The Mist is one of those movies that literally leave you on the edge of your seat. Directed by Frank Darabont, The Mist is definitely a movie that has you biting your nails throughout the entire movie. It all beings with a family that lives in Maine, and their house was just damaged by a bad storm. While the family is outside assessing the damage a strange fogs comes creeping across the lake but they think nothing of it and go on with their day. David and his son as well as their neighbor head to the store to pick up supplies to fix up their house. But that's where things start to get interesting. While everyone is in the store buying supplies for themselves, Jeff Miller comes running in and claims that there is something in the mist. By now the entire store is surrounded by this fog so there is no way out. David decides to go check the generator because there lights have gone out and discovers that its clogged. While he is in the loading dock he hears and sees the garage door banging, clearly something wanted to get inside. When he tells the others they don't believe him and the bag boy Norm, decides he is going to go outside and unblock the exhaust for the generator. But David knew that wasn't a good idea, and expressed his opinion. Everyone thought he was crazy and full of himself for thinking something non human could be out there. Almost as soon as Norm goes outside numerous tentacles grab him and he is gone, but David managed to cut one of the ends of the tentacles as proof of what is out there. When they tell the others what just happened, Davids Neighbor Brent, becomes insulted and thinks this is a big joke. Brent is not believing any of what has just happened and wants to see whats out there for himself. Brent and a few people decide that they want to go outside and see for themselves. Another man joins them to get a gun from another mans truck, attached to a rope in case things go south. And sure enough things go south, the rope starts flying out of everyone's hands, but they manage to get it reeled in and its covered in the blood of the man. Mrs. Carmody is a woman who is stuck in the store with everyone else, she is known as the crazy lady to this point in the film. She seems to think that this is the end of the world and that everyone who doesn't live by the word of god will be sent to hell by this mysterious fog. But everyone disregards her and continues to try and prepare themselves for the night they they are about to face. When night falls Mrs. Carmody has gathered a following and people are actually buying into what she is saying. This is becoming a problem because now David has people against him and that puts him and his son in danger. They begin to ask the only army soldier alive in the store if he knows anything and after some persuasion he confesses that this was all the army's fault and that they opened a door to another dimension. Mrs. Carmody thinks that since he is the cause of this (even though he really wasn't) that he must be sacrificed, and in the matter of seconds the poor soldier was stabbed by one of the store employees and thrown outside for the creature. By this time David has to many people against him and knows he must leave the store or he and his son will be sacrificed next. So he and a few other people who don't buy into Mrs. Carmodys beliefs gather supplies and attempt to leave but they are caught by Mrs. Carmody. And now she seems to be the one in charge, which was a huge change of powers. She demands Davids son be sacrificed next, but the only store employee that knows how to use a gun shoots Mrs. Carmody in the stomach causing everyone to back off. After this startling situation David and a few others pile into his car and begin driving. They drive to his home to discover his wife encased in spider webs, and then they drive until they can drive no longer. This film is very different from anything we have watched in class thus far. "Darabont used in-your-face camera operators who improvised around and among the cast as they shot and re shot their long, chaotic and exhausting scenes in real time. Darabont says it was sometimes more like filming a hectic and energetic stage play"(Patterson). It different because the camera is used in a very different way compared to any film we have seen yet. During the beginning of the movie we can see that the camera is not being moved around much and has smooth transition. But when we get to the store and the older man comes in with a bloody face, the whole mood and setting changes along with the way the camera is being used. All of a sudden the camera is frantically switching between people and that just adds to the craziness that is going on during the film. What I also noticed, was that even though this is a movie it sometimes looks as though the camera was being held by a bystander. Almost like it was design to make the audience feel like they are a character in the film.
