The Godfather

1) In class we discussed the different scenes in The Godfather. There were over 50 scenes that incorporated food in the film.The most important themes of the movie were most likely just honor and loyalty. There were also a lot of memorable quotes from The Godfather. Some of the most famous lines include, "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse" and "It's not personal, it's business."

The Godfather had influence on every mafia story ever since the production of this movie. For example, the Godfather had a lot of influence on the Sopranos and Scorsese. In class, we also talked about Francis Ford Coppola, who was a "film school brat" and the various awards he won for the production of the Godfather which included Best picture, Best actor, Best adapted screenplay, Best supporting actor, Best director, and Best sound, editing, and costume design. The Godfather earned $82 million in 1972 and a total of $244 million worldwide.

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/cop0pro-1

2) This article tells about how Paramount had little to no confidence in Francis Ford Coppola in directing The Godfather. They had so little faith in him that they hired another director to follow him around the set, just to remind him not to screw up. Despite the pressure, Coppola persevered and The Godfather was a success.

Francis Ford Coppola also won multiple awards for the sequel, The Godfather II while he also directed The Conversation and Apocalypse Now. These movies were also considered "legendary".



3) Francis Ford Coppola has made and lost several fortunes over the course of his lifetime almost as dramatic as his films. He has left an incredible mark on the history of motion pictures. The release of The Godfather was just a stepping stone in cinema. It received a lot of positive remarks and was very influential in addition to earning him his academy awards.
After the film released, it received a lot of praise and has been named possibly the greatest movie ever made.

4) I think that The Godfather is one of the best "gangster" movies ever. It's almost an understatement to say that The Godfather influenced ever gangster movie that came after it. Nobody thought about doing a movie as good as this before The Godfather. There were a lot of important themes in the movie along with a lot of action and "mini"-climaxes that lead up to the big finale ending. The actors' success in this movie, along with the good performances and action packed plot, all contributed to the success of this film. It plays on the importance of family, responsibility, respect, loyalty and power. Overall, I think that Frank Coppola was a genius for this movie.

The Graduate

1)      In class we discussed The Graduate, which was directed by Mike Nichols. After production of the movie, he became the biggest director of his time. Nichols also did a number of other very popular films including Catch 22, Silkwood, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Remains of the Day, Birdcage, Working Girl, Closer, Angels in America, and Charlie Wilson’s War. He also happens to be married to very successful and famous ABC tv anchor, Diane Sawyer. The Graduate was nominated for the following Academy Awards: Best director, Best picture, Best actor, Best Actress, Best supporting actress, Best screenplay, and Best black and white cinematography.

The Graduate was written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham and it grossed $40 million dollars. Robert Surtees did the cinematography which was characterized by long takes stylized lighting, and framing. It was one of the first true youth rebellions that caught the temper of the country. The ending of the movie seemed “triumphant” to many different audiences. Lastly, we talked about the modern expressionist themes of the Graduate.

2)      http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/profiles/mike-nichols/5/

Mike Nichols was originally born as Michael Igor Peschkowsky, in Berlin, Germany in 1931 to his Jewish parents, Brigitte and Paul Peschkowsky. Michael and his 3-year old brother were sent to America to meet up with their father after the Nazi’s were arresting Jews in Berlin. His mother escaped to join the rest of their family 2 years later in 1940. Coincidently, Albert Einstein also happens to be Mike’s cousin.

3)      Mike Nichols has been one of America’s leading directors for more than 30 years. His productions’ focuses on the absurdities of modern life. He first began his career in improvisational comedy and eventually went on to direct Broadway plays. His first film was “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf” which was then followed by “The Graduate”. Mike Nichols happens to be one of only twelve people to have one all of the major American Entertainment awards, which means he won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony award. In 2001, Mike Nichols was also awarded the National Medal of Arts. In addition, he received the Life Achievement award from the American Film Institute last year.\

4)      The Graduate was a really good movie. Despite the fact that it was the first color movie that we watched all semester, I was fairly pleased with the outcome of the movie. It did a good job of keeping my attention and I can honestly say that it kept me interested throughout the entire movie. The storyline was very easy to follow and it dealt with problems that we could all actually relate to, unlike a lot of the other films we watched. However, what I thought was most interesting was the conflict between Ben and Mrs. Robinson. It was so funny to see him deal with the awkward situations. In conclusion, I really enjoyed the way that the movie ended. Ben had the ideal “win-win” situation. Despite all of his struggles throughout the movie, he got the girl, they got away, and he also hit it off with her mom!

