Blog Archives

The 30th Anniversary of The Terminator

10/30/2014

By Scott Orris

                "I’ll be back, "claims Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 in James Cameron’s 1984 film The Terminator and indeed thirty years later the film is as iconic as ever. With the 67 year old Schwarzenegger set to star in next summer’s Terminator: Genisys (Hale, 2015), the iconic cyborg will again don his sunglasses in the newest addition in the series. At the 30th Anniversary showing of the film at LA’s Egyptian Theater, Cameron explained how Arnold’s 67 year old physique will make sense in the context of the film, “I pointed out that the outer covering (of the Terminator) was actually not synthetic, that it was organic and therefore could age. You could theoretically have a Terminator that was sent back in time, missed his target, and ended up just kind of living on in society. Because he is a learning computer and has a brain as a central processor he could actually become more human as he went along without getting discovered" (Yamato, "Terminator's James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd: Hasta La Vista to "Fear Based" Studio Filmmaking").”
             But why has The Terminator film itself endured despite the original film’s miniscule budget of only 6.5 million dollars (French 7)? I believe the original film’s themes are relevant due to the context in which the film was made. Coming out in the midst of the cyberpunk movement in the early 1980’s, the film’s dark noir type atmosphere, and action, are coupled with a cautionary message on the dangers of technology. The T-800 character still represents this chiseled form of mechanical perfection, yet still possesses the flesh of a human. Schwarzenegger was an Austrian body builder who was relatively new to acting, and actually the financer's pick for the role of the film’s protagonist Kyle Reese ( Keegan, "Schwarzenegger as Kyle Reese?! James Cameron on Terminator casting"). It was actually Cameron, who asked if he could play the role of the terminator (Keegan, "Schwarzenegger as Kyle Reese?! James Cameron on Terminator casting").
            In our currently tech driven world of drones, and, the film’s warnings about what could happen if we allow technology to progress faster than we're able to control it, remains just as relevant today. Chosen by the Library of Congress National Film register as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” the film will forever remain relevant in this fast paced tech driven world.

Works Cited:

French, Sean. The Terminator. London: British Film Institute, 1996. Print.

Keegan, Rebecca. "Schwarzenegger as Kyle Reese?! James Cameron on 'Terminator' Casting." Hero Complex Movies Comics Pop Culture Los Angeles Times. Hero Complex, 12 June 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.

Terminator. By James Cameron and Brad Fiedel. Perf. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1984. DVD.

Yamato, Jen. "‘Terminator’s James Cameron & Gale Anne Hurd: Hasta La Vista To “Fear-Based” Studio Filmmaking." Deadline. Deadline, 18 Oct. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.

0 Comments

Director Profile: ALFONSO CUARON

10/27/2014

0 Comments

Written by Anthony Watkins

It’s no secret that over the many years of cinema, US directors have dominated the screens with their films. Even today, the average US citizen could probably only name a few international directors—perhaps Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Encounters at the End of the World) or maybe Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim). One international director that has undoubtedly made a name for himself in the United States is Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron.

Early Life

Cuaron was born in Mexico City, Mexico on November 28, 1961. In his early years, Cuaron dreamed of becoming either an astronaut or a film director. Since his family encouraged education in the arts, Cuaron soon fell in love with film (Biography). Upon receiving a camera for his twelfth birthday, Cuaron began filming almost everything he saw. He loved the cinema so much, he would even trick his mother into thinking he was going to a friend’s house and instead go to the movie theater. After being rejected by the Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica film school due to his young age, Cuaron attended the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematograficos. It was at this school he met future directors Luis Estrada, Carlos Marcovich and his future collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki. His time at the school was cut short, however, as he was expelled for producing a film that caused controversy among the teachers (IMDB).

After having his first son, Cuaron, thinking his chance of being a film director was over, started working in a museum to sustain his family. One day, a visitor to the museum named Jose Luis Garcia Agraz arrived and offered Cuaron a job as a cable person on La Vispera (1982). Cuaron accepted and soon found jobs as an assistant director for several films (IMDB).

First Feature Film

After working as assistant director for several years, Cuaron desired to move on and work on a feature film. With the help of his brother, Cuaron wrote and directed his first feature, Love in the Time of Hysteria (1991). The film became a box-office success and gave Cuaron some credibility in the film industry.

Eventually, Academy-Award winning director Sydney Pollack invited Cuaron to Hollywood to shoot a film. However, the project never got off the ground and was soon cancelled. Nevertheless, Cuaron stayed in Los Angeles. A short time later, Pollack called again and invited him to shoot an episode of the series Fallen Angels (1993). Cuaron accepted and thus landed his first job in the United States.

In 1995, Alfonso signed a contract with Warner Brothers and directed his first Hollywood film, A Little Princess. Although the film didn’t do well commercially, it received two Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration. Three years later, Cuaron would direct a remake of Charles Dickins’ classic novel Great Expectations. Unfortunately, the film became a nightmare for him and was not well received by audiences or critics.

Y Tu Mama También (2001) was Alfonso Cuaron's first hit and breakthrough film.

After Great Expectations, Cuaron founded Anhelo Productions and Moonson Productions. Anhelo’s first film, Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001), became the breakthrough for Cuaron’s career. The film became the highest grossing movie in Mexican box-office history and became one of the top foreign-language films in the United States. It was for this film Cuaron was nominated for his first Oscar, for Best Original Screenplay (IMDB).

Judging from his recent success, Warner Brothers hired Cuaron to direct the third installment in the box-office smashing Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Like its predecessors, the film became a global hit and added to Cuaron’s growing resume. His next project was the Science-Fiction drama Children of Men (2006), a film whose story centers around a future world where all women have become barren. The film was another huge success for Cuaron and was nominated for three Oscars (Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Achievement in Film Editing).

