MYST Post #3: "Cast Away"

For my fourth movie in my spare time I watched "Cast Away" directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks as the main actor. In the movie, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) who works for Fed Ex is a system analysts who travels worldwide to make sure packages get delivered proficiently and on time. On Christmas he is called out of town on an emergency.  During the turbulent ride over the Pacific the engine breaks down and the plane collides with the ocean. The three crew members along with Hanks plunge into the ocean and are taken down deep with the weight of the cargo. Nolan uses an inflatable air raft that propels him to the top of the ocean. This whole scene is very suspensful and the use of computers and cinematography and lighting make this scenes very realistic.  You feel you are right there with Hanks.

For the director Robert Zemeckis, I did not know much about him so I did some research. Zemeckis first came to public notice around the 80's for his work put into the film series, "Back to the Future". While searching some more I fouund that he was actually born in Chicago, IL which I thought was neat to have this in common. Getting back to the movie, Zemeckis did a great job filming the movie using a lot of good tactics, as well as good costumes. As Noland stays on the island for longer period of time we start to see physical changes in him.  The growth of a beard and longer hair which is very realistic. Also, in his physic.  When he first comes to the island he's not in such great of shape, but eventually he slims down and appears muscular.  Regarding cinematography, the plan crash scene was the best. It looks unbelievably real. The part I like the most about the crash is when the plane is just about to hit the water and you get a glimpse of the ocean before you crash into its unforgiving, frigid waters. The picture above shows what Noland sees when drifting away from the plan crash.

Another chilling scene of this movie is his first attempt to leave the island after he sees the ship lights at night. Frustration sets in and Hanks decides he must save himself because no one will find him on the island.  He uses the air raft that saved him to try and escape. However, what seems like a good idea, turns disastrous. As he is trying to pass the breaker in the ocean he hits a few mid size wave then this BIG wave comes, knocks him off his raft and sends him plunging on top of the coral reef.  His leg is severely damaged. As this wave approaches him the camera is angled upward, towards the wave, which adds to the suspense.  The wave appears monstrous.  The force of the breakers turns over the raft and sends him plunging on top of the coral reef.  Once again you feel you are right there with him.

I enjoy watching the movie "Cast Away" and give it a 4 out of 5 stars. Being on an island there are a lot of cool shots. Hanks was there at the island for about 5 years, which is a long time. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes survival type of things because that is what this movie is all about.

"Formal Film Study": Quentin Tarantino- Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown

Introduction: Quentin Tarantino is a well known American director, screenwriter, and actor who is mostly known for his style of movies as well as "Pulp Fiction" which I have also seen and is one of my favorites. The movies I chose to watch directed by him are "Reservoir Dogs" and "Jackie Brown".  Reservoir Dogs tells the beforehand details and the aftermath of a diamond heist that goes wrong, but they never show the heist taking place.  Most of the film is filmed in a warehouse where a bunch of events unfold from Mr. White and Mr. Pink arguing about who is the rat, to them torturing a police officer. On the other hand, Jackie Brown is about a women named Pam Brown who is an airline attendant who travels to and from Mexico from the United States.  Her salary is only $16,000, so to make ends meet she smuggles money into the United States for Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson).  Eventually, she gets caught up with the police while she is trying to smuggle $500,000 to Ordell and must play a double agent, helping out the police, but also helping out Ordell. Both of the movies were a great time to watch and a lot of things were similar/different between the two.

Styles:

The styles of these movies were kind of different, but similar in many ways.  I do not think that they both really had the full Tarantino style like the movie "Pulp Fiction" does. That movie is told in kind of a backward way, which is Tarantino's style. I feel like he always has a lot of dialogue in all his movies as well.  For instance, in Reservoir Dog's Mr. White and Mr. Pink have about a 15 minute dialogue about who the snitch is. I have a picture of the scene just off to the right. The diamond heist went wrong, and that is why they believe there is a snitch within the crew. In "Jackie Brown", there is a lot of dialogue between Melanie and Louis (Robert DiNiro), two people that Ordell counts on to carry out his plan of bringing his $500,000 from selling guns. These two characters just sit around at Ordell's safe house not really doing anything other then watching T.V. and smoking marijuana. During the scenes where they show Melanie and Louis there is a lot of dialogue about non-important things.

Industry/Technology
Considering that both of these movies were made in the 90's they fit into the story of Hollywood together. During the 80's and 90's started the home video era. It was the opposite of how times in the depression were where people would go to the theater multiple times a week. These films are different from any other because of the way they are directed with Tarantino's styles.  Both movies include a lot of dialogue that can sometimes get boring. As far as technology, like I said before the 90's was the era of home video. There are not any special effects in either of the movies except for the violent parts in both movies. One scene from Reservoir Dogs is when the guys bring back a police officer to the the warehouse and torture him in order to identify who's the rat within their crew. They use very gruesome tactics against the innocent officer including pulling out his teeth. In Jackie Brown, a violent scene is when Ordell kills Beaumont Livingston, soon to become an FBI informant. Of course in both movies, there are more advanced camera angles along with a more crisp view. There is a lot of violence, which means there is a lot of blood involved too.

Culture:
Between both of these movies there is a lot of overlap in sub-themes, such as you do not want to be the "snitch." We can see this being displayed in "Jackie Brown" when Beaumont gets arrested and Ordell things he is going to talk. So Ordell bails out Beaumont and then kills him. It is a coincidence because Ordell does the same thing with Jackie Brown, but he is not so quick to kill this time. In Reservoir Dogs we can see this theme clearly all throughout the movie with the men trying to figure out who the snitch of the group is.  They take extreme, violent measures to try and figure out who this person is. It is mostly Mr. White and Mr. Pink arguing over the situation in the warehouse where the movie is set. As far as American values go, the police are looked down upon and avoided because they are trouble. However, in "Jackie Brown" the two detectives that arrest Jackie Brown are being played by her. This makes them look like fools because Jackie Brown is being a double agent, still working with Ordell while barley giving these detectives information they already know. In Reservoir Dogs, the police are actually not present a lot, only when they bring the one officer into the warehouse and torture him to find out information. That obviously makes the police look like they do not have things under control and that they are sloppy.

History/Politics
The 90's was a very prosperous decade, not only for the United States, but also for other countries as well. It makes sense to make a movie about a diamond heist worth about 5 million dollars in a very prosperous decade. Someone would not really make a type of movie like this during a depression because it just does not fit in with what is going on economically. Same with Ordell trying to ship in his $500,000. That is a lot of money, especially in the 90's. Not only was business booming, but crime was as well and that's why i believe that there was a lot more crime movies that came out during this decade.

My Main Discovery:
The two things I noticed the most out of watching all the Tarantino films, was the way his stories were directed (style), and then of course all of the nonsense dialogue in his movies. Even in Pulp Fiction the first scene is John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson riding in their car talking for at least 5 minutes about a date with a woman. Another main discovery about Quentin Tarantino is how he likes to tell his stories backwards. He will give the end in the beginning and go back to how it occurred.  An example, is "Pulp Fiction" when he showed the diner scene in the beginning.