Good Will Hunting

Being one of my favorite movies, this one was very easy for me to sit through.  I actually even teared up a little when Will started crying.  It happens.  This is a great movie for so many reasons.  So much better than that stupid Titanic crap.  I am in utter disbelief that Titanic won the Oscar over Good Will Hunting.  Its sick.  

So you have Will, boy genius.  Is he happy though?  He certainly makes it seem like he is.  He doesn't want to go anywhere with his life, because he is "happy."  Doubtful.  As Sean unveils, he is anything but happy with his lifestyle.  He is scared.  This shows us how even if an individual is a genius, they can still be stunted.  They haven't had a chance to live life to the fullest for the simple reason that their mind has had too many things flying through it for the past 20 years.

Will starts to get happy with Skylar, and instantly he pulls away from her because he doesn't want her to drop him.  He thinks that he is protecting her, or himself even, and really he is just making the situation more difficult.  Both of them were completely miserable while they were apart.

Every movie needs a hero, you might say.  There is always going to be somebody that comes in and saves the day, takes the climax of the movie, and throws it in the proper direction.  Who was the proverbial hero for Good Will Hunting?  Most would probably say Sean was the hero.  I'm not saying that this is entirely incorrect.  Sean helped him grow in many ways that he had been needing for years.  This is definitely something that helped push Will in the right direction, towards Skylar and California.  But what actually did it?  What probably had the biggest influence on Will leaving?  Ben Affleck.  Who would have thought that this two bit actor (look at his other movies and tell me I'm wrong) would be the person to turn Will around.  "If you're still here in 20 years, i'm going to _______ kill you."  Here are some of the most powerful words in the entire movie.  Will's best friend is basically telling him to get the hell out of Dodge.  He tells him that it would be a slap in the face if he were still here, and that Will owes it to him and the other two of the gang to take this opportunity and be done with the manual labor.  Just like Sean says, these guys are his best friends because they would in a heartbeat take a bullet for him, smash somebody's face in for Will.  So here is Chuckie, the best friend, the one who is the most devoted, and he is telling Will to leave.  This is, without a doubt in my mind, the most determining factor for Will.  Chuckie ends up being the hero.

On to the dorkier parts of the review (no offense Mike!).  The cut the we viewed in class was in a 1.85:1 ration wide-screen, or American wide-screen format.  I don't know what other people think of the subject, but as far as I'm concerned, I think that viewing a film at Standard screen, 1.33:1, takes the movie experience out of the film completely.  You know what I mean by the movie experience.  You've got the popcorn, the soda, maybe even some Milkduds, and if you're lucky, a beautiful girl cuddled up in your arm.  So the only thing that can cheapen this is if you are even more removed from the movie theatre experience by having to watch in Standard screen, full screen as I know it.  If you're not actually in a movie theatre, you want it to be as realistic as possible, and the screen format plays into this just as much as a nice television and surround sound.  The film stock was a smooth-grain, as this movie was not intensely contrasted, but more blended and subtle.

Good Will Hunting told a story of man vs. self.  Throughout the entire movie, whether it was evident til the end or not, Will was fighting his inner demons.  He had plenty of people around him, trying to help him out, and he finally fought through the challenges presented inside his head.  It had a heavy Focus on Character theme.  This made the movie very much just about Will.  Even the title, Good Will Hunting.  What does this suggest?  Does it say that Will has been a rebel his entire life, and only through the help of his friends, does he become good?  This is open to interpretation.

The only real set in the movie that we were able to become familiar with was Sean's office.  This is where most of the learning took place.  I think that Van Sant did this intentionally.  By doing this, he made the viewer sit up in their seat every time that two duo were in the office, as they knew that something important was about to happen.  Rarely was the viewer let down.  Van Sant shot the entirety of the film in an Objective point of view.  The angles never really changed all that much, and we felt like we were the viewers the entire time, as opposed to feeling as if were were in the movie, part of the film.  The camera angles were generally straight-on, so as to not distract the viewer from what was being said and taking place.

Let it be argued, but this film definitely should have taken home the most coveted Oscar of 1997.  It was a great film that showed how somebody who is so strong can still be torn apart by his/her inner demons.  The idea in this movie is that everybody has flaws, and more importantly, everybody can work through said flaws.  Kudos to Damon and Affleck for this masterpeice

Casablanca

It was very interesting to watch a movie from 1942 as the first film of our time together in class.  Casablanca is highly regarded as one of the best films ever created.  I think, however if it had been released in a later time, they would have to beef it up considerably.  People these days need a lot more than just a story-line.  For instance, look at how different the second trilogy installation of Star Wars differ from the first installation.  Obviously, they were able to do a lot more with special effects and such, but in doing so they covered up the fact that a lot of the story-line was lacking.  The plots of the first three Star Wars were much more in depth and thought out, and the last three had less story and more action.  The reason that I'm babbling about this is because i think that, even though it may not seem right, Casablanca would have to do the same to find such success in the media these days, or else it would be looked over by the general population as boring, people wouldn't want to "waste" their time with arguably the best movie ever made.

