Moneyball Blog Response

Moneyball

2011: Bennet Miller

Cast:
Brad Pitt as Billy Beane
Jonah Hill as Peter Brand
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Art Howe

#1 Did you connect with Brad Pitt’s character? Could you relate in any way t the experiences he went through in his life and how he dealt with him?

For most of the movie, I felt that Billy was a very two-dimensional character. He showed no emotion, and was strictly all business, and as the story unravelled to show his past, I still felt nothing. He gave up a scholarship to Stanford to play baseball, and then when it was revealed that he wasn’t as great as the talent scouts made him out to be, it showed the pain Billy had gone through so he could understand how in baseball no matter how quickly you are built up, you can be pulled down. I never felt sympathy for Billy at this moment however, and nor did I feel bad for him since he had let his ego get in the way of making a good decision. He left the opportunity of going to Stanford, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, just so he could throw a ball around since a few old men in their 50’s told him he was a star athlete.  I could never relate my own life to him since my priorities in life are very different from his; I consider myself to make very practical decisions. With this in mind, the ending scene of the film really made me connect with Billy, it showed he had dreams and aspirations and that he feels emotions like everyone else. As he drove in his car, we could see the tears rolling down his face, and before I assumed he was just an angry baseball manager that was bitter because he never got his time in the spotlight, it showed that he was bottling up his emotions and that even though when things got tough, he always saw the light in his life, which was his daughter. I thought it was a very sweet and sincere moment that really made Brad Pitt’s character, Billy, come to life. I aspire to be like him, a successful businessman, an ambitious loyal man (using the example of when he stayed with his team instead of joining the Red Socks), and overall, a very compassionate, caring man.

#6 There are a number of times when the team’s manager, Art Howe, defines Billy’s requests for line-up changes. Each is trying to put the best possible team on the field, but they are using two different paradigms for making those decisions. How does Billy handle Art’s defiance and, given that Billy is Art’s boss, what do you think of Billy’s approach.

            Billy wanted the team positioned in a specific way that Art deemed awkward and wouldn’t work, because Billy wanted to take athletes obviously groomed for specific positions and rearrange their skills so they could play different roles. Of course, this didn’t make sense to Art as why would you ever risk using a professional athlete for something that he wasn’t made to do, so Billy took some of the best athletes of his team, and replaced them with athletes that were mediocre in comparison to them, and it let to Art having to rearrange the team to Billy’s desire or else the team would completely fall apart. So basically, Billy hired athletes that forced Art to transfigure the team into his design. Of course, Billy had tried getting Art to change the team to his liking, but after he did get his way, he totally pulled the rug underneath from Art and actually making the team worse in skill level so he could get his way. I believe that Billy behaved very pettily, and although he tried to convince Art to change the team and he wouldn’t submit, he could’ve at least included Art in the rehiring of teammates.  I believe that Billy abused his power to get what he wanted, and although he was in the right to do that, he risked a lot by giving up his best players. On the other hand, I do think it was very ingenious as he left Art with no other options, I do think that he gave Art the “tough love approach” of taking a kids toys away, perhaps something he tried on his daughter. I do think in this situation though, Art could’ve got his reasoning across to Billy better than he did, as he basically said, “I do what I want”. He should’ve respected Billy since he is his boss; but I do think Billy needs to understand they are a team.

#4 What was your favourite part of Moneyball? Why?

My favourite scene of Moneyball was definitely the ending, and it wasn’t just because I was glad this baseball mess of a movie was over. The ending scene to me was the first actual scene where I felt or saw character development. It consisted of Brad Pitt driving down a road as he listed to his daughter singing, and I felt that it was a very sweet, beautifully directed father-daughter moment. We could see the tears rolling down Brad Pitt’s eyes, and the rainy background complimented the scene nicely. The shaky camera angle of Brad Pitt’s eyes showed us how although Brad Pitt was very harsh on the outside to his coworkers, his life was actually very unstable and confusing like the rest of ours. It gave us such a better insight into Brad Pitt’s life, and how the light in his life was his daughter. Besides it being a very emotion scene, it built up anticipation to whether Brad Pitt would take the job, and I think it was the best transitioning scene in a movie, ever.

Satire or Parody | The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights

The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Satire or Parody?

The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights both share the same actor as their main characters, Cary Elwes. A man, who is much past his prime in tight-wearing opportunities. Besides this, both movies give you the same sort of feeling when you watch them, amusement mixed with a tad bit of awkwardness. The movies however, released 5 years apart from each other, do not fall under the same genre of comedy. The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights are a satire and parody respectively.

