March 21-25

During the course of the week in the class of Film Study, the movie, O Brother, Where art Thou?, was shown. This movie relates to what we learned through the week before about looking at a movie in a literary sense because in the movie, it shows many examples of allusion, irony and other such literary devices. Overall however, I really liked this movie. The soundtrack was one of the best that I had heard in a movie since I saw West Side Story or Jesus Christ Superstar. Something else I liked about the movie is its ability to use the Odyssey in such a way that it tells the story not of a man in Ancient Greece but an ex-con who escaped with some imitated people in the 1930s.

One literary device that was very prevalent during the film was the device of allusion. Allusion is when a work refers to another work in a passing manner. A very good example is when Ulysses and the people with him meet the one-eyed Bible salesman, Big Dan. He later turns out to be part of the Klan and corresponds to the cyclops in the Odyssey. Another case of allusion is when at the end they sing “You are my Sunshine”, which is an actual song written by Johnny Cash in the 70s.

Another literary device present is the use of foreshadowing. One good example is when Delmar and Pete are saved or baptized by Evangelists. From this moment, a viewer is able to discern the fact that religion will now play a large part in the movie. For instance in the next part, the entire gang meets Tommy Johnson, who is said to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play a guitar in a manner befitting a master. Another example is when they meet George Nelson or better known by his nickname, Babyface Nelson. When he tells him that he is a criminal, Pete and Delmar are against because they have been saved and don;t want to end up back on the path that they were going down before. This causes some conflict but not a lot as they eventually go along with him and help him rob a bank and take a cut of the money.

The last thing I want to talk about is not about the literary devices and impact of the film but the music off the movie because of its prevalent position in the film. For instance the soundtrack for this movie won many awards and even spent some time on Billboard’s Top Country Chart. The song’s themselves actually speak to the characters who sing them and what is going on at that time in the movie. For instance, the most popular song, I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrows, speaks to how George Clooney’s character,Ulysses, feels throughout the film. The son talks about a man who is down on his luck and is at the lowest point in his life, even his own mother won’t face him. This is similar to Ulysses. This is man who has been sent to prison and thus lost the love of his life and breaks out to go and see her. However she ends up with another man but, as opposed to the song, it ends well for him, as he ends up with the girl.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a movie that displays many of the tropes that we are learning in class. It does this through its use of foreshadowing, allusions and ultimately through the medium of music.

Week of Feb.29 to March 4

This week in Film Study I learned about the noir film and more specifically the Maltese Flacon and how it relates to the genre itself. Personally I thought that the Maltese Falcon was a good movie with enough suspense, drama and even a bit of comedy to keep me on the edge of my seat. Overall, I thought it was a very well made film and exemplified what it meant to be a noir film. For instance, it had many of the archetypes that atypical noir film has like Spade as the flawed protagonist, O’Shuangessey as the femme fatale and more.

Another way that it exemplified that whole noir genre is it story telling and the themes that it had. For instance, the whole scene where Spade is insulting the cops and says to the chief to keep his boyfriend in check was a very risqué one for when the movie came out. At that time, homosexuality was a very taboo topic, almost never talked about and a topic that would have gotten a normal man ejected from the premises on the grounds of disturbing the peace. However this film mentions it in a passing joke but the Production Code wouldn’t have it and had them censor the comment in the 1931 version. Audiences couldn’t see the full unedited version until the 1960s.

The Cinematography of the film also exemplifies it’s induction into the noir genres. It utilized many different camera angles to signify many different plot devices. For instance, in the scene where Gutman is explains the history of the Falcon to Spade, the camera does an amazing thing going from following Spade and Gutman from a room to a pan of the room and finally on Gutman’s face from Spade’s point of view where we, as an audience, can see his huge stomach. This emphasizes Gutman’s supposed power and later this is repeated when Spade is drugged by Gutman. We see Gutman’s huge stomach and power an finally Spade passes out giving us a scene of somewhat weakness on the side of Spade.

The last way that this film earns its spot in the noir category is the lighting of the film. Throughout the film, many of the important characters are never lit properly, that is to say that their faces are lit in such a way that their faces still have shadows in them. Also in some scenes Wilmer, the fall guy who is selected to take the blame for the whole operation and the murders, is lit in such a way that he looks younger, almost childish when he is told he will take the fall. This seems to indicate a sense of lost innocence and just overall sadness because he knows that he has just lost maybe the next 20 years of his life.

So in conclusion, The Maltese Falcon is a noir film in the purest sense. It has all of the elements of a typical noir film like the archetypes or the lighting. However it also has elements like a famous last line like “The stuff that dreams are made out of” which has entered into popular culture and the public consciousness. This film is truly noir material.