Any Film Fans?
I have my upcoming final for my Film History 2 class. Unfortunately, due to when it was scheduled I missed a couple screenings..
So, I was wondering if anyone saw any of the following movies:
North By Northwest (1959)
Mandingo (1975)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Now I’ve seen small parts of Taxi Driver and North by Northwest. And I can look up plots on imdb and such, but I’m supposed to rank them in order of my favorite from highest to lowest. So what I am asking for you, theScrabbled, is if you have seen these movies give me an opinion on them so I could mold that with what I read of the plot and decide if I would have liked it or not. (I know I could find reviews and stuff too, but they are all a bit too wordy and really what else are you doing)
Comments
Yes, No, and Yes.
I’ll talk about Taxi Driver cause it’s amazing. It’s perfect urban paranoia and isolation. You spend time in a city and you wonder how anyone could be isolated, but here’s Travis Bickle, a totally real and believable character who doesn’t know anyone, doesn’t know how to interact with anyone, and doesn’t see anyone worth interacting with in the first place.
The whole movie has this great back and forth between purity and filth, in terms of the characters and the visuals, and how, in these terms, things are rarely what they seem. Jodie Foster represents purity to Bickle, despite the fact that she’s a prostitute. Earlier, he takes Cybil Shepard to a dirty movie on what he suspect is an innocent date, and she rejects him.
All Bickle wants to do is clean up filth in city that he sees in the form of bad people doing bad things and ends up committing cold blooded murder to do so. Then he’s made into a hero from it. All these opposing forces becoming the things they’re not supposed to be, highlighting Bickle’s complete disconnection and yet somehow making him more human than he really is in the process.
I could go on and on and maybe I will later tonight when I’m less busy. I haven’t seen it in a while, so now I really want to rewatch it, too.
Also, it’s worth noting that the entire “hero” epilogue may, in fact, be a fantasy or Bickle’s dying thoughts. It’s also said that there are little ticks and stuff in the finish of the movie that are supposed to lead you to believe that he’s still completely unstable.
The fact that the end is as open-ended as it is while still being a satisfying Scorcese-style redemption closing is one of the best part of the flick, I think.
Just watch Taxi Driver, I have it, you can borrow it. It’s fucking great.
No time really. I was pissed when I found out this was one of the movies I was missing. I probably will watch it sometime over break.
i saw taxi driver. i liked it. hope this helps.
fuck film and all classes related to it! art school hippies.
and for all the time you take to research the films you missed, you probably could have just watched at least one of them.
i still need to watch the ones i slept through over 3 years of exposure. heh heh heh…exposure.
Well what happened was I didn’t get the final questions till today (he e-mailed them the day before the final), so I just got unlucky with the ones he chose.
And I realized over my time as a Radio/TV/Film major that I can’t stand the film kids. However, a class where all you do is watch movies I can handle (you just gotta duck out before the start with their terrible opinions)
And thanks to everyone that helped with Taxi Driver!
Shawney, what’s wrong with trying to dissect a piece of artwork? I can dig on the Predator or whatever as much as the next guy (see: the Punisher post), but when I see something like Taxi Driver (or 8 1/2 or El Topo or whatever) the first thing I do is try to analyze and dissect it with people or, if I watch it alone, head online and read/comment on people’s interpretations.
To me, the best kind of movie is a one like 8 1/2 (which, consequently, is my favorite movie): it is absolutely enjoyable to watch as a straight-forward, heartful, visually gorgeous comedy. But the more you analyze, the more you dissect, the more you look for hidden meanings, a whole new story unfolds. What was just the story of a man trying to make his next great film and having no idea becomes the story of a man’s long and hilarious relationship with the opposite sex, his issues with his father and the church, and how they’re all part of the great circus that is his life.
Good god, I want to go watch 8 1/2 now.
You ever seen that recent SKL skit “Nicolas Fehn” they did on the Weekend Update (I doubt you did). Well that’s how everyone in my class talks.
I don’t mind discussing movies, I enjoy it. But these guys are telling some guy who’s been doing this for a long something like it’s this brand new perfect idea and speak so ridiculously and with obviously trying to hard elevated vocab.
Not that my professor has heard everything, but I mean just express your opinion, the high and mighty act I don’t need.
Shawney, you should read the whole wiki article on deconstructionism, then walk into that class and shit all over them in your hoitiest and toistiest of voices.
John said:Shawney, you should read the whole wiki article on deconstructionism, then walk into that class and shit all over them in your hoitiest and toistiest of voices.
not the most original concept, actually. that’s what film kids DO. it’s what we’re proud of. i actually enjoyed my classes immensely, especially senior year when all of the assholes were pretty much weeded out and we had about 10-12 people left. i miss that stuff big time.
i should really re-read all of my books from then.