Cool Hand Luke

I thought Cool Hand Luke was a really good movie. I think the directors made a good choice in picking Paul Newman for the lead role. He's very attractive and pleasant to look at. But also, he has good acting skills and really captured the part well. He was very likable, and I found it very easy to sympathize with him. Throughout the whole movie, you find yourself cheering him on, even when he's doing something rebellious and against the rules. Not to mention, he has a killer smile too! I also thought the supporting roles did a very good job. Dragnet was also a very likable character; the first time I really appreciated him was the fight scene, and he let Luke win by just walking away. I think that at this point, he had realized how different Luke was from the rest of the guys, and earned a new respect for his persistence. All of the other prison mates secretly wished they were brave enough to stand up to the guards in the same way Luke did.

I thought there was a lot of good symbolism throughout the whole film. Things like the color red, the constant fan, Luke's smile, and the references to Jesus just make the film that much more interesting.

The ending of the movie was really good also. Although it was sad that Luke was shot and killed, I feel the movie wouldn't have been the same without such a dramatic ending. In the end, Luke still won the battle between prisoner and authority; they never succeeded in really breaking him. During the fight scene between him and Dragline, he says that the only time he would stop fighting was if he killed him. In the end, this is essentially what happened. He continued to fight the idea of conformity up until the last minute.

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock's movie Psycho was a very great film. I understand why it would be classified as one of the best horror films. For the time period it was created, the plot and storyline was very advanced and well thought out. The idea of multiple personalities, and the gruesome twist of preserving his mothers dead body added a lot of suspense and a very suprising twist at the end. The majority of viewers watching this for the first time wouldn't expect that for an ending. I liked the effect of the black and white. I think it added a creepiness factor to some of the scenes, such as the ending scene, and the murder scenes. I think if it had been in color, the murder scenes would not have the same effect.

The scariest scene by far was the one where the detective is climbing the stairs and the mother comes out of the room and kills him. The music played a huge role in this scene. The music played during this scene resembled the screeching of a woman's scream. It was suprising and caused a lot of poeple to jump and scream out of suprise.

In my opinion, one of the best parts of the movie was the very end part when it focused in on the murderer's face. It added to the creepy factor and definately brought the character to life. Also, the special effect of adding in the skull mouth had a really powerful effect. I thought this was a really good movie, and was suprised at the fact that it actually scared me. I would reccomend it to anyone.

King Kong (2005)

Now that I have viewed both versions of King Kong, I can definitely say that I preferred the second one, made in 2005. Although the first one was entertaining, I found myself much more intrigued and entertained by the newest one. The creators did a really good job on the special effects, and computer-generated animations. The sets, characters, and creatures all seemed so real. Kong looked like a real creature, and this definitely made a huge difference in the ability to connect with him. The story became more real and believable and sucks the viewers in to all the action.

As a viewer, I felt way more emotionally attached to the more modern Kong. Because of the advances in technology, the creators were able to make Kong seem more life-like, and he showed a lot more emotion. In the old version, I saw Kong more as the villain, and when he fell off the building I felt bad, but it didn’t seem like a great loss. In contrast, in the newer film Kong is shown to be more of a good guy. You are able to sympathize with him, and feel bad as he is hunted down and brought back to New York. I felt a tremendous loss as he falls to his death at the end, and this is because of the emotional attachment you have grown throughout the film. I enjoyed the more modern twist of the relationship and bond that Kong and Anne form. I thought it was a nice change from the classic romance story that usually takes place.

The creators of the film did a really good job at recreating the time period in which the original film was shot. It was very believable and brought viewers back in time. I thought they were very accurate in doing this, and it just added to the overall effect of the film. The one change I didn’t like though was the natives. I thought they were unnecessarily scary, with all the eyes rolling back in the head. But overall, I thought this was an excellent film, and would recommend it to everyone.

Original King Kong: Reaction

My initial reaction to the original King Kong was that it was extremely outdated and boring. When you get used to watching the modern movies we have available to us now, old black and whites can seem not as exciting. But once I connected the time period with the movie, I realized what a milestone this movie was for the era. The filming process was much more complex then all of the other movies of the time. Cooper and Schoedsack pioneered the process of stop motion film with the puppets they designed.

Another way in which they were advanced was the style of filming. They didn't use only one process, but multiple, and then combined them. This allowed for the best possible special effects. I thought it was really cool how in order to create the forest, they first painted mats to put in the background. This saved them a lot of time, effort, and materials since they didn't have to create the whole forest. They also came up with the idea of using the glass to make the forest appear fuller. I was impressed that the directors were able to come up with this technology. King Kong was also one of the first movies to use the technique of "green screen." This made filming much easier because the actors didn't have to be at the actual set, they could perform in front of a blank screen, and later the image would be projected on.

Overall, I thought the actors did a good job. They seemed real; it didn't seem overly dramatic or fake. Emotion was conveyed very well. Considering that Kong was simply a puppet, I think his emotion was dealt with in a good way. You were able to sympathize with the creature, and he definitely had an effect on the viewers. The viewers feel a loss as you watch him fall off the building to his doom. I didn't really like how they ended the movie. It seemed too abrupt, and left a lot of unanswered questions. I felt the movie should have been brought to a close in a different way.

Trial Post

Hi! In this class I'm looking forward to learning about different styles of filming and how it progressed over the years. I'm also looking forward to watching many films I have never seen before. I'm hoping to gain a better appreciation for older movies. I want to learn how to better analyze a film, and to understand why the director made the choices he did while filming. I am also looking forward to using the blogs for this class. I have never been in a class where they used this before, and I am excited to try something new.

I am not looking forward to all the papers we have to write in this class. I am a bad procrastinator and tend to put assignments off until the last minute. Hopefully being in this class will help me to get better at that. I was also hoping that we would be watching more current movies in this class, but hopefully I will be able to gain enjoyment and a better appreciation from the older films we will be watching.

Next year I am attending New England Tech in Warwick, RI and I am enrolled in the Surgical Tech program. It will only be an 18 month program and I will leave with my associate's degree and certificate in Surgical Technology. I start school pretty early, in late July. A surgical tech basically is just the Surgeon's Assistant in the operating room. They prep the room, make sure everything's sterile; during the surgery they assist with things like handling the surgeon his tools, and takes care of things like suction.

Yep, so I'm looking forward to this class, and looking forward to graduation, and looking forward to leaving high school and getting on with my life!!