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Classical music influence on pop music
Music and narrative in film
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William Inhyuk Hyoung
MHIS-231-001
Jack Freeman
History of Film music final project
Film Score of The Godfather and Gangs of New york
The Godfather, 1972, is a film that won three Academy awards, Bst Picure, Best Actor - Brando- and Best Adapted Screenplay. Gangs of ew york, 2002, is a film that haswon he Academy Award for Best picture. Thirty years apart, both of the pictures portray the story of immigrant gangs or mobs of new york, and were praised as Modern day classics. In this essay I will ompare and contrast the scores of the film by two different composers from two different eras.
Nino Rota, the master film composer that scored the music for The Godfather was borin in Milan Italia, 1911. He was born to a musician’s family and was trained as a musician from young age. Nino was active as a classical composer and was fascinated by film music from 1940 and met Federico Felini, who is now remembered as one of the most successful Italian film directors of the 20th century, having won 5 Academy awards. In
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In ¾, the leitmotif with its astonishing feel, evokes the audience to focus on the dialogue between Don Coreleone (Marlon Brando) and a father who came to ask the godfather to avenge his daughter who have been raped. With the combination of Marlon Brando’s charismatic acting, the Godfather Leitmotif immediately sets the dark, charismatic, almost expressionist feel of the film. Gangs of New York begins with the sound of the Priest shaving with a knife. Howard Shore gently places strings followed by marching music. The beginning of Gangs of Newyork introduces many characters that will lead the film and throws the audience into the battlefield that is portrayed more like the dark ages or the middle ages than the 19th century new york. For audiences who must have expected the movie to have a dark, gritty Noir feel, the raw and barbaric feel of the opening scene and the music comes as surprising and
Like most things captured on film for the purpose of being marketed, the richness of gangster life, with sex, money, and power in surplus, is glorified, and thus embraced by the audience. And as a rule, if something works Hollywood repeats it, ala a genre. What Scarface and Little Caesar did was ultimately create a genre assigning powerful qualities to criminals. Such sensationalism started with the newspapers who maybe added a little more color here and there to sell a few more copies, which is portrayed in Scarface’s two newspaper office scenes. Leo Braudy denounces genres as offending “our most common definition of artistic excellence” by simply following a predetermined equation of repetition of character and plot. However, Thomas Schatz argues that many variations of plot can exist within the “arena” that the rules of the genre provide.
The movie begins in New York, in 1843, with a gang fight. Bill “the butcher” Cutting’s gang of “nativists” have challenged the “dead rabbits” (a gang of mostly Irish immigrants) to a fight to settle once and for all who is the most powerful gang in the area. After an intense battle the “nativists” win by killing the leader of the “dead rabbits”, also Amsterdam’s (the main character’s) father.
“Say hello to my little friend” is one of the most notorious lines in film history. Before writing this paper, I was unaware that Brian DePalmer’s Scarface was a remake of Hawks’s original Scarface movie. Being a fan of the gangster film, I was interested to see what similarities and differences the two versions shared or differed, such as the main character, influenced eras, and outlook on gangsters.
They wear fancy suits, drive luxurious cars, and parade around with different women each day. Although being a gangster has some advantages, everything comes with a price. Tom and Matt were such successful gangsters that they attracted enemies from other gangs. The audience watches as Tom and Matt walk down the street, and suddenly gunshots are heard, Matt has been shot and killed. The audience may have assumed all the violence and tragedy would end there but the death of Tom only sparked a bloody mob war. This film was one of the first films of its time to show a mob war which were very common during the 1920s. Competition was one of the biggest parts of being a gangster. Al Pacino who played a famous gangster in the movie The Godfather says in the film, “Everybody loves you until you become competition.” Gangsters were perceived as powerful men who were above the law and who could handle anything, but that is not always the case, especially for Tom. In the end of the film, Tom reign as a gangster comes to an end. He wanted to get revenge for his friend Matt, but it only resulted in his death as well. Some people aren’t as tough as they think they
When one thinks of a gangster they may think of speakeasies and classy cars or maybe drive-bys, but they will always imagine a man who is not afraid to get his hands dirty to grasp for a higher place on the social ladder. They will think of a man portrayed in a genre of cinema more American than any other, the gangster film. This genre began in the early thirties and has been re-adapted each decade to fit a new time. Although gangster films may mold themselves to fit into a certain cultural era, they still stay deeply tied to the foundations of the genre and its historical relevance to the american dream. This is apparent when comparing the differences and similarities between The Public Enemy and American Gangster. To better understand this comparison one needs to understand the origination of some of the classic conventions of the gangster film genre.
