Urban stories response

what is the importance of mine en scene and/or sound in creating meaning and generating response in your chosen films?

i believe that mise-en-scene and sound is very important when it comes to trying to show the meaning of each film and more importantly some of the issues it represents.

a strong scene to use when it comes to the meaning to a film is during 'La Haine' during one scene in a bathroom that starts with the characters as being fractured and separate due to the shot showing vinz and said separated from hubert from the edge of a mirror and that perhaps shows immediately how fractured these friends are from a really simple shot which is then backed up by the following diegetic conversation as its revealed that Vinz and Hubert are currently at ends and then after a few moments in the scene an old man exits one of the cubicles and leaps into a story about how his friend was left behind in the Serbian ice flats because he had made fun of him so much that he felt the need to leave the area that people look after each other (just as vinz and hubert have done for the entire film) and how this had cost him his friend as when the train left he had try and grab the guys hand but every time he does he drops his trousers meaning he can't catch up and get on the train. this to me really shows of the relationship of Vinz and hubert as they are constantly pushing each other further away from the other with their actions and it seems to represent the inevitability of their final fate during the film is a result of this desperate up and down struggle between them which is a deeper meaning to all urban stories which is the inevitability of a downfall or an inability to escape from both physical and mental stops.

this idea of the inevitability of the inability to escape pops up in basically all of the urban stories. Perhaps the most obvious that this idea shows up is in 'City of God' as each character doesn't ever escape besides Rocket. First time this shows up is during shaggy and bernice attempting there escape and it results in shaggy getting killed and bernice supposedly escapes however a visual shows she simply drives off into, as the camera pulls out showing an extreme long shot, what appears to be a never ending maze of the early favelas. Later during one scene that Lil Ze looks over the bosses of the drug trade around the new slums we see a quick glance of bernice still stuck in the slums and still dating a criminal, she is never seen again and appears to be another of the characters that just fades into the background and disappears just literally walks away and supposedly becomes a priest.

(title pending mk II)

toon town

fade in:

1. EXT. CITY STREET

Downtown American city, Man (heavy boots, black jeans, shirt ((top button open)) loose tie, waistcoat, long trench coat [this is Dante])he is walking towards the camera, head dropped, seems powerful, people passing at low intervals seem less collected, more closed in

DANTE (V.O)

Its another dark night, reckon he's

 getting ready to kill again, he likes 
the night, always the same, rich 

guys found dead in they homes, no sign
of forced entry, no sign of a struggle
just dead guys full of holes. Another one
called in, business owners, billionaires,
moving up in the world, he's never done
anything this bold before.

Dante reaches a drab looking high rise set of apartments, police tape cordons off the area and police cars are lined down the street, lights shining, officers hold back the growing number of people that   are building at the cordon line, Dante looks up at the face of the building before walking inside. 

FADE TO

2. INT. APARTMENT BUILDING

Reaches a door that has similar police tape to outside which dante rips down with a single move and steps inside, its a large spacious room thats well decorated, expensive looking leather chairs and couch surrounding a glass topped coffee table which has a number of files, some open and some closed, bodies sit slumped in the chairs blood pooling around their feet and in the chairs, an officer moves between them taking notes in a small notebook as he moves between the bodies.

DANTE (V.O)

Must have been quick, too many of them

are still sitting, how does he do it?

Dante moves into a side room, smaller than the first, obviously a bedroom, a single male body sits against the wall almost hidden between a small bedside cabinet and a large wardrobe, a telephone receiver can be seen still clutched in his hand. Dante crouches beside him

DANTE (V.O)

tried to call for help, this never

happened before, maybe the killer

finally took too much.

FEMALE OFFICER

He's the one that called this in.

Dante rises and turns at the new voice, revealed to be an extremely attractive female in a police uniform, she stands in the doorway framed by the light from the first room. 

DANTE

Never seen you before, you new?

