Reviews

The Whole Shootin' Match was such a strange movie to me. The characters were so crazy. You have this very sweet woman who just wants to be a good wife and loving mother but her husband is a crazy jerk man and his cousin is trying to woo her. Then there is the just goofy guy that is just going with life doesn't ask for a lot and doesn't need a lot but he is full of the inventive ideas and just really wants to make a patent on something. He is an entrepreneur. The goofy man and the jerk man are best friends and both struggling financially. They are constantly looking for jobs that are going to lead them to lots of money but keeping failing at every attempt. It is quite depressing actually when the man cannot even buy his own son a new bike after his other one gets stolen. These people are very poorly educated and it shows. The entrepreneur finally comes up with a great invention and takes it to go have it produced but he is naïve and gets screwed over by the dirty business upper class men. He tries to go and get back what is rightfully his but the man has good expensive lawyers working for him and even some big body guards and the two country bumpkin men just can't compete with that so they are forced to just give up and try and find their money elsewhere. This movie is very depressing and you just wish that they would finally be cut a break somewhere but the reality is that they are not and that is how it would be probably if this situation did occur in real life. It is a tough world to make it in and this movie does and awesome job portraying the struggles of two men's lives.

Simon del Desierto was a very different movie to me. Interesting though. I found many parts funny. Comedy is always good to have in film. It also relayed a neat message. This man stands on this pillar for days, weeks, even months just barely eating and drinking only taking in enough to survive. He is trying to be as close to God as possible. To be sinless for the most part. But as he is up on his pillar praying and fasting and just trying to lead the people to do a Jesus would he is constantly being tempted by the devil. The devil reveals himself to the man in many forms. Coming once as a seductive woman trying to get into his thoughts and make him surrender himself to her but he prays to get this devil away from him and his prayer is answered and the devil turns into its true form which was a dirty, nasty, old hag lady. The devil never stops though coming up with different plans of making this man mess up all he is working for. He even posses one of the other clergy men and puts poison into the man on the pillars food but he is caught again and the pillar man orders the devil leave the man and he is cast out of that guys body in and exorcist kind of manner. It is very creepy. But then there comes a time when it seems like his prayers were not answered and all of the sudden he is on a skyscraper in like New York at a party sipping on a drink and the devil is there with him in the form of another attractive lady. That is the part in where it kind of lost me but over all this movie was pretty interesting.

Chungking Express I found to be slightly creepy but cute in a way. It is about a love story. There was lots of commotion and running around in the streets. I got a little confused but I could see the love story in it and it made me feel good. This was one of those movies I did not quite follow very well but by the time I left the screening I felt good because it was a happy movie. It was cute kind of charming but also weird how she would express her feelings to this boy. But it was also very creepy in how she would sneak in his place an d change things all up and switch out the bear and stuff and he never even noticed it until the very end. That is very unrealistic and would never really happen in true life. That kind of takes away from the film a little bit for me. It kind of gave me a headache with all the chaos but it was very colorful and I really enjoyed that. The subtitles were very hard to read though. Can't keep up with a movie if you can read what is going down in the subtitles. Over all this was a very charming movie. Makes you feel good in how she found someone who loved her and would always be there. This is one of those films that gives the hopeless romantics hope. I would recommend this film to others especially over a bunch of the other ones I have had to sit and watch in this class but I definitely wouldn't be like you have to see this film it is that good. More of if you are going to have to watch these kinds of films this is one that you will not completely suffer through.

Nashville was one of the films I had to watch in my film history class and it is one of the few that I liked. It was very strange and stuff but I really enjoyed how recent this film was especially compared to the ones we've been watching. It was very refreshing in a way. It also was filmed here in America and in Nashville on top of that. I have lots of family in that area so I felt that that was very neat. This movie follows many different stories of different singers and people trying to make it in the music industry. It basically goes through their struggles and their good times when they are finally cut a break. One girl was really sad though because she just absolutely could not sing and the only reason they let her even keep trying was because she wanted to be famous and wanted to be able to sing so badly she would literally do anything to accomplish that goal. Even humiliate herself at a bar full of men. All they wanted was to see her get naked. They booed her for her poor singing but yet she did undress and give them the peep show they were after. This woman was just a sex object and she had no backbone to stand up for herself or maybe she was really just too blind to see the reality of her situation. The movie also has a sad ending with the shooting. I'm still not sure that if she died or not. They never really show that or update you on it anywhere. I mean I am pretty sure we are just supposed to assume that is what happened. This movie though was very entertaining and easy to follow. I would recommend seeing this film.

