The Night of the Hunter is the 1950’s noir classic that had become one of the most frightening films in history.  This story tells the tale of a father, who in an attempt to better the future of his children was imprisoned and killed. With his last words to his children he made them swear to never speak of the location money he had stolen and hidden from the world. While in prison he met a man, preacher Harry Powel, a psychotic religious fanatic who believes God has sent him on earth to take money from grieving widows. When he hears of the money hidden he decides he will do whatever it takes, even if that means kill, to get what he wants.

A recurring theme throughout the film is the struggle between good and evil, or how it was more plainly put in the movie, love and hate. On preach Powel’s knuckles he has “HATE” tattooed on his left hand and “LOVE” tattooed on his right and he tells the story of the battle of love and hate and how love always wins. 

A particular scene that shows that contrast is when the preacher is waiting outside of Mrs. Cooper’s house for her to go to sleep so he can sneak in and take the money but she is waiting in a rocking chair with a shotgun. The preacher begins to sing the recurring religious song that he often sings while he is waiting for something. Instead of ignoring it, Mrs. Cooper joins the singing. Her higher, softer voice contradicts his deep, rough tone. Thus creating a tension and a contrast between “good” and “bad” without dialogue. Also a huge difference between the two is their idea of children. The preacher has nothing but awful things to say about children, that they are essentially horrible creatures that need to be controlled. Mrs. Cooper on the other hand believes that children are God’s gift the mankind, to make the world a better place. This in itself shows the clear contrast between the two characters and what they stand for.

This film has all the classic components in making a fantastic scary movie, with the unnerving suspense, the plot twists, and the ominous music that plays whenever the villain enters the screen. Something however that sets this film aside from other scary movies is the black and white aspect; because of this the director was able to create shadows and contrasts that added to the eeriness of the story. One scene in particularly showed was an excellent example of this feature. 

It displayed John and Pearl hiding in a barn on the run from preacher Powell and in the distance you could make out a man on a horse wearing the same hat as preacher Powell, which makes us assume it is him. Then in a muffled sound we can hear him singing the unusual religious song that he had repeated continuously throughout the film.

This film captured my attention and kept me wanting to see what was going to happen. I became emotionally attached to the children and to Mrs. Cooper and was sufficiently disgusted by preacher Powel. I highly recommend this movie for whoever is looking for a classic with a thriller twist. 



Word Cited:

The Night of the Hunter. Dir. Charles Laughton. Prod. Paul Gregory. By James Agee. Perf. Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, and Peter Graves. United Artists, 1955.

Photos:Love and Hate. Digital image. Hope Lies. N.p., 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

The film Juno has projected political and societal messages in a humorous and entertaining way. Led by the incredible Ellen Page the film was able to tackle subjects such as teen pregnancy, pro-life or pro-choice, and the overall drama of being a young adult.

Juno opens with a young 16-year-old girl discovering she is pregnant and is forced to make the decision of whether to keep the child or have an abortion. One of the most pivotal scenes in the film is when Juno is at the abortion clinic when she is faced with the decision to either go through with the abortion or leave.  The scene opens with Juno heading towards the clinic where a schoolmate stops her who is standing out in front of the building protesting abortion. She tells Juno that her baby has fingernails, a statement that Juno brushes off and seems nothing but indifferent of.  However, this changes in the next scene when Juno is sitting in the waiting room of the clinic and is bombarded with images and sounds of fingernails. The rest of the scene is various shots of people’s fingernails in the waiting room and of Juno. It allows the audience to connect with Juno’s new emotional struggle with the idea of abortion and her sudden realization that she could not abort her child.

With the decision to keep the baby Juno was forced to tell those in her life that she was going to have a baby, this started with her parents.  This scene allows the audience to see a supportive family who recognize Juno’s mistake but also make the preparations necessary to make sure Juno feels safe and loved. Often, movies that deal with teenager/parent relationships are condescending toward one or the other. They are either centered on the teens and the parents are neglectful, self-motivated, or absent; or they are centered on the parents and the teens are trouble with a capital “T” and need to grow up. Juno treats all of its characters with equal respect. They are all just essentially good people struggling to grow up.