FEMALE OFFICER

Yes sir

DANTE

Call me Dante.

Fade out

Fade in

3. INT. POLICE EVIDENCE ROOM

A stark looking room,a table stands in the middle of the room and along one wall is a large map of the city, case notes border the map, Dante's coat is gone and his shirt sleeves are rolled up, he leans against the wall with his arms crossed.

DANTE (V.O)

No pattern to it, strange, that word

is becoming too present in this case,

how does he choose, how does he find

them, theres never any logical choice

behind them, random crime then, too 

close each time to be too random, same

type of people, how does he get in

without breaking in, do they all know

him, what am i missing?

An officer enters

MALE OFFICER >1

We got another one, and we got a problem.

DANTE

What is it?

MALE OFFICER >1

Its the Commissioner, he's the victim.

Dante grabs out for his coat and places his gun back in its holster before sprinting out of the room. 

Harsh cut 

4. INT. COMMISSIONER'S LIVING ROOM

Huge open room, everything appears expensive and is spaced out, on the small coffee table in the middle of the room two glasses sit, both hold whiskey and three ice cubes a piece, a heavy set man lies face down on the floor beside the table, blood pools around him soaking into the lavish carpet beneath him.

DANTE (V.O)

Damn, the commissioner, whats the link, 

need to look into this, need to figure

this out before more die, i got enough blood

on my hands.

A large crash can be heard from upstairs, Dante throws off his coat and pulls his gun from a holster that hangs just below his arm and sprints out of the room.

Jump cut

Dante slowly moves down a hallway gun outstretched, as he moves past each doorway he opens the door slowly and briefly checks the room beyond from the doorway before reaching a final slightly ajar door at the end of the hall and a flash of movement through the space between the door and the frame that Dante reacts to this and moves to the door slowly pushing it open and moving in quickly revealing the female officer from previously, she sits against a wall dazed and confused and a slight cut above her eye, the window is broken and the room is a wreck. Dante moves to crouch beside the officer who breaths heavily.

DANTE

What happened here?

FEMALE OFFICER

I was following up with the commissioner

and i came up here to grab some old files 

for him, i heard the shots and was about 

to run down when the guy comes through and hits 

me on the head before going out the window, i 

called it in and was trying to get down to you

when i fell, guess he got me better than i

thought

DANTE
Its ok i got you, lets get you out
of here.

Dante picks her up and walks outside, the officer in the front room isn't seen and so Dante passes through the open door and down the corridor.

Jump Cut

5.INT. EVIDENCE ROOM
Return to the evidence room from previous, evidence has been added to the large map and the table, Dante's coat is back on the chair but his gun remains holstered, he is leaning over the table not saying a word and occasionally looking up at the large map and transferring bits and pieces around. after a minute the same male officer as earlier enters followed by another man (this is the Captain), well dressed but looks tired, carries a coffee mug that he fills slightly from a flask before drinking deeply from it.

CAPTAIN

Tell me you got something, i got

every other captain in the city 

clambering down my throat for 

information on who's killed the 

commissioner.

DANTE

We're still looking into it, we 

got all the evidence we could but 

we're just waiting for that rookie

to give us a description of the perp 

cause she saw him before he took her 

down.

CAPTAIN

What rookie?

DANTE

The new girl, she said it was

her first case.

CAPTAIN

Detective, we don't have a female

officer, no precinct does

DANTE stands and looks at the board before looking at the captain, realisation dawns on his face and he sprints from the room, the captain jumping aside and the male officer running to follow.

jump cut

6.INT.HOSPITAL WARD

Dante runs to the information desk located in the middle and an attractive nurse (overly sexualised) is working behind the desk. she looks up and smiles  at Dante.

DANTE

Hey doll, which room is the 

female officer in, she was brought 

in earlier, head wound.

