A Touch of Evil: Film Review

Over this past weekend, I discovered how to watch movies online. I watched two film noirs: Double Indemnity (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI73zPyYq1o&feature=PlayList&p=E3AA00E725036B6C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=23)and Touch of Evil (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l21H_XKWX0U&feature=PlayList&p=BC9D162BDF409A29&index=0). By far, I enjoyed Touch of Evil more. Touch of Evil is considered to be the "last" film of the film noir genre. It was written and directed by Orson Welles, who even co - starred in this film. This film begins with an amazing tracking shot that is actually considered to be one of the best tracking shots in the history of cinema! This is a continuous shot that lasts for approximately three and a half minutes. The shot begins on the Mexican/U.S. border and it pursues a car that just had a bomb planted in it. Soon, we see a couple walking down the street, who turn out to be the main characters, Miguel "Mike" Vargas (played by Charlton Heston), a drug enforcement official with the Mexican government, and Susie Vargas (played by the one and only Janet Leigh). This shot ends with this couple witnessing a car bomb explosion that kills the two people inside of the car. This instigates a major investigation that involves both the U.S. and Mexican police.

Soon, we get introduced to some new characters as Police Chief Pete Gould (played by Harry Shannon), District Attorney Adair (played by Ray Collins), Captain Hank Quinlan (played the famous Orson Wells), and Quinlan's partner, Pete Menzies (played by Joseph Calleia) arrive on the scene. As Quinlan and Menzies question a suspect, Mike Vargas goes to the bathroom and accidently bumps a shoe box into a bathtub. Vargas does not think too much of it and puts it back in its original place. Soon after, Menzies declares that some sticks of dynamite were found in a shoe box in the bathroom. Vargas concludes that Quinlan has been intentionally planting evidence to help him win arrests for years. Vargas confronts Quinlan about this and Quinlan calls Vargas racially biased and thinks that he completely supports his fellow Mexicans.

So, Mike Vargas tries to take matters into his own hands by investigating Quinlan. As he is doing so, his wife Susie is kidnapped by a gang member of the Grande crime family and is held at the family's hotel. As the film goes on, Vargas concludes that Quinlan has actually been planting evidence in order to win arrests for years. Vargas now has the difficult task of trying to prove Quinlan guilty of planting evidence while also trying to rescue his wife.

Overall, I really liked this movie a lot! Unlike Double Indemnity, I thought that Touch of Evil was much more suspenseful and had many twists and turns. It definitely kept me guessing about what was going to happen next. I would definitely recommend this film to anyone looking for a good thriller/suspense film. I can't say the same about Double Indemnity though..... :(

The Maltese Falcon: Film Review

The 1941 film The Maltese Falcon is considered to be the "first" film of the film noir genre. This film was written and directed by John Huston and it narrates a private detective, Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) in San Fransisco. In this film, a disturbed woman hires Sam's partner to follow a man.

Interestingly, Sam's partner is murdered right after he is hired to follow this man. It turns out that the woman who hired Sam's partner, Brigid O'Shaughnessy (played by Mary Astor), was a criminal whose partner actually killed Sam's partner. She was also involved with other criminals such as Joel Cairo (played by Peter Lorre) and Kasper Gutman (played by Sydney Greenstreet).

Gutman has been lusting after a statue of a golden falcon for nearly two decades and was told that O'Shaughnessy had obtained it and she said she would be willing to sell it to him. However, Gutman doesn't get the falcon. So, Gutman and his gang try to handle things their own way, except detective Spade may too much for Gutman and his gang.

I thought that this was an excellent film and I enjoyed it a lot. It was so suspenseful and there were so many twists and turns that it kept the viewer guessing about what would happen next. I would recommend this film to anyone who is looking for a good thriller/suspense movie.

Chinatown: Film Review

The 1974 neo - noir film Chinatown was written by Robert Towne and directed by Roman Plonaski. This film displayed many characteristics of a film noir. For example, the plot of this story could be considered part mystery and part psychological drama. This film takes place in L.A. in 1937. Some woman hires a private investigator named J.J. Gettis (played by the one and only Jack Nicholson). This woman, who claims to be Evelyn Mulwray, (played by Diane Ladd) is concerned that her husband, Hollis Mulwray, is cheating on her and she hires Gettis to spy on him and confirm if he is cheating on her or not.

Gettis follows Hollis Mulwray and catches him with a young woman. Gettis photographs Mulwray with this young woman and publishes it in the local newspaper. However, these photographs cause a great conflict. The woman who originally hired Gettis and claimed to be Evelyn Mulwray was not actually Evelyn Mulwray. To Gettis's surprise, the actual Evelyn Mulwray shows up at Gettis's office with her lawyer. She sues Gettis for publishing absolutely false and ridiculous information. Gettis faces the difficult task of figuring out who really hired him so that he can protect his reputation.

Gettis ends up trying to find Mulwray so that he can talk to him about this situation. This does not happen at all as Gettis discovers the body of Hollis Mulwray in a reservoir. Gettis then visits Mulwray's wife to try and figure out what is going on. She ends up dropping the lawsuit against him and hires him to investigate her husband's murder. There are many twists and turns in this film and it keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. In the end of this movie, there are many truths that are revealed that are very disturbing.

Overall, I really did enjoy this film. I thought it was very suspenseful and it always kept me guessing what was going to happen next. I would definitely recommend this film to anyone looking for a good suspense film.

Daughters of the Dust and Monsoon Wedding V.S. Hollywood Convention

Daughters of the Dust, Monsoon Wedding, and even a classic Hollywood film like Casablanca have all had different narration styles. Casablanca displayed the traditional Hollywood style of film, while Daughters of the Dust and Monsoon Wedding displayed different types of narration styles as both of these films were independent films.