Cuaron's Children of Men (2006) is set in the year 2027 and focuses on a man (Clive Owen) who agrees to help transport the only remaining fertile woman in the world.

After Children of Men, Cuaron spent four years working on his next project—the Science-Fiction masterpiece Gravity (2013). The highly suspenseful and riveting film tells the story of an astronaut named Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) on her first mission aboard the space shuttle Explorer. After a Russian missile hits a satellite, the ensuing debris destroys the shuttle, leaving Stone and fellow astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) adrift in outer space. The film was a box-office smash, grossing over $55 million in its opening weekend and over $274 million domestically. Warner Brothers even went as far as re-releasing the film in theaters a few months later due to its immense success. The film was also universally acclaimed by critics and drew an astounding 10 Oscar nominations, winning 7—including Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron, making him the first Mexican director to win an Oscar.

Cuaron's Gravity (2013) is regarded as a Science-Fiction masterpiece: combining breath-taking visual effects (that many critics call at least a decade ahead of their time), sharp direction, strong metaphors of rebirth, human trials and will to survive, and philosophical themes.

Current Work

Recently, Alfonso Cuaron directed several episodes of the TV series Believe (2014). He is also currently working on a screenplay for A Boy and His Shoe.

Trademarks

Cuaron is known for using an almost continuously moving camera in his films, and hardly ever resorts to using static shots. He typically uses hand-held cameras to give a jarring, documentary-like effect to the film, as he does in Children of Men. He is also highly known for using long shots (or long-takes). Children of Men and Gravity are prime examples of this. Gravity contains only a total of 156 shots (an astonishingly small number for most action films) with an average shot length of 45 seconds. The opening shot lasts for about 11 minutes—a length unheard of in Hollywood films. Finally, Cuaron loves to employ wide-angle lenses to produce wide shots (also called long shots). This is also highly and expertly utilized in the space environment in Gravity.

Works Cited

IMDB. 2014. 25 Sep. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com>.

“M. Night Shyamalan.” The Biography Channel. 2014. 25 Sep. 2014. <http://www.biography.com/people/alfonso-cuarón-21377605>.

0 Comments

Plumbing The Depths of Dark Water

10/25/2014

2 Comments

Written by Steven Collier

I’d be remiss to allow the entire month of October to pass without examining at least one Japanese horror film. This niche genre really took off with the release of Ringu (Nakata, 1998). Its captivating story of a cursed VHS tape somehow connected with audiences the world over. It made huge inroads for its genre, and even started the trend of American studios simply remaking foreign franchises as new localized releases. Throughout the early aughts, Americanized Japanese horror films became commonplace. Who doesn't remember titles like The Ring (Verbinski, 2002), The Grudge (Shimizu, 2004), Dark Water (Salles, 2005), Pulse (Sonzero, 2006), or One Missed Call (Valette, 2008)? Each of them was a direct adaptation, which many would argue lost something in the translation. Perhaps, none so much as Dark Water. And that's what I'd like to talk about tonight. So please join me as I dive into its oft underrated source material: the Japanese gem called 仄暗い水の底から From the bottom of Dark Water (Nakata, 2002).

On a purely narrative level, Dark Water shares a lot of similarities with Nakata's earlier movie: Ringu. Both tell a story about the vengeful ghost of a creepy child with long, black hair and how said ghost goes on to mercilessly torment seemingly innocent bystanders. However, unlike Ringu, Dark Water actually manages to transcend the traditional conventions of the horror genre by creating a multifaceted work of psychological horror, rife with powerful visual metaphors and an underlying message that is all too chillingly based on very real terrors. Comparing Dark Water to its predecessor is akin to likening The Shining (Kubrick, 1980) to House On Haunted Hill (Castle, 1959), as sharing a genre's themes does not equate to sharing unfathomable depth.

The plot of Dark Water follows Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki), who is embroiled in an exceptionally ugly divorce and desperately fighting to maintain custody of her young daughter, Ikuko (Rio Kanno). Her estranged husband is using Yoshimi's childhood history of psychiatric treatment, received for trauma she suffered from her own parents' negligence, as evidence that she is unfit to raise their child. Short on money and desperate to forge a new life, Yoshimi moves into the shoddy Apartment 305 with her daughter, despite a small ceiling leak which the management refuses to acknowledge. The day they move in, Ikuko discovers a bright red courier bag on the roof, with the name “Mitsuko” emblazoned upon it. Yoshimi makes her daughter turn it over to the supervisor for the lost and found.

Mysteriously, the red bag soon reappears in the possession of Ikuko. Yoshimi is disturbed by this, and discards of it, only for it to reappear time and time again. Eventually, Ikuko begins to have visions of the bag's owner: Mitsuko, a soaking wet girl in a yellow raincoat. Ikuko begins to draw pictures Mitsuko in school. This causes a concerned teacher to inform Yoshimi that Mitsuko used to live in their apartment building and even attended the same school as Ikuko, but that she went missing two years earlier, while under the care of neglectful parents. This only furthers Yoshimi’s resolve to discard the bag once and for all.

As Yoshimi’s agitation worsens, so does the leak in their ceiling. What started as a small water stain, rapidly spreads into a massive, molding expanse that begins to dribble increasingly. Within a matter of days, it looks as though a small rain shower is occurring within Apartment 305, leaving the audience to wonder what will come crashing down around Yoshimi first: her ceiling or her life.

Water is a motif constantly represented throughout Dark Water. Aside from the ever-spreading ceiling leak, the world of Dark Water is covered in a nigh omnipresent deluge. Whether it’s a flashback showing Mitsuko staring out at a downpour as she pathetically waits for her parents to pick her up from school, or regular shots of Yoshimi walking past an overflowing drainage canal on her way to and from work, there is no escaping the storm. What I'm trying to convey is that the film's imagery isn't exactly subtle. I contacted my friend and a professional Japanese Scholar, Laura Parker, about the symbolic significance rain holds in Japanese culture. She responded that it essentially means the same things as it does in the west: it's gloomy and wet. However, she went on to say that it was no coincidence that Yoshimi resided in apartment 305, since that would mean the leak originated in the floor above-the fourth floor.

