Stage Coach versus True Grit & Stagecoach versus Unforgiven

Stagecoach versus True Grit (2010): Stagecoach in my opinion is a better film all around compared to True Grit (2010) because I thought that it was more interesting and had better cinematography. I realize that True Grit was filmed on better equipment and edited by all of the new technology we have in this decade but I think that everything has gotten too fancy and that the art of filming is starting to become less appreciated. (Although, I do like that it seems easier to pursue something in the film business as a job). I think that the Coen Brothers tried so hard to make the story seem real and they went too far. I like the simplicity in Stagecoach’s scenes of the open ranges of the west and their comical relief characters that made it seem like it wasn’t so bad to be in the stagecoach. I don’t think there was a comic relief character in True Grit and looking back that made the movie seem harsher. In True Grit you have the shared element of the story taking place in the time period of western cultivation and the good versus evil conflict along with Mattie Ross’s character driven to find Tom Chaney to avenge her father. But you also see Cogburn as a weak character initially because he is either drunk, in court, or in the back room of a run down place in town sleeping. I had a hard time believing that he was the main character in the story because Mattie seemed to be the hero since she did what she needed to do to get Tom Chaney herself. I didn’t realize he was till just before I started writing this and remembering that he saved Mattie’s life by carrying her back to civilization to heal her snake bite wound.

Unforgiven versus True Grit (2010) is hard for me to compare. I think that they are very similar movies and I didn’t especially like either one of them. Both I think were desperate attempts to make western movies more popular in the current culture. I think that Unforgiven is more revisionist than True Grit because in Unforgiven the women characters have larger roles than in True Grit, the only woman I distinctly remember is Mattie in her young and old self. There are not very many very violent scenes in either of the movies, I think that people now would rather see a character save someone else’s life or stand up for someone rather than seeing fight after fight. Unforgiven definitely did have more fighting than True Grit, the bar scene at the end of Unforgiven made me feel very uncomfortable. This fight, however, is why I think that Unforgiven is revisionist. Along with how Little Bill is trying to settle down and make this town larger and he ends up dying, which is symbolic of how the movie criticizes expansion of civilization. In True Grit, it can be either classic or revisionist depending on what you are comparing it to. This is definitely more of a classic western because they are out on the frontier looking for Tom Chaney. Also the characters don’t have different personalities, they are the same, and some what boring group of “cowboys” that all are angry about trying to find an enemy… big whoop, this story was boring. But both are definitely westerns be cause of the good, Mattie or Will, versus evil, Chaney or Cowboys/ Little Bill, and because Mattie and Will are looking for justice. Along with the obvious, both stories are set in the open plains of the west.

As I have mentioned in both of the earlier paragraphs I think that True Grit is a poor mixture of both the revisionist and the classic western and it made the movie un-enjoyable. In my opinion there is a fine line between what makes the movie become both types of westerns. There is such a distinction of how the two are separate that it makes me sad that the Coen Brothers didn’t choose one of them to follow, I think that because of this indecision it made the movie less enjoyable and boring. I felt like we were sitting watching the dessert and some small fights of power between the 3 people traveling then we randomly find the enemy then he’s dead and the movie is over. I loved the setting, the cinematographer gets some credit for making the movie look beautiful but thinking about the plot I don’t find any interest. I don’t think that the Coen Brothers intended the movie to be able to be analyzed by both perspectives. I think they should have taken the revisionist rout and made Mattie the hero of the story. 

Online Film Analysis

Clip A:

What I thought was the most relevant and came up the most in the clip was the axis of Action, specifically around the round card table. I felt that it followed the rule because I didn’t feel like the people were out of place. The lighting at the table is hard because the light seems to come from one centralized place. This part of the clip also has a deep focus because to help create the setting of a casino they had “dancers” in the background while the characters were in the foreground. I could instantly tell that Brad Pitt was the “leader” at the table because when he was on the screen he was shot at a low angle giving the audience the idea that he has authority. Most, if not all of the editing was cuts. In regard to dimensions, when Brad Pitt is drinking at the end of the scene in the back room he finishes drinking at the bar outside which I believe is graphic relation. 

Clip B:

In this clip the sound started out diegetic. It had the gun shot, people talking, the carousel music, people screaming, then when the fight breaks out on the carousel and the man offers to fix the carousel music starts to change and makes the audience feel the suspense of the outcome of the fight and wonder how the man is going to crawl under the carousel. This montage reminded me of the Kuleshov effect and the Bourne Ultimatum scene because the closer and closer we got to the outcome the faster the cuts would go by and the cuts went from the long shot of the crowd a medium shot of the men fighting to a close up of the woman screaming and it creates an understanding of everything that is going on while at the same time feeling a little jumpy. The perspective of the fighting on the carousel was zoom lens because the background would move and the camera itself didn’t. This also was a deep focus because you could see the bystanders in the background and the fighting in the middle ground and in the foreground you can see the horses hoof coming in and out of the frame. I thought it was interesting that Hitchcock didn’t use a high angle until the end of the clip when we already knew that the carousel was coming to a stop. 

