I am thinking about the final scene of the movie we watched this week. The movie was "Blow Out" and the scream that was used for making a movie was the controversial subject. I don't think that it was heartless for using the woman's scream in the movie after what happened to her. He obviously showed that he cared about her by his expression when watching the scene involving the scream play through. I don't exactly know what i would do if i were in his shoes, but i don't think that people should immediately say that he is heartless and wrong for using her scream in the film he was working on. Is it completely permissable to use her scream? no. Is it completely heartless? depends on his use of it, and his mindset when using it.
To the plotline. The basic theme for this movie (SPOILER!!!!) is about political corruption. The lengths that people go through to ruin a man's attempt at becoming a public official are gigantic. People also using other people to get what they want (money 99% of the time) is something chimed on throughout the movie. There are definitely heartless people out there in the world (and some mindless psychos). I would like to believe the world is a great and faultless place, but it's impossible to be that way with the way people think and act. Selfishness. That is the main catalyst for the actions of people who perform these type of acts... If people were not selfish, the world would be an amazing place. It's kind of depressing. People are selfish, but I don't think we should jump to assume that people are heartless. Selfishness and heartlessness (to me) are two different things. Selfishness comes first, but there is a gap between the two. Heartlessness is much worse than just being selfish, not to say that being selfish is ok by any means. This is getting me upset. I am gonna take a 15 min break to relax.
Ok i'm back. Selfishness is the root of the actions of almost every actor in the movie (part from John Travolta and the woman whose name is alluding me at the moment). This movie (Blow Out) does shine a light on how selfish people can be. Not only selfishness but also how naive people can be. People were walking 10 feet from a woman getting pushed around by a creepy man, yet didn't notice it.
I liked this movie. I get to the point where i can't focus on the worksheet in front of me, and get too into the plot and action of a movie to do the work and see the transitions and techniques used throughout the movie. One scene that i did take notice of, was when the main woman was being forced upon by what was her friend who was also her partner. The camera kept rolling from being eye level, to moving to be directly overhead the two actors, which then zoomed out to reveal the whole scene. I thought that the scene was really creative and i wouldn't mind trying to use that type of technique in our short film.
That's that. Peace people.
p.s. Don't be selfish. seriously, it's not cool.
The movie was pretty upsetting to me as well. I enjoyed the plot and the shots and whatnot, but the underlying ideas of corruption and selfishness are something that Americans blatantly choose to ignore in most cases (in my opinion). As I've said on some other people's blogs, I can't imagine walking by and seeing someone in trouble, i.e. being attacked, and just pretending I did see or hear anything.
ReplyDeleteIt's so cool how De Palma uses these very overt camera techniques -- ones that call attention to themselves -- in order to keep us from looking away, and force us to see things we might not want to watch.
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