Picture Manhattan in 1860, a time before the city had been dolled up and gotten ready for the silver screen, before the glamour and allure took over. Amsterdam Vallan (DiCaprio) is a young Irish man that migrates to the USA at a young age. Amsterdam’s story takes place in Five Points District of New York, a filthy and dangerous part of the city before it was deleted form history. As a young boy Vallan witnessed his father’s murder at the hand of William Cutting or Bill the Butcher (Day-Lewis) during one of their many gang wars. As Amsterdam’s story progresses along side The Butcher they become inseparable, but Amsterdam had ulterior motive. Ultimately, Amsterdam attempts to betray his new found ally in order to avenge his father’s death. Historical accounts of events are almost always synthesized by the storyteller; in the case Gangs of New York Martin Scorsese tells of Five Points, The Dead Rabbits Riots, and The Draft Riots, but is his fictional story accurate through history?
Aside from its acting, the other major influence which Mean Streets had upon American film-makers was through it's use of a rock n' roll soundtrack (almost perfectly integrated with the images), and in its depiction of a new kind of screen violence. Unexpected, volatile, explosive and wholly senseless, yet, for all that, undeniably cinematic violence. The way in which Scorsese blends these two - the rock and roll and the violence - shows that he understood instinctively, better than anyone else until then, that cinema (or at least this kind of cinema, the kinetic, visceral kind) and rock n' roll are both expressions of revolutionary instincts, and that they are as inherently destructive as they are creative. This simple device - brutal outbreaks of violence combined with an upbeat soundtrack - has been taken up by both the mainstream cinema at large and by many individual `auteurs', all of whom are in Scorsese's debt - Stone and Tarantino coming at once to mind.
The gangster genre within films in America has accomplished numerous positive criticisms and constant willing audiences due to containing outstanding spectacles and mind-blowing action. The Godfather, being second on the IMDb Top 250 Movies, has set a new popular concept to life within the Mafia from their point of view. Doing so, creating a positive association. Yet within Italy, the same topic contains a complete different view. Movies such as I Cento Passi demonstrate unenthusiastic view by those whom are outside yet negatively affected by those members. Unlike American films, the gangsters are not as often viewed at the protagonist and are the main causes for the problematic events. But how different is Italian Mafia and American Mafia in cinema?
The Godfather is most notably one of the most prolific films of its time. This "gangster" film displayed many transformations of permeating color to give the viewer observable cues in its mise en scene that drew one right into the movie. The dramatic acting set the tone of the film with a score that lifted the viewer right out of their seat in many scenes. The directing and cinematography made The Godfather ahead of its time. The nostalgic feel of family importance and the danger of revenge lets us into the life of the Mafia. Even though no other techniques would have given the viewer a feeling of inside the mob like the mise en scene of the power the godfather held, the characters are reinforced literally and figuratively because the story views the Mafia from the inside out, and the cinematography of the film gives it a dangerous and nostalgic feel.
One of the most prominent and influential directors in New Hollywood was Italian-American Martin Scorsese. His first major critical success, and what is often considered his “breakthrough” film, was 1973’s Mean Streets. This film helped to establish Scorsese’s signature style in regards to narrative and thematics as well as aesthetically. Scorsese developed a unique and distinct directorial flair to his films, with reoccurring themes, settings, cinematography, and editing techniques, among other elements. This led a number of film critics to declare Scorsese an “auteur,” similar to Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and other auteur directors of the French New Wave.
Hook--Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) were different in many ways, but there were also some major similarities between them. While they were both extremely influential rappers in their day, there was a lot of fighting between them considering the fact that Tupac was a West Coast rapper, and Biggie --The Notorious B.I.G.-- was an East Coast rapper. Tupac tended to be a lot more poetic and respectful to women he had better lyrics than Biggie, but Tupac had little flow.
The Godfather is the “dark-side of the American dream story” (Turan, pp2). The film follows the practices of a fictional Italian mafia family, the Corleone’s. Though most Americans do not condone the practices of the Italian mafia, they cannot deny that Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is a cinematic masterpiece. This film gave insight to a mysterious way of life that the average person does not have knowledge of. As the audience is educated about the mafia they also are introduced to many stereotypes.
An Analysis of How Narrative and Genre Features Create Meaning and Generate Response in the Opening of Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas
Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on
The film begins with a wedding, and this setting sets the stage for the basic theme of the movie, which is family. ?The Godfather?, isn?t necessarily about organized crime. Crime is merely the family business, and crime is the way in which the author of the novel in which this film is based on used to set up the interactions and conflicts between the members of the Corleone family. In fact, this film could probably work even without the Mafia themes. At heart it is just a movie about the structure of a family from generation to generation.