The film "Garden State" is an eccentric drama; in addition, a romance comedy, with a slew of complex, innate cast of characters, each deeply entrenched in profound emotional and psychological scars, ascending from the regrets of their past. The film is a reflection, on rediscovering yourself after years of goalless ambiguity. Writer/Director Zach Braff, stars as the films’ chief character, Andrew Largeman. In James Berardinelli’s movie review, he said: “Garden State is one of those movies that fails to stay with the viewer for an extended period of time. It 's a forgettable film featuring a throw-away story with unmemorable characters and unremarkable performances.” I must disagree; although "Garden State" can be a tad somber, moody and too subtle for many viewers. Yet, the film is fantastically intriguing, by arousing viewers thoughts, and stimulating ones emotions, and that 's exactly what draws viewers in. Since the storyline requires viewers to dig deeper into the subtle undertones and symbolisms …show more content…
Regardless that the film appears to be designed for a specific age-related target audience, there are several characters throughout the entire film that viewers can relate to. Therefore that in return keeps the viewer exceedingly intrigued, interested, and ultimately, entertained. Consequently, as a viewer the most prolific symbolism in the entire film being the metaphoric infinite abyss. As a viewer, the infinite abyss represents life in general, the meaning of life. Life can be a deep dark bottomless pit. One can either succumb to it, as it swallows you up and takes you down, or one can prefer to stand at the top and scream down at it in defiance, and create your own paths in life, and fill that abyss with meaning, purpose, friendships, family, happiness and love. Therefore, as soon as you alter the manner you view the world, you transform everything that happens to you within it. Life is just a state of
A young woman walks across a town that appears to be pulled straight from a Norman Rockwell painting, then gunshots! It’s the wedding day and there can be no birds pooping on the reception. You just got on the roller coaster; hang on! This movie will bring about every emotion you have
The black box is a good representation of the central idea to the story. The box is painted in black, which has always been a universal symbol for evil and death.
The movie Gangs of New York takes place in Lower Manhattan’s Five Points’ neighborhood. It begins in 1846. The main protagonist Amsterdam Fallon, Priest Fallon’s son, watches his father who is the leader of the Dead Rabbit gang prepare and die in battle. As his father is on his last breadths of life giving his son counsel, Billy “the Butcher” Cutting snaps the Priest Fallon’s head. Amsterdam runs away from Cuttings henchmen to hide his father’s knife before he is captured by the Natives gang. He is taken to Hellgate orphanage. In 1862 Amsterdam returns to Five Point’s neighborhood and finds his old friend Johnny Sirocco. Johnny works now for Billy “the Butcher” and introduces Amsterdam to Cutting. Amsterdam makes his way into Cutting’s inner circle of Natives. Amsterdam also meets Jenny Everdeane while hanging out with Johnny. She bumps into Johnny to pickpocket his watch. Amsterdam notices and lets Johnny know. Johnny claims he always lets her take things. As both Cutting and Jenny take a liking to Amsterdam Johnny becomes jealous. He notices young Vallon quickly making his way into Cutting’s gang’s high ranks and into Jenny’s heart. Out of jealousy, Johnny reveals Amsterdam’s true identity to Cutting. Cutting decides to make Vallon angry. He succeeds by playing a dangerous game that involves knives with Jenny at the annual celebration of Priests Vallon’s death. Amsterdam then attempts to assassinate Cutting but fails and is taught a lesson by Cutting. Amsterdam lives at the help of Jenny. To avenge his father he starts the outlawed Dead Rabbit gang up again. He proposes a challenge to Cutting after his friend “Monk” McGinn is killed by Cutting. The fight takes place at Five Points’ neighborhood on the day the ...
The popular dancing movie, Footloose, was directed by Herbert Ross in 1984. Craig Brewer, produced a remake of Footloose in 2011. Both of the original Footloose and the remake, have multiple differences that split them apart. Although they follow the same theme, the sequence of events that took place happened in different orders and well as some characters were not present in the remake as they were in the original. The acting, dancing, and setting were varied slightly but it followed the same trend as the original. Directors Herbert Ross and Craig Brewer, directed the same film, while Craig Brewer made the film more modern, while keeping the film following the same trend.
Human happiness is represented by the Prince, who seeks to block or prevent the threat of death however death will come to all. The symbolism of the clock, hour by hour, minute by minute, the life of the ebony clock slowly dies. The ticking or chimes of the clock is a reminder to all of the limited time left before death.
Throughout all of Poe’s short stories symbolism is found to varying degrees. Some of Poe’s stories posses strong, deep symbols, while others use symbols as more of a backdrop. Many of Poe’s deep symbols require the reader to look much deeper into the true meaning of the story. For some the meanings behind Poe’s symbols are too deep and complicated to understand. Much like the meaning of the seven rooms in “The Masque of the Red Death,” or the nitre in “The Cask of Amontillado.” To this day Poe proves to be the everlasting master of symbolism.