In the conventional Hollywood film narration style, a common characteristic is to focus on one person (mainly the protagonist). Daughters of the Dust challenges Hollywood convention by focusing on the entire Gullah family instead of just one person. This difference goes to show how many different characters can impact the plot and the outcome of an independent film. The conventional Hollywood film narration style often ignores many secondary characters and focuses only on those characters that clearly stand out as significant in the film. Another difference between the conventional Hollywood style of narration and the style of narration that independent films use is the person who is narrating the film. For example, Daughters of the Dust is narrated by a child who has yet to born or in other words. In a conventional Hollywood Style of narration, the narrator of a film has nothing to do with what happens in the film or the narrator is simply one of the main characters (either the protagonist or the second - most important character). A film that instantly came to mind when saying that the narrator has nothing to do with what happens in the film is the comical film Anchorman starring Will Ferrell. That film is narrated by a man who at the end of the movie hires Ron (played by Will Ferrell) and Veronica (played by Christina Applegate) as the first mixed - gendered network anchors.

In Casablanca, the main characters of the movie, Rick (the protagonist), Ilsa (Rick's love interest), and Ilsa's husband, obviously stand out. The audience can easily identify who the main characters are. In fact, the movie makes it quite obvious who the main characters are. In an independent film like Monsoon Wedding or Daughters of the Dust, it is very confusing who the main character is. In Daughters of the Dust, the focus is on the entire Gullah family. The same thing in Monsoon Wedding. The focus is on the family of the bride.

In conclusion, independent movies, such as Monsoon Wedding and Daughters of the Dust, and traditional Hollywood films such as Casablanca have very different narration styles. There are many arguments mentioned in this blog that accentuates this point.

Monsoon Wedding: Film Review

The 2001 Bollywood film Monsoon Wedding narrates a father, Lalit Verma (played by Naseeruddin Shah) who is trying to arrange a wedding for his daughter, Aditi Verma (played by Vasundhara Das). This film correctly depicts Punjabi culture as Aditi has only known the man who she been arranged to marry for a couple of weeks. This film primarily describes several romantic crisis's not only in the planning of this wedding but also amongst family members and friends.

Quite honestly, I somewhat liked this film. I thought that the beginning was a little dull with all of the family dialogue, but I thought that as the movie went on and as the plot unfolded more and more it got better. I would recommend this colorful film to anyone who is looking for a good romance film.

Daughters of the Dust: Film Review

The 1991 film Daughters of the Dust was written and directed by Julie Dash. This film narrates Gullah women and their family's migration from the mainland's to America. This film can be considered a narrative film, because interestingly it is narrated by a child who is yet to be born.

Honestly, I did not think too much of this film. I did not like it at all. It was very dry, and I did not find it interesting or exciting at all. At times it was difficult to follow the plot of the film and it was also difficult to understand the women's accents at times.

Casablanca

The 1942 film Casablanca tells the story of an emotionally wrecked nightclub owner, Rick (played by Humphrey Bogart) and his former lover, Ilsa (played by Ingrid Bergman). This film begins with a petty criminal named Ugarte (played by Peter Lorre) arriving in Rick's club with some valuable letters. Ugarte wants to sell them for as high as he possibly can. However Captain Renault (played by Claude Rains) arrests Ugarte.

Moments after this occurs, Rick's former lover Ilsa enters his club with her husband Victor (played by Paul Henreid). Ilsa and her husband need Ugarte's letters in order to leave Casablanca for America because Vicotr is wanted by the Nazis. It is at this point in the film where Rick must make a difficult choice: He must decide between his love for Ilsa and helping her escape from Casablanca.

Honestly, I liked this classic film. I thought that it was an exciting film to watch. I think that there's a difference between old films like Casablanca and films today. It makes you appreciate old films like this.

A Closer Look at Bonnie and Clyde

The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde is considered a "landmark film" as it broke many traditional restrictions. This film completely changed film making mainly because of its unique style of editing. There were times when this film was very slow - paced and casual (as in dialogue scenes). The shots in these scenes lasted longer. However, there were times when this film was fast - paced (chase scenes). The shots in these scenes quickly alternated from Barrow's gang to the police, or whoever was chasing them. There were also times in this film in which the editing seemed very “choppy” (Bonnie and Clyde death scene). I believe “choppy” editing occurs in this film because it is a timing thing. It stresses the importance of the pace of the film. It also adds suspense to the film. However, this combination of editing styles added to the overall quality of the film and added suspense to the film.

There were a few scenes in this film that had choppy editing. However, there were two scenes that really stuck out to me. I thought these two scenes had a lot of choppy editing. The first scene that stuck out to me was the chase scene that eventually led Clyde and his gang into Oklahoma. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVsovDXPBb8 In this scene, Clyde and his gang have just pulled off their first bank robbery together. The camera alternates between quick 2 – 3 second shots of the car getting away and 2 – 3 second shots of Clyde and his gang in the car. This is to basically add suspense to the scene.

Another scene that I thought had choppy editing was the Bonnie and Clyde death scene at the end of the film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5GDcs8i2ng&feature=related In this scene, Clyde and Bonnie discover C.W.’s father on the side of the road and they decide to pull over. They soon find out that they have been set up. C.W.’s father looks at the bushes when birds flew out and he hits the deck. Clyde realizes that he and Bonnie have been set up. The camera quickly alternates 1 second close – up shots of Bonnie and Clyde before they both end up getting shot to death. Again, this is to add suspense and uncertainty to the scene. Bonnie and Clyde have been caught and the choppy editing leaves the audience guessing about what’s going to happen to Bonnie and Clyde.

There were times in this film when the editing seemed choppy. However, the choppy editing occurred to add suspense to the film and to emphasize the overall pace of the film.