Tol'able David

Tol'able David: the movie that is definitely not a carbon copy of Old Yeller; seriously, it's not; in fact the only thing the two films have in common is the fact that dogs appear onscreen; heh heh heh heh

This is a note to myself that Tol'able David, the 1921 film, actually made me feel something: anxiety. During the movie, David, the main character, has wanted to deliver the government mail since childhood, but since he's not old and experienced enough to be deemed a man, no one trusts that he'll get it right. When an opportunity finally comes for him to deliver the mail, the mail bag falls out of his delivery wagon, and one of the main villains finds it and hides it in his cousin's house. The scene made me feel anxious because this delivery job was David's one chance to shine. It happened on a whim because his boss had to fire the other mailman, so it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. If he succeeded, he would surely be able to follow his dream and deliver the mail for a living. The movie made all that look like it was going to be screwed up, like David would loose his one opportunity and at the same time loose any meager amount of trust he had gained by being a good worker, causing him never to be able to deliver the mail.

It's also worth noting that this movie had a good visual sense of spacing. There was almost never any confusion where any person was walking. When someone walked to the left off the screen, he would always appear on the right in the next shot and vice versa. It felt very refreshing compared to most of the silent films I'd seen from the 1910s.

That's all.

The Big Parade (1925)

I have to admit that I didn't pay enough attention while watching this movie to get more than the bare essentials of the plot, but I could still recognize that this was a really well shot, and well paced movie. It felt like a real movie. It felt like it wasn't an old movie, but a more recent movie.

The most notable scene to me was the one where all of the soldiers were marching in a line and getting picked off one by one by the enemy. Even though they were slowly getting picked off, they kept marching, ignoring the people who got shot. It was a really powerful image on its own, but the music chosen for it made it even more powerful. In this scene I saw something that I've never quite seen before, which I didn't expect that to happen while watching such an old movie, so good on you, The Big Parade.



 Oh boy, I hope we don't treep!

Civilization (1916)

This blog post is just a note to myself that the movie Civilization, made in 1916, was actually able to resonate with me despite its obviousness and stage-like camera angles.

Civilization: arms havn't been crossed this seriously since the rain of Ceaser Augustus.

Ah, what the hell; I'll talk about a few of the themes.

One theme the movie explores is the dulling power of abstraction, and it does this through the king. The king, by remaining in his castle, abstracts himself from the effects of war. From his castle viewpoint, all he can really see of the war are the numbers that it's churning out, so he treats the war like a mathemetician would. When he finds that he is loosing the war, and his armies are falling back, he issues orders for more soldiers to be recruited, forcing all eligible young people to join his armies and fight in his war. Sending thousands of people to die makes the king sound like in inhumane and morally unjust person, but we later learn that he is not unjust; he is just ignorant. When Jesus appears to him in a vision and takes him for a walk through all of the battlefields of his war, the abstraction between him and his subjects is instantly removed, and he realizes how terrible his decisions were.

Another theme the movie explores is, obviously, the terrors of war. The first way it does this is through the soldiers. The soldiers in this movie do not have a good time. Some of them loose their arms, some of them loose their dignity, some of them loose their sanity, but most of them loose their lives. In fact, enough soldiers die in this movie for the king to issue desperate orders to recruit any and all stragglers that are of age. The second way the movie explores the terrors of war is through its citizens. While the soldiers loose their lives, the citizens loose their homes, their loved ones, their money, and their wellbeing. There is a very memorable shot in the movie (probably because its one of the only close ups) of a woman begging for food while soldiers are busy eating in the background. There are also several shots of homes ransacked and burned to the ground.

A few should be more than two, but I'm tired, and I have to wake up early tomorrow, so no more themes for you. Goodnight, folks. I feel happy. I finally got something out of an old movie (well, an old movie that isn't ten minutes long and isn't called The Land Beyond the Sunset)

The Naked City

Wow, how long has it been since I even thought about this blog? I don't even know, at least a year, possibly two. Well, "Better late then never!" I always aspire to say but never say. Let's do this!

I just finished watching a film called The Naked City, and I'm going to talk about it for the rather selfish reason of personal future reference, a sort of photograph of my opinion now that I can look at later. If any of you readers find enjoyment in this, good on ya, but just lit et bih neoon that eye ain't wroitin' it fer yuh, yuhere?

Okay, now that that's setteled:

The Naked City: A Discussion

Perfect snapshot, right? Perfectly describes the style of this movie (Naked City fans are gonna kill me).

For those of you who haven't seen the film, it's basically a slightly tongue-in-cheek, slightly documentaryish film-noir story that covers the attempts by a group of investigators to find the criminal or criminals responsible for the murder of a some blonde chick. I'm not going to tell you whether they actually succeed or not because that would spoil the movie, but they certainly do try to succeed, and that's good, right, right?

What makes this film somewhat different from what I know of the film-noir genre (and I hardly know anything, so don't even take this with a grain of salt) is its mood. Compared to the grim, dark, and serious attitude that normal film-noir movies have, this film feels much more positive. The investigators, although they are investigating something very serious, seem to enjoy the process and think lightly of many aspects of it, and they function really well together as a team. There is a familial chemistry between them that's not very obvious, but it's there, and it feels pleasant. The background characters are also pleasant. The movie has a tendency to dilly dally around with shots of people going about their day-to-day lives and children playing games, and each shot that does this has a very homey, positive feel to it, like the whole city is part of one big family, which really bends the definition of film-noir (If this movie even counts as film-noir).

The movie starts off without any credits, just a really really high moving shot of New York city. A Narrator (who happens to be the director), states that it is going to be different from normal films, that it is going to be on-location (no sets), and realistic (no makeup), that sort of thing. During the course of the film, this narrator will occasionally chime in with a few witty phrases to say about what is going on, or he will root for the character that is currently in focus, or he would give further insight into the process of the investigation. His narration tone is very interesting. It's kind of like an adult watching kids take a test, but not being able to help them with it. He often gives the characters advice knowing full well that they can't hear a damn thing he's saying.

I'm so tired of writing this already, by the way, I really don't want to continue, but I must. I must for the sake of photography! I MUST!

The drama and plotline, aka the actual story of the movie was tropish and mundane. It was just an everyday investigation that had it's everyday twists and turns with its everyday villians stumbling over there everyday mistakes, but I'm beginning to wonder if they didn't do that on purpose to make the narrator stand out more than he would have. Perahps if the story itself were interesting it would be fighting for screentime with the narrator and they would end up hating each other and the movie would end up falling to pieces because of their hatred. Well who know? All I know is that I need to go to bed, so this review is done, take it as you will. Perhaps I'll edit it tomorrow or something. Yeah, that'd be a good idea. I should do that. I should edit it tomorrow.


Good night, folks!