Rebel Without a Cause response

1.      Take a look at these two quotes:

a.     “The drama and hepcat dialogue feel clunky now...” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

b.    “Rebel without a Cause has as much to say today as it did in the 1950s.” Chris Wood, Senses of Cinema

Who’s right?  Is Rebel… a timeless film that effectively captures the alienation, awkwardness, and angst of youth culture in any generation?  Or, is it a dated relic, unable to speak to or for contemporary youth?  Which critic is closer to “right”? 

Rebel without a cause is a movie i enjoyed, but at the same time couldn't connect with to well.  A lot of the problems and situations that took place in that movie don't take place in todays world.   the movie was filmed in 1955 and feels like it, it doesn't resemble to much from todays world or family structure, or how kids even act today.   Plato is an example of something you don't really see today, it's the first time i really encountered someone who acts like this.  no kids today drive cars of cliffs for fun, break into abandon homes, or go around shooting kids. so I'm going to side with Peter Bradshaw because all the info is far fetched and wouldn't fit into anything normal today, a kid simpily can't relate to it.    Also the movie did feel like it was set in the 50's and the morals and values just don't work for me like they worked for kids back then the world is very different from what the movie portrays.  

MYST #2 Chasing Mavericks

The movie i have chosen for my second movies in my spare time post is chasing mavericks.  The movie is based on the real life of professional surfer Jay Morriarty.  The story goes into depth and tells Jay Morriarty's path to becoming a pro surfer and his mentor teaching him. it shows him as a kid and all the hard work and dedication he had to put in in order to become what he wanted to be.  This movie was by far one of the best movies i've seen this year, i might go as far to say it's the best.  I give this movie 4.5 /5 stars the reason it's not 5/5 is because there is one point in the movie that makes it extremely sad but i guess it is needed where it is placed in the movie.  other then that sad feeling i would say it was near perfect.
       one reason that i wanted to see this movie was Gerard Butler, he is one of my favorite actors. but one thing different about this film compared to his others was that this wasn't a action packed film like your use to with him, so i didn't know what to expect.  I've seen Law Abiding Citizen and in that movie he is very smart and witty i would say thats the only connection in both movies. he is superior to everyone he is always just a step ahead of people in the two movies. and his ambition in both movies is unmatched.  but having said that there are drastic differences in Chasing Mavericks he is a father who looks over a neighborhood boy and finds out there dreams are very similar.  in law abiding citizen it consists of him murdering a bunch of people to bring them to justice so he portrays a very different character in both movies.
       Some cinematic elements in this film are green screen. in order to make the maverick waves and successfully be safe showing jay surfing them they had to use a green screen. they wouldn't risk putting an actor in front of some of the biggest waves in the world, that kill some people. some maverick waves get over 100 feet so it could be dangerous if they didn't use a green screen.  but it looks very realistic and i couldn't really tell any difference.
    In the Movie one scene that stuck with me was when frosty Jay's mentor's wife died.  it was a really sad time in the movie and it made you feel really bad. it was a hard time for everyone and frosty just disappeared.  Gerard Butler as Frosty the next day paddled out almost 4 miles and just sat in the water and floated with the current. no one knew where he was other then Jay because he told him thats where he went when he needed. and no one was capable of getting there by paddeling other then a select few. and that was a part of jays training to be able to paddle that far. it was kind of a turning point in the movie where jay's goals started happening and Frosty was uplifted to see it happen.  it's hard to explain but the movie just made you feel good after so much bad happen'd in it.

1935 blog post "The Struggle"

The Struggle
1.The Struggle is based on an italian immigrant Dom Perri played by Henry Fonda.  Dom Perri Moves his family, wife and 3 kids (2 boys, 1 girl) to New York City in 1928.  He moves in hope of finding work and a chance for his kids to have a better life.  Perri originally finds work in a factory working for a salary just enough to pay the rent and put food on the table.  His 3 kids Jackie Searle, Jane Whithers, and Billy Mahn have a hard time adjusting to the american lifestyle and an even harder time learning english, but they get by.  Once the great depression hits it cause Dom to lose his job.  their family is put into a bind not having money to pay the bills, being evicted from apartment after another.  Doms oldest son Emillo is forced to drop out of school anf go to work for the family.  after a couple months of the struggle Dom toughs it out and finds work as a construction worker and is able to move his family to a house in Long Island.  The message is that hard work will get you through anything as long as you keep going and never give up no matter how bad it gets,

2.are genre we chose was drama and our story really fit the era that was currently going on in the united states so drama offered us the best way to connect with our viewers.

