Night of the Living Dead does not strike me as the gore fest that the initial reception by the audience held it back then. The AVClub article proclaims, “[the film’s] status as a gore champion has long since been superseded.” Romero uses buckets of blood splattered onto his actors to ignite gore, but comparatively to today’s films, that practice would not be up to par to the standards of horror. But perhaps, appealing to popular belief, its popularity proves the weight of it opening the doors in the aspect of gore in horror.
In the Bright Lights article Night of the Living Dead: Reappraising an Undead Classic, Stephen Harper mentions that the movie was shot “over seven months on a shoestring budget.” Harper displays the evolution of film production in how a film took a longer timespan to shoot—especially one of a low budget film like George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. However, it does not take anything away from the film; in fact, it amplifies Romero’s ability to stretch the budget.
Roger Ebert says that the audience seems to be majority of kids under 16 years. Once the “gore fest” in the film started, Ebert observes that the audience, especially the kids, were unfamiliar with the gore. On one hand, I cannot blame Ebert for being troubled about the how these kids will live their lives from then on; but on the other, I cannot help but find it absurd to find the movie disturbing from the lens that I have. Ebert misses on accurately projecting on the generation outside of his. It is very possible that the kids he observed have a more mature understanding that the feeling gore induces.
Romero opens the doors to a specific sub-genre of horror—gore. The audience’s reception and the critique assumes the progress that the film industry has made on two aspects: visual and an audience’s stomach for gore. The amalgam of the two says that as film has evolved visually, an audience tends to evolve what we accept, even the diction Ebert uses in his review is outdated. If constructing the binary in film watching creates the side on camera and the side of who is watching outside of that camera, Night of the Living Dead shows how the medium evolves on both sides.
Pickup on South Street was produced and released in 1953. The film is indicative of the social and political climate of the United States during the mid to late 1900s. The plot is heavily centered upon the infiltration of communist spies on American soil, as well as the support of defectors to the communist cause. The characters in the movie are portrayed in a continuous struggle of determining where their personal loyalty lies. Nonetheless, the dominating theme of money and power is overwritten by the obligation to uphold and protect American values against those who oppose them. Additionally, due to the political climate of the mid to late 1950s, the French and German release removed any references or suggestions of spies and communism (Anthony 2018). The censorship of spies and the negative light of communism presented (good vs. bad) in the movie as would be censored because both those countries had ties to or were communists sympathizers.
Sam Fuller utilized his films to voice and display the less advantageous working class in environments where violence and death are unfiltered (Sanjek 1994). Fuller ‘s depiction of criminals and the police department, which is meant to uphold the laws and integrities of due process is skewed. Fuller is able to demonstrate the virtues and lack thereof in both the criminal and police sector by shining a light on the perceived notions of a criminal’s character and policemen’s character. He effortlessly emphasizes this message by highlighting the commonalities in both a policeman and a criminal. Thus, revealing that both policemen and criminals only distinction is the motives they are driven by. Furthermore, the film’s conclusion suggest that criminals have the potential to change if love is given.
Most of the reviews applauded the film and were driven to note that, Pickup on South Street is one of the best American films of all time. Another review stated that Fuller was completely preoccupied with a, “barrage of sensations than telling a story” (Crowther 1953). This statement only focuses on the emotions triggered by the violence of the film and does not consider the objective for the display of violence in the storyline. In the article,“Seeing Red” by Willie Osterweil describes both the plot and the caliber of each character. He believed the movie poorly portrayed Americans and fabricated the communists to be ambiguous characters in the shadows. Willie’s words lacked an optimistic outlook on the theme and portrayal of the film. One of the issues with his review is that it could potentially encourage readers to disregard the film.
Works Cited
Anthony, S. (2018, November 20). A FILM TO REMEMBER: “PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET” (1953). Retrieved from https://medium.com/@sadissinger/a-film-to-remember-pickup-on-south-street-1953-82917d8ac985
Crowther, B. (1953, June 18). Article 3 — No Title; Roxy’s ‘Pickup on South Street’ Mixes Underworld Goons With Communist Spies. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1953/06/18/archives/article-3-no-title-roxys-pickup-on-south-street-mixes-underworld.html
Osterweil, W. (2015, June 02). Seeing Red. Retrieved from https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/06/02/seeing-red/
Sanjek, D. (1994). `Torment street between malicious and crude’: Sophisticated primitivism in the films of Samuel Fuller. Literature Film Quarterly,22(3), 187. doi:9503101747
Digital filmmaking is a relatively new art form that is changing the way movies around the world are created. “Digital filmmaking” is an umbrella term for many different techniques used in films to digitally enhance the audio or visual effects. These techniques are carried out with the use of special digital cameras, such as Sony’s HDVS video camera or the Arri Alexa, as well as various computer programs. These computer programs allow images or audio to be completely digitally created. Some things that can be easily added in digitally are various environments or even full blown characters.
