Reviews

I had never seen Annie Hall until this past week. Many famous critics of the film industry have critically acclaimed this film. I have only seen one other Woody Allen film before, Love and Death (1975). With this film, I was first introduced to the director, the writer, the actor, the comedian, Woody Allen. I must say that I enjoyed Love and Death and its philosophy about the meaning of life, love, and, of course, death. I noticed from Love and Death that Woody Allen often comments on the philosophical and psychological aspects of life in his films. Annie Hall is no different. There are many different facets to Annie Hall that make it a unique romantic comedy from those we see in theaters today.

The film follows a struggling comedian, Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), and his many adventures with women, especially this one sort of eccentric woman named Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). The film does not seem to abide by the rules of continuity because Allen goes back and forth in time whenever it suits him and the story. The film begins with him telling the story and soon flashes back to his childhood. Most times, characters are looking on the action that takes place in the past and they even interact with the characters involved in the flashback. For example, Alvy has a flashback to when he was a child in elementary school. We first see the young actor who portrays the young Alvy (Jonathan Munk) but in the middle of the scene, we see Woody Allen, playing the adult Alvy, conversing with his elementary school teacher. There are several instances where Allen uses this technique of storytelling.

Even though the film essentially centers on the vicissitudes of Alvy and Annie's relationship, it is almost difficult to follow the action. The lack of continuity from scene to scene makes it difficult to know what scene occurs chronologically. Near the end of the film, the continuity becomes much better. Allen also uses some camera techniques that, up until that time, were not widely used. One perfect example would be Allen's use of a split screen. In one scene, both Alvy and Annie are shown seeing their respective psychiatrists, whom they both call their "analysts," and both exchange what appears to be dialogue between them and their analysts but the analysts do not speak, so we only hear Alvy and Annie talking. Today, it is common to see a scene such as this one, but in 1977, these kinds of affects were not widely used.

Annie Hall appears to comment on social culture. Alvy and Annie both live in New York City and Alvy seems very content on staying there. Annie, later in the film, gets the opportunity to live in Los Angeles, California and she jumps at the idea, while Alvy is reluctant. They both leave New York in order to visit California. Annie seems in her own environment, whereas Alvy actually makes himself sick and he complains the whole trip. Alvy also seems very neurotic and paranoid about everything. He always thinks that someone is being anti-Semitic, he always obsesses about death, and he always appears depressed. At a certain point, Annie tells Alvy how she perceives his view on life: "Alvy, you're incapable of enjoying life, you know that?" which describes the character of Alvy, as well as Woody Allen persona in general, exactly.

Allen wants to convey the large culture gap between the East coast of the United States with the West coast with this film. Annie Hall comments on two very different cultures that exist in the United States. Annie tends to represent the Californian culture with her quest for fame and her love of fame. She is trying to become a renowned singer and Alvy seems perfectly content with the way things are. Alvy represents a New York mindset with his seclusion from the rest of the country. New York is such a unique place where people appear to be less interested in being social; this is what Alvy accentuates. In the same conversation where Annie tells Alvy he incapable of enjoying life she tells him: "I mean you're like New York City. You're just this person. You're like this island unto yourself." This explains how Annie perceives Alvy and it expresses to the audience that Alvy will never change. At the end of the film, Alvy and Annie break up for good, but remain friends. We understand that Alvy will never change and that even though Alvy and Annie love each other, they were too different to ever stay together, which is a little saddening.

From a technical standpoint, the film is great. The acting is wonderful with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton giving great performances. The film is very funny and it deals with subjects that may not have been the norm in 1977. Allen is very free when he deals with sex and drugs in the film as he usually makes fun of both of them. I love the camera angles that Allen had cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather) utilize. There is one shot where Alvy and his friend Rob (Tony Roberts) are walking on the sidewalk talking. The actors are far away from the camera, but we can still hear them as if they were standing next to it. The camera never moves as both Alvy and Rob slowly approach it. What a great camera effect. Annie Hall was very good and some say it is Woody Allen's best film. It is a very refreshing romantic comedy as opposed to those seen today, which tend to be formulaic and predictable. Everyone should see Annie Hall.

