Hitchcock

I went into this unit not really knowing much about Hitchcock and what he was all about. But through watching 3 of his movies I have really found out that Hitchcock is definitely the master of suspense. A common theme through all 3 of the movies was that it was hard for me to pull my eyes away from the screen. I was caught up in the plot, feeling the ups and downs as the characters did. Hitchcock was able to do this through many cinematic tools, but the greatest one was subjective shots. By showing us what the characters see it makes the audience really feel connected to the character, or even be the character in some way. Rear Window does this the best out of the 3 movies we watched, because almost every shot in that movie was from within L.B.'s apartment.

Another thing that kept my attention throughout all 3 movies was the way that the characters were developed and created. In Rear Window and Vertigo especially the characters were obsessive and strange in some way. L.B. was obsessed with watching other people and Scotty was obsessed with Madeline/Judy. These characters really kept the audiences attention and added another huge dimension to the plot line of the movie.

Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket is said to be one of the greatest war movies of all time. It is shot in two half's. The first half depicts Vietnam marines in boot camp. It is a very powerful hour, going from the first day that they get there to the recruits graduation and their last day on "the island." The second half is in Vietnam, following around one of the recruits nicknamed Joker. It goes up until a final battle for Joker and his platoon.

Kubrick uses a cold sense of humor to depict a war that he feels is unnecessary. The first half where the recruits are in boot camp, I feel, is the most powerful part of the movie. The main characters in that part are Joker, Pyles, and the drill Sargent. Pyles is a very bad marine and is never doing anything right. The boot camp series progressively gets more and more out of control. You can see private Pyles start to get pushed to the edge and then right over it. The whole boot camp part ends with private Joker finding private Pyles in the bathroom loading his gun. "Leonard .. . if Hartman comes in here and catches us, we'll both be in a world of shit"- Joker. "I am .. . in a world . . . of shit!"- Pyles. This is the part of the movie where Pyles finally loses it, shooting the drill Sargent and then himself. This scene is perfect because it shows the way that the war dehumanizes people and changes them. The look in private Pyles eyes is the look of a crazy person, no where near the look of the happy recruit he came in as. The second part is a mishmash of the same type of thing, showing crazy gunman who kill women and children because the war has made them mad. But the ending shows the same murderous look in Joker's eyes as he executes a women sniper that they found in a building. Kubrick does a great job showing the way war can push people to do things that they would never before dream of.

Kubrick uses many techniques to get the point across in FMJ. He uses many reverse tracking shots, pulling the camera away from people as they walk toward it. Many of the boot camp part is shot like this. He also uses low angles to signify importance. This is especially clear when soldiers are saying their last words to some of their fallen comrades. The most effective thing that Kubrick uses is the way that the camera seems to get more and more out of control as the boot camp part goes on. The camera angles and cuts all seem to get faster and more crazy as the part goes on, showing the effect that the camp has on the privates, especially private Pyles.

Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory was a very interesting movie. It depicts a world war one battle between the French and the Germans from only the French side. It becomes abundently clear that the only reason that the battle is happening is so that a French general can get a better rank. The battle is suicide for the men and when the battle fails the general is ashamed and takes it out on the men by court marshalling them with penalty of death. This just goes to show to what lengths people will go to save their own reputations and their pride. The French general does something that is completely unjust and wrong just so he doesn't look so much like an idiot for ordering the attach. Colonel Dax, Kirk Douglas, is the only character that stands up to the superior officers and pleads the case of the accused soldiers. It is very sad to watch as almost every character in the movie is against Colonel Dax, some not being able to look him in the eye at the end because they know he is right. This movie really made me just hate all French people to be honest. I wish that it was the generals that were executed and not the innocent soldiers. I mean to go as far as to stand up a very injured person so that you can just execute him is ridiculous.
Aside from the horrible message in the movie, Stanley Kubrick uses a lot of different shots to convey his messages. When a superior officer would be talking a low angle would be used to show the importance of that officer. The only difference was when Colonel Dax would be talking to the generals the same shot would be used, probably to show that he was an equal of them. Kubrick also uses long shots to show the importance of scenes. As the soldiers are taking their walk to be executed a long shot is used to show just how long the walk is and how important it is. These shots are repeated throughout the movie to convey basically the same messages.
Overall a good movie, but I hated it because the characters were all big POS's.