Writting Assingment on The Royal Tenenbaums..

For this movie comparison blog, I decided to watch The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson 2001) Wes Anderson has a pretty short range in movies. Some of the things that I've noticed in the 2 films we watched in class, Rushmore (Wes Anderson 1998) and Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson 1996) and the one I watch outside of class, is that Wes Anderson tends to use some of the same actors, which 1 makes the movies that much better, cause we see how the actors change in character, and also because they are good actors. So anyway, Wes has a way of making serious moments in movies be funny, and at the same time happy. Like you always feel like no matter whats going on in the scene, its a warm environment. In The Royal Tenenbaums dies when Royal Tenenbaum at the end, everyone goes to the funeral, and yet no one seems that sad really, like they aren't happy he died, but they just seem like they are glad they got to meet him and everything. Its sort of the same with Rushmore Max finds out a way to make everything right at the end, and it makes it a happy ending, even thought through out the movie things don't exactly always go his way. Another trait that Wes Anderson uses a lot, is the unrestricted narration, cause we always sort of know, or atleast can predict what is going to happen next. In Bottle Rocket we get this feel with the different camera angles used in a specific shot, when we see Dignan go back to get AppleJack, there is a zoom on his face that shows him being confident in himself, yet he still knows what is going to happen once he goes back in there. Its sort of the same with Rushmore we see Herman Blume (Bill Murray) is sort of trying to get Max to forget about Miss Cross, but we know that its just so he can go an mack on her himself. We can also see that Max will change into a better person, when he gets sent of to the other school, the change in environment and people hes around, makes him into a better person. But in all Kumar, was for sure the funniest guy in all three movies, in Bottle Rocket he just says hilarious stuff, in the scene when they are robbing the warehouse, he goes " who is that man" referring to appleJack, which is kind of funny because they are supposed to know each other very well. In Rushmore hes kind of just chillin there, i think he was like a grounds keeper in rushmore academy. But finally in The Royal Tenenbaums, he has an astonishing performance, hes helping out Royal Tenenbaums, working sort of as a spy for him, and his doing all these crazy things, then Royal tells a story of how he got stabbed, and how Kumar saved his life, and then he's asked who stabbed him, and he goes "he did" referring to Kumar, i thought it hilarious.

No Country For Old Men

Before i say anything else, i just want to say that out of all the movies we have seen in class, No Country was probably the best one. Not only because of the violence and actions scenes, but because it was just a good movie. You have Anton Chigurh the cold blooded killer who just does what he wants, the typical greedy guy, who is also the "hero" named Moss, and the sheriff. This movie reminds me a lot of War by Philip G. Atwell, it has sort of the same cold blooded killer, type of deal, played by Jet Li, and then the good guy/cop played by Jason Statham.. This movies are both the same in the fact that theres killings all the time, and there scenes where it just gets nasty. like one where Jet li sticks a bomb on a dog, then sends him into a room to blow up its owners, it was pretty tight, and nasty at the same time.. but in any case, theres sort of the same plot, but its more of Jason's character getting revenge on a fellow cop lost/killed by Jet li's character, so its a whole struggle with that, and the yakuza and triads..

The long good bye

Out of all the movies we watched by Robert Altman, the Long good bye had to be the best one for sure.. It had it all action, comedy, and Marlowe is just awesome.. So anyway this movie reminds me of Crank (2006) by Bryan Taylor, cause its sort of the same as the long good bye, in that its just one badass guy like Marlowe, in Crank its Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) who is also a badass.. anyway story has sort of the same plot, main character searching for an answer, in Crank its more of a cure, and in the end both characters sort of find their answer, and they deal with it. Marlowe kills Terry, and Chev kills a bunch of Triads or what ever they were in the movie. There a lot of sort of characteristics shared between the main characters, like the i dont really care about you or anything else for that matter, and the kind of lone wolf, laid back attitude, its pretty sweet, makes for a good movie..

yojimbo

OF the three movies we watched by Kurosawa, i thought that Yojimbo was probably the best one, just because Sanjuro kept slicing people up and it was really entertaining to watch the plot develop to the end. Its pretty unrestricted narration so we know whats gonna happen eventually.This movie reminds me of once upon a time in the west, cause there were the 2 different crews, and the harmonica guy, kind of got one crew to help him take out another crew, so he could get his revenge and what not. But it also reminds me of the lone hero, and Sanjuro and Harmonica are just that, cause they want to get to their goal, and do what it ever it takes to get to that, and Sanjuro kind of wants money at first, but then he ends up saving the couple, and the old guy so it shows his compassionate and heroic side.. And its the same thing that Harmonica does, he says that girl and tries to safe the guy that helps him, but he dies.. Theres also the gusts in the sand and with the leafs, so it sort of reminds me of the weather deal with Kuro.. but yea good stuff.

Rear Window...

This movie by Hitchcock was probably my favorite of the three we watched, just because it had a little more of a dramatic effect on the audience, and it was very suspenseful and good. It kind of reminds me of a Saw movie, because you see the movie through the eyes of various characters.. This gives the film more of a unrestricted narration, which is always good, keeps the viewer in suspense, even thought we know what is possibly going to come in the film. Saw this in the way that there are multiple people trying to figure something out, and they will show a lot of different scenes where the different characters sort of play their own story in a single or multiple scene, and this helps to give background on characters and also build up a theme, which is the same thing done in rear window and its good stuff..

Scarface (1983)

The First movie that we saw was scarface, directed by Brian De Palma. What can I say, this movie has everything that a good movie is made out of. Theres a lot of violence, and drugs and sex and stuff. But its intelligently put into the film, like De Palma doesn't just throw in a sex scene to make the movie better, its a necessary scene to have. The only thing that I could find wrong with this movie, is that it does get a bit long at some parts..When De Palma is trying to build suspense but its well worth it to wait what happens next in the movie. My favorite scene is this movie is by far the scene when Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is enraged by the death of his wife, and he just sticks his face in a pile of coke, then all the escorts of this guy get there, and he starts going crazy on them. Its where the famous catch phrase comes from. "Say hello to my little friend" thats just good stuff right..


The scene im choosing to analyze is the very last scene when Tony is killed. The reason im choosing this scene, is because, its basically what hes dream was, to be on top of the world like his little globe thing said. "the world is yours" then theres a high angle shot of Tony falling fountain, which shows that he was still the top dog, cause even thought hes dead, no one had done so much like him.
Either way this is a great film, everyone should watch it!

Too Tough to Die (reading)

The little article we read on friday was about western movies, and how they've been around for a long time and the way that they are improved each time they are made. Talks about the 3:10 to Yuma, which was originally from 1957, but has been remade into a newer version, and different actors. Talks about cinematography in westerns, and about the cowboy hero.
Basically just saying how great western movies are and that they will continue to carry the American history.