3.  We chose to work with 20th century fox, this was the best studio for us to pick for this movie because like Dom Perri 20th century fox faced a struggles too.  In may of 1935 there was a merger between 20th century and fox because fox was going under due to the great depression, so they joined 20th century.  So the attitude that we wanted are characters to portray was already instilled in our studio due to the depression also they owned the contract of henry fond who was a great drama actor.

4. We were limited to only choosing 20th century fox actors and actresses because in 1935 the studios held their contracts and they couldn't act for anyone other then their studios.  so we picked the best and most suitable 20th century fox actors and actresses.  for the main character we chose henry fonda because he was in good drama movies before and had that appearance of a tough hard working character that we were looking for.  for his kids we chose Jackie Searle, Billy Mahn , and Jane Withers.   we were limited to children actors and these kids were the best options.  Henry King was our director and we chose him because he was one of the 20th century fox directors and worked with dramas before.  our focus was cinematography so that our audience could really feel how bad life really got for them and to focus on their situation up close.

5. for the hayes code the biggest thing was we couldn't show children being abused or beaten so we couldn't show the struggle they were actually going through that was the biggest problem. and we couldn't show dom relying on alcohol or drugs because that wasn't allowed so he couldn't rely on that but we weren't going to make it a big part any way so it didn't effect us that much

6. i wouldn't have had the family aspect.  just him moving here with a friend or a girlfriend kind of like tony montana in scarface that was the only disagreement. i like how scarface was set up how he came here alone and made it illegally but he did.

Formal Film Study Gavin O'Connor, Pride and Glory, Miracle, Warrior

For my formal film studies project I decided to watch and analyze 3 of Gavin O'Connor's movies.  Gavin O'Connor is an American film director, screen writer, producer, playwright, and actor.  The 3 movies I viewed of his were "Warrior", "Miracle", and "Pride and Glory".  The Movie Warrior is about two brothers that were separated in their teens due to their alcoholic and abusive father, one son going with the mother, the other going with the father.  Tommy Riordan one of the brothers returns from the war in Iraq to reunite with his father.  His other brother Brendan is a high school science teacher who is struggling to pay the bills.  But both brothers share a similar gift, Fighting.  The two start to train for the same high stakes tournament that will give them the money they need if they win, both not knowing the other is training for it.  Tommy and Brendan eventually meet in the finals after both having tough battles getting their.  The movie Miracle is based on a true story of the 1980 mens US olympic hockey team.  It goes in depth of how Coach Herb Brooks upset everyone by taking a bunch of college kids to the olympics to take on the Soviet professionals.  the game took place during the cold war and it allowed the United States to do their talking on the ice as well, not just the war that was going on.  The odds were against the US team but they overcame obstacles and adversity to make a dream come true.  The Third movie i watched was by far the worst in my opinion. Pride and Glory is about a group of corrupt New York City cops, but their is a police station where the father is the police chief and his two sons are straight cops and his son-in-law is a crooked cop.  His son-in-law does many illegal things because he has the power to behind his badge, all of his malice acts catch up with him.  In the end the son-in-law gets the hole family in trouble.  

Style

The word I would use to describe the style of all 3 of these movies is DARK.  Just the overall feeling in  them is sad for most of the movie if not the whole thing.  all 3 of the movies are depressing, but warrior and miracle branch of and have happy endings.  Warrior and Miracle are depressing because they continue to show the brothers in warrior and the hockey players in miracle struggle and fail over and over again.  I guess those two movies offer a good lesson that if you keep working as hard as you can you'll eventually reach your goal.  but in warrior the father has a relapse after 1000 days of being sober and it just breaks you down because their family is just ruined again where they make the family non existent and makes it seem like there is so much hate between all of them.  but in the end it shows that the family is finally at peace.  in miracle it's the basically the same thing, these kids grew up dreaming of being NHL hockey players and winning the olympics. They go through all of this hard work for some of them to be cut from the team a week before they go.  It's hard to watch someone's dreams get crushed like they do in the film but it has a happy ending like warrior and they go on to upset the soviets to win the gold.  So those two movies are just depressing, dark, evil, and gray until the end when the team reaches their goal and the family is at peace.   Pride and Glory just sucks because it follows the same path as the other 2 but when the other 2 turn off and have a happy ending Pride and Glory just keeps getting more and more depressing.  Nothing goes right for the family the whole movie, nothing good happens it just makes you feel sad, that terrible things happen to good people. Their brother-in-law who caused all the families problems just gives up in the end and allows criminals to murder him.  But you don't feel bad that he's murdered because he deserved it but he leaves the family with all these problems he caused.  and his brothers wife is dying of cancer the other brothers life is in the shitter the whole movie is just depressing and dark again.  

