Film Response - Cape Fear (Directed by Martin Scorsese)

2.6

Personally I feel as though psychological thrillers (or even any kind of thriller for that matter) should be subtle, but Cape Fear just does not bother with this. Many parts are very exaggerated, extreme and kind of unrealistic: for example when Cady is beaten quite severely with chains he just gets back up and beats them beat up as if what happened to him was nothing. Unfortunately this makes the film come off as rather corny; it seems to use every trick in the book to try and scare the viewer, but in trying too hard, it fails. The cinematography and editing are very unimaginative: for example the use of inverting the colours in certain moments to somehow create suspense, to me its not scary it's  just uncomfortable to look at.

One of the key things about this film that seriously gets on my nerves is the acting of Juliette Lewis as her character Danielle. The have been other films in which I found her acting a little sterile, non more so than this particular film. Essentially the acting is just bad but to be more specific she seems like she doesn't quite know what shes doing, her body language is confusing and forced.

But what I will merit the film on is Cady's brand of evil is quite disturbing and he brutally takes it out on the clerk, Lori who has a crush on Sam. The scene with him seducing the young Danielle who's just started to explore her sexuality and is mainly attracted to the bad guys and anyone who makes her father angry, was chilling to say the least.

Film Response - Skyfall (Directed by Sam Mendes)

3.7

The Bond franchise has never particularly been my cup of tea. In some of the older stories I found the plots little bit sexist, it was as though a lot of the time women were temporary accessories to his arm: eye candy, I am aware that there is M who is a strong female character but a few more couldn't hurt. I also have found the villains to be rather two dimensional and repetitive, their frequently foreign and have some form of medical flaw, such as a scar or a dodgy eye, (for example in Skyfall, Silva is Portuguese and has a false jaw), of course this is not always the case but it does happen in a majority of Bond films; therefore these reasons many of the films do come across xenophobic. In addition the plots seem to only end in a climax that consists of a huge fight scene which seems to me like an dues ex machina to me.

However I found Skyfall to be different and more enjoyable from the past bond films. I found the character to be a little more developed and to cinematography much more pleasing. I think I respond in this way because of how different Skyfall is the any of the other films; we see bond regaining his strength/skill instead of just maintaining it. One character I particularly enjoyed was  Q (played by Ben Whishaw), His acting was superb and the character added some much needed comic relief during parts of the film, It was refreshing to have a sweet and reserved character in between all the violent action scenes; he was British sophistication itself.

SOUND ~ Skyfall

VIEW CLIP

The fast pace music throughout the clip adds to the narrative by creating tension and suspense. As the clip progresses the sound of trumpets are added to the shot. The first sound of trumpets sound we hear in the clip is when Eve looks over to her right to see that the train is going to travel into a tunnel, this is effective as we realise that the character Eve has a limited amount of time to take the shot, thus tension and suspense is created. As the climax of the fight scene progresses the sound of the violins increase in a high pitched minor key, this musical gesture is a classic way (especially in a fight scene) of pushing the audience to the edge of their seat, the audience is now craving the outcome. This non-diegetic mood music has a pace that is elevated as it progresses, as it is an action scene this could be to mirror the sound of and elevated heart rate that would also increase as the suspense and tension in the scene rises.

When we see Bond get shot all music is silenced, all the sound that remains is a faint echo of the gun shot, the sound of the wind against Bonds falling body and then the eventual splash of his body hitting the water, this could be adding to the narrative by showing a moment of reflection on the event that just took place. These diegetic sounds within the silence are hyper-realistic, this has been done to create more feeling within the audience; to emotionally invest them in the consequences.

Film Response - Full Metal Jacket (Directed by Stanley Kubrick)

4.0

Full Metal Jacket is a story about a pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

One of things I love about this film is the quirky structure. The film is divided in to three parts; part one: Parris island training, part two: life in Vietnam and part three: war in Vietnam. Kubrick uses fades outs to suggest the endings of each part. The diversity of each act almost makes the film seem as though it is three short films with reoccurring characters. This interesting structure differs from the usual two act screenplay formula; this makes the story tell process longer but it also makes the viewer more connected with the characters.

The film should be highly praised on it's blunt telling of the messiness of war. Many American film about the Vietnam war exaggerate the plot to eventually become rather bias. The story although fiction depicts many truths about the Vietnam war; such as the propaganda sent to the US about the war giving false hope and confidence to the American people. One of the reasons I love Jokers character, played by Matthew Modine, is because he tells it as it he doesn't seem to want to glamorize this war but those superior are pressuring him to exaggerate the truth.

