And the winner is....

     Im not sure if we are going to be picking and discussing our favorite films in class on monday but i figured after all this blogging i should at least talk once more about the movie that I enjoyed the most this year.  So my vote for best movie we saw this year is split between Memento and The Atomic Cafe.  I know that neither of these films were the most symbolic or visually impressive movies we watched this year but as far as pure entertainment they were my favorite.  The Atomic Cafe gets my vote because i really just enjoy learning about that particular time in american history.  The two world wars and then the cold war are always my favorite part of whichever social studies class we are taking each year.  So seeing the atomic bomb from a different slant then the one presented in our history textbooks was entertaining, informative, and humorous: Three things that make for a very good film.  

   Now I know that many of you would advocate Runaway Train or in Mr. Bennett's case The Seventh Seal as the "best" movies we watched.  Personally, I liked Runaway Train but i don't think i could really appreciate  it as much because in the end i didnt agree with its message. As Mr. Ferrigno can confirm though, i did enjoy it enough to base my physics project on it. Two trains colliding makes for a fairly complicated physics problem and a pretty cool explosion.  The Seventh Seal was a bit too symbolic for me.  I liked the message and the visuals and camera work were both fantastic but it got a little slow at times.  As a product of 21st century society I can not stand such a thing.  Its not my fault really.  Ive been taught to find beauty in violence and explosions not a corny fight between good vs. evil.  Im joking of course and if i were to rank the movies The Seventh Seal would be near the top.  But only one movie we saw kept me interested for the entire length of the film.

        For me, there wasn't any point were Memento bored me, tried to preach to me, or attempted to become overly symbolic.  It did what movies are meant to do: entertain.  The movie industry is after all well, an industry.  Its main goal is to get people to sit down and watch a movie.  Yes almost every movie has some bias, main idea, moral lesson, or some kind of agenda but in the end making movies comes back to the almighty dollar and pleasing audiences.  This dooms many movies but it is also one reason that movies like Runaway Train were included in this film class.  They wouldn't sacrifice story line or dialogue for profit. And thats what made them great movies.  We may not have agreed on everything but thank you Mr. Bennett for opening my figurative eyes to these genres of film.  I enjoyed many of them.  I think some of them should never have been created. But hey, thats my opinion and if our blogs have enough of one thing its opinions..  But thats what made this class great. Its been fun guys and all in all id say weve been very lucky around here.  Nothing to do now but wait for orders from the authorities and relax. Until next time... 

milk, no uranium please

     Despite what my title would suggest, one of the things I didn't understand about the Atomic Cafe was its title.  I  do understand it sets the mood by showing that the movie is not completely serious but im not really sure apart from that.  Is it showing how we treat the whole thing like a game that we can just order whatever we want without consequence?  Although the movie has an underlying anti-war / anti-bomb message it is not told straight to you by a narrator.  When Mr. Bennett first said that i thought he meant there was going to be no speech at all, just visuals.  I think for a movie about atomic bombs visuals could actually be the only thing necessary, but in this case the words of people during that time was extremely important.  It was not just the words themselves but the context they were shown in that changes the message of the film.
    I also thought that the way and order that visuals were presented in was very interesting.  When we first watched the sequence of the couples falling in love and then getting married I didn't really think much of it.  It was interesting when Mr. B slowed it down and you could see the clear path of the ideal American couple. Apart from that scene, i think the single most interesting part of the entire film was  about the bomb experiments in the bikini atoll.  Ive actually never heard of this area until this week.  I found this description of the area and its history on numerous website but none of them cited the speaker : "Through its history, the atoll symbolises the dawn of the nuclear age, despite its paradoxical image of peace and of earthly paradise."
             That quote really symbolizes the paradox of the bomb itself and the madness associated with it.  I found this experiment to be fascinating and really a disgrace.  From the research I did and what was made evident by the the Atomic Cafe its inhabitants were unfairly robbed of their homeland.  They had know idea of the consequences of the United States experimentations.  Ive never heard about any of this before, yet its considered part of "the dawn of the nuclear age".  Its amazing what they don't put in textbooks.