Casablanca

1)      In class we discussed the making of Julius J., Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch’s Casablanca. Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, was based on an unproduced play called “Everybody Comes to Rick’s” by Murray Burnett and Joan Allison. The movie was set in the desert region around the early 1940’s. The Europeans and the French were working against the Nazi occupation of their home countries. There were also various different themes in Casablanca that were discussed. These themes included lost love, honor, self-sacrifice, and romance. Lastly, we talked about the various different characters who starred in Casablanca and their career achievements. The American Film Industry rated Casablanca as #3 of the Top 100 Films of All Time. Casablanca was also nominated for 7 Academy Awards and it won 3 of them.

2)      http://www.reelclassics.com/Movies/Casablanca/casablanca-article2.htm

This article basically explains all the reoccurances in Casablanca and the author, Jay Carr elaborates on a lot of the details of the film very specifically to help the readers and viewers understand the movie better. He talks about a lot of the characters in depth and sheds light on the conflicts in the movie. However, Jay Carr tells the readers of the Boston Globe that Casablanca was never a great, profound film. He believes that the “hold” that Casablanca has on its views is what makes it so powerful and so enduring. He believes that it sums up Hollywood’s genius for recasting “archetypes” in big bold strokes for turning myths into pop culture. Carr believes that as a love story, Casablanca is flawed.

3)      Jay Carr believed that Casablanca was a lucky movie and that the patriotism is the most obvious of several powerful themes that the movie made on audiences. Casablanca is as much about movies as it is about romantic adventure. It taps our love of movies, our involvement with them, and our dreamy bondage by them. Movies like Casablanca shaped the American mind and somehow there was something fitting about Casablanca being born in chaos that coursed its way through Ricks Café. “Everybody Comes to Ricks” was the title of the original play. However, the flaws of the movie never mattered, only the atmosphere from which self-respect could be won back.

4)      Overall, I think that Casablanca was an “alright” movie. There was a significant amount of action but I don’t think there was a lot of memorable scenes that really stand out to me. I can really just appreciate all of the romance that is incorporated in the movie and the overall theme or concept of a “lost love” that is obviously present in the movie. Overall, it was a successful movie, however it depicts the story of Casablanca as the “same old” love story.

Citizen Kane

1)     In class we discussed Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles production of Citizen Kane. Orson Welles directed and starred in Citizen Kane as a young man, a middle aged man, as well as an old man also. Citizen Kane was first relased in 1941 and failed. It failed so badly that it almost didn’t get released. However, in 1998, the American Film Institute named Citizen Kane the best American Film of all time. In addition, Citizen Kane received nine Oscar nominations and four Academy Award nominations, including best writing in his original screenplay which he won.  However, Orson Welles was most well known for Mercury Theater radio dramas and “War of the Worlds”, which took place in Grovers Mills, New Jersey. He was only 24 years old when he made Citizen Kane and it was his very first movie. Welles had complete artistic control over the movie including editing approval. The structure and editing of the movie was also parallel to the story. Unfortunately, Orson Welles never got a chance to make another picture with as much control as he had in Citizen Kane.

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2)  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kane2/   

This article talks about the battle between William Randolph Hearst, the Lord and ruler of San Simeon, and Orson Welles. A leading columnist named Hedda Hopper hated Citizen Kane after viewing it at a preview screening because she believed that it was a brutal portrait of Hearst. After he heard about the film, he successfully shut down the movie in efforts to try and protect his reputation. It was shut down for nearly a quarter-century before it was “revived”.

3)     Hearst was a 76 year old newspaper magnate and he was also the son of a very wealthy mine owner which pretty much made him “spoiled”. The fight between Hearst and Welles was largely due to a battle over the honor of Marion Davies, William Hearst’s companion. Hearst did not like the way that Welles treated her in the production of the movie. Overall, Welles underestimated Hearst’s ability to counterattack him. However, Hearst definitely prevailed. A lot of major theater chains refused to play Citizen Kane and as a result Welles only won one of his nine Academy Award nominations.

