Review: Jaws

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (Amazon)

• Primary Language: English
• Format: Colour
• Year of Release: 1975
• Budget: est. $8,000,000
• Film Length: 124 minutes
• Production Company: Zanuck/Brown Productions, Universal Pictures

    One of Steven Spielberg’s most famous films, Jaws, like Metropolis in 1929 was a film known for codifying the summer blockbuster film.  Based on a novel of the same name and set on the fictional summer island of Amity, the story revolves around the sudden and rather disastrous appearance of a great white shark that threatens the island’s coastline in the weeks before the 4^th of July, which for the summer resort is one of their busiest times of the year.  It is up to police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) to protect the beach and the town and ultimately get rid of the creature menacing its coastline.

Despite the larger-than-normal great white that serves as the star, this film does not strike fear by exaggeration or Hollywood embelishment. The dread – brought by the shark’s menacing presence and the science we are given by oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) – remains largely grounded in reality. Hooper’s role largely “introduces the technical material about sharks in a way that reinforces our elemental fear of them.” (Ebert, 1975) the stuff we are given is not made up for the purpose of striking fear and the intimidation. To prominent examples include Hooper realising that the bide marks left on the body of the first victim that suggested the mouth of their problem was far larger than the mouth of a tiger shark could by the townspeople, and further on a tactic used to slow down and drown a shark such as a great white (air-filled barrels lashed to a harpoon) simply give it a physical presence and demonstrate how freakishly strong this beast is. The icing on the cake would be Hooper’s summary of the shark’s nature: “All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all.” His summary makes this thing all the more terrifying as he essentially tells us that all this thing exists to do is eat and make babies, the idea that there could be more monsters like Jaws – no matter how mundane he is – lurking out in the ocean would definitely make some moviegoers think twice about swimming.

Figure 2: Add a secret shark and these barrels become terrifying signs of a horror approaching. (GoneMovies)

Created in the age before computer graphics became all the rage, the titular shark has a charm about it. Due to mechanical troubles, Spielberg took the route of “less is more” to show the shark and inspire dread as he “expertly conceals the monster, bringing him into frame sparingly to create impact jolts.” (Reynolds, 2012) That I still remember long after watching the film. In fact the mechanical shark barely has any screen-time, which it shares with a (likely smaller) shark that is used in primarily passing shots, and even that the face of the creature is used sparingly. The result is we’re not completely thrown off by whether or not the shark is fake or not because most of the time either we don’t see it or we see a real shark cleverly shot to look like Jaws himself. 

Like every monster movie one of the crucial things are the performances of the human characters, and much of the discussion in the film is whether to prioritise the safety of the island and the tourists, or the island’s economy and open the shark-haunted beaches. Defying the tropes of the disaster branch of the genre it created , the three key characters are not heads of their field or randomly possessing some key quality, instead “ you've got these three ordinary guys - a drunk, a nerd and essentially this middle-aged dad who is afraid of the water - who rise up to the challenge. The fact they're so ordinary just makes what they do all the more remarkable.” (Lucy, 2014) And unlike films such as 2012, Deep Impact, Thor, The Day After Tomorrow or even the 2014 Godzilla film, we have a leading protagonist (Martin in this case) who  has no skill or job that puts him at a convenient advantage (he’s a police chief yes, but most of his job takes place on land) over everyone else. Quite the opposite as the film spends part of its time showing him cluing himself up as to what he’s facing despite Amity bringing in a professional oceanographer, and what is even more engrossing and genre-shifting is that his research was clearly not helping him much. We are told he is afraid of the water and coming across a picture of a shark trying to eat a boat in a storm can’t be good for his self-confidence.

Figure 3: What sets Martin Brody apart from the "struggling dad" archetype in many disaster films is that he has no convenient speciality, which makes the determination of his involvement that much more heroic. (brathwaite, 2012)

    It was something of a wise decision to tie Quint (Robert Shaw) with  the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis during World War II, a real event with real consequences. The decision certainly enhances things as “the effect — it enriches Quint's character and the whole shark hunt in a heartbeat — is undeniable” (Empire) It quickly explains Quint’s hatred and obsession with sharks and uses emotion to justify his mentality, going as far as to affirm that sharks look almost undead as they attack. He could have had a more general story, a fishing captain who lost men in a shark attack, but instead Spielberg’s team tied it with an American tragedy that saw many men lose their lives to sharks and fatigue. The result is a convincing character with a borderline-irrational obsession with sharks that, as it turns out, came from enduring several days of hell. It’s hard to imagine someone who went through what he did and not be affected somehow.

Figure 4: By including Quint into the survivors of the Indianapolis, and with World War II ending only 30 yearsbefore the film's release, the film drove home how relatable and nightmarish his siutation was. (Butler, 2007)

    Toning down the elaboration, Spielberg has created what could be described as a “domestic disaster” film. The world’s not ending, not everyone is going to die, but the fact these people are having their lives changed perhaps irrevocably not only grounds the film’s believability, but also makes it viewable and capable of affecting a wide audience – with sharks being common on many coastlines and a danger to all beach communities, yes, you would likely not go into the water after seeing this.

