Rules Are Made to be Broken

A common theme throughout this blog is the importance of a good plot.  Good plots keep us engaged by giving us enough information to know what is going on, but constantly keeping us asking questions, making inferences, and paying close attention to see if we were right.  The best plots are the ones that blow our minds when we reach the end of the movie.

David Fincher's 1999 film Fight Club is one of those movies that has you questioning the events throughout the duration of the movie, but when we reach the end, leaves us amazed at how seamlessly all of the events came together.  Fight Club is one of the most frequently quoted movies of the 90s—think about it... even if you have not seen this movie, you still probably know the first rule of fight club—but the reason these lines became so iconic in the first place is because of their context.

Via The Odyssey 

The film portrays a man (played by Edward Norton) who narrates the mundane events of his life as a product recall specialist.  Right off the bat, we see that there is something off about this character, as his insomnia and inability to cope with his frustration regarding consumerism lead to his attendance of a multitude of support groups for diseases he does not have.

One day while on a flight for business, the narrator encounters a man called Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt) with whom he is immediately intrigued by.  Meeting up after the flight, Tyler and the narrator engage in a strange conversation in which Tyler demands the narrator hit him as hard as he can, eventually leading to the two getting into a fight.  However, the experience is more about the satisfaction of hitting someone than the pain of being hit back, so the pair begin a fighting group for men to alleviate some of their stress.  This eventually grows into Fight Club, a selective, underground group led by Tyler and motivated by his avant garde theories on life.

Via Tumblr

As his participation in Fight Club allows the narrator to break out of the monotony, we as the viewers begin to notice strange similarities between the narrator and Tyler, until finally the action brings us back to where the movie began and we remember that we have been watching a flashback. Everything makes sense at this point, but it does not happen until the final scene of the movie.

So why wait so long to tie everything together?

The beauty of a bookended plot is that it forces us to go back in our minds and recall details from the beginning of the film that seemed negligible at first, but now make sense as to why the director decided to include them.  In Fight Club, these details include things like the narrator's insomnia and the coincidences which brought the narrator and Tyler together.  When the final scene brings all these details together, the audience is able to have the same epiphany that the narrator has without having been in the loop already.  The careful crafting in the plot and the thought-provoking statements often rattled off by Tyler make this film a cult classic that will not get old no matter how many times you have seen it.

Saving the War Story

Recently in my Theatre 100 class, our professor posed the question "What is a story?"  His thought, short and to the point, was that stories are simply what happens in the story.  Movies also allow us to answer this question as we observe the characters and interpret their stories.  There are funny stories, love stories, scary stories, etc., but one genre people tend to forget about are the war stories.  In the Vietnam War novel The Things They Carried author Tim O'Brien writes: 

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. "

That is not to say that all aspects of a war story are obscene or evil, just that they are a crucial part of the whole.  While there have been plenty of movies that incorporate a plot about war, Steven Spielberg's 1998 film Saving Private Ryan wholeheartedly encompasses the essence of the war story.

Via Quotesville

Saving Private Ryan features Army Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) as he leads his men through WWII, following the storming of the beaches at Normandy.  Miller and his squad are given the mission of finding a young man called Private Ryan (played by Matt Damon) so he can be sent home in order to ease the heartache of Ryan's mother, whose three eldest sons have already perished in the war.  

As Miller and his men traipse across France in search of Ryan, the movie analyzes both the physical obstacles and emotional challenges they face.  Throughout their journey, the men must fight their way through enemy territory, leading unsurprisingly to casualties among the squad.  The more obstacles they endure, the more the team begins to question the validity of their mission; what is the point of risking a group of people to bring one guy back?  Miller attempts to qualm these fears, but internally feels the toll of war as well.  Predictably, the men become bitter with their task, demonstrating the demoralizing nature of war.  This is particularly evident in a scene in which the men are instructed to search a pile of dog tags in case Ryan may already be dead.  Rifling through the tags, the men forget the fact that the friends of the soldiers whom the tags belong are watching strangers turn their friends' deaths into a rowdy poker match, trading for tags and yelling "Full House."

