Good Will Hunting

I was very excited to watch this movie. I had heard from many people how great of a movie it was. So going into the movie, I was already positively influenced on the film. The film started out eye catching right away, and never lulled me at any time. The story was very well put together and the conflict throughout the film kept you wondering what was going to happen next.

The film definitely followed the criteria of a good story. The film was unified in plot, most definitely credible and was absolutely interesting. The next thing I noticed in the film was the fact that Will’s last name was hunting. I know it sounds dumb, but I thought the title meant Will was “hunting” for something when I first seen the title. But when I figured that out I realized how significant the title really was to the film. Especially because at heart, Will was a very nice young man, however he had a very difficult and messed up childhood.

There were also a variety of characters in the movie. However, the most significant were the developing characters in Will and Sean. In Will, Sean saw himself when he was young. Sean was a very smart guy who chose a different path than mathematics. But just like Will, Sean also had a rough childhood. I think this is a huge reason why Sean also knows how to deal with Will, not only because he is a professional.  There is a lot of irony in this, and most of all when Will leaves for the girl, just like Sean did. It was very interesting that Will helped Sean, just as much as Sean helped Will. The therapy sessions were great for both of them.

Overall, the movie was a classic film that kept you wanting more when the movie ended. The film was also full of star studded actors which helped make the storyline even better. I also think that everyone wants to see the little guy (Will, just a janitor), survive and be something special to show the world that everyone has capabilities to do anything in life. This, the story, and the actors involved made this film an A+ film.

Casa Blanca

The movie Casa Blanca was a very entertaining movie. There are many unique things embedded in the film. Most obvious are a love story and WWII in the film. The background of WWII is the most influential part in the film. All of the characters in the movie represent a country in the film involved in the war. There is also alot of symbolism along with this. For example Ricky's club, "the amercain" represented every ones hopes and dreams to escape to America. That's where everyone went to try and escape to a free country.

The technology in the film was not too bad for a black and white film. Compared to On the Waterfront, this film was put together better and was easier to follow. The transitions were good and the audio was much better. Overall for a black and white film I was very impressed with the fit and finish of the film.

Some things that I found unanswered after the movie are why Ricky couldn't go back to France or the US? Was it because of all the women that he had bad endings with? I also don't know why Ricky didn't just tell the guard his plan? I assume that he wasn't going to trust anyone until his plan was done.

The movie was overall a really good movie for its time. The ending was very unpredictable which made the movie very suspenseful.

On the Waterfront

After watching On the Waterfront, I realized that it was the first whole movie that I have watched in black and white. I also realized how the technology of the film affects the whole analysis of a film. At first, I couldn't get over how boring I thought the movie was because of word of mouth, and because the movie wasn't in color. The transitions from scene to scene where choppy and I also found the sound effects redundant and dull. I also found it hard to decipher the movie and the older dialect and phrases used in the movie at first. However, as the movie went on, all of this grew on me and made me more interested in the film. As the film went on, I picked up on the characters, and started to understand many differences from modern films that I am used to watching.

This film really didn't have one side or the other for the viewer to take side with. Obviously
 most viewers would side with Terry and root for his success throughout the movie. The story was portrayed very well throughout the film. It started really slow, after the first 10 minutes or so, I asked myself "what in the world is going on right now?" and had to really think about what was happening in the film. I think that the choppy transitions and older dialect had a lot to do with this.

Some questions that remain after the film for me are why didn't Johnny just have Terry killed too, he knew that he was going to get nailed with the murders for the other workers anyways. I also wish that the workers would have just got together and overthrown the union leaders, if they would have just boycotted them for a day, the leaders would have had no money and would have had to change their ways.

Overall, I didn't think that the movie was that bad. Other than having to get used to the technology used to make the film, the storyline was pretty good.

SJP