The Graduate (Mike Nichols; 1967)

The action is mainly seen through the eyes of Benjamin Braddock, a confused twenty-one year old, who is worried about his future but who does not simply want to follow the commercial path of his affluent family and their friends. His life becomes complicated when he is embroiled in an affair with an older woman, Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's business partner. It becomes even more impossible when he falls in love with Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine.

FARGO

"There's more to life than a little money you know...."

Based on this quote, discuss the character flaws of one character in this film.

200 words.

DUE: 6/10

The Coen Brothers

The Coens are clever directors who know too much about movies and too little about real life. —Emanuel Levy, Cinema of Outsiders

The adolescent experiences of the young Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, forced indoors by frigid Minnesota winters, provides a remarkably crystalline metaphor for their later film work. Born in Minnesota to academic parents, the brothers were raised in a typical middle-American, middle-class Jewish household. Their childhood was largely unremarkable and aside from the production of a few super-8 home movies, a future in filmmaking seemed unlikely. Joel proceeded to New York University where, in lieu anything better, he enrolled in a film course. Ethan, on the other hand, ventured to Princeton; choosing Philosophy as his major. Joel's film school experience would assist him in landing a number of editing jobs on small budget films, providing him with exposure to film production practices. With this grounding the brothers were motivated to make their own film. With the help of investors from the local Minnesota business community the Coens set about making their first feature length film—Blood Simple.

Joel and Ethan Coen have worked within the realms of various genres, adopting appropriate methods of realisation to reflect these representational frameworks. The dialogue in their films is a prominent factor in the organisation and maintenance of these generic constructions and in the fulfilment of specific stylistic strategies. The Hudsucker Proxy's synthetic visual design is mirrored by its stylised dialogue, the criminal milieu of Miller's Crossing is characterised by memorably rich gangster jargon, while Fargo's attention to visual realism operates concurrently with the application of an appropriate regional Minnisota dialect.

Language operates as a cue to the themes and characters in the films of Joel and Ethan Coen. That they construct dialogue of wonderful inarticulacy, such as the Dude's (Jeff Bridges) scrambled speeches in The Big Lebowski and Carl's (Steve Buscemi) consistent malapropism in Fargo, is not merely a joke at the expense of their characters, but rather the critical interrogation of communication breakdown, while Raising Arizona is to some extent about a desire to improve one's position.

Many of the films of the Coen brothers are specific to particular regions and communities—The Coens' detailed reconstruction of identifiable communities, with all their quirks and eccentricities, has led many critics to accuse them of adopting a lofty superiority to their characters.

The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen; 1998)

When "The Dude" Lebowski is mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, two thugs urinate on his rug to coerce him into paying a debt he knows nothing about. While attempting to gain recompense for the ruined rug from his wealthy counterpart, he accepts a one-time job with high pay-off, to find "The Big Lebowski's" young wife Bunny, who is seemingly kidnapped. He enlists the help of his bowling buddies to solve this crime....but this only seems to screw things up further.......

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen;2000)

Loosely based on Homer's "Odyssey," Everett Ulysses McGill and his companions escape a chain gang and try to reach Everetts home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist. Along the way they are confronted by a series of strange characters, among them sirens, a cyclops, bankrobber George 'Babyface' Nelson, a campaigning Governor, his opponent, a KKK lynch mob, and a blind prophet, who warns the trio that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find."

Now that we have seen such timeless Kung Fu classics as Shogun Sammurai, Kill Bill, Enter the Dragon, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and of course Kung Fu Hustle one should be quite the Kung Fu connoisseur. Using examples from all the films we watched in class please explain how the elements of philosophy, honor, choreography, violence and action are intertwined throughout the Kung Fu genre and make a film truly a Kung Fu classic. Also note the styles of cinemetography, such as climactic slow motion action scenes, that render a Kung Fu movie great.

minimum 300 words.

maximum 500 words.

If you pas 500 words you fail for being that kid.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000-2005)

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is a timeless story that takes place in QING China when miracles were credible and spirits and gods were present in man's world. It is not unbelievable that zen warriors float through the air, skim the water and battle in trees and on rooftops. Pain, revenge and duty are the stuff that bind us in this world and are the main plot line of the movie, but in the afterlife love and faith linger on.

Li Mu Bai, a great warrior decides to turn in his sword, the Green Destiny to a treasured friend. When the sword is then stolen, it is up to him to retrieve it. At the same time he is trying to avenge his master's death by the evil Jade Fox. He is joined in his quest by Shu Lien, the un-conceded love of his life. During all of this, they are introduced to Jiao Long Yu, the mysterious and beautiful daughter of a well known family. She is the mysterious link to all these tales. But through all the many subplots, this is in essence, a love story.

American Splendor

(Shari Springer Berman / Robert Pulcini; 2003)

This is the true story of Harvey Pekar, a cynical file clerk at a local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony;their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast, who years later, finds international success for his underground comics.

Crumb's success inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book: American Splendor, a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life. First published in 1976, the comic earns Harvey cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to the sardonic Joyce Barber, a partner in a Delaware comic book store who end ups being Harvey's true soul mate. The film takes us through their bizarre experiences of Harvey's cult celebrity stature....

