The Quiet Man
The Quiet Man represents one example of how a director changes the work of an author when creating a movie for the general public. The Quiet Man, developed into a full-length movie directed by John Ford in 1952, followed the story written by Maurice Walsh in the 40’s. Changing the story line, Ford created a movie that the public would want to see.
Decades ago, film studios employed actors and directors to make movies for their studios. So movies produced by a studio often included the same actors, actresses, and directors. As a result, when casting The Quiet Man, the director’s choices were limited due to the studio contracts with the actors and actresses.
While writing the script, Ford realized that the movie must accommodate the actors in his studio. The main character, Shawn Kelvin, grew up in Ireland, moved to America, and then returned to Ireland according to the story. However, the only choice Ford had as the main character was John Wayne. John Wayne could not effectively talk with an Irish accent. Thus, Ford decided Shawn would grow up in America rather than Ireland preventing the need for an Irish accent. This is one example of how Ford changed the story to accommodate the actors.
Ford wanted to entice people to see The Quiet Man as well as other movies produced by the same studio. Thus, Ford inserted a twenty-minute fight scene involving John Wayne, who was one of the studio’s main actors, hoping that people would enjoy Wayne’s combative style, and would want to see other movies with John Wayne. Additionally, Ford inserted hints of sexual involvement such as the broken bed scene implying that the newlyweds had a honeymoon the night before, but in reality this did not happen. These are two examples of how Ford worked to get people to view the movie.
Ford improved the story by adding reality through stereotypes creating a believable film. Though the stereotypes he added would be unacceptable in a movie made today, they were considered acceptable for some people in the 1950’s.
...is very historically accurate because the film incorporates, characters private lives, real film and speech, and great filming technuques that highlight the previous two examples.
Many time in our lives, we have seen the transformation of novels into movies. Some of them are equal to the novel, few are superior, and most are inferior. Why is this? Why is it that a story that was surely to be one of the best written stories ever, could turn out to be Hollywood flops? One reason is that in many transformations, the main characters are changed, some the way they look, others the way they act. On top of this, scenes are cut out and plot is even changed. In this essay, I will discuss some of the changes made to the characters of the Maltese Falcon as they make their transformation to the ?big screen.?
The great carmaker himself witnessed none of this. He never set foot in the town that bore his name, yet his powerful, contradictory personality influenced every aspect of the project. As disaster after disaster struck, Ford continued to pour money into the project. Not one drop of latex from Fordlandia ever made it into a Ford car. But the more it failed, the more Ford justified the project in idealistic terms. "It increasingly was justified as a work of civilization, or as a sociological experiment," Grandin says. Despite the obstacles faced, Fordlandia did establish some brief success. The area had red fire hydrants on neat streets, running water, a sawmill, a water tower and weekly square dancing. However, the complexity of a jungle, changes in world economy and ongoing war entrenched Fordlandia’s failure as inevitable.
Racist characteristics in films and stories are something that can be perceived in this generation, but was something that was normal and expected in the 1930’s. Sexuality and raciness were items that made films a commodity in the 30’s and King Kong uses both of these to attract a wide audience. These qualities are also a factor as to why King Kong remains a classic throughout the generations.
“Henry Fonda is considered one of Hollywood’s old-time legends and was friend and contemporary of James Stewart and John Ford” (IMDb, bio). “At the center of the film is Henry Fonda’s performance as Wyatt Earp“ (Ebert 306). He is usually shown as a mild, calm, quick-witted man who dispenses the law and order with or without a gun. Fonda marvelously portrays Wyatt Earp with ease; he becomes the new marshal in Tombstone, Arizona. A wayward town boasting to have the largest cemetery west of Colorado and a reputation of lawlessness. Much like Ford’s other excellent western, “in Stagecoach we are seduced by the excitement and personal nobility wrapped up in the American frontier myth” (Roberts & Wallis 107).
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
The characters are a crucial element in developing the narrative of a film. The characters in Breathless do not act the way one expects those of Hollywood cinema to act. The woman who distracts the police officer in the opening scene seems as if she may be important, but is in fact never seen again. This happens again in a subsequent ...
John Ford directed many well-known western films that brought back the vibrancy of that era. One of which is, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Back in 1962, when the film was made, many dismissed it as a petty, disappointing work. Much of the criticism leveled against The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance focused on its look. The majority of films were done in color that gave it a bright, upbeat tone that the public loved. The “look” present in Liberty Valance was black and white, which went against the normal film characteristic of its time. This was an artistic choice made by Ford, because it is known that the film had a extensive budget, which would of made it easy to make in color. One can inference that Ford's intention was to suggest a sense of reminiscence. To some extent, this movie is about the passing of the old ways. The West is changing. The frontier is deteriorating. The present is dissolving not into history, but into legend, which removes facts and puts in what we want to know.