The Parallax View is a film released in 1974 some time after the resignation of President Richard Nixon but if focuses on a different time altogether. The film could be called a "paranoid/conspiracy" thriller. The film follows a nosy news reporter, Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) and his quest to uncover a conspiracy plot, which involved the assassination of a prominent political figure. He notices that the witnesses of the assassination have been dying mysteriously in the years after the horrific event. No one seems to believe him, even his tough old boss, Editor Bill Rintels (Hume Cronyn). In the process of his investigation, people make attempts on his life several times. He is playing a dangerous game that, perhaps, he cannot win.

Frady's exploits take him deeper into the plot and he figures out more than is for his own good. He figures out that there is a company called the Parallax Corporation, whom he believes, was behind the assassination. He believes that this corporation finds people with homicidal tendencies and enlists them as hired hit men. Frady decides to infiltrate this corporation, acting as if he would have homicidal tendencies. It does not work well because they question him about his identity among other things. He manages to stop an attempted assassination when he learns that a plane carrying a political activist has a bomb on board. He then learns of another assassination that the corporation has planned and goes to check it out. Frady attempts to foil the assassin's plot, but fails. The assassin kills the politician and then Frady realizes he has been set up. He sees the gun he thought was going to be used was never used and that they planned for Frady to be the patsy for the assassination. Unfortunately, for Frady, as he is trying to escape, he is shot and killed.

This film has the Kennedy assassinations written all over it. It embraces the conspiracy theory and mocks the government. The opening scene of the film, the first assassination, reminds me of the Robert Kennedy assassination in many ways. Even though they are not exactly the same, there are many similarities. The latter assassination loosely models the John Kennedy assassination. It entails a moving vehicle, not outside, but inside, and the politician is shot from an elevated position. After the John Kennedy assassination especially, there were many rumors of a conspiracy by many other people to kill Kennedy. Those rumors even went as high up as the Vice President, now President, Lyndon Johnson. Many loved John Kennedy and were devastated when he died. They did not want to believe that some no name, "hick," like Lee Harvey Oswald, could kill such a prominent figure loved by so many. The killing of Lee Harvey Oswald also added to the flames of conspiracy. Oswald never stood trial and never had a chance to tell his side. He told police that he was a "patsy" and he was set up, not unlike the ending of The Parallax View.

The Kennedy assassinations definitely inspired this film, but the film reminds me of John Frankenheimer's masterpiece, The Manchurian Candidate (1962). The Manchurian Candidate is a film about assassinations and conspiracies as well. It is about a man who is brainwashed by the soviets to kill politicians in the United States and put in place a puppet government. The major difference between The Parallax View and The Manchurian Candidate are the endings. One film leaves you feeling a little better at the end than the other. The in which The Parallax View is done reminds me of The Manchurian Candidate and they both have the feeling that the heroes are in over their heads.

The Parallax View has its heroes and its villains but never does one feel that the hero, Frady, is going to come out on top. He is against something much larger and more complicated than he imagines. We believe that Frady is good person, but we really do not know that much about him. We never see him with anyone to imply that he has any kind of deep relationship with anyone. The only relationship we see is the one between him and his editor Bill Rintels. His whole character is rather ambiguous. Likewise, we do not know a lot about the villains in the story other than they are killing politicians and other who get in the way. In addition, we have no idea why this corporation is killing these people or how high in the government this corruption actually goes.

The film is good, but I think that it could have been better. There are too many questions left unanswered when I left the movie. The direction is good, the cinematography and the acting were great as well. I just felt that something was missing. I thought that there should have been more character development and we should have known more than we were allowed to know. Although, that may have been the director's (Alan Pakula) intention. Perhaps we are supposed to be left in the dark. Nonetheless, the film is a good one and I recommend it, but I must say I prefer The Manchurian Candidate to this one.

I saw The Conversation for the very first time this past week. I was surprised to notice that Francis Ford Coppola had directed the film. I grew up knowing who Coppola was because of famous movies that he had done such as The Godfather, The Godfather Part 2, The Godfather Part 3, Apocalypse Now. The Conversation was not a movie that I was familiar with but I was open-minded because of Coppola. I also noticed that it had some accomplished actors in the leading roles. Gene Hackman plays the main character, a professional "bugger" named Harry Caul who spies on people for money. The film also featured John Cazale as Caul's assistant Stan, Cindy Williams as Ann, the women on whom Caul is spying, and a young Harrison Ford playing Martin Stett, assistant to the business executive who is paying Caul. There was also a pleasant cameo appearance by Robert Duvall playing the business executive.