Bibliography

• Ebert, R., 1975; Jaws; Roger Ebert.com; available at http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jaws-1975 (last accessed 12th April 2015)
• Unknown, Analysing Quint’s USS Indianapolis Speech; Empire Magazine; available at http://www.empireonline.com/features/quint-uss-indianapolis-speech/ (last accessed 12^th April 2015)
• Lucy, J., 2014; Jaws: The Classic; At the Movies with Margaret and David; available at http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s4026189.htm (last accessed 12th April 2015)
• Reynolds, S., 2012; ‘Jaws’ Review: Steven Spielberg’s Shark Classic Returns to UK Cinemas; Cinema Spy; available at http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/review/a387349/jaws-review-steven-spielbergs-shark-classic-returns-to-uk-cinemas.html#~p9FOcPhUfgZHv5 (last accessed 12^th April 2015)

Imag References

• Figure 1: Amazon, [theatrical poster]; 71CTreJGV5L SL150; available at http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71CTreJGV5L._SL1500_.jpg (last accessed 12th April 2015)
• Figure 2: GoneMovies; [Add a secret shark and these barrels become terrifying signs of a horror approaching.]; Jaws 39; available at http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/Pictures/Pictures/Jaws39.jpg (last accessed 12th April 2015)
  
• Figure 3: Braithwaite, M., 2012; [What sets Martin Brody apart from the "struggling dad" archetype in many disaster films is that he has no convenient speciality, which makes the determination of his involvement that much more heroic.]; Jaws; available at http://stylealchemy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/jaws.jpg (last accessed 12th April 2015)
• Figure 4: Butler, S., 2007; [By including Quint into the survivors of the Indianapolis, and with World War II ending only 30 yearsbefore the film's release, the film drove home how relatable and nightmarish his siutation was]; USS Indianapolis- Survivors on deck of the USS Bassett 2; available at http://m5.i.pbase.com/g4/80/287380/2/63845525.Ck0JQ4Xx.jpg (last accessed 12th April 2015)

Review: Reservoir Dogs

Figure 1: Film Poster (Movie Poster Shop)

• Native Title: Reservoir Dogs
• Primary Language: English
• Format: Colour
• Year of Release: 1992
• Budget: est. $1,200,000
• Film Length: 99 minutes
• Production Company: Live Entertainment, Dog Eat Dog Productions

    A film by then-unknown director Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs is the story of a Los Angeles diamond heist gone bad. But instead of a typical progression of a heist, the event is pieced together from the fragments we learn as everyone tries to work out what went wrong, how, and what to do next as the LAPD searches high and low for them.

     While many films explain what happened prior to the present through either flashbacks or exposition, "the film fills in vital information via an assortment of flashbacks. This is an ambitious structure, but Tarantino pulls it off with panache" (Billson, 2015) and there is only one real moment of background exposition that is not backed up by a flashback. The storytelling as a result is fluid, with information coming out as needed but not being a complete infodump when it comes, such as the introductions of how each character in the warehouse was recruited including humour as well as serious business. These flashbacks don't feel like information being forced onto us, but instead feel like stories within a story that make up a rich and well-developed environment without too much worldbuilding.

Figure 2: Actually giving us the image of four county sheriffs in a public toilet makes the whole thing
that much more enjoyable. (Page, 2013)

    The film's language can be something of a guilty pleasure "What makes these characters seem so tantalizingly alive and true? Perhaps it’s simply this: In a civilized world, where people have to watch their tongues on the job, in the classroom, even, perhaps, when speaking to their loved ones, there’s something primal and liberating about characters who can let it all hang out, whose ids come bursting forth in white-hot chunks of verbal shrapnel." (Gleiberman, 1992) In real life, casual conversation - especially when things are tense - is not always something out of Pride and Prejudice or a Shakespearean play and Tarantino, although possibly exaggerating it under the image of macho (each of the characters save for Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) is old enough to have either grown up or lived their prime in the age of testosterone-fueled 1980s action movies), does well to evoke that young highly strung urban men are loud, confident and sometimes aggressive. But it sells the dialogue-filled film as there is plenty going on to keep you awake.

    People Magazine however, disagree with this idea but in doing so they bring up the other side of the dialogue's richness. "[Tarantino] seems to think, for instance, that your average armed robber-murderer spends his off-duty hours sitting around philosophizing about tipping waitresses, engaging in pompous textual analysis of Madonna songs and playing movie trivia games." (Novak, Gliatto, Kaufman, 1992) Tarantino is on the right track - robber-murderers are people as well. They're lawbreakers sure but why should that prohibit them from talking about movie trivia or expressing their opinions? Tarantino in fact explores his characters and though casual conversation we stop seeing them as dyed-in-the-wool criminals and see them as people we might know, maybe even people we'd hate to see die.

    But it's not just through the dialogue, that the film solidifies its cast members to be hot-blooded and impatient. "Strong violence is Tarantino's passion, and he embraces it with gleeful, almost religious, fervor." (Turan, 1992) there is blood, lots of blood and Mr. Orange appears to spill the most of it as by the end of the film he completely ruined the back seat of a car and ended up red-shirted and surrounded in a pool of his own blood at least a metre and a half in radius. But the most significant scene has to be when Mr. Blonde cuts off the ear off an LAPD officer to the tune of Stuck In The Middle With You with no reason given other than because he was bored. When there are gunfights, either it's one bullet, or what suspiciously feels like more than a single magazine for a 9mm pistol.

Figure 3: If I could sum up the film's atmosphere in one image, it would be this.

    The other intriguing thing to note is that as well as Reservoir Dogs' dialogue being full of enough curses and prejudiced comments to warrant millions of angry letters, it's also smart. The heist members are shown as "The type of crowd that follows the question of "Did you kill anybody?" with a perfectly natural "Any real people or just cops?"" (Turan, 1992) with the other great line in my book by Mr. Pink being "If you ----- beat this ---- long enough, he'll tell you he started the ----- Chicago fire, now that don't necessarily make it ------ so!" as despite their aggression and the comic tone of the film, they know torturing a policeman will get them either nothing or a lie (something that is shown to work in shows like 24). And rather handily establishes that Mr. Blonde is a sociopath as there was no other reason for causing pain to and waterboarding (with petrol no less) said cop other than entertainment value.

Figure 4: Very few interrogations start with the interrogator dancing towards you with a deadly weapon. Solid evidence that
finding out what you know isn't one of their priorities. (Gerasimov, 2015)

    I would rank this film as a guilty pleasure. It's crude, it's brutal, but it revels in its silliness and it's ability to convey very memorable characters from the "We're professionals!" of Mr. Pink to the "allcaps who cares about your ear I'm bleeding all over the floor!" of Mr. Orange. The ending was tense and satisfying and reminiscent of a Greek tragedy where everyone we meet either dies or may as well be dead. Macabre as it sounds, the last bullet of the film feels like an impact to the viewer's heart.

