Mulholland Drive

I must say visually this movie is extremely stimulating whether you have any sort of handle on the story or not. The deep colors and beautiful scenes catch your eye every time. I especially loved the scene at Club Silencio, it was so visually pleasing. This is Scopophilia, right? The pleasure of seeing.

I saw Mulholland Drive once when I was 18 and I had no idea what the hell I had just seen. It made almost no sense to me, and then when we watched in class again I was almost just as confused as ever, but I must say thank goodness for class discussion.

This film was obviously post modern to me, but I kept trying to reconstruct it in a way that put Betty in the center of it all and I just could not make sense of it. When we discussed the postmodern aspects of the film and that perhaps Betty didn’t belong in the middle of it all things started to come together for me.

I really liked the idea that this film is Hollywood torn to pieces and messily glued back together again. You can blatantly see the different conglomerate of films in this movie: film noir, slasher, love story, mob story, a little bit of western. Each scene of the movie seems to be tapping into a different genre and each character is a character we’ve all seen before.

You’ve got the dickhead director, the hopeless romantic, the girl with stars in her eyes, the temptress, the hit man, the mob boss, a cowboy, and the cooky landlord, to name a few. All of these characters have already been created in other movies and other roles and they seem to be stuck in this movie to add to the idea of Hollywood retelling stories to itself.

Postmodernism uses references and this movie certainly has enough of them. It also takes something and puts it back together in a new and strange way that isn’t like anything we’ve seen before and Mulholland Drive achieves that too. I think that our protagonist is Hollywood and if you watch the movie from that perspective it’s obvious that it all circles around Hollywood. It’s about the people who reside there, the way the industry works, and all of the different pieces that make it up.

I felt like this whole movie was very dream like, or nightmare like is more like it. The characters are lost in a dark, twisted world and we are right there with them lost in the mist.

Shaft!

They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother…

I loved Shaft, both the movie and the man. He is the epitome of what every lady wants in a man… smooth, smart, confident, and of course sexy. I love the way that he commands respect even with just the way he stands, nice and tall with his shoulders squared away, ready to take on anything. Although I don’t like the way he treats his lady at times, he’s almost irresistible and truly reeks of manliness.

Compared to the personification of men in today’s society Shaft is on a totally different page. Nowadays it’s all about the meatheads who use violence to show just how manly they are. Sure, Shaft did use violence, but I don’t think he really went out of his way to be overtly violent. He was smooth and sexy even when dealing with other men. He just seemed to have a handle on it all and was always so laid back.

It kind of disappointed me when I read Matthew Henry’s essay about how Shaft’s sexual side has been transformed into violence in the new Shaft with Samuel Jackson. I haven’t seen it so I don’t really know firsthand what it’s like, but I think by making Shaft into a character just like the modern heroes we have in movies today you take something big away from his character. I liked feeling like Shaft was fighting for a better cause, not just to fight.

On a totally different thread, I really enjoyed the injection of politics into this movie with the sort of twisted triangle between the black panthers, the government (police force), and the mafia/gangsters. It was really interesting to me that even though Ben and Shaft were on different sides of the political fence they teamed up together to save a big drug dealer’s daughter from the mafia. In the end the political lines get completely blurred, but they are still all fighting the same fight against the white mafia.

Past the point of no return

I must say I enjoyed the scenery in this movie. I’m heading West after graduation to work at Yellowstone and it was neat to see the wide open road spreading out in front of Kowalski. My eye was always drawn to what was around the next bend in the road. I especially loved the shots when the car would come zooming from one side of the screen to the next, then it would cut to the car a few miles down the road doing the same thing.

Kowalski was a huge mystery to me during Vanishing Point. It seemed like the one thing he wanted to do was drive, and drive fast. The random flashbacks to him with his lover, as a racecar driver, and then as a cop did little to ease my confusion about him. He wasn’t your normal protagonist at all. Yes, he did go on a journey, but he as a person didn’t really get anywhere because of it. There really was no character development and his interaction with people was always a little bit off.

When the chick on the naked bike offered him anything he wanted I was completely caught off guard when he didn’t go for it. I guess I expected him to act as any other male character normally would, but it seemed as if this movie was trying to mess with our heads a little bit when it came to expectations.

I guess as much as this movie was about being on the big open road it was also about being stuck in a sense. Beck mentions this in the reading as well, although I don’t really know what to make of how he goes about saying it. Kowalski knew that he was not going to get out of the clutches of the cops no matter how far he drove, so he decided to bite the bullet and die instead of ending up in captivity.

