Why I Chose The Birds

I liked the movie Psycho, and the other movies I did not know too much about. When I read a little about them they didn’t seem as interesting as the movie I actually like watching and have watched several times called The Birds. I used to be afraid of it myself as a kid like Hitchcock was I am guessing. I watched it in the dark as a kid and it scared the living daylights out of me and had me afraid of birds for a while. If they swooped too close to the ground or if these were a flock of them near me I became afraid, but I guess some of us eventually get over those fears. Seeing it now does not scare me instead I laughed at the film and moreso enjoyed it more than anything and that was a few years years ago when I watched it. I figured it would be nice to see it again, and something interesting for others who have not seen it to watch as well.

First Impression: Alfred Hitchcock

Some people usually say first impressions are the lasting impressions. Whatever impression you give to a person the first time is what they will forever remember about you. My first impression seeing Alfred Hitchcock actually talk is that he was someone weird and a little scary. Why? He was weird to me because he talked soooo slow, but I guess it only seemed that way because he was so proper. He seemed to really like making disturbing criminalistic films, but he didn’t seem to be afraid of them and affected by the things in the films like he wanted his audience to be. His masterpieces for suspense are based on his inner fears especially as a child and staying connected to them somehow. He explained that his first scare was his childhood fears which he released in his work. Hitchcock tends to dramatize things. For example, he talked about how getting a ticket is suspenseful because it is like a punishment. He was afraid of punishment which is why he never got his license. To me that was something stupid to be afraid of but everybody has their own fears not everyone is afraid of the same thing or things. However, Hitchcock could obviously make anything look a bit scary in his films by as he says “using elements of complete order and throwing in elements of disorder.” That is what helped him to bring the audience closer to the films. He makes the films from the point-of-view of the individual actors and makes the situation look more realistic. His goal was to transfer the menace from the screen to the mind of the audience until the anxiety became unbearable and it reached climax to scare them. That is why he is probably considered the master of suspense even though most of films were not scary to me, but moreso just interesting to watch.

About the movie Snow White

Ever since the beginning of time, people have tended to copy off of other movies that they had seen to make their own. There have always been duplicates of movies and films. I have seen duplicates of the movie Cinderella several times with a Caucasian Cinderella and the African American version of Cinderella. I have seen the animated cartoony versions as well as the realistic people versions of that movie. I have seen copies of Beauty and the Beast the realistic version with Fran Drescher from the series “The Nanny” as well. However I have never seen a copy of Snow White that has been worth pointing out nor worthy of being called the same name as that movie. They made the realistic version of it, but it had nothing on Walt Disney’s original. Although Snow White was one of a kind, the graphics were not that good and it was a bit scary. On the good side of things, Snow White seemed to lead the way for future movies to come. Although many after that had different stories and plots, they predominantly had the same concept overall and the same type of animation. I also think Walt Disney’s movie led as a foreshadow for movies to come because some of the characters and general ideas in Snow White obviously began to show up in later individual movies. For instance, the deer in the movie Bambi, a much later movie obviously, seemed to be the same deer that were in the earlier film Snow White. So I guess some of the characters from the movie he liked and decided to use them again except in their own movies. In the end I am left wondering what an alternate ending would have looked like if Snow White did not get the prince how would that have turned out. I also wondered why there was not a Snow White 2 made. There was a Bambi and Bambi 2. There was a Cinderella and Cinderella 2 as well so why not a Snow White 2? Did Walt Disney want to leave us with one happily ever after movie with happiness being the end and no more drama and problems? Did he want us to believe they lived on forever and ever together?

Hi Ho Hi Ho…-Just A Little Joke

Anyone who has ever seen Walt Disney’s Snow White can never forget the dwarfs song Hi Ho Hi Ho its off to work we go. High is what they were. They were too happy too excited or too mad about nothing. All of the symptoms of getting high. Let’s say a person who normally smokes get a little sick has the coughs or is constantly SNEEZing instead of taking medicine they smoke. They are not at all BASHFUL about what they do. They get a little DOPEd up like Dopey. Then they get a little giggly and HAPPY then if someone ruins their high you get rather GRUMPY. Then later when they come down off of their high they get a bit SLEEPY and if they smoke too much they have to go to the DOCtor before they end up looking like Dopey. He reminds me of the commercial that says “This is your brain on drugs”.  That is my overall overcriticized and overexaggerated analysis of the dwarfs. Their “ho” or rather whore was Snow White obviously. There she was a woman to cater to all of their needs and wants and to take care of them. She whipped them into shape when she came in just like a woman does. There to take care of the household while they men went out to do work outside the home. Characteristics of the breadwinner-homemaker concept in sociology were applied here. Perfect for that era and time.

