9/11

Hey everyone.  I had actually started a post called 'O How The Hatred Floweth' which was about Iowa's rivalry with Iowa State.  But after watching the coverage for 9/11, I felt that it was inappropriate because we're all Americans and an insignificant and superficial football game can't change that we are united on this day.

I promise not to post my 9/11 experience every year, but seeing as this is the 10th anniversary, I feel that I need it. 

It was just after my 16th birthday.  Our first block of the day was marching band, and since we used blocks (instead of periods) the choir came out to the marching band field for the last 45 minutes.  One of the guys in my section told us that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Centers.  At first I thought it was something like the airplane that had crashed into the ski lifts in Italy back in 1998, which to my recollection was the first time I had ever heard of a plane going down.

I went out for the rest of the block with this feeling that nothing but an accident had occurred.  I had gone to New York many times before 2001.  My mom had frequent business trips there.  If I could take a guess how many times a year she went, I would go with something like 30ish.  She was there a lot.  When I was 11, she took me to the top of the WTC... I believe it was the north building.  But, we went to the top on September 11, 1996.  The picture of me across the NYC skyline sits in a frame, and it's an eerie feeling knowing that I'm here but no one will be able to take a shot from that spot ever again.

So anyway, I came back into the school building to see, live, the second plane go into the south tower.  Thinking back to it now, I don't know what I thought or felt then.  Confused?  I was just so confused who would want to do this.  Watching the wide shot of the towers... they looked small on TV, and the thought that humans were in there was hard to even compute.

It wasn't until the south tower collapsed that I remembered that my mom was leaving from Chicago to go to NYC that day.  I started to panic a little and called him.  To my surprise she picked up the phone and I told her that I thought she was going to New York.  She said that she was supposed to, but the trip had been canceled early that morning.  This is my only physical connection to the disaster.  But emotionally, I was a wreck.  In school we were supposed to go to class, which most did, but I sat in the band room and cried.

It was heart wrenching to watch people jump from 100+ floors in desperation.  For me, those are the images seared into my memory... people who had families - husbands, wives, children... taking a chance that they may survive a 1,000+ ft. drop to the ground.  Some holding hands as they went.

As the days unfolded and more was learned about the events surrounding the attacks, it was amazing the kind of patriotism that followed.  My family sent supplies and gifts off to the troops ready to attack in the Middle East (to this day, I'm not really sure who is "the good guys" and "the bad guys).  The school had an extra blood drive, and throughout the rest of the year, the attacks and patriotism were mentioned in speeches and classrooms.  So to me, if Al-Qaeda's objective was to strike fear and topple our country into disarray, I was say that they made a severe miscalculation because I don't think a sense of national unity had been harnessed like that since World War II.

Today after I was coming home from my soccer game, I noticed just how beautiful it was outside.  A nice, comfortable 81 degrees... slight breeze, and a clear blue sky.  As I drove past the changing corn fields, I felt like this is what New York must have been like that day.  Beautiful, without a care in the world.  When I got home, I realized how lucky and blessed I am to have my family.  And you should be too.

So, here is my weekly blog.

The Royal Tenenbaums

I'm pretty terrible, and I didn't go to this movie in class.  But since I had seen it a while ago, I bought Netfix (the free trial) to find that Tenenbaums was definitely not available for screening.  The public library had it also checked out.  The school library keeps all the movies we watch on reserve and can't be checked out.  So, I advertise through status on Facebook if anyone had a copy that I could borrow for the night.  But instead of waiting for a reply, I just go ahead and rent it on iTunes... to find out that 2 people in town own the movie.

But the movie itself was as awesome as it was the first time.  I never really noticed how symmetrical almost every shot is.  Then when action is taking place on one side of the screen it becomes very noticeable.  One scene that comes to mind is when Royal is telling Etheline that he's dieing.  But, there's just too much to love in this movie for me to really explain it here :)

On The Waterfront

Holy freakin' WOW is this movie good.  I mean, I've seen Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, as Vito Corleone in The Godfather and (giggle) Jor-El in Superman... but nothing compares even close to Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront.  He just.... just... *swoon*... is awesome.  That and I'm a big fan of North by Northwest and had no idea that this was Eva Marie Saint's first movie.  She did an amazing job as well.  Definitely deserved the Academy for Supporting Actress that year.

Fun fact (according to my TA):  Elia Kazan was close to being black listed for making this film.  It had some communist sentiments in it... and of course this movie was made during the McCarthy era.  So, he apparently ratted out some of his workers or whoever, and got off the list.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Ohhhh what to say about this movie.  If you're reading this, you probably already know all about this one.  But, here is my short one pager I wrote.

