The Godfather

Title: The Godfather

Writer: Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Actors: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Al Pacino

Released: 1972

“Actors who take the material of often will-known roles and put their own stamp on it,” are known as interpreters,” (Goodykoontz, & Jacobs, 2014). Marlon Brando certainly did this in the portrayal of “Vito Corleone” in the Godfather.

Marlon Brando’s personal stamp on this role was good enough to win him the academy award for best actor in 1972. The head of a mafia family in the 1940s would be a character that would allow an actor some latitude in the way that the actor would portray the character. Brando was also considered a method actor. While any individual actor will put their personal stamp on any given role, it is difficult to imagine anyone doing a better job than Brando in this particular role.

Robert Duvall has to be considered one of the greatest character actors of all time. From a personal perspective, I have seen Duvall in many films playing a wide range of characters, and he made most, if not all, believable. “I always considered myself as a character actor, I always try to be versatile to show different sides of human experience,”(Duvall, n.d.). In “The Godfather” Duvall plays Tom Hagen, a lawyer and advisor to the Corleone family, who was taken in by the crime family as a young boy and given a home. Although, treated as a member of the family, Hagen was not a blood relative. However, scenes throughout the film show Hagan’s strong emotional and practical connection to the family.

Al Pacino would also be classified as an interpreter in his role as Michael Corleone in the Godfather. Only in general terms could the personality of a young man growing up in a mafia family be interpreted. Therefore, anyone who accepts this role would probably study several real life examples of the character they are to portray, get a general idea of personality, actions, and attitude of that character, then, put their personal stamp on it in their performance, (Goodykoontz, & Jacobs, 2014).

Of the three actors that I have discussed, Robert Duvall has more work that I am familar with. No, he would not be limited to the catagory of character actor. Duvall has appeared in films where his performance would be classified as impersonator, such as his portrayal of Joseph Stalin in “Stalin.”

Reference:

Goodykoontz, B. and Jacob, C.P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing, (2nd.ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint, Education, Inc

Internet Movie Database, (n.d.) Robert Duvall, Biography. Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000380/bio

Star Wars episode 4

I remember going to see “Star Wars: episode IV” when it was first released to theaters in 1977. I thought that I was going to see a movie about some rival movie stars in Hollywood with individual conflicts, I had no idea.

I was 21 years old and was still in the process of exploring the world and looking for my place in it. The opening screen of this movie immediately gave me the sense that it was going to be something different. But, it was the music that grabbed me and filled me with excitement and anticipation, and told me that this was the beginning of a major epic story. I became an instant fan.

http://www.starwars.com/video/star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope-opening-crawl

I have always been a fan of science fiction. This movie was perfect for me. The visuals contained within the cinematography far exceeded what I considered cutting edge effects at that time. The visual effects combined with the sound effects and the accompanying music produced an intensity within me that was thrilling. However, there was one sound within the movie that excited me more than any other, the sound of the light sabre. Whenever a light sabre was activated in the movie it announced impending action and battle. The visual effect, and the sound of the light sabre gave me a feeling of power, because this technology is not beyound the realm of possibility in the near future.

I considered this movie to be the best movie that I had seen up to that point in 1977, little did I know that there would be at least 5 more installments to come.

Lighting used in the movie “Unforgiven”.

Title: Unforgiven

Writer: David Webb Peoples

Director: Clint Eastwood

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris.

Release Date: 1992

In this film many different scenes have varied lighting arrangements. There is use of natural lighting in scenes where wide-angle views of the landscape were shot. There is a combination of high-key and low-key lighting used depending on the desired mood and tone for the shot. The high-key lighting is used to produce scenes of non-threightning situations with few shadows, while low-key lighting is used to give the audience a sense of forboding and danger, (Goodykoontz and Jacobs, 2014).

These varied lighting techniques serve to alter or heighten expectations of the audience and ultimatly gives them a richer viewing experience. The movie “Unforgiven” recieved wide critical acclaim and won 4 academy awards. It was nominated for best cinematography, buy did not win. Never-the-less, the over-all lighting format of this film is superb. The high-key lighting used in some sences made it much easier for the audience to relate to softer side of the films hero, this would probably have been much harder to achieve had the lighting been different. The low-key lighting used in the climactic scene in skinny’s bar gives the audience a sense of realism, and excited anticipation of what is about to happen, and Eastwood does not let them down. This kind of audience reaction would be very difficult to achieve without the proper lighting.

References:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unforgiven

Goodykoontz, B. and Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: from watching to seeing (2nd ed.) San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Warner Bros. World wide, (2013). Unforgiven-Trailor Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch=OAzatpD2TzE