Dirty Harry

At the very first scene of the movie we have a long list of the police officers that died in the line of duty. This simply shows how taught the world is, we get the idea that maybe good people cannot survive in this world, only the taught ones that will manage to keep going. However, Harry’s name is not on the list and this sorts of giving us a clue that Harry does not belong in this list of modest people. Later on the film states even clearer when we have a shot of Harry walking on the rooftop, this can be understood that Harry is way above the law.

The next thing we can easily notice is the setting. There are so many buildings in this film, contrastingly with the previous film ‘Unforgiven’ I have analyzed, which is about the old style of cowboy in western, Dirty Harry shows the new period of western therefore the setting seems to be more like an urban western style. However, there is also a scene in Dirty Harry that uses the old style of the western setting as a symbolic, it is when the bad guy in the film is getting killed. In this scene the setting of a lake, moutains and rocks is similar to the scene in Unforgiven, which is also the scene when someone is getting killed.

The main character, Harry, represents the stereotype of a rebel or a taught man. However, the film presents him as a good rebel who became like this because of the society and the environment around him that turned him into this way. Harry is the character that does not play by rules but in the end he gets the result. This ideas of him show clearly in the first sequence we see him. The first time we see Harry is when he enters the door, chewing gum and walking to the dead body. He does not even wear black suits like others serious characters in the film, his suit is rather brown or grey and it shows that he is not like others.

In conclusion, Dirty Harry is an enjoyable film to watch. The film is easy to follow and the score music is really good at building tension. Clint Eastwood did an excellent job on acting And the film is both modern and classic in a way.

Unforgiven

Unforgiven is a drama westerns film produced, directed and also starred by Clint Eastwood. Unlike his other previous films, Clint Eastwood turns Unforgiven into a strong westerns style, however the content of the film is unique and different from the westerns genre. In Unforgiven, it’s not about how a character beats up someone and then he becomes a hero. Although violence is playing  a big role of driving a story but Clint Eastwood goes for something even deeper which is about the guiltiness.

Through out the film we see scenes that support this idea of guiltiness over and over again. Most of them come right after the violence. For example in the scene where Ned Logan gives the gun to William Munny to finish up the killing cause he can’t do it by himself. At first we see the moment of hesitation in Will’s eyes, however he does receives the gun. After the gun has fired and the character is dying, the sympathetic shows out explicitly on Will’s face. He even yells at someone to give the dying kid some water. At this moment we feel that he’s regret and sorry for what he has done. He wants to help even though he knows it’s only a little tiny help.

The Act 1 of this film is obviously clear. We first see Will at his house as a clumsy pig farmer and a father of two children. We take this as his ordinary world although the film tells the truth to the audience that Will used to be a killer before. After the kid asked Will to join him,  His first reaction is refuse. However (like other movies) at the end Will joins the kid in order to solve his finance problem.
and lastly when Will, Ned and the kid are riding horses through the forest, the mood and tone of the film change a little bit and therefore we know that they are entering the new world and the journey is getting started.

9

The animated film ‘9’ directed by Shane Acker with the aid of producing by Tim Burton is based on the story about 9 rag dolls which each contains the souls of their creator. The story tends to move really fast, most of the time we see the use of fast paced, especially in the fighting scenes where the rag dolls and the machines are attaching each other.

The theme for this movie is straight, which is about survival and team work. Since each dolls contains different powers and weaknesses therefore the only way they will survive these whole situations and conflicts is for them to stay together and work as a team.

 

 

The color in 9 is so much of a Tim Burton Style which is slightly the same tone as ” the nightmare before christmas”. However, the lighting also helps give more meaning towards the character, for example, where the character 9 always holds the beacon which in a way lights up all their hopes and believes through their journey, in contrast, the machines; they are all lit up with red light source, which simplifies the death, evil, or blood.

From the information I’ve learned, the original version of 9 were meant to be a none-dialog animated film, but was later on changed to make it easier for the mass audience, never the less, from my opinion I would prefer this film to be a MOS film, because it would make the already perfected mise en scene stand out more, and shows more the work of body language.

Killer of Sheep.

Instead of making an ordinary gangster film like other movies in the mid 70s, Charles Burnett chooses to pick up on the ideas of life, family love and survival in a harsh world as his themes. The name of the film ‘Killer of Sheep’ can be simply identified as the role of the main character in the film, Stan, who works at the slaughterhouse as a killer of sheep. On the other hand if we look deeper in an abstract way, the sheep can be symbolized as the innocence.

The story begins with the scene of the boy getting beat up, the father then comes in and says to the boy; to be a man and fight back or if the next time you come back I’ll beat you up myself. From the first dialogue, it shows that not only the adults that are living in a harsh world, even the kids are living it too. And because we never see this boy again further in the film, it can suggest that the boy is Stan, the main character which has grown up and became the actual killer of sheep who works at the slaughterhouse.

The use of slow pace in this film allows the audience to feel the repetition or the routine in each characters’ lives. Through out the whole film there is no character development or solutions to their problems, however, despite the fact that the characters are living in a harsh world; they also tend to find a way to appreciate the little details in their lives, for example, in the scene where  Stan and his friends are holding cups against their cheeks to feel the warmth from the cups, as well as the scene where the daughter is playing with her father and her mother looks at her in a warm passionate way.

The film ends with its name “Killer of sheep”; as it once again cuts back at the slaughter house with stan in it. Nothing has changed and this provides the idea of life just goes on.

En regardant le film [The Movie Night].

The film ‘En regardant le film’ directed by Zhang Yimou begins with the close up shot of a boy smiling, without using any dialogue we can tell that he is the main character of the film. Once he turns back the camera cuts to another shot which is the shot of the kids running to the same direction and this sort of gives a hint to the audience that something important is about to happen.

The main theme of this film is about the contrast between the old traditional life style and the civilized life style, the use of shots and camera angles helps to support the theme perfectly. For example in the scene where the out door theater is being set up, the director chooses to use only close up and medium shots to focus on the little details such as the technical elements; the screen, the speaker, the film projector etc. At the same time we can also see reactions and emotions of the kids in the village through these types of shot as well.

The use of wide shot in En regadant le film is rare to find, there are only 2-3 wide shots that are shown in the film, however each of them does state out clearly about how the lives of these people in the village is like. They live in the middle of nowhere, the hills are around them and this is the extremely important point because it allows the audience to understand how important the movie night is to these people.

Another interesting subject for this film is the color, even though the whole film is shot in color but the color appears to be grey and even greenish sometimes. I suggest the reason for this is because the director wanted the audience to get the idea of the uncivilized life there fore he avoided to use bright color which normally refers to something fresh and new.