"Mrs. Robinson, you are trying to seduce me," says Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman). The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols in 1967 is an influential satire/comedy film about a recent East Coast college graduated who finds himself alienated and aimless in the changing, social and sexual general public of the 1960s, and questioning the values of society. The theme of the film is of an innocent and confused youth who is exploited, mis-directed, seduced (literally and figuratively) and betrayed by a corrupt, self-indulgent, and discredited older generation (that finds stability in “plastics”) that I found to be quite clear and understanding, while also capturing the real spirit of the times and allows America's youth to perceive onscreen an image of themselves which they can both identify with and emulate. The Graduate is a significant film even today due to its use of abstract camera angles, telephoto lenses, excellent cinematography, and great acting. Few visual effects were used, however, matting and numerous point of view shots were used. These characteristics and the fabulous use of mis-en-scene, great writing and the era of the film all made The Graduate what it is today, magnificent.
New Jack City, noted as ‘the crime film of the 90’s’,serves as an important episode for African-American people in America. Set in New York city, the film depicts the story of a success-driven antagonist Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) who builds an empire powered by organized crime, drug trafficking, and Black delinquent young adults trapped in the cycle of crime. Ronald Reagan’s economic policy coupled with the popularity of crack-cocaine in the inner city creates inconsistencies and untapped markets in the poor community which Nino Brown brilliantly capitalizes on and exploits. His empire is able to successfully cut out the middle men in the drug trafficking market and centralize their operation in a single low-income housing complex inhabited
In the silent film Broken Blossoms, the lighting, setting, and color change drastically. D.W. Griffith manipulates the mise-en-scene, altering the lighting, setting, and color change drastically not only connecting scenes but also to creating clear separations. The film breaks Cheng Huan’s first encounter with Lucy Burrows into three different colored segments: yellow, blue, and purple. These tints paired with other elements of mise-en-scene convey a seemingly dichotomous message regarding the nature of kindness and of their relationship.
The pursuit of happiness is a film where Will Smith shines is a tale of rags-to-riches filled with love, family, and pursuance the American dream. Will takes the role of Christopher Gardner who was a salesman struggling to satisfy the needs of his wife Thandie Newton and their son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith. With the persistent financial problems, his wife gives up the struggle abandoning him and their son. Things get worse as Gardner and his son are evicted from their residence leaving them with no option but try surviving on the streets of San Francisco. They are compelled to move from one place to another in the bid to get a shelter wherever they are lucky to get one. On one night, they spend their night in a subway
The film Sunset Boulevard, presented in 1950 is a black and white film. The film is about Norma Desmond an old actress, who has issues accepting that she is becoming old. The main actor in the film is Gloria Swanson, who plays Norma Desmond, an older woman who believes she is still young. Desmond is not content with the fact that Hollywood has replaced her with younger actresses. The next actor Nancy Olson, plays Betty Schaffer who falls in love with Gillis despite being engaged to his friend. The third actor is William Holden who plays as Joe Gillis, who has financial problems and decides to turn himself into a gigolo to earn money. The dilemma with Joe is he does not want Betty to know about his job because he knows he might lose Betty as
In the movie Silver Linings Playbook there are two main characters, Pat and Tiffany, whom portray a type of mental illness. Below, I will explain each character in regards to their symptoms and portrayal of mental illness and compare the information discussed in the Abnormal Psychology Textbook.
“There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!” (Sunset Boulevard). The film Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder focuses on a struggling screen writer who is hired to rewrite a silent film star’s script leading to a dysfunctional and fatal relationship. Sunset Boulevard is heavily influenced by the history of cinema starting from the 1930s to 1950 when the film was released.
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
In the modern day era, we find in society a ubiquitous usage of technology that seems to be never ending and forever growing. Included with this notion, the broad subject of surveillance is of course included. Contemporary surveillance, or more specifically technological surveillance, has been described as ambiguous; meaning that it is often misunderstood or open to different interpretations. The representation of surveillance within popular culture has played an impacting role on how we as a society perceive it and this raises certain questions that may reflect back on to society. The 1998 film Enemy Of The State directed by Tony Scott, Starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman and Jon Voight is considered to be a ‘spy-thriller’ blockbuster. Its central themes explore a range of surveillance techniques and equipment and also provides some insights, no matter how realistic or unrealistic they may be, into the real life security organisation; The National Security Agency (NSA). Using this film as an example and analysing how these themes are represented will hopefully allow us to key these ideas back to modern surveillance theories and practices.