Kung Fu Hustle

When I first saw this movie a while ago, I wasn't too thrilled or impressed but this time around I thought it was hilarious. I definitely enjoyed the east meets west feel to it and the sort of cartoonish feel. It really reminded me of Who Framed Roger Rabbit meets the Roadrunner cartoons I used to watch as a kid and it was enjoyable for nostalgic reasons as well. I was never into kung fu movies but martial arts interested me (I took tae kwon do for a week in middle school). I definitely saw the correlation between this movie and Bruce Lee movies and also the different fighting "styles", whether they are ancient or modern, some where referred to in this film.

I really saw endless references in this film, like many different movies such as The Shining, The Blues Brothers, and Gangs of New York. I saw a movie a while ago, The House of 72 Tennants, and the Pig Sty alley reminded me of that movie too. When Donut dies, he says "in great power lies great responsibility" and all I could think of was Spiderman. This is post modernism that I saw in this film. So many references to other films just for the sake of references. This really makes the film enjoyable (assuming you understand the references) and really does make it very accessible to a wider audience.

I kind of wish I had a reading here because I ran out of things to talk about but I guess this is it!

Mulholland Drive

I have seen a couple of Lynch movies before (Eraserhead and Blue Velvet) and I still didn’t have any clue what to expect. The first time watching this movie left me scratching my head at the end much like I did when I saw Eraserhead. In Eraserhead I couldn’t figure out if it was a real, post-apocalyptic world? Is this a dream? What is happening?? This is very similar to how I felt during Mulholland Drive.

At first I questioned the acting and I was saying, is this for real? It seemed so exaggerated which I think now in hindsight, was the point. I guess what I came up with in reference to postmodernism is the reference to all kinds of different genres in Hollywood. The reading calls Hollywood the “dream factory” and this movie felt like a very long dream to me. It felt like some scenes or parts went together but when you really looked at the movie as a whole, it was hard to make sense of everything that happened which is really reminded me of a dream.

There were scenes, characters, and situations that just did not fit into the context of the movie much like there are characters, scenes, and/or situations that happen in dreams that just are bits of really nothing at all. The scene that seemed to fit into the movie the least to me was the scene in the diner where the guy eventually has a heart attack. Maybe I am not thinking enough but that part just baffled me.

I saw many different parts of Hollywood in this movie. Many stereotypical characters and genres that come out of Hollywood I think were seen in this film. I have thought of many different reasons for all of these scenes, characters, situations, and the sequence of everything and I guess I am still pretty stumped. Lynch really is like no other director. I can’t remember ever thinking and being frustrated so much by a film or a couple of films from a director.

Heathers

Heathers was a pretty interesting movie that I would always catch bits and pieces of on IFC but I never actually saw the whole movie. I was excited to see this on the list so here we go.

Heathers portray the stereotypical high school pecking order and cliques pretty dead on. The jocks, the popular girls, the meanest bitch in the school, the nerds,
and that one rebel, outcast. I think watching this movie and being trained I guess to analyze most things we see in film really made everyone search and search for meanings and in my opinion, anything or any person that was presented in this film was just for the sake of presenting a situation and not a deeper meaning behind anything really. I was pretty fuzzy on post modernism but it was really cleared up for me in the class discussion or at least how it applies to this film.

I guess what I concluded with after reading the article and watching this movie is that most of the things that happen to most people in high school aren't that big of a deal. We deal with things and struggle with certain situations at this time but most people move on from things that happen to us in high school. I'm not taking away from the seriousness of suicide or anything like that. What I am basically trying to say is cliques we are a part of in high school usually only last until we graduate, we don't usually keep a lot of the same friends we had in high school, we aren't usually bullied all of our life or are at the top of the social ladder all of our life. We worry about how we look, what clothes we buy, what side of town do you live on, who likes you, who doesn't like you, and who you want to like you. These things that happen in high school are only as important as high school lasts.



I know this is late...so you don't have to comment if you don't want but i'd appreciate it.

Shaft

Who is the man that would risk his neck
for his brother man?
Shaft.

Who's the cat that won't cop out
when there's danger all about?
Shaft.

I think these lyrics really are dead on when you think about who Shaft is and what he stands for. A strong black man, looks out for his brotha’s, doesn’t back down from anyone, laughs in the face of danger and then gives it to the ladies and trust me, they can dig it. Shaft is the epitome of black masculinity. Everyone respects him and if you don’t you’ll either learn to very quickly or you’ll be in a lot of pain.

Shaft’s interactions with other characters showed that people did have respect for him. Ben, who was at one time Shaft’s friend, doesn’t want anything to do with him but once he sees Shaft is risking his neck for Ben and his men, he quickly realizes that Shaft is someone worth helping out. Ben may not like Shaft a whole lot, but knows that Shaft is loyal and honest to his fellow black men.

Shaft walks on a thin line. He’s got a manslaughter charge being dangled over his head for the incident in his office and he’s helping out a notorious gangster, Bumpy Jonas. These things still don’t seem to faze or slightly affect Shaft at all. Shaft is still calm, cool, and doesn’t miss a beat. His interaction with the other lieutenant shows that they have mutual respect for each other and even though their witty black and white humor might raise a little tension between the two, they still know they’re on the same side and share that bond. He knows even Shaft will risk his neck for him if need be.

Ironically Shaft who seems to have so much power and swagger can’t even hail a cab and you see racism and prejudice in action the late 60’s and early 70’s. Even Shaft isn’t immune to oppression and is considered by some as only a black man. As strong as he may be and the fact that he is a cop still doesn’t exclude him from hate or dislike from the still large group of white people who feel this way about African Americans.

