Coen Bros.

The Coen Bros. are some very interesting directors and I loved all 3 of their movies. One thing thorugh out all 3 films that stood out to me the most was how all of them showed the american dream in some way. First in Raising Arizona we see the american dream of wanting to start a family. When H.I. and Edwina find out that they can't have a baby they end up going out and stealing one to raise instead. In both Fargo and No Country for Old Men the american dream is shown of wanting to be rich and have money. In Fargo this is shown when Jerry Lundegaard has he wife kidnapped so that her father will pay the ransom moeny. In No Country for Old Men when Llewelyn finds the briefcase filled with money from the drug deal gone bad.

Altman Reaction

An important scene from The Long Goodbye would have to be the opening introduction to the film. We learn a lot about Marlowe's character right at the start with how he reactions with the cat. We see that he is a very laid back person that pretty just goes along with whatever is going on. When his cat only wants a certain kind of cat food and the cat won't eat anything else. He has to make a trip to the market to get some. While on his way out he is stopped by the neighbors that talk him into to getting them some brownie mix at the store. Overall Marlowe is just a very calm and cool person.

Apocalypse Now

So this movie takes place during the Vietnam War. The movie starts with us looking at a jungle with a bunch of trees. We see a chopper fly across it and seconds later the trees burst in to flames from an explosion. We then shift to our main character Captain Willard and he is in his room drunk and in kind in a trance. He starts going around the room and starts to do weird karate moves and stuff. While in his trance he ends up punching a mirror and ends up cutting his hand. Anyways Captain Willard is called in by a general and is given orders to find and kill a man named Colonel Kurtz. After looking over the files that he is given Willard learns that Colonel Kurtz was a very decorated officer and had received many awards. He was also about to be promoted. Captain Willard is told by the General that Kurtz has gone crazy and they have lost contact with him. Kurtz is believed to be in the jungle somewhere. Captain Willard takes a patrol boat with an rather interesting crew in search of Kurtz. While on the boat Willard take more time to study Kurtz's file and learns that Kurtz has become the leader of a bunch of followers some of whom are his fellow soldiers.

So the ending is kind of an interesting scene. Willard slowly appears out of the water and he is wearing camouflage paint and it is lightning and thundering. At this time the tribe is preparing a water buffalo to be sacrificed. We see Kurtz standing in the doorway of the temple and then go inside. Willard ambushes one of the guards that is outside the temple and then goes inside. Kurtz is recording some stuff and is then ambushed by Willard who had a knife with him. When Willard attacks Kurtz with the knife at the same time the tribe outside starts chopping at the water buffalo sacrificing it(I sense some irony here). We then switch between these to events for a little while. It all ends with Kurtz who is on the floor bloody and dieing.

Apocalypse now I found to be a great movie. Coppola does a very good job of taking all aspects of it and rolling it into one very interesting and cool film. There was at no one time during this film that I was ever really bored the action of it kept me on the edge throughout.

Momento

Momento I found to be one of the most confusing and interesting movies that I have seen. Most movies start from the beginning and then go on from that. This movie on the other hand starts with the ending which is very odd and then goes in reverse and shows the things that lead up to it. Most of the time I found myself spending more time trying to comprehend everything that was going on and not so much really paying attention to the movie itself. So much of us are use to watching movies with the ending at the end that we are thrown off course by a movie like this. The last scene of the movie I am still not able to figure out who was really telling the truth whether it was Teddy or Leonard. I do have to give credit to the director for trying something different in a movie and presenting it in a different style then most of us are use to though.

Screwball/Romantic Comedies

Groundhog day was a really great film. I liked how he kept waking up to the same song on the radio every day trying to figure out what was going on and trying to find a way to get out of it. As time goes by and we don't know how long he has been living the same day over and over again it was funny how he was able to say when certain things would happen at any given time like when a dog would bark. He also uses this to his advantage many times throughout the movie. One of the best places we see this is when he walks up to an armored truck and knows when the guards would get distracted and is able to walk away with a bag of money. He uses this to find many ways to try and get Rita to fall in love with him and she keeps rejecting him. In the end we find that he just needed to be himself in order to get her.

Western

Once upon a time in the west in one of the best westerns I have seen in a very long time. I don't know what it is about it but it really appealed to me. Everything about that movie was just great. I think the music had a big part to play in the film. I don't know what the film would have been like without it. I found it interesting that the music for the film was actually done before the film itself was actually filmed. I found this to be very interesting because even though it was made before the film it seemed that the scenes and the music just went perfectly together. I also found the final showdown to be very intense. We finally figure out why Harmonica wanted to get revenge on Frank and where he got the harmonica from. We see Frank say "Keep your lovin' brother happy" and shuve a harmonica in Harmonica's mouth. It is then as the camera zooms out we see his brother is in a noose and Harmonica is the one keeping his brother alive. Frank has the same thing happen to him when Harmonica comes up and shuves the same harmonica in his mouth. It is at this point that Frank finally figures out who Harmonica really is right before he falls to the ground dead.

Citizen Kane

I was surprised to see what Rosebud was. I had a sense in the beginning about what it might be. When I saw the sled after Kane is taken by Thatcher and it is sitting on the ground gaining snow it stood out to me that it could be Rosebud. In the the end it is finally revealed to us as we see the sled being thrown into the fire that is was Rosebud.

I think that there was some symbolism when the sled was burning in the fire and the camera zooms in on it to show the words Rosebud as they slowly begin to burn away.This relates in a way to the life of Charles Foster Kane and how it was slowly destroyed.