Bibliography

• Billson, A., 2014; 'Reservoir Dogs' review: Raw and Exiting; The Telegraph; available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11311308/Reservoir-Dogs-review-raw-and-exciting.html (last accessed 22nd March 2015)
• Gleiberman, O., 1992; Reservoir Dogs; Entertainment Weekly; available at http://www.ew.com/article/1992/10/30/reservoir-dogs (last accessed 22nd March 2015)
• Novak, R., Gliatto, T., Kaufman, J., 1992; Picks And Pans Review: Reservoir Dogs; People; http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20109017,00.html (last accessed 22nd March 2015)
• Turan, K., 1992; Movie review: Reservoir Dogs Is A Brash Comic Opera of Violence: San Diego County; Los Angeles Times; available at http://articles.latimes.com/1992-10-30/entertainment/ca-760_1_reservoir-dogs (last accessed 22nd March 2015)

Image References

• Figure 1: Movie Poster Shop, date unknown; [Film Poster]; Reservoir Dogs Movie Poster 1992; available at http://images.moviepostershop.com/reservoir-dogs-movie-poster-1992-1020470548.jpg (last accessed 22nd March 2015)
• Figure 2: Page C., 2013; [Actually giving us the image of four county sheriffs in a public toilet makes the whole thingthat much more enjoyable; Screenshot 2013-02-01; available at http://writerwithashotgun.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Screen-shot-2013-02-01-at-12.42.11-AM.png
• Figure 3: Hunter, 2013; [If I could sum up the film's atmosphere in one image, it would be this]; Mr Orange Lying In A Pool Of His Own Blood And Still Totally Winning; available at https://thesouloftheplot.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/mrorangelyinginapoolofhisownbloodandstilltotallywinning_reservoirdogs.jpg (last accessed 22nd March 2015)
• Figure 4: Gerasimov, A., 2015; [Very few interrogations start with the interrogator dancing towards you with a deadly weapon. Solid evidence that finding out what you know isn't one of their priorities]; Mr Blonde Dancing Scene/Ear Scene [HD]; available at http://ell.akamai.coub.com/get/b33/p/coub/simple/cw_timeline_pic/35d1fcbca73/5a855ab982ab41ccdfd76/med_1420290244_image.jpg (last accessed 22n March 2015)

Review: Jurassic Park

Figure 1: Theatrical teaser poster
(Outlaw, 2014)

• Native Title: Jurassic Park
• Primary Language: English
• Format: Colour
• Year of Release: 1993
• Budget: est. $63,000,000
• Film Length: 127 minutes
• Production Company: Universal Pictures

    Considered one of Spielberg's landmark creations alongside Jaws and E.T., Jurassic Park is a spectacle action film based on a novel of the same name. Set on the mysterious island of "Isla Nubar"off the coast of Central America, wealthy businessman John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) invites two palaentologists, a scientist and a representative of the park's investors to prove the park is safe and almost ready to open. However the desires of a rival company and the questionable behavior of Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) as he escapes with a vital sample of dinosaur embryos, causes the park's systems to fall into disarray, ultimately setting numerous dangerous dinosaurs loose within the park.

Figure 2: For a guy who has no problem compressing the unpredictability
of life and consequence into an equation he certainly spent a lot of time in the
 "has science gone too far?" camp. (Crea, 2014)

    One of the first questions posed in this film, and an overarching one at that, is voiced by Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum), saying that he "recognizes that nature resists artificial control, and that knowledge without discipline (the thrust of Crichton's novel) equals disaster" (Shannon, 1993). In other words, there is a message of "We have the ability to toy with genetics and play God. Does that mean we should?" What is interesting about this statement is that the 1990s were the era of the human genome project; an attempt to map out and decode every nanometre of human DNA. Thus, the 1990s were an era when the ramifications of genetic engineering was starting to become a very serious matter. However a part of me does not like Malcom for said opinion as within a boardroom he rants about how Hammond didn't earn the knowledge to create dinosaurs for himself and instead used the discoveries of other people to create his work. People of which, however, Hammond most likely hired in order to understand how to do what he actually wanted. They may have been confident that they could control the dinosaur populations, perhaps a little too confident (which as it turns out, as these kinds of movies go, he was right) but as it turns out, Malcom's concerns for "nature finding a a way" were a combination of Nedry putting profit before caution and the scientists being sloppy.

   The dinosaurs themselves were nothing less than a spectacular blend of computer generated imagery and high-spec animatronics. "“Jurassic Park” marked the moment when Hollywood could create a perfectly convincing dinosaur. No more stop-motion theatrics or other tinny effects. Spielberg makes that movie magic count, delivering scene after scene of “can you top this” theatrics?" (Toto, 2015) and for a while, yes, it was indeed hard to top. There was indeed a lot of work that went into giving the dinosaurs character from the curious sniffing of a brachiosour to the irritated sneer of one of the velociraptors and the playful, curiosity of the dilophosaurus that Nedry wrongfully assumed was too dumb to chase after a stick like a dog. Some of them, like the dilophosaurus and a Triceratops only appeared for a few minutes and then never seen again, but each one has such personality to them it's hard to forget them even when the film is over.

Figure 3: The admittedly rather adorable dino that ruined Nedry's day. ("Claw", 2013)

    As with Jaws, a lot of the dinosaur activity is either only hinted at or shown suggestively. ""Jurassic Park" keeps its viewers on edge while leaving much of its real violence to the imagination" (Maslin, 1993). While the most common examples of this action would be the T-Rex chomping the goat or the only sight of velociraptors feeding on a cow being the vigorous rustling of shrubbery and a destroyed cradle rising up (with no remains), one of my favourite instances of this is after a first encounter with the raptors, where Dr. Ellie Sattler traps one of them within a bunker, insists it's contained "unless they know how to open doors". Cue a hard cut to the sight of a door handle slowly being turned from the other side. In fact the very first kill we see (in the first three minutes of the film no less) is done this way as we see a guy get dragged into a reinforced steel cage with bars so thick it's impossible to see what's inside, but the way the poor man is dragged and yanked about is very reminiscent of Jaws' first victim, giving a strong visual insight into the raw power possessed by the beast inside.

