Miller's Crossing

It didn't take long for me to decide what movie I wanted to watch for this blog post. As soon as we saw that clip of John Turturro's character being walked through the woods to get taken out, I wanted to watch the entire movie anyways. This way I killed two birds with one stone, and the film lived up to all my expectations and then some. Right out of the Prohibition years, it is a classic gangster flick that contained situations that only Micheal Corleone would feel suited to fix. But instead a smart mouthed Tom (Byrne) fits the role like a glove. Based off the novel, The Glass Key its the prefect addition to a collection with such movies as The Godfather, Knock Around Guys, and American Gangster.

The review of the movie I read to compare thoughts to was one off of http://www.cornponeflicks.org/millers.html. A review by Matt Muray. Honestly this was the first review I read so I didn't hunt around for it and yet I find myself arguing with many of his statements. He does start off the review by making an ass of himself by pretending to bark like a seal but he did it to show the enthusiasm that he has for the film. I agree with him on the fact that words can not properly describe this movie.

The undertone of the film is something that strikes fear deep inside showing the underlying evil that people possess. Much like in other films we watched in class the Coens highlight the fact that people will do what is necessary to ensure their well being. In Raising Arizona HI kidnaps a baby, and faces the dark soled character of Leanord Smalls, in Fargo the wife gets kidnapped because her husband wants to protect his own honor and has the evil presents of Gaear Grimsrud, and in No Country for Old Men $2 million drives the character to face "The Ultimate bad ass" Anton Chigurh. Miller's Crossing also has it overall evil being, Eddie Dane. He is not as evil as Anton but all four of the evil character seem to represent the evil that people are capable of. It seems to me that the Coens aren't exactly the glass half full kind of people, since even in the happiest of the movies I've listed there is an Angel of Death character. Tom himself fight what he must do to stay alive. He has a set of morals he live by and he isn't the type to kill which a sold reason creating more character development.

One thing that I disagree with Matt Muray about is he completely misses the connection that Leo and Tom had. Just speculation but I fell the film showed that the two had a long relationship together. They most likely rose to their positions of power together. Why else would Leo trust Tom as lefthand man, and treat hims with more respect then was given? This shows why Leo throws Tom out when he admit to being with his women. This drives the plot not the hunt of Bernie. If it was simple that then it would not matter whether Bernie was killed, or Tom crossing over to Caspar's side.

The last dramatic connection I made among the films was the power of the opening sense. In Raising Arizona HI character is clearly show and the bases for the plot is established in 10 minutes before the opening credits. In Fargo we see how far Jerry is willing to go to not have to be in debt to his father in law. And in No Country For Old Men Sheriff Bell give a powerful speech about the old way of the law. In Miller's Crossing we see the power Tom has in controlling the situation.

The last nondramatic thing was I noticed the emphasis on seemingly unimportant things. Like the tattoo HI and Leanord shared, of the reflection of Anton and Bell in the TV. Now in this film it was Tom's hat. It was never shown to be that important, like a gift from his father or anything significant but yet it kept coming up making me think that in every Coen brother's film there are hidden messages of seemingly unimportant things.

Well I guess I'll wrap this up before I start talking about subliminal messages coming through in those details. But I will conclude with this, If you have yet to see Miller's Crossing stand up right now and walk to your car. Now once you're there get in and don't come home until you have found a copy to watch, pop it in and get ready to be amazed.

Coen Brothers

The Coen brothers were by far the most entertaining directors we have studied so far. They grow i up right here in the thick of Minnesota and have a very unique style of film making. They don't really like to take any crap from critics which is very brave since most filmmakers die by them.

It was ridiculous that they got away with saying Fargo was based on a true story. It was a great movie that pulled me in especially since it was a Minnesota film. But if some guy wood chipped his partner in crime I feel like I would have heard about it.

All three of the films are among my all time favorites. Having never seen Raising Arizona before it is a hilarious movie that kept me laughing. Nicholas Cage is a very great actor and I really felt his character come together.

No Country For Old Men is an instant classic. Tommy Lee Jones was terrific and Anton was a terrifying angel of death. Every movie was great.