Just as the camera angles change really quickly, so do the characters. If you look at nearly each character from the beginning to the end, not a single character is the same as when they started. Much of this has to do with the situation that they are put into but regardless, each character goes though a change. A perfect example would be Mrs. Carmody, at the beginning of the film she was some crazy lady that made no sense. And at the end of the film she was some sort of genius that knew the answer to save all the people who believed in god. And when you look at all the people that thought she was crazy go though this change and start doubting what David says and start believing what she is telling them. I have never noticed that with any other movie and I thought it was interesting because it showed how people can change based on the situation that they are faced with. When your life depends on it you may believe anything in order to stay alive. Overall, I think this was one of my favorite films we have watched in class so far. It had so much going on and the characters really made you mad or you loved them. Mrs. Carmody really made me angry at times and I think that's what a good movie should do. It should get into the viewers emotion and connect them to what they are watching.
0 Comments
The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock was a very confusing film to say the least. Throughout the film I found myself asking what the purpose of this film could be but I could not seem to find the answer. But nonetheless, the film starts off with many black birds flying across the sky which was obviously a key part of the film, foreshadowing what is to come. Melanie Daniels was a person known to get herself into trouble and Mitch Brenner was a lawyer, the two found themselves in a bird shop and began talking. Mitch was in the bird shop to find his little sister lovebirds for a birthday present, and Melanie happened to be in the right place at the right time. When Mitch left she was intrigued by Mitch's charm and decided to buy lovebirds and take them to his residents. But she discovered the he goes to Bodega Bay over the weekends. She then proceeds to drive herself to Bodega bay and soon tracks down Mitch and discretely leaves the birds at Mitch's house but she doesn't go noticed. While she is rowing back to the boat rental dock she was attacked by a blackbird, this is where we get a first glimpse of what these birds are going to do. Melanie ends up staying the entire weekend and slowly everything starts going south. Soon, the bird attacks start occurring but become more and more frequent. It comes to a point where everyone in the town thinks that Melanie is the cause of this chaos in what is otherwise a peaceful town. But soon everyone begins to realize there is something going on that is much deeper than meets the eye. Eventually, the bird attacks become much stronger and begin to kill more people and even boarded up houses are no match for these psychotic birds. The film ends in a strange way because the birds don't attack Mitch and his family or Melanie as they are leaving town. But the real frustrating part was the viewer never finds out what was motivating the birds to cause so much terror. For much of this movie there is a bird in the scene and Hitchcock did a fantastic job making them look like they were the ones in charge. "Birds control the actions of the characters from the very beginning. The film’s first shot, which is an establishing frame of San Francisco, swoops down and picks up the motions of Melanie Daniels as she approaches a pet store" (Saporito). I think this was a key part of the film because it really brought to picture what was happening. It brought to attention of what was to come throughout the rest of the film. During the rest of the film, Hitchcock does a fantastic job making the birds look like they are the ones calling the shots. To when the birds are sitting and waiting on the jungle gym, to when they are sitting and waiting for the family and Melanie to leave at the end of the film. They were really the underlying makers of the film. This film is made up of a lot of foreshadowing and symbolism. I think that there was no greater form of foreshadowing than when Melanie and Mitch's mother meet for the firm time. Mitch's mother seems to have her doubts about Melanie and questions Mitch's choice in women. This raised a big red flag because whenever a mother disapproves of someone their son is seeing that's always a bad sign. His mother went as far as bringing up a incident that Melanie had while on vacation, but that was quickly dismissed as a act of revenge against her fathers newspaper company. Its made very clear from the beginning that Mitch's mother does not like Melanie and apparently neither do the birds. "It’s as if she brings this bird craziness upon them to rid their lives of Melanie, the potential threat to her family" (Boverg). This made so much sense to me after the movie because it makes you think about what the mothers role in the movie really is. All shes does in the movie is disapprove of Melanie and scream in an annoying manor when the birds attack. I think that this movie could have been made without her in it. But, nearly every time she sees Melanie and Mitch together, the birds attack shortly after.
