Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, oddly enough, is the story of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. It takes place during the end of the wild west era, and Butch and Sundance are struggling to adapt. They eventually attract the attention of a group of some of the best lawmen in the country, and they start being followed everywhere they go. Because of this, they decide to leave the country, bringing Sundance's wife, Etta Place, with them. They travel across the country to New York city, where they catch a boat to Bolivia, where they go back to doing what they do best, robbing banks and trains and such. They don't learn from their mistakes, as they are soon back to running from the law. But this time, they get caught. They get cornered in a small Bolivian town by about nine hundred policemen, and they are swiftly gunned down. I enjoyed the film, and there were several things in it that made the film more interesting.

(Left to right) Butch, Sundance, and Etta arrive in Bolivia.

The first scene that I thought was interesting is near the very beginning of the film. After inspecting a local bank, The Suncance Kid sits down for a game of cards, and for the next several minutes, give or take a few seconds, the camera is fixed on Sundance. People are often getting in the way of the camera, and we can barely see Sundance. At this point, someone accuses Sundance of cheating, and the claustrophobic camera angle works to help us feel tense and nervous. As Sundance gets to be more in control of the situation by sweet talking and fancy gunplay, the camera backs away, freeing up space and making the environment feel more open, showing us that he is in fact in no danger at all.

Sundance maintains his composure as he is accused of cheating at a card game.

Sundance once he starts asserting his dominance.

One thing I noticed about a half hour into the film is that many sound effects are very loud, while the characters voices are quiet in comparison. If you turned the volume up so you could hear the characters voices clearly, you would have your ears blown off if someone fired a gun or exploded a bank safe with some dynamite. This reminded me a lot of the feeling you get when you are doing something you know you shouldn't, like cheating or trespassing, and every little sound you hear is super loud. It makes you feel very tense, like something could jump out at you at any minute, which is how Butch and Sundance felt throughout this film. I know I would if it was me.

Another interesting point I wanted to discuss was the lawmen, who remind me a lot of the Ringrwaiths from The Lord of the Rings. They are constantly chasing Butch and Sundance throughout most of the film. Obviously the real Butch and Sundance didn't have the Nazgûl chasing them across the world, (as cool as that would have been) but I don't think It's crazy to say that when they made this film, they drew some inspiration from The Lord of the Rings novels. They have many of the same characteristics: Mysterious figures, all on horseback, never really seen up close or in a lot of detail. They also both have a keen ability to track the heroes wherever they go. Except instead of magical ring sniffing powers, the lawmen have an native american tracker with them, who can supposedly track anyone over anything, day or night.

The final shot of the film, showing Butch (left) and Sundance (right) charging out into a crowd of Bolivian police officers, followed by the deafening sound of gunfire, and then a fade to black as the film comes to a close.

I enjoyed this film a lot, Butch and Sundance make a good pair, Butch as the brains, and Sundance as the brawn. Because of the aforementioned audio balancing, the film was kinf of hard to follow at some points, since everything was so quiet, and sometimes in Bolivia people would talk entirely in spanish. But the characters expressions were often enough to convey what they were saying, so it isn't a deal breaker for me. I give this film a 3 out of 5.

Works Cited:

Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. Fourth ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Dir. George R. Hill. Perf. Paul Newman and Robert Redford. 20th Century Fox, 1969. DVD.

American Beauty (1999)

Released at the end of the last millennium, American Beauty follows the story of Lester Burnham, played by Kevin Spacey, as he goes through what some people would call a mid life crisis. Or that's what they want you to think. The movie actually consists of three separate plots, all closely linked, but separate enough that they deserve to be looked at individually.

Lester as he fantasizes about Angela Hayes, a teenage girl who he becomes infatuated with, while the world around him starts going into slo-mo, and rose petals appear.

In the beginning, we get a voice over from Lester telling us that he will be dead one year from now. This doesn't really mean much right away, but as the film goes on, it becomes clear that he is slowly spiraling into disaster, but it is never really clear what it is that will get him killed in the end.

Lester promises he is trying to hurry, just as his briefcase falls open and spills papers everywhere.

On the surface, Lester appears to have the perfect life, a good job, loving wife and daughter, a beautiful house with a white picket fence, but in reality, none of that is true. Except for the house of course, he doesn't actually have any of these things. He is unhappy, his job wants him fired, he and his wife don't love each other, his daughter hates him, and he just feels like crap all the time. But just when things seem their worst, he goes to see his daughter's cheer routine at her high school. There he sees Angela Hayes, a friend of his daughter, who he immediately becomes obsessed with, despite her being young. After this, every time he sees her, he has visions of her doing extremely provocative things, such as taking off her clothes and inviting him to bathe with her. All of these scenes are accompanied by the color red in some way, usually in the form of rose petals.