NURSE

She's was in room 404,

she was feeling better earlier

DANTE

Thanks

He runs off down the hallway barging past patients before stopping at a clear door, the view is blocked by blinds and painted 404 is seen on the door, He slides the door open and steps inside, the room seems untouched but the window is wide open, a breeze playing with the thin curtains, he looks at the bed and all the sheets are messed up but theres a neatly folded police uniform on it and a piece of paper folded just once on top of it, Dante checks the room carefully before picking up the piece of paper and opening it, the audience can see what it says "Third street, building 6, Apartment 506, the truth is there, lock code 0451" 

DANTE

Damn it

Fade cut

7.INT. APARTMENT BUILDING.

Dante stands at the door to apartment 506, he breathes deeply for a moment before reaching for a lock on the door and  twisting its dials until it clicks open, he slides the locks apart and slowly pushes the door open, he enters slowly and pushes the door shut, the apartment is nicely decorated however on one wall theres a large amount of pictures and wire connecting pieces together as well as to documents that are of differentiating length and detail. Dante moves  up to it and begins reading deeply 

DANTE

jesus, what were these guys up to?

The female officer enters but this time is dressed in a revealing red dress, her black hair hangs over one shoulder (This is VERA), Dante turns and pulls his gun and extends it towards her, tensed.

DANTE 

Why? Why did you do it?

VERA

Why? They didn't give me much of a

choice, they took that from me the 

day they decided to burn everything

i loved to the ground, my husband was

a cop, like you, headstrong, good at 

his job, could figure a criminal with 

only a scrap of evidence, he was onto 

something big one day, those business men 
were killing there way through anyone who
found out about their plans

DANTE
And what was there plan?

VERA
They were trying to take over the city.
The commissioner was using his power to 
promote Dean Delaney into power as mayor 
then they were gonna control the city and do
as they wish, drugs, gambling, anything they 
wanted to do they could do it and hide
behind the mayor and thats if the 
commissioner didn't destroy the evidence
My Johnny was getting close to finally getting
them before the commissioner sold him out.

DANTE
Im sorry, but that doesn't excuse what
you did, you should have come to the police.

VERA
I Tried, the commissioner sold me out
and then one of them tried to kill me,
so i ended up having to kill him to 
stop him, then i just wanted to get them
to be sorry for my Johnny.

Vera steps close  to Dante slowly lowering his gun with one hand and pressing herself into him.

VERA

You really do remind me of him, the

only detective who cares.

Vera pushes closer to Dante and kisses him.

FADE OUT

FADE IN

Dante awakes in a bed, alone, he seems confused, he sits up and looks around, he dresses and moves into the other room, the same as earlier with the evidence board, its dismantled now and all thats left is a single photo of a man, he appears to be well dressed but also a sense of show business hangs over him (This is DEAN). A note is pinned to the wall beside it, Dante reaches out and pulls this free and reads, after a while he folds it up and places it in his pocket.

DANTE (V.O)

Damn, should have known, she's going

after him right now, just wanted me out 

the way, gotta reach her in time, she's 

leaving town as soon as he's dead, the 

last piece of the puzzle. How could i 

have been so stupid?

8.INT. BAR/CLUB

Dante run in through the door, the club is empty except for a tough looking guy (sleeves rolled up shirt, trousers, rough New York accent) cleaning glasses behind the bar, he glances at Dante noticing the badge connected to his belt.

BARMAN

How can i help detective?

DANTE

Delaney, where is he?

BARMAN

Back office, but he's entertaining a broad
back there, Damn shame, she's too fine for
the likes of him.

DANTE 
Thanks.

Dante walks to the door and tries it, its locked. he turns his head back slightly so only the side of his head is seen.

DANTE

you gonna unlock the door.

BARMAN

Cant do that detective.

DANTE

i asked nicely.

Dante takes a step back, pulls his gun free and then drives a boot into the door breaking it free from its hinges. stepping inside we see Vera is stood over Delaney (A young looking man with slicked back, expensive suit, top button loose, wears sunglasses despite the low key lighting)who is sat in a comfortable leather chair but is facing the wall with an unblinking stare, sweat drips from him.

