What Have We Learned? (Assignment 5: Reflection)

This project has been definitely been an interesting one. Watching “classic” films as a non-film person has always been something I was interested in doing, but I never really had the motivation to actually do it. When this project came along, I knew it was time. I gathered recommendations from all of my film expert froiends and family members and got to work.

I was expecting to hate a lot, if not all, of the movies that I watched. As you can see from a lot of my blog posts, this was not the case. I enjoyed Dr. Strangelove, Psycho, Vertigo, The Godfather, Forrest Gump, and Citizen Kane. Even when I watched a movie I didn’t enjoy, I was still able to see the merits of it and see why people hailed it as a classic movie.

When I set out to do this project, I assumed it would be really popular and that I would get a lot of comments on my blog posts, so I could engage in discussions and learn from film experts other than the ones already in my life. I thought I was going to have a lot of followers on my supplementary twitter and that I would be interacting with people pretty much every day. Unfortunately, this was not the case. While I was able to complete my objective, in that I watched and reflected on several classic movies, and used my twitter to livetweet them, it was still a fairly unsuccessful project because I got very little interaction on my twitter, and only a little bit of interaction on my blog. My posts got a few likes each, but there were rarely comments or discussions on any of them.

My biggest take-away from this project as a whole is that getting people to participate in your social media is difficult and time consuming. Although my project had a clear promise, tool, and bargain, it wasn’t as successful in participation as I would have liked. This is due partly to my lack of social media presence on my supplemental site, Twitter.

While I used my Twitter account for livetweeting like I originally intended to, it was definitely put on the back burner for other social media interaction. I rarely used it to interact with anyone outside of that purpose. This was because of several reasons. I didn’t have many followers and wasn’t 100% sure how to go about getting more and interacting with other people. I also let it fall by the wayside for my other school assignments and my work schedule. If I had been more active on my twitter, my project may have had more participants, making it more successful.

Another take-away I had from this project was more related to the actual content rather than the process. I learned that just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s not good or has no merit. I didn’t like 2001: A Space Odyssey because I thought the plot was convoluted and boring. However, after watching it and reflecting on it, I can see why it would be considered a great movie. The special effects and ideas for technology are revolutionary for the time period in which the movie was made. Also, just because something is hailed as a “classic” doesn’t mean everyone will love it. I didn’t like the movie Rocky, because I didn’t like his character. I understand and can see why people enjoy the movie, but I personally didn’t like it. And that’s okay. You’re not going to like everything in this world, but you can respect other people’s opinions and see why they have merit.

Overall, I’m glad I did this project, but I could have done it better. I’m happy that I was able to watch all of these classic movies and talk about them from my own perspective, but I’m unhappy with my progress in terms of participation. If I could do this project again, I would pay more attention to my supplementary twitter and perhaps generate more interaction and discussion on my posts.

Analytics:

Blog

Blog Stats Page

Total Blog Posts: 10

Total Blog Followers: 8

Total Blog Comments: 2

Total Blog Likes: 14

Total Page Views: 44

Twitter

Twitter Profile

Total Tweets: 203

Total Twitter Followers: 8

Total Favorites: 2

Total Retweets: 7

Citizen Kane

So I finally did it.

I finally watched the ‘greatest movie in all of human history’.

I did not originally set out to watch Citizen Kane. It wasn’t on my list of film to watch because, though I have watched many a boring or annoying film during this project of mine, I had heard nothing but boring things about this movie.

However, I was a little behind in this assignment and I happened to already have to watch Citizen Kane for another class. I decided to suck it up and kill two birds with one stone in the process.

And you know what?

I truly can say I was not bored at all during this movie.

While I wouldn’t call it the best movie I have ever seen in my entire life, like how the critics have hailed it, it was definitely a really interesting story and it was made extremely well for the time period.

I feel like I have truly evolved. I am now able to sit through a two hour black and white movie that literally everyone, even my film major friends/family, has told me was boring as hell.