One theme that I have found throughout the film was the idea of maturity. It seems that every character grasps they are mature enough or not mature enough to deal with the issue at hand. Juno realizes that she is far more mature than she had originally thought with her ability to handle teen pregnancy, Juno’s parents were able to step up and help their daughter through her complicated situation, Juno’s best friend Leah was a strong support system for her also. On the other hand Paulie, the father of Juno’s child never seemed to be fully prepared to step up and help Juno in the way he should, and Mark the husband who would be adopting Juno’s baby realized he was not ready for a child and in the end left his wife and Juno.


Juno was able to touch the heart of all of its viewers through it’s incredible, witty writing, characters that you can connect with, awesome soundtrack, and it’s overall open mindedness to very heavy political issues. It’s an enjoyable, clever, and emotional film that I truly enjoyed.


Work Cited:
Film:
Juno. Dir. Jason Reitman. By Diablo Cody. Perf. Ellen Page and Michael Cera. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2007.
Photos:
Opening Title. Digital image. FestungArnulfinger. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Juno. Digital image. : Diablo Cody's "Juno" N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014

Imagine as though your everyday life is nothing but a design created to mask the truth of what reality actually is. The 1999 American-Australian science-fiction-action movie The Matrix, written and directed by the Wachoski Brothers depicts such a world.

The film begins with Thomas Anderson or Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, who lives his life as a computer programmer but doubles as a computer hacker. This soon leads him to the truth about the Matrix and is brought into a rebellion against the machines that have taken over earth and are using human bodies as energy sources. 

The Matrix has many references to both religious, philosophical ideas, and homage’s to great novelist, such as Lewis Carol’s The Adventure’s of Alice in Wonderland. Both Alice and Neo are thrown into dream like worlds. Like Alice, Neo is told to follow the white rabbit, which he discovers is a tattoo on a woman’s shoulder. This leads him to a pivotal scene in which he has to make the life altering decision to continue on his journey through the matrix or go back to his life of ordinary ignorance. 

The particular scene that is leading Neo to this cross road is when he is meeting Morpheus, the leader of the rebellion, for the first time. Morpheus is enlightening Neo about the matrix. This scene demonstrates Neo’s eagerness to learn about this world, he speaks very little during this scene but is leaning in, on the edge of his seat, which is facing Morpheus, who is much more casual and relaxed into his chair as he tells Neo about this other world.

This scene is one of the most crucial moments in the film because Morpheus gives Neo two options, which will determine the plot for the rest of the film. Neo is offered two pills, one red and one blue. Each pill has a specific purpose, to either make Neo forget any of this had happened or to emerge him further into the matrix. The most power shot in this scene is the view of Morpheus but we are able to see the reflection in his glasses of both Neo’s face and emotions and also both of the pills in Morpheus’ hands. 

This creates not only the whimsical effect of the wonderland feel but also furthers the connection the audience feels to Neo’s emotions in making his decision. We are led to believe we are looking out of Neo’s perspective but we also see his face and his emotions as if we are viewing him from Morpheus' eyes, so we are thrown off guard.

One specific visual effect technique that was used for this film that became extremely successful was the shot called “bullet time”. This is the idea of filming a shot in slow motion however, the camera appears to be filming at a normal speed. “Bullet time” was one of the most important visual effects to the story line. This particular effect creates the appearance that the characters can control space and time. This is a trait that the characters developed as they were enlightened about the matrix and what they are capable of doing in it. It plays a key component to the audience's belief in the idea of this other world that is programmed by computers where anything is possible, even dodging bullets.

Work Cited
Photos:
"The Matrix has you" Digital image. Blogspot.com. N.p., 31 Oct. 2010. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

"Matrix, Morpheus and the Reflexions". Digital image. The Guardian.com. N.p., 1999. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

"Dodging Bullets- Video Clip"  The Matrix. Dir. Lana and Andrew Wachowskis. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne. Village Roadshow, 1999. DVD.