VERA

He's the last one, theres no

point trying to stop me.

DANTE

i have to stop you, all you had

to do was trust me and we could

have brought him to justice.

VERA

and what let him go free a 

few years from now

DANTE

thats not the truth and you

know it.

VERA

Doesn't matter anymore

Vera tenses.

FADE OUT

Gunshot followed rapidly by a second gunshot

FADE IN

Dante walks alone down a street, identical to the first scene.

DANTE (V.O)

This city corrupts everyone.

In the end, its just how

you channel it.

FADE TO CREDITS

Presentation script

Speaker: the anti hero. as rick Altman in Film/genre  said that the definition is someone who "bucks authority" (item 4) and no one portrays this idea better than the Legend Clint Eastwood. now Eastwood has exclusively portrayed the anti hero and in fact has almost set the standard for today's hero. by the way, spoilers ahead....just saying. starting with one of his most famous scenes films "Dirty Harry" (source 1) in which Eastwood portrays a San Francisco cop searching for an Insane killer and it starts to show his way down a dark path which almost points towards Callahan being as bad a character as the movies villain.

Scene: The bank robbery scene (00:11:00-00:15:00)(item 1)

Speaker: you can see from this scene that Callahan opens fire in the middle of a crowded street to stop bank robbers in the middle of the day rather than wait for back up, which he was perfectly happy to do until the gun is fired, and then when asked if he has run out of bullets he points his gun at the unarmed injured criminal and pulls the trigger, whether he knows if the gun was loaded or not he would have happily out right murdered the criminal without a second thought and while you may believe that the criminal deserved to be killed as he is a criminal however he is often reprimanded throughout the film for not following correct procedure.

Scene: the jumper scene (00:30:50-00:33:03)(Item 1)

Speaker:  Now this scene shows Harry to stop a potential suicide not by talking him down but by telling him about the "mess it would make on the sidewalk and how bad it would make him look in front of his captain" and then when the jumper attempts to fall Callahan knocks him out and simply carries him down to the ground. now even though this entire scene is literally showing harry tot be doing a good thing, that is saving a life, he literally assaults the guy  which is obviously a bad way to do it as the guy can literally seen to be hanging from the lift on the way dow which is not safe as the guy could have fell at any point anyway and so he does bad to achieve his goals and that perhaps the anti hero view, doing good with the guise of bad.

Scene: Football stadium Scene (01:08:30-01:10:24)(item 1)

Speaker: Callahan shoots a suspect in the leg before promptly torturing him for information on the location of a kidnap victim which for obvious reasons is very far from the actions of a hero however his intentions are good in that the victim is slowly suffocating and he needs to find her. The criminals screams can obviously be heard for a long time while the shot slowly zooms out. now this really has some moments that obviously are bad while also being semi good, for instance Callahan shoots the guy in the leg even after he has stopped due to Callahan's previous shouted order and the suspect is completely un armed which Callahan can obviously see which means that knowing that that the suspect is surrendering and that he is unarmed harry still shoots him, granted its in the leg which isn't as bas as killing the guy straight up however Callahan did need something from him namely the dying girl which begs the question, Would Callahan have straight off killed the suspect if he hadn't have been looking to save the girl?

