. The sheriff caught the robbers and shot them as they were trying to get away. That was the end of the film it only lasted twelve minutes. Since the film did not have any sound or speaking the actors over acted what they were trying tell the audience. In a film with sound the actors do not have to over exaggerate their actions to get the point across, they can do it with their words. The film ends by the four robbers being shot and stopped. I do not think that this ending is a happy ending but it was good that the robbers did not get away with the passengers money. Also at the very end of the movie a man shot right at the camera to end the film. In 1903 I bet this scared the audience a little since they never had seen anything like that. Over all the film was edited good to make all the scenes fit together. In those day they did not have the technology to do what they do now but the film was still edited well.