Kung Fu Hustle

As a movie lover I tend to stray away from almost all kung fu movies because I feel as though they are the same moves with just another slick title. I am proud to say that I am wrong. This movie was unlike any of the two kung fu movies I have ever seen. Kung Fu Hustle was hilarious, used amazing special effects, had a plot unique to its own, and contained many enjoyable references/spoofs to other cinema classics.

I loved watching Sing, a wannabe gangster attempting to join the famous and notorious Axe Gang, a legion of black tuxedoed mobsters responsible for a series of gruesome murders and complete dominance over a 1940s Hong Kong. At first, I was unsure on why Sing would even want to be a part of such a gruesome gang but as the movie unfolded I realized it was for the simple fact that they were viewed as the cool yet feared bad asses that provided a sense of strength and unity. The way in which Sing (a complete loser who cannot stand on his own two feet) went about making himself known was a hilarious disaster. His arrogance of trying to extort money from the locals in a poor apartment complex, which is territory of the Axe Gang, results in a battle between the housing complex ( containing numerous master of disguises) and the murderous axe gang. His recognition to the Gang was not so smoothly done.

Aside from the engaging plot, I loved the action pact martial arts as well as the showdown dance sequences and visual eye candy. I thought this movie was beautifully done and had just the right amount of laughable moments. I also enjoyed how the director used elements, styles, and overall references to other classic movies such as Westside Story, Gangs of New York, The Matrix, Broadway, Roger Rabbit, Road Runner and so much more. This movie could have been like all the other Kung Fu films I have seen but it wasn’t! While the martial arts style was similar, the plot and references were fresh. In typical Kung Fu movies we are told who the master or hero is in the very beginning. However, this film kept us on the edge of our seats searching, awaiting to see who would prevail as our hero.

I loved how everyone (in class discussion) was really excited about this movie. Someone made a good point about the unrealistic full recoveries we as the audience kept witnessing with Sing. He is stabbed by three misaimed flying knives and later bitten in the face by two snakes causing his lips to flare up like Roger Rabbit. Hours or maybe even a day later he returns all fine and dandy ready to make his kill.

Mulholland Drive

I found the movie Mulholland Drive to be quite interesting. Throughout class discussion we were told to not over think the films elements because in a way the movie did not have a solid meaning that could easily be summed up. There simply existed too many elements to piece together as a whole. I guess my question is why and how did the director David Lynch formulate this style of film with so much happening that its hard to even comprehend; how does his mind fathom all of these elements?

As the viewer we are constantly watching Lynch manipulate time and space as well as the characters identity. Through watching this movie, I couldn’t help but think of the film Last Year in Marienbad. Like the main male character in that film, I felt as though we as the audience were being transcended between Betty’s reality and her dream world; in which she is desperately trying to rationalize how it could have been for her making it in Hollywood. As the reading states “Betty is dreaming a bright Hollywood wish-fulfillment fantasy that is dispersed by a terrible Hollywood reality of failure.” We are constantly being sucked into Betty’s dream world were she is trying to fit the pieces together on why she didn’t get the part in a movie.

I loved how in class discussion someone mentioned that the roles the characters played switched in real life. We watched sweet bubbly blonde Betty turn into a seductive train wreck as she pleaded for Camilla aka Rita to stay (as she is straddling her on the couch). This personality switch was a complete opposite to who Betty is in her dream world and we only catch a glimpse of her (in this way) while she is auditioning her a role. Another character that does a complete 180 is the director Adam. In Betty’s dream world, we see Adam’s choice and creativity as a director in wanting to choose the leading lady in his film be stripped away from him from a higher, mysterious power in Hollywood. In reality Adam is just our typical director with really no sense of creativity and he had the chance in choosing the leading lady, Camilla Rhodes. In the dream world he hated the thought of Camilla Rhodes but in reality he was sexually wrapped up in her femme fatale image.

Shaft

I really liked the movie Shaft and found it very interesting compared to present day action movies. I found Shaft to be a very independent, intelligent, and yet a cool cat character; who knew how to get the job done by keeping everyone in their place without using violence all the time. Although Shaft was not a real aggressive or violent man,instead, he uses his posture to challenge his oppressors rather than force; which is seen in so many movies like "Training Day" starring Denzel Washington. Comparing these two movies, I really enjoyed not hearing all of the harsh language. Not to sound like a little girl, it really is annoying to here every other word be the f-word. Not only that, in present day action films, they wouldn't use posture as a sense of I'm "The Man" instead they would just knock you out. On another note in regards to the reading, the main character Shaft compared to present day action hero's are physically portrayed so much differently. Today, to be a masculine manly man we are pushed with the image that they have a hard, muscular body. In the 1970's audiences were marked with the image of these leading man to have lean and toned bodies, a body not all juiced up on steroids and ready to rumble.