The definition of a parody is, “an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.” And although throughout most Robin Hood: Men in Tights I was making awkward, uncomfortable groaning noises, it is just that. Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a parody of all former Robin Hood movies and books, evident by the title. The very, very, very dry and uncomfortable jokes and comments throughout the film referencing previous Robin Hood movies solidify this claim.

In the movie, Robin Hood, directly references previous Robin Hood books and movies. He makes a mockery of previous Robin Hood movies based on the classic English folk hero, with the words,

“Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent.”

Another example is the scene in which the main characters reference they are filming a movie, like when Robin Hood and other members of the cast pulled out their scripts during the archery scene. I believe this acted as way to ridicule previous Robin Hood movies for what I can only imagine is, as I have not seen any other Robin Hood movies, as a way to show how ridiculous these movies on how everything always works out for Robin Hood in the end. 

I originally presumed Prince John’s iconic mole that danced across the screen was for just chuckles and giggles, but through research I actually discovered was used to make run of a previous character with a mole from the movie, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  Other mannerism throughout the movie, such as King Richard’s Scottish accent, was also used as a way to poke fun at the King in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Now, although I don’t have a lot to go off as this is the first Robin Hood movie I have seen, other internet sources do show that Robin Hood: Men in Tights uses scenes form other Robin Hood movies to poke fun at them such as the banquet scene where Robin Hood brought in a pig and then argued with the King over taxes which was copied over from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Other scenes in this movie also ridicule the supposed time period this movie is based in, perhaps making fun of the extremity of things or how the culture was inappropriately adapted for previous Robin Hood movies, such as the over exaggeration of Marian’s chastity belt.

Moving onto the Princess Bride, The Princess Bride is a satirical movie. Satire is the “use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices” or essentially, mockery. Satire can also translate into irony, which was displayed throughout Princess Bride very heavily. One example is when Vizzini, who believed he was so much smarter than Westley, challenged him to a battle of wits and was then killed by his own poison he intended to kill Westley with. Another example was when Buttercup pushed Wesley down the hill, thinking he is Pirate Roberts when he is actually, her true love. Satire is also used with Vizzini as he is short but smart, while Fezzik, who is big and strong, is ‘dumb’. The entire fight scene between Wesley and Inigo Montoya can also be seen as satire:

Examples are,

   a) When Inigo waited patiently for Westley to climb up the cliff, even though he intended to kill him

   b) When Westley and Inigo both used their non-dominant hand when the duel began

If you were to summarize The Princess Bride, you would realize how satirical and ironic the entire thing is:

“Princess Buttercup looses her true love, and then is kidnapped by a mercenary and his henchmen, then rescued by a pirate, then forced to marry a Prince, and then rescued by the henchmen who (tried) to capture her in the first place.”

I have labeled The Princess Bride as satirical because I couldn’t find a direct connection in which this movie made fun of previous princess-prince love stories. I honestly felt it was a well-crafted movie that played a unique spin on the typical damsel in distress movie, and the writers of the movie created a script with much of the humour being satirical that was very enjoyable to watch. With Robin Hood: Men in Tights, although the element of satire is there as it closely relates to parody, we are able to link a distinct connection between Robin Hood: Men in Tights and previous Robin Hood movies.

Works Cited

"Robin Hood Men in Tights: The Swashbuckling Spoof." Movies Nerdiness and More. N.p., 01 Dec. 2011. Web. 10 May 2015. <https://moviesnerdinessandmore.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/robin-hood-men-in-tights-the-swashbuckling-spoof/>.

"Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102798/>.

Vertigo Film Analysis

Vertigo

1958: Alfred Hitcock

Cast:
James Stewart as John "Scottie" Ferguson
Kim Novak as Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton

Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge Wood

Tom Helmore as Gavin Elster

1.    In the first half of the movie, at what point does Scottie’s detective work regarding Madeline cross the line to become obsessive stalking?

