Square in a Circle?

Travis, the protagonist of Taxi Driver, is just trying to live in the world like everyone else. Just like everyone else he has his own idea of how the world should be. After serving in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, Travis returns to New York City. However the city he returns to is not the city that he had left. The landscape and demographic is unrecognizable to him. This is visually noticeable during the opening scene of the film. As the taxi is driving around, the images outside the windows are blurred and indistinguishable.

Travis struggles to understand the way of life in the city but continually fails in various situations. The first time occurs during a visit to an adult movie theater. Travis attempts to casually speak to the cashier, and she threatens to call the manager. By treating her as a person instead of just a cashier he has broken one of the unwritten rules of this society. People are no longer treated as people but are treated according to their occupation. The most blatantly obvious incident is when Travis takes Betsy out on a date to an adult movie theater. He claims that a lot of couples go to movies like this; therefore he thinks it is appropriate as a dating activity. The couples he witnesses going into these theaters are not all heterosexual, and those that are heterosexual are not healthy functioning couples.

After struggling to fit into this strange society, Travis is eventually told flat out that he is a square. He cannot fit into society and does not have a purpose being a part of it. His purpose according to a fellow taxi driver is his job. Although he is currently employed as a taxi driver, his original occupation was a soldier. As a soldier his purpose is to kill enemies of the state. This is all he has known during his time in the Marine Corps. To fulfill this purpose, he ends up killing a pimp, the pimp’s boss, and the time keeper of the room used for prostitution. These are the enemies of his ideal state and world.

Taxi Driver illustrates the struggles that soldiers returning from war may encounter as they attempt to reintegrate into society. Although it follows Travis, other characters such as Iris illustrate how difficult it is for people to find their way in society. People must either give up and take part in a society that exploits them or be alone and disgusted by this society.

The Temptress

Bree Daniels of Alan J. Pakula’s Klute is a call girl more out of necessity than out of choice. She has made attempts to leave this way of life behind and become a model. However, she is unsuccessful in her endeavors. Is her failure due to her own lack of determination or willpower? Or has her old way of life become a prison instead of a life?

Throughout the film Pakula suggests that Bree lacks the ability to change her life. Although she has tried, she always reverts back to being a call girl. This could be due to the fact that she is no longer pure enough to resist the temptation of being a call girl. She is not evil or amoral, but the city has corrupted her in some way. This is confirmed after her first sexual encounter with Klute when she states that everyone loses their virtue at some point. The impure and imperfect quality of her life is illustrated during the scenes at the nightclub. Pakula uses the presence of homosexuals, pimps, prostitutes, and narcotics to cement this idea.

The possibility that this way of life has become a prison for Bree is conveyed through the misé-en-scene and cinematography as seen in shots such as the following.

 

The first shot seems to be very tight and just manages to fit all of Bree. The shot is also taken very close to the bars of the bedframe, which exaggerates this idea that Bree is trapped. The second shot uses the narrowness of the stairway to illustrate the limited amount of freedom Bree has to make her own way.

The only way Bree is able to get away from her life as a call girl and make a change is with the help of Klute. Although he may have lost his virtue according to Bree, he is still pure enough to resist the temptation of her old lifestyle and guide her from it. However, Bree claims that she may return to the city and in doing so probably return to her old way of life. Only time with tell if she is truly liberated from her dark past.

Kiss Me Lightly

The main mystery in Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly is the contents of the black box. It must be something extremely important, dangerous, or valuable because multiple characters meet their untimely end in order to keep it a secret. When Mike Hammer first finds the box, he states that it is hot and gets a burn on his arm from touching it.

As he attempts to peek inside the box, a blinding light is the only thing visible to the audience. The contents of the box have not been divulged at this point. When Lieutenant Pat Murphy mentions the words Manhattan Project to Mike, it is revealed that the contents of the box pertain to the nuclear bomb. Although the mystery of the box has been solved, it symbolic importance must still be discussed.

When Doctor G.E. Soberin speaks about the box, he refers to Medusa from Greek mythology. He claims that her head is what is inside the box. Even though he is referring to Greek mythology, this introduces the idea of religious symbolism. The box could represent God’s knowledge. Since no human being has the capability to fully understand God, it had to be locked away.

In the scene shown above, Carver is killed after she opens the box. Being mere reflections of God, humans cannot possibly grasp God’s omniscience. Also keeping in mind the Greek mythology mentioned by Dr Soberin, this image references the story of Icarus. Icarus flew too close to the Sun during his flight and was killed because his wings were burnt. This scene also brings up the concept of lumen versus lux. Lumen is the divine light of the universe, and lux is its reflection on Earth. This easily ties in with the idea of God and humans being made in God’s image. Just as lux is lumen’s reflection on Earth, human beings are the reflection of God’s image on Earth.

People must remember that in the end everyone is mortal. Warnings and myths were created to keep us safe and ignoring them can have fatal consequences

Sprechen Sie Niederländisch?