Strangelove

     Today my mom came home from the library with a stack full of movies as she often does.  Usually they are romances, corny western movies, and other genres I'm generally not very interested in.  Today though i was pleasantly surprised when I was reading through the movie titles and one of them was our very own Dr. Strangelove!  Now Im not sure of the movies popularity outside of high school film classes but i was surprised when I found out my dad had been the one who recommended it because he had seen it before.
     All of this reminded me to go online and share my thoughts on Strangelove.  I must say i did enjoy the movie but I wish it had been serious rather than a comedy.  The movie is funny, but as someone who enjoys learning about history, and is fascinated by the Cold War, I would have liked to have seen the original serious version of the film that they tried to make.  The concept of the Cold War is really quite ironic though as Mr. Bennett pointed out.  The missiles we created would ultimately fail if they worked "correctly".  Its a paradox really.  I remember our A.P. World History textbooks titled the chapter on this era in world history as "The Bipolar World".  That title is certainly fitting as anyone over the age of about 55 can tell you.  Thats a reason that I've always enjoyed learning about the Cold War so much.  Its one of the only wars that really wasn't a war at all. It was a standoff with the highest stakes in human history.  It was a display of human madness, and ultimately the power of diplomacy to overcome conflict.  It was something that happened relatively recently and a conflict that really defines a generation of Americans the way our generation will always have 9/11.  Not that they are things to be proud of, but they are literally world changing events that we lived through (especially 9/11 because it happened in NYC).
      Because of the extreme seriousness of the Cold War it is often hard to see just how absurd it was.  Its a war that no nation could ever "win".  And I think thats the message of the film.  It is clearly an anti war movie and although it is a comedy it still has a strong political voice.  Although the people who produced Strangelove are not naive enough to think that all wars can be ended (because they have accepted the faulted human element that they constantly emphasis throughout the movie) they still make a call for peace in our still bipolar world.  

Filmography 2010

I was just surfing the internet like a good little teenager when I stumbled upon this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4dEWOB6THE          Im not supporting this youtube account or anything i just thought it was a very cool video.  Its a "trailer" that is made up of every movie from the past year its pretty interesting. Thought you guys might like it. Enjoy =)

Merry Christmas =)

I know its Christmas and to do anything relating to school would be considered nerdy.  But I watched a great movie today so what better place to talk about it...
    So the movie I watched today was "The Prestige" by Christopher Nolan who seems to produce every thriller I enjoy.  And this one was certainly no exception.  But I wouldn't say the movie was just a thriller, it was really a combination of many things including sci-fi, romance, and some kind of magical theme.  I know that sounds like an odd combination but its a tough movie to classify under only one genre.  I know these sort of movies appeal to you Mr Bennett  Example A: The Dark City.
   Anyway back to the movie.  The cast in my opinion is an amazing one including the likes of Mr Hugh Jackman (A legend), Christian Bale (also one of my favorite actors), David Bowie, Michael Caine (have to love the British accent, he is also the butler in Batman for those of you unfamiliar with the name), Scarlett Johansson  ;)  , and many others.  I cant really do justice to the plot by describing it on a blog.  Even when you watch the movie several times its a very complex plot to follow because they dont always tell you exactly what happened.  Thats really the reason I think I liked it so much.  It makes you think.   Its one of those movies where its completely open to what you think happens (like the ending of Inception).  Basically, the plot follows the lives of two partner musicians who are starting off their young and promising careers together. Their show is quite successful, and they both happened to be engaged to two beautiful young ladies.  But tragedy strikes, and its unclear who is at fault.  They blame each other naturally.  The magicians turn on each other, and spend their lives trying to out due their rival's show no matter the consequences. Now that may not sound like the most captivating plot ever but its much more complex than I could possibly hope to describe here.  I didnt focus on the symbolism or camera work of the movie as I was simply trying to entertain myself on a late Christmas night and this movie certainly served that purpose.  Perhaps I shall do that the second time around as this movie certainly warrants another viewing.  So in conclusion, I would definitely recommend it if your willing to pay attention and enjoy the movie, I think it will be well worth your time.  Anyway Merry Christmas everyone hope you had a great day =)

A Mement In Time...

