Chariots of Fire Film Analysis

Here are my thoughts and observations on the film we watched in class:

Thinking about the question of "Did the acting measure up to the 5 points talked about in class?" I feel like the acting did measure up to this and was very well done. An example of this would be Alice and Sybil were walking up to the mountain he tells her that he is going to be a missionary in China. You can tell from her reaction that she actually stays in character and actually cares about Sybil. It wasn't fake and you could feel the passion she had for him. I think that is so important in acting and when an actor/actress gets into character like that.

 The next thing I would like to discuss would be the editing of this film and the manipulation of time. One of the biggest scenes that I felt that was able to show and portray this was the slow motion running scenes at the beginning and the end. I felt like way they were able to put it into that slow pace and motion really helped build the suspense and I also liked when they did it at the end you were able to see the characters and compare them to what you saw and how they contributed to the movie. It seemed more to me like to show a job well done and you were able to know the characters more instead of at the beginning of the film when they were just a few guys running on the beach. I felt like the music was perfect for this film as well because it was a well known track that caught your attention and went well with the mood of this scene.

I think that the camera movement moved a lot but the majority of it was during a race. When Liddell

and Abrahams are racing around the courtyard with a lot of the students watching the camera moved a lot and it was able to give the audience a view of both of the runner’s faces. You are able to see the determination in their faces and you can see very well their body movement is showing that they are doing a very good job of acting the part for analyzing the acting.

From what i saw in this film, the theme that stood out to me was that hard work and determination pays off and helps us become successful in all things that we do in our life. Through the hard work and sacrifice that we go through we are able to bring about great things and accomplishments. Abrahma showed this very well as he won the 100 meter dash, because he worked so hard, even when he went through trails, he was still able to win the race and win the gold medal. 

I felt although the music was very different and probably not something you would hear back in those times because they incorporated alot of 80's stuff into this movie. It was able to work for this movie and that you could see a good mix of the 80's and the timeframe that they were trying to portray and try to help the viewers try and feel like they were in. So I had no problem with the music, I thought it was good for what they were trying to do.

 I felt like the reason why this movie was so successful is because the music played a big part and also it was just a feel good movie for this time. I felt like the theme of the movie is something that everyone wants to feel in their life. Everybody wants to be a winner and they want to be successful in either one or many aspects of thier life. And this movie shows that you can be successful and a winner if you just put your mind to it and go out and do. It may be hard and you will go through some trails even when your trying to be great, but through it all you will get the success your looking for and receive the reward you are searching for in the end. 

Rocky Film Analysis

I really enjoyed watching this movie and what we learned in class about it. I myself enjoy sports films and motivating movies like this because sports is one of my passions and so anytime I can grab a good sports movie I feel like I will always enjoy it no matter what the story is behind it or what sport is may be about. I wanted to point out a few things I noticed in the movie according to the criteria given.

 Starting off with sound, I felt like this movie gives us a good idea of how sound can affect a movie and how it can help make a movie great and real. I felt like the music helped bring the atmosphere of Philadelphia and also helped set the mood and time frame for that period. To go into more detail of sound, I felt like a good example of diegetic sound was when you could hear the boxers and those who were in the gym working out hitting each other. That was sound that came straight from the scene or film and that's a good example of what diegetic sound is and I noticed that alot throughout the movie. Another part of sound is non diegetic sound which is the opposite of what I just explained. An example that I noticed from this movie was when Rocky was going out for his run and the music was playing as he was running and training for his fight. It kind of reminded me of when someone listens to music or think of a song when they are listening to music in their head, but in film they portray that through this process of non diegetic sound and I felt they did really well with it. The last one I would like to talk about regarding sound would be off screen sound. A moment that stood out to me with this one would be when Rocky is training by the train tracks and you can hear the rattling of the tracks and the train roll by as he is outside.

 The reason I feel like this movie did so well in the year 1976 because I feel like alot of people could connect and relate with this movie. Rocky didn't come from the best of standards and in a way was living in poverty. And I feel like it was very motivating in a way that the point of the movie or the theme was that Rocky didnt want to be a loser or feel unsuccessful. He wanted to come out on top in life and feel important. But he didn't necessarily have to win the fight to be successful or to reach that goal. He was able to get the girl that he wanted and be able to get his name out there which is how lots of people feel and want in their life, they dont have to be the winner or number 1 they just wanted to be noticed or recognized for what they do. So I feel like the success of this movie and the theme of it go hand in hand.

