Everybody has a favourite film, some may find it hard to pick just one but we all have at least one film that really stands out to us above the rest. Last week I asked the people of Twitter to tell me about their favourite films, their thoughts on it, why they liked it etc. And while the response was minimal I was delighted to see that those who did respond all showed sheer passion for their respective films, each looking at them from different angles and perspectives. It was a pleasure reading peoples thoughts on their own favourite films and writing about my own and now I am lucky enough to present them all to you, so here it is: People talking about films.
A Clockwork Orange
(By Yours Truly)
Without a doubt my favourite film would have to be A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the novel by Anthony Burgess. Set against the backdrop of a dystopian future, the film follows bowler-hat-wearing teenage delinquent Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) as he begins to face the consequences for his violent and horrific actions. While the plot, characters and unique nadsat dialogue arel Burgesses work, the distinctive style and memorable visuals are all Kubrick’s doing. Through a combination of the outlandish sets, colourful costumes and his own masterful direction, Kubrick creates this very distinctive universe in which the film takes place. He takes familiar locations like a council estate or a local record shop and distorts or exaggerates them to create a twisted version of our own world. And that's exactly what this film is, twisted beyond belief. The novel deals with many sensitive subjects such as ultraviolence and sexual abuse, yet somehow Kubrick manages to bring these to the screen with a sense of class. Many of the film’s most violent scenes are juxtaposed by the classical music that plays during them. As Alex and his Droogs beat up a rival gang to the tune of ‘the thieving magpie’, we forget how brutally violent it really is because the scene just looks so elegant. Through music and brilliantly choreographed fight scenes, Kubrick manages to turn violence into something beautiful, an art form almost, and that's something that I feel no other filmmaker has accomplished to such an extent since.
Of course the film would not be complete without its leading man and Malcolm McDowell does a fantastic job of bringing to life the nasty Alex DeLarge. Many people criticise his acting abilities but I find McDowells performance hard to fault, the scene where he prepares to rape a young woman while performing his own rendition of Singing in the Rain is heavily unsettling because of McDowell. Singing in the Rain wasn't even in the script, it was all improvised by him. Along with that, McDowell takes a character who is the very embodiment of scum yet manages to make him sympathetic. Despite all of his wicked deeds in the film’s first act, we genuinely want Alex to prevail when things begin to go downhill. Never has such an evil little bollocks been so likeable. A Clockwork Orange is a film with style, it's a film with social commentary, it's a film with tremendous attention to detail and wonderful performances all around. It's evident that Kubrick put immense effort into this film, every frame highlights his skills and sheer devotion to his craft, you can tell that he was a man who really cared about the films he made. Kubrick was the master and A Clockwork Orange is his masterpiece.
Man of Steel
(By Sam Comrie/ @ALittleResolve)
Man of Steel is a polarizing reinvention of the Boy Scout superhero we all know and love. Snyder, using an approach of intricate and beautifully personal single cam cinematography, exploits Kal-El’s perfections to show us just how vulnerable a man with god tier power really is. We’ve seen Christopher Reeve and many others in the role of Superman, but other than Smallville, we’ve never seen where the moral compass of Kal-El begins and how a being with enormous responsibility experiences emotions. The final act is one of immense controversy but necessary to show us just how inexperienced Superman is at this point.
He has only been “Superman” for about 6 days after all by the end of Man of Steel. As a lifelong fan of this character, I always found that this character was compelling for most of the reasons some would call him “boring”. His initial disconnect from humanity and seeming perfection make Kal-El incredibly compelling as we see him figure what it means to be a part of society long after his world has perished. We all feel like we’re distant from the crowd at some point in our life but we are all unified by a force for good: Hope.
The first flight sequence in this movie, masterfully scored by Hans Zimmer, is a poignant examination of potential, will and hope. “You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun, Kal. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.”
He has only been “Superman” for about 6 days after all by the end of Man of Steel. As a lifelong fan of this character, I always found that this character was compelling for most of the reasons some would call him “boring”. His initial disconnect from humanity and seeming perfection make Kal-El incredibly compelling as we see him figure what it means to be a part of society long after his world has perished. We all feel like we’re distant from the crowd at some point in our life but we are all unified by a force for good: Hope.
