MYST #2: The Manchurian Candidate *loaded with spoilers*

In light of what we've been learning about in class paired with the release of Bridge of Spies I saw it fit to review the 1962 political thriller Manchurian Candidate which is one of the most iconic political films in American history. Adapted from a 1959 novel of the same name the film follows the story of Raymond Shaw, the son of a powerful political family, played by Lawrence Harvey and Ben Marco, a military officer, played by Frank Sinatra. It revolves around a Communist plot to usurp the presidency through a puppet president, a Manchurian Candidate. Senator Johnny Iselin, who is the the said candidate, is interestingly, a carbon copy of McCarthy, complete with the ever changing number of communists in the Government and provides a look into how it affected american politics.

The film begins with our two heroes serving together in Korea, during oddly enough, the Korean war. After a a moment it becomes clear Raymond is not liked by the other men in the unit, as he is an uptight and all-round unpleasant person with no sense of humor. Ben is the commander and orders everyone to move out as there was enemy contact about 3 klicks north. during the engagement, they are captured by the enemy who use brainwashing to condition the men to perform their will.

The men are sent back with a story of Raymond bravely fighting off hordes of communist troops and unanimously call him the "kindest, warmest, bravest human being I've ever met in my life". Raymond's "actions" win him the medal of honor which his power hungry mother and his stepfather Senator Johnny Iselin both of whom he despises, use as political leverage, and pose for pictures with the press.

However, Raymond's brainwashing had a deeper purpose than that of propaganda. He is a cold-blooded sleeper assassin who is activated by the phrase "why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire" which he plays until he comes upon the Queen of diamonds or the "Red Queen". He then proceeds to kill an anti-Iselin newspaper man just as Iselin reveals a list of "known" communists in the state department and sends the American people into a frenzy. Meanwhile, Marco has had a recurring dream about about a brainwashing demonstration as has everyone else in the unit, which prompts Marco to investigate Raymond who he saw killing people in his dream. He travels to meet Raymond whom he sees literally jumping into a lake after someone inadvertently uttered his his activation code.   Marco slowly begins to unravel the mystery and realizes his dream may not have been a dream after all.

*loaded with spoilers*

Raymond comes back to the house where a party is being to held to celebrate Johhnt's nomination as Vice President and while Raymond is there he receives a telephone call, which activates him. It is then revealed his mother is his handler and is the human form of the "Red Queen" and she orders him to assassinate Johnny's running mate at Madison Square gardens in order to elevate him to the Presidency. Just before he is able to do so, Marco who has figured the key to the puzzle, the "Red Queen" uses a deck of Queens to interrogate Raymond and get the whole story and orders Raymond t stop and no longer be bound by the red Queen. Despite this, Raymond proceeds to Madison square Gardens and retrieves the gun to be used in the killing. He waits until the perfect moment and shoot his mother and Johnny in the head. He then turns the weapon on himself and dies, The films ends with Marco reflecting on Raymond's heroism and what kind of man he was.

This film is, no doubt a quality political thriller. For the America of 1962 it took a very real fear and current events and translated into film. Even in modern times the movie still has a pretty interesting plot and blends suspense with intrigue which are both handled very well. Its also has great compostion specifically heavy use of deep space composition, typically in scenes with his mother showed where the strength really lied. This is a solid political thriller film with great performances. I give it a 7.75 out of 10

Memento:Editing

Editing

The most impressive feature of Christopher Nolan's all-around impressive film Memento is undoubtedly the editing. Telling the complex story present in the film would be a challenge within itself, much less telling it in reverse but Nolan pulls it off with enviable smoothness and the perfect balance of confusion and understanding.

The most notable aspect of the editing is, of course the transfer between scenes where the beginning of the previous is shown at the end of the current scene allowing for a much smoother transition and helping the Audience fully-grasp what is happening. This little detail overall makes the film a lot more enjoyable since it won't require multiple viewing to decipher the story until it makes sense. This also serves to make the film more interesting compelling as it keeps the audience guessing. One great example of this is when we see Leonard open up the closet to find Dodd. We don't know how he got there, and don't know anything about him besides his name, hastily scribbled on a blurry Polaroid.

Another great and innovative use of editing was the black and white sequences which somehow managed to have what appeared to be a Flashback within a flashback(a concept similar to that of a film also directed by Nolan)as the sections that pertained to Sammy Jenkins were intertwined with scenes of Leonard speaking on the phone with who is later revealed to be teddy. Similar to the other time jumps, this was extremely smooth and artfully revealed more and more info regarding the first scene of the movie as time went on.

Despite the great use of editing throughout the film but there is a weakest link in every chain. One place where the editing was particularly weak was towards the end as the scenes got shorter and more intense they got harder to keep up with. Of course this may have been intentionally disorienting but one of the chief purposes is to give the audience a new unique understanding of a scene so arrant confusion is not really the most safe option.

