Easy Rider

Easy Rider was written by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Easy Rider was filmed on a very low budget of $555,000 and was directed by Dennis Hopper. That did not seem to matter because it took in over $60 million worldwide. The film was rated R and included things like violence, drugs, and sex. The film appealed to a teenage audience. The film used anamorphic images, shots filmed with a hand-held camera, and a hallucinatory dream sequence. Another reason why it was appealing to teens was the soundtrack. Some of the main characters were played by Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson. Music from The Band, The Byrds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Steppenwolf, and others were used in this film. The heroes in this movie go looking for American and encounter things from hippie communes to small-town communities. They start out in Los Angeles and travel to New Orleans. Their journey turned out to be a failure. They searched and did not find what they were looking for. They idealized their journey and ended up not finding their Holy Grail. It was an anti-establishment type of film. This film showed the industry that films could still be good without having a huge budget to shoot a film.

Femme Fatale

A femme fatale is a woman that is very seductive who can lead men into compromising and dangerous situations. She is ofter alluring and mysterious. Femme fatale is french for "fatal woman." The pictures from http://moderntimes.com/palace/film_noir.html show that these woman are very beautiful and have a mysterious side to them. The way they dress is even seductive. The Belton text supports this description. The text says that the objective of females in film noir is to castrate or destroy the male hero. They were usually viewed as just things to men and sexual fantasies for them. They would take advantage of this and use it against the men to overpower them. Femme fatales use their seductive ways to ensnare men and manipulate them. The men think that they are romantically interested and that is exactly what a femme fatale wants them to think. A good example of a femme fatale would be Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street. A few others include Jean Simmons in Angel Face, Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity, and Jane Greer in Out of the Past.

The Role of Females in War Films

Women are very important in war films. Even the lack of women changes the whole dynamic of a film. Without women, men have to prove themselves to older, more knowledgeable men who are like father figures to them. When women are brought into a setting that is a majority of men, they become objects of desire that men long for. Usually this desire is between two or more soldiers that battle to try to win their affection. This rivalry almost creates a tie between the soldiers. Women can be dangerous to men in war films. Women create emotions in a man that may make him weak. This vulnerability eventually results in the demise of the soldier because the emotions that he feels for the women lie outside of the realm of war. War is portrayed as very masculine, and any feelings that a man might feel for a women introduces femininity into this very masculine world.

Slapstick Comedy

Slapstick comedy is a type of comedy that is physical. Gags would quickly spiral into mix-ups and lead to physical rowdiness. Slapstick refers to the sticks that clowns would use to hit each other in theatrical pantomime. The 1920s brought out three heroes. The three major stars of the slapstick comedy genre during this time were Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. Charlie Chaplins's character was a tramp that was odd and an outcast from society. He was a rebel who could not keep a job that had a daring nature. Chaplin hated many things in society and rebeled against it. Buster Keaton was unlike Chaplin in that he accepted the modern world. Most of his comedies consisted of him and a machine. Harold Lloyd was similar to Keaton because of his role as a middle-class worker, but he was devoted to impressing people and making it in his community. I think that the genre of slapstick comedy was a successful movie vehicle because the American people could relate to these heroes. I'm sure many people felt the way that Chaplin did and felt as if they were outcasts. Then there were people who accepted what was going on in society and embraced it as Keaton did. Lloyd represented the uncertainties that many people probably have had at one time or another. There was a little of something for everyone to relate to in their own lives, which is probably why these comedies were so successful.

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny is a phrase that expresses the idea that the United States was destined to develop from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. It was used to justify the expansion to the West of the country and the belief that we had the right to take over no matter what or who was in the way. This idea is commonly used in many Western films. These films usually have the country expanding it's civilization to the west, like the idea of Manifest Destiny. A common theme of Westerns is that the pioneer from the East traveling to the West has to learn and take on the Western culture. A few example of these types of Westerns include, A Man Called Horse, Little Big Man, Dances With Wolves, City Slickers, and Western Union. It could have also been someone from the West and traveling East to find that his or her customs are much different than the customs and culture in the East, which is just the opposite. Usually there is a conflict in the West, such as the cowboys and indians coming to blows. Some examples of this type of film are The battle at Elderbush Gulch, Ulzana's Raid, Dances With Wolves, and The Last of the Mohicans. Another conflict Easterners had to face while journeying to the West is the frontier. They have to leave the wilderness and learn how to adapt and survive in the West. Whatever the conflict or storyline of the Western is, Manifest Destiny always seems to be involved in the plot somehow.

Typecasting

Typecasting occurs when an actor or actress is strongly identified with one type of role. Typecasting makes it harder for these actors and actresses to find work playing characters outside of this role. After actors and actresses are successful in one type of role, they are usually placed in the same type of role because that is what they know how to do and they do it well. Sometimes actors just can't act outside of a certain role and they are typecasted. Typecasting is usually seen as a negative thing, but some actors and actresses welcome because it is steady work. The negative aspect is that an actor is so strongly identified with one role that it is impossible for them to find work as different characters. Child actors are very prone to being typecasted. Most of the child actors don't make that step into acting as an adult. It seems to make them less marketable. To escape typecasting, actors usually try to get roles that are the complete opposite from what they are used to playing. Jackie Chan is an example of a typecasted actor. He only plays roles in action movies. Arnold Schwarzenegger is also typecasted in action movies and is seen as a tough guy. Adam Sandler is an example of an actor who is typecasted as only an actor who plays in comedies and is seen as the goofy, kind of angry guy. Even though some actors and actresses embrace typecasting, it is more likely that they try to fight it and break from the mold that they were placed in.