Clip D:

The whole clip was a long take. When the axis of action changed the audience can see the movement as the steady cam followed various different people, the axis changed quite a few times throughout the scene and it fit very well into the long shot. There was music which was non-diegetic, it helped create the sense that the studio building was busy and bustling along with a feeling of suspense making me wonder why we are seeing all these different things. Also there was diegetic sound on top of the non-diegetic sound because the characters were talking. There is a deep focus for the entire clip as it is at a medium/long shot, not showing us the whole picture the whole time but seeing more than just the waist up in some parts. We can see what the setting is based off of the depth of the shots even though we are drawn to what the camera is following. 
Clip E:

In this clip the axis of action is followed well during the characters conversation. The shot is between a close up and medium shot, there is a negative space on either side of both characters which makes the room feel empty and makes the characters seem farther apart. The sound starts as diegetic with the harpsichord playing and their talking but then when he starts to imagine the opera he wrote the sound turns to non-diegetic as we start to hear a woman singing and cuts to the opera scene that he is thinking of. The woman singing is now diegetic since the scene changed and we see briefly a deep focus of the director in the foreground, the woman in the middle ground and the stage in the background. Then the clip cuts back to the room with the harpsichord and the sound is non-diegetic again since the audience can still hear the opera but can no longer see it. Then again it changes once the character stops reveling in his thoughts of the opera and is back to diegetic with the two of them talking again. 

Best Picture Nominee

Pre Writing

1.      True Grit:

·         Graphic fight scenes

·         Seems  to fit the Western category well

·         Make-up can do wonders.. That little girl in real life is so much prettier

2.      The Social Network:

·         Should have been called “FACEBOOK” or something with that in   the title

·         Interesting story

·         I don’t like Justin Timberlake’s character, but I like him

3.      Toy Story 3:

·         Hilarious but sad at the same time

·         Great movie for the whole family

·         Lotso Hug and Bear/ Trixie the dinosaur

4.      The Kings Speech:

·         Great story

·         Amazing setting/ scenery

·         I wish he didn’t have to stutter, but it’s funny when he swears silently to himself

5.      Winter’s Bone:

·         I didn’t need to see her cutting of her dads hands with a chainsaw

·         The actress for Ree did well at portraying her character

·         I wish I could go and help her with taking care of her younger siblings

6.    Inception

·         Confusing/ I didn’t understand what was or wasn’t a dream

·         The story between Cobb and Mal was really sad  

·         I liked that Ellen Page and Cillian Murphy were recognizable actors but then I kept picturing them in their other roles   

Ranking:

1.    Toy Story 3

I love little kid movies because they tend to have less violence and gore. I have always liked Disney movies especially. Toy Story 3 made me feel like I was younger again, not saying that I feel old, but I feel like everyone wants to be younger than they are. I don’t remember any major flaws in the movie. I think that the movie over all is one of my all time favorite movies, disregarding the limitations of the movies for this assignment. However, compared to the other movies in this assignment I believe it is best because I think that people of all ages genuinely like it even if they don’t admit it. In my opinion it is bound to be a classic, I’m not completely what is classified as a classic movie though. Toy Story 3 has can be interpreted to have so many different messages such as: trusting one another, respecting others, never giving up, sharing, caring, loving, and so many more. I love the “feel good” types of movies and that is why this outranks all the others, it is the only movie that I consider to be relatable to all ages and have a variety of good messages and lessons that anyone can use where ever they are in life.

2.    The Kings Speech

I really enjoyed The Kings Speech, I had wanted to go see it in theaters but I didn’t have time and I am glad we could see it! I didn’t expect it to be as funny as it was at times. I liked the balance of how there were very serious and sometimes stressful things and yet there was still the light hearted and happy times. Personally this balance made me feel like when I am stressed about something, like King George was stressed about his speech, I can always persevere and get through it, that it isn’t the end of the world or my life if something isn’t perfect. I have a hard time accepting that fact but I liked how I interpreted that idea from the events in the movie. Since this movie was about a real person I liked it even more. I like to assume that any movie I go to is something that is really happening somewhere. Sometimes this gets me into some troubling nightmares and I tend to be scared when I’m in a situation where I relate it to a movie scene that I have seen before. (I can’t do anything at night because of the Scream movies). I really liked Geoffrey Rush in this movie, he played his character well and the scenes I remember most are with him. However, I wasn’t able to take seriously the characters that were played by people who were in Harry Potter, I always have an issue if a person plays a very distinctive character in one movie and then in the next movie they are in I expect them to act similarly. (I find it funny that in Harry Potter Cedric Diggory dies who is played by Robert Pattinson and then he comes back as a Vampire which is undead being)    

3.    The Social Network

I didn’t like this movie very much; I didn’t think that it had a very good plot line or a good reason to be made. It is so high on my list because there was not a lot of graphic scenes and because I like Justin Timberlake, but I didn’t like his character in this movie. It is higher than the other three because I didn’t completely understand them and I don’t think I appreciate these movies, or any movie as much as I should, which is part of the reason I wanted to take this Art of Film class. I don’t understand why the mark Zuckerberg character is so socially awkward. I don’t know anything about the real Zuckerberg but I feel like he isn’t this socially awkward and I wish it wasn’t so exaggerated. The cinematography was wonderful however. I felt that the majority of the time the setting, the mood and the actions by the characters all made what the director and others within the movies making process were trying to aim for.

