Extra Credit (Please) : More Than a Game

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More Than A Game

       When thinking to do an extra credit post, I was thinking that I want to incorporate something that was in the last couple of chapters, plus the projects. I do not even know if this will count, it is just I want to raise my grade from a 89%. I chose to do More Than A Game, a documentary of a superstar, Lebron James. This film shows discipline, gives inspiration and gives hope to everyone who watches this film. I think this is what the director was aiming to do for this film.

            The first thing I will analyze is how the show shows discipline. This show gives many situations of discipline. All the way growing up, Lebron and his traveling basketball AAU basketball team were the best. AAU is like tournaments throughout the country for like all-stars from each state. They were the best, until they went to a national tournament. They went to the championship, but then lost to a team, who they would face in the future again. Knowing they aren’t the best, their coach disciplines them a lot more. He tells them they are the best, if they play with each other. After this point, they grow up playing disciplined basketball. They went on to win three out of four state championships in Lebron’s four year varsity career. It shows what disciplined basketball can do. This is a message for all. This just doesn’t portray for basketball, but can be incorporated into everyday life.

            This movie also gives inspiration and hope for all of its viewers. There are many times this films shows these things, but the biggest message it shows is, work like the best, and you can be the best. Lebron and his team mates worked hard growing up, and they became the best

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in Ohio. Out of the starting five, one went professional in basketball, three went to play basketball overseas, and one is debatably the best player in the National Basketball League. Dream big, and you will succeed if you work big.

            I don’t even know if this extra credit posts counts, but please count it. I am at an 89%, and I would love to get closer or possibly get that 90%. Thank you for your time and thank you for letting me join late. I think you did more work a week than I did dealing with all of my late work. Thanks again.

           

All the President's Men

All the President’s Men

            I absolutely loved this movie. I like movies that talk about something in the past. This movie was about the Watergate Scandal with President Richard Nixon. This was a historic event that many people don’t know about. Many young kids do not know about this, but they most definitely should. Who shapes what we think about is a key question in this chapter?

The thing that shapes what I think is that it was something that was a terrible tragedy that could have been a lot worse than it was. This is a real brain teaser though because Woodward and Bernstein try and uncover the details about the Water gate scandal. Which eventually lead to President Nixon’s resignation. Like I said many people do not know that Nixon even resigned. He is lucky he resigned, or he would have been impeached by congress. I liked this movie a lot because it is educational and entertaining at the same time. This usually doesn’t happen.

The Cider House Rules

The Cider House Rules

            What shapes what we think about is a key question in this chapter. But with this movie, just the message being portrayed makes me think about things. Even though Homer was an orphan, he still didn’t let that keep him down. He became one of the favorites one of the directors’ favorite orphans. Director Larch was a very well educated man in the medical field. With Homer being his favorite, he enlightened him with his medical knowledge. Homer became a very educated and well skilled physician because of this. But he did not want to be that. But this movie makes me think of Pearl Harbor in the fact that Homer and Candy hooked up when Wally went to war. But then Wally came back. It makes me think that adultery is such a bad thing. It will come and snip you in the butt no matter what. I liked this film a lot because of the story of Homer. Never looked down and kept pushing.

The Graduate

The Graduate

            My emotions about this movie was mixed. Because I watched this movie right after the Dark Knight, I did not like it that much. Probably because the Dark Knight is such a good movie, and this didn’t live up to it. But I did like the story line of it. I like the sneekyness when Ben and Mrs. Robinson snook off to the hotel to have their affair. This made the movie interesting right from the beginning because the suspense of them getting caught was always there. The main topics from the chapter, which are color, sound effects, acting, and flashback, were a lot harder to analyze since it is an older movie, but I found some good abstract things. I will be talking about color and acting in this post.

            The main color in this movie was kind of like dull, so I could tell right away that it is an older movie. But the abstract thing that I caught from this movie was the clothing of Mrs. Robinson. She is shown wearing black most of the movie, which portrays confidence and power. It also shows the sign of seductiveness when she is wearing black lingerie. She is shown in a black dress, black and white hat, and black lingerie. When she tells Ben to unzip her black dress, it reveals black lingerie. Right here you can see both confidence and power. I can tell that my ability to analyze a movie has gotten better because of this class because I would never have been able to pick this out of a movie before!

            The acting, also like the Dark Knight, made this movie good. The best actor I thought was Anne Bancroft, who played the role of Mrs. Robinson. She acted the part perfectly, and she made the movie good. The power and confidence was portrayed not only through her clothing, but by her attitude. Overall I thought this was a good film. O wish I did not watch it right after the Dark Knight so I did not have to rate them automatically.