I'd say say the editing in this film is somewhat comparable to the 2002 film Minority Report as it also plays around with time and distortion of memory. This can be seen with similarities between the pre-visions and Leonard's memories which are both edited in a choppy style to mirror the real perception or lack therof of memeory

FFS: Violence in the films of Quentin Tarantino

Formal Film Study: Violence in Quentin Tarantino films
Quentin Tarantino is a Director famous for his films displaying gratuitous violence. I, being an American, ate this all up and went to see several of his films.  After having watched several of them, I noticed that this seemingly mindless violence may be more meets the eyes. Therefore, I selected 3 of his most violent and stylistic films Inglourious Basterds, Kill Bill, and Django Unchained.
Blood:
Being as violent as they are, blood has a constant presence in the films and pays homage to specific violent genres. In Django blood takes on a translucent and almost ketchup-like texture that gives it a cheap look paying homage to the appearance of low-budget western films. This also could likely to represent the cheapness of blood discussed in the film due to the presence of the slave trade and bounty hunting. In Kill Bill we see obviously fake bright red blood unnaturally flowing in gallons from the arms and legs of countless goons, inspired by "Samurai" films which are themselves overflowing with intense blood and gore and finally, we have Basterds, which keeps to the style of old American World War 2 films with blood only appearing where the victim is hit. By keeping elements of the genre, specifically blood, Tarantino succeeds in making all of his films feel like unique journeys through cinema rather than just the same film over and again.
Tension:
One of the things Tarantino does better than any director is creating tension, although this is not technically violence I chose to look at it because it immediately precedes most of the violence and greatly impacts how said violence is perceived. It always seeks to make the viewer uncomfortable through creating tension over the most trivial things that devolve into violence in no time flat. The finest example of this is seen in Basterds. Wherein, after inadvertently blowing his cover by expressing the number "three" a certain way, A British agent begins a standoff with an SS major in a room full of Nazi soldiers creating total suspense at the seemingly inescapable dilemma.  This type of scene is also present in Django before Schultz kills Candie for insisting upon a handshake after receiving a raw deal on Brunhilda and in Kill Bill over a cup of coffee in Vernita's house that results in a knife in her chest. These scenes make the cool violent scenes in the films really pop by making seem more effective because of extensive build-up.
Perception of Characters:
One of the essential elements of making any film, violent action films in particular, is to make it clear where our sympathies lie in terms of the characters. This usually calls for a clear good and evil to be established in order to not confuse the average viewer, however Quentin Tarantino has decided to move in a different direction by consistently blurring the line between the "good" and "bad" sides in his films. This is seen in Kill Bill in one of the very first scenes when the Bride goes to kill Vernita and meets her daughter, who the audience knows will eventually be motherless and weakens our support for the bride as she declines mercy and establishes her as a more ambiguous character. In the end of Django, after some of the already questionable bounty hunter scenes, Django returns to Candyland to finish what hes started even though he has his wife and freedom already. We then see him murder all of the white folks and Steven, everyone's favorite house slave in cold blood and blow up the House while running into the sunset as if our Glorious hero has finally triumphed while he really just killed 5 defenseless people. finally in Basterds  Tarantino ironically creates sympathy for some of the German soldiers like the officer who "respectfully refuses" to reveal the position of his fellow soldiers and is then massacred by Savage American soldiers for it, or Wilhelm, whose son was just born. this strays from the traditional portrayal of Nazis as evil, barbarians with no honor. By doing this throughout his films, Tarantino gives us an entirely new perspective on violence and how it is portrayed in film.
Gunplay:
A total must for Quentin Tarantino films and action films in general is the use of guns but rather than keeping the formula of more traditional action movies with more quiet and sustained gunfire, Taratino seeks to make his brand of shooting unique. In his films shootouts is far more loud and disorienting, resulting in scenes with a more chaotic than "awesome" feel to them. this is seen in Basterds when as the theater is burning down, which should probably be the most glorious part of the film, is instead filled with loud gunfire and screams whereas in a typical action film it would be by "awesome" music to highlight how badass the entire thing is. In Django as Schultz goes to shake Candie's hand and then pulls out his concealed pistol it literally rings out and throws the audience right in to the massive Sh**storm that has just been unleashed, leaving us especially disoriented as Django is "unchained". Furthermore in the Kitchen scene in Kill Bill when Vernita attempts to kill the bride with a gun concealed in a cereal box, it has only one shot, and takes the audience by surprise, leading to a quick turn of event that see Vernita dead. By dong this Tarantino not only makes the violence a lot more realistic and significant, h also makes violence seem a lot less glamorous in the process as it is often accompanied with screams of pain.