The suspense of Memento continues to grow as the movie moves forward (or backward).  The plot of the movie is quite complex, but the real beauty of the movie is the perspective from which the plot is told.  The camera is of course our portal into Leonard's world.  We see what Christopher Nolan intends for us to see and in the order he intends for us to see it .  It is really questionable thought as to whether this adds or takes away from the film.  The black and white shots that cut the "action" of the movie into pieces are a nice touch.  I also like how each scene "starts" with the "end" of the scene.  This keeps you interested because you are asking what events led Leonard to his current predicament.  For instance, when he is sitting on the bathroom toilet with a bottle of wine in his hands, the viewer is curious and thinks, "  Is he a drinker? He says he doesn't feel drunk.  But why else would he have a bottle of wine? And why in the bathroom of all places?  Who's house is this anyway?"  And that of course brings us to the other interesting observation that Lenny doesn't really care where he is when he wakes up.  He follows his instincts.  He wants to shower. He showers.  Doesn't seem to give it a second thought.  He doesn't even bother to look outside of the bathroom.  Both Lenny and the audience are kept in the dark most of the time.  Lenny doesn't seem to always be doing so much exploring of his own so we  have no choice but to go with it.  So in that respect I like the chronology of the film.
      But I am still not sure if I like the entire film being shown out of order.  It makes the viewer feel confused and ignorant like the main character and this may have been Nolan's goal.  But this confusion can become a bit much.  It really is very hard to remember what happened when.  Even in class yesterday we were having trouble reconstructing the order of events.  But perhaps that is exactly what Nolan was trying to accomplish.
     Apart from camera work, the plot of the movie continues to develop and give us some explanation.  There are still many questions left on answered though.  Why is there a pick up truck with bullets in it?  Was there really a second guy in the bathroom the night  that Lenny's wife was murdered?  Who is trying to use Lenny and who is trying to help him? Who is Lenny always talking to on the phone? etc etc....            Also Mr Bennett I dont think you gave the class enough credit for pinning Natalie as someone who is using Lenny.  We all thought she was rather suspicious and I personally stated that she was behind this whole mess. Now I understand I have not yet seen the ending and dont know many key things, but thus far it certainly appears that Natalie is really at the root of all of Lenny's problems.  But i guess that's the point.  You can't trust your senses.  And the suspense keeps building....

Coming Attractions, Cold Cities, and Koreans

      Today's movie showing was certainly the oddest one we have seen so far.  Although The Dark City certainly contains all the aspects of Film Noir and is filled with symbolism, it goes a bit further in terms of violence, comedy, and sexual scenes.  This of course, is mostly because the movie was not produced under the Hayes Codes and is relatively new in comparison to The Asphalt Jungle.  The plot also seems to be a bit more complex and mysterious which  helps to build up suspense (something I felt the Asphalt Jungle was laking apart from the heist scene).
     Also, I had a question for you Mr. Bennett.  I was looking through some footage from old film noir movies and I noticed that many of the coming attractions for films during the 30's 40's and 50's are produced in a similar fashion.  The coming attractions often open with the producer describing the film's setting, main character, and sometimes a significant amount of the plot.  This particular one caught my attention : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE2e6FYjCQg      .  This technique doesn't just relate to film noir though, because if I recall Citizen Kane's coming attraction was the same.   So my question is why was this such a common technique.  Maybe its just because of the generation of films I grew up with, but I feel that there are certainly better ways to introduce your movie to the public.  I know its bad to give away to much of the plot in a coming attraction, but it certainly is more effective for building up interest in a movie.
     Lastly I wanted to challenge you on a comment you made in class not relating to film.  You were talking about the tensions in North and South Korea for a few minutes and you asked how the South Koreans responded to North Korean gunfire.  I believed that the South had responded with gunfire of their own on several occasions and said so, but you were sure this was not the case.  I wasn't ready to challenge you without any articles to back me up so I came home and did some research.  Many of the articles online confirm that the South did indeed fire back.  http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/29/korea.border.incident/index.html  < this article from CNN states that the south responded with three "warning" shots of their own.  Im not sure if this is the exact incident you were referring to though because there has been several recently. While I understand that these shots weren't the complete military retaliation you wanted to see, any open fire on another nation is always significant, and even more so when those countries have such extremely high tensions towards one another.