Laura then went on to explain that in Japanese writing the character for the number four looks remarkably like the one used for death. In their culture, it is a profoundly unlucky omen. As such, there are very few buildings in Japan that technically have a fourth floor, much like American buildings omit a thirteenth floor. Armed with this information, Nakata's movie made far more sense, as its metaphors became all too clear.

Dark Water is indeed the story of people haunted by ghosts, just not necessarily the usual spooky, dead kind. No, it is very much the story of people haunted by ghosts of their past. The water dripping from Apartment 405 is a brilliant visual metaphor for the anxiety, pain and separation that progressively saturates the relationship between Yoshimi and Ikuko as the divorce proceeds. It is a growing stain upon the idyllic household that Yoshimi is desperately struggling to maintain. And the all-pervasive precipitation is a literal as well as figurative veil, representing the emotional walls dividing its characters. When Yoshimi or Ikuko looks out a window, they are looking for one another, trying to keep each other in sight. But, despite their best efforts, their gaze cannot pierce the impenetrable curtains of water.

When our protagonists finally do confront Mitsuko, the ghostly apparition of a long abandoned child, the battle of Yoshimi and Ikuko is meant to be far more internal than it may initially appear. Both see themselves in Mitsuko's soggy visage. Ikuko beholds the individual she fears she is becoming, a child neglected, left by both of her parents to die. Yoshimi sees it as a dark reflection of her own childhood, a dead, tormented thing which she has spent her entire adult life suppressing.

Rewatching Dark Water with this understanding made its ending infinitely more poignant and terrifying. To say more would spoil a chilling, atmospheric tale that brilliantly illustrates how the sins of the father (or mother) invariably result in the decay of their offspring. Even if you are not a horror fan, Dark Water is wholly worthy of your attentions. Nakata’s masterpiece drips with suspense, while flooding the screen with rich visual metaphors which will give you plenty to ponder and discuss, long after you resurface from its depths.

2 Comments

Chasing Amy: Fincher Finds Himself in Gone Girl

10/22/2014

1 Comment

Written by Steven Collier

If you lived through the 90's, then you are already familiar with David Fincher. His cinematic influence was inescapable during that bewildering decade. Like many other directors of the era, Fincher was yanked into the limelight as an up-and-comer who could save a project mired in development hell. For Fincher, his golden ticket was Alien 3 (Fincher, 1993). And while it was considered vastly inferior to its predecessor in every way, it still made enough box office to give Fincher some much-needed leverage in Hollywood. He rather successfully parlayed this to go on to direct the highly vaunted Seven (Fincher, 1993) and Fight Club (Fincher, 1999).

By the dawn of the new millennium, Fincher was poised to become one of the great directors of the aughts. However, that's when he stumbled. For a long time, he steadily released a string of movies that garnered only tepid reception. And lo, in the year of our Lord two thousand and eight, Fincher arose from the depths with a vengeful roar entitled The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Fincher, 2008), and then went for a one-two punch, with a devastating follow through called The Social Network (Fincher, 2010). After a decade spent in relative obscurity, Fincher was back on top. He wasted no time in using his regained star-power to seize the helm of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher, 2011), based upon the controversial, best-selling novel of the same name.

Now why do I bother to bring all of this up? Because today we're going to visit Fincher's latest movie: Gone Girl (Fincher, 2014). Regrettably, Gone Girl is an extremely difficult movie to review out of context. It's a film about intrigue, deception, and constant plot twists. So much so, that it would be impossible for me to detail even its first half hour without giving away some fairly major spoilers. However, in context, the matter is completely different. Fincher is the director for making psychological thrillers for a casual audience. One has only to glance at his afore mentioned filmography to see what I mean.

Fincher has a formula, and it's an exceptionally good formula, which is he cherry picks scripts and adaptations that tend to have a major reveal, a huge twist. He then structures the rest of the movie around that pivotal moment. This doesn't make him a bad director by any means, but one has only to rewatch most of his movies to realize how the bulk of his films are essentially padding. It's a cinematic magic trick, and once you already know the trick, most of the wonderment is lost. I would argue that this holds especially true of Gone Girl, which is well shot, but features little visually that would have me coming back for a second screening.

The same holds true of the writing. I'm already going out of my way to avoid detailing the plot in any real capacity, to better allow our readers the chance to get the most out of this movie. So, I will keep this brief:

On the day of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) returns home to find that his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) is missing. What starts out as a missing person's case quickly escalates into a tale of national intrigue that threatens to destroy everyone involved.

With that established, I don't think I'm ruining anything when I say that Gone Girl's narrative demands more than a little suspension of disbelief. In its attempt to reach a resolution, it resorts to several cheap cop-outs and at least one major deus ex machina. However in all likelihood, you won't notice any of these, due entirely to the movie's undeniable strength: pacing.

Gone Girl is a tightly coiled spring of a movie, filled with constant turns and always surging with a crushing tension, just waiting to erupt. This is a movie that will have you on edge of your seat. You will cringe. You will not be able to look away. And before it's over, you will be awed by the horror it instills. However, much like Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) before it, the impact of Gone Girl's story will depend entirely upon how little you initially know to expect.

This is not to say that Gone Girl doesn't have anything else going for it. Its cast's performances are universally masterful. Although, I would argue that Carrie Coon especially dominates every scene fortunate enough to include her. Similarly, the score created by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross fosters an appropriately haunting ambiance, constantly manipulating the audience, while seldom really making itself known. Gone Girl is a quality production on every level.