Nosferatu was not my kind of film. There was no sound or music at all. I am spoiled by the horror films today. This film was very slow and symbolic of World War Two. I was expecting a really cool kind of Dracula film and was disappointed. It was Dracula just not anything like my expectations. I would definitely not see this film again. I would not ever recommend this film to anyone either. I hate to be no negative and pessimistic in this review but I cannot help the way I feel about it. It seemed to just drag on and on and never really went any where for me. I kept zoning out. It did not hold my attention or keep my interest. It had a very sad not a feel good ending when the girl dies and the man is left alone. The only thing we had to go by was a few flash cards and it wasn't enough to keep me on top of everything that I was seeing. It was very boring to me and then with the sad ending I just didn't leave the room in a very happy mood. It was kind of quite depressing actually. This monster thing just goes around destroying and killing just about everything in its path. I am sure that I am just used to all the technologies of today and that is why I do not have very much appreciation for this film but I cannot help the era in which I was born and when this film was produced. Maybe if someone today redid it I would find it a lot more interesting and possibly even find it a great movie. You know someone should redo this old classic film. It would be very interesting to see what someone could come up with.

8 ½ is another one of the films I had to watch in this film class that I just absolutely did not like at all. I thought it was terrible and painfully hard to sit through. I did not follow not one moment of this movie. It was so terribly confusing. I definitely would not ever recommend or watch this movie ever again. It was almost like torture sitting through it. I am at a loss for words. I honestly do not know what all to put here. This movie jumped around. The man in it was some kind of man whore womanizer and was constantly getting with different women. Most of these women were just trying to score roles in his movies but I couldn't understand why they would want to do that. His films seemed to be terrible and he appeared to me to be an awful director. He even had a wife back home who was getting very tired of all his crap yet she tried to make the marriage work but he was just douche bag. I kept getting lost in places where it would flash back. I could never tell if we were in the present or in a dream or in just one of his old memories. He kept going back to being a boy and his mother taking care of him. He seemed to have grown up in a very loving family I don't understand where his bad characteristics were coming from. But maybe that was because I really just was pretty much clueless through out this whole film. I honestly do not know what the point of this film was. How would someone have even thought up something like that. It seems to me to be so crazy. This movie in my opinion was terrible.

The Seven Samurai was not one of my most favorite films in the world. I mean I sure it was good but it was not in English and it is so hard to keep up with subtitles and keep up with what is going on in the movie. I found my mind just giving up and wondering off through out the entire thing. But I must add that this was definitely not the worst film I have seen in this class. Just to watch it without trying to keep up with the titles I found myself laughing at it quite a bit. I am not sure if it was intended to be funny but the characters I found to be kind of goofy. The one guy that ran around the whole time acting kind of crazy like he was my favorite. His outfit, the loin cloth, Tarzan was very entertaining. I was sad to see him die. But at least he went out good. This movie was also very long. It could have been just a little shorter I think. In this film a town is going attacked by some bully like clan and so the people set out looking for some Samurai to come help them fight them off. They return with seven samurais. There is long fighting and many from both sides die. It was sad when the good guys died. One of the warriors falls in love with the daughter of a man who had made her cut off her hair so she would look like a male, so as to avoid catching the attention of the horny Samurai men. But we could practically predict that it would end up happening in the end anyways. After lots of fighting and battling it all ends and the good guys prevail but not without having suffered many great losses.

North by Northwest was one of the best movies I have seen in this class. I stayed attentive through the whole thing. It was very good and looking back at the time I can see it being a huge thriller. Not only was it full of suspense and tension but it was also mixed with some very funny humor and also even a cute little love story. The government made up a secret person just to throw off these shady mobster people and some how these shady mobster people got the name confused with this man whose name was not even the same as the one the secret agency was using. But anyways so they threaten him and of course try to kill him and he escapes and through out this whole movie he is trying to find out why him and why they after him and starts finding answers here and there but its not until the secret agency finally finds him and I saves him does he find out what is really going on. By this point though he has met this girl who is working for the secret agency but playing like she's on the side of the shady mobster people. He falls in love with her basically and ends up saving her in the end from the bad guys who actually figure her out. This movie was actually full of some risqué stuff that I wouldn't have expected in a movie of this time but I guess you learn new things every day. It was a very bold and entertaining film. One of the few that I would actually watch again out of the ones I have seen in this class. It makes me want to go and watch some of Alfred Hitchcock's other films.