Everything is Illuminated

(Liev Schreiber, 2005)

Adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's best selling book, Everything is Illuminated is both a funny, quirky, and thought-provoking film. The main story is a grimly familiar one - A young Jewish American--Jonathan Safran Foer--travels to the Ukraine in the hope of finding the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his search by Alex Perchov, a naïve Ukrainian translator, Alex's grandfather (also called Alex), and the grandfather's deranged dog, named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. He has only a photograph and the name of a village. Will they find the village? This directorial debut by Liv Schreiber will leave you smiling and, most likely, scratching your head just a little bit.

ASSIGNMENT: How does the past illuminate everything? Consider both the film and your thoughts on life in response to this question. 200 words

MORE ON MARTIN.........http://www.scorsesefilms.com/

The Departed (2006)
The Aviator (2004)
Gangs of New York (2002)
Bringing out the Dead (1999)
Kundun (1997)
Casino (1995)
Age of Innocence (1993)
Cape Fear (1991)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Color of Money (1986)
Raging Bull (1980)
New York New York (1977)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Mean Streets (1974)

ASSIGNMENT: Reflect on Scorsese as a director, in regard to style, light, angle. Be sure to also mention at least one of his charcters and how they might connect to Scorsese himself.
DUE: Thursday, 5/7


Taxi Driver (1976)
Vietnam vet Travis Bickle is 26, a loner in the mean streets of New York City, slipping slowly into isolation. In solving his insomnia by driving a yellow cab on the night shift, he grows increasingly disgusted by the low-lifes that hang out at night. Travis constantly, almost obsessively, reflects on the ugly corruption of life around him, and becomes increasingly disturbed over his own loneliness and alienation. In nearly every phase of his life, Bickle remains a complete outsider, failing to make emotional contact with anyone.

His touching attempts to woo Betsy, a Senator's campaign worker, turn sour when he takes her to a porn movie on their first date. He even fails in his attempt to persuade child prostitute Iris to desert her pimp and return to her parents and school. Driven to the edge by powerlessness, he buys four handguns and sets out to assassinate the Senator, heading for the infamy of a 'lone crazed gunman'...

Casino (1995)

This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970's and '80's are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence.

MARTIN SCORSESE

After serious deliberations about entering the priesthood, Martin Scorsese opted to channel his passions into film. He graduated from NYU as a film major in 1964. He first caught the attention of Roger Corman with his 1960s student films (including co-editing "Woodstock" (1970).

Quintessential Scorsese style consists of New York settings, loners struggling with inner demons, pointed-shoes rock-meets-opera soundtracks and unrelenting cathartic violence.

GOODFELLAS (1990)

Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) admits, "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." As a boy, Henry idolized the Lucchese crime family gangsters in his blue-collar, predominantly Italian neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn, and in 1955 quit school and went to work for them. The local mob capo, Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) (based on the actual Lucchese mobster Paul Vario) and Cicero's close associate Jimmy Conway (De Niro) (based on Jimmy Burke) help cultivate Henry's criminal career......

The Godfather
(Francis Ford Coppola; 1972)

“Don’t ever take sides against the family.”
The film begins at the wedding of Don Vito Corleone's daughter Connie to Carlo Rizzi in late summer of 1945, on Long Island, New York. The Don's youngest son Michael, who has returned from World War II service as a highly decorated war hero, does not intend to become part of his father's business.

Don Vito lives his life in the way of the old country, but times are changing and some don't want to follow the old ways and look out for community and "family". An up and coming rival of the Corleone family wants to start selling drugs in New York, and needs the Don's influence to further his plan. The clash of the Don's fading old world values and the new ways will demand a terrible price, especially from Michael, all for the sake of the family.

KUBRICK REFLECTION
Reflect on the style and talent of director, Stanley Kubrick.
Some questions to consider:
- What did impressed you the most about this director?
- What are his views and interests on society/humantity?
- How would you describe Kubrick's style?
- What did you like/dislike about his films? (Full Metal Jacket; Dr. Strangelove;
A Clockwork Orange; The Shining)

Dr. Strangelove or:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964): U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper goes completely and utterly mad, and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R. He suspects that the communists are conspiring to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people. The U.S. president meets with his advisors, where the Soviet ambassador tells him that if the U.S.S.R. is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a "Doomsday Machine" which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. Peter Sellers portrays the three men who might avert this tragedy: British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, the only person with access to the demented Gen. Ripper; U.S. President Merkin Muffley, whose best attempts to divert disaster depend on placating a drunken Soviet Premier and the former Nazi genius Dr. Strangelove, who concludes that "such a device would not be a practical deterrent for reasons which at this moment must be all too obvious." Will the bombers be stopped in time, or will General Jack Ripper succeed in destroying the world ?