After viewing the movie and having a class discussion about it,I have found this movie's underlying theme to be more about being a man than about racial stereotypes. Shaft was more about Shafts interactions with other men and proving to be "The Man" rather than fighting against a wall of stereotypes. While he and his other leading characters (Ben) did embody certain aspects of the black stereotype such as being a pimp, a ghetto street walker, drug dealing, and crime; I felt as though it was more about who was the bigger man to get the job done...SHAFT!

Vanishing Point

I really enjoyed analyzing this movie more than I did watching it. I love the simplicity of it all. Kowalski is simply motivated to drive fast for the love of speed, freedom, and a little bit on the basis that he made a bet (which enables he to have a motive). I loved how once he popped a pill (ironically "speed") the camera focused on his shifting into gears, making him accelerate the speed of his car. To me, this seemed like a camera trick the movie "Requiem for a Dream" later accomplished. The mother would pop her diet pills, the room would spin, the TV played on erratically. When the pills were consumed, the camera captured the immediate hype they were experiencing.

Kowalski is a simple man whose real motivation to drive recklessly fast is the pure joy of the speed and freedom it brings (and the little bit about the bet he had made, which gave him an end to his mean). I personally feel as though the crash justified his life. Nothing else he ever did really mattered. Certainly not to the amount of his high speed chase he led on state to state. People will remember him not for his achievements in the war (which earned him a medal) but for the high speed chase that resulted in his suicidal death. Like a true exploitation film, he literally went out with a bang, which shocked the audience. I noticed from class discussion that not every one found the ending fitting to the film. But in reality it was. I honestly saw this coming because I couldn’t imagine him going out any other way. Being caught and arrested was not an option for Kowalski.

I loved from class discussion that we all agreed that Kowalski is a blue-collared man who never really committed any real or serious crime to result in his man hunt by the state police. Why then were they all so apt to bring him down? Easy, Kowalski made the police force look like incompetent fools. He embarrassed them because they did not have control of the situation. It soon became a rat race on who could bring him down. Which state could get the job done and done right this time?

I loved how the reading put everything into political perspective. The roads were built by the government for the purpose of quickly and quietly transporting our troops as means for the war. Today, the roads are still controlled by the government which is evident whenever we are out driving…the speed limits. We view the roads as being free but are they really free? We buy our cars that can move 120-200 mph, yet we cannot even test them out to their fullest capability. Ugh, the temptation to rebel! So in the end, the message we are left with is this, you can have your freedom, but you cannot break the speed limit. Short and sweet :)

Dr. Strangelove

So far, this movie is really one of my favorites. I really loved how the director, Stanley Kubrick, used nightmare comedy and the ideology of the liberal consensus to present in a satirized format: the the atomic bomb scare, the paranoia, and anti-communist feelings (which were present in the 1960's).

Before I read the article, I couldn't understand why Kubrick made the President sound like such a little girl yet the most sensible out of all the other characters. As the article states, Kubrick was "suggesting that man's warlike tendencies and his sexual urges stem from similar aggressive instincts." I could see where his was getting at with the characters names being sexual, the penis-like refueling plane (which made me feel like a pervert), and the low camera angle shots rooting from Rippers pants. I'm not sure however, if Kubrick was suggesting that all men or just men in the military are sexually and aggressively charged human beings. Personally, I feel that it is all men but on different testosterone levels.

I also liked that Kubrick did not make all of the male characters trigger happy, especially Turgidson who couldn't wait for the annihilation to begin in Russia. I liked how a peer said, in class discussion, that the President appeared to have "no balls" at times, especially in his ridiculous telephone conversations. While I agree, I do feel however, that he did have some balls when deciding not to intensify the attack on Russia. When everyone else around him was suggesting to blow them up before they could retaliate against the U.S, the President was not willing to be known as a mass murderer. While the President tried to avoid being compared to Hitler, it was funny how Dr. Strangelove was such an ex-supporter always having outbursts. I felt that Dr. Strangelove's presence and his craziness symbolized how the U.S was soon to follow in the footsteps of Hitler. While Hitler annihilated almost the whole Jewish population, the President of the United States would be known for annihilating the whole human race. Not intentionally like Hitler, but it would go down in his name as the initiator of the nuclear war that ended all life.

I have been thinking about what Professor McRae asked us to think about and try to blog about:"Satire of the Iraq War." I just can't wrap my head around it. Probably because I feel as though I do not possess all the information necessary to begin to satire it's situation. I am however, extremely curious on what other peers might formulate.