Scene: Final showdown scene (01:38:40-01:41:31)(item 1)

Speaker: Finally Callahan fires at the main villain while he's holding a young child as a human child and the bullet hits the criminal only a few centimeters from where the child's head is.
all of this points towards the general attitude of this supposed hero that constantly breaks or bends the rules in order to get his job done and even goes as far as to symbolically throws away his detective badge at the end of the film which implies that he has given up on the law being the way to stop the criminal element and instead he needs to take it personal.

documentary: Dirty Harrys way (item 8)

Speaker: this documentary touches on a couple of the used scenes and leaves some impressive quotes that could add to the ideas of the character such as the robbery scene it is said that Callahan "scarcely has to interrupt his lunch to gun down a trio of thugs" (item 8)which implies to me that its trying to show that Callahan barely thinks anything more of killing three people is something he doesn't care about however it also shows a new side to the final scene when Callahan shoots the suspect while he's holding a child however this documentary points out that he hesitates rather that straight up shooting and this show that he is wrestling with the decision that he later follows through with the plan to shoot the suspect and this is perhaps a way of showing that Callahan does have a good side as he doesn't risk the child as much as he could have done but instead lowers his gun so that the suspect (with a gun to the childs head) does lower his guard which means the child is in less danger yet still a concern and so harry then takes down the suspect at a risk to the child which to me does lean closer to hero as he ceases to lose his "personal approach" (item 8) and begins to worry about innocent victims, which could be overlapped with the torture scene as he also does something along these lines when he tortures the suspect about the girl as he takes a second of thought time  which means he's trying to think of a way to get the information out of the suspect and settles on the torture method as its quicker and more effective than any other method and time is of the essence and so it does show heavily that Callahan is a hero whose concerned with the lives of the citizens he is trying to protect however he has very little empathy for criminals and will gladly sink to  heir level to rid the city of them, which, as this documentary says, kind of like Callahan with the old gangster cops who would "keep the law with a machine gun"(item 8)

Speaker: in support of this is one of Eastwood's earlier films that he literally plays the Good as in "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" (source 2)
while this film doesn't have as much of a focus on the anti hero character however Eastwood portrayal of Blondie/The Man With No Name as the titular Good is far from that. this film again having its moments that again show Eastwood's character to be far from good as he frequently is shown to do several things that indicate that his character has never been good but instead is classed as the good when compared to the rest of the titular characters as he  is seen to take criminals which have been convicted of "arson, murder and rape" turning them in for the bounty money on them and then rescuing them so that he can turn them in again for the money somewhere else and this is implied that he lets them go every so often so that they can commit more crimes as between the first and second time we see him do this the list of crimes that is read out for Tuco "The Ugly" has almost doubled in size and so this the hero of this film starts to seem like a bad guy as much as a good guy as he literally seems more like a mercenary who does what he does for the money ands own personal advancement which isn't really a trait of a good guy.

however he does maintain the good guy status as he acts in many sections to save a lot of lives such as when he blows up a bridge so that he can save thousands of lives in the american civil war, however this too could have negative effects as the captain in this scene states that "its a court martial offence to even dream of destroying that bridge" (item 2) and so its safe to assume that that stands for the south side as well which further means that when the soldiers return they could all face a court martial and potentially face death anyway and so its again potentially only for the gain of him. flipping it again it also grants a dying mans last dream so it could be another sign of goodness in him.

also theres an emotional scene where he comforts a dying soldier in his final moments and even being the one to murder the sadistic Angel Eyes "The Bad" however this too is marred by the fact that Blondie has removed the bullets from Tucos gun which could have got him killed especially when you consider that there was a 50/50 chance between angel eyes shooting him or blondie. this is backed up by Seeing Is Believing by Peter Biskind (item 5) which sates that Eastwood's characters "showed audiences that you could shoot first or shoot someone in the back and still be the hero" and this does happen in that final duel as well as a couple of other moments in the film where he shoots first such as when Angel eyes's goons turned up and Blondie simply shoots one of them before even opening his eyes and when Angel eyes summons them out of hiding Blondie doesn't even seemed surprised which to me heavily implies that he knew exactly who the mender and why they were there and still shoots them and then later when he kills another one of them before they even can draw there own weapon and just like in Dirty Harry he takes a second to think which again makes me believe that he openly considers what to do with the technically un-armed man and to me where a hero would perhaps render the man unconscious and disarm him Blondie besides on straight up murder.

then Blondie makes him stand with a noose around his neck before riding off as if to leave him his fate before returning to shoot him down and making a joke about it, obviously this isn't the side to a hero as had literally anything gone wrong Tuco would have been hung brutally.

this does add up to make the character an anti hero however this one seems to heavily point towards the anti rather than the hero and that could in fact be true, if it wasn't for the moments of kindness or heroism this character could be seen as the villain or more likely simply a mercenary that only does good because it benefits him in some way as regularly seen in the film.