The first flight sequence in this movie, masterfully scored by Hans Zimmer, is a poignant examination of potential, will and hope. “You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun, Kal. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.”
If you’d like to hear more from Sam, check out his YouTube channel here.
Taxi Driver
(By Adam Edgeworth/ @wh0a_nelly)
Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. I seen it at a younger more impressionable age when I was only starting to truly appreciate cinema and it was absolutely fascinating. The opening shot of the taxi slowly making it's way through the fog of the New York street accompanied by Bernard Hermann's beautifully unsettling score will forever be embedded in my mind. Paul Schrader's screenplay is raw and foreboding, portraying a man who's fed up with how the world is around him and will do anything to try and "wash all this scum off the streets". It's De Niro's best performance and one of the best character portrayals in all of cinema.
If you’d like to read more from Mr. Edgeworth, you can check out his blog here.
Drive
(By Stephanie Greene/ @disco_veryy)
'Drive' is a stylish art house film directed by Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn. The film sees Ryan Gosling take on the role of a loner stunt driver who gets wrapped up in a series of dangerous situations. The film follows Driver(Gosling) a Hollywood stunt racer who moonlights as a getaway driver. Gosling is superb in the role, silent and radiating mystery. The Driver forms a close bond with his neighbour Irene(Carey Mulligan) and her young son. Unaware of Irene's ex con husband(Oscar Isaac) the driver develops feelings for his neighbour, but when her husband is released from prison the loner stunt driver gets wrapped up in trouble involving Irene's husband and dangerous criminals. Drive' was once intended as a fast and furious type blockbuster, but when Refn got involved with the film he created something completely different. Refn's directorial style, with his attention to framing, lighting and camera angles, is a perfect match for Gosling's performance as the Driver. Refn is very good with actors, paring down the dialogue in the script by Hossein Amini(adapted from James Sallis' novel) so that the backstory must play out on the actors faces. With Refn's fantastic directorial skills, mesmerising cinematography from Newton Thomas Sigel, and an 80's synthy score from Cliff Martinez, Drive is a film that is so visually pleasing and also oozes with great style and substance
Donnie Darko
(By Michael McCreary/ @MickMccreary)
Donnie Darko is a film with so many different characters. Take the main character Donnie played the the incredible Jake Gyllenhaal, he's not your average teenage boy he suffers from emotional problems, sleepwalks and sees imaginary bunnies. But somewhere in all that madness is a loveable character that says how we feel sometimes. Example in the scene when they are giving the exercise on Fear and Love he questions the exercise and argues that there is more to life and every situation than 2 emotions. He’s standing up for something he believes is right while all the other students were doing what they were told without hesitation. In a way of looking at that with most school experiences is fairly accurate as he gets told not to question it and if he does he'll "get a zero for the day". He's not the popular kid at school so he didn't do it to impress his friends he did it cause he felt he needed to or that he feels all these emotions of any teenage boy such as anger frustration etc... Or when he argues in class that a human life is more important than the life of a Bunnie because bunnies have no fear of death.
The film is set in the late 80’s and captures the style of the 80’s brilliantly. Especially on Patrick Swayze's character. His clothes and suits have a very 80’s retro look that looks authentic and genuinely 80’s. There's even the way the sets are decorated from the older model cars just lying around the background to the shrinks office filled with all these big fancy thick books to the big awkwardly designed carpet in the middle of the room.
