The Prestige

At first it seemed like Borden was obsessed because of the way he acted. It was all he ever thought about. He was just as ready to steal or find out other magicians tricks and make them his own and it seemed like he never had a second thought about it, or thought that it was wrong or unprofessional. After he met Sarah he started to become more secretive about his tricks and eventually she got fed up with it. As the movie went on, however, we see that his rival Angier becomes very obsessed and goes to great lengths to one-up Borden and eventually ends up retiring because Borden was convicted of murdering Angier. The twisted part of this movie is that when everything is revealed at the end it all makes sense but you almost feel sorry for Borden because his twin brother was the one hanged for supposedly killing Borden. In the end you realize that Borden and his brother were committed, not obsessed. Committed people don’t bury other people to get what they want, nor do they get their girlfriends to spy on their enemy because they can’t be original themselves. So in my view, Borden is committed not obsessed.

Sugar Cane Persepolis

To me the characters in these movies seem unfair in terms of treatment. In Persepolis, when she lived in her home country, gender played a big role in society. Women would cook, clean, be separated in school, and would have to wear clothes that would cover their entire body. However, in Sugar Cane Alley there were many differences. For example: the movie was based on skin color and not ethnicity. The lower classes would work the cane fields all their life, those who were a little more malleable would be trained as guards and sent to work directly under the whites. The similarities are the discriminatory actions and underlying subscripts that tell us of a society that is thought, by most people, to be inferior to a higher power or dominant race. My reaction to both of these movies is that the treatment of one particular group of people should not be any different just because of past events or wealth. People are people and even though we are all human, being discriminative because we think that this color of skin or because this person is a man or a woman must mean that they are not intelligent and that they can be made to do whatever we want is not fair. If we are to think like that, how would you feel if you were in their shoes? Could you do what the men and women did in the cane fields? Would you be able to be brave like Marjane and deal with the things she had to? So if you feel anything when watching these movies it should be something close to sadness, anger, or understanding of what other people have to go through to make a decent life for themselves. Other than all that, I thought the movies were very entertaining and informative.

An Inconventient Hero On a Wire

I don't think a hero can be defined. If you watch the news or know of someone who goes out of their way to commit a selfless act of kindness, they can be considered a hero. It can be the store employee who helps carry your groceries to your car, or a teenager volunteering at a shelter or home. To be considered a hero a person does not always have to do something heroic. An individual can be anyone's hero. An adult can be a hero to a small child, kind of like a super hero. Sometimes a person can be a hero by rescuing another person or pet from a flaming building or saving someone from jumping out of a high place. It all depends on an individual's perspective. There are so many variations of a hero based on people's beliefs and even religions so it can be difficult to determine what the actual definition of a hero is. In the movie Hero there were many ideas that steered towards loyalty to one's nation or king/leader and also about honor which plays a major roll in their everyday lives. But the reason why this movie has this title is because of how the assassin chose when it came time to kill the king. He knew that in order for their country to come to peace the king must live, even after Falling Snow and Broken Sword tried to kill him once before. To me, that is being a true hero. Realizing that something you were sent out to do could possibly cause the exact negative effects that you were not searching for to happen. But instead looking at the bigger picture and wanting better for your nation.

Night of the Living Dead

If a zombie apocalypse were to happen, the very first thing I would do is make sure I have enough food and water supplies for a while. I would also bolt up my doors and windows so no one could get in. There would be an opening in the roof I would be able to access with a ladder to climb up and down. Another thing I would do is put some sort of fire accelerant on pieces of wood and lay them around my house. Everyone would be wearing or carrying a weapon of some sort. It can be a gun, knife, axe, chainsaw, etc. that way I would not have to worry about someone getting eaten because they could not defend themselves. A running vehicle will be kept up by the house at all times so that if we need to go out and get some more supplies we wouldn't have to run so far. There would also be gallons of gas in the trunk so we'd have fuel. Of course these chores would be split up among the number of people that are in the house so we could get more done. Although I do believe that is the most you could get done in under 24 hours without getting attacked in the process.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

It's difficult to get ideas on Tim Burton's beliefs about Christmas but what it comes across to me as is that he believes in the original spirit of Christmas and not the thing we've made it out to be with all of the presents and Santa Clause, the elfs, the Reindeer, or talking snowmen. In Edward Scissorhands the message I get is that the Christmas season isn't starting out well and keeps getting progressively worse and finally after Edward leaves, the town may have realized what Christmas is all about. In this movie, however, the message that I receive is that Christmas may not be for everyone but if you are open to trying new things, holidays, and things like that you might just discover something you never knew you liked. It also comes across in the way that not every holiday is for everyone but the man upstairs will love you all the same.