Lost Boundaries I felt was a really good film. Never would have even thought of something like it. The family had such good hearts and were caring and loving people who got along with everyone they met pretty much. No body knew they were actually African American though. If people had known they would not have had the life they lived for such a long time. He wanted to tell people. He did not want to have to keep his race a secret just so he would be treated differently. Its sad to think that people were really like that. This movie has a great ending however. You think for a little while that once their secret was revealed that they were going to be shunned by everyone. They were at first too except for the daughter with her boyfriend. He never let it bother him. She was more ashamed of it than he was which is also very sad. Those kids grew up just like all the other white kids thinking that being a Negro was a terrible thing and even though the son was kind to them and one of his best friends was Negro he was not pleased and was disgusted when he found out he was actually African American himself just very light skinned. But the town comes around when in church the preacher preaches about how that is not how God would do things. God loves everyone and treats everyone equally and it was at the end of the service that people let go of the grudge they had against different colors. They also kept him as their town doctor. I saw many things in this film that I would be appalled to see actually happen to day but that doesn't change the fact that that is how the times were then and just how people acted.

I had to watch October in my film history class and I hate to say this but I just really did not enjoy it at all. It was super long, like three hours, and I honestly did not understand it. Our professor told us that there was so much symbolism and stuff in it that at the time it came out the people did not even really fully understand it. I definitely do not recommend seeing this movie unless you are just super into this kind of stuff and have a great interest for it. On top of being able to grasp a hold of what is going on this film is also silent making it even harder to get an understanding of everything that's going on. There is not really any main characters to keep up with and with all the shot of different people it is very easy to get mixed up. This film is so chaotic and fast paced, jumping from one thing to the next for a solid three hours. If you like getting headaches try keeping up with this movie. I expected this movie to be pretty good and at the very least somewhat interesting, but I kept finding myself fidgeting in my seat and checking the time till it would end. I wish I had more positive things to say about it because it is apparently quite a masterpiece. Maybe I just don't have the appreciation for films history like I should but I can't help that. Maybe if I had had some more study in the Russian revolution I would not have been quite so lost. Anyways for my personal opinion I would not recommend this movie to anyone and would advise if you are going to show it to your class explain it and the time in Russia very well before actually showing it so maybe the students can follow along with it better.

Le quai des brumes, or port of shadows, is about a man who has deserted the army. He arrives in the town trying to hide from being noticed that he has left the army. This dog starts following him throughout the movie after being dropped off in the town. He finds man who takes him in for his first night in the town. There he meets a man who is an artist but cannot figure out his purpose in and is kind of depressed. The owner of this place feeds him and while he is eating in the kitchen he meets the girl whom he is instantly attracted too. As the movie progresses he becomes more involved with her but still has to try and get out of the country before the army finds him. He finds a ship that is leaving the country and gets a spot on it but goes back to tell the girl good bye. When he finds her she is being harassed by her uncle and he jumps in and puts a stop to it and kills her uncle. They tell each other good bye and as he is trying to catch his ship before it leaves the girls ex boyfriend is outside waiting in a car and shoots him and kills him, pay back for slapping him around and embarrassing him in front of his friends and everyone else. It is a very tragic ending to and already sad movie. Just when you think things really start looking up for him and even the girl he is shot in the middle of the street. Despite the ending not being what I would have hoped I still really enjoyed this film and thought it was a great example of poetic realism.