Vanishing Point:

I had a hard time getting into this film but it picked up and I think the supporting cast is what kept me into this movie. Visually this film was awesome. I saw the cover of this movie and was immediately intrigued by that alone. I loved the shots of the open desert and the open road. It really kind of gave us a sense of where the “vanishing point” was and I guess Kowalski’s was the bulldozers plows. He hit the plows and that was it, he disappeared from the movie and nobody really talked about him or even his body at the end.

This film really played with the audience and how you find yourself watching this film and hoping he never gets caught. You meet this blind DJ, Super Soul, and he’s rooting for him basically trying to guide him and is sort of an ally on his journey to California. I really, really liked Super Soul and found myself rooting for Kowalski right with Super Soul. Kowalski is really just an anti-hero who loves speed and the open road. He is really just trying to get a job done and wants to do it really, really fast.

As the movie progresses you find yourself understanding Kowalski and his past through flashbacks. You see that he was once a professional driver of cars and motorcycles and was also a detective. He does want to do the right thing and loses his detective job for it. He really is just a normal guy, not particularly heroic, but he really is trying to do some good and always finds himself being screwed by society and life as well.

Kowalski enjoys freedom and the open road. The only way to really get to where he is going is by taking the interstate which was planned and is run by the government. I guess the connection that the interstate has to capitalism is the monopolization of the interstate roads. There really is only one interstate that is run by the government. In a capitalist society, people and businesses try to work as fast as possible and try to use resources and time as efficient as possible. Kowalski is using the open road and the time he has to deliver a car faster than he really needs to and really fits into society, whether we like it or not, in this aspect. Kowalski is someone who we see as free from society but really is he? He is using this “open road” which really isn’t open and is trying to travel freely but is really going anywhere and everywhere the government intends him to go through this road system. It is only a matter of time before the police, death, or both catch up to him.

Dr. Strangelove

During a time of nuclear proliferation, proxy warfare, the Hays Code, and a constant paranoia that any day your life, country, and world could be over with the press of a few buttons, Stanley Kubrick made one of the first films to not only question American society and economic policies, but also a great satire and a joke of this nuclear scare. Sexual references, hilarious names for political and military officials, and making a joke of American society at this time really questioned the “American liberal consensus.” While most World War II movies depicted America as a country that is good against an evil and corrupt enemy, Kubrick makes a hilarious point that in nuclear war, heroism is non-existent or possibly very, very short lived. Kubrick also uses key terms such as a “doomsday device” and the president’s lack of knowledge about really anything to drive home government’s ignorance towards how bad this policy of nuclear proliferation really is.
During the time of Communism, both America and Hollywood were paranoid about a breach of Communism in society and the industry. The idea of water fluoridation and the contamination of our “precious bodily fluids” were hilarious but also was a real American concern at this time. I found this political cartoon that expressed the extent of this concern:



America’s answers to communism and evils of the world were Capitalism, Democracy, and technology. They would “keep us safe” during this time of tension. What America failed to recognize was its own problems such as civil rights, and the eventual problems spending money on nuclear weapons that would arise. America and its government really seemed to have its concerns and priorities very mixed up during this time.
I had a hard time thinking of a current satire of the “War on Terror” but as pointed out by a friend of mine and a further thought of it, Borat is kind of a satire not only of the Iraq war, but on the Middle East as a whole. It points out some opinions that some American people really do have against people of Middle-Eastern descent and very bad stereotypes this war has been given against Middle Easterners.

Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage Shorts

Time and space are two things that remain completely constant in everyday life, but when it comes to film, time and space can be easily manipulated and the laws of physics mean squat. Maya Deren was great at this time manipulation, and her short film, Meshes of the Afternoon, showed how you could do these so easily with a camera and film. The scenes where she was crawling obviously stood out when it came to this kind of camerawork. It came to the point where I didn’t know which way was up, where she was in the staircase, or when it was going to end! I eventually ended up being like, okay...okay you can walk up the staircase now!! It was neat nonetheless. What I believe she was trying to say in her essay, which was oddly very literal and pretty matter-of-fact, was that through film, time and space can be manipulated. When you do this and when you slow film down the way she did, you can almost create something that wasn’t there in real time. You can create a whole new narrative, or a drama. You allow an event to become more fluid, rhythmic, and it can take on a sort of pattern. You allow the viewer to interpret this and almost create their own narrative. The physical act of slowing the film can affect almost every physical aspect within the film.

Stan Brakhage’s shorts were extremely fascinating to me. Window Water Baby Moving was extremely beautiful, just the lighting and textures (placenta shot was really neat and reminded me of a pomegranate for some reason) were very aesthetically pleasing. The way he cut from shot to shot really eliminated a narrative or a storyline and forced the viewers to just look. This also eliminated any sense of time. I guess if some watched this and kind of just blocked out most their preconceptions and thoughts or opinions they had about the birthing process, it may have been easier just to see this short film for what it was and not a film with characters or plot but as something purely physical, it may have been a little easier to swallow. I believe that these biology films we discussed were much more offensive to me just because I thought they were presented in the way that it was showing that women were only for baby-making, and this is their role which really, really bothered me. I would have rather been presented this in middle school. What I believe Brakhage is saying in his essay is an extension of Deren’s theories of camera manipulation of time and space. The way he put his short films together really takes the storyline and any context completely out of the picture and forced the viewer to just look and watch closely. Viewing events such as birth without any already known vocabulary or opinions on the matter would really help in an intimate experience of viewing, which I believe Brakhage wanted the viewers to have. He believe that slowing the film down could break down details and create some sort of “magic” in the sense that the camera and physical act of slowing the film can create a whole new physical reality.