Once Upon a Time in the West

Once Upon a Time in the West was a very interesting movie. Sergio Leone did a wonderful job keeping the viewer entertained and at the edge of his/her seat. I found it very interesting on how he used such little dialog and still achieved it. He opened it up with a train scene which is probably the most memorable part of the movie. A good 5-10 minutes without much dialog but other sounds that told the story just as well. He did this the entire movie, creating characters and showing the audience their personality with having them talk next to nothing. At times because of the shortage of dialog it makes you think that a character is going for one thing, only to reveal that his true intentions later such as when Harmonica was ripping up the clothes of Jill. We first thought that Harmonica was going to rape Jill or something to that extent but in the end it happened that Harmonica did it to protect her. Also the story did not completely follow the normal western about revenge. Harmonica explictly says that he wants to meet with Frank and you get the fact that Harmonica wants to kill Frank but you do not understand why. Only in the end of the movie is it revealed why Harmonica is out for revenge very different from other westerns that I have seen. In other westerns the opeing part of the movie is about the act at which the main hero is going to get revenge on. This kept me on constantly thinking about what Frank could have done for Harmonica to want to kill him so badly. The end was better than my expectations and the movie as a whole was very good.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Raiders of the Lost Ark directed by Steven Spielberg is a very action filled movie with many stunts. These stunts and special effects were amazing and fun to watch. Henry Ford(Indiana Jones) had three stuntmen in the movie, Vic Armstrong, Martin Grace, and Terry Leonard. Vic Armstrong doubled for Ford when riding the horse, Martin Grace doubled at the falling statue and Terry Leonard doubled at the scene when Indy is pulled behind a moving truck.

It is interesting to know how they did some of these booby trap scenes in the movie when you think that they would harm the actors. No one would like have to run away from a giant boulder that could crush them in a second. They actually simulated a real boulder by using one made of fiberglass and using the sounds of a Honda Civic rolling down a hill. They removed the possible harm of doing it and yet made it still seem real. Another booby trap that was used was the pit of snakes. This one, like the boulder could be deadly to the actors if safety measures weren't in place. To get the snakes the producers bought every snake in London and the South of England that they could find, but that was still not enough. They had to use pieces of hoses to fill in the rest and it is said that if you look closely you can tell what is a hose and what is a snake. When Indy falls into the pit, the cobra is really there in front of him and sets out a spray of venom but lucky for him they had a glass wall between him and the snake. These cool scenes seemed to make the movie appear even more real.

A big action seen that was in the movie took over 8 weeks to do. It was the truck chase scene and in order to do it they had to raise the bed of the truck in order to allow Indiana Jones to slide under it. In addition to this the middle of the rode had to be dug out a little in order to make more room. The stuntman the did this scene, as stated before, was Terry Leonard.

There is also some other interesting facts that I came across while researching this movie. One of which is that the leather jackets that Indiana Jones used during the movie were actually bought brand new and had to be age artificially. As well as that the sounds that were used during fighting for the blows that were dealt and taken were the sounds of a bat hitting a pile of leather jackets.

As for the opening of the Ark, the sound was of the of a toilet cistern and the effects of the deaths of the main villains when the Ark was opened were from a vacuum machine, a time-lapse photography of a heat gun, and a shotgun. With knowing this you can sort of tell that deaths were from these.

I found all of the behind the scenes information very interesting to find out. Spielberg and Lucas and all of the people helping in production did a very good job in making this movie the stunts seem real for the most part and were very exciting to watch.

Information gathered was from www.imdb.com

My Darling Clementine

My Darling Clementine seems to be very different from Once Upon a Time in the West even though I have only watched a small part of Once Upon a Time in the West. To begin with My Darling Clementine is in black and white while Once Upon a Time in the West is in color. Also in My Darling Clementine the director used a lot more dialog and did not really use any form of suspense. He did surprise a little bit but not enough to really excite the viewer.

My Darling Clementine also seem to go around the main point of that was set up in the beginning of the movie. The youngest Earps murder was just sort of forgotten about by the older Earps until the very end of the movie with the minute long or so gunfight.

A western is normally thought to be about a gunman that has mission but instead My Darling Clementine is sort of about the issue of Civilization vs Wilderness. It is about the town of Tombstone becoming civil more so then about Wyatt Earp getting revenge for his murder younger brother. Overall I do not really consider My Darling Clementine to be a typical western with a prominent hero but more just about setting up civilization in the west.

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane was a fairly good movie. It was nice to watch in class and it gave me something to think about. I thought it was pretty interesting that at certain points in the movie they used paintings for a particular shot to save money. I wouldn't go so far as to say it is one of the best ever in my book by it but it was still entertaining. To me it seem that the movie was really just about his life and not really about Rosebud at all. There weren't very many references to it in the movie for it to be the point of the movie.

Rear Window

Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is an interesting detective film made in the 1950s. James Stewart plays the roll of J.B. Jefferys, a famous photographer that is recovering from a broken leg. With the broken leg Jefferys is unable to leave his apartment so he spends his time looking out the rear window of his apartment at his neighbors. The last week before he gets the cast off of his broken leg he believes he has stumbled apon a murder. He, his lady friend, and his nurse try to uncover the mystery and they try to convince Jefferys' detective friend at they are right.

The lighting in the movie was an important factor. It was generally low-key to show the contrasts of light and dark. The whole setting of the neighbors buildings were lit up including what I found a little strange, the alleyways. It was evenly lit and there didnt appear to be any destinctive shadows. This took away from the realness of the film but it allowed the viewer and Jefferys to see everything clearly.

Being a detective film, Alfred Hitchcock only allowed the viewer to see and hear what Jefferys did, including te music. There was a studio apartment nearby that a composer lived in and if there was music in the film it was being played by him. It was pretty neat that they did this they could include music (music by Franz Waxman) without taking away from the detective part of the movie. Part of the music that this composer played was a motif for Jefferys and his lady friend (played by Grace Kelly). They heard the music several times and stated that it was like he was playing it for them. The dialog throughout the movie was very realistic and the actors did a very good job of their characters. It was as if they were the characters, not just playing them.

Alfred Hitchcock also did a great job with various different shots and angles, making the viewer feel like they knew fit in exactly with the Jefferys and his thoughts. The openning scene has a close up of Jefferys that introduces you to the character and then a little later it shows a view of the neighbors from a high angle to symbolize that Jefferys was wathing over them. Long shots were used as the shots of the neighbors because it let you see all of what was happening as well that it was what Jefferys saw himself. With that Hitchcock also used the eyeling match very well. The viewer could see what Jefferys was looking at and what his expression was too it by going back and forth between Jefferys and what he was looking at. Another technique that Hitchcock used was when Jefferys looked through binoculars or his camera lense. When Jefferys did this, the viewer would see his view, a circular view with the corners cut off like the viewer was looking through the binoculars or camera lense himself. This effect made the film seem even more realistic.

Overall the movie was great and is a wonderful movie to watch. It has a good dose of suspense in it that will keeps it intriguing and makes the viewer want to watch more of it. So if you like detective films or just films in general, this is one that you must see.