After Harrison Ford’s iconic role in the first two of the Star Wars Trilogy (1977 and 1980), he starred in the action packed blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).  This time teaming up with George Lucas, serving as producer, and Steven Spielberg, who had recently finished acclaimed movies Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Blues Brothers (1980).  With all these elements within one movie, it’s easy to see that the adventures of Indiana Jones are a sure moneymaker.  

To me, I feel like the movie was marketed, according to the formulas given in class, as “It’s like Han Solo going treasure hunting.”  It’s almost like the ultimate man’s-man’s movie, without the sex.  The movie poster has everything revolving around Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford).  The other characters flank him on either side, and even the Ark helps frame him.  As for Ford himself, he is standing in an authoritative stance, shirt open, cracking a whip, all with a swashbuckler grin on his face.  Not to mention that his satchel points down to his crotch.  This is probably gearing toward a younger audience.  Contrary to another Indiana Jones poster in which Ford is directly stern faced toward the spectator and little scenes from the movie are miniaturized on the bottom.  This is probably aiming toward the Classical Hollywood audience.

As for the movie itself, the first 10 minutes tell us all about Indiana Jones in a very action packed way.  We learn that he is an adventurer who knows the sound of a gun being cocked.  We also know that he must go to hidden temples a lot since he knows a lot of the mechanics of booby traps.  Lastly, we find out that another explorer who ends up taking much of his bounty constantly stalks him.  Audiences also like stories that they have heard of in “the real world” (which is why I think comic book movies are making a big hit now), which is why the movie is probably called “the Lost Ark”.  Most people would probably think of Noah’s Ark, but probably some have heard of the Ark of the Covenant from the Bible.  I think that this maybe helped play into the high conceptness of the movie.

However, I think what does it for me is Marion, even though the movie isn’t marketed toward her.  She has a strong intelligent and fiery female presence that was starting to explicitly come out in movies during this time.  

Extra movies for the week:

I didn't have work on Monday for Labor Day, so I finished watching Howl's Moving Castle on Wednesday.  

Million Dollar Baby

I had borrowed this from my aunt back in June and still hadn't watched it.  So on Friday I felt like it was time.  And wow, did Hilary Swank really deserve the Best Actress Academy that year.  She did an outstanding job.  I had also seen Flags of Our Fathers by Clint Eastwood but felt that the tone and feel of Million Dollar Baby was more personable.  I think the lighting he used was well used.  One that I liked was the low key lighting when he was thinking about taking Swank as a student.  Even though I thought I was going to cry more in the movie, I think if I didn't know what was going to happen, I probably would have.  

One thing that just rings true to me in the movie is when Swank buys the house for her mother and the mother just FREAKS OUT!!  It's so true and how ungrateful some people can be.  And really how lazy some people can be too.  Uck... get a job.  

Flight 93

Even though I can get over emotional about movies, I decided to give the A&E movie a try.  Yeah I cried.  The movie was directed by Peter Markle.  Even though he's not some huge director there are aesthetic parts of the film that I really appreciated.  One was the use of semi-long takes.  It really helped with the intensity of the movie.  Another was the use of canted angles.... really helped with the disorientation of the passengers.  I don't think I need to go into too much detail of the movie since I think a lot of us know what happened on United Flight 93.  If you don't... it one of the most heroic acts ever.  A quote I used on FB today is:

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. -Elmer Davis

Go Hawks!

Well everyone, just like most undergrads here at the U, I am totally stoked for the football season!  We won our first game against Tennessee Tech and we have our instate rivals this weekend - Iowa State (boo, hiss).  I plan to post a picture of my weekly posters I make for work, but I will have to put the Tennessee Tech one in the next post.

As for school this is what we watched:

Children of Men

I'm sure most of us have seen it already.  However, what is fun to do is compare a director's work across genres.  In this case, Alfonso Cuarón likes the one shot with intricate choreography.  In Children of Men there is a lengthy shot of Clive Owen running through the refugee camp and dodging bullets - probably the best known and most obvious one in the movie.  In Prisoner of Azkaban this takes place while Harry is walking out of the Dursley's and encounters Sirius for the first time (spoiler alert!!)  Something that I also like is the personal qualities Cuarón brings to movies such as Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men... both of which have the qualities to make the audience uncomfortable.  Even though Luisa is having sex with some pretty young (and borderline legal) boys, Julio and Tenoch, the audience still received a certain comfort through Luisa's story and the story of Mexico surrounding the trio's road trip.  As for Children of Men, the uncomfortable level shoots SKY HIGH through the story's dystopia.  And while we're dreading living in a world that can no longer conceive children, there is a sense of hope that Kee will reach the Human Project in time to save the human race (at the end the sound of children laughing can be heard.... which is up for interpretation).

SO ANYWAY, seeing as Children of Men is a loaded movie in itself, I hope that the world will never end up like it does in the movie.