CINEMATOGRAPHY~ Full Metal Jacket

In the opening scene of the movie we are shown close-ups of the soon-to-be marines having their hair shaved off, the shaving of the hair represents the removal of their freedom, individuality and normality; from this day forward they are no longer men, they are marines. The use of close-ups works effectively as it manages to convey emotion whilst still being able to have all the action on screen; any further away would look impersonal and too distant for the audience to really connect with these characters effectively.

When the marines are in their training on Paris island, the drill sergeant, Hartman, informing them on what the war in Vietnam will be like and how they need to compose themselves in such conflict. Hartman says "...you will be in a world of sh*t, because marines are not allowed to die without permission!". As he says the latter part the camera cuts to a shot of Lawrence (aka Private Pyles). This could show foreshadowing to the scene where Lawrence shoots Hartman and then himself because in that scene Joker says "Leonard, if Hartman comes in and catches us we will both be in a world of sh*t" to which he replies "I am in a world of sh*t!".

Peace badge on display (left). Peace badge not on display (right).

One of my personal favourite uses of cinematography is in our last with Joker (the mercy killing scene). We see Joker just before he shoots the sniper and his peace badge is on display but immediately when he pulls the trigger the peace badge is hidden from our view. The execution of the girl shows a psychological breakdown; the completion of Joker's military brainwashing. This subtle visual is a very blunt representation of the loss of peace and hope felt by Americans and the Vietnamese. As a wartime journalist Joker was also fighting the propaganda war; many stories were manipulated to give the American people false confidence even though it was a stale mate. Providing a false confidence shows that if a nation cannot be honest about the facts of war, they cannot conduct one properly and they can never win it; which is such a case with the Vietnam war. With this in mind we can consider this use of cinematography as death to the dream that the war would one day end smoothly and peacefully.

MISE-EN-SCENE ~ Annie Wilkes (Misery)

Annie Wilkes is a former nurse and the main antagonist of the 1987 novel, Misery, written by Stephen King, and its film adaptation (directed by Rob Reiner). The character Annie Wilkes has an extremely wayward disposition. Our initial impressions of Annie (played by Kathy Bates) is that she is lonely and a bit of bookworm (towards Paul Sheldon Novels at least), but towards the end of the story we realise that she is dangerously insane and bipolar, who has a history of murders that she committed. 

The setting of Annie’s house is where a majority of the film takes place. The house is old and is decorated by doilies, ceramic animals and antiques, which could remind the viewer of the home of a grandparent. It is possible that Annie’s love of antiques could stem from the Misery novels as it is set in the 1900s. The house itself is placed off in a remote part of the mountains of Colorado, this makes the Annie’s character seem distant, from not only civilisation but also from sanity, this isolation may have added to her mental state towards the end of her life.

Many props in the film are silver; the knife, the typewriter, the gun, Paul’s wheelchair. The colour silver can be associated with feminine power; this can directly correlate with Annie’s character because Annie uses the pills to manipulate Paul and also because Paul is so weak she has power over his life while she nurses him back to health.  The colourless energy of silver can lead to negative feelings of coldness this could be a pathetic fallacy towards the weather that proceeds while Paul is a held captive in Annie’s home.

The lighting often correlates with Annie’s mood swings. When Annie tells Paul she loves him, it’s the night time and raining. Although Annie does not show much violent anger in this scene she says “The rain gives me the blues”, she also pulls a gun from her pockets and says to Paul “Sometimes I think about using”. In this scene there is low-key lighting (a common trait in nearly all horror films).

Film Response – Misery (Directed by Rob Reiner)

3.5

Although I enjoyed the concept of the film and got a kick out of some of the gruesome parts, the film itself fails to deliver. It never uses its full potential to explore the psychological realms of depth that must be going through these two characters’ heads. For me the film doesn’t ask why she singled out Paul’s Misery novels, and it doesn’t even seem like she is some perverse mastermind with sinister motives to hold him there from the very beginning, this was something that bothered me greatly. Another thing I didn’t enjoy about this film is that the Misery novels made me feel like some outsider, I felt like I wasn’t in on this epic tale and that in actual fact does not exist, it annoyed me because these books are a huge part of the plot and the viewer just has to guess and fill in the gaps with scraps of information that is blurted out by the characters.

But there are some of good aspects of this film that I greatly enjoyed. For example, the scene where Paul and Annie have dinner they toast the Paul’s books, they say that they toast to Misery, (“To Misery?” [Paul]. “To Misery.” [Annie]), this almost has a comedic element because it seems like they are in fact toasting to mental discomfort and sadness instead of Paul’s books. I also found myself routing for the sheriff, I think this is the case because I find that he is a believable character. This was effective as I found his presence in the film became like some fresh air of sanity and hope, it was refreshing to know that people were looking for Paul. There was almost a strange contrast of the way in which people cared for Paul; Annie cared but was obsessed and kept him hidden away for her own self afflictions whereas the outside world cared and wanted to know where he was to ensure his safety.