The film begins and progresses slowly and begins with the conversation that gave the film its title. Not much is known from the beginning about what the conversation is about or about the characters themselves. We finally get to know Harry a little bit when he goes home to his apartment. When we see him go to his door, he unlocks several locks in order to enter his apartment. Immediately we get the feeling that this person is extremely paranoid. He finds a wrapped bottle of wine inside his door and immediately calls whom we assume is the landlord to complain about how she entered the apartment. Harry tells her that he wants the only key to him apartment and no one else. We can tell that Harry is paranoid, secretive, and he does not trust people. This seems very ironic because his business is robbing people of the same security that he treasures so much. This irony becomes more prominent as the film progresses.

Eventually, Caul makes a startling discovery when listening to the tapes of the conversation. He hears the words, "He'd kill us if he got the chance." Hearing this, Caul wrestles with whether to give the tapes to his employer. He does not want to be an accessory to murder. Finally, the tapes are taken from Caul while he sleeps and they are given to the director. Caul goes to pick up his money and we finally meet Caul's employer, the director (Robert Duvall) and her learns that Ann is the director's wife. Now Caul must decide what he is going to do about the information he has received. Does he try to stop the murder he thinks will happen? Is the murder even real? Is he reading too much into the conversation? All of these questions plague Caul up until the end of the movie.

As it turns out, Caul did misinterpret the conversation, but it was not about whether there was going to be a murder, but rather who was going to be murdered. He learns that it was not Ann who was killed but the director. Ann, and her acquaintance Mark (Frederic Forrest), set up the director and killed him, making it look like a car accident. With the director's death, Ann gets everything he had. The whole thing was a ploy by a greedy wife, her lover, and an executive assistant. After learning the truth, Caul realizes that there is not much he can do about the situation. He decides to go home and, while playing the saxophone, he receives a phone call from Martin Stett telling Caul that they know he knows and they will be listening to him. Caul, being paranoid, rips his apartment apart searching for bugs and he does not find any. The final scene is haunting with Caul, sitting down, playing his saxophone, with his apartment in ruins, a victim of his own way of life. He spied on people to make a living and now he is the one being spied on, probably for the rest of his life.

The film, technically speaking, is very well done. Coppola does a great job directing and writing an interesting and engaging story. He also creates an interesting character in Harry Caul. Caul seems paranoid, secretive, and unwilling to let people get close to him. This is why I believe that Caul will be alone for the rest of his life. The film was made during the Watergate years where the surveillance tactics of the government were in question. Many people were afraid of there civil liberties were being infringed on, not unlike the situation today with terrorism. Today, we are dealing with the same problem when deciding whether we want to give up civil liberties in order to be safe from terrorists. The cinematography of the film is interesting. In Caul's apartment, the camera-work is done to make us believe that we are in the camera that is spying on Caul and, indeed, that is the case when the film ends. The sound in the film, as one might expect, is superb and the acting is great as well. You truly believe that Gene Hackman is Harry Caul. The Conversation is a great film of the 1970s, one of Coppola's greatest films, and not one that should be missed.

I first saw Chinatown in my senior year in high school. I simply loved the film. I tend to be a little biased when it comes to noir film anyway, but this film blew me away. The film is set in Southern California and it follows a private investigator by the name of Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson). Gittes is a little crass and rough around the edges but you get the feeling that he is genuinely a good person. A woman, whom says she is Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), although she turns out to be Ida Sessions (Diane Ladd), comes to his office seeking his help because she thinks that her husband Hollis (Darrell Zwerling) is having an affair. Jake decides to investigate and all he sees is Hollis talking with another woman.

Hollis is the chief engineer for the water company who is in a debate about the construction a dam. He refuses to build it on grounds that the dam would not hold. Hollis creates many enemies by refusing to build the dam, mostly farmers. Things are turned upside down when Hollis ends up dead. Jake then decides to investigate Hollis's death, which complicates Jake's life even more. Jake tries to investigate Hollis's death but it just leads him into trouble. Throughout the film, it seems that Jake is in way over his head. He does not really understand what is going on. Eventually his investigation leads him to Noah Cross, a wealthy businessman as well as Evelyn's father. Jake becomes entangled in a destructive web spun by Cross and he ends up learning much more than he ever expected. What Jake uncovers leads him and Evelyn down a dangerous path into Chinatown.

