The Kingdom Of Heaven

Take 40 minutes out of the movie

The kingdom of heaven was one of the best film I’ve have ever had the opportunity to watch. The story was a bit tedious but was neatly put together at the end to make sense of the film. Every scene of the film was an important to the development of the characters and the story. To take anything out of the film, I would remove the beginning of the film (the first 40 minutes). Balian is a simple blacksmith who seems to not know much outside of his town. He is grieving over the recent suicide of his wife. A stranger arrives in Balian’s town and claims to be Balian’s father: Baron Godfrey of Ibelin. Godfrey asks Balian to return with him to Jerusalem, but Balian refuses. Soon later, Balian finds his half brother, the priest wearing a crucifix from his sister’s body. In a fit of rage, Balian kills the priest and flees the town with the crucifix to join up with the crusaders. Soldiers find Balian and Godfrey and try to arrest him, and in reality kill the baron and Balian to take over is baron-ship. In the battle, Godfrey and his men fight off the soldiers but Godfrey is struck with an arrow and later dies. Before his death, Godfrey knights Balian ordering him to continue the journey to Jerusalem and devout his life to protecting the helpless.  These scenes taken out are…………

To keep the movie’s integrity and to pose a plausible solution to removing 40 minutes, I would narrate the first 40 minutes down to 30 seconds to a minute. I would briefly cover Balian’s background and the arrival of Godfrey. I would narrate how the two met and what happened. This would mostly help people follow the story and get an idea of Balian’s character; what he was and who he is now.

This would, for obvious reason a loss of 40 minutes affects the story negatively. Balian’s character at the beginning of the movie and his character towards the end are extremely important. One of the main parts of the movie is the development of his character. Losing 40 minutes at the beginning of the story take away from Balian’s beginning story: Him meeting Godfrey (Whom his name and reputation plays and important part with Balian and the rest of the movie), his history as a blacksmith, the death of his wife and his knightship. All of the points create Balian to who he becomes a Jerusalem. Without such aspects, Balian would seem like an angry, confused warrior who oddly acquired a few good values from the air. Nobody would understand his reason to discover his religion, his past with Godfrey.

Pan’s Labyrinth directed by Guillermo del Toro in 2006 stars Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil and Sergi López. The story follows Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a naïve book child, desperate to explore and live in her fantasy world. Ofelia and her mother are sent to live with her new husband, the captain. Ofelia’s mother is pregnant with a baby boy and is soon to give birth. At the arrival at the captain’s house, Ofelia rushes of to explore the grounds. On the captain’s property, Ofelia finds an old deteriorating labyrinth. Later in the movie, Ofelia returns to the labyrinth to explore it in disregard to the risks. With Ofelia’s mother in bed most of the day and the captain busy with work, Ofelia has a knack of getting in to mischief. In the labyrinth, Ofelia meets a wise old faun who believes her to be part of a prophecy of another world. She is believed to be a lost princess who is deemed to return to her kingdom. But before returning to her world, the faun gives her a series of task’s that must be completed. But they turn out to be much different than anyone expects.

This movie being made in Spanish, and having to read English subtitles throughout the movie can be a little tiresome. But, the acting, costumes and set design will make you hold on to the end. The labyrinth was extremely spooky and all the monsters were fabulously done. Every monster strayed away from their stereotypes; Guillermo del Toro really paints a new, fresh and creative look on the creatures on the labyrinth and the underworld. I enjoyed watching all the actors perform in this movie. In the end of this movie, almost everybody turns out to be not exactly how you might expect them to be. I don’t want to give anything away to anyone, but surely you will notice splendid character development. Anybody will most likely enjoy this film above the age 10-12 and up. With a few intense scenes, young viewers might easily get scared. All in all, loved this movie for all its aspects. Worth the money 100%.

5/5 stars

Shane Sullivan

2001: A space odyssey

2001: A space odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick stars Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood and William Sylvester. The story of the film is a lot like Five React gum, everyone experiences it differently. The main plot that can be interpreted follows a space crew on a mission to discover artefacts on planets that mysteriously appeared first on the moon. For roughly the first 30 minutes of the film, a crude theory of human evolution is shown. Two separate tribes of chimpanzees are fighting over a water hole. The tribe that is exiled from the water has two options: it will either die, or must find a way to survive. One day, a chimp picks up a strong bone from the skeleton on a dead pig. He swings the tools around and smashes it against other bones, realising its power. The exiled tribe returns to the water hole, with their newly found weapons a gains control of the water. And so, tools are invented. The rest of the story follows a space team and the high-tech computer, Hal 9000 on a mysterious journey to uncover and explain the artefacts found on the moon.

