Gone With the Wind

1.    Gone With the Wind is one of the most incredible films of all time.  This film is the highest grossing box office film. Director Victor Fleming released this motion picture in 1939, during American’s greatest period of movie making. This phenomenal beloved film was based on a famous well-known novel written by Margaret Mitchell.  The novel nearly took over a decade to complete. In fact, once the film was released there was a high demand for a sequel, requested by viewers. Unfortunately there was no following sequel for Gone With the Wind.  Gone With the Wind established the record of winning the most Academy Awards in 1962. The film ‘s greatest achievements were the award given to Hattie McDaniel, for the best supporting actress. McDaniel was the first African American actress to win an Oscar.

2.    An article written in 1988, described Gone With the Wind as a spectacular melodramatic film that was based during the civil war time period. The film illustrated the significant social issues during to war era.  The article used example from the film to better explain how the characters and historical scenes provided important social events. The film also had a unique way of embodying the South’s indefatigable spirit. The article provided specific scenes, which were used to represent the civil war period.

http://grunes.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/gone-with-the-wind-victor-fleming-george-cukor-sam-wood-et-al-1939/

3.    The article relates to the film by first honoring the film for it’s spectacular work, but also mention how the time period of this film truly impact it great creditability as well. In class we learned how impressively popular Gone with the Wind was during this partial era. The article described how the film used significant storylines to represent what actually took place in history. For example the film begins by showing a plantation owned by the beautiful Scarlett, which Vivien Legin plays. Scarlett also had an African American maid, which was common during this era.  African Americans were typically servants and/or slaves ad were not well recognized as actors/actress. The character Ashley Wilkes also represented important historical segment in the film, as he played the role of a solider that returns home after fighting for the war.

4.  Gone With the Wind, blow my mind. I was immediately fascinated by the film’s story line.  Moments of the film actually surprised me because I would have never accepted an earlier film to capture so many excellent and interesting moments.  I love the lighting and the vibrant colors of all the shoots.  Also the content of every shoot and its strong impact to my emotions, that led me to cry in some point of time. For example when Scarlett’s daughter was riding her horse and pasted away for a terrible fall.

The Stagecoach

1.       In 1939, the film Stagecoach was released. The film was a directed by John ford. Between 1939 and 1941, the western picture was shown during the era that was considered to be “Great Period of American movie-making”.  In the text Flashback: A Brief History of film described how family values were so significant to ford and how social order depended on family. Ford, an Irish-Catholic had strong American values and truly believed in strong family tradition and faith.  When ford directed this film, he wanted to illustrate what was considered to be “Most Savage”, can be turn to be the complete opposite. The term “Most savage” was refer to when families did not practice the traditional norms. In the film, stagecoach was not the typical family picture. The film was about a group of strangers, who had nothing in common, who were able to work together as a family after a long trip together. Despite of their difference, the characters found a way to bond as a family, not as strangers.

2.  This article, by the Film site Movie Review mentioned how Stagecoach was John ford first sound western film. The picture was filmed on ford’s favorite setting, “The Majestic Monument Valley of the southwest. The film was very well known for its beautiful images and powerful characters. The article also described how during this time western genre films had fallen out of favor and popularity, but ford  regain it interest back because of it creativity.  Film site Review as stated how the film illustrated social conflicts and values, which were tied together by fate, and made Stagecoach such a unique film.

http://www.filmsite.org/stagec.html

3. This article strongly relates to the film by honoring John ford, as a great American director, who changed people minds about Western genre films losing it touch, until stagecoach. The article mentioned one of the significant attributes, which was Ford’s ability to capture beautiful settings that made the film much more unique than others. In class we learned about ford passion of western landscapes and how he was known for shooting excellent wide images. He was also best known for setting the actors behind visual western images, which made the film so interesting to watch. The Monument Valley was later known as Ford Classic working grounds.

4.  After watching Stagecoach, I gained a better knowledge of what western film genre is about. Prior to viewing this partial film, I thought that western films were all about man shooting each other, horses riding all over the place, and ladies in their best behavior. However this film changed my perspective about western film during this era. I actually enjoyed the film.  I loved how each and every character had a unique and powerful personality, which made the film exciting to watch. I also enjoyed watching the beautiful images in which Ford capture; it truly brought greatest to the film. I also found interesting how Ford was able to capture moment that would happen in our time, for example bringing strangers together, sticking them in one spot and making a family out it. This certain scenario happens often and it was interesting to see it in black and white. I was truly appreciate Ford’s strong family values and how is used his belief to create such a great film.

The Gold Rush

“The Gold Rush” is a brilliant comedic film that expresses the matters of greed and love. The film showed characters interacting with each other with many significant body language and movements. Though the film was a silent motion picture with a few subscripts, the audience had the opportunity to fully understand the mood and the important expression the film tempted to capture. The film also used classical music and great visual emotions, in which the characters portrayed during the film, to help the audience understand the conflicts and essential features of the story line.

In the film of “The Gold Rush”, the informative word “The Tramp” had so many significant values for the theme of the gold finding experience. The film illustrated a character that throughout the movie was referred to “The little tramp”. The comedic scenes were at times very sad and dramatic, but added a sense of funny for the audience to enjoy. “The Tramp” character started off by being a loan prospector that was walking along a large ice cliff. He eventually found himself in a stranger’s cabin, with the owner and another large man that currently found gold in sight named Big Jim. A terrible blizzard occurred and all three men were forced to remain in the cabin together without food. The three men then choose cards to determine who will go out to find something to eat. The loan prospector and Big Jim remained in the cabin and were left along top starve.

Eventually these two men part, where the loan prospector found his way into town and built up deep emotions for a woman named Georgia, at the Monte Carlo dance hall. He is immediately infatuated with this woman from the dance hall. Georgia approaches the man in order to spite her current boyfriend Jack Cameron. The Tramp character appeared unclean, unattractive, and senseless to everyone in the dance. He was very much looked down toward everyone in that room during this scene. The tramp tries to impress Georgia and her friends to a new year eve dinner at a cabin he found around town, but was completely ignored. The tramp was so heart-broken and distraught. Big Jim appears at the tramp loneliness moments and agrees to share his gold wealth with him as long as he shows him where the original cabin was located. They both agreed on it, and found themselves grand and fortunate.

The ironic aspect of this film was towards the very end when the tramp and Georgia appeared to be in the same ship. Once Georgia realized that the tramp was now superior, she then admired him and he foolishly immediately accepted her back, even though of what she did to him in the past. This story line truly expressed the comedic theme of this movie. The Tramp character truly highlighted what the director wanted to capture.