4)     I think that Citizen Kane was a very effective movie. It did a very good job of depicting Kane’s life, however the way he depicted him was very extreme. In addition, a lot of the flashbacks that occur in the movie happen more than once. Also I think it was very unfortunate that Thompson and the other reporters don’t solve the mystery at the end of the movie. However, I don’t think the film would be as effective if people didn’t know the backround story behind it or what the movie is really about.

Grapes of Wrath

1)         In class we discussed another film directed by John Ford, Grapes of Wrath. Grapes of Wrath was set in the Depression Era, around the 1930s in Oklahoma and California during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. It expressed the importance of family, religion, human dignity, social and economic justice, and spirit in the face of adversity. The same cinematographer from Stagecoach and Citizen Kane helped make the Grapes of Wrath also. He used barren landscapes, overcast skies, and bleak exteriors.

During this time period, there were a lot of drought and depression due to people losing their farms and homes because of their inability to grow crops to pay their mortgages and taxes. There were also a lot of big business foreclosures taking the farms and kicking people out.
In the movie, Muley tells about what happened to his family and how they lost their farm. Grapes of Wrath displays the Joad family's journey to try and make a good living for themselves. They pack up all of their possessions and head to California hoping to find employment. Even though Tom is on parole, he still decides to go with his family anyway.

2) http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-bio.html

            This article tells about John Steinbeck’s life and the stories he wrote before the Grapes of Wrath. John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. He attended Stanford University, but did not graduate. In 1925, he tried to become a freelancer but was unsuccessful. He then returned back to his home state of California. However, in 1935, he published a series of humorous stories about Monterey paisanos called “Tortilla Flat”.
            After publishing “Tortilla Flat”, he moved on to more serious fiction. He then published “Dubious Battle”, which deals with the strikes of fruit pickers on a plantain in California. After “Dubious Battle”, he published “Of Mice and Men” in 1937 and “The Long Valley” series in 1938. A couple of other famous works by John Steinbeck include “East of Eden”, “The Winter of Discontent”, and “Travels With Charley”. John Steinbeck eventually died in New York 1968.

3) The best of all his work was The Grapes of Wrath. Evidently John Steinbeck received the Pulitzer Prize for Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men. Surprisingly, the Grapes of Wrath was unpopular amongst some critics. Some critics found it to be “too sympathetic” to the workers in the story and used too many critical aspects of capitalism. In all, Steinbeck was published twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction stores and five short stories. He also received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

4) Grapes of Wrath is the most impressive John Ford film that we’ve watched. It also does a good job of depicting the struggles of the people who were trying to survive during the great depression. However, it is kind of sad to see the Joad family get their hopes up and then get disappointed over and over again. The actors were good and the movie displays a good view of the “Dust Bowl”. Unfortunately, there wasn’t that much action in the film, so it got boring at times, but I think the Joads were all decent people that were just dealing with unfortunate circumstances. Grapes of Wrath show how people from Oklahoma are treated unfairly with prejudice and violence. Overall, I think the storyline is interesting. I just think that Grapes of Wrath might be one of those movies that needs to be watched more than once to be appreciated.

StageCoach

Title of Film: StageCoach

1.   In class we discussed the success of John Ford’s “StageCoach” and how it singlehandedly revitalized the moribund genre. Stagecoach was set to be in the year 1880. It was shot in Monument Valley. Stagecoach is filled with various scenes of action. It starts out with a group of people who are on a journey, but they are troubled by the threat of Geronimo. They all learn a lot about each other on this adventure. The passengers on the stagecoach are Doc Boone, Dallas, the Ringo Kid, Samuel Peacock, Lucy Mallory, Buck, Marshal Curly Wilcox, Luke Plummer, and Hatfield. However, when the odds are against them, they all learn that they have to work together if they all wish to survive the attacks.