Edward Scissorhands

If you take a look at the two outsiders in this movie Edward and Peg, there are many similarities between the two characters but they do not get the same ending. Peg lives in the community but isn't quite accepted or considered normal because of her very religious behavior or the things she says. Edward on the other hand isn't accepted, at least not right away, because of his "hands". Unlike Peg, he is soon accepted but only because of his ability to cut bushes into fantastic objects, creatures, people, and his new found ability for cutting people and animal's hair. As the story progresses, we start to see that maybe Peg isn't so crazy in saying that Edward is (can be) dangerous and that they should "cast him out". It may not be his fault since he wasn't "raised" like we were to decipher right from wrong but having knives constantly on my person would definately raise some questions from my neighbors. Edward is finally cast out at the end of the movie after saving Kevin from Kims drunk boyfriend and his friend. He finally tackles Keving but having scissors for hands he started to cut Kevin's face trying to see if he was alright. This made the neighbors think that Kevin was being attacked. Edward was told to run back to the mansion, and as he did so he tor off all of the clothes and cutting down bushes and even torments Peg. Looking at what Peg had said earlier on in the film maybe she knew what she was talking about. Since Edward had no human contact he didn't understand how to handle anger or how to release it for that matter. After Kim met him at the mansion Edward and Jim got into a fight and he killed Jim. To get the townspeople to leave him in peace, Kim found another hand that looked like Edward's and showed them. They finally left and it seems to me that after that Peg was more accepted because they knew she was right.

The Big One

How does obsession figure into the films that we have already watched to far?

This question is directed for those in this class but if you have watched any or all of these movies then feel free to comment and debate as you would like. The movies we have watched so far (Singin' In The Rain, The Dark Knight, High Noon, The Prestige, Proof, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Sorcerer's Apprentice) most of the time have a definite line of obsession and commitment but defining what some may consider obsession may just be commitment to others. In my opinion, the movie that it is most easily demonstrated is in The Prestige displayed by Angier.

There are other characters that are more easily spotted in the other movies like Singin' In The Rain. Lina Lamont was set on the idea that Don Lockwood loved her. Then another woman came along, which was Kathy Selden, so then jealousy and anger arose. Lina kept trying to tell him that he didn't love Kathy but that he was in love with her even after he repeatedly said that he didn't love her and their image together was just for publicity. Well, Lina obviously didn't like that too much especially when she found out that Kathy had spoken and sung for her in their film because her voice and the accent she spoke with was too funny to be taken seriously. So what she did was take her acting contract to a lawer and she came back to the head of the production and showed him that she controlled her own publicity. She blackmailed him by telling him that if Kathy didn't keep singing she would sue the company and take control. In the end Lina ended up not being with Don but Don and Kathy got together and took over the company. In this situation Lina's obsession with herself, Don, and their image together didn't get her very far.

The Dark Knight

What is Harvey's true nature? Is he a hero, villain, or something in between? Does doing bad automatically outweigh all of the good he's done? Does temporary insanity excuse his actions?

When Harvey was putting away mob bosses and other criminals, he had his own way of doing it by the book but also without the help of others which some people may think is the best way to clean up the city. He was a symbol of freedom, authority, and pure goodness. But, just because he's done so much good doesn't necessarily mean he's pardoned from all of the bad he's done. Doing that kind of bad I would say does outweigh all of the good he's done. Temporary insanity I think shouldn't excuse his actions because they were severe and completely over-the-top, plus an insane person would never admit they're insane and he hasn't been to a psychologist or lived long enought to know if or when he became insane. He knew what he was doing was wrong but yet he still chose to do it for revenge and revenge doesn't solve anything. He lost someone he loved as have we all but most of us didn't go on a killing or torturing spree. I'll admit his accident will make the rest of his life extremely difficult but, "two wrongs don't make a right."