So please, by all means watch this movie. Watch it, and do nothing else. Do not read the reviews. Do not talk to your friends about it. Do not look at any trailers. Just watch it, and hang on for dear life. Because Gone Girl is a terrifying thrill ride packed with more scares than anything else you'll see this Halloween season. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.

1 Comment

If You Vote For Me, All Your Wildest Dreams Will Come True

10/21/2014

0 Comments

Written by John Snyder

Napoleon Dynamite (Hess, 2004) is a story that portrays social misfits authentically and, in spite of unlikely odds, gives them victory. This is done by creating protagonists with unique contexts, making good use of the elements of visual storytelling, and by having each major character deal with and overcome their own flaws and foibles.

Great efforts are made to establish the uniqueness and depth of Napoleon (John Heder) and his cohorts. Unlike many other “teen” films and TV shows that take place in high school (pretty much anything on Nickelodeon or the Disney channel), Napoleon, Pedro (Efren Ramirez) and Deb (Tina Majorino) are not set apart from the crowd by an intelligence that makes them socially awkward, but rather because they seem unaware of or uninterested in conforming to social norms. Even though Napoleon tells some tall tales to make people think he’s tough and masculine, the tales he tells are not really believable, and are definitely not “normal.” Despite these attempts to prove his masculinity, Napoleon is not afraid to express himself through both visual art and dance, which earn him some snickers from the alpha males at his school. The other characters also make decisions and pursue actions that, while not counter-cultural in themselves seem very unlikely or unexpected for the character’s context (Pedro being the new kid from Mexico) or the manner in which the pursue it (Deb selling key chains door to door).

The décor and costuming chosen for this movie also deepen the characters’ authenticity. The items we see in the Dynamite household suggest eccentricity, such as a twenty-foot corded phone that enables Napoleon to talk outside and a large bobcat skin hanging on the living room wall (which perhaps inspired his tales of wolverine hunting in Alaska). In Pedro’s house, we see an abundance of Latin American Catholic icons, including prayer candles with pictures of the “Holy Santos” that adorn the edge of his bathtub. Additionally, his bolo ties and signature mustache make him stand out culturally and visually from the rest of the Idahoan crowd. Contrasting Pedro’s appearance, Napoleon has a thrift store wardrobe, with shirts sporting horses, wolves, helicopters and palm trees, while most of his classmates wear polos or other nondescript shirts. This probably has more to do with Napoleon’s economic status than an esoteric fashion sense, but it definitely says something about his ignorance of his culture’s expectations (this is further contrasted by his choice to buy a suit modeled on a female mannequin for the dance). Deb’s dynamic hairstyles, fanny pack and homemade prom dress, contrasted with the preppy Summer (Haylie Duff) and Trisha (Emily Dunn), reveal her character to be less concerned about the politics and drama of high school and more so with creativity and practicality.

The challenges that arise for each character are compelling in the context of their lives and personalities. Like real life, each of the characters has some kind of flaw or quirk that complicates their relationships with others. Napoleon, for instance, makes up stories about hunting wolverines and his prowess with a bō staff in order to impress people. He uses these stories as a form of escapism, to mask the fact that he frequently gets beat up by Randy (Bracken Johnson), has to deal with his older brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) and doesn’t have anyone with whom to play tetherball. This distance between his fantasy and reality is something he deals with throughout the story until he finally overcomes it in the climactic dance sequence. Napoleon does not appear to have planned to dance in front of the whole school, and was doing it mostly because he and Pedro didn’t know they needed a skit to follow his campaign speech. It was a spontaneous “follow-your-heart” moment, revealing his loyalty and friendship, and allowing his friendship with Deb to be repaired, which had become strained due to the scheming of his uncle Rico (Jon Gries). It also gave him the affirmation from his peers that he had been seeking, so that he no longer had a need to tell lies to make himself feel strong. Similarly, Pedro battles and overcomes his alienation from the dominant culture, becoming the class president of the school he just started attending, and Deb overcomes her loneliness and insecurity resulting in and by way of being accepted into Napoleon and Pedro’s circle of friendship. None of these characters’ paths came without setbacks, and in fact, Napoleon Dynamite does a much better job of depicting the disappointment and strife that come with non-conformity than do those misinterpreters of Robert Frost who think the road-less-traveled is paved with gold (or paved at all). But it is in the uncertainty and unlikelihood of their quest that makes the victories all the sweeter.

Whether it involved drawing posters, dancing, offering protection, sharing tater tots, taking glamor shots or making do-dangle key chains for class-election favors, these three outsiders proved to the world that they could use what skills they had to band together and thrive in a place where they didn’t fit in. And that’s the message Napoleon Dynamite offers to its viewers—that conformity is not required for all your wildest dreams to come true.

0 Comments

Inside Look: The Story and Cast of The Sixth Sense

10/20/2014

1 Comment

Written by Anthony Watkins

The supernatural genre has become extremely prominent over the years through films such as the Paranormal Activity franchise, The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013), Carrie (Kimberly Peirce, 2013), Devil (John Erick Dowdle, 2010) , and numerous others. The genre was effectively launched in 1973 with William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, which focused on a teenage girl becoming possessed with a demon.

One of the most celebrated films in the genre to be released in the couple decades is M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999). The film focuses on a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who has the incredibly unique and terrifying ability to see dead people. He ends up coming into contact with a child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who tries to help him deal with his “gift."

So what exactly made The Sixth Sense such a memorable and Oscar-worthy film? What separates it from the supernatural thrillers of recent years?

To begin, the storyline is original and engaging—something that seems to be harder and harder to come by nowadays. As is required of any film, the first scene is particularly engaging and attention-grabbing: a child psychologist named "Dr. Malcolm Crowe" (Willis) comes home with his wife to discover an intruder named "Vincent" (an old patient of Crowe’s) accusing him of failing to help him with his problem of hallucinations. Vincent then shoots Crowe in the abdomen, then kills himself.

