Final Blog: American Culture and the Coen Brothers

In each of the Coen brothers' films I watched ("Fargo," "Raising Arizona," "No Country For Old Men," and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") a different steriotype of American culture is distinctly portrayed, both by the characters and miscellaneous peices of the story. Each film seems to embrace the lifestyles of different regions of the country, and make a point of portraying all their differences, even if that means exaggerating.
Minnesotans in particular relate to "Fargo," as it takes place mostly in Brainerd and the Twin Cities area. Every actor speaks with a distinctly minnesotan accent, (locals think they go to far), and it takes place in the season we're most famous for: winter. The leading female character, police officer Marge Gunderson, leads a quiet life in Brainerd with her husband, fitting for the cold, vast northern Minnesota landscape. The Coens even go over the top with the character names, including "Wade Gustafson" and "Jerry Lundegaard."
"Raising Arizona" is comedically representative of the southwest, starring Nicolas Cage as a southern hick who robs convenience stores for a living. He and his police officer wife have rediculous southern accents and mannerisms and live in a small home in the middle of nowhere. "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is another comedy set in the south, but in Mississippi. Again, the characters have obvious accents and, steriotypically, aren't too bright. Even the soundtrack adds to the southern feel with all bluegrass and folk music. With "No Country For Old Men," the Coens mostly abandoned humor, instead representing the dismal side of the southwest. It is a violent story that shows the impact of drug smuggling, and greed in general, on America. Set in Texas, the characters again adopt accents, and the antagonist lives with his wife in a trailer.
The Coens' exaggerations of American culture is close to being too steriotypical, but establish settings and characters very well. Not only that, but they're often good for a laugh, even if that means laughing at ourselves.

Robert Altman

I really like Altman's style in all three of his movies that we watched. I like how involved his moving cameras are, making us feel like a part of the movie rather than just seeing still shots and cuts to remind us where we're sitting. He achieves this with a few incredible tracking shots, especially in the opening scene of "The Player." I also like his use of overlapping dialogue. Although it can become distracting, it is much more realistic than just hearing one person speak. Again, it helps erase the feeling that we are merely being presented something to view.

Something I noticed about the plots in each of Altman's movies was that the three we watched all had quite abrupt, unexpected endings. My favorite ending was in "The Player," because of the way the "Habeus Corpus" subplot was worked in. I thought it was very fitting that the original "Habeus Corpus" ending was rejected by its viewers, but happened in reality (which was its whole point in the first place: "because that happens!"). The other ending I particularly liked was in "Nashville," which is ironic because I hated the rest of the movie. I thought the ending was the only point that really had meaning to it, and the rest was too long to justify its thematic purpose. In "The Long Goodbye," I liked the ending as well, but only because I thought it substantially reversed the dark turn the movie took when it was nearing the end. I know shooting someone is pretty dark too, but what I liked was that Marlowe, the "good" guy with whom we simpathize most, got his revenge on the people who used him.

Akira Kurosawa

One thing I found interesting about Kurosawa's films was the chronology they portray of his changing opinions. Each film we watched had a different sort of hero, reflecting Kurosawa's changing view of what a hero is. The first, "Stray Dog," had a hero in the generic sense that most people think of. He (Murakami) not only chose the righteous path in becoming a police detective after the war, but he acted for the safety of those around him at all costs, and saw the good in everybody. His ultimate goal was to get his stolen pistol out of the hands of a dangerous criminal, but his efforts were impeded by his belief in the inherent humanity in all people. Sanjuro, the hero in the second film, "Yojimbo," is a bit different. He feels the need to help the helpless and innocent, but he doesn't hesitate to accept payments. In "Yojimbo," he is a ronin who wanders into a town run by two gangsters and cleans it up. He goes to each boss resquesting a job as a very highly paid bodyguard. However, he turns on his masters and ends up taking their money while he cleans them both out. As a samurai, Sanjuro's lack of loyalty to his masters is unusual, and shows that Kurosawa believed that a hero's actions didn't need to be as selflessas and sacrificial a samurai's, as long as they wanted to do good and help others. In the third film, "Ran," Kurosawa seems to have nearly abandoned the idea of a hero. The youngest brother of a ruling family, Saburo, is the closest we come to a hero in the movie. He was one of the few people willing to speak up to his father when he was making a bad decision (to pass his authority to his oldest son, Taro), and was banished for it. He tries but fails to help out more at the end of the movie, and ends up dying. The tragic ending with everyone's death seems to show a sense of hopelessness Kurosawa has in people and heros.