Indusrty

Gavin O'Connor's work is different then most film directors, I don't think he would be capable of making a comedy movie. His work is similar to directors who make more crime/ drama type movies. It's unlike the work of Adam Mckay who is one of my favorite directors because all of his movies are funny and make you feel good.  He directed movies like Step Brothers and The Other Guys.  In Hollywood Gavin O'Connor definitely fits in with other directors of dramas and serious movies that have a lesson involved in thier plots. 

Technology

The most interesting piece of technology in these movies i would say is the sound and some of the still pictures, i have a vivid picture of some of the scenes in the movies in my head always. If i think about the movie i think about that scene in my head instantly.  But the soundtracks in Miracle and Warrior are really good I own both of them.  and the songs are used at the appropriate time in the movies, they make you feel so much different then you would feel if the songs they picked weren't in there. the one song in Warrior almost makes you want to cry at the end called "About Today" by The National.  and some of the pictures that i always  think of are 

these are both key scenes in the movie where everything is quiet and it makes you think.  

Politics/History

Warrior- this movie really has no connection to anything other then it's a really good story, also UFC is a rising sport in the world and there hasn't been a lot of films done on it.

Miracle-  this films content has a lot of history in it and some people who saw it might not even know it.    one reason this game was so big for the united states was that the cold war was currently going on during this time.  Other then the soviets being so good at hockey and unstoppable are countries weren't exactly seeing eye to eye.  and this game gave the united states hope and gave them something to turn to when are country was in a low place

Pride and Glory-  this movie was made in 2008 when there was currently some stories and cases where police officers were accused of police brutality, beating people up, doing things because they could and people were afraid of them.  but this movie shows that there are good cops as well that brought the bad ones to justice and this could be to show people that there are good cops.  also Gavin O'connor's father was a New York City police officer and he said "It's a birthday bash of honest cops, which was everything my father was about." and he wanted to evoke peoples thoughts about the 1970's how police were sometimes corrupt.  

interesting quotes

one of my favorite quotes ever is from miracle and it is the speech coach herb brooks gave his players before the gold medal game. i think about it all the time when I'm getting ready for a bug game myself.  Great moments are born from great opportunity. 
And that's what you have here tonight, boys. 
That's what you've earned here, tonight. 
One game. 
If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. 
But not this game. Not tonight. 
Tonight, we skate with 'em. 
Tonight, we stay with 'em, and we shut them down because we can! 
Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world. 
You were born to be hockey players -- every one of ya. 
And you were meant to be here tonight. 
This is your time. 
Their time -- is done. It's over. 
I'm sick and tired of hearin' about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw 'em! 
This is your time!! 

another quote i liked was from warrior

Principal Zito: You got no business in the ring with those animals.

Tom Conlon: Actually, I used to be one of those animals

this quote doesn't have a meaning behind it like the other one but it was a funny quote in the movie that made my whole family laugh.  

Main thing I discovered

I mentioned earlier the main discovery just that the movies are all dark with stories about people that have to make tough choices and overcome adversity to be great or do the right thing opposed to the easiest thing. those were trends in all of the movies.  but one thing that also stuck out was the type of camera shot that was used.  the camera was being held in the camera mans hands it wasn't on a tri-pod in alot of the scenes because they wanted to make you feel like you were running with the scene because it was an action scene and the screen would be shaking and it wasn't still like it would be if you were running
Reviews

http://www.timeout.com/london/film/warrior

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=49976

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/movies/Section?oid=846987archives/2004/0204/040213_1.html

Research

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WJiM0d2lsk

this is a video interview where gavin o'connor was asked if he had any inspirational films he watched that inspired this, and he said rocky not the fighting scenes but all the hard work he goes through to reach his goal.  and thats the part of the movie thats inspirational to me...... all the hard work they put in.