The film shifts to a year later, where Crowe starts working with a new patient, nine year old Cole Sear (Osment), who seems to have the same issue Vincent had. Due to his failure with Vincent, Crowe is reluctant to help, but nevertheless decides to pursue Cole’s issue and work with him.

The Sixth Sense is a very character-driven film, and succeeds in part due to its unique and well-developed characters. In any film you need character development—for a character to change or transform over the course of the film and go through a “catharsis", which is an emotional purging of the main character. The film succeeds in doing this not only with Osment’s character "Cole", but with his mother's and Bruce Willis’ character as well. Furthermore, perhaps more than any other film in this genre I’ve seen, The Sixth Sense dives deep into the psychology of these characters—drawing the audience in (sometimes uncomfortably) close to them. This allows the audience to become intimate with the characters and make them relatable.

Of course even with well-written characters, The Sixth Sense wouldn’t have succeeded as well as it did without its incredible cast. Director M. Night Shyamalan wrote the screenplay having Bruce Willis in mind for the lead role, but due to the relatively tight budget of the film, didn’t expect to be able to get the high profile actor. Nevertheless, Willis was very interested in the project and jumped aboard almost immediately.

Bruce Willis was director M. Night Shyamalan's first choice to play the lead role in The Sixth Sense.

Cole’s mother was played by Toni Collette, an actress who impressed Shyamalan with her performance in Muriel’s Wedding (P.J. Hogan, 1994) a few years earlier. She noted, “I started reading it early in the morning and I did not stop and I balled my eyes out—it was the most beautiful, scary, spiritual real story and script that I think I’ve ever read.” Collette went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role as Cole’s mother.

The real breakthrough performance in the film, however, came from the youngest cast member—10 year old Haley Joel Osment. Shyamalan noted, “Cole’s role—it’s so difficult and so complex; it seemed like the most impossible task ever. And then Haley Joel Osment comes in and I’m like, ‘What a cute little kid, what a sweet kid’. So I said let's do the part…I was really beat—‘how many times have I done these scenes with these kids?’ I’ve heard my words just destroyed a million times with a million different kids and I was just so beat. And I just lean back and he starts the scene and it was like I had never heard the scene before…I never heard the dialogue before…it was a movie I didn’t write. It was just all of a sudden every word was perfect…I go ‘Who are you?’” Bruce Willis also commented on Osment, “He’s the most talented child actor I’ve ever seen…I mean I would rank him with some of the best adult actors I’ve ever worked with. He’s just immensely talented and pretty much unaffected by his talent and doesn’t really make a big deal about it, but he really is a good actor.” Osment’s standout performance as Cole earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, the second youngest actor to ever receive the nomination.

10 year old Haley Joel Osment, dealing with a very complex character in Cole Sear, gave an incredible performance as a psychologically disturbed child with the "gift" and sixth sense of seeing dead people.

Other areas that made the The Sixth Sense an aesthetically impressive film were its well-written script and smooth direction—both of which were performed by Shyamalan. The film’s most famous line, “I see dead people", (spoken by Cole when he confesses his secret to Crowe) is regarded as one of the greatest movie quotes of all time, and is currently #44 in the American Film Institute's Greatest Quotes. Directionally speaking, in order to complement his well-written characters, Shyamalan uses many medium-closeup and closeup shots to allow the audience to become intimate with the characters. He also uses shallow depth of field throughout the film with these shots to isolate the characters from the background and allow us to focus solely on them and their issues at hand. Of course what also made the film extremely memorable was its famous twist ending, an ending that left audiences completely shocked and wanting to return to the theatres to see more. Today, the ending continues to be regarded as one of the greatest twists ever put on film.

Below is an extremely poignant scene in the film: Cole decides to tell Crowe his secret. The closeup shots are heavily utilized here, and with good reason given the extreme importance and intimacy of the moment. Notice when Cole expresses the secret, the camera slowly dollies in to his face, revealing the inner terror he (and the audience) now feels. This is utilized in the same way when the camera switches to Crowe’s reaction, equally revealing his strong concern and terror. Enough credit cannot be given to James Newton Howard for his chilling score, which is sure to send shivers down your spine.

1 Comment

The Flash: A Brief History and Review of the CW's Newest Superhero Series.

10/19/2014

0 Comments

By
Billy Martel

This month The CW and DC Comics rolled out the latest installment in their new interconnected Television universe. The Flash (2014, Berlanti, Kreisberg, and Johns) is many things: a spin-off of The CW’s hit show Arrow (2012 – present, Berlanti, Kreisberg, and Guggenheim), a new adaptation of a classic comic series, and a remake of an old series that most everyone had forgotten (one that I count among my guilty pleasures). Since the project has had such a long and complex history, it seems only fair to acknowledge some of that before making remarks on the product itself.

Origins

The comic book character “The Flash” was first introduced in Flash Comics #1 (1940, Fox, and Lampert). At this point, he was just another “dime a dozen” superhero that the comics industry was pumping out in the wake of the success of Superman and Batman. Our protagonist Jay Garrick was a college student who fell asleep in his laboratory one day and breathed in "hard water vapors" that gave him super speed. He was designed to look like the Roman god Mercury, given super speed, and that was the extent of his character. Then in 1956, when Superheroes were becoming popular again, the Flash was reintroduced in Showcase #4 (1956, Kanigher, Infantino, and Kubert) with a new costume, backstory, supporting cast, and even a new name. This version became the character that we know today.

Now called Barry Allen, this new Flash started out as a crime scene investigator, who was working late in his lab one night when a freak bolt of lightning struck a shelf of chemicals in his office, causing an explosion that gave him superhuman speed. Being a fan of the original Flash, Barry decides to take up the name himself and become the new Flash. This in turn has become the plot of both live action Flash series' pilots. Though the new series is not technically an intentional remake of the old, there are enough intentional references made to show that the creators of this new series were at least aware of the former and took some inspiration from it.

