Assault on Prescient 13

Now this was one of my favorite films we watched in this class (following Dog Day). Assault does a phenomenal job of introducing the characters. The suspense throughout the entire film was executed perfectly, but particularly in the beginning. You know something is going to go down, but you're now sure what or with who. The dynamic between the characters in the prescient worked very well. You have the strong and confident woman, the witty convict and the respectable cop. One thing I liked most about the cop is that he had respect for the convict. He didn't treat him any differently simply because they needed to survive. This film combines brutal violence with witty jokes in a very entertaining and tasteful way.

...and that's a wrap!

70's Film and Culture was definitely an interesting experience. My knowledge of the 70's previous to this class was very slim. My childhood and teen years were far from the 70's, and in history classes we never reached past the early 1900's (barring one project where we got to choose one event within the past 50 years to study). I've always been interested in history because of the repercussions that those events have on life today. I wasn't aware of many of the events that occurred in the 70's much less the impact, and I certainly wasn't aware of any films from the 70's or any particular film styles or themes from the decade.

I came into the class excited with an incredibly open mind. I was thrilled to see our first film starred Jack Nicholson, who I am a big fan of (previously based on his current films). After screening a few quiet films with long takes, I did grow a little impatient with those type of films-particularly with The Parallax View.

Hearing about 70's culture in this class made me more passionate about events that are currently happening. I love being able to compare these events (such as talks about the National Guard coming to Chicago) to situations that happened in the 70's (i.e. Attica). Having a broader understanding of the past makes me feel like a more well-rounded individual. The organized events on the 70's (such as Woodstock repping the drug revolution) have made me gain respect for these particular groups in society. The same rings true for the Gay Movement, and especially the Vietnam Veterans. I never realized why the Vietnam war was such a milestone(and not necessarily a good one) in American History. I have fallen in love with 70's film and the rebellious attitudes of the public. I had an incredibly positive and powerful experience in this class that will honestly stay with me for the rest of my life.

An Unmarried Woman

A little confused from the start. This woman is married. Why are we learning about her life? Seems to be a pretty accurate portrayal of marriage-bouncing back and fourth between happiness and anger. The filmmaker makes you think that this is a great marriage. Then all of a sudden, in a split second, it's over. He's been cheating for a long time and is leaving his wife. Now we are into the story.

An Unmarried Woman really analyzes what a woman goes through after a breakup. You almost feel neurotic. I not only like Erica, but I really like all of her friends. You have the divorce' spinster, the woman who is in an unhealthy marriage but turns a blind eye, and the still bachelorette-and they all balance each other out perfectly. This movie allows you to see beyond the strong, happy front that women like this put on in a very real, personal way. This film was a lot more than I expected it to be by showing a woman stand by herself without a man in the 70's, after being married through a generation where male reliance was the norm.

Dog Day Afternoon

Wow.

What an amazing film. This is my first film of Al Pacino's, and I'm incredibly impressed. What an amazing job.

I think my favorite thing about this movie is the way the filmmakers incorporated the light hearted humor into a serious situation by displaying the distinct personalities of all of the characters-even the crowd as a whole. This concept comes to the surface substantially when it is revealed that Pacino's character is gay. The crowd outside seems to be against him, and you can feel the tension with the hostages.

The filmmakers' views of the media are obvious. When Pacino was live on the phone with the news station, he was telling them things that they didn't want to hear, so the media cut off the phone conversation. And in my opinion it's true. The media only hears /streams what they want to, no matter if it's the truth or not.

Dog Day Afternoon did a fantastic job of displaying all of the social issues in the 70's surrounding this event and blending them together-The publics views on race, homosexuality and the media.

