Batman Begins

I was excited for the opportunity to analyze a favorite film of mine: Batman Begins. This newest line of Batman films comprised of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are unquestionably the best Batman films ever made; and unlike many superhero films, I believe, they are actually very well-done films. In addition to suburb writing and acting, the cinematography and visual design elements of this $150 million budgeted film are second to none.

The Batman Begins story recounts both familiar and new aspects of how Bruce Wayne becomes the legendary superhero. Interestingly, this screenplay was based on a compilation of several short stories and comics written by various authors. Director, Christopher Nolan stated his intention to reinvent the film franchise of Batman by "doing the origins story of the character, which is a story that's never been told before". According to Nolan, humanity and realism would be the basis of this film, and that "the world of Batman is that of grounded reality.” Clearly, Nolan sought to bring some credibility back to the Batman franchise after several previous Batman attempts fell sorely short.

The dark visual design of Batman Begins purposefully reflects the darkness and realism of the film’s plot; dealing with recession, poverty, crime, and corruption. Nolan used the 1982 cult science fiction film Blade Runner as a source of inspiration for Batman Begins. He screened Blade Runner to cinematographer Wally Pfister to show the attitude and style that he wanted to draw from the film. Additionally, Nolan worked with production designer Nathan Crowley to create the dark look of Gotham City. They designed Gotham as a large, modern metropolitan area that would reflect the various periods of architecture that the city had gone through. Elements were drawn from New York City, Chicago, and Tokyo. The “Narrows”, underneath the city, was based on the slummish nature of the city of Kowloon in Hong Kong.

Not surprisingly, Wally Pfister was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 78th Academy Awards. The dark visual design, realism, and top-notch thrilling visual effects created a Batman film that will undoubtedly stand the test of time and set the stage for The Dark Knight and hopefully future Batman films following in this same vein.

Slumdog Millionaire

The film Slumdog Millionaire certainly makes use of varying visual design and cinematographic elements to affect the mood and feel throughout this engrossing film. These purposeful design elements provide vital aid in telling the story.

In my opinion, the most notable visual design element throughout this film is the color and lighting effect. The film lighting contrasts between bright and dark following the ups and downs of the storyline. Additionally, the film’s use of color contrasts the differences in socioeconomic classes within the film’s setting.

I feel, given the incredible success of this film, grossing over $360 million worldwide, the fact that Slumdog is recognized as being a low-budget film only aids in the telling of its story and its enormous appeal with audiences around the world. The low-budget nature of the film’s cinematography certainly correlates to the story and, in my view, makes it more realistic and believable, as if it were almost a non-fiction work.

Slumdog certainly attempts to associate socioeconomic status and perceived intelligence or education in that part of the world. The costume and makeup design provide a clear message to the viewer about the different classes of citizens. The dirt and ragged clothing covering the people, primarily children, of the slums illustrates their poverty.

Despite depicting the disparity between classes and the direness of extreme poverty faced by millions around the globe, Slumdog has surprisingly been called by some a “feel-good” film. The masterful application of production and visual design elements of this film take-on these dramatic social issues and reveal the brightness of hope and joy that exists even in the darkest of circumstances.

Reservoir Dogs: Tarantino's First

Reservoir Dogs, like most Tarantino films, is loaded with fictional and dramatic elements that set it far apart from other films in truly unique ways. In this film, among other elements, Tarantino makes use of dramatic nonlinear structure, conflict, allegory, and irony. Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino’s first feature film, and, according to Tarantino, his version of Stanley Kubrick's The Killing. Some critics note that several aspects of this film appear to have been “borrowed” from previous films. Tarantino has denied that he plagiarized with Reservoir Dogs instead claiming that he does homages. Regardless, Reservoir Dogs set the precedent for all other Tarantino films and exemplifies the use of dramatic elements.

The dramatic nonlinear structure of the film is the most easily identifiable visual element. Additionally, the course textbook refers to a story beginning in medias ves, or “in the middle”. In the case of this film, the actual heist is never shown. Tarantino has said that the reason for not showing the heist was initially budgetary but that he always liked the idea of not showing it and stuck with that idea. A prime example of the film’s nonlinear structure is in one scene the men are sitting in a restaurant before the botched heist, then suddenly the scene changes to after the heist where one man is violently driving a car while another bleeds in the back seat. Other notable examples of nonlinear structure involve flashbacks of Mr. Orange, an undercover cop, working his way into the criminal organization. This application of nonlinear structure “injects” the viewer into the middle of a conflict and creates questions in the viewer’s mind that quickly draw the viewer into the story.

Conflict may be the base for all stories, but few films use conflict in the same unique way that Reservoir Dogs does. The most easily identifiable conflict in this film is the external conflict that exists between the criminals and the police as a result of the heist. Additionally, there is some external conflict between the various men of the criminal organization that only intensifies throughout the film as the involvement of an undercover cop in their organization seems more and more likely. However, the most interesting conflict, in my opinion, is the internal moral conflict that arises as Mr. Orange, the undercover cop, develops a friendship with Mr. White. This internal conflict that emerges at the climactic-conclusion of the film is the most dramatic and impactful on the viewer.

Good Will Hunting: Chalked with Symbolism, or Over-reading?

Initially, having not watched Good Will Hunting for a number of years, I didn’t the selection of this film to coincide with chapter three’s focuses on elements of good visual storytelling. Honestly, I thought that this was the type of film that a person could only listen to the audio and still thoroughly enjoy. However, I’m now amazed by all the visual symbolism that I missed in previous viewings. In particular, this film is a good example of characterization through appearance, dialogue, and external action in its depiction of these South Boston natives. Also, I’ve known for some time that both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting. But before analyzing the symbolic elements of this film in much greater detail, I never truly realized the genius these two writers displayed at such a young age. This film certainly has an interesting story that is both appropriately simple and complex simultaneously.