Everyone close to Jake talks about Chinatown as if it were hell. In the Film, there is not much talked about what happened in Chinatown. All we know is that bad things happened there. The last line in the film sums up the characters' view on Chinatown, "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." Chinatown seems to represent all the bad things in the characters' lives. One important aspect to the film would have to be that the entire film is shot from Jake's point of view. Every scene in the film has Jack Nicholson in it. We, as the audience, do not know anything more than what Jake knows. This creates much mystery in the film regarding the entire plot. The film can be quite confusing and it took me more than one viewing to understand it, and I am not even sure I understand it now.

Jake is truly alienated because he had no idea with what he is dealing and we take the ride with him. I found myself trying to figure out what was really going on, unsuccessfully I might add. It is a great film to watch alone or with a whole group and it is a lot of fun watching it with people who have never seen it. Chinatown has great acting, great directing, great writing, great cinematography, and essentially, everything in the film was done well. Such a great film, I recommend it to everyone. Truly, one of those films everybody should see.

When I first heard about The Last Detail, I really did not know what to think. I thought it was going to be one of those generic military movies; I was wrong. The film really surprised me. Essentially, the film is about three Navy seamen and their journey from Virginia to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Two of the sailors are transporting the third sailor to a jail in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The two sailors in charge of transporting the third are Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young). Both men seem to be straightforward and men you would not want to mess with. The third sailor, the prisoner, is Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid). Meadows is being sent to jail for eight years because he stole forty dollars from a charity. He is a shy man who does not seem violent of malicious in any way.

Buddusky and Mulhall are told that they have five days to get Meadows to Portsmouth. Buddusky and Mulhall see this assignment as a vacation. They could get Meadows to Portsmouth in two days, leaving the rest of the week for them. This changes after they meet and talk to Meadows. They realize that the kid is going to jail for unjust reasons. Throughout the early part of the movie, Meadows is stealing from the various places they visit until Buddusky and Mulhall catch him. Very early on, I got the feeling that Meadows was actually a kleptomaniac. He seems to steal on instinct without even needing whatever he steals. When Buddusky and Mulhall ask him if he had ever got in trouble with the law, Meadows says that he was caught for shoplifting, but never arrested.

The two sailors take pity on the kid (first Buddusky, then, later, Mule) and decide to give him a good time before they take him to jail. They give him his first alcoholic beverage and get to know him better while staying in a hotel in Washington, D.C. Later, they make their way to Boston and buy Meadows a whore to sleep with. They even take him up to see his mother before he goes to jail, even though his mother is out. This is where we find out that Meadows' home life was no that great. He talks about his father living in Seattle and not having much to do with him. It is clear that his mother a little less than stable when they go to her house. On the day they are to take Meadows to jail, he tries to escape. Buddusky and Mulhall catch him and Buddusky, feeling hurt that Meadows would do such a thing knowing that if he escaped Buddusky and Mulhall would face consequences, hits Meadows over the head with his gun repeatedly. Not long after they take Meadows to jail, still bleeding, without saying goodbye. Although, they do not tell the commanding officer at the jail that Meadows tried to escape, which shows character on both their parts.

The film was interesting because both of the established sailors seem to be ultra-masculine but both decide to pity the kid and show him a good time before he goes to jail. Even in the end, they still stand up for him when asked whether he tried to escape. You see a change in the characters. Buddusky seems to be a real "bad ass," just as his moniker would reveal, but he is the one who first suggests showing Meadows a good time. Mule seems, at first, to be very intent on doing his job and he does not want to get attached to Meadows, but he soon takes a liking to Meadows and decides to go along with Buddusky. Meadows is shy at first, but he soon comes out of his shell. The ironic thing is that if Buddusky and Mulhall had not taught Meadows all of their knowledge, he probably would not have tried to escape in the end. After Buddusky and Mulhall drop Meadows off, they go back to their normal states, just as we saw them at the beginning of the film, which is very interesting. It seems as though those five days had been forgotten and Meadows himself had been forgotten.

The film was very funny at times and it was well written, with beautiful acting by Nicholson, Quaid, and Young. The incredible chemistry between the actors worked for the film's benefit. While being funny, the film also was a bit saddening. You know, as you are watching, that Meadows will eventually go to jail for a crime that was, at best, a misdemeanor. Even though the ending is a bit sad, I left the film happy with what I had seen.