The war itself seems to almost play its own character, as it is exploited through Miller's journey.  The idea that a true war story does not serve the purpose of being uplifting is evident throughout this film, as we see our characters doubt themselves and question whether the sacrifices they are making are truly worth it.  We see the transformation war has on all characters, as even the captain feels himself growing farther from his identity with every growing minute spent overseas.  Spielberg, who won the Academy Award for Best Director for this film, was able to successfully portray these transformations by not sugarcoating the war.  He tells us what we already know, but do not necessarily want to be reminded of:  war is violent, everyone cannot make it home alive, and even the most level headed men can lose their grip. 

Saving Private Ryan marries these elements of violence and loss with those of brotherhood and love to create a solid war story.  The film is able to leave you feeling satisfied with the ending, but torn with a greater understanding of the cost of war. 

If this has not convinced you that this movie can be enjoyed over and over, I think it is relevant to note that it also won four other Academy Awards in technical categories, implying that both the plot and the hard footage were well crafted.  

Get Busy Watching

You never know where you are going to meet someone that will eventually turn into a good friend.  It could be in class, or at a club, or just by a random conversation one day, but the point is friends come to us often when we are not expecting it.  Sometimes we are even more surprised by the actual person, as we get to know them and realize how wrong our initial judgements may have been.  Frank Darabont's 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption (based on the novel by Stephen King) proves this, as fellow inmates of Shawshank Prison become close friends despite an unusual set of circumstances.

The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of two men, "Red" Redding (played by Morgan Freeman) and Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins), who are both prisoners inside Shawshank Prison, convicted of murder.  While Red jokingly claims that he himself may be "the only guilty man in Shawshank," Andy was actually wrongfully convicted, forcing him to a lifetime sentence for no reason.

Via Random Enthusiam

Andy, an educated man who was a banker before his conviction, knows he does not belong in Shawshank, making him withdrawn from his fellow inmates.  His isolation from the rest of the prison community and status as a new inmate makes him a target that spends his first few years enduring brutal beatings and harassment.  However, from his very first night in Shawshank, Red had taken an interest in Andy the moment he proved himself mentally stronger than anyone initially thought by not being the first to break down.

The pair have their first real interaction when Andy approaches Red with a request for a small hammer, as Red is known as the man that can get things.  The series of requests that follow spark Red's interest, and he slowly begins to get to know Andy, who in return begins to become more outgoing around Red and the other inmates.  As Andy gains more attention, he is given the opportunity to put his education and financial experience to use, teaching the other inmates, doing the guards taxes, and eventually getting involved in a money laundering scheme for the warden.  All of this occurs slowly over the course of several years, as time in prison moves pretty slow when you know you will be there for the rest of your life.

*SPOILER ALERT* One day after about two decades in Shawshank, Andy is nowhere to be found.  It is discovered that he has become the first person to escape Shawshank, conveniently around the time Red's parole is soon to be up.  By this point, Red is undoubtably Andy's best friend and the reason he does not succumb to the anxiety created by being an innocent man imprisoned.  Red is finally able to successfully get out on parole and is left with the mystery of where Andy could be. Unlike many films, the movie provides the viewer with closure, ending on a hopeful note as the final frame concludes with Andy and Red hugging each other on a beach in Mexico, having both finally made it to freedom.

While this film vividly portrays the brutality and misery that come with prison life, it also succeeds in highlighting the importance of good friends and remaining hopeful in tough situations.  Although Andy knows he is an innocent man, he struggles to feel purposeful.  However, with Red's support, Andy begins to show his personality through a variety of schemes that spice up the monotony of prison life, providing the viewer with a balanced amount of both intensity and lightheartedness. Despite this monotony that comes with years of living the same routine day after day, the film itself is anything but boring.  In addition to the plot, the film also teases out the juxtaposition between the institutionalizing of the inmates and the hope that they must hold onto in order to avoid losing themselves.  It is these moments that truly allow the viewer to recognize the mental and emotional toil caused by being locked up, as seen through the heartbreaking suicide of the prison's beloved librarian, Brooks, who is unable to adjust to life on the outside after spending fifty years in Shawshank.

