Use of Montage in the Movie, Night of the Hunter
Ebert said it best when he describes the characters of Night of the Hunter as Norman Rockwell archetypes. Taking place in an unassuming river town presumably during the Great Depression, the plot unravels around $10,000, stolen during a poorly planned bank robbery. No thought need be heeded on the heist, however, seeing as it was not important enough to waste film on. The money serves only to set up the dominoes that will be knocked down rather linearly in this predictable storyline. But to criticize this movie as predictable would be missing the entire premises: the movie’s true purpose is seeking to illustrate a kind of righteousness vs. evil through key use of montage.
The central character to the storyline, Reverend Harry Powell, is what today would be considered the archetypal psychopath. His mask of a righteous, God-fearing saver of souls makes his true self that much creepier. In a truly twisted scene, Rev. Powell perverts the embraced idea of a hero riding in on a white horse by using such a steed to stalk John and Pearl, the two children of the robber who have been entrusted with the money, accurately portraying the helplessness of innocence when a greater evil looms. Such Biblical conflict can be seen throughout the movie, culminating with Rachel, a true follower of her Lord, warding off the evil Rev. Powell.
In regard to montage, it would be easy to write off its use as the most effective instrument for illustrating an idea with the technology at hand in those days. Upon closer inspection, however, montage allows a concept to be portrayed much more effectively than might otherwise be possible using standard filming techniques. The children’s journey down the river is a great example of this. The “collision” of scenes of them slowly drifting in a boat, sometimes sleeping, sometimes talking, both day and night, with the reverend on his horse somehow keeping up “explodes” in the rather nebulous concept of a nightmare in which no matter how fast or far one runs, the pursuer always keeps up (Eisenstein, The Dramaturgy of Film Form).
Mattie, Cogburn, and LaBoeuf’s journey through the Choctaw Nation is a long, gruesome one. The scene features a couple of cinematographic techniques that make it very memorable. One of these is editing. The group’s journey takes approximately ten hours, but Deakins uses time lapse cinematography to make it much shorter. The images dissolve into one another with each new image bringing them farther into the Indian Territory. This technique shows the distance the Mattie, Cogburn, and LaBoeuf travel by compressing the time. Another ...
-The man vs. man conflict is brought up many times throughout this story. The first that is posed is the conflict between Huckleberry and Pap. Pap is Huckleberry’s abusive biological father, and an alcoholic to boot. He first comes in and tries to steal his son’s fortune, just so he can get drunk. Huckleberry is kidnapped by his father for a short time, and during this is beaten many times. Huckleberry eventually escapes as he saws his way out of a shed with an old saw he finds. He then kills a pig to fake his own death and smears blood all over the shed so the story is more believable.
A rapid succession of images or scenes that exhibits different aspects of the same idea or situation, this is the definition of montage as provided by Encarta Encyclopedia ’98. The idea of a “montage of attractions” was first used by Eisenstein and Pudovkin in the 1920s for the purpose of invoking specific emotions in the viewers. The movie The Night of the Hunter starring Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish makes use of this film technique.
consider to be more modern film techniques. Montage plays a key role in this film, as
Not only does Steinbeck tell his story and put it in perspective, he also gives social commentary. One might expect this social commentary to be...
Mandell, Jerome. Geoffrey Chaucer : building the fragments of the Canterbury tales. N.J. : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1992.
Chemicals are excessively used to achieve youth and happiness in both Brave New World and in Canadian Society. The prime example being the use of drugs to achieve a euphoric feeling and to escape something versus dealing with it in both societies. In Brave New World, Soma, a hallucinogenic drug, is a pertinent part of life that is a necessity to keep their world in order. When a member of society is unhappy, it is a natural instinct to consume soma. When Lenina is upset John does not join her after their date, Lenina thinks, “One gramme, she decided, would not be enough; hers had been more than a one-gramme affliction” (Huxley 171). Lenina uses soma to prevent unacceptable unhappiness in the Brave New World, as many Canadians use antidepressants as a simple fix to their unhappiness. The utilization and prescription of pharmacotherapy for depression has increased from 3.2 to 14.5 million between 1981 and 2000 in Canada (University of Toronto Magazine). ...
Abortion, which is defined as a deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, is one of the most controversial issues in society. Many people believe that abortion is unethical and morally wrong, while others believe that it is a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body. According to www.census.gov, “the number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. has leveled off at 1.2 million a year” (1). This statistic supports how many women are choosing abortion. Although abortion is legal in the United States, many people continue to voice their opinions on how it is a human rights violation and should be illegal everywhere. The practice of abortion should be banned in society because it terminates the life of an innocent unborn child, causes long-term emotional effects, as well as major health risks for women who opt for abortion.
Short film has been around for longer than many of us think. The very first films made in the early 1910s were not feature-length by any stretch of the imagination, and never more than 15 minutes long. D. W. Griffith, well-known for experimentation in cinematography, was the first director to venture into films longer than 15 minutes. These first films were short films (or "shorts"), these pioneer directors experimenting with what they could or could not do with a moving camera. Early shorts involved filming people boarding a train, or some similar mundane act. People reacted to this, and flocked to watch these movies, simply because of the novelty of watching reflections, instead of shadows, on screen. But as the audience got more sophisticated, filmmakers began to see the need to innovate. In the 1920s, experiments in surrealism occurred, with people, such as Salvadore Dali, dabbling in the "new" art of filmmaking (Cooper, ii). Despite great advances made in the field of technological expertise and film technique, short films of today still suffer from the same limitation that their predecessors had: time. For a single narrative to be compressed within 15 minutes, the director and scriptwriter have to be sure that every single object within the mise-en-scéne is of absolute relevance, thus maximising the use of screen-time (also known as "story-time", or histoire).
An excellent film will always use editing and filming techniques that display a broader picture than just the subject at hand (setting is crucial to building up the knowledge of a time/place)
In some of the big scenes of this film, the videography made me motion sick. The camera would switch back and forth between characters at an uncomfortable speed; it felt like I was watching a Ping-Pong match between two people; the thing about those scenes is that I felt a part of the action. With that being said, there were many times when I believe the videographer would have been better off zooming out so the viewers could get an understanding of the whole scene.
With the discovery of techniques such as continuous editing, multiple camera angles, montage editing, and more, silent filmmaking developed from simple minute-long films to some of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring films that have ever been created—in only a few decades. In Visions of Light, someone alluded that if the invention of sound had come along a mere ten years later, visual storytelling would be years ahead of what it is today. This statement rings true. When looking at the immense amount of progress that was made during the silent era of films, one must consider where the art of film has been, where it is, and where it is
In this chapter, the narrator introduces Soaphead Church as someone who proclaims to be a misanthrope. Soaphead is a failed preacher, but declares himself a “leader, adviser, and interpreter of dreams.” This character is brought into the novel based in a confusing way because he is someone who is a misanthrope, directs sexual desires towards children, and purposely deceives Pecola into killing a dog. In this chapter, the character has a particular background history that plays a part in the themes of the novel. Soaphead Church is portrayed as a cinnamon-eyed West Indian man with light brown skin color.
Marijuana has a Medical use, which people with certain health problems can benefit from if Marijuana is legalize. Marijuana can be used as a medicin...
Youth Work Magazine. Defining God's Heart of Justice. 26 Nov. 2013. 5 Dec. 2013 .