Figure 4: We never actually see the dino inside, but the film does well in telling us "It's big, strong, and mean"
(Ammonites, 2013)

    When you look past the questions of the dangers of unrestrained science and trying to control nature (most of the crisis can be blamed on Dennis Nedry putting money before his job responsibilities), Jurassic Park is a landmark film in it's visual and audio spectacle; it's capacity for suspense and the quality of the CGI even after 22 years, the film is a marvel of cinema. Thanks to the talent of Spielberg's production team, spectacle and performance of the dinosaurs make each of them characters as distinct and identifiable as some of Hollywood's most prolific heroes and villains.

Bibliography

• Gliatto, T., Kaufman, J., Novak, R., 1993; Picks And Pans Review: Jurassic Park; People; available at http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20110643,00.html (last accessed 9th March 2015)
• Maslin, J., 1993; Movie Review - Jurassic Park (1993); The New York Times; available at http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F0CE1D71E3DF932A25755C0A965958260 (last accessed 9th March 2015)
• Shannon, J., 1993; Monster Movie -- 'Jurassic Park' Is A Thrill A Minute, But The Story Gets Lost Among The Special Effects; The Seattle Times; available at http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930610&slug=1705760 (last accessed 9th March 2015)
  
• Toto, C., 2015; HiT Rewind: 'Jurassic Park' (1993); Hollywood In Toto; available at http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/hit-rewind-jurassic-park-1993/ (last accessed 9th March 2015)

 Image References

• Figure 1: Outlaw, K., 2014; [Theatrical teaser poster]; Jurassic Park Teaser Poster; http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Jurassic-Park-Teaser-Poster.jpg (last accessed 9th March 2015)
• Figure 2: Crea, Q., 2011; [For a guy who has no problem compressing the unpredictability of life and consequence into an equation he certainly spent a lot of time in the "has science gone too far?" camp]; Jeff Goldblum; available at http://cdn2.colocationamerica.com/images/jeff-goldblum.jpg (last accessed 9th March 2014)
• Figure 3: "Sickle Claw" (real name unknown), 2013; [The admittedly rather adorable dino that ruined Nedry's day]; Curious; available at http://www.jplegacy.org/jpencyclopedia/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Curious.png (last accessed 9th March 2015)
• Figure 4: Ammonites (name unknown), 2011; [We never actually see what's inside, but the film does well in telling us "It's big, strong and mean"]; Raptors; available at http://www.jplegacy.org/jpencyclopedia/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/raptors.jpg (last accessed 9th March 2015)

Review: The Birds

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (Angela, 2012)

• Native Title: Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds
• Primary Language: English
• Format: Technicolour
• Year of Release: 1963
• Budget: est. $2,500,000
• Film Length: 119 minutes
• Production Company: Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions

    Another of Hitchcock's signature films The Birds is a horror-thriller that plays on connotation, symbolism and is one of the most recognisable films for it's use of the MacGuffin - In this film an attack on Bodega Bay, California by birds of all kinds.

    The film starts off in downtown San Francisco where Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) encounters Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a pet shop. The two of them banter before Mitch drops the illusion where he thought Melanie was the store clerk but this is our first MacGuffin is introduced: The lovebirds. Although they are not in shot until the next day  they act as the catalyst that takes Melanie to the small fishing village of Bodega Bay 60 miles outside San Francisco.

    Melanie is introduced as a headstrong and rebellious character with a huge streak for deception: When fist in the pet shop she plays the game that she works there until Mitch calls her out and after he leaves the shop she notes down his license plate, calls a contact at her father's newspaper to find out who on the state DMV registrar owns the plate then pretends to half-remember Mitch's apartment number at the apartment block's reception desk. At every point from the apartment to Bodega Bay's post office, fishing wharf and even when speaking with, Annie Hayworth (The teacher of Mitch's younger sister Cathy) she pretends to be someone she isn't while still gaining information and, apparently, not rousing suspicion from the townsfolk.

Figure 2: Is this woman hysterically shouting at Melanie? Hitchcock?...or the audience?
(MovieClips, 2011)

    Not long after the lovebirds are delivered (by way of sneaking into Mitch's house while he's tending the nearby barn, no less), the second MacGuffin comes into play in the form of a seagull that swoops down and scratches Melanie in the temple. "Why are the birds attacking?" is the question on many peoples' minds, but the film gives no factual explanation. In one scene midway a woman  hysterically accuses Melanie (the camera positioned so she looks directly at the audience) of being the cause. "The Accusation points not simply to a supernatural cause, but an authorial one, as well. If there is no scientifically plausible reason for the attack of the birds, we are nonetheless constantly reminded that there is at least a reason for Hitchcock's staging of the attack" (Goldsmith, 2012). What's more, by looking directly at the viewer her words are in some respect directed towards the audience, perhaps the woman is not only shouting at Melanie, but perhaps Hitchcock himself for making the town suffer like this (this was right after a severe attack by the birds which led to a large fire in the town centre) and maybe, at a stretch, also condemning the audience for being willing to sit though this disaster for the sake of entertainment and to enjoy another classic choreographed by their tormentor to the detriment of the well-being of these fictional characters.

    Another thing that happens several times is the camera acts either as Mealie's eyes, or as an indicator of a danger she may be oblivious to and there are several key scenes that use this to promote shock value. During her return from the inflitration of Mich' house, we see him get into his car and drive around the lake. But "we see only only what she can see from the rowboat. Suddenly, near shore, the camera picks up a sea gull swooping down on our heroine. For just a second, the point of view is shifted, and we are permitted to see the bird before its victim does" (Sarris, 1963). The latter idea is then used again in a later and more iconic scene where crows cover the school playground. Melanie doesn't see any of them, too busy waiting and occupying herself, So the crows gather gradually in the playground and then, the audience itself gets treated the same way as after a number of crows gather the camera joins Melanie in following one flying for a while before it finally lands...on a climbing frame packed with crows. This time the shock value comes from simply how many birds have gathered. The audience saw the numbers building and building to practically ludicrous levels, as well as building the dread that these things are amassing for an inevitable attack.

