Mood in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

In George Roy Hill’s classic western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), two bank robbers and their lady companion, Etta (Katharine Ross), evade arrest and are hunted from those whom they have stolen from. I personally am not a fan of westerns, but this one was actually not that bad. The main quality that set it apart from the many Clint Eastwood-style movies I have seen was it’s light-hearted and humorous mood and tone interspersed throughout the film. Although there is shooting, drinking, and some sexual content I can definitely see how this became a movie that many kids enjoyed and reenacted over the years. I think that is mostly because it has the archetypical “cops and robbers” story, but it remains happy and up beat because of the cinematography and lighting.

The light-hearted and less serious tone that is present throughout the film was caused by a few main elements. The cinematography, meaning the way it was shot, the lighting and music, and the basic dialogue. Firstly, the cinematography was excellent in this film. There were many pan shots of the beautiful landscape and long shots of the characters showing their surroundings as well. The vast desert landscape is a crucial trademark to any western film, and it was greatly highlighted in this one because the story was really about them travelling and escaping through the wilderness. But the lighting greatly added to the film’s unique mood as well. In the opening scene when they are playing poker and the characters are introduced, the lighting is dark and there is no music because this is a serious scene and shows that Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) are serious criminals with mad skill. This is one of the few scenes where the mood is clearly somber and serious. Later on when Sundance surprises Etta the lighting is dark, as it is night and the room doesn’t have any light sources, but also because the viewer is led to believe that Sundance is going to rape her, so naturally the mood is darker. When it is revealed that they are actually lovers and this was their twisted way of spicing up their sex life, the lighting stays dark but the mood shifts dramatically, exemplifying that mood and lighting can be played with. The scene next morning where Etta and Butch are out riding around on his bike, to me was the key difference between this film and other westerns. The lighting was a soft and hazy yellow, and B. J. Thomas’ “Rain Drops Keep Fallin On My Head,” was playing as they joyfully rode through the meadows. Butch shows off his bicycle skills to Etta, and then he accidentally goes into the bull’s ring. Even this moment is funny because the camera shot quickly zooms in to the bulls face in a very comedic way right before he begins to chase them out of the pasture. With the lack of violence or plot development other than character relationship growth, this scene is really unique to this western because it only serves a light-hearted and cute purpose that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, that most other westerns lack. As described, lighting is a key element in the mood of a film, but the cinematography greatly adds to the tone as well.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is not only funny; it is also dramatic and draws you in with its cinematographic prowess. There are many shots that stood out to me in this movie that added drama and had a specific style to them. The one that impacted me the most was when the big black steam engine carrying the 6 trackers, pulls up quickly along the tracks and the camera is right in front of the grill before it comes to a screeching stop. The low shot makes it seem like the train is going to come barreling through the screen right into the audience, and gives it a very authoritative and intimidating presence. As soon as the engine comes to a halt there is a short sequence of shots of the industrial parts of the train. The black wheels, the greasy gears, the loud steam pipe, and the hot black smoke billowing into the air all add to the tone that this is not a train to be messed with. Continuing with the powerful tone that the engine strikes, the six trackers that case Butch and Sundance throughout most the movie feel very intimidating because how they are shot and portrayed on screen as well. If you did not notice before, the faces of the men are never clearly seen, Butch and Sundance describe them briefly, but we never get a clear identification. This makes them seem larger than life, more than just men tracking them, but a strong force that even they can’t even evade. The sense of anonymity makes them seen almost inhuman, and more of a vague power, with out a clear identity how are Butch and Sundance supposed to defeat them? Cinematography and lighting are only a couple ways in the movie that the tone is complex and the mood variation is portrayed.

Sources Referenced:

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064115/>.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Dir. George R. Hill. Perf. Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Twentieth Century-Fox Films, 1969. DVD.

Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. "Chapter 6: Cinematography." Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. 2-62. Print.

Music in Juno

Jason Reitman's Juno (2007), is such a quirky and uplifting flick that I have enjoyed many times over the years. As I watched it this time I was focusing more on the diegetic elements, those being a part of the total world of the story, and non-diegetic; contributing to the story, but not in the character's world of consciousness. In the beginning they have the sketched credits as Juno walks through the town, to me this is diegetic because that is telling the whole world of the story at the moment, it is just in a different medium than that of real life people. This, in combination with Barry Louis-Polisar’s “All I Want is You,” add a level a whimsy to the story before it even really begins. The use of music as both a diegetic and non-diegetic element contributed to the quirky feel and the meaningful yet lightheartedness of this film.