Via Movie Fan Central

Andy and Red prove that the only way to avoid such a fate is through reliance on friends in order to maintain hope and stay true to oneself.  Or as is commonly quoted throughout the movie, "get busy living, or get busy dying."  It is perhaps for these reasons that Shawshank is the highest rated movie on IMDb, making it seemingly one of the most popular films of all time.

Via Giphy

If Only It Was As Simple As Bad Guys vs. Good Guys

I am not sure what it is, but something is forever enticing about the gangster genre of film.  Whether it is a director's ability to evoke a certain level of fear and respect associated with the mob or to get viewers to justify the violence their favorite characters execute, the gangster genre is somehow always able to get the viewer to blur the line of what is right and wrong.  Maybe it is this confusion that pulls viewers into these films, or just the thrill of a life that carries such high stakes all the time.

Martin Scorsese's four time Oscar winning film The Departed (2006) portrays the gangster genre a little differently than other mob classics, giving the point of view of both law enforcement and those involved in organized crime.  Showing both sides allows Scorsese to confuse viewers with which side they should be rooting for.  The film takes the story of two men with similar upbringing but drastically different goals in their adult lives who cross paths through their involvement in organized crime.  Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Billy Costigan, has tried to cut the ties between himself and his family, who has has a history of organized crime, by joining the Boston Police Academy.  Meanwhile, Colin Sullivan, played by Matt Damon, has also entered the police academy the same year as Billy with a seemingly spotless reputation.  However, Sullivan has also been involved in organized crime since his youth, after being taken under the wing of Jack Nicholson's character, mobster Frank Costello (loosely based off real life gangster Whitey Bulger).

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This begins to shade the gray area of good guys and bad guys as Costigan, whose intentions of joining law enforcement were to clear his name and conscience of his family's reputation, is told that he will never make a good police officer because of his history.  However, Staff Sergeant Dignam, played by Mark Wahlberg, tells Costigan that his best bet of helping the department is by going undercover and taking down mobster Costello from the inside.  On the other hand, Sullivan has been instructed by Costello, his mentor and boss, to enter law enforcement in order to keep tabs on the investigation surrounding the take down of Costello himself.

Via Giphy

In other words, we have a bad guy pretending to be a good guy and a good guy pretending to be a bad guy.

It is no surprise that the double lives led by Costigan and Sullivan lead to the development of relationships that exploit the classifications of bad versus good.  While the audience knows each characters' purpose, we begin to question these classifications as we see DiCaprio's character badly beat up Costello's rivals while Damon's character shows his soft side as he falls for his therapist. There is growing tension throughout the film as both the mob and the police department discover a mole among them.  The tension is aided by the fact that both moles have become so intertwined with their double lives that it seems unlikely they will ever return to their original selves, made even easier by the fact that next to no one knows of the infiltrations to both Costello's mob and the police department.

Via Giphy 

The film successfully blurs the line of right and wrong, allowing viewers to see the corruption on both sides, and the accompanying internal strife.  As any gangster film insists, The Departed is loaded with action and suspense as Costigan and Sullivan draw closer to discovering one another (which seems inevitable as Billy has access to police knowledge and Costello's crew, while Colin leads the investigation surrounding Costello).  The undercover work on both parts demands the plot rely on lies and betrayals, emphasizing the corruption found in every corner of the city.  Portraying the gangster genre through the eyes of nervous men who must constantly be watching their backs produces a film that puts the audience through the same level of intensity, making it enticing to watch over and over.

Oh, the Power of Memory

We all have memories we would rather not think about, and maybe even a few we wish we could forget.  But what are the consequences of forgetting certain things?  Is it really possible to just live life without these painful or embarrassing moments and still be the same person we are today?  Or are we shaped to be the person we are because of our experiences, whether they be good or bad?