Scorsese Study 3: Raging Bull

"Raging Bull" is a tragic story about up-and-coming boxer Jake LaMotta. The project was suggested to Scorsese by Robert DeNiro, who found the book he wanted to base the film on, and was eager to star in it. At the time, Scorsese thought it would be his last picture, so he put extra effort into it to keep his name in tact once he was finished. However, this effort led to his rebirth in film, and he ended up making a number of hit movies after "Raging Bull." DeNiro won best actor in his role as LaMotta, the tough-but-psychotic fighter who works his way to becoming middleweight champion, before losing it and being forced to retire. Cathy Moriarty plays his wife Vicki, and Joe Peschi plays his brother and manager, Joey.

One thing Scorsese did a good job of in the film was to bring the audience in to see and feel the brutality first-hand. During boxing matches, the camera is always close to the boxers so we can see their rage and the pain of their punches. He even shows closeups of them getting hit in the face so we can see blood gushing out of their heads. This harsh portrayal of violence and anger is often seen in Scorsese's films, including "Goodfellas" and 'The Departed." All three make us feel the pain of the victims, especially thanks to his closeup shots and use of very graphic violence. In both "Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas," we see violence outside of the "business" world (mafia and boxing) as well. In "Goodfellas," Henry's wife pulls a gun on him when she finds out he is cheating on her. Once he calms her down, he turns on her and starts to beat her. In "Raging Bull," Jake beats his wife when he becomes suspicious that she's seeing other men. These relationships and the one in "The Departed" also show a negative opinion on relationships themselves. In "The Departed," the main female character is tied between two men. The man she officially dates is a crooked cop who works for the mob, and the other man is an undercover cop she thinks is a criminal. From her point of view, (an outsider's view), the cop is an attractive young guy and the criminal is a drug seeking low life. The undercover cop ends up dying, and only then does she find out who he really was. This shows that relationships are flawed from the start; that we are dependant on first impressions, and it takes so long to get to know who a person really is, it is nearly impossible to have a truly connected relationship.

Alfred Hitchcock

Commonly regarded as the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock is very consistent in how he makes movies. His main concern is to please the audience, and he carries many recognizable characteristics from film to film.
One thing Hitchcock has in a lot of his movies is a blonde leading-lady. In the three movies we watched in class, there was Pamela from "The 39 Steps," Lisa from "Rear Window," and Judy/Madeleine from "Vertigo," all blondes. Not only were they all blondes, but they each had similar relationships to the main male character. In "The 39 Steps," Pamela is very resistant to Hannay at first, and only begins to like him near the end. In "Rear Window," Lisa and Jeff are in a troubled relationship, where she wants to get married but he doesnt. In "Vertigo" John and Judy eventually fall in love, but Judy turns out to be under a false identity in order to involve John in a murder plot. What's more, Judy seems to die twice, once as the copy of Madeleine (where the real Madeleine dies), and again at the end as herself.
Another Hitchcock signature is his use of almost exclusively nondiagetic sound in some parts of his films. He did this to use the full potential of the screen by telling a story purely by what he shows us. The longest of these scenes we watched were in "Vertigo," when we followed John and Madeleine around. Hitchcock showed us clues and key parts to the story without using dialogue to explain their significance. Instead, he showed them to us in context and let us figure out their meaning. In "Rear Window" there are similar scenes when the camera pans between the different apartments. Though here there is diagetic sound, it is muffled and relatively insignificant, so the story is still being told by what we see. We see Ms. Lonelyheart alone in her room, Ms. Torso getting hit on in hers, the pianist struggling in his, and the newlyweds closing the blinds in theirs. Throughout the film their stories develop through the same panning shot, to where they've all changed by the end.