  A few save the cat moments that I felt were prett big and noticeable in this film were the first one is when Rocky is walking in the streets and he notices the girl hanging around the bad group of kids who are smoking, drinking and not being a good example. Although Rocky is a part of that and does all that stuff, he does his best to keep others including kids out of it. The moment when the guy attacks Adrian and is yelling at her and doing all these cruel things to her. Rocky stands up for her and brings the guy down and calms him down so he doesn't attack her even more.  It shows how much he cares and wants to protect her.

Waking Ned Devine Film Analysis

Here is my analysis of the film Ned Divine

 I would like to start off by talking about the different types of editing that were used throughout the movie. From what I noticed the director used a lot of the smooth editing throughout the majority of the movie. You could tell as it flowed very nicely within each scene and a lot of the techniques that we talked about in class were used. I also noticed a little bit of the abrupt editing and the juxtaposition editing. I felt like the way they used music, kept you on your toes and the suspense up and thats exactly how juxtaposition is supposed to be used.
 I felt like music played a really big part in the movie, I noticed that they used a lot of Scottish folk music throughout the film. For me while I watched it, it helped me to understand and feel what it must be like to live there and what the culture is like down there. I also felt the music was helping set up how the lottery was going to work for the main characters and how it changed from when they found the lottery ticket and decided to choose their plan, to how they lost it and ruined that chance of receiving the money. Also towards the end of the movie when the booth went flying into the air and it was heading towards the ground, the music started getting way more intense and louder and more dramatic. I liked how they did that to build the suspense and the moment up.
 There were a lot of interesting film structure takeaways from the movie, I felt like the inciting incident of the film was when they decided to make a plan to steal the lottery for their personal gain and pretend to be Ned. And the midpoint of the movie was when the lottery official came over to observe Ned, at that point the movie was about to take a plot twist down because the witch almost blew their cover, but she was going to go along with it if she got a share of the money along with the rest of the town. And than the climax of the film was when the priest hits the phone booth to avoid hitting the lottery officials vehicle and than the town was able to after that moment receive the earnings of the lottery.
 I thought this was a pretty good movie to follow overall, the way they correctly edited the movie I feel helped influence the plot and different structures in a positive way and I feel like thats very important in creating a great work on the big screen

The Godfather Analysis

Here is my breakdown of the the movie The Godfather:

 Overall I felt like this was a pretty good movie, I felt like the acting was very powerful and it was a great performance by those that produced, directed and acted and who made this movie what it was. It was a different take on how to protect your family and gave me a good understanding of how things probably were back than and in that kind of a town. Also I felt like it gave alot of good details about how undercover business goes between gangs or private parties/businesses and what people will do for their families and the measures that they will go to keep things running for their families. It was very interesting and informative.
 I felt like the main color in this movie was black, and you could tell those that wore black were part of a group or you could pick out who belonged together and who was in the same family. There were a lot of different colors in the movie that stood out to me that other groups wore where you could tell who was in a different clan and who were against the main family/clan. I felt like different from the movie Amadeus, the color red was significant for power in that movie, where in this movie is showed more violence obviously from all the blood that was shed and brought about. I felt like that was interesting to me as it gave me a different outlook on how colors can have different meanings in every movie.
I felt like the camera movements and the way they used them were really good. A couple things that stood out to me goes along with how shadowing was used. We talked about this in class but in that first scene when you cant even see the godfather and his clients eyes. In another movie that probably wouldn't have worked out so well because I feel like its important to be able to see the persons face because that's how you know what they are feeling and what is going on in that scene. I felt like the camera moved but was stationary when it needed to be, and those were in the intense, dramatic moments where there was alot of talking and dialogue going on, but in the moments where there was shooting and alot of commotion happening the camera moved to where you could see the whole picture of what was going on and who was involved. The big close up I noticed was when Michaels baby was getting baptized, because while that was going on it went up on his face and than you saw all the different killings and murders that were happening. So it helped you see what was probably going through his mind while that ceremony was going on, a little ironic actually.
 I felt like the big overall picture of the film was that family is important and you should do anything to protect them and the name of your family and the traditions that may go on. Maybe not to the extremes like michael did at the ending of the film. But I think the importance of the movie was that at all costs, even if its a big sacrifice you should do everything you can to protect and sustain your family and be there for them at all costs.