Gotta Dance! No actually you really don't...

Ok so as everyone in the class already knows, I'm not a huge fan of this movie, in fact I find it grossly overrated. Now I'm not saying I hated the movie by any means, nor am I stating I hate musicals because truth of the matter is I love musicals and secretly have musical albums on my ipod that I would never openly admit to! I even starred in a handful of musicals in high school including Guys and Dolls ... yeah, and I think the big name actors and actresses in this film are both very talented and stunning, but the film bugs the hell out of me.

I guess my big problem lies within musicals themselves, in essence musicals are absolutely ludacris and ridiculous to begin with. The fact that people will just randomly bust into songs, often for no real reason is weird, it's like if we were having a discussion and all of a sudden I start singing about clouds because clouds are on my mind... What?Ridiculous. Ok but we can look past that because heck if the song is good we get into it, it's fun

 and your always wondering when they'll sing next. Now the next big problemo is whether the musical is trying to be serious or not... because lets be serious right now, can you take a musical seriously? Like honestly. I have a very hard time with that question because the musicals that I really enjoy are musicals that are playing with or making fun of the issue or story at hand. For example, I enjoyed Hairspray because it makes fun of how racist white people were in the 50s, and other movies like Cannibal the musical, Little Shop of Horrors, or Southpark the movie make fun of the very fact that they are singing in situations that you don't sing in....they therefore make fun of other musicals and that works for me because honestly you got to make fun of yourself in those situations. Now musicals like Fiddler on the Roof and Rent do not do anything for me... they almost subconsciously make fun of the hard issues they're trying to expose, I have heard more people make fun of Rent and singing about AIDS then I have heard people talk about how Rent exposed them to the harsh realities 

of NYC. Come on did they people who made that really think that a musical was the best way to tell the public about those issues?

That's what really warped my view of this picture, yeah Singing in the Rain makes fun of Hollywood and then on top of that when they're backstage they sing and dance randomly, that's funny I will give them that. But to say that this picture is a good representation of what the biz was like back then and how actors acted off stage, it doesn't work. You can't take anything in this film seriously because the musical numbers ruin the validity of the piece. The plot in this movie isn't even good, it makes perfect sense to me after watching the movie and reading the article why that is, because the movie was basically slapped together around the songs themselves. Basically the movie studio said hey we got these popular songs and these popular actors...lets just throw them together and have a weird all over the place plot. And guess what happened the public loved it, and still loves it, I mean it's been labeled a classic, and the fact that everyone keeps egging this process of being distracted by the prettiness of the picture annoys me. I like this movie I find impossible to say this should be a classic in film history, baloney I say, baloney!

That scene that everyone seems to be freaking out over about Don and Cathy singing in the studio to each other...yeah I totally fell asleep at that part, slow songs are not my cup of tea I guess...fair enough

In conclusion what I learned from this movie is the big question everyone wants to know... what does singing in the rain have to do with this movie's story? Absolutely nothing at all. 

Double Jeopardy...I mean Indemnity...yeah

Well first let me start by saying film noir is freaking sweet! I've hear a lot of hub bub over film noir films and always figured they'd be kinda boring and lame, but I didn't realize how awesome ruthless and intense they were! It reminded me a lot of Sin City which is a film noir picture in itself and also one of my top favorite movies, in fact now that I think about it more a lot of the graphic novels that I have read and collected over the years commonly have a "film noir" quality to them even though they're not video. Right from the get go I knew this movie was going to be awesome seeing as the beginning was not in a linear fashion but rather started at the end and backtracked, which help in getting me through the motions of setting up the characters at the beginning (usually a painful procedure for myself, I'd rather get right to the action an conflict and have the characters be developed there as opposed to seeing their normal lives prior to the events) and really grab hold of me as the main character started to put the plan into motion. This was the first film we have seen in class where I wasn't hoping it would end after awhile, rather I was intensely watching and experiencing all the motions with the characters, which really makes a movie in my opinion.

Probably my favorite aspect of this movie the main character Walter played by Fred, and the way he was just so outrageously relaxed for the most part of the movie. Sure he sweat bullets and kinda panicked at some points for the most part he was just calm and cool, for instance when the man on the train started messing up his plan he pl

ayed along and came up with a quick solution by making the guy go back in for cigars, or when that man showed up later and kept almost recognizing him he played it chill and kept his composure. Most of the times when he's with Phyllis he puts on a front in way that basically is like were in deep crap but I got it all handled don't worry about, we got this. Even when she shoots him he doesn't go nuts or plea, he walks towards her and is like go ahead shoot me again... yeah didn't think so bam bam peace devil woman... come on thats sweet. Some of my favorite scenes in the movie are when Walter and Lola, the daughter of the man Walter intends on and eventually murders, are together. First she gets into his car unexpectedly, which I instantly thought meant that she had a crush on Walter and would then be a huge interference in the plan... which turned out to be not so true, but still Walter is cool and nice, yet he knows he is going to kill her dad. Then later on she comes to his office and tells him that she knows who killed her father, which then makes Walter wonder if she knows about him and if so why she has told him and no one else, so I'm like ok well maybe she does have a crush on him, or just wants to mess with him and maybe even kill him hers