Robert Altman

Of all the films we have watched in both art of film one and two, Robert Altman's united has been the most enjoyable at least for me. With the expeption of Nashville which only really reflects my hatred of country music, both the Long Goodbye and The Player were very good movies.

I have never noticed a director using constant camera movement the way Altman did. He seems to take ideas and run them out to the end. The camera never stopped moving, but Philip never stopped smoking either. Now maybe it was just Altman showing that Phil was a character all his own but there was the constant use of the saying "It's ok with me". There is always themes repeating in the film.

Nashville was a little too ramdom for me. I never really got pulled into the plot like I did in his other films. All I saw going on was a bunch of country singers getting pulled into a political rally. There was no main story line and the character weren't very well connected in my view.

Lastly The Player. This movie was very entertaining. The entire move kept me interested, from the beginning with the threatening postcard to the end with the movie pitch of The Player. I was very unperdictable on the way it was going to end. I figured Griffin would get caught but Altman goes in a different direction, not really giving any closer.

Yojimbo

The Kurosawa film that I am choosing to write about is the samurai action film Yojimbo. I never really got where the title came from and it wasn't explained in the movie to my knowledge but still it was a great movie.

Te story itself was one that I really enjoyed, some much so that I even think I would enjoy the remake Fist Full of Dollars. The idea itself comes off as a very lone cowboy fighting the town of outlaws to clean out the riffraff and there was even the damsel in distress.

I didn't notice anything special with camera angles or shots but the use of weather in all of Kurosawa's movie to help tell the story was very cool. The wind coming back when the samurai with the gun returns to town was a very clear example of this.

I feel like the movie would have lost some of its impact on me if it were in color because the black and white really helped add to the feeling of the town being lost to the evil businessmen. And the use of sound was really interesting. Like the guy they had who was pretty much the town clock. Every time he would hit the wood together it should that there would be a battle starting, even though it was his job to yell the time he became a warning that the bloodshed was about to begin.

Young Frankenstein

The final Mel Brooks movie that my group watched was the comic interpretation on the classic Frankenstein movie (a horror movie in its day) Young Frankenstein. This movie wasn't as funny as the previous movies we watched by Mr. Brooks, Spaceballs, and Robin hood Men in Tights, but it still was entertaining enough o keep my attention.

Sadly enough it took until this movie to even realize that Mel Brooks pretty much just write parade movies based on other successes. But the weird part is the braking the 4th wall scene in Young Frankenstein seemed out of place to me and lacked the comic effect that they were intended to cause.

Plus, I know the acting was suppose to be corny like the Abby Normal joke, and have things overdone but still i felt if that was toned down and the jokes were relevant then I feel the movie could have been much greater. The one character I did find funny was the Igor the henchman, the clearly sick minded and crude humor reminded me of a young me.

But that is just my opinion, the movie was a success so it must have something going for it it missed.

Vertigo

I really enjoyed this unit to start the new class off with. I've always known of Alfred Hitchcock but could never add anything to a conversation about him other then he is a famous British director who created a famous horror movie named The Birds, or make some clever joke about the combined words of hitch and cock (which by the way, got millions).

But now that I have watched three of his movies and have gotten over the obvious jokes about hitches I have to say they were surprisingly good. I'm not really one for the older movies, usually never having seen them but now that I've had the chance I must say Vertigo has had a lasting impression. The way Hitchcock portrayed the dream scene with the head spring and the background changing. Which has now been made into a joke effect was very effective in the movie.

Hitchcock was clearly one of the greatest director and I will definitely remember these movies.

So a man walks in on his wife having relations with another man, and the man says sorry I didn't know she was married, turning to address the man. But I am the best. To this the husband replied so I see you want a man that's more cocky.

Couldn't help it.

Robinhood Men in Tights

This movie was a hilarious follow up movie to watch from Mel Brooks the constant humor following the humor used in Space balls made it a perfect fit.

This was basically another parody movie that Mel Brooks made of the famous Robin Hood story but instead it was filled with hilarious situations and many of what could be considered "stupid humor".

I of course find it hilarious like the way that Brooks has his characters address the cameras almost making fun of the fact that it is a movie. And the stupid unnecessary jokes.

Plus the way that Brooks uses editing and cuts to add to the humor by showing reaction shots is great.

This man clearly know how to work a camera and an audience.