Figure 3: Surely when filming this Hitchcock descended into rabidly
shouting "More birds! More birds!" (MrDisgusting, 2013)

    The film's ending is famous for being so...open. The screen fades to black as the car drives away from the farmhouse which had been swarmed by birds. The entire landscape screams of a zombie apocalypse (impressive seeing as this film predates Night of the Living Dead, arguably the world's first zombie horror). But there is a jarring lack of closure: They drive away from the farmhouse but we see nothing else beyond that. The controversiality was expressed by Cagey Films' Kenneth Godwyn who recalled that back in 1963 of his classmates complained that the theatrical showing had the ending cut off. Reciting that the boy had "Seen it before and that the army had come in, using the children for bait, and killed all the birds with flamethrowers" (Godwyn, 2012). This is a rather chilling and outlandish ending suggestion and something more in-line with the imagination of a teenager than Hitchcock himself which cements the outlandishness but nevertheless demonstrates that there were those who thought the true ending wasn't enough and that it had effectively finished on a cliffhanger.

Figure 4: Car drives away, birds stare on. The end. (Godwyn, 2012)

   The abrupt ending isn't the most extreme cliffhanger in cinema. The Italian Job finished with a coach full of gold hanging halfway off a mountain cliff and Michael Caine telling his partners in crime "Alright chaps. I've got an idea". What was his solution? We never see or hear. At least in The Birds there's a glimmer that the birds may have left the car alone afterwards.

Bibliography

• Godwyn, K., 2012; Entering Other Worlds Part 2; Cagey Films; available at http://www.cageyfilms.com/2012/06/entering-other-worlds-part-2/ (last accessed 24th February 2015)
• Goldsmith, L., 2012; The Birds; Not Coming To A Theater Near You; available at http://www.notcoming.com/reviews/the-birds/ (last accessed 23rd February 2015)
• IMDb, unknown; The Birds (1963); Internet Movie Database; available at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/ (last accessed 23rd February 2015)
• The Village Voice, 2005; The Birth Of The 'Voice' 1955-1965; The Village Voice; available at http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-10-18/specials/the-birth-of-the-voice-1955-1965/5/ (last accessed 23rd February 2015)

Image References

• Figure 1: Angela, 2012; [Theatrical poster]; Full The Birds Poster; available at http://la-screenwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/936full-the-birds-poster.jpg (last accessed 24th January 2015)
• Figure 2: MovieClips, 2011; [Is this woman hysterically shouting at Melanie? Hitchcock...Or the audience?]; The Birds (film) I think you're Evil - 0:51; available at http://www.metacafe.com/watch/mv-4iSN/the_birds_film_i_think_youre_evil/ (last accessed 23rd February 2015)
• Figure 3: MrDisgusting, 2011; [Surely when filming this Hitchcock descended into rabidly shouting "More birds! More birds!"] Birds-1; available at http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3219579/omfg-kentucky-experiences-real-life-birds-terror-as-millions-flock-to-small-city/ (last accessed 23rd February 2015)
• Figure 4: Godwyn, K., 2012; [Car drives away, birds stare on. The end.]; Birds 13; available at http://www.cageyfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/birds_13.jpg (last accessed 24th February 2015)

Review: North By Northwest

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (Rennie, 2008)

• Native Title: Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest
• Primary Language: English
• Format: Technicolour
• Year of Release: 1959
• Budget: est. $3,101,000
• Film Length: 136 minutes
• Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

    A lighthearted change from works such as Psycho and Rope, North By Northwest is a humorous spy-thriller story of mistaken identity. Hapless advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for another man and after escaping a murder attempt sets out to track down his killers and bring them to justice. On the way however things get more and more complicated and dangerous after he encounters the alluring Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint). Thornhill ends up on the run from the law, wanted for dead and caught up in the spy games between the US and USSR.

Figure 2: Napping in the middle of an interrogation. Smooth
one! (Okeefe, 2014)

   While the film reflects a James Bond film with saucy underlings, a suave ladies' man as the leading role, elaborate framings and assassinations and a hideout in the vicinity of a well-known landmark. "In any event, Mr. Hitchcock, et al, take time out now and again and stop strewing red herrings and inject a funny scene here and there" (Weiler, 1959). One of the longest and most memorable being after Thornhill escapes and finds himself in a police station. The climax of which is during a talk with an interrogator where he proceeds to climb up onto the table and settle down to take a nap in front of the interrogator and three police officers while the interrogator is talking to him.

Figure 3: The "plane dusting crops where there 'aint no crops".
It takes a moment for Thornhill to realise he's in trouble
 (Powell, 2010)

   The entertainment value is not just in the silly behavior of Thornhill or the jarringly rapid pace of romantic progression (chatting up Eve and then having sex in her train carriage in the space of two hours. At least he didn't tell her he was in love in that time), the're also the rather entertaining yet life-threatening situations that Thornhill ends up in. The most iconic of which is Thornhill's brief time in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, where he nearly gets gunned down by a crop duster pilot. The genius of the scene is the suspense of the entire situation as Hitchcock "lets us in on the proverbial "bomb under the table" long before Cary Grant recognizes the danger" (Nesbit, 2014) the danger itself being a biplane "dusting crops where there ain't no crops". Even when we are given that cue, Hitchcock has us wait even more before the plane finally does something, and by that point Thornhill doesn't realise the plane's after him until it flies really low on an approach towards him.

