Erik Batkiewicz: Film 100 Blog

  This action packed movie directed Michael Mann, surely lived up to its name. Filled with household actors with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Val Kilmer did everything asked in a action, violent film. LT. Vincent Hanna, trying to catch Neil Mcculley's crew after completing high stakes bank robberies. It felt like Pacino and De Niro were accustomed to these roles from that start, since this is their preferred genre of acting. To me since they played similar characters throughout the years it made it kind of bland, not saying their acting was bad but it was so familiar. It consisted lots of over the shoulder shots, wide shots (to see the whole setting) and close up on characters eyes. One of my favorite scenes was the shootout in the city, it was pretty gory. I thought it was funny when Pacino was trying to shoot De Niro with a shotgun in the middle of the Grocery store, it just seemed so unrealistic but I enjoyed it. Understandably, this film is a strong action film filled with dr...

  This Martin Scorsese film was a one I'll never forget to say the least. I've always been a fan of Martin's work such as Taxi Driver or Goodfellas just to name a few. So when I decided to watch this film, I was certain I was going to enjoy based on this consistent style of movies, and choice of actors. Leonardo DiCaprio  and Jack Nicholson  have been favorite actors of mine since I was young. Even though I had high expectations, it still somehow exceeded my expectations. With the surplus of the camera angle shots, that were fast paced and coordinated with the intensity of the dialogue. The multiple plot twists in the film actually caught me off guard and that does not really happen anymore when I watch films with plot twists.  One of my favorite shots was in the beginning with the narration by Nicholson's character, for a few minutes you couldn't really see his face, he appeared as a shadowy figure. When he was done with his narration and appeared from the darkness...

Although in my English Class during my senior year of High School, we reviewed a lot of the language of the film techniques. We spent an entire semester learning shots, lighting, and setting. We had to implicate those techniques into our very own film and if we didn't use at least one of shots/techniques then we would be downgraded. So most of this was just a refresher for me (so far) and I know that there will be a lot more for me to learn and study. I hope we go over more zooms and the way blurriness has an effect to film because my knowledge in that perspective is lacking. 

Spider-Man 2 (2004, Sam Raimi):  This film has been a favorite of mine for fifteen years. Specifically describing this scene, Peter Parkers life is crashing down. Peter just found out Mary Jane is marrying someone else and he just lost Harry as a friend. The actual scene is Peter as Spider-Man swinging throughout New York City, trying to clear his mind. It is close-up, and eye-level shot of Spider-man's mask, you can see the reflection of the city through the lenses of his mask. The camera slowly moves side to side of his face, so we can get an understanding of the setting, and the emotion of Spider-Man The Camera is just focused on him and blurred out the setting behind Peter. It's pace of the movement slowed down with somber music and him breathing, so we are focused on his emotion as Spider-man. This shot selection works fantastic because most of time we never seen a superhero struggle as much as Peter is at the time. It could've been a medium shot, with no focus on Pete...

What is the essential story? How does the film tell its story? What conventions of cinematic storytelling does it use? Explain the final "plot twist."  How does the final plot twist comment upon cinematic storytelling? What do the set designs say about early filmmaking? What do the set designs imply about stories and storytelling? How do the answers to questions 6 and 7 move us to contemplate the cultural relevance of this film? If you had to think about a more modern, 20th century film with traces to  Caligari , what would they be? Why? How do questions about the reliability of a narrator suggest meanings, cultural relevance, and the nature of film? Answers:  1. The essential story is about a man who rolled into town and had an act where a sleepwalker would awaken and tell people their wishes. Shortly after murders started occurring and a man named Francis is trying to figure out who killed his friend and almost his lover.  2. The film tells the story as a flashback...