The Flash (1990)

Most modern day comic writers think that the Flash’s origin story is a bit weak, saying he has no motivation to fight crime once he gains super powers. So both series have attempted to give the character extra motivation by killing a member of his family. In the original series, The Flash (1990 - 1991, Bilson, and De Meo), Barry (John Wesley Shipp) is prompted to use his powers for good after his brother, a police officer named Jay (in reference to the Flash’s 1940’s secret identity), is killed by a motor cycle gang.

The series was very indicative of the time in which it existed. It features a muscle suited Flash in a dark, yet brightly colored city, facing a new villain every week. The theme was written by Danny Elfman and the design elements very much inspired by the work of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher on the Batman movies. At the time, the Batman franchise was still in full swing; superheroes had to be stylized, but also dark, and angry. Television still worked on an episode by episode basis. Long running story arcs were uncommon, making writers focus on creating a new threat for every individual episode. Therefore it made sense for Barry’s motivation to be something short term. Bad guy shows up and kills Jay; Barry captures him and decides to keep on fighting crime - end of story. The reason why big story arcs were considered bad was that once shows went into syndication there was no guarantee in which order they would be broadcast.

The Flash (2014)

In the new series, following recent retcons in the comics (or "retroactive continuities," which refer to altering a story's canon without rebooting said story), Barry (Grant Gustin) is prompted to use his powers for good because of a long-running obsession with a ball of yellow light that killed his mother when he was a child and caused his father (also played by John Wesley Shipp) to be wrongly convicted of her murder. The series departs from the original in many other ways as well. It features a Kevlar inspired, tactical looking version of the Flash suit with heavily muted colors. The villains are dressed in normal everyday attire, and their powers are all directly connected to the Flash’s new origin story. Now the story is that the super-speed granting lightning bolt came through a portal to another dimension and also sent out an energy wave that hit several other people, giving them superpowers as well. The death of Barry’s mother presents a sci-fi mystery that the characters will have to solve throughout the course of the series. This is ideal as long-running story arcs are now the name of the game. Instead of syndication, most series get their second life in the form of online streaming through Netflix or Amazon or some other platform. Therefore season long stories are key to keeping viewers hooked enough to re-watch the show as soon as the full seasons are released online.

Once again the Flash is coming on the coat tails of a successful Batman Franchise. But while the 80’s franchise was about being stylized and angry the Nolan Batman franchise is about building a legend to hide insecurity. (for more about the Nolan Batman movies check out this article: http://www.cinemablography.org/batman.html). All of DC’s latest efforts have followed the philosophy that the characters that we see on screen are not the characters as we have seen them in the comics, but the characters as they really would be. The comics, they seem to say, are mythology; these are the real people who became myth through the legends people told about them. The dialogue is peppered with people telling the hero how great they will be one day, while our hero himself broods and worries about his self-worth, feeling in over his head. The music is heavily inspired by Hans Zimmer. The city is dirty and realistic looking. Everything is made to look as normal as possible except for the obvious sci-fi elements that periodically appear.

Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin in the episode of "Arrow" where Gustin first appeared as Barry Allen.

Of course the series is also a spin-off of the very successful series Arrow. So the series borrows a lot of elements from that show as well. After the lightning bolt strikes Barry, he falls into a coma for several months giving him the “you’ve been gone a long time” plot that made up most of the story in Arrow’s first season. Instead of starting off the series with Barry already in a relationship with his comic book girlfriend Iris, the series shows her in a relationship with a character who will probably become a villain later, again much like the romantic subplot of Arrow’s first season. There is also a cameo by the protagonist of that other series Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who tells Barry that he should become a superhero and essentially gives the show his blessing for all the Arrow fans out there, much like Patrick Stewart’s cameo in the pilot of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993 - 1999, Berman, and Piller) or Deforest Kelley’s cameo in the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 - 1994).

As I said the series is very indicative of the time for which it has been made. One might almost call it standard. The show's feel is that of a standard CW sci-fi action show. Smallville (2001 - 2011, Gough, and Millar), Supernatural (2005 - present, Kripke), even Arrow have all had a fairly consistent formula: attractive cast, a monster-creating machine built into the plot, a personal vendetta or mystery involving the death of a close family member, an estranged love interest, and of course a story arc with enough un-answered questions to last several seasons. The Flash also feels like a standard, post 2000, comic book adaptation: Kevlar inspired suit design, brooding, awkward hero, angry speech making mentors, comic relief that make constant references to the source material, an estranged love interest, and a story arc with many questions that will probably never be answered. Saying that it is a very “standard” show does not mean that it is not good; nor does it mean that it will not be successful. It just means that the series has been constructed on a tried and true formula which is very popular now. It is definitely banking on the popularity of comic book adaptations and the iconic nature of the main character to help it stand out from the crowd. From what I’ve seen, I think it has every possibility of success.

0 Comments

Flash Animation's Other Champions

10/18/2014

0 Comments

Written by Steven Collier

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how Flash is unique from traditional animation methods, as it does not have to be drawn frame by frame. I felt it was a decent overview of Flash's general role in cinema and considered the business done. So naturally, it would be that same week that this would drop:

The this in question is Animation vs Animator IV (Becker, 2014). It is a thirteen minute long, Flash animated short that's gone viral online. It's a mesmerizing cartoon that really deserves your attention, even if it isn't a theatrical release. More importantly, it's titular animation is drawn entirely frame by frame. This is eloquently demonstrated over the course of the wondrously meta narrative about a self-aware stick figure who finds itself in conflict with its mostly unseen animator. Throughout their battle the stick figure uses the same tools that gave it life (Flash Programs) to create its own allies to fight the animator. In doing so it also gives the audience a detailed look into precisely how Flash cartoons can be made in a more traditional manner: drawing figures one frame at a time.