elf... turns out I was wrong again. Then when they go out together to the music concert she tells him how she thinks its her boyfriend and her stepmom who killed her stepdad, but she still loves her boyfriend either way... which makes me wonder about if she did have a crush on Walter whether or not she'd turn him in or kinda let the affair go... either way the thing that I liked was how Walter should have been avoiding Lola or at least feeling real guilty when being with her, but instead he talks about how she comforts him and made him feel at ease not paranoid, what?! I'd be so nervous, but Walter is cool with it and in a way I both admire him and at the same time am kinda nervous about his character. I agree with what we discussed in class that Walter is basically a guy who is straight up bored with his crappy life and was obviously searching for the first reason to get his hands dirty whether he consciously knew it or not, thus why the situation should scare the hell out of him but instead he holds on for as long as he can due to the thrill factor... sure he killed someone, sure he cheated the insurance agency, sure he was all over a married woman... and he knows that he most likely can't get out of it, but every time he by passes a barrier I feel like its an adrenaline rush for him which keeps him going and gets him "high" in a sense.

My final point I want to touch on is the overabundance of smoking that was done in this movie. . . which made it look like a giant cigarette / cigar commercial. Basically in every scene someone was smoking, whether it was a business time cigar (Keyes) or a thin cig to look cool and seductive to the opposite sex, or even to relax from a tragic event they all made it seem very natural and a way of life. I mean I do realize back then there were a lot of Americans that did smoke and often at that but jeez there was a ton of smoking up, and man did the camera make it look so elegant, romantic, and professional. Each time Keyes goes to light his cigar Walter always gives him a light almost like a respectful motion to his superior, which at the end is exchanged likewise as Walter lies in a mess at the office door. The sudden burst of flame and white hot burning of the cigarettes and cigars where stunning against the dark backgrounds and made the simple motion of lighting up into a dazzling spectacle that I really enjoyed even though I hate tobacco with a passion. Even the way they Walter light the matches with one hand in a snapping manner that was just I don't know how else to put it but totally bad ass. I gotta learn that trick... note to self buy a box of matches.

Also how many times did Walter say the words Keyes and Baby... id say somewhere around 100...

White Zombie!

Where to begin, oh my good golly this movie was horrible! When I saw that we were watching a zombie movie I was actually quite excited, considering I have seen quite a number of zombie movies in the past that I found to be awesome. Then I found out that White Zombie was actually the first zombie movie ever made, which both intrigued me yet caused me to kinda doubt the actual quality of the movie. And then all hell broke loose. I agree with alot of what was said in class that this movie seems more like an abstract dream then an actual "horror film," in that alot of images are shown as well as things said that really have nothing to do with the plot at all. For instance the water in the castle... what was up with that? Was it poisoned water, or perhaps a cursed river that captures your soul? Either way characters were becoming seriously troubled by it which made me feel at first like laughing but then oddly enough changed to me just becoming disturbed by it. The same is true of the vulture that shows up every once and awhile in the picture and that god awful noise that seems to be so over exaggerated it at first seems funny but at the same time gets under under skin.

I found the movie as a whole to be highly annoying and almost lazy in a sense. Th

ere was so many uses of the same shots, over and over again. How many times are they going to show the zombie master clenching his hands together, after awhile I just wanted to yell Ok we get it, you can control the undead and the living with your weird little handshake, stop remin

ding us! That guy was quite freaky to begin with, I think it was definitly unneeded to show him starring at the camera for long uncomfortable lengths of time. Another example of them using the same shots like its going out of style was when the main woman character is broken from the spell at the end of the film and her face is light up, and then darkened, and then light up, and th

en darkened, etc. Seriously, we just need to see it once, we know she's going to end up ok at the end, she's the white beautiful female, of course she'll be fine, we don't need to play the whole is she ok, no shes not, but maybe, it's not thrilling at all and borderline humorous.

The reading helped me big time with this movie, because alot of this movie made l

ittle sense to me, but Tony helped to show and explain scenes that even though I saw I felt were just kinda random. Not to say that most of that movie doesn't make sense, but through Tony's analysis I was able to derive much more from the plot and the characters. Although his points were very insightful there were parts of his paper that I felt were diving too much into a meaning that really wasn't entirely there, particularly when he describes who each zombie represented in the US imerpialism sense. I mean I could write a 10 page paper about how Titantic is a

ctually a metaphor for the French Revolution, it doesn't mean that that is the movies actual

 intent.

My Man Godfrey

This week we watched My Man Godfrey, and to be brutally honest this film annoyed the crap out of me. In terms of camera work it wasn't really anything fancy or impressive, the storyline was all over the place, and the characters were pretty much all nuts. I mentioned in class how this film reminded me alot of Wedding Crashers, that is if the movie had been just about Vince Vaughn's story. In both films there is a main character guy who feels he is superior to the rich people around him and has very saracastic comments about it, there is also a crazy girl in both who is obsessed with this main character. The parents in both films are rich and somewhat oblivious to the way their children act, peticularly the crazy daughter. In the end of both movies that main character ends up with the crazy girl, even though it seems like a horrible match. In retrospect when someone else related the film to Arrested Development I totally agreed in that that show is of a way closer tie to My Man Godfrey then Wedding Crashers, and made me wonder if the show used that movie for something like a starting block.