The use of music as a soundtrack is crucial to any good movie, but in Juno it not only sets the mood and creates a deeper feeling of emotion, it is also a key diegetic part in many of the characters lives. Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) and Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) are tied together by not only her pregnancy, but their past band membership, and their love for music. We don’t actually witness them playing in the band in the plot, but they talk about reuniting after “this whole thing is over.” When Juno meets Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa (Jennifer Gardner) for the first time, she gets a peak at Mark’s old Les Paul guitar sitting in his man cave, they then continue to bond over the guitar and their shared appreciation for old music and his days as a rock star. Just as he shows her his old songs, Vanessa comes up and interrupts them, as her character is one of the few that doesn’t bond to the others through music. But we can infer that she might have been a fan from the past by her old Alice in Chains t-shirt covered in “Custard” and “Cheesecake” yellow as she paints the baby’s nursery later on. Throughout the story music acts as a topic that leads Mark and Juno to bond together, almost in a temptation sort of relationship. They listen to old records by Mott The Hoople, specifically “All the Young Dudes,” and slow dance, which was clearly inappropriate, but I also see it as Mark just trying to reconnect to the music that once made him feel young, doing so through his relationship with Juno. Just as Mark relates to Juno through music, it is also his affinity for music that drives him and Vanessa, and ultimately Juno apart. He writes commercial jingles for a living, but his true desire is becoming that rock star he once was in his younger days, and he can’t seem to let that life go, leading to his realization that he is not ready to be a father or stay married.  Even though music ultimately was the issue between Mark and Vanessa, it was also a very sweet way that Paulie and Juno related to each other, that other characters didn’t seem to share. We never saw Juno and Leah, her best friend, talk about music or bond through it, she seemed to only do that with the main male antagonist, Mark, and protagonist, Paulie. At the end of the movie Juno and Paulie sit together and they begin to sing The Moldy Peaches’ “Anyone Else But You,” while both harmonizing on their respective acoustic guitars. This is the perfect ending in the sense that music has been such a strong theme throughout the movie; driving people apart and pulling others back together.

Not only did director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody employ music well throughout the script and story, the soundtrack reflects the mood and the characters perfectly. The use of music as a non-diegetic element adds another layer, almost another character to the story. While watching, I noticed many songs were sung by female vocalists and many were about relationships and couples, reinforcing Juno’s point of view through the soundtrack. The music chosen also reflected what the actual characters would listen to, it wasn’t a dramatic Hollywood score that would build suspense, it kept the mood light and earnest, but when there was a more serious moment, the absence of this lightness darkened the tone. I also noticed that most of the music had strong acoustic guitar instrumentals, which went along well with the strong presence of guitars in the characters lives. While reading up on the soundtrack details, I discovered that Ellen Page (Juno) helped choose many of the songs, and had the idea for Juno to be a fan of Kimya Dawson of The Moldy Peaches. Kimya sang many of the songs, and the last song at the end, “Anyone Else But You,” was by her band. I thought it was very interesting that they choose the music for the soundtrack based on what the character would listen to, many movies use it as a separate piece, but in Juno it really served to reveal another side of the main protagonist. Even though the soundtrack is a non-diegetic element, it was a strong and important part of the character’s world and greatly added to the story.

If you would like to listen to a couple of the songs I talked about, here are the links:

Barry Louis-Polisar’s “All I Want is You" with opening credits

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20PQBtyfNZY

  Matt the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKvNtAVZyOc

 Kimya Dawson and The Moldy Peaches' "Anyone Else but You"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdpkZLpeIGY

Lastly, Michael Cera and Ellen Page covering "Anyone Else but You"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBDbUVXXp-U

Works Referenced:

"Juno." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
        <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/>.

  Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. "Chapter 4: Elements of Narrative." Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. 2-62. Print.

 Juno. Dir. Jason Reitman. Prod. Lianne Halfon and John Malkovich. By Diablo Cody. Perf. Ellen     Page and Michael Cera. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2007. DVD.

Looking at The Matrix

       In The Wachowski Brother's The Matrix (1999), around the year 2199, an unsuspecting computer hacker named Neo (Keanu Reeves) is exposed to the truth about the world that he thinks he lives in. With the help of other enlightened coders, he sees that the human race is just an energy source for the machines, that have created a false digital world for the humans to experience in order to keep them unaware of their true existence.
       I really enjoyed watching this movie, not only is it very entertaining and packed with action, but I think it has one of the most compelling plots of any movie I have recently seen. The way that it plays with the idea of reality verses the perceptions we have is novel and delightfully unsettling.
One of the many themes that this movie explores is the actuality of reality verses the illusion that one sees. This is all happening in a post-apocalyptic time, when humans have been over taken by the artificial intelligence they created, and are now used as energy cells. While they are unconscious in harvesting pods, humans experience a computer program that simulates the real world, called The Matrix. The directors did a really good job of transporting the viewer from world to world, and that's what I would like to discuss. The way that the mise-en-scene is created, perfectly enables you to believe that one world is in the other and you can see the difference in mood, lighting and props that illustrate the drastic differences between the two "realities".