Michel Gondry's 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind explores this idea by creating a world in which memories can be targeted and erased at a person's request.  The film features a couple, Joel and Clementine (played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet), who have ended their long term relationship years ago.  However, Joel runs into Clementine one rainy morning only to discover that she has taken the liberty of having the memory of their relationship erased.  Already on emotionally on edge, Joel decides the best course of action is to request the same procedure be done on himself, so as to forget the emotional turmoil the sting of painful memories causes.

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Most of the film uniquely takes place inside of Joel's mind as he undergoes the procedure.  His mind is made into an environment in which we can see Joels's memories and simultaneously hear his thoughts reverberating inside his head.   As the procedure begins, we see how Joel's tendency to be emotionally withdrawn conflicted with the passion possessed by free-spirit Clementine, ultimately leading to the end of the relationship.  The memories are erased in reverse order and as Joel gets to the earlier stages of the relationship, both he and the movie's viewers begin to see that maybe the pair were not so bad for each other after all.  As the erasing progresses, Joel regrets his decision, focussing all of his mental energy trying to regain consciousness so as to end the procedure and keep the memories of an important part of his life that should not be forgotten.

Via WiffleGif

While the film operates mostly inside of Joel's head, there is also a parallel storyline happening in real time, in which the doctors performing the procedure.  It turns out these characters have as much drama in their lives as Joel and Clementine, having also undergone the procedure themselves.  (Note: The transition between settings may confuse viewers, similarly one of my earlier posts discussing how the story changes of Pulp Fiction could be confusing for viewers watching for the first time. Click here to read more.)

Eternal Sunshine begs the question of what the consequences of forgetting an experience, a time, or a person entirely will be.  Looking at Joel's regret of his decision, it becomes obvious that memories are what craft the people we are today.  Joel realizes this as he tries so desperately to cling to his past as it is being taken from him.  The film shows us that when we lose an experience, a time, or even a person from our memories we lose the parts of ourselves that these experiences helped to shape. While the plot revolves around a couple, it is not the romance between the two that the Oscar winning screenwriters of this film were aiming to convey.  Rather was the idea that while you can try to get rid of a negative experience, doing so would change who you are, and not necessary for the good.

I am also a sucker for movies that say their title in the film.

To the Movie Theater... And Beyond!

So far in this blog I have only discussed live action movies, but I felt like it was time to touch upon a movie that probably has a special place in most of our hearts:  Toy Story.

I don't doubt that a majority of you have seen Toy Story, as the films of the series all came out during the prime of our childhood.  How many of you at one point dressed up like Buzz Lightyear for Halloween, professing at the top of your lungs "to infinity and beyond!"?  How many ran around the house repeating the lines "you've got a friend in me," because those were the only words of the film's theme we could remember?  How many became convinced that this movie was proof that our toys were alive, leaving us determined to catch them in action?

Courtesy of Disney Pixar / Via giphy.com

While we can probably agree that Toy Story played an important role in our childhood, it is equally important to understand its significance on the animated movie industry.  When Toy Story came out in 1995, it was both Pixar's and the world's first full length movie that was created entirely by computer animation.  This obviously changed Pixar and the way animated movies were made, paving the way for those that followed such as Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and The Incredibles.  The animated movie industry was revolutionized with the introduction of the technology used to create Toy Story, allowing its influence to reach beyond the audiences for which the movie itself was intended.

For more information feel free to check out this article. 

However, this is not the reason it remains special to us as we have gotten older.  Throughout the series' fifteen year span since creation, Toy Story has been a series that we have literally grown up with.  It may have been one of the first movies you watched as a kid, and I can bet many of you anxiously awaited the premiere of Toy Story 3 in 2010 as much as I did.  For us, Toy Story was ours. We felt like it was created for us, and for the most part, it was.  The timing was too perfect; the reign of the first and second movies occurred during the point in our lives when all we did was play with toys.  The eleven year hiatus between the second and third movie was representative of the time we spent forgetting about our toys and started growing up.  When Toy Story 3 finally hit the big screen, we understood Andy's thoughts and actions about moving on from childhood because it would soon be time for us to do the same.  Movie makers allowed Andy to grow up at the same rate that the original movie's audience would grow up to ensure that the series would always be ours.

