Literary Aspects On "The Goonies"

                The Literary Aspects On "The Goonies”

   I chose to write about the literary points, and examples for the 1985 film “The Goonies”. I chose this category, because I found that there aren’t a substantial amount of films about pirates today, they are usually in books and novels.

  I know that there are movies that are about pirates, but this movie specifically is different than all the others. I think that the plot is quite different and very unique. They didn’t use the pirates as the main characters, in this movie all the pirates are dead, but they are still very involved in the story line. The adventure that they went on was very intriguing and it kept me glued to the screen.

   The story line was very similar to those of novels. I think that having the story of a group of outcasts going to find hidden treasure, because of a map they found was very novel like. This was and adventure movie and it had a lot of suspense and aspects about being brave in tough situations. I found that in books they usually show a lot of bravery. I thought that this movie was very prominent in doing so.

  This movie seems like it would also work very well, if not better as a book. I think that it would because, pirates remind me of a storybook theme. When the Goonies find the monster, and the underground world, it seems like its all a fictional story for a novel. The “monster” that was living in the house just doesn’t seem like a movie character to me. He seems more like he would be placed in a novel. I really liked this character though because I thought he added a different side to the film.

  This movie also used a lot of interesting langue (Spanish) which I though fit into the literary category. Spanish is a language that the pirates spoke.I thought that this was another good example of how words were written down and passes on by different cultures.

   This was a very good movie to write about literary comparisons from my point of view.

  

Dramatic Aspects Of The Film Super 8

            Dramatic Aspects Of The Film Super 8

   Through out the movie Super 8, I noticed a lot of examples from the dramatic point of view. In the movie, you see the characters trying to make a movie to enter the local film contest. They use makeup skills, wardrobe, pyrotechnics and props very well.

  When this happens, you hear them talk a lot about the production values, make up and camera angles. In one scene, they are trying to shoot Alice, and Joe at an old train station. As they are shooting, a train goes by and the camera crew of kids is yelling for them to get the scene for production value. By adding a train or something that would take a lot of money to order, or set up for your movie would be too much work for an amateur film like theirs. When they added the train crashes in the background, it really made the movie seem more professional. I thought that it would be very difficult for them to add that in  digitally because this movie was supposed to take place around the 1970’s era.

  The movie was very strong because they used makeup to make the zombies look truly dead. I thought that this compared to drama because when you are performing a play, you really need to accentuate their features to make them stand out. This movie was very sophisticated in this category of drama. I found that they used fake blood very well, and when they killed the zombie, it looked very real, just the zombie really died.

     I found the wardrobe to be very appropriate for each characters personality. When some one walked into the room, I could tell what their personality would be like just by looking at their outfit. For instance, the young boy Joe looked like he had an easy-going attitude. I could infer this, because he often ore baggy and neutral colored shirts. Usually easy going people fall under the radar and don’t generally stand out. This is why putting him in bright, or unique clothes would not make sense.

  When J.J. Abrams would use light pointed at the screen, it would create a very cool effect called a lens flare. They used this because it created an awesome picture in the end. I think this is like drama, because when they have plays on stage, they also use a lot of lights to make the actors and actresses stand out more. I thought that the usage of lights had resemblance between plays and movies.

This movie was a great to compare with other plays and aspects of live theatre. That’s why I chose the movie “Super 8” to review for the dramatic aspect of films.

True Grit movie review

                                      True Grit

I personally did not enjoy the film True Grit. I have never watched many westerns, but I know for a fact that they all have a similar plot line.

   The reason that I am so against westerns is, because I feel as though the whole movie is about rebellious, and drunk cowboys who travel by horse, and kill a mass number of people. 

   The movie true grit was followed these lines. Although one thing is, I do think by adding Mattie (one of the main characters) was a nice touch because she definitely adds a different outlook on your average cowboy. In my opinion she was the highlight, and or best feature that the director could have added.

   Personally, I truly admired Mattie. The way that she could negotiate a deal, and not back down at any cost is something that I could never do. She is very sure of herself, and is extremely driven, and motivated to complete any task given. If Mattie wasn’t in this film, I don’t think I would be able to hold my focus throughout the whole thing. She made situations just that much more interesting. 

  Going back to what I said about not liking westerns, I noticed that throughout this movie, there was a substantial amount of violence. One particular scene stood out to me that had a great deal of violence. It was when Rooster Cogburn, and Mattie went to the small cabin, there were the two men who had already occupied it. One of the men got disappointed with the other for telling Cogburn too much information, so he cut his fingers off and he slowly began to die, because he also was severely bleeding from the chest. Cogburn had shot the attacker in the head, and I found that part also very disturbing.

  There was another big problem with this movie. Usually in movies these days, the dialogue is very clear, understandable and a key point to a story line. However, this movie was quite the opposite. Cogburn mumbled and grumbled the entire movie. I understand that cowboys at this time lived in a different lifestyle, but I think the director should have made the accent half as intense of what it was, so that people can understand every word, and understand the movie better.

   Something really stood out to me in this movie and that was the music that they used. I found that with each scene they were able to capture it to the full extent. They could create suspense, sadness, bravery or pretty much and emotion with their soundtrack. The music took credit for making you sit on the edge of your seat during the intense scenes. 

    In the end, I think what I took most from this movie was how brave a 14 year old girl could really be. In the end, she lost her arm but still lives and eventful life, and still has the dream to never give up. I wouldn’t re-watch this movie but I would recommend it to people just for the sake of the character Mattie who I greatly admired. 

   

North By Northwest

                     North By Northwest (1959)

  The film North By Northwest was a very well done film. I say this, because Alfred Hitchcock has a way to pull you in and be very intrigued. You will have intermixed emotions through out his films. North By Northwest was a classic example of how he is capable of achieving these feelings.

   He used lines, and placing of objects to symbolize tension, or the beginning of certain events that are about to occur. I had this feeling of uncertainty and I wasn’t sure why. For an example, he was using a cluster of trees to create distance between the two characters in the film (Roger O. Thornhill and Eve Kendall). This was a scene in a movie where they hadn’t seen each other in quite some time and had a few topics that needed to be resolved. At one point, there was a diamond-shaped cluster of trees, and this one tree was the main focus of the frame. Roger and Eve were at the two corners of the frame, so you could tell that there was tension in the air. They later moved closer together, so that there was now only one tree left in between them, but you could still tell that there was distance between characters.

  The last movie that I watched was The Birds, which was also directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This movie I found very similar to North By Northwest, because of the similar lead roles. He always uses a very pretty, smart, independent blonde woman for the lead role. This was the character of Eve Kendall. I quite admired her, because I liked the fact that she was able to fend for herself, and do anything she would have wanted to.

  Another thing that I picked up on in Alfred Hitchcock’s movies were the abrupt and unfinished endings. At the end of this movie, I wasn’t sure if he woke up from a dream, if they died, or if it actually ended. I can see why he would have thought that the ending would have worked, but in my opinion I think he could have added more. He probably thought that he had explained that they were back on the train and every thing was fine, but I just didn’t think that was enough.

     Personally, I think that he should have clearly established that they got up and talked to the detectives. It feels like he got lazy with the ending so he just decided to cut out 5 minutes by ending it the way he did.

Over all I really enjoyed this movie and it is a must see for anybody that enjoys thrillers.