Good Will Hunting

The chapters that we had to read this week were very long but it had lots of information on camera techniques, lighting, filming, and the script itself. There is no way that I could relate all of this information to Good Will Hunting, but I will relate some of the things to the movie. One thing the book talks about is living spaces and offices and how they are set up to portray the movie in certain ways. In Good Will Hunting, the offices that Will meets the psychologists in are always filled with books and messy, and this does resemble the movie because Will is very lost in life right away and doesn’t really know what he is doing. It even shows that Will has mental issues and is a mess throughout most of the movie. The book also talks about lighting and different ways to use lights to show effects in the movie. One of the scenes that really stuck out to me with lighting was the scene when Will was in bed with Skylar and the lighting technique that was used was low-key lighting. This is where most of the set is in shadow and just a few things are highlighted. Will and Skylar are mostly in shadow but you can see parts of their faces and body at times. It really made the scene seem more intimate and romantic. Another scene that I really thought was neat was when Will was in a session with Sean and the camera was going back and forth behind their heads of whoever was talking. The camera was doing close-up shots and it really made the scene more interesting.
When I read the article “Too smart for their own good,” it never had really occurred to me that a lot of Hollywood movies or just TV shows show a lot of geniuses with a lot of emotional and mental problems, until I read it in the article. It seems like the genius hero can never just be a genius, they have to have other problems on the side; then again maybe it wouldn’t be a good movie unless they had these problems. I know that Good Will Hunting wouldn’t have been great without Will’s mental problems because that was a main part of the story.
The next article I read was “Two Thumbs Up, Five Stars, and an Oscar?,” which was interesting because it talked about gifted children in other cultures and asked the question of what do we classify as gifted. It also talked about some of the main messages throughout the movie. The main messages the article talks about are that children often go unrecognized and are misunderstood, gifted people can deal with social and emotional issues, and that there are many people that play important roles in the lives of gifted children. All three of these main messages are really touching to me because it is really true and it makes me think about a lot of things in life.
The last article that I read was “Holden Caulfield, Alex Portnoy, and Good Will Hunting; Coming of Age in American Films and Novels,” and I liked this article the most. I loved how the author talked about the movie. I liked how the article talks about Sean and Will’s relationship because they did really help each other out. I also like how it talks about Will and his best friend Chuckie because to me he really was the one to put things into perspective for Will. Sometimes it takes your best friend to really show you what you can do and have in life and that is what Chuckie did. The quote from the article, “Young Will Hunting is very, very bright; a genius actually. But he’s also bursting with confusion and rage, triggered by an abusive childhood and an adolescence of low expectations. Will can reason like mad, but he’s usually too mad to reason,” really makes a lot of sense because Will is so smart and can do mathematic problems easy because he is able to reason these types of things. When it comes to his and doing the right things, Will can’t because he gets upset way to easy so therefore he can’t reason with his life.
Good Will Hunting was such a great movie to watch. I loved how it had drama and romance yet it was still funny. One of my favorite parts of the movie was when Will went up to the window and asked the guy if he liked apples, then said he got a phone number and added “how do you like those apples.” This showed more of the funny side of the movie. My other favorite part of the movie was when Chuckie was talking to Will about how the happiest day of his life will be when he comes to pick him up and he won’t be there. This part of movie shows how dramatic it can be because it brought tears to my eyes. It had to be hard for Chuckie to tell his best friend to leave him because he can do so much better in life then where he is now. I think that the hero of the movie is Will because he really finds himself in the end of the movie and overcomes a lot in his life. He has lots of conflict but with the help of others he is able to see what he really wants in life. The only part of the movie that I didn’t like fully was the ending because I wish it would have shown Will reuniting with Skylar. It was a good ending I am just a sucker for the full fairly tall ending. I would watch Good Will Hunting again soon because I liked it so much.