A Clockwork Orange (1971):
Protogonist Alex is an "ultraviolent" youth in futuristic Britianwhose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven. In the world of the novel and film, youth violence is a major social problem, and Alex represents a typical—though highly successful—teenager. He dresses in the “heighth of fashion,” frequents all of the popular hangouts, and is the undisputed leader of his gang. Ultimately Alex's luck eventually runs out and he's arrested and convicted of murder and rape. While in prison, he agrees to try "aversion therapy" to shorten his jail sentence, and is thus brainwashed to be proper citizen of society. "Cured," he has become adverse to violence and is eventually let out of jail only to find a world of rejection.....


Unforgettable images, startling musical counterpoints, the fascinating language used by Alex and his pals - Kubrick shapes them into a shattering whole. Hugely controversial when first released, A Clockwork Orange won the New York Film Critics Best Picture and Director honors and earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The power of its art is such that it still entices, shocks, and holds us in its grasp.







The Shining (1980):
A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotel's past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining." Along with writer's block and the demons of the hotel haunting him Jack has a complete mental breakdown and the situation takes a sinister turn for the worse......

Full Metal Jacket
(Stanley Kubrick; 1987)

This film takes a look at the effect of the military mindset and war itself on Vietnam era Marines.
A two-segment story that follows young men from the start of recruit training in the Marine Corps to the lethal cauldron known as Vietnam.....

The first segment follows Joker, Pyle and others as they progress through the hell of USMC boot-camp at the hands of the foul-mouthed Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second begins in Vietnam, near Hue, at the time of the Tet Offensive. The men face threats such as ambush, booby traps, and Viet Cong snipers as they move through the city.

The combat film, or war film genre, is the most prevalent and often used genre in most films produced in the 21st century.....

"The war film genre is also referred to as the anti-war film genre, since some of the war films do not only discuss war sentiments, but anti-war sentiments as well. War as a film genre ?often acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting (against nations or humankind) provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film. Furthermore, war films can also be paired with other film genres, wherein the topic of war can be interspersed with comedy, drama, or romance as a co-or sub-genre of the film.

All Quiet on the Western Front (Delbert Mann; 1979): Paul Baumer is a young German who, along with his graduating high school classmates, enlist in the German Imperial Army during the First World War. Originally thinking war would be a great adventure, Paul and his friends discover exactly the opposite as the war drags on and one by one the members of the class are killed in action until only Paul remains......

Saving Private Ryan (Steven Speilberg; 1998): Saving Private Ryan opens with a 30-minute war scene that is without a doubt one of the finest half-hours ever on film. This sequence, a soldier's-eye view of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, is amazing not only in terms of technique but in the depth of viewer reaction it uses. Spielberg doenst hold anything back to the viewer of the horrors of battle, using every way he can to show the chaos and lives that were lost.

Formulate a film analysis using the following questions for both The Usual Suspects and 12 Monkeys.

Describe setting.
Describe the exposition of plotline.
Who are the main characters?
Can the narrator be trusted (explore this question in hindsight)?
What is the conflict(s)?
What changes occur in the characters - how is their true nature revealed?
What do the characters stand to loose/gain?
What is the over-arching purpose of each film?

*This assignment may be hand written/typed. Minimum 400 words.

DUE: Friday, April 3

12 MONKEYS

(Terry Gilliam; 1996)

IS THIS THE PRESENT?

IS THIS THE PAST?

An unknown and lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and is forced to live underground. A convict reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to 1996 to gather information about the origin of the epidemic, which is thought to have been spread by a mysterious "Army of the Twelve Monkeys.”

The Usual Suspects

(Bryan Singer; 1995)

Following a truck hijack in New York, five conmen are arrested and brought together for questioning. As none of them is guilty, they plan a revenge operation against the police. The operation goes well, but then the influence of a legendary mastermind criminal called Keyser Söze is presented. It becomes clear that each one of them has wronged Söze at some point and must pay back now. The payback job leaves 27 men dead in a boat explosion, but the real question arises now: Who actually is Keyser Söze?

Police investigating an exploded boat on a San Pedro pier discover 27 bodies and $91 million worth of drug money. The only survivors are a severely burned and very scared Hungarian terrorist and Verbal Kint, a crippled con-man. Reluctantly, Kint is pressured into explaining exactly what happened on the boat. His story begins six weeks earlier with five criminals being dragged in by New York police desperate for suspects on a hijacked truck and ends with the possible identification of a criminal mastermind……

"It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.''


ASSIGNMENT: From a modern perspective, Casablanca reveals interesting assumptions of the human condition. Ilsa Lund's role is basically that of a lover and helpmate to a great man; the movie's real question is, which great man should she be with?

How does SETTING influence this struggle and ultimately the climax of this film? Please respond in at least 200 words.
DUE: Friday, 3/13

Casablanca
One of their key contributions of this great film was to show us that its main characters lived in a complex time and place. What is intriguing is that none of the major characters are bad. Some are cynical, some lie, some kill, but all are redeemed.....(see full synopsis)

The black-and-white cinematography has not aged this film as color might, and the dialogue is so spare and cynical that it has not grown old-fashioned.

Casablanca was awarded many accolades at the the Oscars in 1942, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Film Editing, Best Score.