Peter Bogdanovich's signature film, The Last Picture Show, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for directing, encompasses many different themes prevalent in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The film touches on many different subjects, such as the youth counterculture and friendship. The film follows the residents in the fictional small town of Anarene, Texas in the early 1950s. The main action revolves around Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and his best friend, Duane (Jeff Bridges). Right from the beginning of the film we realize that the town is small and there is no a lot to do. The kids hang out at the local pool hall ran by an enigmatic man called Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson) and the local theater, which is also owned by Sam. We find out that Sonny, Duane, and their classmates are getting ready to graduate soon and each kid is having trouble deciding what they want to do after school.

Duane goes out with the most popular girl in school, Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd), who enjoys the popularity she receives considerably. Things begin to change in the town for all the kids in town. The coach of the basketball team asks Sonny if he could drive his wife to the doctor's office. We see Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman) as a very unhappy woman. Sonny notices this also and the two begin an affair. Meanwhile, Jacy tries to find a man to whom she can lose her virginity. It is apparent that she really does not want to be with Duane anymore after she ditches him on Christmas in order to go to a skinny-dipping party at another guy's house.

All the characters, one way or another, want something more than what they have. Sonny wants a relationship, which he gets with Mrs. Popper, Duane wants his relationship with Jacy to last, and Jacy wants always to be the center of attention. The older characters in the story, Sam, the waitress at the local diner, Genevieve (Eileen Brennan), and Jacy's mother Lois (Ellen Burstyn), reminisce about how things used to be when they were younger and how much things have changed since then. Sonny's world is turned upside down when he learns that Sam has died. The boys always thought Sam to be a kind of mentor. Sam leaves his pool hall to Sonny, who continues to run it. After Duane leaves town, Sonny decides to break off his relationship with Mrs. Popper for a relationship with Jacy. Sonny even gets in a fight over Jacy with Duane when Duane returns. This results in Sonny being injured. Sonny even marries Jacy when she asks him. The marriage does not last long though and we soon find out that Jacy only married Sonny to get attention.

In the end, Jacy leaves to go to college, Duane decides to go into the service to fight in Korea, and the last local business, the movie theater, shuts down. Duane, Sonny, and their friend Billy (Sam Bottoms) watch the very last showing of the very last movie shown at the theater, Red River (1948), a John Wayne Western. At the end of the film, Billy is killed when a truck hits him. Billy was a deaf mute, which is why he never heard the truck coming. Sonny is very distraught because everyone around him has either left, like Duane and Jacy, or died, like Sam and Billy. Sonny gets in his truck and drives away from town. It seems as though he might leave but then he turns around and drives back to town. He goes to see Mrs. Popper, who seems to be the only constant in Sonny's life. First, she rejects him, but eventually decides to forgive him and comfort him.

This film seems to have all the themes of the movies of the time. It has the rebellious counterculture theme that was so prevalent in films such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Easy Rider (1969). It also contains the affair theme also found in The Graduate (1967) by showing Sonny's affair with Mrs. Popper. It has the theme of friendship also found in Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy (1969). The film also contains the theme of alienation, which pertains to all the aforementioned films. In the end, Sonny is left alone. The only person he has left is Mrs. Popper and his relationship with her is not stable nor is it moral.

The Last Picture Show is a film about changes and how people react to those changes. The town changes so much throughout the movie as do the characters. Sonny does not react to change well at all. He seems very devastated when Sam dies, and he is even more devastated when Billy dies. He does not want Duane to leave and he even marries Jacy in order to keep something constant in his life. The only thing that seems constant to Sonny is his relationship with Mrs. Popper. When things get bad, he goes to her. The film is also about the death of the old west. The last film at the theater shown is a John Wayne western, which signals the end of that fictitious and glorified way of life. The film also deals a lot with nostalgia. Most of the characters have feelings of nostalgia. Duane wanted to keep Jacy and marry her, Jacy wanted to stay the center of attention, and Sam wanted to be young again. All of these characters come to terms with the changes occurring in their life while Sonny does not. When he gets scared, he runs to Mrs. Popper for comfort. The film is very interesting and well worth watching. It has interesting and unique characters, which the actors portray well. Just as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, "There is nothing permanent except change." This quote seems to describe the central issues in The Last Picture Show to a tee.