       In the matrix, everything is very organized, from the cubicles at Neo's office, to the plain professional dress that everyone wears. The lighting is a florescent-greenish hue, and the buildings and sky blend together in a grayish wash. The matrix has a very bland and routine feeling, but at the same time it is comfortable and calming, which is exactly what the machines had intended. In contrast, the real world is the exact opposite. The set of the Nebucadnezzar, their ship, is very dark and crowded, pipes and valves cover the walls, and dark steel grates serve as floors. The wiring for the computers is tangled and runs haphazardly along the ceilings and floor, something that would never be seen in the matrix. It evokes a mood of darkness and resourcefulness much like the humans aboard the ship. Lighting and design play an important role when progressing the plot, for example when Neo meets Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) under the overpass and gets in the car, it is very dark and rainy. At this point the matrix has been clean and boring, but as we see it for what it is; a very dark reality, the setting gets darker, and has a more ominous mood. There are many small setting details throughout the film that add to the fracturing of the perfect world presented as the matrix. Towards the end, in the scene where Neo and his team escape agents by climbing down the walls of an apartment building, you can clearly see how the set design created a mood of chaos and destruction. Tiles are falling off the walls, there is broken glass and graffiti covering the hallways and it is dimly lit and abandoned; our once organized and pleasant view of the matrix is lost just as it becomes lost on Neo. Just as the set and props give way to the corruption of the matrix, the costume design acts as a form of transformation as well.


       In the real world the characters wear torn and ragged clothing, usually dark in color. Unlike the crew of the ship, Morpheus is always wearing his slick black trench coat and his mirror sunglasses, to suggest he is always in control, and unaffected by the grit of the real world. There is a clear juxtaposition once Neo and his crew enter the matrix. Their sleek and menacing black coats are a clear and calculated design tool to highlight their different view of the matrix now that they have been revealed to the real world. The difference in costume design between the two worlds also makes it feel like Neo is now a visitor in the matrix, not just one of the many mindless inhabitants. I see this more towards the end of the movie, as illustrated in the above pictures, we meet him wearing torn gray t-shirts in a post-apocalyptic world, and as he progresses through the movie, gaining power and control in the virtual world, he dons his fully tricked-out black cape with gun belts padding is torso. With his new mirror sunglasses,  he looks almost identical to Morpheus, illustrating how he has risen in power and become fully integrated to the real world. One key costume element is the continuity of the uniforms worn by the Agents. They are unchanging throughout the movie, furthering their quality of robot-like behavior and emotion. Their neatly pressed gray suits and anonymous sunglasses convey the lack of human emotion and flaw that the matrix possesses. These are only a few of the many ways that the Mise-en-scene is a key part to the form of a film and how they can tell an underlying story even when you don't realize it. This is what makes a movie feel real and palpable even though it is a made up universe.




 Works Referenced:

 Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. "Chapter 1: Looking at Movies, Chapter 2: Principals   of Film Form." Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. 2-62. Print.

The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski.

       Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999. DVD.

"The Matrix (1999)." IMDb. Amazon.com, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. 

        <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/?ref_=ttgf_gf_tt>.

 Pictures are screen shots from:



Wachowski, Larry, and Andy Wachowski. "Matrix Trailer HD (1999)." YouTube. 
      YouTube, 21 May 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.

 N.d. Photograph. Google. Google. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://static.comicvine.com/uploads
       /original/6/68616/1404576-    photo_of_neo_from_the_matrix.jpg>.

Hi, My Name is Haley...

This is my first attempt at imposing any serious views of mine on the world-wide web, and I am honored to be sharing it with all of you. 

I, along with any other warm blooded American, have a deep and emotional relationship with the cinematic arts; meaning that I binge-watch 8 episodes of Breaking Bad on Netflix in a day, and become emotionally hurt when I have exhausted the available content. But as a cinematic consumer, I truly do enjoy a good old-fashioned night out at the movies. 

We all know that indescribable feeling after you have waited through that annoying ticket line, talked into the funny microphone through the glass and received that magic ticket that will grant you access to the hallowed theater lobby. I cannot say if this is an American culture phenomenon or a internationally occurring event, but you know that slight buzz of excitement when you get your popcorn, the bouncer at the velvet rope rips your ticket, and you set off to find prime seats. As a poor college student, my movie going has dwindled, but my passion is still strong. 

I think there is nothing more entertaining than watching a movie, and being completely shocked, or moved by the result. With that said, Rom-Coms suck. I am extremely excited that we are reviewing American Beauty, it seems not many people of my generation like movies anymore if it makes them uncomfortable and doesn't inclue a car chase. But, American Beauty has been my favorite movie since I was 13 when I watched it with my dad on TV. That is a young age to see a movie with such serious content, but in a way I think that is why I grew to like it so much. As I grew up and watched it throughout the years, I was able to understand more and more of the messages, and as I matured, the movie stayed relevant. Thus, all Disney movies need homophobia and and latent self-hatred to keep 5 year olds watching in 10 years (joke.) It has always been my opinion that movies are one of, if not the most powerful vessel to make people really think about and engage in a subject, and I am looking forward to learning how the magic is really created, and discussing the films and their roles in modern society.