Jaws (1st draft)

From all of the hype I've heard about this film, I can honestly say that I was very surprised. I did not enjoy it as much as I though I would. Most of this had to do with the length.

in my mind the film was 2 halves- Learning about the shark, and the boat voyage to hunt the shark. I thought the beggining of the film and the set up were all fine and properly timed, but the voyage was dragged on way too long. The filmmakers gave you a chance to learn more about those 3 men and watch them as they bonded, but for me it deterred my attention from the main objective. But also, I was thinking of the movie more narrow mindedly. On one hand, their objective was to kill this man-eating creature, but on the other hand, this is a story of male relationships and rural vs. city thinking-the last two of which I had not though of.

Taxi Driver

Robert De Niro is one of the shining stars of the 70's. He did a fantastic job in Taxi Driver, but this really wasn't my type of film. I don't know if it was because of the highlight of vigilanteism and many movies we've seen having the same inner conflict as De Niro(obviously not EXACTLY the same), but this is one of the few films that I've lost interest in relatively quickly.

However, I did like the use of the city as a character. In my opinion, they used the city as an protagonist(in a more broad sense). De Niro battles throughout the whole film with the different types of people who roam in NYC, as if the city was throwing these challenges out to see how he handles them.

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever

What a performance. Not only the dancing, but the acting wasn't too shabby either. Where can you go wrong with a performer like John mixed with the popular music of the 70's? It made me feel like getting up and dancing.

Saturday Night fever seemed to me like just another cliche' dance movie, but that is not at all so. Yes, it is entertaining, but the drama mixed in with that is very deep, real and sometimes hard to watch. All in all, this movie shines a positive light on John Travoltas acting (and dancing) abilities.

Shaft

Shaft is a good film for it's time. I wasn't satisfied with this movie because it was not aesthetically pleasing. I was so distracted by the poor audio of this film to really get sucked into the plot. However, John Shaft is pretty much a badass. He served as the iconic character for blacks in the 70's. If this movie was released today, it probably wouldn't be as much of a hit as it was back then.

The Long Goodbye

The first Robert Altman film I've ever seen, and what a great first impression.

This film uses an interesting technique with it's sound design-leaving in large parts of dialogue in from the background. This makes you feel as if you are an observer-maybe you won't catch every plot point stated, but as this movie progresses you can still figure out what's going on. This technique in this movie allows you to infer what is going on rather than being force-fed every bit of information. I found this quite annoying at first, but I grew to love it. It allows you to learn more about Marlowe because you witness his interactions with anyone he crosses paths with. there is more room for interpretation on what kind of person he is.

Marlowe is a well written independent character. Within the first few minutes of the movie his quirky personality shines, and this quirkiness rolls over into the way he works. It makes for quite an entertaining private investigator-and a good one.

Overall, The Long Goodbye was a great movie.

Five Easy Pieces

Five Easy Pieces

Directed by Bob Rafelson

It's interesting to see Jack Nicholson at an early age. Overall as an actor, he doesn't really blow my mind, but in Five Easy Pieces, he does a pretty solid job.

Five Easy Pieces is about a man, Robert, and his journey through adulthood without any real goals. This film prime real estate for young people because what Robert is going through, many people my age are going through as well-feelings of constantly being uncomfortable with where you are at in your life. The natural reaction to these feeling, at least for me, are to change my surroundings. Going somewhere new can give you the illusion of completely starting over just as Robert did. However, this isn't something that should be carried through adulthood. You'll never be satisfied with yourself constantly changing in that manner. Robert's only relationship that mattered in his life was with his sister. He detached himself from everyone, accept for a woman whom he met when he visited his parents house. Bobby let go and became vulnerable with this woman. She seemed to be the only one who had a chance at saving this mess that had become Bobby's life, but she turned away from him. This caused him fall back to what he knew-run when shit gets bad.

Now, to back away from meaning applicable to my life, Five Easy Pieces has characters who incredibly well written and compliment each other perfectly. The best example of this is the aesthetic between Rayette and Bobby. This film has little/no score, which is a choice that I find crucial when a filmmaker wants to really suck its audience in. I mean, life doesn't have any music, so why should a slice-of-life film?