Fight Club

This movie with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton is awesome.  I've watched it numerous times and own a copy of the movie.  With its celebrated cast members (even the doorman at Edward's apt.), this story of a downward spiraling way of life of "two" who after meeting, become "friends", was thematically scary.  Their "bond" was very strong, kind of like us people in real life bond with our alter egos.  Question though..Why doesn't the quarter return after Ed hangs up after there's no answer from Brad?  Edward talking directly to the camera put a spin on the storyline (narrative/documentary form.  Brad is just off with his charming manner (he seems natural as if how he is in real life).  I love Edward's voice and how he says his lines.

Edward is Tyler-this crosses "reality" and fantasy as it turns out.  Either Tyler is just playing a dirty trick on Edward or Edward's subconscience he's been dealing and fighting with, is extremely strange, destructive to his well-being, and psycho.  That would be a disturbing way to have your mind playing tricks on you. 

Both Edward and Brad's acting style is intense in this movie, but oh so good.  The director has realistic techniques, as this movie definitely relies onthe abilities of these actors.  It's not hard to differentiate between the actor's (Brad and Edward) artistic personas.  They are both extremely wonderful actors.  They both played some tough characters here.  That just shows how diverse they each can be.  Neither one are personality stars as they have both played a wide range of characters and I'd personally give them the titles of "icons." 

In casting this film, I wonder if the directors knew right off hand who they wanted to play these parts.  It was though the parts were written just for these men. 

This movie was definitely done in a closed form.  The settings in the film (the house and basement of bar), were perfect in portraying how grimy this movie was intended to be.  The dark and dirty, nasty rooms must have been quite a "joy" to work in.  The make-up artists displayed great skills with all of the blood and broken teeth and swelled-shut eyes.  It looked so very real.  The costumes didn't have to be much considering they were regular old clothes.  This movie can never get old.

Amadeus-Sound/Music

I loved this!  I remember the song, "Amadeus, Amadeus!" but have since forget the artist.  It had nothing to do with the movie as I recall. 

The opening orchestra piece brings to life the setting.  The movie directors and actors had such a vast space  to use.  It seems the script should have echoed on the set.  The musical piece that played during the showing of the cutting of the throat by Maestro Saliad (the guy in the beginning) doesn't seem to fit.  It was a happy tune, not melodramatic.  I loved the violins (being that I played the violin for years while in elementary, middle, and high schools), bass, cellos, and violas.  I danced in my mind through the opening credits.  Hansel Gary (not sure of spelling) playing the violin, or not, sounded recorded in his flash back of a concert he'd composed.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's laugh rang in my ears everytime it was vocalized.

The opera singer (Is she singing?) singing "Greedy Songbird" was nice.  The piece playing as she's on stage represents and goes along with court composer Saliad's jealousy.  He's in love or lust.

There was some bit of the "Mickey Mouse" sound as the performers danced on stage.

The score went well with the grandiose view inside the palace at the wedding of Mozart and his fiance.

The sound of the horses trampling sounds much too large for five horses when the majesty meets court composer in the park.  It was more of a representation of the royalness of the majesty arriving.

The shrill turning of the paper (sheet music) shows contempt, jealousy and anger of the court composer.  My thoughts were confirmed when he states "...we are enemies..I'll hinder and harm...ruin your incarnation!"

The surprising arrival of the father-the loud crescendo of music-played well along with the scene.  Overall the sound in the movie was delightfully representative of each scene in the movie.

North By Northwest

This Hitchcock fillm was cool!  I'd seen some short series on television, I recall as a child, but not one of his full-length films ever.  He really is a genius when it comes to editing his films.  After reading the chapter on editing and learning that he draws his storyboard, I viewed the film.  It was just like it said in the book.  He likes to make the viewer feel what the character is feeling or to be able to get a sense of what they're thinking, by cutting and going to a CU of another character's face to see his/her facial expression.  It adds a sense of humor to the scene. 

When Cary is rushing down the hall, instead of attemting to make screen time conforn to real time he used editing to get the viewer to understand the hurriedness of Cary's steps.  The cuts of the different positions in the hallways do just that.  It speeds the film up.  My heart was racing with anticipation of him reaching his destination.

When he's drunk in the car and you can see the camera sway with the car, I felt a bit of "sickness" and could feel somewhat "dizzy" by it.

My favorite part was when Thornhill's in the fielded area.  This setup was nice in the way it played out.  You kind of anticipated this though, following the film.  The different cuts of him after getting off the bus gives you the idea of the time it takes for someone else to get there.  He keeps turning and looking for a long time, thinking the different vehicles approaching might be who he's intended to meet.  The views of the road gave me the sense of, "la di da di da, hhmm mm; just waiting and waiting.....more waiting."  The dust being blown in his eyes...twice, then the guy who gets out the car, stands there for a while, that's when I got the feeling it was a trick.  My thought was confirmed when the other guy got on the bus and the doors just shut in Thornhill's face.

The airplane banking and trying to shoot him down was intense.  I thought it would be more of one of the vehicle's that had approached, someone would drive slowly by, and shoot him.  The airplane was much more exciting.

There were all types of shots taken during filming of this movie; long shots, medium shots, up close, panned views, extreme close ups.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie.

Raiders of The Lost Ark

This film was full of stunts.  Being thrown into the pit of snakes; the trucks and other vehicles crashing throughthe crowd; and the truck and jeep having a fit of road rage, with trying to run the other off the road or blow their opposer up throughout the jungle area.  Even the lady holding onto and then falling against the structures as she descends to the rocky ground.  OUCH!!!  Is all I can say.  But are these stunts for real or is their a mass amount of different shots taken with a stunt double?  These don't look like the beautifully crafted real stunts of the Woo era.  How many jeeps were destroyed while being sent off the ledge?  The snake scene scares me a bit.  Are Jones and the lady really in the company of all these snakes?

Is the fighting real?  Fighting with the soldier before having his face shredded by the propellers was interesting.  Actors don't actually fight anymore or did they ever?  Jones sliding underthe truck and willingly being dragged by it looked real..

The stunts with the exploding lights inside the cave after the opening of the ark looked real until the spirits started to fly about.  The light force striking through the actors bodies and the skin falling off the face of the dark one was edited well. Great FX!

For the most part the stunts looked very staged and choreographed.  Not real like Chan in his movies.  Too bad.  I never really got intersted into the Raiders' series of movies.  Not my kind of genre, but it was interesting to watch.  Entertaining and kind of exciting!