Abstract
This film review will discuss Clint Eastwood’s 2004 movie Million Dollar Baby. Like a deluxe restaurant meal, veteran movie director and lead actor Eastwood carefully selected unique, high-quality ingredients for the script and co-actors, and skilled chefs – i.e. film artisans - to plan and create something exceptional. The final result leaves a subtle, distinct and memorable flavor. A Million Dollar Baby (MDB) film reviewer suggests that Eastwood’s “touch only gets lighter with time”. (Grey, 2005) MDB won the Academy Award for 2004’s Film of the Year as well as Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Supporting Male Actor - this reflects the calibre of the chosen contributors, and clearly exemplifies it as a film masterpiece. Bittersweet and controversial, the film delivers an unforgettable impact.
My Darling, My Blood
An aspiring boxer, Maggie (portrayed by Hilary Swank), convinces a gruff trainer, Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), to prepare her for competition. Frankie, his hard outer shell eventually revealing affection and generosity, reluctantly takes her on and they develop an intimate relationship, shored up by his friend, former competitive boxer and employee, Scrap (played by Morgan Freeman). Scrap admires and quietly supports Maggie’s dedication to her dream. Maggie works with fierce determination and eventually fights for a championship when ill fate deals a cruel blow: she falls awkwardly, breaking her neck and becoming a quadriplegic. Frankie, who has become her closest friend and a father figure, at her fervent request, takes her life.
Clint Eastwood is a thinking moviegoer’s actor and director, his career evolution is satisfying to follow. Since the mid 1950’s, he has been nominated fo...
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...have created a feast for the senses and an enduring performance.
References
Clint Eastwood. (2002). In (Ed.), Wikipedia. Retrieved March 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Eastwood
Grey, I. (2005). Kid Gloves. Baltimore City Paper(1.12.2005). Retrieved from http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=8334
Introduction to Greek Tragedy. (1998). In AbleMedia LLC (Ed.), Classics Technology Center. Retrieved March 2009, from http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/netshots/tragedy.htm
Joel Cox - Wikipedia. (2008). In (Ed.), Wikipedia. Retrieved March 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Cox
McCulley, J. (, Amazon.com review). Million Dollar Baby Soundtrack. Amazon.com retail site. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Baby-Clint-Eastwood/dp/B0007O38FI
Toole, F. X. (2000). Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner. New York: HarperCollins
Citizen Kane has earned the prestigious honor of being regarded as the number one movie of all time because of Welles’ groundbreaking narrative and plot structures that paved a path for the future of the film industry. Though critics have viewed the film with such prestige over the years, a present day viewer might encounter a great amount of confusion or difficulty as to why Citizen Kane is the number one movie on the American Film Institute’s top 100 movies of all time. Especially considering the modern day film industry, Welles’ production does not measure up to the amount of thrill and entertainment audiences experience today. Not even considering the possibilities with special effects and technology, Citizen Kane seems to lack an exciting plot that might involve some action or twists instead of the gossip of a man’s life that we no longer appreciate. In 1941, the general public could greatly appreciate the connections between Kane and William Randolph Hearst unlike young adults watching the film now.
In the mid to late 1950s, classic westerns where becoming obsolete paving the way for a revolutionary Italian director Sergio Leone. The new style of westerns known as “Spaghetti Westerns” was too many Americans ludicrous, no spaghetti westerns delves into the grotesque perspective better than the Dollar Trilogy films starring Clint Eastwood as the “Man with no Name”. Leone’s innovative cinematic style is brought to life through his unorthodox characters and their pursuit for fortune. Leone’s grotesque approach to his characters in the Dollar Trilogy films are quite uncanny because of their lack of morals (good & bad), anti-hero fights and twisted plots. Leone’s leading characters actions are reinforced through his use of extreme-close ups during moments of violence. These aspects are showcased to perfection in Leone`s final part of the Dollar Trilogy films, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 1966. (Theme of greed)
The debate over Casablanca and Citizen Kane has been a classic argument between film critics and historians alike because both of these pieces contain great cinematographic value, and are timeless pictures that have managed to captivate audiences well beyond their era. However, the real question at hand is which film is the greatest? Which film transformed the future of American film making? It is these questions that I as many others have, will attempt to answer in the following essay as I explain why I believe Citizen Kane has achieved the status of greatest film ever made.
middle of paper ... ... In general, all the actors in the movie make the audience feel what they are feeling and this is essential for the movie as the plot is deeply emotionally charged. As reviewer Sean O’Connell notes in his column at Filmcritic.com, Million Dollar Baby was expected to be “a half-baked, rushed-into-awards-season castoff by a respected filmmaker still basking in the glow of his last well-received piece”.
Sophocles. “Oedipus Rex.” The Heath Introduction to Drama. Ed. Jordan Y. Miller. Toronto: D.C. Heath and Company, 1996. 29-72.
Tragedies in the Greek and Renaissance theater were very effective in portraying the social and religious constraints that tainted society. Both playwrights, through the use of their ingenuity and vast literary knowledge were able to perfect and display such flawless spectacles. The differences and similarities between Greek tragedy and Renaissance tragedy, although vast, can be narrowed down to the audience. Greek and Renaissance theater targeted very different audiences that demanded a certain type of play in order to be entertained.
An interesting and important aspect of this Greek notion of fate is the utter helplessness of the human players. No matter the choice made by the people involved in this tragedy, the gods have determined it and it is going to come to pass. T...
In this essay the following will be discussed; the change from the age of classical Hollywood film making to the new Hollywood era, the influence of European film making in American films from Martin Scorsese and how the film Taxi Driver shows the innovative and fresh techniques of this ‘New Hollywood Cinema’.
Ebert, Roger. Rev. of Almost Famous, dir. Cameron Crowe. Rogerebert.com. Chicago Sun-Times, 15 Sept. 2000. Web. 29 March 2011.
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.
Fergusson, Francis. Oedipus, Myth and Play. Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 2nd ed. Ed. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford, 2001 1462-1469.
The time period of Greek theater’s popularity was a very influential time in our world’s history. Without knowing what Greek theater was all about, how can someone expect to truly understand a tragic play and the history it comes with? The history behind the character of Oedipus, in the play Oedipus the King, is very complicated. His intricate past dealing with prophecies, family members, and murder is the main focus of the story. There are many characteristics that complete Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero; these being the presence of hamartia and peripeteia, a sense of self-awareness, the audience’s pity for the character, and the hero is of noble birth.
Feldman, Kevin, Kevin Feldman, Sharon Vaughan, and Kate Kinsella. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Prentice Hall Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007. 824-923. Print.
A modern tragedy of today and a tragedy of ancient Greece are two very different concepts, but ironically, both are linked by many similarities. In “Poetics”, Aristotle defines and outlines tragedy for theatre in a way that displays his genius, but raises questions and creates controversy. Aristotle’s famous definition of tragedy states:
Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. Gerald F. Else. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1967. Dorsch, T. R., trans. and ed. Aristotle Horace Longinus: Classical Literary Criticism. New York: Penguin, 1965. Ley, Graham. The Ancient Greek Theater. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991. Reinhold, Meyer. Classical Drama, Greek and Roman. New York: Barrons, 1959.