Five Easy Pieces is a very interesting film to start the 1970s in the film industry. The beginnings and endings of decades tend to be not only transitional times in years, but also in culture. The end of the 1960s was an extremely turbulent time in American history. First, the United States was in a war with Vietnam, a war that was not widely supported by the American people. The very influential reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in 1968, which put the entire county into an uproar. Then, Bobby Kennedy was also killed, which put the icing on the cake.

Five Easy Pieces follows the story of a young man, working for an oil company, in a lower middle-class society. Only later do we learn that the protagonist, Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson), is actually a member of a high-class family and he used to be an accomplished pianist. There are little clues at the beginning of the film that tell us about Robert's life before he works for the oil company. There is no indication whatsoever that Robert used to be a member of a well-to-do family. Robert does not seem to be very faithful to his less-than-intelligent girlfriend, Rayette (Karen Black), a waitress at a local diner. It is evident that he does not have a very good relationship with her right from the beginning of the film. In fact, most of the movie they are arguing with each other. I think that Robert has feelings for her, but he is not in love with her.

Robert's world of drinking, working, finagling, and love affairs all changes when he goes to visit his sister, Partita (Lois Smith). She tells him that their father has had a stroke and is very ill. She wants him to come "home" to be with their father. Here, we find out that Robert could be a part of an upper-class family and his reluctance tells us that perhaps he did not leave home on the best of terms. Indeed, this is the case. Robert and Rayette leave for Washington to visit Robert's home. When they arrive, we find out more about Robert's past. One of the first things we notice is that Robert does not really fit in with his family. His father, brother, and sister act as if they were upper-class citizens while Robert does not act in such a manner. This brings to light an important theme in the film, the theme of social class division. We see two opposing classes, the lower-middle class and the upper class of society. It is apparent that Robert prefers the lower-middle class, which is little out of the ordinary.

It seems that Robert wants to deny who he is by running away. He already ran away once before and now, being back home, he has those feelings again. While home, he also has an affair with his brother's fiancé and piano student, Catherine (Susan Anspach). The affair ends abruptly when Catherine decides she loves Robert's brother, Carl (Ralph Waite). Robert finally makes some kind of peace with his father, who is unable to speak. After he does this, Rayette and he leave. When they stop at a rest stop, Rayette goes to get coffee and, after a little contemplation, Robert decides to hitch a ride with a truck driver, leaving Rayette behind. Robert runs away from his life once again.

Robert does not want to accept who is, no matter who he is. He does not seem satisfied with his life. He runs away for fear that things will get bad. In fact, Robert tells his dying father that: "I move around a lot because things tend to get bad when I stay." He is afraid to be close to anyone and he feels alienated, like he does not fit in anywhere. The film is beautifully acted with a great performance from Jack Nicholson. The only problem I have with the film is that the character of Robert does not seem to evolve in any way. He ends up running away again in the end. Nevertheless, Five Easy Pieces is a unique film about alienation, failing to accept who you are, and running away from your problems.

Midnight Cowboy is one of the most unique films I have ever seen. The film starts by introducing Joe Buck (Jon Voight) to us. We see him getting dressed in his cowboy suit and packing his suitcase. His suit is loud, with his bright shirt and cowboy hat, in an era that most people did not dress that way. He seems somewhat surreal and over the top. He goes to what seems to be his job and quits because he intends to travel to New York City from Texas. We are not quite sure what his intentions are. He mentions, to a friend, that he wants to become a male hustler when he arrives in New York. He meets many different people on the bus to New York. During this time, we see that Joe is essentially a nice person. There is a scene where he makes friendly gestures towards a kid. This scene is ironic because we get the impression that Joe is also a child. He seems very naive in almost every way. His naiveté is shown in the way he dresses, thinking himself to be a cowboy, in the way he acts, in the way he feels it is going to be easy to be a male hustler, and in the way he feels living in New York is going to be so much easier than living in Texas.

When Joe arrives in New York, he realizes that it was not going to as easy as he thought. He tries to get women to notice him and realize that he is a male hustler but to no avail. One woman does notice him and they have sex. Then she asks him for money for a cab before he asks for money for the sex. When he does, she breaks down and cries. Joe, being a genuinely nice person, offers her money for the cab and she eventually receives twenty dollars. This scene shows how naive Joe really is. Eventually Joe meets the other protagonist in the film, Rico Salvatore Rizzo a.k.a. "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman). Ratso seems to know the ropes and how the city works. He has one limp leg and he does not look like a very trustworthy person at first glance. Eventually, the two create a friendship after Joe needs a place to live and Ratso lets Joe live with him. Together, they meet hard times, without money and they live through a winter without heat.

