Kurosawa

I enjoyed the Kurosawa unit more than I anticipated. It only credits him, that while half the time I had no idea what was going on, I was still interested.

I don't know if I would say RAN was my favorite of the three movies we watched in class, but I enjoyed it. I'm usually not a viewer who groans at a black and white movie, but I really liked seeing one of Kurosawa's movies in color. I thought it was interesting because I would have expected from a director who hadn't been creating films in color, to not really know how to use color to his advantage. In RAN though, Kurosawa used extremely vivid, and complimentary colors. He used red when it was appropriate, and darks, when they were necessary.
I also felt that in RAN, there was more emotion in the plot. I think it helped to have the family relations, because in the other two film I often felt confused on why they were doing what they were doing, or in Yojimbo, who was on what side, but I felt in RAN, that it was easier to tell who was against who, and who was supporting who. I also really appreciated how Kurosawa manipulated sound in the movie. I thought it was an intellegent artistic choice to make when he switched from non-diagetic to diagetic in the a scene where there is a lot of blood and gore, it made you able to concentrate on the emotions of the scene, instead of being distracted by all of the chaos.

The Abyss

Abyss is one of my favorite words, and sadly, NOT one of my favorite movies.

in The Abyss, James Cameron did a wonderful job at....well nothing. I can't decide if I respect him more for overcoming these previous movies, and creating a masterpiece (the Titanic,) or if I've lost all respect at all.

It's easier for me to find similarities between The Abyss and Terminator, because I feel they are on the same playing field, which Titanic is not. If someone was to ask me what the plot of the Abyss was, I would struggle to come up with a response. Something about some lost nuclear submarine, which may sound intriguing, but trust me, it was not. I feel as thought the Abyss may have been a warm up for Titanic. Although it's not the focal part of the Abyss, James Cameron also created a romantic storyline between two, and they similar to Jack and Rose, in the Titanic, get separated by water. But that was the only similarity i could find between the two. Similar to the Terminator, I believe the character's were very flat. I didn't feel like they changed at all from beginning to end, or showed any different sides to the dull personalities they were given. I already briefly mentioned, but I thought the Abyss struggled to have a clear plot. It took about a good hour to get into what the the Abyss "was really about." It was as if the first hour was meant to set the scene, it was like a really really long fist chapter of a book, which is never a good thing.


Struggling to not write of James Cameron completely, I tried to find something I could commend him for. And I will say that Cameron, did challenge himself with the set. Nearly all of the movie is set underwater, with large machinery, and what isn't underwater, is set on top of water. Being able to still produce a film underwater, and still create camera angles, and shots, that could be created out of water, truly takes skill and dedication. I just wish he would have used it to a better cause than the Abyss.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was a man of many talents. He created films that were unexpectedly suspenseful, through dialog-less scenes, and wronged characters

Hitchcock seemed to have a trend of developing the protagonist as a "wronged man." In 39 steps we found him running from a crime that he didn't commit, Hitchcock continued this in his other film North by Northwest, where the protagonist, being mistaken for someone else, also had to run from a crime he didn't commit. In both cases, running became a very dangerous en devour, both being nearly killed, more than once.

I found it interesting how Hitchcock was able to keep my attention (a difficult task considering my ADHD) through long scenes with little to no dialog at all. In Rear window, dialog was kept to a bare minimum, many times I felt like I was there with Jeff staring into Mr. Thorwall's apartment, and had to make sure to not make a sound, or sudden movements, as if Mr. Thorwall could see me.
Also in this movie I found it interesting how Hitchcock created a suspenseful situation. Different to many other suspense movies, there are long chase, and hiding scenes, but in Rear Window, there was only one, and Jeff couldn't run from it. Being Trapped in a wheelchair brought on a whole new level of discomfort. Jeff had had the upper had the whole movie until now. Having an apartment separate the two, gave you a false sense of security. However when Mr. Thorwall confronts Jeff face to face in Jeff's apartment, it's a quick adjustment when we realize there is nothing Jeff can do to protect himself, and Mr. Thorwall clearly has a strong advantage.