Figure 4: It's like Roger Moore went back in time.
(Brandie, 2011)

    It is after rather hilariously escaping from an art auction surrounded by nasty-looking thugs that Thornhil quickly goes from a man with the wrong identity to an improv secret agent in order to protect the life of the woman he is smitten with. The third act includes use of blanks, fake deaths and a mountaintop lair in order to bring the man causing all the trouble to justice. "North By Northwest has influenced many suspense films, chief among them the thrill-a-minute, sensationally improbable James Bond and Indiana Jones films" (Boeder, unknown). What these two franchises and North By Northwest have in common is they play on the The thrill factor of the cloak-and-dagger element of the cold war - a conflict that despite the term was kept heated not by the artillery and massive armies of the world wars, but the deceptive acts by undercover agents of the US and USSR. Thornhill's position as an ad-man in fact makes him an ideal profile for the common notions of an American spy that was popularised by James Bond: A smooth-talking socialite with a fondness for refined drinks, sharp suits and an impeccable ability to lie and deceive. It's no wonder Phillip Vandamm's (James Mason) cronies singled him out as George Kaplan, the superspy who was hot on Vandamm's heels before the film began.

Bibliography

• Boeder, L., unknown; North By Northwest - A Witty Hitchcock Thriller; About Entertainment; available at http://classicfilm.about.com/od/mysteryandsuspense/fr/NorthByNorthwes.htm (last accessed 9th February 2015)
• Onanuga, T., 2013; Why I love...North By Northwest's Crop-Duster Scene; The Guardian; available at http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/30/north-by-northwest-grant-hitchcock (last accessed 28th January 2015)
• Nesbit, J., 2014; North By Northwest (1959); Old School Reviews; available at http://web.archive.org/web/20130604035754/http://oldschoolreviews.com/rev_50/north_northwest.htm (last accessed 28th January 2015)
• Weiler, A., 1959; North By Northwest (1959); The New York Times; available at http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9404E7D91631EE3BBC4F53DFBE668382649EDE (last accessed 28th January 2015)

Image References

• Figure 1: Rennie, P., 2008; [Theatrical Poster]; poster service north by northwest img 1.jpg; available at http://www.theguardian.com/film/gallery/2008/nov/03/poster-service-north-by-northwest#img-1 (last accessed 9th February 2015)
• Figure 2: O'Keefe, M., 2014; [Napping in the middle of an interrogation. Smooth one!]; Nbn4; available at http://decider.com/2014/08/14/my-first-time-north-by-northwest/ (last accessed 28th January 2015)
• Figure 3: Powell, E, 2010; [The "plane dusting crops where there 'aint no crops". It takes a moment for Thornhill to realise he's in trouble]; NNWDuster.jpg; Available at http://www.projectorcentral.com/images/articles/NNWduster.jpg (last accessed 9th February 2015)
• Figure 4: Brandie, 2011 [It's like Roger Moore went back in time]; nbn.jpg; available at https://trueclassics.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/nbn.jpg (last accessed 9th February 2015)

Review: Psycho

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (Henisey, 2009)

• Native Title: Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
• Primary Language: English
• Format: Black and White
• Year of Release: 1960
• Budget: est. $807,000
• Film Length: 108 minutes
• Production Company: Shamley Productions

    Considered one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest productions and the godfather of the slasher movie, Psycho is a groundbreaking film that explores the idea that there are dangers within society as much as there are beyond it. Set primarily within California, a Phoenix realitor's assistant flees Arizona with $40,000 in order to escape her old life with her boyfriend. Her journey is cut short (quite literally) however after she is brutally murdered at the Bates motel in Fairview, California. The film then revolves around friends and family trying to discover how she disappeared and what the cause was, unearthing an unpleasant secret about the Bates Motel's owner.

Figure 2: Hitchcock does well both hiding and hinting that Norman Bates is in fact one screwed-up cookie. (unknown, 2014)

    Our leading role is Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who from fairly early on we are given hints he is not entirely as friendly as he makes out. "Perkins shows us there is something fundamentally wrong with Norman, and yet he has a young man's likability, jamming his hands into his jeans pockets, skipping onto the porch, grinning" (Ebert, 1998). " but deceptively charming: A kind face, good features, he's gentle and considerate and that only hits harder about the truth behind him. "In Norman Bates, Anthony Perkins gives the role of many lifetimes. He is a great guy, nice, charming; a tad shy, but very polite." (Henisey, 2009) Hollywood has a long history of casting heroes as the beautiful people while the kind of villains to get the "beautiful people" treatment are often devious masterminds who ooze confidence and dominance of the situation;  For most of the film Bates is an outlier as he interacts in a very amicable way. Another divergance from the mold is unlike such distinguished villains as Loki, Khan, Ra's al Gul and Saruman, Bates is portrayed by an American actor. Although this could be to better-fit Bates being an American everyman (despite what that Art Nouveau manor suggests) and not a white-collar manipulator like his cinematic peers. In essence he straddles the line between our affable leading man and a soul with a dark secret to hide.

Figure 3: The wads of $40,000 that drive Marion acrosss
states are one example that Psyhco defies convention more times
than a Joss Wheadon serial. (Vannerman, 2000)

    Much of Psycho plays with the audeince's expectations, and not just the famous twist at the end. As well as Bates' uncharacteristic niceness, "the most celebrated star of the movie, Janet Leigh-- is killed in the first act" (Henisey, 2009). We spend the entirity of the first act with her in shot, tracking her actions, even when the focus of the narrative is on Norman. For this part, we are seeing it from her viewpoint. I mentioned the horror trope "the first person we see is the first to die" in my review of Alien and thinking about it this may have been where it started. What might differ is that even when viewed in an age where the trope is formally established, Hitchcock - though marketing and presentation - still manages to rope us into caring for her until she is killed off. Part of the reason could be how not only she but also the audience are made oblivious to how dangerous a situation she is in. And that she is treated cinematically like a genuine leading lady.

