Inactivity and my Resurgence

Hello again everyone! For those of you who have been disgruntled by my absence, I apologize. Many things have kept me away and I am hoping I will be able to make the time to return. Recently most of my spare time has been spent on anime series and analyzing those. I plan on writing about some that I feel have qualitative elements worthy of pairing with many films that I plan to write on. Most of my work regarding film will be more focused on older movies as I feel there is a decrease in art house films, which is my main area of expertise.

Since my last posting going back a couple years now, few films have caught my attention and those that did rarely left lasting effects. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) by Alejandro G. Iñárritu is one of the few films that I think could be posted on this blog due to its magical realism and interesting story line. It is fueled by a variety of psychological elements and uses magnificent cinematography to convey a discontinuous look of a single tracking shot. Unfortunately, I don’t feel as strongly about Iñárritu’s more recent film, The Revenant. Despite the cinematography living up to its predecessor, it falls short practically everywhere else. Perhaps this could be a topic to write about in the future. My point being, only one film since my last posting has been enough to satisfy my craving for a possible masterpiece in cinema.

I haven’t looked at my about page in a while, but I can say with certainty that my new goal will be:

To analyze and critique works of significant value and attempt to convey the absence of such elements in modern cinema – specifically commercial films.

This may be obvious, but it is still something that can be continued and elaborated on. Critiquing is also a discussion. My analysis can only amount to a stance on the meaning invoked by a work, but that is the intention of true art. I’ve heard others say film isn’t an art form but it is. It is THE art form, everyone watches film and TV more than viewing paintings or reading poetry. The digital age meant an evolution in art, in more ways than one. If people can understand the values a film should convey, then maybe less people will advocate for more poorly orchestrated superhero films.

I would really like to see if anyone has requests for things to write. I’d like for this, as I stated before about critiquing, to be a discussion – a collaborative piece to hash out the values of film.

The bird has risen again!

Here is a list of potential topics I am considering:

-Deceptive elements in works by Akira Kurosawa

-Depictions of power and supporting symbolism in Paul Thomas Anderson films

-How Karl Marx’s Estranged Labor influenced film

–Evangelion 3.33 – I Can (Not) Understand

-Psychological elements in entertainment – Birdman and Black Swan

-How black and white films are still effective – a look at Guy Maddin, The Artist, and late 20th century horror

-A summary of why anime can’t be done live-action

Apocalypse Now – The Colonel and the Captain

Apocalypse Now is one of the most renowned films int he history of cinema. The Vietnam War and the horror soldiers delved into. The story is narrated by the main character Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) who is on a misson to assassinate a colonel who went rogue (Marlon Brando). He journies through the jungle on a boat manned by some rookie marines while facing countless challenges before even arriving at the colonel’s grounds. This story is not an average war film since it has to do with one mission that begins to question the ideals of war and man itself. Colonel Kurtz is not a macabre or seemingly violent man. He seems humble with his own ideals in mind. The world he has been raised into was of high authority being that he had some of the highest credentials someone in the military could ever have including even a degree from Harvard.

When Willard meets Kurtz, he is imprisoned briefly but is allowed to walk the grounds as he pleases soon after. Kurtz question him about his mission and even though he releases minimal information, the colonel lets him do as he pleases. The only statement that restricted Willard of anything his accusing him of being a murderer.

I’ve seen horrors… horrors that you’ve seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that… but you have no right to judge me.

-Colonel Kurtz

Not only does Kurtz show no hate toward Willard for wanted to kill him, he actually wishes it. Kurtz wants to die and for Willard to tell everyone about his lies and deception. The idea that humanity must be moral yet vicious strikes Willard as the idea of true warfare cannot be achieved by brutality but through human instincts. Everyone has a right to do what must be done for survival of themselves and their families. Now his methodology was clearly unique and obscure, but can be understood in a modern and enlightened sense. War is rarely a sensible option and Kurtz understands the “horror” of war and recollects on the monstrous acts performed in his time. So this is more of a question to all of you than a blatant analysis. Do you think Kurtz truly saw an opportunity to lead in a true and pure way? Or do you think he was a monster who just wished the downfall of the United States. Comment down below!

Love and Hate – The Constant War in Film

“Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil? H-A-T-E! It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. L-O-V-E! You see these fingers, dear hearts? These fingers has veins that run straight to the soul of man. The right hand, friends, the hand of love. Now watch, and I’ll show you the story of life. Those fingers, dear hearts, is always a-warring and a-tugging, one agin t’other. Now watch ’em! Old brother left hand, left hand he’s a fighting, and it looks like love’s a goner. But wait a minute! Hot dog, love’s a winning! Yessirree! It’s love that’s won, and old left hand hate is down for the count!”

-Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter

As of last night, I chose to finally sit down and watch Night of the Hunter. Although for its time it was not generally accepted as a good film, it has gained increasing popularity over the years. The only film ever directed by Charles Laughton (Spartacus) tells the story of a travelling preacher named Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) who is corrupted and during his travels meets a man on death row who explains how he stole $10,000 and gave it to his children. When he gets out of prison himself, he travels to the man’s home and marries the widow to try and find the money and then murder her. The film is from the perspective of the children who know where the money really is and tries with all their might to keep it out of Powell’s hands. Now the most iconic scene has to be the scene where he explains to everyone the story of love and hate.

Before watching this film, I saw Do the Right Thing directed by Spike Lee where one scene has Radio Raheem (one of the iconic characters) talking to Mookie who was played by Spike Lee. During this meeting, he explains the story of his new gold knuckles. The right hand says HATE and the left hand says LOVE. He describes them in almost an exact word-for-word definition given by Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter. Now obviously this paid homage to the film considering Do the Right Thing came out about 40 years later. The name of the film even relates to love and hate since doing the right thing means ignoring your anger and hatred and learn to respect one another.

In Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now, a captain played by Martin Sheen is sent to assasinate a renegade colonel who was the best of the best played by Marlon Brando. When Captain Willard finally meets Colonel Kurtz, Kurtz explains how all that truly exists is love and hate. It raises the question of whether or not Kurtz really needed to be assasinated since he was merely confused by the horrors of the military and only wished to free himself and others from the restrictions of hatred.

Although these are clear indications of the conflict within all of us, it is experienced in many films. The idea of doing the right thing versus the wrong thing whether is is easier or could potentially have favored outcomes can be seen in modern cinema all the time. Another recent film I watched that could also relate to this is Kung Fu Hustle. The main character originally wants to join the gangsers who ravage the nation even though in the end, his kindness overcomes his darker quest. Even something as simple as lust vs love could be construed to similar outcomes. A more modern and generationally-accepted film that shows this is Sex Drive. A high school student and some of his friends travel across the country to spend time with a girl he met online. Throughout this, he soon realizes that the whole time he truly wanted the girl he’s been best friends with and not some sexy girl he had yet to meet.

Now you could be saying that hate and lust are not the same emotion. And you are surely correct in that assumption but hate embodies all negative emotions in this context. It can include lust, rage, anger, deceipt and many others as love embodies all that is good and right.

The film Night of the Hunter presents this conflict in an odd way. The villain or antagonist of the film is the one who states that love triumphs over hate even though he has no love for people yet instead hatred toward all who oppose him during his conquest for wealth and crime. These two emotions which are polar opposites continue to elude the viewers in a open yet shut manner. What this means is that it is something not fully recognized in a film but normally is present in some way.

The Film Industry and It’s Excessive Mainstream Failure

Knowing what we know now, film directors and writers continue in what seems like a downward spiral of creativity and performace. As of today, few directors do I truly herald as some of the great artists of our time. Directors such as Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut) and Ingmar Bergman (Wild Strawberries) I feel stand at the pedestal of entertainment and meaning. When people speak highly of directors such as Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver) and Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather), in no way am I speaking as if they are not able in their fields but they seem to care more about the general excitement of today’s youth than the true meaning of an art style. As far as a mainstream cinema goes, directors such as these two and many others including Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), Clint Eastwood (Mystic River), Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained) and J.J. Abrams (Super 8) all make films with a feeling of exacerbated scenery. Too much is thrown in to “wow” the viewers through action, violence, mediocre/decent story and actors with an image but little context, art style in the imagery/language and nothing meaningful to the film world as a whole. Of the few surviving great directors in history, many have fallen under this mainstream success and are ignored by the general populus. It makes me feel sick that I can start a conversation with someone in my film class about one several directors and just get the response “I don’t know who that is or what they’ve done.” Some of these directors include:

– Terrence Malick – Director of films such as The Tree of Life and Days in Heaven.

– Charlie Kaufman – Director of films such as Synecdoche, New York and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

– Lars Von Trier – Director of films such as Antichrist and Melancholia

– Hayao Miyazaki – Although he is a writer/director for an animation company known as Studio Ghibli (works with Disney), his animated films such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are some of the best films I’ve ever seen

– Wes Anderson – Director of films such as Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

These are just 5 of the directors who I think are heavily influential to our time. But many people diregard their many accomplishments and only pay attention to the mainstream directors who have little contextual meaning in their films. Even directors like Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan) has only wowed me on several occasionions like with films such as Schindler’s List and A.I. Artificial Intelligence but overall seems to be missing something in a lot of his films or are just a historical retelling of a story which is relevant putting history into a more enjoyable medium than a class in school or a historical reading, it overall is not used as an art style or as a meaningful story that gives you new insight on life of other inspiration.

So what can be done to turn this industry back into its former glory? I feel the directors I have listed above need more recognition in the cinema world since their films will be remembered years from now in film classes while other box office hits will fall off the watch lists.