Most scenes with Lester in them have red incorporated in some way. (Notice all the red papers and folders and things on his desk)

The more he thinks about Angela, the more red there is. During fantasies such as this one, there is hardly anything that ISN'T red.

His daughter's story is quite similar to his, although I imagine she would hate to admit that. His daughter Jane is right smack in the middle of that stage where she is too cool for her parents, and no matter what they do she hates it. The only friend she seems to have is Angela, who only seems to hang out with her so she can brag about her extensive sexual escapades.

This shot does a good job of showing how different Angela (right) and Jane (left) are. Angela is always up front and confident, and Jane is far less confident and is very reserved.

Early on, it is shown that Jane has a stalker of some sort, who keeps filming her. Later we discover that it is her next door neighbor, Ricky Fitts, who has been doing the filming. Despite Jane noticing him filming her on multiple occasions, he continues to film her whenever he can, one time even in broad daylight in the middle of the school courtyard.

"I'm not obsessing. I'm just curious." -Ricky Fitts

He is a total outcast, and doesn't seem to do anything besides record stuff with his video camera, which he can almost always be seen holding in front of his face. His room is filled wall to wall with tapes and other recording equipment, all funded by his drug dealing. Jane, being somewhat of an outcast as well, is immediately drawn to him, despite all his strange behavior towards her. His strange behavior juxtaposes well with his father, Colonel Fitts. Fitts senior is a military veteran, as well as a homophobe. He hates his new neighbors, who happen to be a gay couple. He catches Ricky over at Lester's house at one point, but what he sees rocks him to the core. From his window Colonel Fitts sees what appears to be Ricky performing sexual acts with Lester. Of course, in reality, that is not the case, but Fitts immediately goes on the offensive.

Colonel Fitts kicks his son out of the house.

Fitts immediately confronts Ricky, and forces him to confess. But rather than admit that he is selling drugs to Lester, he lies, and says exactly what his father wants him to say. That he is in fact gay, and that he isn't ashamed at all. He then leaves and asks Jane to run away with him, and she agrees.

Carolyn Burnham may seem happy, but she is actually just as distraught as Lester.

Carolyn's story is the weakest in my opinion, but hers is still very important to the story. Carolyn wears the guise of a bubbly suburban mom, who loves her rose garden and is passionate about her job as a real estate agent. In reality she is sexually frustrated, is very stressed out in her job, and hates Lester's guts, to say the least. Her rival is the self proclaimed real estate king, Buddy Kane. After meeting him face to face, she starts to become attracted to him. After she finds out that he is divorced, she almost immediately begins having an affair with him.

Lester discovers Carolyn's affair while working at a fast food joint.

Even though this film is somewhat split between three stories, they all converge near the end. In the final act of the movie, Angela is over at Lester's house, spending the night with Jane. Lester is home, working out in the garage. Carolyn is out, presumably with Buddy, and Ricky is on his way over to Lester's as well. After a heated argument between Jane, Ricky, and Angela, Angela storms off downstairs, leaving Ricky alone with Jane. Carolyn is also shown driving home, listening to self help tapes, telling her not to be a victim. She is also seen holding a gun, which she probably intends to use to shoot Lester.

Throughout the most of the movie, Lester has been working out, in an attempt to impress Angela.

While Lester is working out, he sees someone outside his garage door. Once he opens it, we see it is Colonel Fitts. Fitts stands in the pouring rain silently, and only comes in after Lester invites him. Fitts then slowly approaches Lester and hugs him. Lester is confused by this, but goes along with it, as he sees that Fitts is very upset. Fitts then slowly leans in to kiss Lester, which takes him by totaly surprise, and once Lester pushes him off, Fitts slowly leaves.Lester then goes inside and finds Angela, who seduces him. Of course Lester is game, but once they are about to "begin," Angela confesses that she is a virgin, and that she is terrified, and Lester stops and they never actually go all the way.

Lester lays dead on the kitchen floor.

Because of this, the two of them retreat to the kitchen, and Angela goes to freshen up in the bathroom. While she is away however, someone comes in and shoots Lester in the back of the head. At the time we think it was Carolyn, but immediately after this, is shows Carolyn arrive at home, and one she discovers Lester dead on the floor, immediately starts sobbing and crying. It turns out that it was actually Colonel Fitts who pulled the trigger, is his state of confusion, sadness and anger after losing his son. The movie then ends, after showing everyone in the house's reactions to Lester's death.

I enjoyed this film, but it took me a while to get into it. The first hour-ish of the film sells it short somewhat, there is a lot going on and the story seems to wander about. The film is infinitely stronger once the three stories converge. At that point the film becomes very absorbing. I usually don't like rating a film out of five because I think it is a bad way to show the quality of the film, but if pressed, I'd give this film a three and a half out of five.

Works Cited

American Beauty. Dir. Sam Mendes. Perf. Kevin Spacey. Dreamworks, 1999. DVD.

Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. Fourth ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.

