Django Unchained

This film revolves around the unlikely team of Dr. King Shultz and slave named Django. Dr. Shultz is formerly a dentist, but has picked up bounty hunting since. After purchasing Django, he plans to have him assist with his killing of the Brittle Brothers. Django wants to rescue his wife, Broomhilda, from Calvin Candie, a cruel plantation owner who bought Django's wife some time ago. Dr. Shultz agrees to rescuing Broomhilda from Calvin Candie under the condition that Django helps him kill the Brittle Brothers. After they make a successful kill, the two adventure to Candyland, Candie's plantation, and find Broomhilda. After planning to purchase Broomhilda, the head slave of Candyland reveals them to Candie. All hell breaks lose at this point and Django must fight alongside Shultz to escape Candyland and save Broomhilda.

Although this movie was only released a year ago, Tarantino does a fantastic job of bringing an old feel to the film. With country-western music, flawless costume design, and on-location shooting, this movie shines. Tarantino has a way of shooting in an independent way, straying away from special effects and over-the-top camera angles. The special effects help the grittiness of the film by using physical gunfire and real explosions instead of computer generated explosions and blood spatters. Although exaggerated, fake blood bursting from a corpse is more believable when as a physical liquid, rather than digitally inserting it later. I feel that Tarantino's effects makes it easier to watch the film, keeping consistency throughout shots and never distracting the viewer.

I believe Quentin Tarantino successfully uses all possible elements to bring together a movie the viewer can truly connect to.  Shooting on location stuck out to me especially. Continuing my thoughts from the last paragraph, Tarantino manages to keep a continuous look throughout the film without the help of digital locations and effects.  Set design is incorporated beautifully, transporting the viewer to the years before the civil war. Tarantino perfects the sound design, allowing us to hear every bullet, hit, gallop, and explosion with clear detail as well as incorporating background sound of the surroundings. With physical special effects and an incredible soundscape, Django Unchained is another gem in Quentin Tarantino's collection of films.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey takes place before the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. It's a film that follows Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit from The Shire, and his journey across Middle-Earth with a wizard and a gang of unorganized dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield. Their quest has one purpose, to slay a dragon guarding the dwarf kingdom, Erebor. Throughout the journey, the encounter many obstacles, including orcs, goblins, and moving mountains. While lost and alone on this quest, Bilbo meets Gollum, a creature that shows to be more than a single being in one body. He finds Gollum's precious ring and keeps it for himself, driving Gollum insane and aggressive towards Bilbo. When Thorin is about to be slain by a creature named Azog, an old enemy, Bilbo comes to his rescue and finally finds his place in the group.

The sounds of Middle-Earth were usually handled well with a plethora of background noise and chatter. While in a home, you could hear people talking in the other room and plates clinging together like they were truly elsewhere. However, there were some scenes when dialog took the primary role and the background audio suffered because of it. Camera angles were beautiful, all of which utilized the surroundings, delivering an awe factor with the beautiful landscape and construction of sets. The editing kept a forward motion present where battle scenes and action were present, cleanly keeping sword swings and motion lined up perfectly.

I have to admit, I was not impressed with this film. When compared to the original Lord of the Rings, I feel like computer were turned to for many of the effects. Multiple scenes were painfully computer generated, sticking out compared to the live shots on location. As for the location, Peter Jackson managed to shoot the film in a beautiful landscape which made up for much of the computer generated scenes. I know that The Hobbit is a fictional story, but I felt like this film stuck out with it's far-fetched moments. Mountains that break apart to fist fight, rabbits pulling a wizard of a sled, even down to the distance Bilbo fell without injury while in the Orc's underground lair shocked me. I believe the movie was executed well, but details and physical effort for props and scenes could have been pushed more.

Jaws

Jaws is a film based in the summer town of Amity. As the new officer in town, Brody is already faced with a colossal problem. An underwater killer begins to threaten the beaches and puts fear into the hearts of all the locals. With a corrupt mayor concerned only with business and money, Officer Brody enlists help from an oceanographer, Quint, and a shark hunting veteran, Hooper, to hunt and kill the giant shark before it brings harm to anyone else. After losing a ship and its captain, Brody manages to destroy the shark in the least fathomable way.

While viewing this film, there were three primary elements that truly shined. First off, the editing was seamless. Spielberg manages to get the viewer into the mind of the shark with quick cuts, and montages. I found myself trying to pick who would be attacked in the scene on the beach when it cuts back and forth between four swimmers in the ocean. Also, the edits between real footage of a shark and footage of the fake shark during the cage scene made it believable that it was all the same animal. Second, the camera and lighting were perfect. From the shark's point of view, putting us with the trio on the boat, to the underwater lighting with a spotlight just barely outlining a wreck, Spielberg captured a realistic feel, placing the viewer with the talent.

Last, but most important, the sound. I could have closed my eyes during certain scenes near the beach and just listened to the waves crashing. Whenever inside Brody's home or anywhere near the beachfront, the sound of waves were always present. Aside from the background, the score grips the viewer and gives a sense emotion with out any additional visuals. We didn't have to see the remains of the girl in the beginning to know what had been found, the score when exploring the hull of the wrecked ship gave me a feeling of curiosity and wonder not knowing what would be found, and the uplifting music when the shark was tagged with a barrel gave the viewer a sense of hope, like the trio had truly made progress in catching the beast.

Dr. Strangelove

I can't say that this way my first time viewing the film, but it was definitely a good refresher. In an odd way, I really enjoy this film. The first few times I watched it, it dragged on and I couldn't wait for it to be over. After advancing through college and understand some of the physics of films more, I am able to appreciate different aspects of the film.

First, Stanley Kubrick does a fantastic job of keeping the humor inclusive. Even with a subject such as nuclear war, he manages to push humorous situations throughout the film. With effects that make anyone in this decade giggle, I believe Kubrick likely used all of the available resources he had at the time.

When it came to set design, nothing was held back. From the cockpit of the B47 to the "War Room", nothing felt artificial and more like realistic places, shot on location. When the airmen were in the plane, they truly walked from one end of the aircraft to the other and it made me the viewer, feel as if everything was to scale, leaving out any illusion of disbelief. All the details in the War Room were greatly appreciated, specifically the consistencies of the radar screen on the wall. As time progressed, the blips representing planes actually progressed along with time and moved while on screen.

When covering audio, I was impressed with every shift that was included between shots. When the position of the camera shifted in the War Room, the audio reflected that. When up close with the General, the audio was clear and felt close. When the shot shifted to an overview of the room, the dialogue echoed and gave viewer a true sense of being at a distant seat in the room.

Overall, having the opportunity to watch this film years after my first time viewing it, I have many new appreciations that weren't comprehended the first times watching the film.