The characters were all pretty realistic. They all had realistic and relatable flaws, and while Charles Kane’s success was less than realistic, I was still interested in the story and was able to believe it within the narrative of the film. Also he reminded me of Seth McFarlane in that musical number for some reason, so someone please explain that to me.

Overall, this was a surprisingly good and interesting movie!! Even if that whole sled thing seemed to come from left field.

7/10.

Forrest Gump

The following is a relatively embarrassing and extremely true story about why I waited this long in my life to watch Forrest Gump.

For a while in my life, the only thing I knew about Forrest Gump was Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

I’m not sure exactly where I heard this phrase, but I knew it was connected to the film Forrest Gump. One day, while taking a family trip in Maryland, we passed a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant. I asked my mom, “Is that a real place???”

“Of course it’s a real place!” my mother replied.

In my naïve child mind, I made the connection. Bubba Gump Shrimp was from the movie Forrest Gump. If it’s a real restaurant, that means the story of Forrest Gump must me real (although I had not seen it and didn’t know anything about Forrest’s incredible life, this seemed to make sense to me).

Flash forward to my 18 year old self. I am in my freshman dorm with my roommate, who makes a Forrest Gump reference. I claim that I’ve never seen that film, however the only thing I knew about it was that it was based on a true story. She paused, and scanned my face for some sign of a joke. She didn’t find one. She starting laughing hysterically.

It is in that moment I learned that no, Forrest Gump is NOT based on a true story.

Since then I refused to watch it, out of embarrassment for my former self. Until last Friday.

I was at a party at my friend’s house, hanging out, having a few drinks, when it was brought up in some way that I have never seen the movie. People went nuts. Someone insisted that I sit down and watch it right then and there.

So I figured, why the hell not, and sat down with my mangorita in front of the TV with a few other not-so-sober individuals.

I honestly really liked this movie. The plot was a little convoluted and confusing at times, but the overall message of the movie was really nice and it had a lot of heart.

The only thing I didn’t particularly like about the movie was Jenny. I didn’t like her, and I’m not sure if I was supposed to, really. She just seemed really cold hearted and I understand she supposedly had a hard life and all, but she kept this poor guy on the hook for so long, before finally, nonchalantly, agreeing to marry him like it was no big deal.

Other than that, it was an emotional rollercoaster for me, and I now understand how ridiculous I seemed when I thought it was based on a true story.

8/10.

The Godfather

Three years ago, I met my boyfriend’s best friend’s dad. He is a very charismatic Italian man, and the day I met him, he asked me if I had ever seen The Godfather. I sensed that it was important to him that I had seen it, and he was a little intimidating, so I lied and said that I had seen it. He replied “Good. You’re not allowed in my house unless you’ve seen The Godfather.”

I’ve lived with this lie up until yesterday, when I finally decided to watch it.

The first thing I noticed about this movie is that it was 3 hours long. I hardly have the attention span to watch a two hour movie, let alone a THREE hour one. The second thing I noticed was that I couldn’t understand a single word Marlon Brando was saying. There were also many parts where people only spoke Italian and I’m not sure if there were no subtitles or if my downloaded copy just didn’t come with them, but it took away from the experience because I couldn’t understand what was happening.

While it was hard to keep track of who was who, and who was in control of things, and why this person would wanna kill that person, etc., the movie itself was pretty interesting and managed to keep my attention about 60% of the time.

I feel happy that I can go into my friend’s house and tell his dad that I have actually seen The Godfather. Hopefully he won’t be so mad at me for lying that he sends one of his cronies to murder me while I’m eating a nice Italian dinner.

7/10.

Rocky

I’ve lived in the Philly area for my entire life, yet I have never seen the movie Rocky. This has been a source of shock and awe for many of my fellow friends who are full to the brim with Philly pride. I’m not sure exactly why, seeing as if anyone knows me at all, they know my least favorite kinds of movies are movies about sports. So I finally set out to watch this famous film.

The movie started out extremely depressing. Rocky lives a sad and poor life and kind of just yells at everyone. I was assured that it became very uplifting, though as I watched the movie, I became fixated on one specific thing; Rocky’s relationship with Adrienne.

