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.

Space Balls

As a group we watched space balls directed by Mel Brooks who actually plays two parts in the movie, first as the spaceballs president, then as the wise man Yogurt. The entire movie is a spook of the Star Wars movies making fun of the entire thing. They used humor for everything, even at one point playing the movie in the movie to try and find out where the princess is. Not to mention the constant merchandise for the movie that is used in the movie, place mats, shrits, and even dolls.

I thought it was brillant how Mel Brook took this movie with the odds that it will either flop or be a hit and packed as much comedy in it as possible, making jokes whenever possible. That way it discized how corny this film could have potentially been but instead making it into a comic genuis. Plue the consistently hilarious John Candy added to the already funny plot.

Do the Right Thing

This was a very interesting movie to follow up the Battle of Algiers, in the sense that it was pretty much a complete 180 of that movie. It takes place in New York City, most likely Harlem in a mostly black community with a white owned pizzeria.

It was very unorthodox in the fact that there was no real main character. Mookie the pizza delivery boy was one of the people followed around but this movie didn't really focus on him, instead it focused on many people that ended up bight tied together in the plot at the end.

On of the main issues in the movie was racism. There is racism towards, whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Vietnamese. Basically everyone is experiencing some form of racism. Since Sal's is a white owned store in a dominantly black neighborhood Sal himself is viewed as a racist in some of the black customer's eyes. He is accused because of the fact that there were no pictures of black people on the wall and a few people started to boycott the restaurant. The person accusing is viewed as a racist because he makes such a big deal that black people aren't represented on the wall.

So in the end the racism gets the best and the cops kill a black guy and all hell breaks loss. The restaurant is burned tot he ground and Sal is forced out of the neighborhood because of that. When he tries to make a mends with Mookie Mookie is rude in return, showing the the issue is not solved.

Battle of Algiers

This was a very powerful and deep movie. I can see why the pentagon used it to see the inside of a terrorist organization, since it is based around the FLN, and the France government trying to dissemble it by taking out the leaders. The analogy of the terrorist being like a tape worm were you can pick off the bottom as much as you want but it won't be solved until you remove the head.

Even though the movie was entirely in subtitles and was hard to read from the back of the room the heavy plot of the movie and tensions felt from the characters in the film. There was no real hero and villain, but instead both sides had their moments where you felt sympathetic for their side and other moments where you couldn't help but feel like they were evil.

My overall feel for the film was that the Algiers, and the FLN in particular were pretty much the typical terrorist group, for lack of a better term. They could be viewed as the protagonist at times but they were also blowing you Innocent people. They would bomb anywhere no matter if the people in the place were oppressors or not. They would kill anyone for their cause. But as the saying goes, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

The French took a darker side showing them use torture to get information and intimidate the people with their army. Also at the end using six sticks of dynamite to blow up I think it was three people and a child. A little over done if you ask me.

But all in all I found this to be a very good movie and would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind subtitles. As I said this is a very powerful film.