Cord Strike

Because we are getting into movies that are beginning to use music as an integral part of the whole film and less as filler, or a ruse to dampen solely visual stimuli, I feel the need to express my great appreciation of the appropriate and exact art of using and creating music for film. I have believed for a long time that music is the life blood, the ever beating heart of a movie. It can make or break a film. It makes a good film great, and an okay film good. I see music almost visually. The sound waves ripple off the screen, and fuse with our body’s chemistry, affecting our mood to the drama, action, or comedy. The music manipulates our senses. I believe all movies try for realism, the good ones, and mostly dramatic ones, aim for this achievement. A filmmaker strives to recreate a feeling in a scene by use of angles, lighting, color, sound, etc., but especially music. It twangs for everyone, and can help recreate the atmosphere of a scene it is trying evoke. Music tells us about a character as much or more than watching this person. It gets us into their head, their mood, their personality comes through. To use a few examples of effective use of music, music created for the film, original score, two obvious films come to mind, There Will Be Blood, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The first few minutes of There Will Be Blood, has no dialogue, we only see the main character working hard, and a few of his workers. The only real clue to this type of character is the music. It is orchestrated beautifully by Jonny Greenwood, and leaves an eerie unpredictable quality that rattles of Daniel Plainview, the main character portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis. Musicians usually create themes for the main characters, something that is uniquely theirs, just like a personality. And Greenwood created this with a loud, constant, note, one that tells me of Plainview’s stubbornness, and unpredictable quirkiness. This note forces goose bumps, and hair to stand on end; all this from just a note. In the Assassination of Jesse James, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis use a similar technique for Jesse James. Another thing these composers do effectively to help transport us is the type of instruments, and the way they use them. How they arrange the music resembles the time. There Will Be Blood and The Assassination of Jesse James are both period films. And I feel like I am there because of the arrangement of music. But this doesn’t mean that a film’s music can only be good if it is original, and created for the film. Tarantino has only used one original song for his films, every other song has been created for some other reason, or for another film. He uses Ennio Morricone, who wrote the score for the dollars trilogy and several other westerns, for the Kill Bill volumes, and Inglourious Basterds. And his effect is great. But also, in all the films mentioned, is the importance, and underrated use of silence. Knowing when to not use music.

Fuzzy Wuzzy

I was impressed with a number of things Babyface had to offer. First, it empowers women. And as cliché as that sounds, I do not know how else to say it. It shows that women have power men do not. Especially in the time the film was made. Women were best seen as house wives, and care takers, there to take care of men, and somewhat frowned upon for wanting to pursue a career. Babyface breaks all norms. She is sarcastic, sassy, strong minded, and confident. She can also hold her drink, and is quite promiscuous. The American dream radiates from her core, to make life better for herself by any means necessary. An ideal that follows along with every gangster film we have seen. Her weapons of choice are her lady gifts: beauty, confidence, and the willingness to put-out. You could say she follows a code, a code laid out by Nietzsche. Nietzsche was a philosopher from the late eighteen hundreds. His work inspired two brothers to create The Matrix. Nietzsche wrote that “the strongest and highest Will to Life does not find expression in a miserable struggle for existence, but in a Will to War. A Will to Power, a Will to Overpower! (Fieser 364) ” Babyface takes this to heart, she lives life devoid of emotion, relying on her ability to overpower any man by her beauty and sheer will to succeed. I noticed that she only accomplishes the things she does because she wants to. She only does it because she wills herself to do it; to manipulate and use men to better her lifestyle. And she never sways from this idea. She does everything she does because she wants to, because she wants to do it that way. And throughout the movie she shows evidence of a mental wall. This wall is shown by her apparent inability to care, or be affect by the murder and suicide of two men she bamboozled. Only at the end of the movie does she decide to love. And she is only able to do this because she wills herself. It is important to note what kind of man does this for her. From the start, I thought to myself “Who will tickle her fancy?” And in the end I was given an answer. It was a man who accepted her as she was and knew without being told the number of unladylike things she has done. He was a man who saw through her act, and still loved her. Once she realized this she was able to love him, to release that wall that got her where she was. She also proved her love when she found him after a batched suicide attempt. An ambulance comes for him and she sits in the back with her man, not caring about the half a million that spilled all over the floor. But I have to say I wish they would have gone with a stronger end. I mean yah she doesn’t care that the diamonds and money spilled everywhere, but that is all it did. She didn’t give it away, she didn’t lose it and not care, she only spilled the contents, and remarks, “It doesn’t matter now”. She still has half a million, but that might go to the bank to help out her man. Who knows.

One Pint of Blood

The gangster is an iconic American symbol, especially in film. When a film’s story involves a crime, more often than not, gangsters are involved. This brings credibility to the story line, because without this figure, the audience would not believe a crime could be committed without veterans. We are progressively demanding more and more realism for our movies. In other words, we are waiting for credibility. Hands down, the best gangster film we have seen so far has been Scarface. And I can’t help but compare this classic gangster film with a more modern crime classic, Reservoir Dogs. I chose this comparison to show how gangster portrayals have not changed in sixty years. Their look may change, or the way they talk, but their overall motivation, suspicion, and moral code have swayed very little in over six decades. A gangster’s motivation is created by greed, the need to get ahead, roughly a skewed idea of the American dream. Tony, in Scarface, follows this pattern, so much so that he takes his boss’s job, and girl. In Reservoir Dogs greed is represented in numerous ways. One being the need to live. I remember one scene when they are discussing taking lives. They something along the lines of “I’m no maniac, but one way or the other, you’re getting out of my way. The choice between doing ten years, and taking out some stupid m*****f****r, ain’t no choice at all”. They are willing to kill whoever, cop, civilian, friend, in order to see their own survival through. As the quote says, there is no honor among thieves. What I also noticed in both films was how they spoke to each other. They talk about girls, stories they have heard, and joke around. It is possible to have comedy in a drama, it just has to be placed in at the right time, and flow organically. Now, because of 1930’s motion picture production code, in order for a film to be released it has to adhere to somewhat interpretable guidelines (does anybody remember the scene from Aviator?). Because of this code films could show deaths in limited ways. Because of this code Scarface had to be shot the way it was; with silhouette killing, shot on either killer or victim, never both. This reminded me greatly of Reservoir Dogs. To those who have seen it, when I say “The Ear Scene”, you know what I am talking about. You never see the ear cut off, the camera pans to the side as if not wanting to witness what is happening. I also remember when Mr. Orange, and Mr. White steal a car, the lady inside shoots Mr. Orange in the gut, but we don’t see gun and belly in the same shot. Overall the endings are similar also. The greed and suspicion that choked them led to their untimely deaths, showing little change in gangster demeanor, motivation, and morals that have been instilled in American society since the first gangster flick, way back when.