Then there's the overall film itself which even if a person doesn't like the movie it still holds up for great conversation and debates and isn't that the idea of media to get people to interact with one another. The narrative of the film isn't as straightforward like most movies it’s a time travel movie that barely talks about time travel and doesn't even have any time travel in it until the last 15 minutes. It’s a story that was written in such a way that requires multiple viewings and attention to detail along with discussions to nearly uncover and while doing so you learn a lot about the topic at hand. Each viewing is almost like watching a different movie as you piece more things together and notice things you've never noticed before. Once you uncover that the story line in set in a tangent universe the film starts to make sense of itself even though it’s never mentioned it requires you to look further into the film and theories of time travel to discover that which is amazing it’s requiring you to use your own brain and think about things. No matter how you feel about the movie you'll always remember it or have something to say on it weather it be for the demonic like Bunnie, the confusion of the story or maybe it was even that film that introduced you to Mad World in its closing scene. Everybody takes something away from Donnie Darko. That’s the beauty of Donnie Darko. The film also may even share some similarities to Hamlet. In a way that there's quite a few similarities in the story and characters. Being in hamlet he is visited by a ghost, who tells the antagonist to do certain things to move the story along. Donnie is visited by a Bunnie who does almost the same thing. Donnie has 2 close friends in the movie who aren't really the most intelligent and they add a bit of comedy to the storyline. They can be compared to Rosencrantz and Guikdenstern from Hamlet. Hamlet’s girlfriend dies. Donnie's Girlfriend Gretchen also Dies in the final act. Finally the hero we've grown to love of these 2 different stories both suffer fatal endings in the final moments.
Donnie Darko’s ending is open to a lot more discussion though on what it all meant and stuff seeing as he went back in time to a previous event that takes place in the first half of the movie. A lot of people think he done it to save his girlfriend others think he was chosen by Frank and all those random events that happen throughout the movie aren't random but are all essential to the ending of the movie. I believe the great thing about Donnie Darko is that is was intended to be that way so the audience each have their own opinion and that the film can be whatever it needs them to be.
The film is set in the late 80’s and captures the style of the 80’s brilliantly. Especially on Patrick Swayze's character. His clothes and suits have a very 80’s retro look that looks authentic and genuinely 80’s. There's even the way the sets are decorated from the older model cars just lying around the background to the shrinks office filled with all these big fancy thick books to the big awkwardly designed carpet in the middle of the room.
Then there's the overall film itself which even if a person doesn't like the movie it still holds up for great conversation and debates and isn't that the idea of media to get people to interact with one another. The narrative of the film isn't as straightforward like most movies it’s a time travel movie that barely talks about time travel and doesn't even have any time travel in it until the last 15 minutes. It’s a story that was written in such a way that requires multiple viewings and attention to detail along with discussions to nearly uncover and while doing so you learn a lot about the topic at hand. Each viewing is almost like watching a different movie as you piece more things together and notice things you've never noticed before. Once you uncover that the story line in set in a tangent universe the film starts to make sense of itself even though it’s never mentioned it requires you to look further into the film and theories of time travel to discover that which is amazing it’s requiring you to use your own brain and think about things. No matter how you feel about the movie you'll always remember it or have something to say on it weather it be for the demonic like Bunnie, the confusion of the story or maybe it was even that film that introduced you to Mad World in its closing scene. Everybody takes something away from Donnie Darko. That’s the beauty of Donnie Darko. The film also may even share some similarities to Hamlet. In a way that there's quite a few similarities in the story and characters. Being in hamlet he is visited by a ghost, who tells the antagonist to do certain things to move the story along. Donnie is visited by a Bunnie who does almost the same thing. Donnie has 2 close friends in the movie who aren't really the most intelligent and they add a bit of comedy to the storyline. They can be compared to Rosencrantz and Guikdenstern from Hamlet. Hamlet’s girlfriend dies. Donnie's Girlfriend Gretchen also Dies in the final act. Finally the hero we've grown to love of these 2 different stories both suffer fatal endings in the final moments.
Donnie Darko’s ending is open to a lot more discussion though on what it all meant and stuff seeing as he went back in time to a previous event that takes place in the first half of the movie. A lot of people think he done it to save his girlfriend others think he was chosen by Frank and all those random events that happen throughout the movie aren't random but are all essential to the ending of the movie. I believe the great thing about Donnie Darko is that is was intended to be that way so the audience each have their own opinion and that the film can be whatever it needs them to be.
So there you have it folks, five very different films being discussed by five different people. I'd like to thank Sam, Edge, Stephanie and Michael for their contributions to this post, it's been a pleasure guys. I'd also like to thank those of you who read this blog, it means a lot to me so thank you very much. If you like any of these films and have your own opinion or even an opinion on your favourite film then let me know in the comments! Until next time folks.
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