10 Prime Examples of a Good Movie
10 Prime Examples of A Good Movie Calvin Johnson Most everyone in the world enjoys a great movie. There are many different elements that make a good movie. A few elemtents are: photography, mise en scene, movement, editing, sound, acting, drama, story, writing, and finally ideiology. If a movie excels in one of more of these things the movie is destined for success. There are 10 movies that are prime examples of the things that make movies good. There are three types of film: realism, classicism, and formalism. Working Girl staring Melonie Griffith and Harrison Ford is a perfect example of classical film.
An extreme long shot in the beginning sets the place as New York in the movie as the establishing shot. This is a typical classical Hollywood story. Girl is poor and unappreciated, then climbs up ladder and gets her wish, the bad guy gets fired, the hero gets the man, and she gets the dream job she always wanted and deserved. This movie’s plot reminds me of the movie the Player which makes fun of this kind of classical, hollywood movie. These classical movies, predictable. Yes. Entertaining. Yes. Feel good about yourself at the end? Of Course.
According to the INDB “The movie is the epitome of 80s corporate America/feminist thinking, but more importantly is a feel good movie with, not to mention it again… the best make-over ever! ” The movie Amadeus is a prime example of Mise en scene, which is how the visual materials are staged, framed, and photographed. The phenomenal use of lighting and open and closed space is demonstrated lushly in this movie. The film is gorgeously done, with vivid costumes and wigs, and dark shadows running rampant through tense parts of the movie. Candlelight is show beautifully as well.
During one such scene the narrator an old Salieri is talking with a priest and having dark shadows cast on him while the priest is shown is bright light. A reviewer of the movie states that: “Trough some clever lighting managed to create effects such as ghostly white-tied audiences applauding behind the mirrored doors, in general not much was made of them, and the number of times when they had to be manually opened and closed to begin a new scene not only became distracting, but also further segmented the play into narrative bits and dramatized bits” (http://www. tthomasu. ca/~hunt/reviews/amadeus. htm) From the opening with a eight minute long, tracking shot, we hear inside a film studio of a few men discussing how in films nowadays cut to different scenes to much. They also state how great tracking shots are. This is humorous because all the while the camera is using a long tracking shot. The movie The Player is a satire of Hollywood movies. The movie states that all audiences wants to see are happy Hollywood style movies (such as working girl. ) This movie uses incredible use of camera angles.
When the hero commits a crime and accidentally murders someone and is being interigated and eventually let free, the way camera pans out when he leaves police room says that he has won and that the police know that a guilty man is walking free. When being interigated, the camera pans from police officer to him and back and forward and you can see the delirium in his face. Roger Ebert states that: “Watching him in some shots, especially when the camera is below eye level and Altman uses a mock-heroic composition, we realize with a shock that Griffin looks uncannily like the young Citizen Kane. Most films now use a technique known as cutting to continuity, which tries to preserve the fluidity of an event without literally showing it all. A movie might show someone exiting their office and then cut to them getting into their car. The movie Rope by Alfred Hitchcock had very interesting means of editing. This being Alfred Hitchcock’s first color movie he had a very interesting way of editing the moving, taking cuts only every ten minutes making the movie play out much like a play. The camera would zoom into a bookshelf, or the back of someone when a cut was in need.
This type of editing is very fluid, and not distracting at all to the viewer. This of course, would need an interesting set to film the movie. According to imdb. com: “For the 10 minute takes Hitch had to design a set which could accommodate the huge cameras. When the camera moved the set walls were designed to go flying up (off camera) so the crew could move from room to room. ” A Clockwork Orange, brilliantly directed by Stanly Kubrick, has very interesting and disturbing use of sound. One particular disturbing event was when Alex’s old friends who now are police officers, brutally attack im, while a happy, funny, synthesized sounds come from the movie screen yet when Alex rapes a brutally beats a man, he sings a happy song, singing in the rain! Of course, the masterpiece of sound in this movie is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, fourth movement. Our humble narrator, (as he most modestly puts it) gets conditioned by a government program by watching violent scenes and when he sees the violence, it makes Alex physically ill. Well, it just so happens that this song (which is one his favorites) gets played during the violent images, conditioning him against the song.
At the end, the government fixes him by letting him listen to his song again (which is he associates with being with a woman) which turns into a joyous listen unlike his previous sickening experience. It was interesting to note that when the newspapers mentioned that Alex was a killer and bad, everyone turned against him, his family included. Then, when the newspaper says he’s a victim, his family says they were too hard on him and the government suddenly wants to help him. The movie One Flew Over the Cookoos nest has some of the most amazing acting in a film ever.
It stars Jack Nickleson as the hero who gets sent to an insane asylum. The amazing thing about Jack’s acting is that throughout the movie one can not tell if he is slightly crazy, or just acting completely crazy. The people of the crazy hospital is an all star cast staring Louise Fletcher (who won an Oscar,) Danny DeVeto, Christopher Lloyd, and Brad Dourif. “There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator. ” This is the main message in which many have deemed the greatest movie of all time. Metropolis has a rare quality that most silent films don’t have.
It was interesting enough to keep most viewers attention. That is no small feat considering the movie was made almost 80 years ago Didn’t know who was good or bad, who to root for? Not typical cowboy movie The story takes a turn for the worst when he takes his first drink Shows the dark side of killing Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) and the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) can’t kill anymore Through flashbacks, an event where a samurai is murdered and a woman is raped and is the events unfold by 4 different people, but told differently each time.
The first is told by Tojomaru, the infamous bandit, then Masako the wife, then by a medium channeling the slain samarai, then the truth is finally revealed by a farmer who witnessed the whole events. My favorite part of this movie was during the first 3 fight scenes the fighting is very fluid, like a ballet. But during the 4th version told of the story, the fighting is raw, with the two people scrambling and falling all over the ground. At one point, Tajomaru even throws dirt at his attacker.
In the movie Boyz in the Hood brilliantly directed by John Singleton is a social outcry of the poor black community. It has many different points about “the hood” and gets its points across very well. It is interesting showing how good kid gets nurtured by mother and is show in light while bad kid feels unloved and is shown in the dark. Eventually, good kid gets to go to college while bad kid gets to go to jail. Throughout the movie there is helicopter and police sirens constantly in the background, as if it is part of the score. Shows the importance of having a strong father figure in ones life.
The main ideology of the movie is that if you live in a poor area, there is no excuse to not live your dreams and become successful and leave your poor surroundings. It is much easier to embrace it, and say this is my destiny and become a drug dealer, thug, thief, etc. But if one works hard, they can make the best out of their life. The movie ends with a creepy line from Darin ‘Doughboy’ Baker (played by Ice Cube) “I watched the news this morning. Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood. ” (imdb) In conclusion, if a movie has one or more of these ten elements, it will be great.