She starts out as this random pet shop employee that he seems to harass as part of his daily routine. She is clearly uninterested in him. It’s then revealed that she’s Rocky’s friend’s sister. Rocky gets his friend to essentially force her into going out on a date with him. While the date starts out sweet with him bribing a guy to keep the ice rink open for them, he ruins it by spending the entire date talking about himself!

Then came the worst part. He invites her in to his house, to which she replies “No, I want to go home” several times. Finally he badgers her into entering, and he continues to pressure her from there. She keeps resisting, saying that she feels uncomfortable, she doesn’t know him, she wants to go home, etc. but he keeps pressing. Finally he backs her into a wall and kisses her, in an act that I assume was supposed to be sweet, but it was sour for me.

Even though their relationship seems sweet from then on, I couldn’t get over that interaction. It was very obvious that she was uncomfortable, and yet he kept pressing her. That distracted from the rest of the movie for me. In the end, I wasn’t happy he won. I wasn’t happy he got into shape. I wasn’t happy for him because I didn’t like him after that scene.

Overall, it was an okay movie. If I were more of a sports movie fan, I would probably be able to see its influential qualities more. Unfortunately, I am not a sports movie fan but /I am a fan of women and their safety, which made this movie flop in my opinion.

5/10.

Vertigo

When I told my roommate (a film major) that I was going to watch Vertigo, she told me that it was “normal, until it isn’t”. I mean, as a Hitchcock film, that’s what I was expecting.

The movie immediately starts with a man accidentally causing another man to fall to his death from the roof of a building, so I figured I was buckling myself in for a strange and bumpy ride. I was partially correct.

The man who survived the opening scene, John (also sometimes called Scotty???), is asked to help an old acquaintance, Gavin, out with a favor. He is asked to essentially stalk Gavin’s wife because he’s suspicious about what she does all day without him. What ensues is a long and somewhat boring montage of John following this lady around as she buys flowers and stares at paintings all day. Somehow, John falls in love with her until she kills herself by throwing herself from a high tower. John later falls in love with a different woman who just ends up being the same woman?

It was all very confusing and weird and I still feel like I don’t have any closure or answers of any kind. Though it wasn’t confusing enough to irritate me like 2001 did, I still had to stop livetweeting at one point because I just didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t want to look away from the movie and miss something.

This movie is full of confusing relationship plot, mystery, kissing other people even though they are visibly uncomfortable, and proof that if you do something as simple as change a woman’s hair color, I will still not recognize them (seriously I didn’t think the “second” girl looked anything like the wife who “killed herself” until she had blonde hair again).

Overall, a film I would probably watch again, if for no other reason than to just try and figure out what was going on.

7/10.

Psycho

Unlike the other two movies I’ve watched so far, I did know at least a little bit about Psycho before I watched it. However, since my only knowledge about it was from the TV show Bates Motel, I knew that my knowledge of the story was going to be a little off. But I really liked the TV show (at least during the first season), so I figured that I’d like the source material as well.

The first thing I noticed about this movie was that I didn’t trust any of the characters. I didn’t trust the main girl, I didn’t trust her boyfriend, I didn’t trust Norman Bates (obviously!!!), I just didn’t feel good about anyone. This is probably a testament to Hitchcock’s storytelling skills. None of the characters were inherently good, and I definitely got that from the way they were portrayed.

The main thing that bothered me about this movie, and maybe I missed it somewhere in the beginning, was why the main girl would want to suddenly steal $40,000 and start a new life. I don’t know about you but I’ve never woken up in the morning and thought “Yeah I’m done here, time to move on to a new life after I steal thousands of dollars from my boss”. Okay, maybe once. But I never acted on it.

Also it was very weird and interesting that they spent so much time on this girl and her struggles and yet she was killed off halfway through the movie. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting things to escalate that quickly and I thought that the famous shower scene happened more towards the end. It was really interesting how they revealed more and more information about Norman and his mother, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie! I’m glad that I finally saw it after having seen the TV show.