Such methods are not at all uncommon in short subjects. Flash is more than capable of accommodating the process, even if it does offer time saving alternatives. Using a Flash suite, an individual can produce a brief animation frame-by-frame. One has only to look at the thousands of Flash shorts hosted on sites like Newgrounds.com to realize just how many amateur animators are constantly working on all manner of animated shorts. However, the demands of a feature length animation are, quite naturally, far more prohibitive, and usually beyond the skill of a lone animator.

Consequently, feature-length Flash animations of this sort are virtually non-existent. In fact after over a week of research, I can only find two movies that were drawn frame-by-frame in Flash: Dick Figures: The Movie (Skuddler & Keller, 2013) and Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss (Nibbelink, 2006). Dick Figures utilizes incredibly simplistic animations and was created by a team of professional animators, musicians, and sound technicians in less than a year. It's uniquely contrasted by Sealed with a Kiss, which was written, directed, and animated in its entirety by a solitary, former Disney employee over the course of roughly three years.

Dick Figures is a disjointed adventure-comedy movie, filled with pointless fight scenes, tired ethnic stereo-types, and scatological humor. It's very much a product of internet culture, which is evidenced by its characters' penchants for emoting by way of the memetic "rage faces" commonly seen on message boards. Despite its questionable intellectual merit, Dick Figures minimalistic style allows it to easily render incredibly fluid, complex animations. Visually, the film is mesmerizing, even if it usually looks like the animatic storyboards of a more ambitious project.

Sealed with a Kiss comes across as an imitation of the traditional Disney animated feature, replete with an all animal cast, musical numbers, and rewriting public-domain material so that it no longer features death, violence or anything else that might jeopardize its "G" rating. Technically speaking, there's no reason why you couldn't animate something like The Lion King (Allers & Minkoff, 1994) in Flash. However, it would not be an especially practical method. Flash is a convenient, if not especially exact, method for creating detailed frame-by-frame animations. Digital styluses still remain unweildy tools compared to the exact precision found in the fine lines of hand-drawn, pen and ink animations. Visually, Sealed with a Kiss does not hold up well against the classic Disney films it endeavors to replicate. Its characters' outlines are unusually thick, and the unshaded, digital coloration gives them an extremely monochrome appearance. Were this the only flaw of Sealed with a Kiss, it might still be a commendable movie. Lamentably, it's script is too amateurish to ever elevate the film above its visual limitations. However, as far as frame-by-frame Flash animations go, it is easily the gold standard. While it may lack the fluidity of Dick Figures and Animation vs Animator IV, Sealed with a Kiss is clearly a far more ambitious project, featuring fully rendered character models and backgrounds.

Now, neither of these movies can really be considered high-art. Dick Figures is virtually indefensible and even if I'm being generous Sealed with a Kiss still remains a deeply flawed labor of love. However, if you want an example of frame-by-frame feature length Flash animations, they are inarguably the current champions. While this is a sad state of affairs for this rather specific niche, remarkable short subjects like Animation vs Animator IV still give me hope that worthier contenders could appear in the near future.

0 Comments

Edge of Tomorrow: A Refreshing and Smart Entry into the Sci-Fi Genre

10/15/2014

0 Comments

Written by Anthony Watkins

Live. Die. Repeat. This becomes the new life of Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), a man who was forcibly entered into the battlefield against an alien race called "Mimics", who have begun taking over Europe. Completely inexperienced in physical combat and lacking any confidence, Cage is quickly killed by a Mimic. However, when he awakes, he finds himself in the same spot he was the previous morning: on a military base at Heathrow Airport under the command of Sergeant Farell (Bill Paxton). As he continuously lives the same day over and over again, he eventually encounters Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who reveals that she once had the same gift (or rather problem) he has. Joining her, Cage discovers more about the Mimics and why he received his power, and forms a mission with Vrataski to take down the alien race and save humanity.

The Story and Design of the Aliens and Battle Suits

With so many Science-Fiction films dealing with aliens over the years, it can be difficult to create an original screenplay with creative designs for the aliens. However, Edge of Tomorrow manages to really excel in both key areas. While the “time-loop” aspect certainly is not original (having been done most famously in Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day), Edge of Tomorrow manages to put an interesting spin on it. I don’t want to spoil the film for those of you who have yet to see it, but the time-loop element plays a vital role not only for Cage and Vrataski, but especially for the alien race. You walk away from the film asking yourself, “Wow, what IF an alien race actually had this power? We wouldn’t stand a chance.”

The design of the aliens needs to be praised for its uniqueness from the aliens we’re used to seeing (perhaps from Predator or District 9). These are lightning-fast, roaring creatures, not the slow-moving, screeching aliens from Alien or Independence Day. Again, I won’t go in-depth on it for those of you who haven’t seen the film, but the unique power the alien race possesses is especially creative and unique to the film.

A look at the design of the Mimics in Edge of Tomorrow.

Another strong element of the film was the creative design of the human battle suits worn by the military to combat the Mimics. These are intricately-designed futuristic suits that possess a staggering amount of firepower necessary to battle the aliens, as ordinary guns wouldn't match up to the aliens' strength and power. They end up effectively contributing to the mise-en-scene and story world by displaying the grittiness and violence of combat, while also displaying the future setting of the film.

A look at Emily Blunt in her battle suit.

Blend of Humor, Cast Chemistry, and Gender Roles

Something that always makes a Sci-Fi film fun and more entertaining is if the screenplay leaves room for humor. This is utilized to lighten the mood and temporarily relieve the tension in the film. Edge of Tomorrow again excels in this area. This is partly due to the great chemistry that emerges between lead actors Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt as they develop the mission to save humanity.