Photos

500full1.jpg. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <https://ericlandro.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/500full1.jpg>.

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American-Beauty.jpg. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/i/2014/09/12/American-Beauty.jpg>.

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Full Metal Jacket (1987)

          "HOLY DOGSHIT TEXAS! ONLY STEERS AND QUEERS COME FROM TEXAS PRIVATE COWBOY! AND YOU SURE AS HELL DON'T LOOK LIKE A STEER TO ME SO THAT KINDA NARROWS IT DOWN!" -Gunnery Sgt. Hartman

Arguably one of the most iconic scenes from any war movie, the opening scene of Full Metal Jacket shows the newest batch of privates lined up in their barracks getting lectured by their drill instructor. This scene is very important to the movie as a whole because it sets the tone for the first half. The movie itself it broken up into two parts, basic training, and going to war. The two halves are very different in that the first half is neat and tidy, everything kept in line by Hartman's iron fist. The second half of the movie on the other hand, the segment of the movie that takes place in Vietnam, is much less organized, and everything begins to fall apart, starting with Hartman's death, which occurs at the very end of the first half.

 Private Pyle is humiliated in front of the rest of his platoon after disobeying Hartman's rule about food in the barracks.

For the first half of the movie, the story mostly follows Private Pyle and Private Joker. With Pyle's lack of athleticism constantly getting him into hot water with Sergeant Hartman, Hartman makes Joker bunk with Pyle, so that Joker can keep an eye on him. Joker helps Pyle with his training, his rifle maintenance, making his bunk, everything. Throughout the rest of the first half of the movie, Pyle seems to be improving. He now appears to fit in with all of the other privates. But Pyle still remembers everything Hartman said to him. The next few scenes are absolutely dripping with foreshadowing. While at the firing range, it is shown that Pyle is a very good shot. In another scene, a couple privates; while cleaning the bathrooms; comment that Pyle often talks to his rifle. Adding to this, Pyle seems to be acting even stranger than he normally does. In one final scene, Hartman gives a speech about several famous assassins, such as Lee Harvey Oswald. He says how accurate and precise these assassins were, he then goes on to say that they all learned how to shoot in the Marines.

"Seven-six-two millimeter... full... metal... jacket." -Private Pyle

The night after the platoon's graduation, we find Private Pyle sitting in the bathroom, loudly reciting the rifleman's creed. (This is my rifle, there are many like it but this one is mine.) This is one the few scenes to include any music at all, which in this specific scene is very creepy and ominous sounding. Joker finds Pyle in the bathroom, loading his rifle and practicing his marching. Shortly after, Sergeant Hartman comes in and begins telling Pyle to put down his rifle. After this fails to get a reaction out of Pyle, Hartman does what he always does, and attempts to intimidate Pyle by insulting him, this doesn't work either, and Pyle, with a menacing grin on his face, aims and fires one round through the center of Hartman's chest. He then sits back down on the toilet, and puts his rifle in his mouth and shoots himself through the head.

The restless soldiers finally get to see some action.

The second half of the movie takes place in Vietnam, in the war zone. These scenes make no effort to romanticize the war at all, with only one soldier (Animal Mother, above, right)  having a good time, acting like he is in Rambo or something. The second half of the movie follows a unit containing Joker, his friend Cowboy, and a few others on a journey through Vietnam. Along the way they fight the Vietnamese several times, but they never show the faces of the enemy up close. This is to make the enemy seem more like targets than people. The only Vietnamese soldier we see up close is a dead one during the aftermath of a battle.

Joker claims to be making a statement about the duality of man with his helmet and peace badge.

During a later scene, we notice that Joker has added a peace sign to his uniform. This is interesting because his helmet says "BORN TO KILL" on it, and the peace sign signifies, well, peace. It would seem that Joker doesn't quite know what to think about the war, if he is for it, or against it. He certainly doesn't seem very happy during the war scenes. Much less at the end of the movie, where after tracking down and wounding an enemy sniper, who turned out to be a young Vietnamese woman, Joker is put on the spot when the sniper, who is wounded and bleeding heavily, begs for death. No one moves, except Joker, who walks up next to her. He looks down at her broken form, his peace symbol clearly visible in the light of the fire from the burning building. After a long shot of him looking down at her, the peace sign slowly fades from view, and just as it disappears completely, Joker pulls the trigger.

Joker while he ponders shooting the Vietnamese woman. (Notice the peace symbol is visible)

Joker right as he shoots the Vietnamese woman. (Notice how the peace symbol is no longer in view)

This scene is a defining moment for Joker as a character, and for the film as a whole. It shows Joker as he changes from a soldier to a killer. At the beginning of the film in the boot camp scene, Sergeant Hartman says he will turn the privates into soldiers, into weapons, into killers. This is proof that he succeeded, for better or for worse.

Works Cited

Photos:

FMJ.jpg. Digital image. Movies.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.

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