I enjoyed the acting of this movie but wasn’t sold on it. But I would argue that it’s not about the actors in the film but more-less the film as a whole, the idea of the film. The film is about us, as humans and the unanswered questions we ask every day. “Why are we here?” “How did we come to be?” This film represents and presents a plausible hypothesis on what happened and what’s going on today. The film represents the determination that humans have to learn more, discover more at nearly any cost. This film gets better the more I think about it. You can relate to it, but also make you own conclusion about the film and of human purpose. The film makes the audience reflect, pause and think. Not many films have every done that. But if someone is going to watch this film, consider watching it with someone who’s seen it. Together you can try to interpret its powerful messages by expressing your own point of view and considering others P of V.

5/5 stars

Shane Sullivan

Night Of The Living Dead

Night of the living dead, directed by George A Romero stared Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman and others. The movie was released in 1968 and was one of the first ever “Zombie” movies. The Movie starts with Barbra (Judith O’Dea) and her brother at a cemetery, placing a wreathe over their father’s grave. While Barbra and her brother are walking back to their car, a strange pale man is sulking towards them. Barbra walks nervously by the man when, he grabs her and attempts to bite her neck. Barbra’s brother tosses the strange man of her, but the man is too strong. The man grabs a hold of Barbra’s brother and smashes his head on a gravestone, killing him. Barbra runs of through a field and finds a house to escape the zombie, and later joins up with other survivors from the un-dead.

The acting in this movie was fabulous. The story was easy to follow but certainly draws the audience into the movie. Part of this is thanks to well played roles of the characters. Judith O’Dea played exceptionally well the role of a distressed woman after seeing her brother brutally murdered and chased by the un-dead and Duane Jones (Ben) played his role of a quick thinking street though. Ben is very resourceful, for example he rips apart furniture to provide wood to board up windows and doors and finds a gun and ammo. The copper family, in my opinion portrays the stereotypical American family. They are motivated by personal gain, oppose to teamwork suggested by Ben.

This movie was fantastic! Never before until this movie had I seen a zombie/survival movie aside from “Zombieland”. Great story, great character development, great movie. This would be a great movie for anyone to watch likely above the age of 10.

5/5 stars

Shane Sullivan

North by Northwest

North by Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1969 stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason follows a New York advertising executive (Cary Grant) who, by fluke is mistaken for a government spy. Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is hunted across America by foreign spies. Towards the beginning of the movie, when Roger is mistaken for a spy, Roger is taken captive by foreign spies who suspect him to be trying to shut down their operation. Multiple time, roger is nearly killed by the thugs while trying to uncover this mystery of his second identity. Roger meets up with Eva, the spies boss. Eva seduces Roger but turns out to be a government agent, working for the foreign spies undercover. Eva and Roger team up to take down the spies.

Before watching this movie, I had an odd dislike for Alfred Hitchcock. After seeing North by Northwest (as well as psycho) I am in love with he’s movies. The attention invested in this movie is superb. The story is thrilling as well as suspenseful; Hitchcock had me on the edge of my seat in anticipation. Hitchcock presents a great example of the Hollywood style by dragging the audience in the movie with the edgy characters, believable story line but most of all, a great acting cast.

Cary and Eva really play exact opposites. Cary, socially awkward advertising executive is naïve and not at all out spoken. Eva plays a timid girl, but always has a trick up her sleeve. I got the impression for Eva she knew more that she was letting on.

For a movie in the sixties, Hitchcock exceeded his talent and the HW style. I hope everyone gets a chance to see this movie at least once in their lives. Wish I could see it in the theatres!

5/5 stars.

Shane Sullivan

Gone With The Wind

Gone with the wind

Shane Sullivan

Film Studies 15-Mr. Chow

Western Canada High

Gone with the wind, directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor and Sam Wood follows an American girl struggling for survival while love during the Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Gone with the wind was actually a novel before the movie, written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. Margaret wrote the book to pass the time while recovering in the hospital from a serious car accident. After finally being discharged, Harold Latham, an editor looking for a new fiction novel, took an interest in her book. After Harold agreed to publish the book, Margaret spent the next 6 months rewriting and doing research to perfect her novel.  The book later won the Pulitzer award and was made into a movie three years later. The Film was the longest sound film ever made at the time (3 hours 44 minutes), one of the first major films in color and won 10 Academy Awards, a record that stood for 20 years. The Film also won the first Academy Award for Best Cinematography in color (Technicolor).