It should also be noted that this isn’t your typical Tom Cruise vehicle: in the film he portrays a weak, confidence-lacking individual who needs a female character (Vrataski) to guide him and train him so he can successfully defeat the Mimics in battle. Emily Blunt quoted, “In these male-fueled genres, it’s usually the woman who’s holding the hand of the guy and he’s running through explosions leading her, and I wanted to be doing the leading. This was the extreme idea of what I ever thought I’d want to do” (The Big Story). Alicia Lutes, in writing an article for Bustle, referred to Blunt’s role as “refreshingly and unapologetically feminist.” She noted, “This is very much counter to the age-old ideals about ladies being the constant, delicate flowers of emotional heart-string pulling” (Bustle). So Edge of Tomorrow also succeeds in challenging the norm of gender roles in today’s films and in society in general.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Edge of Tomorrow is a refreshing entry into the Science-Fiction canon, and (in my opinion) the most aesthetically sound Science-Fiction film since Rian Johnson’s Looper in 2012. Edge of Tomorrow, possessing great chemistry in its lead actors, is a well-written thriller that effectively blends Sci-Fi action and humor, and goes as far as speaking out about gender roles in films and society. This, combined with fantastic visual effects and alien design, makes Edge of Tomorrow a must-see film of 2014.

Works Cited

Cohen, Sandy. “Blunt reveals new toughness in ‘Edge of Tomorrow’.” Big Story. 4 June
2014. 11 Oct. 2014. <http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/blunt-reveals-new-toughness-edge-tomorrow>.

Lutes, Alicia. “Emily Blunt’s ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ Role is Refreshingly &
Unapologetically Feminist.” Bustle. 6 June 2014. 11 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.bustle.com/articles/26760-emily-blunts-edge-of-tomorrow-role-is-refreshingly-
unapologetically-feminist>.

0 Comments

Prisoners of Hatred

10/14/2014

0 Comments

C.S. Lewis states in Mere Christianity that “every one[sic] says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive . . . And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted by howls of anger.” In the movie Prisoners (Villenueve 2013), the story of Keller Dover demonstrates grippingly and graphically how difficult forgiveness truly is.

In the opening scene of the movie, we hear Keller (Hugh Jackman) recite the Lord’s prayer as a deer walks across the snow-covered woods. As he finishes the prayer, the camera zooms out to show him crouching next to his son Ralph (Dylan Minnette), who has the sights of his hunting rifle on their prey. As Keller says, 'Amen', his son shoots the deer, and the scene closes. His prayer was kind of like saying grace before a meal, and it is appropriate that the deer is destined for the Thanksgiving meal. In the next scene, we see the truck-ride home, during which Keller imparts some wisdom to his son--more or less the Boy Scout motto, “be prepared.” We soon see that Keller practices what he preaches and has a massive stockpile of survival supplies in his basement. He has made sure that he could survive, when disaster strikes. At the Thanksgiving celebration, one other important aspect of his character is shown when his friend Franklin (Terrance Howard) asks Keller what his favorite song is. He replies 'The Star Spangled Banner,' and leaves his wife to clarify that he likes Springsteen, poet-laureate of the blue-collar man.

From these opening sequences, we get the sense that Keller is the last vestige of the pious, hard-working, self-reliant “American” ideal, who does his duty to God and country, cares for his family, and tries to raise his son to be principled like himself. He is convinced that he is prepared for anything that life could throw his way. But then, in the middle of the Thanksgiving festivities, his daughter and his friend’s daughter don’t come back from outside, disappearing entirely. Keller quickly mobilizes the family and his friend’s family to search for them, and after they go to the police, he is determined to do everything he can until his daughter is found. When Alex Jones, an apparently mentally-unstable man, becomes a suspect in their disappearance but is subsequently released, Keller confronts him, and Alex says quietly to him “They didn’t cry until I left them.”

Because of this, Keller is convinced that Alex is the one who kidnapped his daughter, and because he doesn’t think the police are doing a good enough search, he tracks him down at night and kidnaps him. Keller takes Alex to a property that he owns and is renovating, where he ties him up and starts to interrogate and torture him in an effort to get the location of his daughter. His treatment of Alex escalates as the movie progresses, getting more violent and despicable as the search becomes more and more desperate. Still nothing Keller does gets him any closer to finding his daughter. There is a critical scene that illustrates Keller's descent. While sitting next to the torture chamber he constructed for Alex, Keller starts to recite the Lord's Prayer, but when he reaches “forgive us our trespasses,” he breaks down and cannot bring himself to continue, “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

In the action leading up to the climax of the movie, Keller goes to the house of Alex's aunt, with whom Alex had been living. Once there he finds out that it was actually her that kidnapped his daughter and that she and her now deceased husband have been “making children disappear” for years. She explains that it was how they would “wage war with God. [Making children disappear] Makes people lose their faith. Breeds demons like you.” She goes on to say that Alex had meant no harm to the girls and that he was actually one of their first kidnapping victims. After she injures him, promises to kill his daughter, and shuts him in a deep hole in the ground, Keller becomes aware of his great sin. His hatred and inability to forgive had led him to become the “demon” that Alex’s aunt had designed him to be—committing atrocious acts of violence and cruelty against an innocent man, who was himself a victim. Trapped in the hole, bleeding and despairing of all else, Keller can breathe out no vengeance, no violence, just a desperate plea to God for the life of his daughter.

The story of Keller Dover in Prisoners is an extreme one, but it forces us to face the radical difficulty of our faith and ask ourselves what it means to follow the one who told us to love our enemies--who begged God to forgive the people who were putting him to death. Like Keller, we can be the most righteous, patriotic and prepared people we know, but by refusing to forgive those who do us wrong, we become prisoners to hatred and go down a path that ends in our destruction.

0 Comments

<<Previous

Early Life

First Feature Film

Current Work

Trademarks

Works Cited

The Story and Design of the Aliens and Battle Suits

Blend of Humor, Cast Chemistry, and Gender Roles

Conclusion

Works Cited

Categories

Archives