Scorsese Study 2: Goodfellas

Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film “Goodfellas” is truly a masterpiece. Regarded as one of the greatest mob movies of all time, it won 32 awards including an Oscar and was nominated for 18 more. Among the wins were numerous “best actors” to Joe Pesci (the Oscar was his), Lorraine Bracco, and Robert DeNiro, a few “best directors” to Scorsese, and a few “best screenplays” to Nicholas Pileggi. It seems the only person not nominated for an award was the main character and narrator Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta. Scorsese, however, certainly earned his 13 awards and 8 award nominations for the film.
One thing I noticed a lot in “Goodfellas” was the use of freeze framing. At many points, particularly at the end of a scene, the camera would freeze whatever action it was following, as Ray Liotta’s narration continued. This made the viewer focus on Liotta’s words, as they were usually (during the freeze frame) insights that we couldn’t merely be shown. Scorsese also accomplished this by, instead of stopping the shot, zooming in on a stationary character in order not to distract the audience. However, most of the narration in the movie goes along with the action; only instead of hearing the dialogue from the scene, the diagetic sound is generally quiet and indiscernible behind Liotta’s words.
Another thing that stuck out often was the way the camera was used to set the scene. Whenever the scene involved a large group of people, (usually a party), the camera would enter the scene following someone who happened to walk around enough to show most of the setting. The longest such shot followed Henry and Karen (Bracco) on their first date (video clip below). It started at the street when they got out of their car, then led us past the line of people they passed at the club, through the back doors and past all the doormen Henry knew, then through the kitchen with all the cooks Henry knew, then to the club floor where the owner (who Henry knew) placed a new table for the couple in front of the stage. This shot developed both Henry’s character as a big shot gangster, and Karen’s as his girl, won over by the awe of Henry’s popularity and power. Another case in which the long establishing shot develops characters is near the beginning, when Henry walks into and around a restaurant. This time the camera takes his point of view, and we walk around as Henry, past all the gangsters in the room who are happy to see him. As Liotta’s narration tells us about the people in the room, the camera shot makes us understand Henry’s companionship with them as if it’s our own.
One connection I made between “Goodfellas” and “The Departed” was the use of the Rolling Stones song “Gimme Shelter” in each. I think the lyrics were very meaningful to both films, expressing both the fragility of life, and the inevitability and simplicity of our death. The films show these ideas with all the killing involved, and the instant it takes for anyone to decide to kill. Henry even comments on it in his narration, and as the song repeats, “War… it’s just a shot away.” But then, maybe Martin just likes the Stones.

Scorsese Study 1: The Departed

“When I was your age they would say we can become cops, or criminals. Today, what I'm saying to you is this: when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?” This pretty well sums up Martin Scorsese’s 2006 film “The Departed.” It is one of Scorsese’s best, perfectly complimented by great performances from Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg. As Scott Mantz of “Access Hollywood” put it, “The Departed” is “Scorsese’s best film since Goodfellas.” Having seen few other films of his I can’t really talk, but it’s tough to beat.
The most obvious touch I noticed of Scorsese’s in the movie was his creative use of cuts and close-ups. Aided by his all-star cast, he is able to tell stories and develop characters without words. First, in all the important or revealing conversations, he uses close-ups on the speaker, quickly cutting as the speaker changes, which let us know what characters think of each other. A good example of this is Will Costigan’s (DiCaprio) interview with Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Wahlberg). Dignam interrogates Costigan like a criminal and we can see the animosity between them, but then Dignam and Queenan act more sincere when they know what they needed, and we can see a sense of camaraderie between the three. Scorsese also uses face close-ups when characters aren’t talking, which lets us understand what the character is thinking without them verbally expressing their thoughts. He also uses this to contrast between the criminal, Sullivan (Damon), living the high life, while good guy Will Costigan lives a life of paranoia and anxiety. Usually during particularly chaotic times in Costigan’s life, the film flashes between his situation and some peaceful or fun situation in Sullivan’s life, focusing on their facial expressions. Some unexpected and painful things happen in this movie, and the close-ups show reactions that we would otherwise miss. Events in the end of the film are shown especially well without many words, continuing even then to further develop characters.