Firstly, the dynamic camera angles truly established perfection of the Hollywood style. Many long shots or establishing shots were used such as at the beginning of the film to introduce Tara and Twelve Oaks. Later in the film, what seems like a close up shot of a few people dying in Georgia quickly pans out to reveal thousands dying laid out on the ground. “Over the shoulder” was used during conversation between characters throughout the film but not as common as a strait forward shot. Characters were often set up underneath archways, drapes or in front of larger objects such as chairs to bring the eye to the characters as well as to isolate the characters. Examples of this were a scene with Ashley and Scarlett talking with chairs in front of them and in another scene we find Rhett Butler and Scarlett talking under and archway. Close ups and Extreme close ups were very popular in scenes with Scarlett to bring out her emotions such as her crying, the surprise and joy on her face when seeing Ashley ect. A couple “bird’s eye view” shot were taken, like when Scarlett returns to twelve Oaks after the war to find it in ruins.

A strong supporter of the camera angles were the beautiful lustrous colors used to capture the attention of the audience. During a conversation between Scarlett and Ashley, Scarlett raps a bright yellow sash around Ashley waist to get the audience to see significance of Ashley’s character in the film. Hues of red were mostly used to represent the prosperity and richness of Tara. Also in the beginning, Twelve Oaks is rich with beautiful lush trees and everyone is celebrating and enjoying themselves at the barbeque.  When Scarlett returns to Twelve Oaks near the end of the war, it is charred black and grey with a large shadow covering the building like a cloak.

During the period of time when the movie takes place, women are inferior to men and African American’s are slaves. Women at the time had to be well dressed and mannered around in the presence of men. The black slaves were poorly educated and forced to work hard labour if they were field hands. House slaves worked hard as well but were better clothed, feed and had longer sleep hours than the field hands. While slavery is wrong, salves were generally well taken care of. Their “owners” needed then to be healthy, strong and well rested to perform their duties. In the movie we see a perfect example of this with Scarlett’s father. Scarlett’s father confronts her that she was being too hard on Prissy and hurt her. This shows the slaves were also listened too, to some degree. At that time as well, society allowed men to hit their women if they were”misbehaving”. Rhett Butler and various other characters in the film are shown striking women across the face.

Like every movie, there’s always a few continuity errors and goofs. To give a few examples, when all the carriages are riding into Twelve Oaks, they disappear into the backdrop. Another scene, Rhett is celebrating the birth of his daughter Bonnie and is smoking a cigar. The camera angle changes and he is holding his cigar in the hand he was just holding a drink with. In a few other scenes, the shadows of boom mikes can be seen.

All in all, no one questions why this is said to be one of the greatest movies ever made. 72 years since its making it is still widely watched and rewatched by thousands. The story is relatable to all of its audience members and has so many rich qualities. This movie will always be around.

Plane 9 from outer space

Plan  9 from outer space, released in 1959 was a crude attempt at a movie. Rated 3.7 by critics, I don't think anyone is questioning them. Directed and written by Edward D. Wood Jr. staring Gregory Walcott, Tom Keene and Bela Lugosi. How does one review this movie? Starting at the basic, the movie is about Aliens trying to stop the humans from potentially creating the Soloranite (A Bomb from the suns rays). To stop the humans, the aliens turn 3 dead bodies from a graveyard in to zombies and vampires. I was thinking though, that it might be hard to take out a few billion people with only three people fighting your cause. Another shocker is that the aliens that visit planet earth are as fable to be, more technologically advanced than us. With that in mind, why would the not just destroy us themselves instead of using a zombie and two vampires? Their UFO's seemed to take quite a hit from our missiles so the must be pretty strong military wise.

 I wouldn't argue that the acting in this movie was bad, mainly just a weak story line. The actors did a decent job, playing there parts as believable as possible. No original camera angles were used throughout this film, and many shots seemed like they were repeated. For example, the clip with the male vampire pulling his cloak across his face in an empty field was used twice. No lighting in this film is worth mentioning and the effects, even worse. If you find yourself watching this movie in disbelief of the story, just wait till you see the UFO's. Hilarious.

If someone asked me if they should watch this movie, I would likely respond " If your a masochist, go right ahead, otherwise your best to find something else to watch." I'll give it 1/5 stars. 

Shane Sullivan