The Big Three

The movie I chose for this week’s blog is A Few Good Men (1992) starring Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, and Demi Moore. This film is about a few Marines that were ordered to commit a Code Red on a fellow Marine, Private Santiago in order to motivate him to do better. The Marine died from the Code Red and a investigation into the death commenced. Tom Cruise played a young Navy Lawyer who had never tried a case in court. Demi Moore was a senior Navy lawyer who was tasked with keeping overseeing Tom during the trial. Jack Nicholson was the commanding officer of Guantanamo Base, Cuba where the offense took place.“A Few Good Men” is a brass-buttoned, square-jawed huzzah for military justice that’s thankfully free of the messy moralizing of the Vietnam age. ” (Kempley, 1992). “Rob Reiner’s “A Few Good Men” is one of those movies that tells you what it’s going to do, does it, and then tells you what it did.” (Ebert, 1992)

All three actors are what I would consider personality actors. For example, Tom Cruise has become known for his good looks as well as his fiery personality. The picture below shows his fiery side. Demi Moore also would be considered a personality actor. Her good looks and ability to get emotional during a scene have become some of her trademarks. Finally, Jack Nicolson is the third that I would consider a personality actor. Jack is known for his facial expressions and his ability to slow down his dialogue to get a point across.

Finally, I think all three of them would have a difficult time acting outside of the personality category but Tom Cruise would have the hardest time. His face and good looks are what he is known for. Other films such as Risky Business and Days of Thunder help substantiate my point.

Kempley, R. (1992, December 11). A Few Good Men. Retrieved September 3, 2015.

Ebert, R. (1992, December 11). A Few Good Men Movie Review & Film Summary (1992) | Roger Ebert. Retrieved September 3, 2015.

Gone In 60 Seconds

Title: Gone In 60 Seconds (2000)

Director: Dominic Sena

Writers: H.B Halicki, Scott Rosenberg

Main Characters : Nicolas Cage< Angelina Jolie

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

The three basic categories of sound are sound effects, dialogue and music. I chose the 2003 movie “Gone in 60 Seconds” for this week’s blog.  This movie is an action genre movie that has great action along with stunning sound effects and music. The movie is about a group of car thieves’ who are brought back together again to save the life of Kip Raines the younger brother of Memphis Raines. Memphis came out of carjacking retirement to lead the group. They made a deal to steal 50 cars in one night in order to free the younger Raines. The night was a success until the final car is being stolen. A car named “Eleanor” by Memphis . A car that he had tried to steal before on numerous attempts but failed. Hopefully this time it will be different. In the scene the sun is coming up, the police are on to them and the car is starting to sputter and have mechanical issues after Memphis breaks the passenger mirror off eluding the police. The sound effects are the main focus of the scene. In the scene you have police cars flying around as well as helicopters and constructions equipment. All of these vehicle sounds like your normal everyday equipment. It is Eleanor that steals the sound effects with her screaming V8 sound that instantly draws your attention. This sound alone sets the mood for the scene.

The dialogue in the scene is also action packed. There are short shots where you see Memphis talking to Eleanor trying to console her that everything will be alright once they get on the ship.

Also, you have the police helicopter radio transmissions that make you feel that you are actually part of the chase. All of these sounds make for a great action scene and a perfect ending to a perfect movie.

Refences:

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS5C- JpzDMQpCfDBMr6jM0_f9BNMEzxiMeWESjs085Jw34LqTAwjQ

Gone in Sixty Seconds. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2015.

The Green Mile

The Green Mile (1999)

Writer: Stephen King

Director: Frank Darabont

Major Actors: Tom Hanks, David Morse, Michael Clark Duncan

In “The Green Mile” three point lighting is used throughout the movie. Three – point lighting is based upon careful control of shadows by using three main light sources (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014).  From watching the movie this choice of lighting seems to work very well. Neither high-key lighting or low lighting would not properly highlight the size of Jon Coffey. The picture below shows that properly using three point lighting viewers can see that John Coffey is substantially taller and bigger then the other men in the picture. This would not be possible if any other source of lighting was used.

While Three – point lighting works well to show the viewer the size difference between men, it can also help with close up shots of actors in scenes where details are important. Take the scene below for example, Three-point lighting works in a way that does not become a distraction for the viewer. The lighting is not too overbearing like high-key lighting could possibly become in this shot.

This movie is pretty straight forward, it is about a prisoner who has a special power to heal people. This power is misunderstood and ends up killing him in the end. There are no special effects or crazy scenes that special lighting would be needed. This was not the intention of the film from the beginning. I feel that three-point lighting complimented the film very well. Something that is typical for a Stephen King movie.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi552796441/?stop=1&ref_=vi_cmt_tt_ov_vi#discuss

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. (2014). Film: from watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education Inc

The Shawshank Redemption

Title: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Writer: Stephen King

Director: Frank Barabont

Actors: Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman

Story:

The story is about a successful young banker who is convicted of killing his wife and her boyfriend in cold blood.  He is sent to Shawshank prison where he meets fellow convict “Red” Redding who is sort of the prison businessman. Together they perceiver through all of the prison uncertainties while keeping the hope alive that someday they will return to the free world. In the end, one of them looks for hope on his own terms.

Plot:

The story starts off with Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) appearing in court being convicted of killing his wife and her boyfriend  in cold blood. He is sentenced to life in prison and sent to Shawshank prison. During the early years of his sentence he becomes good friends with “Red” Redding who is the prison with the outside connections.  Red helps Andy settle into prison life and quickly becomes Andy’s right hand man throughout the movie.

Andy was an educated man and used this talent over the next few years. He would help the prison guards with their taxes as well as help other prisoners obtain a high school degree or other levels of education. Finally, after many years of trying he was persistent enough to receive a grant from the state to have a prison library built. Once the library was built things started to progress around Andy. Andy knew loopholes in the financial system and became the warden’s personal bookkeeper.  The warden took full advantage of Andy and soon had him laundering money for him. Over the years no one had noticed that Andy really became to center of all things financially for the prison legal and illegal. .

One day a fellow prisoner approached Andy with news that he once has a cellmate at a previous prison that told a story of killing a hotshot bankers wife and boyfriend for money. Andy took the news to the warden and asked for another trial. With too much at stake, the warden downplayed the accusations and finally ended up killing the prisoner who gave Andy the information. Andy soon realized the warden was not going to ever let him out of prison so he devised a plan to escape. Just before his escape he sent all of the laundering documentation to the local press. On  the morning of learning of Andy’s escape the warden read the newspaper article and committed suicide.

Once he was settled in Mexico, Andy sent Red a blank postcard dropping a hint of where he was. Red soon made parole and met up with Andy in Mexico where they lived.

Chronological: I believe the film was played out in chronological order because it shows Andy and Red’s life as it goes along. Character development is present throughout the film. You see Andy when he first arrives at prison and is an outcast and then through the film you see how he become the center of all things that are going on legal and illegal.

Resources:

The Shawshank Redemption. (1994). Retrieved August 16, 2015.

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