Silent Magic

At first, I hated watching Maya Deren's silent short films. I felt as though I was watching something that is intended to never be understood, or connected to any real form of narrative plot. Rather, to be experienced as a visual enjoyment and highlighting the art of cinematography and the magic it can produce by manipulating time and space. I loved how in the third short film we watched we were able to view a party in a different context. Maya captured the actual reality of a party but enabled us to see it in a different light. Through the use of cinematography, Maya was able to produce magic, something we as humans cannot achieve without technology, the ability of freezing time and slowing it down. It was beautiful to see a party of people intermingling and rushing around anxious to converse with the another, become a ballroom dance. Maya was able to portray casual interaction into emotional touching that embodied such grace like a ballroom dance.

When watching Brakhage, I thought his images were beautiful even when they were a bit graphic. I felt that Brakhage achieved what he believed, "that there is a pursuit of knowledge foreign to language and founded upon visual communication, demanding a development of the optical mind." He enabled us as the audience to view a perception differently, without language, by using a different light and beautifual images to communicate. The birth of his daughter felt so...awakening. We all have our ideas of child birth but did we really know all that he showed us, the reality. He showed us their emotional bliss through images of his wife smiling and rubbing her pregnant belly in the bath tub. The light reflecting off the water and highlighting her belly seemed so peaceful. His use of snappy transitioning showed us the beautiful and the pain. I can honestly say I understand birth so much more than from any other film, I have seen in some health class. I did not feel as though this movie was a violation of women because of the emotional background we experienced. I felt it celebrated what we as women can physically do. I really respected this video for what it was.

In class discussion, I loved how someone in class discussion found meaning behind understanding to Maya Deren's second short film, At Land. I noticed that this film dealt a lot with pieces. Pieces of stones and chess playing pieces. The only real understanding I could formulate was that she was tyring to pick up the pieces from her life. I loved how a peer stated that she was always losing a pawn in the game of chess, that this is symbolic to her not wanting to be a pawn with no end. I would love to hear more discussion on this topic of her being a pawn to life. Through watching the silent film you could tell from her facial expression that she was lost, but in search of something. With the world constantly changing on her it kept tearing her further apart from her search. I know this pawn piece held more significance but I cannnot quite put my finger on it.

La Dolce Vita

I actually really liked this movie and found it to be a visual enjoyment. I thought it had a lot to work with through its complex characters. At first, I found the characters exciting but the plot a bit confusing in grasping the time frame of the events surrounding Marcello. La Dolce Vita means the good life, full of pleasure and indulgence. As the viewer, you are watching the protagonist, Marcello, slowly being consumed by the high life of wealth, frame, and self-indulgence (la dolce vita). His career as a reporter reveals this life-style as lavish and that people want you and want to be around you. The closer he gets to these upper class people, the quicker he comes to realize either just how depressed, crazy, unstable, or soulless they all are. The more Marcello surrounds himself with them, the faster we watch Marcello fall into their holes of life without meaning. We watch him lose himself in his hunger for promiscuous sex. I couldn't stand the fact that he sweet talked his way into the almost every girl's pants. He told them exactly what they wanted to hear and they bought every word. It annoyed me how he didn't ever care to know them, it only mattered on what they could give him...sex! Sadly we watch as his search for both happiness and love never come because he never really appreciates people for who they are. As we learn from Marcello, his father was never really around much, that he left him just as he leaves his possessive girlfriend Emma.

In the reading, Pasolini states that the ideology of Fellini is identifiable a Catholic kind of ideology, the non-dialectical relationship between sin and innocence. I feel this movie was based on portraying a world of sin and loneliness in contrast to innocence. We watch as innocence becomes trampled by sin as Steiner murders his children and himself. Throughout the film you feel as though you are in a kind of hell in which people don't care to know you as a person, a friend, you are only a mean to an end. In this world of sin you only get glimpses of innocence, the kitten, the children, and the young girl seen both at the end and in the cafe. I felt that the final scene in which she is waving to him and shouting something Marcello can not hear, represented their final separation between worlds.

It took me awhile to formulate an interpretation on the statue of Jesus Christ, flying suspended in the skies of Rome from a helicopter, on its way to Vatican. I understood the meaning of this as a degrading change in times/morals. Jesus is flying with his arms open as if reaching out to bless Rome and its people. This camera shot quickly changes from Jesus to girls in bikinis with men googling them. I feel this is showing the shocking change in modern day, as if we need a blessing to save us. People used to be and dress in a more conservative fashion however this modern lifestyle seems improper and offensive to the Catholic religion/church. I feel like there is a deeper meaning to this image but I can't fully reach it. I feel it but I can't find the words to express it. On another note, the monstrous fish at the end left me thoughtless and confused. The line quoted in the movie kept playing through my head "Poor thing and it insists on looking." Poor us! We are watching these people drive themselves into the ground with late night orgies and drinking trying to fill their voids. In the second to last scene, the late night party at a man's house, made me feel uncomfortable yet I couldn't look away. The image of Jesus at the beginning and a monstrous fish at the end symbolizes that evil keeps washing up on our shores, our streets, our homes, and our society. As a society we have lost meaning and morals.