Journal #3: Notorious

For starters I would like to apologize for my post being so late. I was pressed for time and did not get it done. Anyways I choose the movie Notorious written and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I watched the movie and was completely blown away by the acting involved in it. The movie stars Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant along with Claude Rains.

Ingrid was a great actress during her time. She is probably best known for her performance in Casablanca. Which was not her favorite role of her entire career. She won many awards through out her acting career, including an Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony, and Emmy award. She was most likely picked for the part by Hitchcock because of the performance that she gave in a previous Hitchcock Film. She was a very versatile actress because she could play the lady in distress or the strong willed women that she played in Notorious. Her personal life became very public and constantly criticized by the public. At one point she even was denounced on the senate floor. She exiled herself to Italy. Where she made Italian films for a while. This was consider one of her Greatest roles.

Cary Grant stars as Devlin in this film. His real name is Archibald Leach. I feel like he was chosen for this role because of his unusual accent. He just sounds like the suave slick super spy you might expect to see as a secret agent. He is also a versatile actor. He has played in romantic comadies and action movies. He was born in England and Ian Flaming thought he was the perfect James Bond. He portrays a dark and mysterious agent who falls for Ingreds character.

Claude Rains plays the villian in Notorious. He is best known for his role as Renult in Casablanca. I think that he was casted for the part cause of his previous experience with Hitchcock. He won a variety of awards through out his life. He was known as a character actor. Meaning he took the part very seriously.

In my opinion the movie Notorious is good because of the actors and the chemistry they each bring to the silver screen, they mesh well with each other. Watch it! it is a great thriller for how old it is.

Stage coach

For my discussion I decided to pick the theme of how in Stagecoach the non reputable characters are the ones of end up keeping the whole crew alive. For example how Dallas the common whore ends up caring completely for Lucy's baby cause Lucy is to exhausted to do it herself. Dallas ends up looking like the respectable women and Lucy looks like the lazy up tight prissy. Ford the director was trying to portray the well known saying that "you can't judge a book by its cover" I feel like he did this really well with Dallas and even more with the Ringo Kid. At first the audience is supposed to think that the Kid is a bad guy and as the movie goes on the Kid shows us more and more that he is a guy that has a reason for his broken ways and that he is out to dish the justice that the law won't. Another great example of this is how the Doc is a drunk and is banished from his town but then ends up saving lucy during her birthing! I feel like Ford did this on purpose to show people that the bad thing about people is that they judge others to quickly. thank you and good night!

Journal #2: Pulp Fiction

I picked the movie Pulp Fiction off of Time's Great 1oo list. The reason I picked this movie over some of the other movies is because I have seen it before and I really enjoyed it. I also was looking forward to this particular journal because I could go more in depth with the movie i picked.

Pulp Fiction was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and Uma Thurman. Travolta and Jackson play two L.A. hit men. Willis plays a boxer and Uma is a Mob boss's wife.

The storyline is well all jumbled up. Which is well classic Tarantino. That is well one reason that makes this movie so amazing. He takes a story and shows the viewer all of the movie in a different sequence that is not chronologically correct. I would not go as far to say that the way he told the story is new but I will say that he definitely brought it back into mainstream culture. This movie is the second of Tarantino's films that he shows the movie out of sequence. The other being Reservoir Dogs. So plot wise the main story would have to be the story of Jewels (Jackson) and Vincent Vega (Travolta) and the things they had to go through to get this briefcase for their boss. The catch is what is inside the briefcase. You watch along waiting for a point to the movie or a lesson. But it never comes maybe that is why the movie is among the greats simply because it is different and it has been embedded into pop culture since.

The movie plot seems realistic and believable. The dialogue is real life and that is another aspect that helps the movie in twin itself into the modern movie era. The best part of the movie in my opinion is the acting. The chemistry that Travolta has with Jackson and Thurman is amazing. The cinematic aspects of the film are good as well. Tarantino uses longer lasting shots than most movies. the low angle shot of the Wolf is really cool. It makes him seem super powerful.

I sugest if anybody likes a new and different movie experince I would watch Pulp Fiction!