Courtesy of Disney Pixar / Via giphy.com

Collectively the series is synonymous with childhood and growing up.  Individually, each film depicts a fun, creative story that 90's kids, or kids of any era for that matter, would find both funny and heartwarming.  Not only that, but these films depict one of the strongest cases of the importance of friendship and loyalty to both kids now and the young adults that grew up with them.  Woody and Buzz have become a timeless example of friends that would do anything for one another.  Woody showed us the importance of loyalty with his refusal to give up on Andy.  Even minor characters taught us countless lessons, like Rex's portrayal of the importance of confidence.  Toy Story has crept its way into our hearts, growing in meaning each time as we watch these lessons play out in real life and understand how important they actually are.

Not to mention the snarky lines prevalent throughout the series that only get funnier with each viewing.

Courtesy of Disney Pixar / Via giphy.com

Say Anything... (Say You Love This Movie)

Oh the allure of the 80's rom-com.

What is it about a movie made thirty years ago that somehow seems to appeal better to us than the modern romantic comedies we see today?  Maybe their reputations are hyped up and we feel obligated to like them.  Maybe they just feel more natural.  Maybe there is just something about 80's culture that seems fun, making us wish we could have been a part of it.  Maybe they are just well crafted movies.

Whatever the case, Cameron Crowe's 1989 film Say Anything captures the essence of an 80's romantic comedy, bringing out the hopeless romantic in all of us.

Some might say it's full of cliches, it's too picture perfect, things like that only happen in the movies. And it's true.  But that is half of the appeal of a romantic comedy.  We as humans love to strive for perfection, making it only right that we can appreciate it, even in fictional form.

Say Anything tells your classic boy-meets-girl love story that we hate to love (but love anyway). Basically you have underachiever Lloyd Dobler (played by John Cusack) and the top of the class, seemingly perfect Diane Court (played by Ione Skye), who fall for each other the summer after their high school graduation. Having just been there ourselves, many of us can relate all too well with the confusion that comes with moving on to the next chapter in our lives.  Diane wants to go to Europe on a scholarship to study.  Lloyd considers becoming a professional kick-boxer.

Despite their inability to be any different regarding their goals for the future, Lloyd and Diane seem to make the perfect match.  Lloyd himself is charming, passionate, and shares Diane's key characteristic of being a hard worker, although he lacks her certainty on how his life will pan out after school.  This lack of certainty is something everyone has felt at one point in their lives, connecting us indefinitely with the characters of the movie.

Like many romantic comedies, these minor character differences, alongside parental interference, spark conflict in an otherwise seemingly perfect relationship.  But a movie does not exist without conflict, and what is a movie centered around love without a couple of good arguments and *sigh* breakup scenes.

But have no fear, for as I have already stated, the reason we love these movies so much is because they create an atmosphere of almost-too-good-to-be-true, meaning we know they will come full circle.  For Say Anything, this happens in one of the most iconic moments in romantic comedy history: when Lloyd stands outside of Diane's window holding a boombox over his head in an effort to demonstrate how much he cares about her.

The captivation from this movie stems from Lloyd's character, as we find him effortlessly charming, witty, and down to earth in a way that can't help but break your heart when his own heart breaks. While Diane is a sweet girl with the best intentions at heart, it is Lloyd that audiences route for, as it is easy to see ourselves in him.  For the most part he is just your average kid that doesn't have a clue what direction he wants to take his life.  His charm is what keeps the viewer passionate about the relationship because we truly think Lloyd deserves happiness.

Say Anything takes us through the ups and downs of a young and fun relationship, having us "aw" at the sweet moments, laugh at goofiness of Lloyd, cry when we sympathize with the characters' heartbreak, and eventually feel like such a relationship is possible.  Say Anything depicts the romantic comedy in a way that feels natural and relatable, giving it that timeless allure that is characteristic of an 80's rom com.