Digital filmmaking started to become popular sometime in the 1980s. However, the first film that utilized digital filmmaking was Rainbow in 1996. A Solid State Electronic Cinematography camera was used in the production and a good amount of the visual effects, editing, as well as sound effects were done digitally.
According to journalists Adam Ganz and Lina Khatib in their article “Digital Cinema: The transformation of film practice and aesthetics” many film theorists find digital cinema to be highly controversial. On one hand the use of digital technology revolutionized cinema by enhancing production methods, reducing costs, and reducing the amount of effort needed to create a movie. On the other hand it fundamentally changed the viewing perception of the audience as well as the level of difficulty for finding an audience. By using digital cameras the footage can be stored digitally as well which greatly reduce costs. Before digital filmmaking all footage was kept on costly films that required dark rooms and temperature control. The process of turning the film into something usable was also tedious and expensive. The films themselves are expensive, highly flammable, and if not stored properly will decompose over time. If something were to catch fire there could be an indefinite amount of damage done. According to Film Connection the actual physical film will begin to decompose over time. The celluloid used to make the films eventually turns into a mushy gel and everything on the original film ends up destroyed. Due to that unfortunate factor there are films that have been completely lost from improper protection.
Now with the use of digital technology editing and additions can be made in mere minutes. There are special computer programs that allow filmmakers to put together multiple digital or audio files in order to composite one single file. This creates a more seamless process as well as a safer process. The cost of the films made it difficult for filmmakers to work independently and oftentimes they would have to pair up with big studios that had the ability to invest in their movie. Now with digital filmmaking anyone could make a clip and upload it to a platform such as YouTube and have it take off. This allows people of all socioeconomic statuses to make their way into the film industry. Before, you would have to have connections or a significant amount of money to produce a movie, but now it simply needs to go viral on a site like YouTube. Youtube also monetizes the videos once a certain number of viewing hours has been hit. So someone with very little money could become viral and begin making decent amounts of money off of every view on YouTube.
Sources:
Ganz, Adam, and Lina Khatib. “Digital Cinema: The Transformation of Film Practice and Aesthetics.” New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, vol. 4, no. 1, 2006, pp. 21–36., doi:10.1386/ncin.4.1.21_1.
Mateer. “Digital Cinematography:Evolution of Craft or Revolution in Production?” Journal of Film and Video, vol. 66, no. 2, 2014, p. 3., doi:10.5406/jfilmvideo.66.2.0003.
“The New World of Digital Filmmaking.” Film Connection Film Institute, www.filmconnection.com/reference-library/film-entrepreneurs/the-new-world-of-digital-filmmaking-0411/.
Maybe because the first STAR WARS movie was so successful and spawned so many sequels and prequels, it’s tempting to see it as unique. But many features of STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE (as it came to be called) come from its genre or genres, a clever mix of science fiction, adventure, and fantasy. Its dramatic elements are very general and simple, and many of its story elements go back to the folk tale. But effective storytelling devices dress up this blend of genres to give the impression of something different: ‘old wine in new bottles,’ as the saying goes.
STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE uses some of the visual iconography of science fiction (space ships), but the differences are many. The science fiction genre often pits humans from earth against creatures from outer space, whether monstrous and dangerous or just simply misguided–as in the STAR TREK TV series. But STAR WARS does not use earth as a point of reference at all. It’s not about us going into space, it’s about a space without an “us.” Likewise, science fiction explores the human condition by putting humans in different environments and giving them different tools. Sci-fi asks: are we still us in these altered circumstances? Sci-fi is at least potentially socially critical. But the first STAR WARS movie, has a simpler good-evil contrast which is closer to the adventure film as explained by the web site Script Lab:
Adventure film is a genre that revolves around the conquests and explorations of a protagonist. The purpose of the conquest can be to retrieve a person or treasure, but often the main focus is simply the pursuit of the unknown. These films generally take place in exotic locations and play on historical myths.
STAR WARS certainly draws on the iconography of outer space and advanced technology, even though it is explicitly set in the past: “a long time ago in a universe far, far away.” And the technology sits uneasily beside magical powers and objects like light sabers–which seem only to be handled by those initiated in The Force. In science fiction, the laws of our physical universe still apply, but imaginary technology allows, say, space or time travel. But STAR WARS is closer to the fantasy genre, where magical things, beings, and powers abound. The web site Filmsite explains the fantasy film clearly:
If fantasy films, the hero often undergoes some kind of mystical experience, and must ask for aid from powerful, superhuman forces on the outside. Ancient Greek mythological figures or Arabian Nights-type narratives are typical storylines. Flying carpets, magic swords and spells, dragons, and ancient religious relics or objects are common elements. Bizarre and imaginary, invented lands include sci-fi worlds, unreal worlds, fairy tale settings, or other whimsical locales (e.g., Shangri-La or Brigadoon). The earliest sci-fi writers (H. G. Wells and Jules Verne) created fantastic worlds and/or journeys – the subject matter of many fantasy films.