Each main character has a plan or a dream. Joe wants to become a successful male hustler in order to become rich while Ratso wants to go to Florida and live there. It seems, while watching the film, that neither character will achieve his dream. It is sad, but realistic because, for most people, things do not work out the way they plan. In America, we have been taught that anyone can do anything; that is the American dream. This film shows quite the opposite. Joe never becomes a successful hustler and Ratso dies at the end of the film. Midnight Cowboy film mirrors Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider. Both films deal with journeys and the destruction of the American dream. Both films have sad endings and do not leave the audience with any good feelings. At the end of the film, Joe's naiveté leaves him at the end of the film. When Joe and Ratso arrive in Florida, Joe has to be one in charge because Ratso is unable to walk. Joe buys new clothes and dumps his cowboy outfit. This is the first time we see him without it. After Ratso dies, we know that Joe has to fend for himself and grow up.

As I said before, this was a unique film. It had great performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. It was superbly directed by John Schlesinger. The film still seems to be odd to me but a likable film nonetheless. It will go down as one of the best modern classics out there. I recommend the film. Even though I am not sure everyone will like it, it is still a film everyone should see.

The film Easy Rider is one of the most influential films of the 1960s. Peter Fonda, the son of famed actor Henry Fonda, and his friend, Dennis Hopper conceived an idea for a new kind of western. Everyone knows the quintessential westerns with such actors as John Wayne and Tom Mix. The idea Fonda and Hopper had was to make a western set in the modern era was that the new "cowboys" were "bikers" and "motorcycles" were the new "horses." The film was about a pair of "hippies" who tread across America coming off a huge drug deal. They simply want to settle down and "retire" in Florida. On the way, they meet many people, including fellow hippies and a lawyer played wonderfully by Jack Nicholson. They also meet many people who don not like them based on their lifestyle. These people are prejudice against Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) because they consider them "hippies." Eventually this prejudice leads to their end. They are shot down by passing "rednecks" who do not like them due to their "hippie" lifestyle.

The film shadows Arthur Penn's Bonnie & Clyde (1967) in ways because the main characters are portrayed as good but, in the end, they are killed by members of society who do not understand and do not wish to understand their lifestyle. The rebellious nature of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow resonate out of Wyatt and Billy. The audience gets the impression that these rebellious youths are misunderstood by the rest of society. The film also has a fair amount of drug use in it. The two protagonists are always smoking marijuana and immediately at the beginning of the movie the audience sees them snorting cocaine. There is even a very strange sequence shot when the characters and their hired prostitutes decide to take LSD. The sequence is shot all mumbled and jumbled to portray to the audience how the drug affects a person. This theme of drug use in the film represents the times in which it is set.

The times in which the film was made also had an effect on how Fonda, Hopper, and Terry Southern wrote the story. The late 1960s were trying times for Americans. The Vietnam War was at its height, the country had just come off the loss of their president, John F. Kennedy, in 1963. In April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot in Memphis. There was a state of confusion in those years all around America. Later, when he was running for office, Robert F. Kennedy was killed in the kitchen of a hotel after making a speech. This was a time when things were hectic and out of place which really shows through in the film. The flagrant disregard for authority in the film reflects the rebellious nature of the people in the country.

Wyatt and Billy die for what seems to be no reason at all. This also represents the needless deaths of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, along with the thousands over in Vietnam. The two characters are rather martyred at the closing of the film. Easy Rider presents Wyatt and Billy as righteous cowboys cut down at a young age because of prejudice. They feel as though they are truly free while society looks down upon them. Wyatt, throughout the film, is very optimistic while Billy always seems to be paranoid. The irony is that Wyatt is too optimistic and Billy proves to be correct in his feelings of paranoia. Easy Rider is a very well done and successful movie that has become an instant classic. It will not soon be forgotten.

We all know those famous lines from what has now become a classic in American Cinema, "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" These famous words were spoken by the nervous and confused Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) in "The Graduate." "The Graduate" is a story about a young college graduate who gets involved with the wife of his father's business partner, Mr. Robinson. Indeed, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) was trying to seduce Benjamin Braddock. After a coming home party thrown for him by his parents, Benjamin is asked by Mrs. Robinson to drive her home. Benjamin reluctantly accepts and takes her home. Eventually, she gets him into a situation where she corners him while in the nude. Benjamin is surprised and confused but refuses to have sex with Mrs. Robinson. This does not last long though.