The symbolic elements of visual storytelling throughout Good Will Hunting are likely interpreted differently by different individuals; thus, the quality of symbolism. In my opinion, most of the symbolic elements in this film represent fear. Clearly fear is a major topic that existed in the lives of these damaged characters. Psychologist, Michael Huber, has published an article online entitled Counterphobia: Hunting for Good Will that analyzes aspects of this film. Huber describes Matt Damon’s character, Will, as a “clear example of a type 6 on the Enneagram personality system. But there is a very strong and repeated attempt on Will's part to deny the fear. Consequently Will represents the counterphobic extreme of what I call the type 6 bipolar spectrum. It is the tough, competent, challenging side that is presented to the public. But privately, on the inside, the psychic landscape is dominated by fear” (Huber, 2002). The painting of the boat in a storm clearly referenced this fear and aloneness. Conversely, the car given to Will at the end of the movie, as most people accurately identified, could represent freedom. I will add, however, that in addition to the freedom to leave South Boston, this symbol represented freedom from Will’s past, his childhood, his mistakes in life, and mainly the fear that dominated his life through that point. Clearly it was not a coincidence that this scene occurred shortly after Will made a significant breakthrough in therapy.

Finally, the title of Good Will Hunting has always brought questions to my mind about its intent and symbolism. Many other students have already come up with some good interpretations and analysis of the title’s meaning. Needless to say, it’s yet another example of brilliant writing and storytelling that adds to the intrigue of this unique film.

I will add one last note, however, with regard to over-reading of symbolism. Although this is a very visually symbolic film that focuses on deep-seeded psychological issues, I can’t help but wonder how much over-reading of the film’s symbolic elements occurs. Remembering that both Damon and Affleck were in their early twenties when they wrote this film, is it possible that the slow-motion fight scene or other visual elements were inserted merely because they “looked cool”? Perhaps we’ll never know, and maybe that’s the point.

Requiem for a Dream

My world had originally been rocked by Requiem for a Dream shortly after it was released in 2000. As a typical teenager who occasionally hung around a rough crowd, this film shook me to my core, and scared me straight! Until only days ago, I don’t believe I’d actually sat down and watched the film in its entirety since initially viewing it as a teenager. Amazingly, because its powerful imagery, music, and plot, I had forgotten virtually nothing about this film!

The textbook categorizes this film as being focused on human nature. This categorization is unfortunately highly accurate. As a portion of the film’s synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes describes, “[the characters] cling to the delusions that are slowly destroying their lives, denying reality until at last they are eye to eye with their worst nightmares.” This, admittedly, is a fairly pessimistic view of human nature.

In addition to the focus on human nature, the film’s thematic elements seem to be focused on style and texture. In the words of film critic Cole Smithey, writer/director Darren Aronofsky’s “telling of a story via a constant barrage of emotion, musical inflection, sped-up real time sequences, and quick editing colludes to form cinematic shorthand that plays across an audience’s sense of time and social values unlike any other filmmaker.” Film critic Nick Rogers of Suite101.com goes adds that “[the film’s] editing and sound triggered intense physical discomfort.”

Requiem for a Dream is the type of film that powerfully sends a clear and resounding message to each viewer. The message, however, may be interpreted differently for each viewer. In my opinion, although based in a drug-setting, the broader, universal message of the film is the imperfect dreams of humans and the destruction, both to ourselves and others, these delusions can sometimes cause.

On the Waterfront

Before watching Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront I, admittedly, was somewhat prejudice against older films. Many factors that I associate with good films such as unique film angles, filming quality, realistic effects, and music are lacking in “oldies” compared to modern rivals. I believe my personal prejudices, unfortunately, adversely affect my responses to films like this one. Despite my expectations, I approached this film with an open mind, hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the film’s thematic elements. And, for the most part, I was indeed pleasantly entertained.

In my opinion, it seems clear that this film’s thematic elements focus on ideas. And as the textbook suggests, the first step in identifying the central idea is accurately identifying the abstract subject of the film in a single word. I would summarize On the Waterfront as a film about courage. Additionally, the film’s central idea could fall into a couple categories such as: social problems or the struggle for human dignity. The category of social problems is appropriate because the film, based on a series of articles by Malcolm Johnson about corrupt longshoremen's unions on the New York docks, tells a story of courage to stand up to the corrupt social norms that were prevalent in that time and place. In addition to standing up against corruption, the character played by Marlon Brando struggles for human dignity despite being referred to as a “bum” throughout the film. Also, more generally speaking, I believe the film attempted to show the “common man” claiming basic human dignity over the mobsters and union leaders.

In regard to evaluating the film’s theme, I believe the film’s basic appeal was to the moral sense and to the viewer’s heart. Although Phillip Lopate’s article criticizes the preist’s “hammy sermons, and Christ symbolism”, I believe, these metaphors were appropriate for the setting in which the characters were portrayed. Although this type of story has been told many times and was somewhat predictable, the universality of the film’s theme, coupled with the film’s unique style and texture, has produced a classic that holds truth for any generation of movie viewer.

Greetings!

Welcome to my movie blog for our Intro to Film class! Over the next five weeks I look forward to some lively discussions regarding the great selection of films we're scheduled to view! Check back soon for new posts and updates!
Lights, Camera, Action!