Reed masterly uses different cinematographic techniques to make how the audience sees the film just as important as what they see. In the beginning of the film, Martin is looking for Harry’s apartment. When he is outside Harry’s building, Reed makes use of the full shot to illustrate how small and powerless Martin is in this new environment. As the film progresses, Reed uses full shots for other purposes such as juxtapositions between old and new Vienne as seen in the shot below.

           

Reed makes very good use of close ups as well. Most of the close-up shots of Martin occur when he is in tight areas or when he seems to be feeling trapped.

 

Not only is he trapped due to his lack of knowledge of how things work in this foreign land, he is also literally trapped within the frame of the camera. This really emphasizes how much of a predicament he finds himself especially once he learns the truth about Harry. Reed also ingeniously uses a close-up shot of Harry as he is dying on the steps after being shot.

 

At this point Harry has run out of places to hide not only from the police but from the camera as well. Unlike the scene where the audience catches their first glimpse of a living, breathing Harry hiding in the dark, out of sight from the camera, he is trapped by the camera and by death.

One of the most notable techniques that Reed uses in The Third Man is the Dutch angle. It seems as if there are more Dutch angles in the film than there are regular shots. Reed uses the Dutch angle to signify that something is abnormal about certain characters or situations. In the following shot of Harry, Reed uses a Dutch angle which signifies that Harry is a crooked character.

He is a criminal who does not care about how his actions affect other people as long as he can make a quick buck. Based on the company he keeps and the way he acts towards Martin, he may be homosexual. This is another reason why Reed uses a Dutch angle to portray Harry. He is not just off morally, but his sexual orientation is not straight hence the not straight angle used to portray him.

A Crooked Character

Considering the time period during which Laura was made, it is surprising how many scenes in the film have a homosexual undertone. One of the most obvious scenes in which the audience is presented with this is the opening scene where Mark meets Waldo. In this scene Mark is just beginning his investigation of the murder of Laura by questioning Waldo. Although he is bathing, Waldo allows Mark to come in and question him.  Not only is Waldo bathing in front of Mark, he then proceeds to gets out of the tub in front of Mark.  This does not seem like something that most men from the 1940’s would have been comfortable with.

There are other hints throughout the film which suggest that Waldo is homosexual. One of them is Waldo’s art collection. When directors wanted to signify that a male character was not heterosexual, they tended to portray them as art collectors. Waldo’s art collection is seen in his apartment and brought up again when he requests back the décor he lent to Laura. One of these items was a vase, and the other was a grandfather clock which was part of a pair.

Another hint that Waldo is not a typical American man is his cane. Whenever Waldo goes somewhere public he always has his cane as if to signify that he is lacking in some way or flawed. This flaw being that he is not heterosexual.Towards the end of the film, there is another obvious hint that Waldo is not heterosexual. As he is speaking to Laura about Mark, he describes Mark as handsome and muscular. Men living during this time period would not have viewed other men in this way and definitely would not have openly stated it to others.

By the end of the film it is revealed that Waldo was the one who tried to kill Laura. In many film noirs homosexuals are often portrayed as villains. However, if they are not the villain, then they are presented as an obstacle that delays the protagonist in their quest. Sadly this has created a very negative public opinion of homosexuals which is still afflicting them in society to this day.

The grass is greener on the other side

Hitchcock creatively uses lighting to illustrate Charlie’s knowledge of her Uncle Charlie throughout Shadow of a Doubt. In the beginning of the film, scenes tend to have more light which symbolizes the blissful ignorance she has toward her Uncle Charlie. She seems to worship him and thinks that he can fix everything that is wrong with her family. This changes when she goes on her date with Jack which occurs at night. This is the first night time scene so it may signify that she has been kept in the dark about her uncle until this point. This is when she begins to doubt her uncle and decides to figure out what he is hiding. After digging through his trash to try and find the article that he has been trying to keep hidden from her, she makes a run to the library. On her way to the library she almost gets hit by a car which shows that the truth about her uncle may kill her. When she first arrives at the library, it is closing and dark which reflects how Charlie

has been closed off to any negative thoughts about her uncle and has kept herself in the dark. After the librarian lets her in, Charlie goes straight to the newspapers to search for the article. As she is searching for the article, the lights in the library come on.

The illuminating of the library happens simultaneously as Charlie is able to shed light on her uncle’s past. Although the beginning scenes of Charlie are well lit to signify her innocence, the meaning of light changes throughout the course of the film. These two shots demonstrate how Hitchcock used light to represent knowledge and truth as the story progressed and darkness to represent naivety.

Almost Like Shakespeare

I have learned that tend to choose topics that deal with grief, trauma, or something sad.  Every time I chose an open topic for a paper, I ended up writing the paper about one of these ideas or themes.  I didn’t notice it until the semester came to a close.  I wondered why I kept picking these sad topics, and I realized that it could be for a number of reasons.  The top two reasons being that , I feel that there is more to talk about with these sad topics than with happy topics. You can analyze things much more and it causes you to think more because there are so many things that cause sadness.  There are also so many things that create happiness but these things could be very simple and just not as interesting in my opinion.  It is easy to get through life being happy, but it very hard to deal with sadness and overcome it.  By overcoming our sadness, we are able to eventually be happy.  The other reason i ended up writing about these things is most likely because of the bad things that have happened in my life.  I have had more contact with sadness than happiness so I feel like I can talk a lot more about sadness.  Also it feels very therapeutic to write about sad topics because I can get my ideas about a certain topic out of my head.
My favorite paper to write was the research paper because I got the chance to talk about movies and analyze them.  I really enjoy doing this but can never do it outside of my free time or do it with other people for fun.  I feel like my writing has gotten better grammatically as long as I proof read my papers. When I don’t proofread, it messes everything up.  I also feel like I have gotten better at analyzing passages and clips from films.  I still need work on not waiting till the last minute to write most of my papers.  I also need to proofread way more.  That is my main weakness.

