The Misfits

“The Misfits” in my opinion, is Marilyn Monroe’s greatest performance of her career. It was really the first time we saw her play a complex character with real depth, verses the dumb blonde that she is typically portrayed as. This role was personally written for her by Arthur Miller, whom she was married to at the time. The character Roslyn that Monroe portrayed is very similar to the real Marilyn. There is sadness to her, yet there is also a childish naivety at the same time.  At times while I was watching this film, it felt like Marilyn was speaking the lines, instead of her character. It was really her best role. This film was shot in black and white, and there was a lot of beautiful camera work. I was especially brought to tears when the horses were being wrangled. It was really hard to watch. This film was really ahead of its time. But once again, out of all the Marilyn Monroe movies that I have seen, this was by far her best one. This is one film that she could be taken seriously as an actress. John Huston was the director and the camera work was very expressive of who these characters were. There was one scene in particular that I noticed a "Male Gaze".  The gaze was at Marilyn shaking her bottom and all the men gawking. There was also a scene that I felt was very symbolic of Clark Gables character wrestling with a stallion, bringing it to the ground on his own. I felt that it was symbolic of two things. One being the fact that he was an older gentleman; he wanted to prove that he still got it. And the second being the struggle within him of knowing what he is doing is wrong and the desire to put it to an end. I thought the film was shot very well; the beginning really took its time of developing the characters. But, I felt the ending was a little too rushed. Although, I find that most Old Hollywood movies tend to do that. 

Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

“Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” is a very interesting movie. It was almost exhausting to watch. The head games and the power struggle between the couple truly made your head spin. I kind of felt like I was one of their house guests at the party, and I was witnessing a very troubled marriage and got caught in a very awkward situation. This is truly a classic American film. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton really gave impeccable performances of their characters Martha and George. This film is probably the best adaptation of a stage play ever brought to the big screen. The camera work was intense. There were a lot of close ups and use of hard shadows on their faces that expressed who these characters were. One thing that I noticed during the film was the framing of the scenes. The power struggle was expressed by the positioning of the characters, as well as the elements in the background, such as books on a shelf or pictures on the wall.  All these components really added background of who these people were. The close ups also looked slightly distorted as they would spiral deeper and deeper into their stories. It was never really clear if they were telling the truth or not. I was also impressed to learn that this film earned an academy award nomination for every single category. Even more so impressed to find out that this was Mike Nichols very first film. He would later go onto to direct other famous movies such as “The Graduate”. The fact that he was a first time director, and really broke the production code with this film back in the day, as well as seeing huge success, I just find that very inspiring. 

Batman Returns

 Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns” has always been my favorite of all the Batman movies.  Batman Returns always stood out to me. Visually I find it more captivating. I love the use of color. The darkness and slightly gothic style accessorized by the bright splashes of color truly creates a creepy element that really adds a lot to the film. It had a sort of “underworld-carnival” vibe, which was unnerving but very appropriate, especially when the clowns showed up. It had a very cartoonish vibe to it, which stayed true to the comic book element. I also really loved the wardrobe. I loved the use of leather in catwoman’s costume, as well as penguin’s dirty apparel.  Danny Devito truly brought that character to life and the special effects and makeup were perfect. The sets were incredible, and I found the cinematography was very impressive as well. Out of all the films we watched in class I think this movie had one of the best musical scores, second only to Jaws. Overall, I truly enjoyed this film. 

Jaws

Jaws will always be considered a classic American film. It is famous all around the world. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, everyone around the world recognizes the musical score of Jaws. We watched this film twice in class, and this film has had two different impacts in my life.  One being the very first time I saw this film as a young girl. The first time I saw it I thought it was terrifying, and I did not go into the ocean for years. I would freak myself out whenever I was in the water and I swear I could hear that music. Now that I am older it has a much different effect on me. Watching this movie as a filmmaker is truly impressive. Learning that most of the film was created by “happy accidents” because the shark was not working was really interesting. Most of the famous moments from this film were improvised with a lot of POV shots and it really dialed up the anxiety of the “fear of the unknown”, which is the scariest of all fears in my opinion. The actors in this film were wonderful, and they fit their roles perfectly. However, I still think the two most impacting elements of this film were the musical score and the cinematography. Those two elements are the real reason why this film is one of the most famous scary movies in film history.