Figure 4: The dissonance between background lighting and the illumination of
the killer do well to disguise the truth. (Bayley, 2014)

    But it keeps up: "Hitchcock's mischievous genius for audience manipulation is everywhere: in the noirish angularity of the cinematography, in his use of Bernard Herrmann's stabbing string score, in the ornithological imagery that creates a bizarre sense of preying and being preyed upon." (Monahan, 2014) The shower scene is famous for a lack of blood and the connotatoins it gave - Marion Crane's lifeless body was free of scarring even after a dozen cuts with a butcher's knife. The frantic cuts between the killer and the knife blur the image leaving the brain open to cringing at the horrific yet illusionary damage being caused to her. The camera never shows us the face of Bates' mother even when her face should have been in the full light of the audience's perspective, all to hide the truth about her.

    The moment the true killer is caught in the act is shocking, bizarre and hilarious all in one go even without the exposition speak afterwards and the man we were led to think was largely normal all this time was in fact crazy from the start. Psycho set out to deliver a message that it's not just foreign countries that are strange and to be afraid of, but also the guy or girl you happen to live next door to. Perhaps it was more true back then when the film was released, where the threat of the Cold War and the USSR was in full swing and supporters of the opposing paradigm were almost indistinguishable from fellow countrymen.

Bibliography

• Ebert, R., 1998; Psycho; Roger Ebert.com; available at http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-psycho-1960 (last accessed 22nd January 2015)
• Henisey, S., 2009; Week 51: Psycho; A Movie A Week; available at http://www.amovieaweek.com/psycho.html (alst accessed 22nd January 2015)
• Monahan, M., 2014; Psycho: Review; The Telegraph; available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11025424/Psycho-review.html (last accessed 22nd January 2015)

Image References

• Figure 1: Henisey, S., 2009; [Theatrical poster]; psychoposter; available at http://www.amovieaweek.com/images/psychoposter.jpg (last accessed 22nd January 2015)
• Figure 2: Unknown 2014; [Hitchcock does well both hiding and hinting that Norman Bates is in fact one screwed-up cookie.]; Norman Bates Psycho 1; available at http://www.frenchtoastsunday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Norman-Bates-Psycho-1.png (last accessed 22nd January 2015)
• Figure 3: Vannerman, A, 2000; [The wads of $40,000 that drive Marion acrosss states are one example that Psyhco defies convention more times than a Joss Wheadon serial.]; Psycho Cash; available at http://cdn.brightlightsfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2000/04/psycho_cash.jpg (last accessed 22nd January 2015)
• Figure 4: Bayley, R., 2014; [The dissonance between background lighting and the illumination of the killer do well to disguise the truth.]; psycho4572; available at http://popcornhorror.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/pyscho4752-1024x576.jpg (last accessed 22nd January 2015)

Review: Rope

Figure 1: Theatrical Poster (IMDb)

• Native Title: Rope
• Primary Language: English
• Format: Technicolour
• Year of release: 1948
• Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Budget: est. $1,500,000
• Film Length: 90 minutes
• Production Company: Warner Brothers

    One of Hitchcock's early films, Rope is an experimental murder-mystery film that uses camera tricks to get around the limitations of the day and create the illusion of the entire film taking the place over the span of one recording.

     The film itself is fairly limited in the locations it visits. While other contemporary films such as Black Narcissus take place in a number of rooms spread out across a large building; Rope primarily takes place in the living room of a well-to do Manhattan apartment with the camera occasionally moving to the hallway and the dining room. It does not go much further than that however. It revolves around the sense of pride that Manhattan socialite Brandon has when he and his partner Philip murder their prep-school classmate David, stuff him inside a chest and then host a dinner party in the same room as his corpse.

Figure 2: The crime would have been perfect had Brandon not given in to narcissism and
hosted a dinner party at the murder scene (Dellolio, 2005)

    The action was primarily within the living room and even when the bulk of the film's  partygoers go into the dining room for part of the film most of the the camera shots are within the living room. There may be merits to this confined series of shots, as "the coffin-chest is rarely out of shot, and the camera follows the actors around every square inch of the confined set. They're trapped, and so is the audience." (Hutchinson, 2012), the chest in which David's body was hidden in is always there, and like the key component in Edgar Allen Poe's The Telltate Heart it assaults the integrity of the audience and Philip - Brandon's partner both in-residence and in-crime to create tension as both Brandon and Philip could be found out and shunned at any moment.

Figure 3: Despite only murdering someone moments before, Brandon
was pretty good at hiding it by the way he talked with his guests.
(Snow, 2011)

    Hitchcock is a visionary director, and the way the story plays out shows that he "is more interested in examining the way violence erupts out of oppression than in using gays as convenient shorthand for boogeymen" (Croce, 2006). By way of making Brandon and Phillip sociable to friends, family and contacts through friendly conversations and polite (if occasionally heated) discussion, an image emerges from the darker recesses that these are perfectly functional and amicable members of society. And while Brandon does talk as if he is a protege of the infamous Friedrich Nietzsche with terms like "superior beings" and "good and evil are inventions of the common man", he is not treated by the other like a total creep or an outcast. At the very least his friends consider him a Machiavellian schemer, which given the background as a star prep school student is not too far from the common perception. But as the night progresses he does not let up in revelling in his accomplishment, dropping sly hints and comments that would pass over the heads of those not in the know, almost like he wants his guests to put the pieces together just so he can admit about what he accomplished.

Figure 4: The maid clears the "table", at any moment the truth
could have come out what was inside (the Liberal Ironist, 2011)

    Brandon's sly hints at David's presence come to a head "while the guests are discussing something of no great moment just off- screen, the camera, catlike, stares at the chest as the maid gets ready to put some books back into it, unaware, of course, that the chest is already fully occupied" (Canby, 1984). The build-up felt was terrifying as a mental image emerged of the Maid opening the chest to a scream to discover David's body inside. The way the scene was drawn out could be compared to being held at gunpoint and knowing the perp would shoot only for him to simply wait, the gun pointed at your chest with the threat of going off any minute. The ensuing relief washes down like a wave when David intervenes as she and Rupert are opening the lid to preserve the body's hidden status.