Proof

Did Catherine really write the proof?

From the beginning of the story it seemed like Catherine really didn't want to follow in her father's footsteps. She didn't seem to enjoy college as other people would and when her math professor was concerned about her work and how it didn't lie up the loose ends, she told him that she would go back and make it better which in my opinion was a contributing factor that drove her to write the Proof. When Catherine dropped out of college to attend to her father's well-being, he basically told her that she shouldn't have and that she was lazy and it had to change. He kept pushing her until she finally started to realize that she needed to do something with herself so she started writing her own proof. She may have failed her teacher but she definitely tried to do better for her father. After he said that he thought he had figured out the proof, Catherine looked as if she was hurt. Maybe because of the violence he showed towards her after she said she didn't want to read his proof and that she was tired. She tried to read his out loud but found out quickly that none of it made any sense and that his "lucid year" had swiftly come to a stop. I do believe that she wrote it because she's the only one in that house that was sane enough to actually complete a mathematical thought process whereas her dad could not.

High Noon

How would you characterize Helen Ramirez?

At the very beginning of the movie Helen seemed just a simple Spanish woman living in an old western town with her husband/boyfriend. As the story continues, however, she became very secretive almost a little overwrought upon hearing the news that Frank Miller and his old gang were back in town. We found out later in the plot as it continues, she used to have a history with Frank Miller then the town marshal Will Kane. After a period of being split apart from Kane she became involved with the town deputy marshal Harvey Pell which ended very abruptly. Considering her history with these men, a reason emerges to us why she chose not to tell anyone after about them. It might be because she is ashamed by what has happened in her past and may be difficult to admit to others what she has done. I would characterize Helen Ramirez as a very secretive, ashamed, even upset individual but also somewhat responsible when someone had started asking so many questions about her past and why she was in such a big hurry to leave.

Singin' In The Rain

In a way it does make the film more enjoyable but sometimes giving background information about a movie or a film can discourage the viewer from watching. It does make it a little more enjoyable knowing that some of the actors and actresses were chosen because of either pure talent or were given the chance to prove themselves and to gain a name instead of being "thrown to the lions." It also makes it enjoyable knowing a little about the character's backgrounds. That way you can make a connection and understand why they act the way they do. I don't believe knowing about the processes of the filming would have a bad effect on the film's overall value or worth as long as you understand it. For me it would make me appreciate the techniques, talent, and time (the three "t's") that are put into every movie and film. In my opinion, it would increase the overall value and worth.

First Day Entry Questionaire

My favorite five movies would have to be Brave, Grown Ups, Battle: Los Angeles, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Jennifers' Body. TV shows I watch on a regular basis are Call of the Wildman, Ghost Adventures, and Pawn Stars. What I'm looking to get out of this film class is to get a better understanding of why different types of films/movies seem to catch our interest, and how various filming techniques can be used to attract someones' attention. My career ambitions are to become a fashion model. I know it sounds a little far-fetched but I love clothing, fashion, and traveling. So what better way to do both of those things than become a model? For that I'm most likely going to college at Friends University. The internet, I think, will start to play a very important roll in future jobs because everything is becoming centered around the internet. Paper applications may disappear if the situation becomes completely technologized. My favorite color is green. It's not a cool color like blue and purple but it's not energetic like red, orange, and yellow, it's right in the middle which pretty much describes how my mood is most of the time. Mellow but cheery. If I could play any character in any movie, I'd have to be Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. I would like to know how it would feel to meet, befriend, ride, and save people with a dragon that acts a lot like a dog. When I clicked on the little black box to play the film, it didn't do anything so I'd have to say it's still just a little black box.

About Me

Just a few things about me: I'm a senior in high school, I like movies shopping, dancing, drawing, watching TV like most teenagers, listening to music, riding horses, and hanging out with friends. I'm in this film class not just to graduate early but also to learn a little more about why movies and films of all types seem to interest us. I've lost track of how many movies I've watched, which just goes to show you how much I like to be a couch potato. Na, I'm just messing with you. :) I do want to watch some of the more recent movies like Resident Evil: Afterlife because I've noticed some changes throughout different scenes that don't seem to match, especially at the beginning.