Speaker: a final film comparison of this idea is Eastwood's role as Gunny Sergeant Tom Highway in "Heartbreak Ridge"(item 3) and i found this role really plays to the idea as an anti hero as Highway is a man that is sent to train "a bunch of losers and malcontents"(Item14) during the Vietnam war which points towards the idea that Highway is the hero of the film as he is literally training these men not to be killed as all they have been used for up to the point where Highway turns up is to lose in "a distinct grotesque military manner"(item 3) to the other unit on base during training exercises and he does succeed in saving all but one of them during the final scene when they are deployed however throughout the training Highway constantly beats some of the men especially when they attempt to get rid of him during the film as well as opening fire on them during training exercises and again the bullets hit just a few feet away from the men. Also just like the Harry Callahan character he has a constant problem with authority completely insulting them to their faces as well as beating them and disobeying direct orders during one scene where the soldiers inform Highway that they are supposed to lose. the film also starts with Highway in a jail cell which obviously implies heavily that he's used to being in a cell due to his relaxed look however he also looks to be a tough respected character as he's the centre of attention to all but one of the inmates and to me this implies that he's again so used to this that he simply starts telling stories and even smoking a cigar, beating another man which obviously a good guy wouldn't do straight up, and then finally being told that he has a long list of minor felonies including "urinating on a police vehicle"(item 3)

Speaker: these roles show Eastwood's base line for every movie he does in some way in that all have their bad sides as each character has their down sides whether it be disregard for authority or a disregard for human life .

City of God

what is the importance of mine-en-scene and/or sound increasing meaning and generating response in the films you have studied?

during the final scene of city of god we witness the death of lil Ze, the short build up to this moment has several moments of mine en scene that added weight to the sequence for me. For instance as melon head and the police lead lil Ze to the final moment we are shown a low key mid shot of lil Ze getting escorted with a concrete mesh behind him and this to me pointed out the darkness and the trapped sense that will follow as if to say that the moment of death is coming and there is now ay out of this and that perhaps mirrors the entire film in itself as throughout we are constantly shown that it is impossible to escape the city of god in one piece, we saw this in shaggy who was shot as they attempted to escape as well as goose and even benny. another moment that stood out during this scene was that everything from rockets Point of View was from behind this concrete cage as it were and this said to me that rocket was out, like he wasn't a part of the animals in the "zoo" who tear each other apart for scraps in that Lil Ze's business is literally scraps, he was just an innocent person looking into a cage. this idea as stated is shown when shaggy attempts to escape the city of god and is gunned down by the corrupt cops and as we watch his attempted escape through the log shot from within the car that watches shaggy weave in and out of the buildings before inevitably dying and it adds to the sense that another "innocent" person has to watch the guilty "animals" go through everything and then die however this perhaps in itself has a flip in that we see Denise "trapped" inside the car and so it could be saying that she's actually trapped in leaving the city because shell inevitably be dragged back into it and she actually is as later we see her with one of the drug lords that Lil Ze has to murder to take over.this then again is flipped on its head for goose as when he dies during his escape he's killed by another "animal" and so there isn't a cage in the way except for possibly the city boundaries themselves. this possibly adds to the message of futility that people are always killed right  in the borderlands of their escape, goose on the city limits, benny on his leaving party and lil Ze to a degree as with his business almost non existent he could literally walk away but its his decision not to run that then gets him killed at the hands of the runts.

Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood exclusively portrays anti heroes?
films
item 1-
Dirty Harry (1971)-
 I chose this as my focus film as it uses several scenes where Eastwoods character does the right thing however he often does it a way that could perceive him as the antagonist in some modern films. Where his fellow officers follow the rules he breaks them to get the job done, including risking a Childs life. This perhaps is shown to be Eastwood's exclusive role as it doesn't change throughout the film. Theres quite a few sources that suggest that this film re-vamped the cop who believes that he can get more done by working outside the confines of the law. Eastwood shows several traits that appear to be his signature to a role, these being a gruff low voice and also a lack of dialogue, "grizzled handsomeness" and the disregard for authority.



item 2-
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966)-
Eastwood literally plays the "good" in this however again there is several moments that almost place him closer to the bad, this again allows us to question his morals and once again there are several scenes that an audience perhaps wouldn't see from regular hero. Again there are a lot of sources that suggest that this film changed the face of the western genre to use characters who are less complete heroes and more of personal gain "anti heroes"



item 3-
Heartbreak Ridge (1986)-
Eastwood plays a drill sergeant training troops which makes his character the good as he is literally training these men to survive. He openly beats and insults his troops (including firing at them with a live weapon during training, several times) while frequently getting into trouble with command and the police.



books
item 4-
Film/Genre pg 148-9(rick altman)-
 This goes into a little detail about how "heroes" traditionally have become rule breakers by way of becoming good such as the detective breaking the law to catch someone which is perfectly within the idea of dirty harry. "buck authority" which could perfectly describe Eastwood's typical character role.



item 5-Seeing Is Believing-Peter Biskind Pg 342
This book contains a very useful paragraph that explains how Eastwood showed audiences that you could shoot first or shoot someone in the back and these qualities are shown in the chosen films and so the information would be useful for providing yet more to the argument.



item 6-
Clint Eastwood the American Rebel(Marc elliot)-
This book goes into in depth detail about clint Eastwood and his life which lead up to his roles, each role has a small explanation into each role that he has portrayed and also his influences which could explain the roles.



documentaries
item 7-
Inside the Actors Studio (2003)-
This Tv interview goes into a lot of detail about all of eastwards career and goes into detail about each role he has portrayed and why, also has some points that could be used in arguments for and against his work.



item 8-
Dirty Harry's Way-
a short documentary that uses dirty harry in comparison to the old gangster anti heroes who would gun down suspects and bad guys without a second thought and then compares to Eastwood's portrayal of Harry.



articles
item 9-
Relevant Magazine-the rise of the anti hero-goes into detail about the anti hero and the premise while naming two of the films used during the presentation. this will be useful because it shows clear agreement with the point made in the presentation.



item 10-
Empire Magazine, all used film reviews-
a useful but small review that contains a useful quote that while small will add to the argument if needed. goes into some small detail about the actions of each of his characters and how they could be considered anti heroes.



item 11-
Anti heroes: is there a goodness of purpose-Brian A Kinnaird
a Web article goes into detail about the anti hero and specifically references dirty harry during the explanations and uses it to reference the common idea of the anti hero. includes a lot of detail into Dirty Harry which is the focus film for this presentation.



item 12-
A Film History Magazine"Clint Eastwood, Americas Anti Hero" by Justin Aylward
in depth detail into Clint Eastwood's role as the typical anti hero and specifically names two of the used films in its article as well as providing some extremely useful quotes and adds a lot to the argument as article does cover it as well



item 13-
The New York times
The New York times offers up several reviews of the chosen films and offers arguments towards the chosen question and the anti hero nature of Clint Eastwood's characters and also provides some negative or deterring comments that could go towards making another side to an argument.


item 14-
the Washington post-Heartbreak Ridge
goes into a lot of detail about one of the chosen films and contains a lot of quotable lines that would be useful when creating a presentation script and also offers an oppositional opinion that could be used to create an argument.



rejected sources
clint eastwood wikipedia- while this would be a valuable source it doesn't go into much detail about specific parts required. also each part that are useful have been covered in greater detail in some of th other sources and so it would be simply repeating the same information.