The fantasy-adventure film goes all the way back to 1924, at least.
The Millennium Falcon might as well be a “flying carpet,” the light saber is a “magic sword,” and the Cantina is a “whimsical locale”
Genres can be rituals, and the fantasy genre especially is more like an initiate ritual or “rite of passage” than the horror-sci-fi mix where a monster must be cast out in a sort of action-adventure exorcism (as in ALIEN). STAR WARS, by contrast, is clearly an initiation ritual or rite of passage. Luke goes from petulant farmhand to hero through his adventures in faraway places and his contact with and instruction in mystical knowledge.
The all-nighter: a part of every college student’s rite of passage?
The dramatic structure of STAR WARS could not be simpler, but clever storytelling re-arranges the elements to intensify the suspense and create a series of dangerous adventures, last-minute rescues and escapes. Although Luke is the film’s protagonist, he actually joins forces with several others (Obi-Wan, Han Solo, and Chewbacca) to rescue Princess Leia and then attack the antagonist Darth Vader and his team, the forces of the empire. Yet the film does not start with the protagonist, it starts with the antagonist Darth Vader and the ‘object of value‘: Princess Leia. Aside from some bossing and flirting, Leia’s role in the story is to be rescued. (A plot outline emphasizing narrative functions can be found at the end of this essay.)
Indeed, if we look at the timings of the DVD (from a deleted web page available from Archive.org), fully 23% of the movie (1:03:09 to 1:29:52) consists of the rebels being captured, hiding, rescuing Leia, nearly being crushed to death, and getting back to their ship to escape: action and adventure. The next longest chunks are Luke finding the message from Leia, feeling trapped by his family, meeting Obi-Wan, and losing his aunt and uncle (0:19:41 to 0:39:04, roughly 16% of the running time): so just setting up the story.
Many of these elements are similar to the “functions” Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp found in his analysis of the Russian folk tale. Absence, interdiction, violation, and interrogation could all apply to Leia stealing the plans for the Death Star. Lack, Villainy, Decision, and Departure could all apply to Luke sensing something missing in his life, his family being killed, and his decision to go with Obi-Wan to rescue Leia.
But these very old-fashioned elements are re-shaped by re-arranging the story information so we see it less clearly than in a folk tale. The movie’s storytelling exposes and hides key information to keep the audience keenly involved. The film mostly exposes. We know Leia needs rescuing long before Luke does, so we are in suspense about whether or not the droids will find Obi-wan. We know Leia’s planet Tattooine has been destroyed before the rebels do, except for Obi-wan’s vision, which is none too definite. We know the rebels are hiding in the floor when Darth Vader and his force powers do not. We know the droids escaped when the clueless imperial forces seem not to. The fact that later storm troopers are looking for them does increase the sense of danger for Luke, even though not long earlier the imperial army had no clue anything was wrong. The point is not that the film makes a ‘mistake’ or is shoddily constructed: it’s that the movie does what it needs to do to raise the dramatic intensity, the sense of risk and adventure.
In short, STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE is an adventure film which uses folk tale elements and clever storytelling to create something which seems new but whose pieces are in fact very familiar. This is no slight to the filmmakers but rather a good demonstration of how “creativity” doesn’t always mean inventing something ‘never seen before.’
STARS WARS helped make moviegoing itself into a ritual in which we escape our humdrum lives for an adventure to faraway places, returning refreshed and ready for our boring everyday existence. Like contemporary professional sports, a spectacle of physical strength and skill allows us to return to a world in which the ability to withstand boredom is the real survival skill. STAR WARS is the dream, OFFICE SPACE is the reality.
ANTAGONIST Darth Vader captures OBJECT OF VALUE Leia, but two droids HELPERS escape.
The droids are captured and sold to Luke’s OBSTACLE Uncle who won’t let Luke become a soldier.
Luke finds message from Leia asking for help, and finds HELPER Obi-Wan.
Vader’s henchmen murder Luke’s family.
Luke sets a GOAL: rescuing Leia with Obi-Wan.
Luke and Obi-Wan hire HELPERS Han and Chewie.
When PURSUED they FLEE.
The planet they seek has been destroyed by Vader [The ANTAGONIST causes HARM].
The PROTAGONISTS are captured by Vader but find Leia and hide [FLIGHT].
In a CONFRONTATION, Obi-Wan sacrifices himself to Vader.
The rest of the team escapes with Leia.
They regroup and discover a flaw in Vader’s plan. Han and Chewie choose not to go along.
In a CONFRONTATION, the PROTAGONISTS attempt to destroy Vader’s ship, and many are killed [HARM], but Han and Chewie return to HELP, and Luke SUCCEEDS in destroying Vader’s ship.
Vader ESCAPES to fight another day.
Luke and Han receive RECOGNITION, and Chewie gets nothing.
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