Baby Face is about a girl raised by her father, who has kind of pimped her out to men since she was about 14. A man who has known her for a long time tells her that she doesn't have to live this kind of life and that she is a woman who can make it anywhere in life. She takes the man's advice and leaves the town she's grown up in and moves to the big city where she starts work at a bank and works her way up the floors by using her "woman" powers and seducing the men of the bank. I really enjoyed this movie. It was sad in that she had never known true love and thought that most men were unkind and couldn't really love. She used the only thing she had been taught and ever knew in life to succeed in getting what she thought she wanted, which was security in mainly financial aspects. She would seduce different men to move to higher positions or get them to take care of her. After two men killed themselves fighting for her the bank has to step in. A man realizes what kind of person she is and what she has been doing to all these employees. He sends her to another one of the banks to work, but in a different country. Later the man goes to this bank on business and ends up falling for her but not like the other men because he knows her and how she works. He truly loves her and marries her. They enter a very deep rut and he basically looses all of his money and needs her to help him. After all she had been through in her past she struggles to help him and almost leaves him on her own so she can remain financially well. She realizes though that he has truly loved her and she truly felt real love for this man and comes back and saves him and her love. This is a great film on a girl who her whole life believed there was no hope for real love but in the end realizes that that was all wrong and that nothing is greater than love not even money.

D.W. Griffith's "True Heart Susie" is a beautiful film about young, very simple, and plain girl named Susie. Susie is in love with a boy from her class and he is also her neighbor, William. William at the start of the film says he will love Susie forever and even carves their initials in a tree to symbolize it. William wants to go to college but his father cannot afford it. Will and Susie are in town one day and they meet a man who says he sees a great future for William and that he will hear from him soon. Time passes and William never hears from the man. Susie, who knows how badly William wants to attend school and she herself wants to marry an educated man, sells her cow among other things left to her to get the money for Williams tuition. She anonymously sends the money to William, who thinks it is from the man they met in town. He goes off to school and returns later with an education. He takes Susie into town to get a "sody" and she notices how these girls all powdered and flashy keep flirting with him. William tells her men like to flirt with those kinds of girls but they want to marry the plain ones. Susie takes to heart his words. She is a very plain girl. But soon a lady comes to town from the big city, Bettina, and catches his eye. Mean while William takes over as head Reverend at the church, and he asks Susie if he should get married. She tells him yes, hoping he is referring to her. He leaves and asks Bettina to marry him. Bettina agrees deciding she is tired of working and wants someone to support her instead. Susie is heartbroken but she never confronts William about it or the things she has witnessed Bettina do behind his back. So they are married and Susie remains sad. Years later Bettina makes plans to sneak away from her husband and attend a party with some friends. On her way home that night it starts storming and Bettina realizes she has lost her key. She runs to Susie for help and asks her to lie to William for her. Susie agrees to help her out and William believes it. Soon Bettina gets sick and dies as a result of being locked out in the rain. William vows never to marry again and Susie keeps all of her secrets still. Susie's aunt though tells William everything about how Susie was the one who really sent him the money to go to school and all. William realizes he has loved Susie all along and goes to her and tells her. He finally kisses Susie as they tried several times in the beginning but never quite went through with it. This film ends happily after a long period of time of waiting for the truth to come out and for William to realize who his true love is. This film does an amazing job at capturing the simple true values of a pure plain girl, from a small rural American town.

Lois Weber's film "Hypocrites" was and still kind of is a very bold and daring film. I enjoyed it and was very impressed by the filming and story of it. The priest sees the hypocrisy of the people in his church and tries to show them the "naked" truth. The people are appalled when he reveals the naked statue portraying truth, after failing to lead them to it and the few that did, help along the way. The people do not want to face the truth that they are doing anything wrong, but it shows them putting things before God, going to beach parties acting inappropriate, their materialistic ways, and other things in which the people of our world do that tend to not be morally right. In the end, failing to gain any followers, he must enter into the gates of heaven alone. This film seems to me to be very bold, in the fact that a naked woman is shown throughout it, especially considering the time period in which this film was made. The imagery and symbolism portrayed in this movie I found incredible. The way they made the naked woman translucent and using a naked woman to symbolize the naked truth shows a lot of creativity and art. Showing the different sins of the people as they walked down the road and refused to follow along the path, each with different excuses, setbacks, and/or higher priorities, was a great way of representing the people of today. This film does a very good job of getting the moral message across to its audience. Lois Weber has a tremendous way of capturing her spectators' attention with her creativity, symbolism, visuals, and through auditory. Even the music of the piano throughout this film is very beautiful and fitting with the whole theme.