Something New In Animation: The Beginning

Before I went to Film History class, I never paid any attention to all the graphics and time taken to make the film Snow White. It probably took alot of artists and a lot of cound directors and just alot of everything. As a child I watched the movie in amazement at the story, the vivid and lively colors, and the dwarfs especially. I never thought about it as the first full-length animated movie. I never thought about how many drawings and redrawings and paintings Walt Disney might have had his crew to do. It probably took alot of work to find the perfect voice for each character as well, but how did they decide which voice would fit great with each character? How did they determine what noises to sychronize with the drawings? How did he decide what kind of personalities to bring out and give the dwarfs? I mean I never would have thought of making a dwarf named Doc. Many of the dwarfs seemed to take on emotions like Grumpy and Happy so why didn’t he continue with making all of the dwarfs emotions? Why choose Sleepy? Why chose Dopey and why did Dopey have two left feet and seem like he was deaf and act like he was on crack?

How did they determine what a talking mirror would sound like? Why does it have a masculine manly voice? Could our mirrors possibly be mean? Makes me a bit scared to walk by my mirror in fear that it might be secretly staring at me and judging me and my body with his wandering perverted eyes….or maybe I am just looking too far into it. So does that mirror’s voice fit because that is what we are used to hearing on Snow White or can another voice other than that work properly and still sound just as good? What was going on in Walt Disney’s mind when he wrote this? Why does Snow White only have a nose sometimes but at others she just has little black dots respresenting nostrils? Is this due to different artists drawing her or what? It made me wonder as I watched her move in different positions and turn and move her head and watch as her nose disappeared. I never realyl looked before, but now I guess as an Art major I cannot help but to pay attention to such small details. Maybe I am being too critical, but I still do love this movie and would watch it one hundred times.  I know now that it took a long time to create so many people and animals with so many different movements and positions. This movie probably took a lot of time and planning because in the end it all fitted perfectly into the storyline.

Nanook’s Great Life

Nanook of the North was a very action-packed film. It kept my attention all the way throughout the whole movie. It pretty much gave an example of the life of an Eskimo and displays his daily activities. Usually when I watch movie or films about the life of a person I get bored because everyone’s life is NOT interesting obviously. It was a fight to drag a walrus harpooned out of the water which was extremely interesting and which obviously could not have been acted out. The sledding and pulling of such a heavy animal and seeing what they go through to protect themselves and the task and struggle to feed themselves and their families. They pulled tons of weight with a smile. I watched that in amazement. They hustle like any poor person on the street to provide and to keep themselves up. What really got me is the fact that Nanook and the others smiled as do their deadly daily tasks of hunting and gathering. I always wondered how the Eskimos made the igloos stay up and how they made them. That was the most interesting thing for me watching them build the igloo and watching Nanook make a lookout window. It shows how clever and smart the Eskimo people really are and how much they enjoy their lives even in the toughest events such as when he could not get the seal out of the water that he tried to harpoon and bring in. This film is a celebration of the Eskimo people.

The Fall of Metropolis

Metropolis was a silent film. I didn’t expect there to be any dialogue, however I must say I expected alot of music and sounds, but did not here many. I like having dialogue and words, but this film pretty much was self-explanatory. Its closeups and visual screenshots on certain things and on the city helped to tell the story. This particular film is categorized as a German expressionist film. It broadcasted the mind of an individual about how he sees the world via his perspective or outlook on the industrial world. It tends to both celebrate the development of a city, but at the same time shun the workers and builders of the city. In so little words and so many pictures, it displays the kinda sociological view of the haves versus the have-nots and man versus machine point-of-view.  There are the capitalists(the haves) who have everything and are working the the laborers (have-nots) below them. The producer and writer of this film seems to show a fear of machines taking over and to warn against technology. I couldn’t help but to think about the movie I, Robot where Will Smith is like the only person who sees the robots and advancement of technology as a bad thing. In the scene on Metropolis where the big machine eats all of the workers, I couldn’t help but think of how the machine or rather the computer on I, Robot was controlling things and killing people. In both films, the machines were taken over the workers or the makers. They both seem to fear developing technology like many films of the past that warn against advanced technology because they believe it is grown too much and gotten a bit out of hand. It is like a call for people to pay attention like a prophecy for future years or something. Anyway over all a great silent film that was somewhat comedic to me at times.