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight

            I’m going to start off by saying that the choice of this film for this part of the book, was absolutely perfect! It had everything that the chapters were explaining. I have to say that this is one of my all time favorite movies, and I am glad you picked it for that reason too. But while reading, I took the main topics from each chapter. These are Color, Flashback, Sound Effects, and Acting. I will explain later in this blog how the movie incorporates into each of these major categories.

            Color will be the first one. The best thing I saw for color was on the actors the joker, and the batman. The joker has many colors on him that can tell you he is a bad guy even before he does an disastrous things. These things are his green hair, bright orange shirt, purple coat, bright red lips, and the most important is his make-up. His make-up is half on, half off, and it depicts that he is a dark person up to no good. Next is the batman. He is a little harder to explain, but he has a dark blue suit. But his suit has a little yellow tint to it, so it gives him the look of somewhat of a Greek theology god is the way I think of it.

            Sound effects were a huge part of the movie. The two best parts for this was all the explosions, and the jokers laugh. Hearing the jokers laugh just gives me the chills. The best part of the movie was the acting though. Heath Ledger, r.i.p., made this film as good as it is. He had to get into such a twisted character that it would be way to hard for myself, and all of the other actors out there.

            For flashbacks, I thought hard about it and I didn’t really see any. But why I thought hard was there is one that is in there, but we are not taken back to the past. When the joker says, “Wanna know how I got these scars,” takes the audience back by themselves. For me at least, it made me go back and think of his childhood. We as the audience get to depict a picture of his past. I thought that was pretty cool.

Momento

Momento

            After watching a movie in straight subtitles the whole time, I thought thtat this movie would be a lot easier to analyze, but boy was I wrong. I pay more attention while reading the subtitles, like I am actually in the movie. It is similar to court side seats at a basketball game. You’re so close to it, it seems like you’re in the game. This movie was a lot harder to realize the theme and plot because there are many ways to look at it, but the color was very easy to see.

            I will start off with the color. I could cheat and use the one that a student used on the discussion part on the class website, but I will not. I am going to reference the flashbacks as the use of color in the movie. Whenever the movie refers to one of Leonard’s flashbacks, the color changes and it is always in black and white. I believe the reason for this is that he is referring to an older time of his life, and it being in black in white makes the viewers realizes that it is in a past time. But this is where it gets complicated. While watching these flashbacks, I cannot tell if it is a good time he remembers, or an experience that has shaped the person he is today because it shows a little bit of both.

            For theme, I believe it is telling the viewers to not to take memory for granted. With Leonard’s disadvantage he is disabled in a couple categories, but he always refers to his memory. I think that this is trying to portray the message that you just have to find your happy place, and usually this will be from a past experience and you will have to look back on it. Some people have diseases so they cannot remember their past, and we need to realize that our memory is not just a storage place. This is where the plot come in. the plot works up to this as saying just because someone has a disadvantage, doesn’t mean they can’t do something. You just you to use what you have, like your memory.

Amelie

Amelie

            Before watching this film, I was noticed that it was in subtitles and it received 3.5-5 stars, so I knew it was going to be a good movie. Realizing this, I was not too excited because I thought that I would be too focused in the subtitles, to even analyze the movie well. But to my surprise it was easier than I thought. There were a couple times that I had to rewind the movie because I would catch something but not fully grasp the concept. But while analyzing this movie, I understood a couple things: theme, plot, scenery and color.

            While looking for the theme, I was trying hard to see the message portrayed in this film, but it came easy and I didn’t even have to search hard. What message I got from this movie is helping people changes lives, both the person doing the helping and the one getting helped. When Amelie finds the treasure and decides to return it, changes her life right then and there. If I were me, I would not have gone through all of the trouble, and I would have kept it. But after she returns the treasure, she continues to help people. She found her calling in life and It was to help people. This gives her a feeling of needing in the world. It was also like the first thing she does away from her very overprotective parents. If I were to do this, I would want people to know it was me that is helping people. Yes I like the feeling of helping other, but I also like getting recognized for what I have done. This is not the case for her. She does all of this helping people, but she stays hidden.

            Next is the plot. I think of this as the building steps for the theme. The biggest thing I think that was the motivation for Amelie was her parents. They were so overprotective and didn’t allow here to go to school or even have friends, made her realize other people are miserable, and she can help them and herself at the same time. I would never be able to live with parents like this. Me and m parents are very close and I could not imagine growing up not liking my parents. I did not notice much color in the movie but the biggest thing I saw about color is that she is sometimes the “brightest” in the film. What I mean is the movie is kind of dark, but she is always wearing something that stands out. When I noticed it, it was her earrings. A movie in subtitles was not hard at all. It actually helped me realized things in a movie that I would not have before. I think it is because in a normal English movie, I pay attention, but I can use my ability to hear to analyze so I don’t have to concentrate as much. But with subtitles, I had to be focused the whole time.