Movie Studios

Different studios usually have different qualities form others and are strong in certain genres of movies. M-G-M studios did mostly musicals and comdey films. It was more of a flashy studio. Some of the actors and directors that worked there were Clark Gable, Gene Kelly, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Vincente Minnelli, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Elizabeth Taylor. The moguls for M-G-M were Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg. Movies that came out of this stuio were Babes in Arms, The Good Earth, and Madame Curie. Paramount also did comedies, but usually romantic comedies. The also did epics. Some of the actors and directors that worked for Paramount include Cecil. B. DeMille, Preston Sturges, Bing Crosby, and Marlene Dietrich. Paramount was know for it's wit and sexy elegance. Movies that came out of this studio were Monte Carlo, Trouble in Paradise, Morocco, and Shanghai Express. The tycoon of this studio was Adolph Zukor. Warner Brothers was a working man's studio. Film genres that came out of this studio were film noir, war films, gangster, weepies, and "women's films." Actors and directors from this studio include Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, and Ida Lupino. Jack L. Warner was the mogul for this studio. Movies that came out of this studio include Little Caesar, Public Enemy, and Confessions of a Nazi Spy. 20th Century Fox was known for action/adventure, soaps, disaster films, and social message films. The mogul for 20th Century Fox was Darryl Zanuck. Actors and directors from this studio include Betty Grable, Henry Fonda, Tyrone Power, and Shirley Temple. Movies that were made at this studio were The Grapes of Wrath, Boomerang, and Pinky. RKO did musicals and mostly film noir. Pandro Berman and Howard Hughes were the tycoons of this studio. It was the only studio to disappear after Howard Hughes went bankrupt. Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire were actors that worked for RKO. Movies that came out of this studio were Citizen Kane, Crossfire, and Vendetta.

Lighting

Three-point lighting is the standard arrangement used in Hollywood. There may be more that three lights used, but they are set up to imply that there are three sources from which the light is coming from. The lighting is composed of the key light, fill light, and the back light. The key light is the main source of light. The fill light is weak and fills in the shadows that the key light forms. The back light is used to fill the space between the back of the set and the actors to differentiate them from the background. This should create the illusion of depth. High-key lighting is used to reduce the contrast ratio in the scene. It has a high amount of fill light to get rid of the shadows, making the set brighter. Low-key lighting is used when the ratio of fill to key light is low and is used in movies like musicals and comdedies. This gives a darker feeling because of the shadows casted and is used in movies like thrillers and horror films. Star lighting is used to draw attention to an actor or actress. It can even be used to hide flaws that the stars don't want people to see. Star lighting makes it seem as if the light is coming from within the actor.

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a world famous film, some even say it is the greatest. Orson Welles, director, actor, and producer of the film, collaborated with Herman J. Mankiewicz and Gregg Toland to create this masterpiece. Welles worked with Mankiewicz on the script and Toland was the cinematographer. Their budget was $800,000 and was filmed in a short amount of time. One of the reasons why this film was so great is because of its innovative uses of technology. They tried new techniques for editing, photography, and sound. Even the narrative and cinematic techniques were amazing for its time. It used things like a subjective camera, deep-focus shots, elaborate camera movements, over-lapping, talk-over dialogue and layered sound, and many transitionary dissolves. The story was told by different characters and from different points of view and perspectives. Although some considered it to be a great film, it was surrounded by controversy. The film seemed to fictionalize and portray the life of Willliam Randolph Hearst, who at the time was a powerful newspaper mogul and publisher, in an unfavorable way. It was said to be unflattering and having uncomplimentary parallels to real life. There was even a documentary about the controversy called The Battle Over Citizen Kane. Hearst wanted the film to be boycotted and threatened lawsuits. It was not a huge success when it was released, but it received nine Oscar nominations and won one Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
work cited: http://www.filmsite.org/citi.html

The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery is a short film directed by Edwin S. Porter in 1903. The main characters of this film are the robbers, the operator, and the men that pursue the robbers in the end. The film starts with two masked robbers forcing the operator to stop a train so that they can sneak on board. Once the train was stopped and they went on board, a gun fight occurs and the robbers kill a man. The robbers find a safe, but they find that they have to blow it up with dynamite to get its contents. They then force the passengers to exit the train. One tries to escape, but is shot while the rest are robbed. The robbers force the engineer to take them further on and are let off the train. The viewer is then taken back to the gagged operator. His daughter releases him and he shows up at a dance and tells the people there what had happened. The men then pursue the robbers in the woods. They catch up to the robbers and shoot all of them down. After the final scene, one of the robbers shoots point blank at the audience. Because this was new to audiences, this scene would have frightened them. The end of this film was probably considered to be a happy ending because good prevailed over evil. The men stopped the robbers in the end, resolving the conflict.