We also discussed the various themes and roles that are displayed in Stage Coach. There were a lot of different social classes amongst the passengers of the stagecoach. One is a drunken doctor, one is a prostitute, another is a professional gambler. Then there is also an army wife, a cop, a banker, a liquor salesman, and a fugitive. Sexual and social predjudices are very obvious in Stagecoach. The women aboard the stagecoach are not always respected by all of the passengers throughout the movie. Especially since one is a prostitute. Additional themes presented in Stagecoach is greed, revenge, redemption, and lots of alcoholism.

      http://www.decentfilms.com/reviews/stagecoach.html

2) Before John Ford’s “Stagecoach”, the Western genre was considered to be cheap and “B-movie” status. However, prior to its release, the Western genre seemed to have been revitalized. Stagecoach had given the genre new life for many years to come. Even though Stagecoach is not the greatest Western movie ever, it played a main part in the status of Westerns as an American genre. It also captured the stunning view of the Monument Valley landscape. In addition, instead of the usual “bad guy vs. good guy” routine, Stagecoach used social commentary, moral drama and characterization.

3) Stagecoach can be considered as a “redemption story” in addition to the fact that it lacks moral rigor. There’s also a revenge subplot that can be described as uncritical as any in the Western genre. The cinematographer from Stagecoach, Greg Toland used some of the same camera angles and lighting in Stagecoach as he did for other popular movies like Citizen Kane, for example. The Indian attack scene that is towards the end also established new heights for action movie making.

4) Stagecoach is your average cowboy vs. indian movie that combines a lot of very diverse and dynamic characters with fully rounded personalities with extreme action. I think most of the characters have a great amount of emotion and depth to them wich empowers the storyline. Even though Stagecoach contains a lot of clichés, I think John Ford did a fairly good job with this film. He did a nice job choosing all the right camera angles and controlling all the aspects of the film. However, I think that the action is the best part of the movie and it plays a big role in the reason why John Wayne was a successful actor.

His Girl Friday

Title of Film: His Girl Friday

1) In class we discussed the initiation of the Production Code and the Seal of Approval. The Production Code prohibited nakedness, suggestive dancing, ridicule of religion, the depiction of illegal drug use, the use of liquor, methods of crime, methods crime, references to sex perversions, child birth, and venereal diseases. The Production Code also banned bad language and offensive phrases. In addition, murder scenes had to be filmed in a way that doesn’t look realistic and brutal murders couldn’t be shown in detail.
       The Seal of Approval was a visible sign that was displayed before the showing of the movie that said “This picture approved by the Production Code Administration of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America.” This seal informed viewers that the film was eligible for exhibition.
His Girl Friday is known as a screwball comedy that used overlapping dialogue to make the conversations sound more realistic. Most of the characters would speak before the other character gets to finish. They talk over each other throughout the entire film, which sometimes makes it hard to understand.

2)http://www.film.u-net.com/Movies/Reviews/His_Girl.html
 In the above article, the author, Damien Cannon tells how His Girl Friday teams up live-wire screenplay with a well-chosen cast. He describes the movie as an “outstanding, breakneck-paced screwball comedy”. Most of the article summarizes the main events and aspects of His Girl Friday as well as the main plot of the film.


3) His Girl Friday is obviously a Howard Hawks production, but Mr. Cannon believes it is also an actor’s dream vehicle if your name is Cary Grant, who seems to be very comfortable playing his role. He is a very talented and versatile performer. Cannon describes the harmony between Grant and his lines as a “guilty pleasure” and he compares it to licking a spoon freshly dipped in cream. However, the real surprise is that Russell matches Grant perfectly and right in the middle of the story, there is tremendous chemistry between Grant and Russell, which happens to be very magical and a lot of fun.

4) His Girl Friday happens to be just like any other film, however Howard Hawks puts so much energy into the actors’ performances on film that he forgets about all the other aspects of the film. Bad enough the dialogue is already hard to understand because of the way that it is structured. Although the dialogue is quick, His Girl Friday is still smart, funny, and touching all at the same time. They did a really good job with the cast also. They all have really good chemistry on film and it makes the movie flow smoothly. In addition, I think Howard Hawks made a good decision in changing the star reporter to a woman because it lightens the mood of the film. Evidently, His girl Friday is a movie that you might just have to watch multiple times to really appreciate the humor in it.