"The lack of a score in this film totally makes you realize how alone you can feel among all these birds" (Boverg). I realized this about halfway through the movie and it confused me a little bit. This was the first movie I have ever seen that didn't have any sort of music playing throughout the movie. When the movie begins, there are birds chirping and it carries throughout the film. But during the beginning the viewer gets a sense that this is going to be a happy movie about two people who are attracted to each other but clearly that is not the case. The score of this film was created solely on the reliance of the evil birds, every time they attacked you would hear the terrifying shriek. This movie was definitely not my favorite, but now after writing about it I understand why we watched it. Its so different than any movie I have ever seen it made me look for differences. It made me think deeper about what each character was symbolizing and what was their significance to the plot of the movie. The Silence of the Lambs was easily one of the best films I have watched in this class to this point. The story line, cinematography, and acting was exceptional which made me eat up this movie. It all began with a murder named Buffalo Bill who was capturing innocent women and keeping them for a few days then proceed to kill them. But Buffalo Bills ways were soon becoming evident when one FBI agent in training was on the hunt for who this man was and why he was killing these women in such a gruesome way. Agent Clarice Starling was called the her superiors office one day while on a morning jog and her life changed tremendously. She had been assigned to go visit a very dangerous felon by the name of Hannibal Lecter who was locked up deep in the internals of a high security prison. Starlings goal was to ask Lecter a few questions and obtain any information about Buffalo Bill but that did not go as planned and Lecters sheer intimidating character saw right through Starlings aspirations. Soon the story begins to unfold with more and more details about who this mystery man is and Starling finds herself returning to Hannibal Lecter more frequently to try and get any information on how to find Buffalo Bill. Her chase to find the murderer soon leads her all over, and soon Starling finds that Lecter is being transferred to Tennessee and thats where things begin to go south. Lecter, being the lethal weapon that he is escapes his holding cage under the watch to two police officers and soon is nowhere to be found. But at the same time agent Starling unknowingly finds herself at Buffalo Bill's house. But she soon picks up on what is going on and who she has just looked eye to eye with. After some struggle she sinks a bullet in Buffalo Bill and the chase is over. Much of what made this movie the greatness that it is has to do with the small yet great detail put into it. The camera work, lighting, and setting all add to the big picture which you can tell is trying to get inside the minds of the dark twisted killers in question. During one of the early scenes in the movie where agent Starling is in the maximum security prison she has to travel through a maze of security points in order to even get to Hannibal Lecter. And once she does, Lecter is behind a glass wall which I assume is bulletproof. This to me represented the struggle that was to come with finding Buffalo Bill. Once Starling reached the chair in front of Lecters cell which was a chilling frame of the film in the first place, things start to become more interesting. The way Lecter was standing in the cell was almost something out of a horror film and sent chills down my spine. The two meet for the first time and this kind of sets the film up as to where the audience will stand throughout the film. Both Starling and Lecter stare directly into the camera which gives a strong sense of what we are dealing with. This was carried throughout the film and played a strong part in trying to get the seriousness of the character though the camera. "And he's very, very smart. You can't fake that smartness on a big screen" (Grow). Through amazing acting performance this did not go unnoticed, the viewer really gets a sense of just how dangerously brilliant Hannibal Lecter is. The way he talks, the way he walks, and his stern but chilling voice all just add to his dangerously cunning performance. Hannibal Lecter and agent Starling have a strange relationship. Dr. Lecter is a very dangerous criminal and Starling is a brand new agent for the FBI. Starling had been given a FBI badge for seven days, and Dr. Lecter picked up on that right away. He started picking at her brain and tried to get inside her head but it did not seem to work too well. In the movie clip above agent Starling is going to see Lecter once again, this happens many times throughout the film. And every time she comes to see him its almost as if Dr. Lecter knows she is coming. These two have a strange relationship because she is a FBI agent asking a criminal for advice. A criminal who has been locked in maximum security for many years knows how to find a criminal better then the FBI.
The Silence of the Lambs is literally a movie that pulls you in like a vacuum and keeps you there for the whole movie. It takes two very dangerous criminals and puts them on the same level, one knowing how to find the other. With its outstanding camera work, beautiful acting by Hannibal Lecter, and its ability to easily break the fourth wall it clearly deserved all the awards it won. |
AuthorI normally only watch comedies and action movies so this should be an interesting change. Archives
May 2017
Categories |