4.    Inception

The story was very intriguing but I had a hard time staying focused and with the movie, but I really liked Inception, maybe I should have placed it higher than The Social Network but I didn’t see this movie until after I wrote the previous paragraph. The editing and imagery of the movie was so intense and beautiful all at the same time. I loved how within each of the different levels of dreams that people go into the setting and feel would change since it is each different persons dream. I still wonder what parts were and was not a dream, but as I have been told it is purposely made in a way to make you think and challenge your previous thoughts. I still think that I have appropriately placed this in my ranking categories because there was a lot of action and fighting, which in my opinion is better than some of the gruesome things in True Grit and Winter’s Bone.

5.    True Grit

I love the story of how this little girl goes to avenge her fathers’ killer; I would like to think that I have enough spunk and enthusiasm to do the same if I were in her position.  I felt so terrible at the end of the movie seeing that she lost her arm because of the snake bite and I wanted to know more about her relationship with the Texas Ranger after they left him up in the mountains. I didn’t like the abuse that the women went through and I didn’t like the fig fight scene when the guys fingers are cut off, it made me want to stop watching the movie all together. I liked it better than Winters Bone because I could easily see the point and I felt like I could relate more to her than Ree in Winters Bone. I didn’t feel the same connect that I didn’t in the other movies I ranked higher. I have a tendency to judge movies based off of a few scenes that greatly impact me and I could love the movie but say I don’t like it because of one scene that bothered me.

6.    Winter Bone

Winters Bone was a very interesting movie and I liked to see a side that movies haven’t always depicted, the less fortunate and those who are struggling. I felt like the whole movie was shot in the same place and that the lighting rarely changed.  I wanted there to be something more unexpected to happen. I didn’t want to see them chainsaw off the hands of her father, that was unexpected, but I wanted the plot to thicken more. I felt that the plot never reached a climax or had a rise or fall but it somehow go to a good/ happy point in the end. I chose this last because of all of the other mentioned reasons. I can see that the acting was very well done and the story did have interest but I had the hardest time relating and that is one of the things that I believe can capture the audience and really change their perspective.   



My First Movie Review

BRAINSTORMING 
1. Funny
2. good movie for the whole family
3. great graphics
4. interesting plot
5. easy to watch more than once
6. can relate to characters well
7. Agnes is my favorite character
8. "It's SO FLUFFY!!" is one of my favorite lines by Agnes
9. Steve Carell is the voice of Gru
10. if you look behind Vector's house the stolen pyramid is hidden behind it painted like the sky
11. Unicorns are the best pets
12. Villains also have compassion
13. Pharrell wrote the rap in the beginning of the movie
14. Minions are by far the best part of the whole movie
15. "I'm sorry they don't send the monkeys into space anymore"


REVIEW OF DESPICABLE ME

In the last movie I saw, Despicable Me, I was pleased that the movie was just as funny as the commercials set it up to be. I really liked that as I was watching it in theaters and at home with my family that every person, regardless of age, was able to laugh out loud and seemed happy after they watched it. I also really like how animation has changed since I was little. I think its cool to see the difference between this movie and something animated that came out in the 90’s or even before. I have watched this movie at least 3 times in the last week! I don’t think I can get sick of it! I didn’t think of it when I was filling out the sheet the other day in class though. One of my favorite things to do with any movie when I watch it multiple times is see if I can notice anything different. The second time I watched this movie I saw in the background the pyramid that was stolen behind the villain Vector’s house. It was the same color as the sky and had clouds that didn’t move and the whole structure looked like it was made out of bricks. Another thing I love about this movie is how there is characters that are diverse in how they act and look so it is more relatable for everyone. Some of my favorite parts in the movie are some of the obscure lines that come up.  When Gru is having a flashback where he is in a cardboard cutout of a spaceship when he was little he tells his mom that he wants to go to the moon some day, she replies that NASA isn’t sending the monkeys into space anymore. Another one of my favorite quotes from the movie is when Agnes is holding her new stuffed animal that they had just won at the carnival and she shakes it and screams “IT’S SO FLUFFY!” I enjoyed that because I feel like when I was little I probably would have said that if I had won it… I did just buy a stuffed animal the other day and as I was carrying it around the store I continually repeated that to my mom, who now thinks I am crazy :P 

Minion Picture