Raising Victor Vargas

Raising Victor Vargas was a really good movie.  When I was watching it, I was thinking about how Victor reminded me a lot about of guys that I would see in the park and on the block in my old neighborhood.  They would always just try and go after any girl that they thought was attractive and really didn’t respect them.  They didn’t see beyond the physical appearance of the girls and it would just burn me up.  As the movie progressed, I started to see that my first impression of Victor was not completely accurate.  I mean he did only care about having a hot girlfriend, but he was actually faithful to her.  This was not something I would have expected because he was initially with her to cover up for the fact that he had been caught with fat Donna.  Then he found out that she was just using him to keep away other guys.  I think this was when Victor started to change from the typical teenage boy you would see in that type of environment.  The next dramatic event that caused Victor to start changing was when his grandmother attempted to throw him out.  He finally started to realize that he needed to get his act together because she was serious about not wanting him.  This reminded me a lot about incidents that have happened in my family.  The conflict between victor and his grandmother reminded me a lot of my mother and brother.  The thing with Victor is that he has the capacity to do good and be a good grandson.  He just needed his grandmother to be more understanding about how he is.  He may not be as determined and focused as his little brother, but he does love him.  He tried to just give him some advice on how to deal with girls, but their grandmother misunderstood this.  She instantly thought that victor was being a bad influence on his little brother.  This is a perfect example of when she needed to be more understanding.  By the end of the movie she starts to be more understanding and the family is seen as slowly getting closer together.  This is seen when victor unlocks the phone and then his sister starts to use it.  In the beginning of the movie, he did not get along with his sister at all.  By the end, he does her the favor of unlocking the phone.  Overall I feel like Raising Victor Vargas is a really good movie and has a lot to teach people about understanding each other.

Research

For the topic that I have chosen, I don’t think that gathering research will be that hard.  I feel like the hardest part of writing my research paper will be having a good thesis statement.  It will be hard to make an arguable thesis statement on the theme of loss in film.  Analyzing the films that I will use as evidence will not be hard because I feel that analyzing films and stories is one of my strengths.  Incorporating the films as evidence won’t be too hard either because I have had experience with research papers before.  I am just primarily concerned with the thesis statement.  I am not concerned about how much information I will be able to find on the theme of loss because I am pretty sure that there is plenty of information on the theme of loss.  As long as I ask the right questions, I will be able to find plenty of information.  I am just going to have to do a lot of work on my thesis statement.  Making it arguable will definitely be the hardest part. I feel like I may end up making a thesis that will just state something that is generally known about the theme of loss.  Most of my time in the beginning of my research paper is going to be used in the development of a good strong thesis.  Once I have a good strong thesis, proving my opinion will be easy to do.  Besides the thesis statement the only other roadblock that I can foresee is picking a quality third movie to incorporate into my paper.  I have already thought of two great movies, but I am a little stuck on picking a third one that will be able to help my argument.  This probably won’t be too hard though once I get my thesis statement  done.

Rear Windows

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Windows was an interesting movie.  It reminded me of two movies that were made after it.  The two movies that it reminded me about were The Bone Collector and Disturbia.  It resembled The Bone Collector because the main character was stuck in a wheelchair and trying to solve a murder.  In The Bone Collector the main character was stuck in a hospital bed in his apartment and assisted the police in finding a murderer.  Then at the end of the movie, the murderer went to his apartment and attempted to kill him.  This was exactly like the end of Rear Windows.  It resembled Disturbia because the main character was stuck in his home and watched his neighbors to pass the time.  Then he discovered that one of his neighbors was a murderer and had to prove it.  This was similar to Rear Windows but the main character in Disturbia  was not handicapped or in any way.  He had just been under house arrest.
It was a nice experience to watch Rear Windows  with the residents of Serviam  Gardens.  The resident that my group ended up speaking to stated that she enjoyed the movie.  She felt that it kept her on the edge of her seat and that it had a lot of different aspects to it which is what made it such a good movie.  She felt that it had aspects of a love story because of the fact that the main character’s girlfriend kept trying to be with him even when he felt that she was too good for him.  I did not like the way he had been treating his girlfriend in the beginning of the movie.  He kept trying to push her away because he felt that she was too good for him, but it seemed like he was being too mean in the process.  Also I just feel that it is stupid to push away someone that you think is too good for you rather then keep them and be grateful.  She also felt that it had aspects of a detective story because he had kept investigating on his neighbor. She told my group that she hopes we will go back with more movies similar to Rear Windows.