Now excuse me while I fear showering with the curtain drawn for the next month or so.

8/10.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Much like Dr. Strangelove, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into with 2001: A Space Odyssey. When I mentioned this project to people, three people excitedly told me to watch this movie, claiming that I’d love it.

Well, they were wrong.

This movie has a run time of 2 hours and 41 minutes. You’d think that in such a large amount of time, something interesting might happen, but you would definitely be incorrect.

I knew something had to be up when I wanted to tweet a picture of the title card. I turned on the movie and turned my phone’s camera on. The screen was black, but that seemed normal. For the first 5 seconds. Then music started playing, so I’m thinking “Oh great, the movie is going to start.” Nope. There were three FULL minutes of a black screen with music playing before anything actually happened. Little did I know, this was foreshadowing for what I was about to experience.

The movie starts with monkeys. I assume this is prehumen era. Just monkeys hanging out. Then suddenly, there’s space. After like 20 minutes, there’s a time jump to more space. Then comes the evil computer. This plotline was so predictable, it was making me angry. It was obvious the computer was gonna be evil and it was gonna kill someone, and it did. Finally, after the computer kills one of the spacemen, the other has the bright idea to shut off the computer. WOW, He didn’t think to do that BEFORE I had to sit through this pointless movie?

It was literally this for 20 minutes. Are you kidding me?

Then came the most aggravating part. The spaceman who disconnected the computer is now traveling through space. I’m expecting this to be a huge action filled climax, but what I got was 20 actual minutes of him going through some vortex that was reminiscent of a screensaver from a Windows 95 desktop computer, with weird awful music playing. And that was basically the end of the movie.

I will give credit where credit is due; the movie looked really good for something that was made in the 60’s. However, other than that I didn’t like it because it felt pointless, it was too long, and made me feel like I was stuck in the scary chocolate river tunnel from Willy Wonka for almost 3 hours.

2/10

Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)

Dr. Strangelove is a film that has been suggested to me many times, mostly by my boyfriend. Unfortunately, I refuse to watch really any movie that’s in black and white so it seemed out of the question for me. When I knew I was doing this project, I knew I had to add this movie to my watchlist.

I knew nothing about this movie before watching. I had no idea what it was about, when it was made, who was in it, nothing. So when the movie started and there’s a shot of war planes in black and white, I thought “Oh great, I’m going to be bored as hell.”

As soldiers were discussing war plans, I decided to look up a little bit of information about the movie. I read on IMDB that it was considered a satirical comedy. I was not getting that at all so far. But I groaned and continued. Because I had to. Because I promised myself I would get through these horribly boring movies.

But then something interesting happened. The action of the movie started to pick up, and I could see a little humor. It was still a boring black and white movie, but I could see where someone somewhere might get “comedy” from it. As the movie moved along, I could see humor more and more. Though it was never really laugh out loud funny, I definitely chuckled a little. As the movie ended, I didn’t completely want to die of boredom.

Overall, I shockingly enjoyed this movie. Would I ever watch it again? Probably not, but it definitely taught me not to juge a book by its cover, or a movie by its black and white war plane montage.

6/10

What’s this all about?

All my life, I’ve been around people who love film. My stepdad is a film snob, almost all of my best friends study film as their major, and even my boyfriend works on the staff of a camp that teaches kids how to make movies. With all of these film buffs in my life, you’d think my film palate would be pretty sophisticated.

You would be wrong. While my friends and family are watching movies like Gone with the Wind and American Beauty, I’m content with a tub of popcorn and Knocked Up. My idea of a good movie is usually a romantic comedy, or anything that can make me laugh and entertain me for a few hours.

My boyfriend is constantly talking about movies that are “game changers”; movies that will be hailed as classics for years to come. In this blog project, I’m going to explore some of these critically acclaimed films that I wouldn’t otherwise go near. I’m going to watch them and see if I can refine my cinematic palate so I can finally talk shop with the “real” movie lovers in my life.

I hope you enjoy the ride!