AK

At the beginning of the unit I didn't know much about Akira Kurosawa. Mitch talked about his movies a lot and so I was excited form my own opinions on Kurosawa. Well now that we've watched his movies I can saw that I very much think of him as one of the greatest directors of all time. He is able to create a movie that always has some underlying theme to it, beautifully showing his measure through camera work, diolague, the set, and many other things. It is almost as if Kurosawa is trying to paint you a picture of his message in exactly the same way he sees it. This is what I love about his films and have made me want to see many more of them.

Another part of Kurosawa's films is the weather component. In each of his movies he uses extreme weather circumstances. If it is windy, it is very windy, if it is raining, its pouring, and if it is hot, it is the hottest day/week of the year. Using the weather in the way that he does, it heightens the mood of the film. It adds emphasis to the plot and the characters as they go through the movie. It also allows for the audience to feel for the characters more, and feel more connected to them also. Kurosawa is the only director that I have seen that uses natures, and by that I mean the weather, to add to his movies.

It's Johnny!

The Shining (1980) is one of Kubrick's best films. It is also one of the most messed up and weird films that I've ever seen, or that has ever been made. It depicts the story of a family whose father, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), is hired as the off-season caretaker of the haunted overlook hotel. He brings along with him his wife Wendy, and his son Danny. Danny possesses a very special psychic ability called shining. He uses this to contact others who have this gift and also see into the past from places that possess the shining.

The use of the Steadicam and tracking shots was something that everybody in our group noticed. Seemingly every shot was in some way a tracking shot, and definitely every important shot used the tracking shot. The most memorable use of the tracking shot is when Jack has lost his mind and starts after Wendy. Slowly the camera switches from a tracking shot in front of Jack to one from behind Wendy as she retreats from him. The camera keeps switching until the point when both Wendy and Jack are so close that Wendy can hit Jack with the bat in the head knocking him out. Since the Steadicam was fairly new, only 4 years before The Shining was it made, this movie had a tremendous effect on the rest of movie making forever.

Throughout the whole movie I was very confused. For one the plot kept you in the movie the whole time, but also what was going on. It was a very messed up confusing movie that ended very strangely. If you havn't seem the movie don't read on. After Jack goes insane, Danny realizes the evil that is about to happen and tries to signal the head chef form the hotel to come and help. He also had the shining gift and ended up coming up to the hotel to help. Jack kills him though and turns on his wife and son. In the end Danny evades his dad in the massive maze outside and overlook hotel and Danny and Wendy escape. But then we are cut to a scene where we see a picture of Jack from 1921. The only connection I can think of from this messed up movie is that the shining allows a portal to be opened from the past to allow for the evil from the past to become the future. This is a movie that will keep me thinking for a long time because of all the interesting turns it took. All in all a great movie