In 1939 John Ford gave Wayne another break by casting him as the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach. The roll threw Wayne into the top ranks of the movie stars and finally, in the 1940’s, his legend began to take shape. Relieved from military duty due to physical problems, Wayne became the film industry’s hard-core soilder, but had that compassionate side. Movies released during the war, such as Flying Tigers (1942), The Fighting Seabees (1944) and Back to Bataan (1945) left Wayne with some pretty big shoes to fill.
In “The Great Silence” Ted Chiang presents the reader with the idea that humans and other intelligent species do live on earth. Communication between different species on earth can be difficult because they can’t express their thoughts to one another. According to a possible solution to fermi’s paradox, intelligent life would rather hide than to present themselves to potential enemies. Humans have a hard time trying to find other species to communicate with because they only focus on extraterrestrial life. Humans created the Arecibo observatory to send out signals into space and pick up any signals that could be sent by extraterrestrial life. Although Humans cannot speak directly to other species we are able to communicate with our actions and vibes.
Actions of treatment really set Ford Apart from other slave owners. Ford provided Northup with proper care and a level respect as he was referenced as the “smartest nigger in the pines” (63). The respectable actions of Ford seemed to be inflicted on his ranking within society provided he was still a slave owner but believing in the fair treatment of slaves. This was shown in many case but primarily when Ford forces John. M Tibeats to sell or hire him out due the inhumanly treatment. (98) Having this amount of respect from a slave master seemed to be a real scarcity; “during my residence with Master Ford I had seen the bright Side of Slavery”. Even though Ford may be brought up as one of the “kinder masters” of the time it’s also provides that it could be overlooked in one major aspect. Ford was a still an active slave owner while he treated them well in comparison to the others it was still a weak point within
Ford had many struggles and challenges come his way before he became the maker of an efficient, non costly car that shaped our world into a technological nation. One challenge he faced was the inability to sell cars when The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers did not allow him to sell cars, (“Henry Ford”). This was a huge obstacle for him because when he created the Ford Model T he needed an audience to buy his product or he was going to be bankrupt. Luckily, since Ford was persistent and always fought for what he wanted he went to court against them and won his case. Moreover, Ford was sued by his own stockholders for putting their money into his company and he lost the case. When he lost the case he didn’t just give up, he worked harder to earn back the money he lost and eventually he bought them out and was able to continue building his stocks up, (“Father of the Modern Assembly Line”). Due to his perseverance and persistenceness he was able to continue with his company and thrive instead of seeing it crumble into nothing. His attitude towards his work is how he was able to create a multi-million dollar company and not let his obstacles bring him down, but let them shape him into a better, industrious
One of the most successful directors of this genre was John Ford. He once introduced himself saying, ‘I am John Ford, and I make Westerns’. The somewhat minimizing nature of this rem...
Philip Noyce's adaptation of Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American to film was a large success. It stayed true to the script, and kept the basic essence of the characters; pulling them from the pages of the book and creating them visually into marvels on screen. The earlier film made on the book was made in 1958 by Joseph Mankiewicz. Fowler was played by Michael Redgrave, with Audie Murphy as Pyle. This version was forced to reverse Greene's political stand taken in the book however, meaning it had no-where near as much impact as Noyce's production. Noyce chose to film in actual Vietnamese locations and without compromise, boldly sticking to the novel by not letting the Americans come out of the story too kindly. The Vietnamese conflict-its roots, effects, and lifestyle was captured brilliantly with Brendan Fraser depicting the deceivingly innocent yet devious Pyle, and Michael Caine as Fowler the ageing and unhappy journalist.
Ralph Ellison speaks of a man who is “invisible” to the world around him because people fail to acknowledge his presence. The author of the piece draws from his own experience as an ignored man and creates a character that depicts the extreme characteristics of a man whom few stop to acknowledge. Ellison persuades his audience to sympathize with this violent man through the use of rhetorical appeal. Ethos and pathos are dominant in Ellison’s writing style. His audience is barely aware of the gentle encouragement calling them to focus on the “invisible” individuals around us. Ralph Ellison’s rhetoric in, “Prologue from The Invisible Man,” is effective when it argues that an individual with little or no identity will eventually resort to a life of aimless destruction and isolation.