I think that Bogart especially played his character very well as Rick Blaine.  He had a very rough exterior.  He wouldn't help out his so-called friend Ugarte to get away from the cops, who eventually ended up dead because he had absconded with the letters which would allow others to leave Casablanca for America.  I think that Rick knew the importance of these letters that Ugarte had entrusted him with, and that is the only reason that he had held onto them.

Then comes Elsa.  She acted as a drug to completely transform the character of Rick.  As soon as he sees her, the tension starts building.  A blind person could listen to the movie and pick up on the tension in Rick's voice as he comes into the room telling Sam, "Sam, I thought I told you to never play this....."  There is recognition in his voice as he talks to Elsa.  Bogart played his part so well, and he is deserving of going down in history with this role.

There are many things about this movie that were different from films we generally watch these days.  First and foremost, it was black and white.  I would imagine that this wasn't a choice, but I still liked it because it makes the viewer use their imagination even more.  A great black and white movie is Schindler's list, when finally the little girl in the red dress comes onto the scene.  It directs all the attention in the audience to her immediately.  Very smart.  Another difference that I noticed, only a few times, was the lighting.  Instead of cutting from one character to the other when they were not in the same shot, they would show the character's shadow.  I thought this was a very Hitchcock-esque procedure (I do realize that his movies were made after Casablanca).

So the tension is building the entire movie, and the character's of the individuals are coming out more and more.  Sam has been shown to not only be an employee of Rick's, but also a friend.  I was quite surprised by the end of the movie that Captain Renault had lied about the death of the agent that Rick had shot.  Minutes before, he was ready to arrest Rick, then he sees Rick's master plan and that he had done such a selfless act, the he decided to look past the fact that he had just murdered an individual to let the love of his life leave him forever.

The character development as the end got closer was great.  If I hadn't seen Out Cold (which uses essentially the same love-story story-line), I would have never guessed that Rick was going to make Elsa leave with Lazlo.  He really surprised me with that, which doesn't happen all that much anymore since all movies have little twists in them which are truly predictable.  This twist, however was not.

As I watched the movie, I wasn't terribly moved by it.  These days, we see tons of movies that are very moving, so why would this be any different?  But writing this blog has forced me to look a little deeper and to realize that this movie is extremely emotionally investing, and its no wonder that so many other movies use lines from it, or use the story-line in different ways.

On The Waterfront

Well, this week we watched another doozy.  You told us at the beginning of class that you didn't think a lot of us would like it.  Since I generally like movies that are very abstract, I thought that I wouldn't fit into the crowd that you were referring to.  I am still not entirely sure what side of the fence I am on, so I guess that means that I am riding that bad boy.  So here is my analysis: I don't know.

My evaluation now. . .  I thought that Brando was very deserving of his award that he won.  The character that he played fits into the group of the all-time great performances for the simple reason that he underwent an immense character development.  Tell me I'm wrong, I don't care (unless you take points away..), what makes a great performance to me is a convincing portrayal of character development.  If the character never changes, then why the hell are we watching?!  We, as the audience, want to be captivated by a character who is multi-dimensional, always surprising us and changing their ways, causing us to shift in our seats with excitement.  Brando, playing the role of Terry Mulloy, completely conquered this aspect of film-making.  He started off as a tough, sometimes smartass boxer who, like everybody else in the film, looked out for himself.  Of course, when the girl comes around, Edie, he starts acting differently because he is in love.  Love drives him to going to the church for the small rebel alliance-esque meeting, and love drives him to confessing to calling out Tony.  This one is a little tricky, because from the naked eye it seems that Father Barry is the one who brought this out of him, but indirectly I think that it had to do with Edie.

This movie is great (yes, I have decided that I do indeed like it) because it fits so many different molds, which makes it enjoyable to a larger population.  First off, it focuses on the character.  The development of Terry is as important as anything else in this film.  Secondly, it focuses on ideas.  It focuses on moral implications, which is when Terry is torn as to what he should do, what side he should be on.  It focuses on social problems, obviously with the plot surrounding such problems with the union, which point directly at what was more likely than not actually going on in the country at the time.  Lastly, it focuses on the struggle for human dignity.  Terry was a boxer, but due to betting he had to throw fights when he knew that he could have just as easily won.  "I want to be somebody," he says.  More than once, he is referred to as a bum, and to him, this is as bad as somebody insulting his mother.