The main reason why the film really grinded my gears, was because of the whole idea that Godfrey allowed the family to keep living rich while not really learning a lesson. Throughout the film you have a character who is educated, kind, patient, and overall just a good guy, Godfrey, and then at the same time you have this family that is arrogant, ignorant, insane, mean, and essientally stupid. As the movie goes on we come to realize that Godfrey actually descends from a rich family and chose to live as bum for some odd reason, and then suddenly he decides to strike back at the rich community by showing up to a scavenger hunt and calling them idiots. And then he decides to take it a step further and become their butler...which really doesn't make sense but we let it go because he claims to have a plan up his sleeve. The big plan? Oh its to handle the family's money without them knowing and make them richer then they were already. Great idea Godfrey, don't let the family that is nuts, bad with money, and depends greatly on their income, learn their lesson and be broke for awhile. No instead wait til the father of the family figures out oh crap were broke, then tell him its all good and then go and build a night club on the river by the garbage dump for homeless people to work at. Oh and marry that insane girl who is spoiled out of her mind. What?! This film is ridiculous, I don't know who wrote this but really it just doesn't add up to me. In the reading we were assigned about Screwball Capitalism really drives home what I'm taling about in the sense that the movie almost accidentally doesn't help with the money situation or that of the rich class in america, seeing as the moral of the movie appears to be If your rich and crazy, someone smarter then you will let you keep on being rich and crazy.

Stagecoach

Before even viewing the film, I was both excited and eager to watch Stagecoach for the first time, because although I've seen tons of movies I really have yet to explore western cinema, especially early film westerns. In addition to that I have never seen any John Wayne movies, I mean I know who he is and have seen impersonations and references to him in a number of other movies but have never actually seen him act.

So then we started to watch the movie, and right off the bat the crackly old sound quality had me going nuts, its a pet peeve of mine and is basically the main reason I loathe early black and white films. Another thing that caught my attention and continued to bug me for most of the movie, was the goofy character of Buck, played by Andy Devine and his easily recognizable voice. I knew I heard that voice before, but I couldn't put my finger on it and for most of the film i was distracted by it, until finally I realized he was Friar Tuck in Disney's animated film Robin Hood. His character was definitly over the top comedic relief throughout the film, and even when the audience sees him get shot we continue to laugh at his odd noises, even though he is clearly in pain.

Some other quick things I noticed were the odd number of similar odd shots at the beginning of the film of just the Banker Owner's face and his odd unchanging stare. These shots were strange in that they didn't really explain anything about the character other then he creeply stares into nothing silently in his bank, and it felt like the director filmed him just staring for awhile cut up the scene and then just kinda threw peice of it back in the picture at different parts. After the second time I just found the shots to be funny, especially his expression.

I noticed that whenever the camera is only on John Wayne it is set-up much nicer and more vivid then shots of any other character in the film. For example when we first see John Wayne in the movie the lighting and picture quality changes suddenly as it zooms in on his face, and then cuts to this stunning portrait of John with his hat tilted perfectly and the background complimenting him. Even during the final shoot out scene against the Indians, John choose to lie down on top of the coach in a manner that looks more like he is posing for a picture then a comfortable shooting stance. I feel like this was done to make him really stand out and shine in the picture, and with the exception of the gambler gentleman character Mr. Wayne is the only somewhat young handsome character in the whole film.

I should also note that my hypothesis on why the gambler guy was aiming the gun at the mother on the coach is because after he realized that the passengers had no ammo left and were still surrounded by savage indians, and he had but one bullet left in his gun the only people worthy of the final shot would be either the mother, the sherriff, or the newly born child. Now this is very interesting to think about, if all the passengers were about to get captured, tortured and scalped who would be most deserving of being killed quickly and mercifully first... Well we can cancel out the banker because he is obivously consumed by Greed, and not the doc because he is a raging Acoholic, and not John Wayne's character because he broke the law and is a Fugitive, and then in turn not the blonde woman because shes a Prosititute. The gambler is untrustworthy and apparently a Murderer thus ruling him out as well. That leaves Buck the stagecoach driver, the sheriff, the mother, the baby, and the old married brewer. Now the brewer dies from an arrow right at the beginning of the fight, and both the driver and the sheriff are outside the coach, so then the only two possible candidates for quick mercy are the mother and the baby. Now if this movie was made today, the gambler probably would have aimed for the baby, but because were talking 1930s I feel like they really couldn't get away with that, so instead he pointed the gun at the woman. That's my idea of that whole situation.

All in all I was super bored by the film, and other then the idea of all these typical sinners traveling across the country together I found it to be cheesy and unentertaining.

Andy Devine info:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0222596/