Throughout all of this rather depressing Kowalski business there was the shining beacon of Super Soul, but he also is down trodden by “the man” at one point. Unlike Kowalski he doesn’t give up hope. He goes back to his boarded up station and continues to send hope his way, although in the end it doesn’t work out. I guess “the man” wins this one and I think this is a testament to the political turmoil that America was in during the 60’s and 70’s.

This post feels awfully disjointed, ugh.

“You want to fuck with the eagles you have to learn how to fly”

“So you teach people how to spread their wings and fly?”
“Yes”
“You’re beautiful.”

The first time I saw Heathers I instantly loved it. I loved its dark sense of humor and the way it broke all expectations of every other 80’s John Hughes teen movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink just as much as everyone else, but this movie was just a head above the rest for me.

Right away it veers away from the Hollywood norm because there is no rationale for JD’s desire to kill. So his dad blows up buildings and his life is a little off kilter, but there really is no motive behind the slew of murders besides being annoyed with the popular kids. Most movies tell you what’s going on right off the bat, but this movie never really explains it to you.

I guess this is where the whole postmodern thing comes into play. This movie deconstructs the normal teen movie of its time and puts it back together in a twisted way. The extreme lack of emotion is the opposite of every other John Hughes movie. Usually a wacky teen stumbles their way into a higher place of knowing themselves or learns a valuable life lesson. All Veronica learns by the end is to not sleep with insane dudes. I think this is kind of poking fun at movie goers desire to find some deeper meaning within the fake lives of teenagers. The movie is trying to be shallow and succeeds time and time again with “the Heathers” and JD’s lack of motivation behind anything.

This is sort of mirrored in the strange staff at the high school who brood over the suicides of the students. They try to make the students into deep, wounded human beings who couldn’t deal with the harsh realities of the world; when really they were just jocks and popular girls who didn’t give a damn about anyone else.

As with a lot of other postmodern films I’m not sure there is a greater meaning behind the plot. Just like the students in this school don’t really learn any lessons or become better people by the end, I don’t think the viewer is supposed to reach any sort of conclusion by the end either. I think it’s simply a John Hughes film gone dark and it’s meant to play with the expectations that we’ve created for ourselves as viewers.

Kung Fu Hustle

I've seen a couple of Kung Fu movies in my day and I guess I didn't really know all that much about them until our class on Thursday. I like that these kung fu movies are built upon the Wu Xia stories about heroism or noble action. It's obvious that in most of the stories an underdog comes from the pack and saves the day through some heroic act. I like that this movie didn't stray too far from that, but it definitely had a different twist with the elements of post modernism in it.

I really enjoyed all of the different references throughout the film. The conglomerate of different genres, films, and actors definitely made this kung fu movie into something a little off the mark of what is normally expected. I loved the rush of blood in the insane asylum, straight out of The Shining. The Road Runner reference when the Land Lady was chasing the "Chosen One" was also great. There was also a little more Looney Tunes in there with the huge throbbing lips. The movie also references The Blues Brothers, Westside Story, Gangs of New York, The Matrix, and Roger Rabbit.

Post Modernism in film is all about creating something deliberately unoriginal that is made up entirely of references. This isn't meant to increase the depth of the movie, in fact Kung Fu Hustle didn't have much depth at all, it only increases the entertainment value of what you're watching. There isn't really a lesson to learn at the end of the movie, it's just a matter of if you've been entertained and understood all of the references of other references throughout the entire movie.

Despite all of the Post Modern moments in the film it did still stay true to certain elements of Kung Fu. My number one favorite Kung Fu movie is Drunken Master and that movie certainly has a man with a certain style of Kung Fu. Throughout Kung Fu Hustle we saw people with a certain style too. The Landlord's movements were like liquid, so fluid and laid back that he could've been sleeping while fighting. His wife had her trademark lion roar. The three original masters in the slum also had their own unique style. The tailor packed a mean punch, the young guy could kick like crazy, and the older man was really good with sticks. Then we get the ultimate Kung Fu master and he hops around like a toad. It was neat to see everyone using their own unique style.

I really enjoyed all of the martial art elements in this movie too. I think that style of fighting is so interesting to watch and extremely entertaining. Class on Thursday definitely cleared up a few things for me when it came to the origins of martial arts. I knew that developing breathing, or your Chi, was an important aspect of martial arts, but I wasn't so aware about the sense of inner strength that's necessary to be good at martial arts. Being centered, calm, and aware is extremely important. Buddhism being rooted in the art of compassion wasn't something I was aware of either. The idea of your opponent being a part of the same energy as you and using the energy around you to redirect their energy was pretty cool.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie, the Post Modern elements made it super entertaining, along with the cool martial arts moves. I think it was a good balance of different genres and the original Kung Fu. It kept my eyes glued to the screen and I really had fun watching it.