Braddock is confused about what he wants to do with his life. He is unsure about his future and everyone around him is pushing him to do certain things. His parents want him to think about graduate school and his future. Benjamin just wants to be alone and contemplate his future without being pressured into doing anything. The film is shot in a very claustrophobic manner. The opening sequence at the party is done with a hand-held camera with extreme close-ups. The audience gets a sense of claustrophobia when they are put into Benjamin's shoes. Besides his parents, Benjamin is also pushed around by Mrs. Robinson, Mr. Robinson, and later, his proprietor at Berkley. Benjamin uses the impending love affair between himself and Mrs. Robinson as a kind of escape or release. He is doing something he knows is wrong but he has an urge to rebel against everyone around him.

It seems that escape is a major theme in the film. Water is used as a means of escape. Benjamin is always staring into his aquarium or lounging by the pool. There is a scene when Benjamin is in a scuba suit his parents bought for him. The audience is put in the suit with Benjamin and we, like Benjamin, cannot here anyone talking to him. We see his parents and others speaking to him but we cannot here them. When he finally enters the pool in the suit, we see him alone in the water and it appears he is finally at peace. Directly after this sequence, Benjamin decides to have the affair with Mrs. Robinson. Things become complicated when Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine, comes into the mix. Benjamin is told by his parents to take Elaine on a date, which is something Mrs. Robinson is not in favor. Benjamin ends up really liking, and eventually, loving Elaine. Now Benjamin must choose between a rebellious love affair with Mrs. Robinson and true love with her daughter. The ensuing madness is unforgettable in cinematic history.

"The Graduate" is a classic by our standards today but quite revolutionary when it was released in 1967. It touched on subjects that might have considered being taboo in the 1960s. A movie about a love affair between a student and an older woman, this was unheard of in the film industry. The directing (Mike Nichols) is astounding with great performances by Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman. A good film about the confusion and alienation that young people can have and how feelings such as those are dealt.

"Bonnie and Clyde" is one of those movies a young movie enthusiast, such as myself, hears about growing up. Growing up when I did, in the late 80s and early 90s, "Bonnie and Clyde" was a movie everyone knew about and just about everyone loved. I had never seen all of the film and it has always eluded me somehow. I finally was able to watch the movie in its entirety a few days ago and I was impressed. The movie, from an artistic standpoint, seems to be flawless. The film has great acting, the best by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, a great story and screenplay, as well as memorable characters. The cinematography is beautiful. Cinematographer Burnett Guffey and director Arthur Penn were able to find some truly astounding locations in Texas to film.

The characters are very interesting and engaging. Clyde is depicted as a sly, petty thief who gets in over his head and is actually very likable. The same goes for Bonnie. She is depicted as a bored Texas girl who wants to have fun. Bonnie also gets into a situation out of her hands and she is portrayed as a nice young girl. Buck, Clyde's brother, (played by Gene Hackman) is also a very likable character who bites off more than he can chew and he drags his wife Blanch (played by Estelle Parsons) into the entire mess. The final member of their gang is a young auto mechanic named C.W. (played by Michael J. Pollard) who decides to join Bonnie and Clyde in their adventures. I found myself having a great amount of fun watching the movie and cheering for Bonnie and Clyde.

After viewing the film, I found myself asking why I cheered for Bonnie and Clyde. They, essentially, were the villains of the story. The historical Bonnie and Clyde, as well as the rest of their gang, killed people, stole money, stole cars, and took hostages. Clyde even made it to "public enemy no. 1." They were not nice people, although they have been mythologized as being misunderstood. In the film, Bonnie and Clyde hold up a bank and Clyde asks a farmer if the money on the counter was his or the banks. The man says it is his and Clyde lets him keep it. Bonnie and Clyde are portrayed as benevolent even though they are murderous robbers. Another thing that was noticeable in the film was that no one wanted to turn Bonnie and Clyde in to the police save C.W.'s father. Most of the civilians in the film either idolized Bonnie and Clyde or were in a state of awe when they saw them. Although "Bonnie and Clyde" is not historically accurate, it is a masterpiece of the 1960s. Its revolutionary storytelling, violence, and rebellious vigor helped shape what cinema is today.