The Third Man

I'm pretty sure that I have half myself to blame but I blame the other half on the room we're stuck in to watch our Wednesday night feature.  But, I designed a great ballroom gown during this movie.  I actually really tried to get into at least the first 3 rows, but got stuck in the 5th.  Yeah that sounds pretty terrible, but I did catch some of the movie.

The Third Man is a great film noir which is known for its excellent work in cinematography.  For those of you who don't really know the difference between a producer, a cinematographer, a graffer, a best boy, a grip and all the millions of other jobs that scroll past during the credits.... I don't exactly know what a lot of them do either, but what I do know is that it is (more or less) a cinematographer's job to filter in one ear what the director's (or writer's) vision and mood of a scene is and out the other is creating the scene through lighting, camera angles, the foresight for special effects and all that jazz.  And what a Director of Photography does.... well I'm pretty sure he's the cinematographer's boss.  Ya know, I could just go Wikipedia all this and just straight out tell you, but I'm blogging about my learning process and here you have it.

So, The Third Man.... very fun and suspenseful film noir about a man (Orson Welles) who faked his death and hid about post WWII Vienna.  Well the girl causes the problems because the man is in love with her, but he faked his own death because he gave some wrong vaccines to some children... which is sad.  Anyway, as for learning about cinematography through this movie, I caught an abnormal amount of canted (or Dutch) angles, which is when the camera is tilted a little to create a confused feel.  .... and extreme high and lows.... well sue me for drawing because I can't see the film in this blasted room we have to sit in!!

Lastly, since I have to write a one page reflection on every movie we watch for my Contemporary Cinema class I'll just repost it here...

Mean Streets

The movie Mean Streets (1973), directed by Martin Scorsese, takes place in the streets of Little Italy in New York City.  It tells the story of Charlie (Harvey Keitel) and his friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) as they try to work up the ranks of the Mafia.  Charlie, known for his straight antics and debt collecting, ends up trapped by his commitment to Johnny, who owes money to multiple people.  Adding to Charlie’s anxiety is his love for Johnny’s cousin Teresa who has been ostracized due to her condition with epilepsy.

According to this weeks article, “The Sacraments of Genre: Coppola, DePalma, Scorsese”, Leo Braudy claims Scorsese as “the director who most thematizes his own authority even while he explores the final and perhaps most pervasive aspect of the intersection of Catholicism” especially within the “structure of sainthood”[25].  While I think that being a saint includes acts of selflessness and martyrdom for a justifiable cause (like Charlie’s love for his friends), Braudy says the saint in Mean Streets is Johnny due to his “self-sufficient isolation from the normal world”[25].

Braudy continues with Scoreses’ conscience authority over his work by saying “[he] considers the formal self-questioning of his own authority and complicity to be part of the story he tells” [26].  I feel that this is Scoreses’ way of asserting his authority and artistry into a movie by dramatically altering a story.  As Braudy points out that he is the gunman in the back seat of Michael’s car that shoots down Johnny and in essence ruins Charlie’s chances of hiding what is precious to him (Johnny and Teresa) and moving up the ranks of the Mafia.  For someone who is thought of as the creative mastermind behind a work, it’s interesting that a creator should kill his creation.  

So, on top of my required viewings of the week, I caught a few extracurriculars.  

The Big Lebowski

F-in' hilarious.  I never know Jeff Bridges could be so funny.  Dude, Dude, Dude... if you haven't seen this, it's great.  .... I really don't want to put anything in here to ruin the movie for you, but please... please go see it!!

probably one of my favorite scenes!!

Howl's Moving Castle

Just beautiful.  It's a beautiful story and it's beautifully animated.  There is a part where Sophie cries in agony and I couldn't help but cry with her... which made me take a step back (at work) and wonder how a very obvious animated movie could make me feel like that.  Which then made me wonder why any movie makes me feel the way I do since it's just moving images on a screen... which made me wonder why the heck I'm theorizing about this in the first place.  But I digress... The story itself, at least to me, is about the value of love over hate.  and you should just watch it.  

Metropolis

I went on a little Anime binge this week.  I think this one also has a great underlining story.  That if emotional humans depends on emotionless robots (or technology), we will end up with an emotionless world that sees itself better of that way.  This will sound ironic or hypocritical or what have you, but humans don't need to replace themselves with technology.... says the girl writing a blog on the internet.  But seeing robots function independently from humans is a little nerve racking to me... think HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.  But beggers can't be choosers and I think Metropolis is a good movie that depicts this conflict.  

That and Fitz Lang used the Japanese novel of the same name for his silent movie Metropolis.  :)

   

well, that's about it for me.  I'm currently in the middle of watching Castle season 2 even though I've already seen it.  and I still want Castle and Beckett to have babies, but at something like season 10.