Bibliography

• Canby, V., 1984; 'Rope' A Stunt to Behold; The New York Times; available at http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/060384hitch-rope-reflection.html (last accessed 18th January 2015)
• Croce, F., 2006; Rope; Slant Magazine; available at http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/rope (last accessed 18th January 2015)
• Hutchinson, P., 2012; My Favourite Hitchcock: Rope; The Guardian; available at http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/27/my-favourite-hitchcock-rope (last accessed 18th January 2015)
• Unknown; Rope (1948); Internet Movie Database; available at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040746/ (last accessed 18th January 2015)

Image References

• Figure 1: IMDb, unknown; [Theatrical Poster]; Rope (1948) Poster; available at http://www.imdb.com/media/rm339843072/tt0040746?ref_=tt_ov_i (last accessed 18th January 2015)
• Figure 2: Dellolio, P., 2005; [The crime would have been perfect had Brandon not given in to narcissism and hosted a dinner party at the murder scene]; Rope 021; available at http://home.comcast.net/~flickhead/rope021.jpg (last accessed 18th January 2015)
• Figure 3: Snow, R., 2011; [Despite only murdering someone moments before, Brandon
  was pretty good at hiding it by the way he talked with his guests.]; Rope Party 2; available at https://robertsnow.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/rope-party-2.jpg (last accessed 18th January 2015)
• Figure 4: The Liberal Ironist, 2011; [The maid clears the "table", at any moment the truth
  could have come out what was inside]; Rope Rupert And The Chest; available at https://liberalironist.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/rope-rupert-and-the-chest.jpg (last accesed 18th January 2015)

Review: La Jetée

Figure 1: Theatrical poster (Curry, 2012)

• Native Title: La Jetée (The Pier)
• Primary Language: French (English narration)
• Format: Black and White
• Year of Release: 1966
• Director: Chris Marker
• Film Length: 29 minutes
• Production Company: Argos Films

    A dark film that was released in the height of the swinging sixties. La Jetée is a French film set in the aftermath of a third world war that is told though a distanced narrator, who charts the life of an anonymous man as he pursues a woman he had known since his childhood.

    While Repulsion had the explosion of sexual liberation as a backdrop to tell it's story, La Jetée is set to the tune of the other side to the sixties: The Cold War and fears of a nuclear holocaust. The film itself only lightly touches on the matter of the war, mentioning the outbreak and using the theme of "World war III only end with losers losers" to set up a world similar to used futures such as in Dmitri Glukovsky's novel Metro 2033 where the survivors of the world war live their lives underground. In this instance, the basement of Paris's premiere art gallery.

Figure 2: Looks painful but at least he can get back
easily. (Shiz, 2012)

    Setting up the other pretense of the film's story is a group of mad scientists who discover a method of time travel. The result is "a 27-minute fantasy that speculates on probing the subconscious with a blending of metaphysical and scientific conceits" (Crowther 1967) setting it nicely in line with the fringe popularity of the new-age science movementof the period that attempted to combine the physical and spiritual spheres of understanding. The film never really explains just how the use of memories or dreaming can project a person into the past or future beyond fonning a cotton eyemask with electrical wires taped over where the eyes owuld be and subjugating them to some form of excrutiating pain.

     As is traditional in stories involving mad science experiments, our protagonist (in this film an unnamed soldier captured during the war) is the latest subject intended to succeed where others had failed. After undergoing excruciating pain for an extended period, he finds himself in Paris before the great war in order to woo the woman he was smitten with as a child.

Figure 3: The gentleman mad scientist: Slicked hair, nice suit and fancy eyewear of
indeterminate purpose.

    The film is arranged as a photo montage rather than a full video sequence, made up of still images that link into each other to create a slideshow that is narrated. "In the film, travelling to the past is more an act of remembering it, fashioning a scenario out of incidental remembered ephemera. Memory is not constant; it is neccessarily fragmented. This concept is invariably mended to the manner in which it is sued in the film" (Taylor, 2004). The only full-motion scene lasts for less than a second and is brought to the fold by a condensed slideshow, looking more fluid as the film approaches this one point "the fluid montage leads the viewer into the sensation of watching moving images. Until, that is an extradordinary epiphany when an image genuinely does move" (Andrew, 2004). The beauty of Porridge and Pasta (a theory I noticed in previous films where a long stretch of the mild can make a specific change more pronounced and effective) comes from sparsity and the buildup to it. And if done right it can make even the most average or unassuming thing - in this film's case a camera recording of a woman opening her eyes - hit with an immense rush of emotion.

Bibliography

• Andrew, G., 2004; La Jetée; Time Out; available at http://www.timeout.com/london/film/la-jetee (last accessed 17th January 2015)
• Crowther, B., 1967; Castles For Two (1917); New York Times; available at http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D04EFDD113CE53BBC4E52DFB766838C679EDE (last accessed 12th January 2015)
• Taylor, R.; 2004; La Jetée; Not Coming To A Theatre Near You; available at http://www.notcoming.com/reviews/lajetee/ (last accessed 12th January 2015

Image References

• Figure 1: Curry, A., 2012;  [Theatrical poster]; La Jetee; available at http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/12554/LaJetee.jpg?1352952802 (last accessed 17th January 2015)
• Figure 2: Shiz Z., 2012; [Looks painful but at least he can get back easily.] 783/shiz-z; available at http://i.stack.imgur.com/kMzhD.jpg (last accessed 12th January 2015)
• Figure 3: Curaso, L., 2013; [The gentleman mad scientist: Slicked hair, nice suit and fancy eyewear of indeterminate purpose.]; available at https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Y0KTzCbgl3uSt4mhrIMk4i_rIY1sjPcUysm_TWMbFv8nYfYB5WBdkM7MvnUu6OEqHStYVZIbPtI3Tlbb74rD1_baMDEHbuJX40WUXmQNKC9wj8zdZ90  (last accessed 17th Janurary 2015)