The Kig's Speech

The Kings Speech

            I chose to use the same film making ideas for this blog as the previous blog, so I can compare the two. I really enjoyed this movie for many reasons, but the main reason that it was very humorous, but very serious at the same time. I think this film was a little easier to analyze as well.

            Unlike the previous movie, I can see action very easy. The best action that I enjoyed was when the king was getting his troops ready for battle. This relates to me because it reminds me of my high school basketball coach doing his pre-game speech. They relate because both the king and my coach try to get their team pumped up to get ready to win the battle. Two different meanings of battle, but it have the same concept. This also brings suspense. The suspense mainly came when the king finally steps up with his new voice and became a leader that the people could trust.

            The significance of the title is very clear in this movie. The king starts out with a speech impediment, and it seems like helping him and curing it is almost impossible. But the significance is that ‘the speech” is referring to the final speech. The king had to fight through a battle of his own, and he conquered that quest. This speech impediment also brings conflict into the picture. But when the speech therapist sits in the kings chair, and the king blew up on him, is where I realized that this guys was ready for battle.

Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting

            While reading and going through chapter 3, I read many film making vocabulary/ideas. But the biggest ones I saw, and that I can relate are: suspense, significance of title, and conflict. In this blog I will be going through all of them. They were not hard at all to find while watching the movie, it was harder to try to keep up with the movie while writing.

            The first one is suspense. When I think of suspense, I think of things that I would never expect. So in this film, the biggest twist to me was that the janitor was actually very educated in the science and mathematics area. I thought since Will Hunting was a janitor, he was not very well educated, but boy was I wrong!

            Next is significance of the title. The first time I read the title, I thought that it was going to be a movie about the sport of hunting. I think that the significance is that he gives up so much for what he loves. He does it for the good of the idea, not for the money. This is where conflict incorporates in with this.

Having the opportunity to go somewhere else, and have a better paying job, but turning it down for his wife, construction job, and to stay in his childhood neighborhood. Yes all these things mean a lot to me, but the way I look at it is your wife could come with, He would get a better job, and he could start a new experience at a new neighborhood.

From analyzing this film, I thought very hard on what the theme and plot was. But after thinking hard about it, I think the movie tries to get the idea across not to judge people, and do not underestimate them. The most famous people now a day’s did not have anything before they started. Kind of like this story.

On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront

            When deciding what to do, man factors come to mind. But the main two that come to mind is lie and take the easy way out and not get in trouble, and the other is to use morals and tell the truth and suffer the consequences. In the film, a man named Terry Malloy is faced with this situation. The decision to tell the truth is always good, but the effects may affect many people. As in the movie, many people would lose their job since the head of the corporation is the mastermind behind it all. I truly think this is the main theme of the movie: even if it’s hard, use morals and make the right decision.

            Starting this movie, along with Casablanca, I had many prejudices. First of all I had the thought that these are old movies and they are going to be terrible. But the book helped me get past this prejudice. Since it was an old movie, it brought many more thoughts. One big that the booked helped me was that do not go into a movie with high expectations, because if it is too high, you can only receive disappointment. So I went into this movie with the expectations low, so it could only get better. The second prejudice I had was personal bias. I usually do not watch these kinds of movies. I look past the quality of the movie and look at the message that is trying to be portrayed, so I can use it in my everyday life.

I also went into this movie well prepared. I read the information about the movie, so I well informed of what it was going to be about. This helps so you can start to put the puzzle together right away from the begging. But from being well prepared, and looking past the prejudices, it was actually a really good film.

Casablanca

Casablanca

While watching Casablanca and trying to relate it to the chapters, I looked through and decided to focus on the characters and relate them to my life. While watching this film, I picked out one main character: Rick Blaine, owner of Rick’s Café American I believe it is called. From what I have comprehended from this move, is that he starts the movie as a prick and shows no respect to everyone. He also thinks that everyone is wrong and it’s his way or the highway pretty much. I picked this character because he reminds me of a friend I met here at the University of Mary.

This friend’s personality seemed to come out like he thinks he is better then everyone. But you got to learn about people because he could just have a sense of humor like that, or it could have been from past experiences. For my friend, he just has a sense of humor, but for Rick Blaine, it is from his past experiences. As you can see from one the flashbacks while he was in Paris, when he was a child he was called Richard. But when IIsa stood him up at the train station, it altered his life and he suffered from depression.

But at the end of the film I saw that  he was not cold hearted and mean, he was simply broken hearted from what had happened. Kind of like the “A Christmas Carol.” As I learned from the movie, there are reasons why people act the way they do. I learned to try to evaluate the theme. From the chapter, it is easier to watch movies that I usually do not like to watch. Some things that help is not have prejudice because the movie was old, and also watch the movie from beging to end. Some movies make it that the beginning of the movie is less intense to make it a good ending. Overall I thought it was a good movie with the help from the book.