On the Waterfront

When I read the chapter for this week in the book, it talked about how films focus on five certain elements: plot, emotional effect or mood, character, style and texture, and ideas. It also talks about how films emphasize on one or two of the elements more than the others. In the film On the Waterfront, its main focus is the idea. The central idea , according to the book, is the struggle for human dignity. The book talks about how this means that there is conflict between two opposing sides. On the Waterfront has two opposing sides, and they are the dock workers and the corrupted union.
When I read the article "Arthur Miller’s Proletariat:The True Stories of On theWaterfront, Pietro Panto,and Vincenzo Longhi," I found two things that shocked me. The first was that the director Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg, who did the screenplay, were "accused of ‘stealing’ the conception for On the Waterfront from an unsuccessful work of Miller titled ‘The Hook: A Play for the Screen.'" I didn't understand if it was true or not, but it was still shocking to read that because I never suspected it. The other thing that shocked me was that there really was a waterfront union corruption in Brooklyn around the time the movie was filmed. I was shocked that they made a film kind of about it around the same time. Usually movies that are based on true stories aren't made until some time after the event happened.
When I watched the film I had a feeling that I was going to like it, because I enjoyed the last black and white film that I watched. I was right, and I did enjoy the movie a lot. When the movie first started, I found it very disturbing when Joey was shown falling off of the roof. I was not expecting the film to have murder in it, so it really surprised me. I also found it disturbing at the end when all the pigeons were killed by the boy. It was really sad watching Terry's face when he saw them all dead. Besides the disturbing parts, I really liked how the movie played out. I liked how Terry and Edie had a fling going, because I like movies that have romance in them. Edie was a little dramatic in some of the scenes like when Terry left the apartment to see why the mob was saying his brother "wanted" him. She really was dramatic about his safety and it was kind of cheesy. I never really put two and two together at the beginning to know that Terry was part of the mob. I was a little slow but I ended up understanding everything as the movie went on. I found the bar scene funny when Terry took Edie to drink because she had one shot and she seemed drunk already. I understand that it might have been her first time drinking, but it was funny to watch her reactions from the alcohol.
The movie review that I read, On the Waterfront (Motion Picture), was interesting because I don't think the reviewer liked the movie that much. I liked when he said, "Terry Malloy, the ex-boxer whose brains are partly scrambled, but whose pigeon-loving heart stays tenderly intact," because it is funny how Terry is portrayed as tough but has a love for pigeons and is up on the roof taking care of them everyday. I also liked how the reviewer talked about how the audience of the film can never tell that Edie is going to a college that is taught by nuns. I agree with him because she seems like she likes to get her hands dirty and get her nose into other people's business.
When I was watching On the Waterfront, I was trying to figure out what the jacket and the pigeons symbolized. When I read the article "On the Waterfront," which was reviewing the book on the movie, it talked about how the pigeons symbolized Terry's connection with Joey, the Golden Warriors, and the neighborhood boys' gang. It then made sense to me once I had read that because Terry took care of Joey's pigeons once he died along with his own. When the pigeons were killed by the boys, they were mad at Terry and didn't want to have a connection with him anymore. I still not entirely sure what the jacket symbolized, but I know that who ever whore the jacket got in trouble with the mob. Joey and Kayo were killed and Terry was badly beaten, but survived.
On the Waterfront, was a interesting movie that kept me on my feet because I never knew who the mob was going to kill next. I thought it had a very good ending to the film because Terry did win and everyone cheered for him. I am now interested in watching more older films just because the ones I have seen have been really good.

Casablanca

Casablanca was a very interesting film to watch. I have always portrayed black and white movies to be boring because they were made so long ago. When I watched the movie, I watched it with an open mind and really enjoyed it. In the chapter I read in the book, it talked about becoming a receptive viewer. I was being one when I watched the movie and I will now watch movies with a more open mind then ever before.
At the end of the movie, I wish Rick and Ilsa would have gotten together. It would have made the movie even more romantic. In the article "Casablanca" by Ray Merlock, it talked about the movie was showing how love prevails through war and other tough times, which is true so I understand why it ended up the way it did. I feel that Rick would have been better for Ilsa and that she enjoyed him more than her husband. I think they would have had a great life in the United States.
I thought the film did a good job and changing scenes and having different camera angles for being made in the 40s. I really liked the part when Rick flashed back to the time in Paris with Ilsa because until then, the audience was anticipating how Rick and Ilsa knew each other.
Casablanca was way better than I thought it would be and I would watch it again. I really like how it feels like we are in a movie theater with the big screen and the comfy chairs. Chapter one talked about how the film-viewing environment can really make a difference in a movie. I think that we had a pretty good environment to watch Casablanca in.