Gran Torino-while this film does match the desired idea about Eastwood's Anti hero status however i feel that i know more about the chosen films and that each one complements the others or doesn't offer enough separation from the other source films


http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/clint-eastwood/27287/clint-eastwood-don-siegel-and-the-great-anti-hero- this source does contain some information about the focus film its simple information about the plot that has already been stated in other sources however the other details of the source cover separate movie to the chosen source film

Mel Brooks

Does the use of "spoofing" make Mel Brooks an auteur?

item 1-
Spaceballs-I chose this as my focus film because it "spoofs" almost every scene from the original star wars trilogy and to me does show the ideas that Mel brooks spoofs such as his Jewish heritage, sci-fi(even having one scene where john hurt recreates his scene from "Alien" where the chest burster appears) and so will display that he is an auteur
item 2-
Blazing saddles- this film pulls a lot on the ideas of the western and the opinions of a small town towards a lot of things, especially blacks (which even today is serious to the point where Quentin tarantinos "Django unchained" has similar ideals) and even has several fourth wall breakages.
item 3-
Dracula: dead and loving it- once again this film takes a pre exiting story and "spoofs" it with comical tones to a fairly dark and serious story about murder and the supernatural. i find this useful as it backs up the blazing saddles approach that i need for the question.
item 4-




















item X-
Alien chest burster-scene will be used in comparison to the spaceballs scene to show the idea of the spoof and how brooks changed it to add to the comical feel of the film.
item Y-
Bram stokers Dracula-as stated Item 3 is a spoof of the Dracula story and so some comparisons may be made or shown depending on the needs of the presentation.

http://www.melbrooks.com- reminder

La Haine Question

What is the importance of mise-en-scene and/or sound in creating meaning and generating response in the films you have studied?

each scene of "La Haine"  has several meanings that the mies-en-scene or sound. the final scene that sees one or two of our characters removed (Hubert's fate like several moments in the film are completely unexplained) and during this scene we see a large portrait painting of Charles Baudelaire who once said "The world only goes round by misunderstanding" and this scene, to me is a direct result of several misunderstandings throughout the film that brings our characters (Vinz, Said and hubert) to this point where the police have them against the car. the gun goes off by mistake and once again a misunderstanding leads to the final stand off between hubert and the cop that killed vinz, and more importantly it all takes place underneath this painting and from the shot behind Hubert shows that the whole scene is contained in a little area which says to me that the whole idea is being proved almost scientifically right in front of Baudelaire who looks down on them from above. and this idea perhaps extends out towards the entire film as one of the first shots is of the same portrait and one of the last ones is and so this is perhaps saying that the final scene has been destined from the start as most of the happenstances during the film are just misunderstandings.

another scene that uses miss-en-scene to printout more meaning to a scene is when Vinz daydreams about shooting the traffic officer. both sides are shown to have a higher meaning as behind vinz there is a light ring which almost forms a halo above his head showing that he is possibly in the right however the ring is fractured and tome that seems to say that maybe this is the right thing to do but its not ever going to be the 100% right thing. on the cops side a window behind them has a massive cross on it which comes before an empty and desolate store which again to me seems to point out that the cops are in the wrong for the death of Abdul and so need to be removed or punished however when vinz does dream shoot one of them he flies back (something which is a major cliche in american movies) into the cross and window shattering both which seems to be that the illusion has been broken, the police themselves are not to blame as a whole and instead its just the actions of one man and so by killing this possibly innocent man isn't the right thing and so with the smashing of the glass von snaps out of it and then when hubert gets annoyed within for thinking about it and begins to yell and complain vinz isn't as quick to mouth off and defend himself instead looking as if he has just snapped out of a stupor.