I believe that in the first part of the movie, Scottie was doing his job by following Madeleine around. When he learnt from Elster Carlotta that Carlotta Valdes, Madeline’s said spirit that haunted her, had committed suicide at Madeline’s current age, he went to great lengths to protect her. Yes, it felt very creepy when he was trailing behind her stopping to stare at her every few miles, but that was his job. I believe, after he saved her from the San Francisco Bay though, he essentially released her into the wild, instead of telling her husband, and began incisively stalking her. It almost became a game to him. Although when they were talking after Madeline had recovered, you could sense chemistry between them, it felt like Scottie fell over his heals for her and began spending time with her and following her around for his own pleasure and extreme need to, not because it was a favour to his friend.

2.    How does Hitchcock portray women in this film?

Throughout the movie, the only leading women characters we are faced with follow as, Madeline (Judy portraying her): the beautiful, Grace-Kelly-like damsel in distress, Judy: a lying, manipulative woman who plays part in a murder and then forgets it for the sake of “true love”, and lastly, Midge: a practical, successful, and realistic woman who happens to only have one desire in life, to be with Scottie the Hottie. In the movie, the men are the hero’s, like Scottie, and the brains, like Madeline’s husband who formed the elaborate plot to inherit her fortunes. The woman are secondary characters, one’s who fill in screen time when you can’t find a man in a wig. They are portrayed as liars, desperate for men’s attention, and all-around sensitive creatures who die at a men’s disapproval (remember when Midge began to cry when Scottie didn’t like her painting?). In his movies, women are flirts, like Judy to Scottie, and the men are the one’s who chase after them with slobber coming from their mouths.

3.    How are we as viewers to feel about Scottie’s efforts to transform Judy into Madeline?

Obviously, with Scottie’s dramatic and expressively rough commands forcing Judy into looking like his lost love, it gives us a sense that Scottie is dangerous and obsessive. Judy doesn’t have a voice, she wants Scottie to love her, and for a time being, he does love her when she looks like Madeline, but the stages to get there are not pleasant. He yelled at her in public over suits, forced her to wear her hair and makeup a certain way, and was overall, too demanding. The way it’s portrayed in the movie, with Judy’s visible discomfort and Scottie’s harsh attitude, it picks up a vibe that when they’re arguing, you shouldn’t be watching. It’s like going to your friend’s house and having their parents fight, it’s awkward and you want to look away, but there is nowhere to go. As viewers, we see Scottie’s attempts to change her as uncomfortable as Judy felt.

4.    Suppose that Judy did not fall out of the tower in the last scene. Scottie would then have faced the choice of staying with Judy or turning her in. What do you think the right choice would be?

With Judy’s dying word to Scottie before she tripped off the roof, and with his reaction, I felt a vibe that although he couldn’t believe the horrors she had committed and the lies she told, he was so desperate for Madeline that he was ready to look past her unfortunate doings. I feel that he wouldn’t know what to do, and as a retired man from law enforcement he would feel that it would be his duty to turn her in, but with his evident need for love like when he kissed a married woman, I feel he would look past it to keep her as a “prize”. I feel that he would try to forget what happened, but in the end, spend the rest of his days with her pretending he doesn’t feel an uncomfortable air surrounding them. I think Scottie’s obsession with the pretend Madeline would be enough to convince him that Judy was the woman he loved. Although I believe the right choice would be to hand Judy in to the authorities and perhaps defend her as she never intended to hurt Madeline (even though it doesn’t make sense to think what else she thought would happen to Madeline after her employer told her his extreme plan), I don’t think Scottie would have followed through. I do think he would become less obsessive with her though. I think he would try to look past his fake love Madeline and allow Judy to look the way she wanted, just so he could convince himself that he never truly loved Madeline.

Forrest Gump Film Review

Forrest Gump

1994: Robert Zemeckis

Cast:
Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump
Robin Wright as Jenny

Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan

Sally Field as Mrs. Gump

Mykelti Williamson as Bubba (Benjamin Buford Blue)

(see film summary at the bottom of the page)

Forrest Gump, an Academy Award and critically acclaimed movie, in my opinion, can be summarized as “stupid is as stupid does”. The movie follows Forrest Gump, a lovable, slow-witted man who’s misunderstanding of social norms at inappropriate times will lead you gripping at your stomach with laughter. Even after watching him for about the 40^th time running across fields and meadows and embarrassing himself on national television, it’ll still leave you splitting at your sides.  Besides it’s humour, you’ll also have the utmost pleasure of watching Forrest cry Jenn-ay for 20 minutes straight until a mental breakdown leads him running across America inspiring the many he meets along the way that the 4 years you spend in college to receive your degree are worthless. It’s no wonder how this 2+ hour movie was able to snatch up more Oscars than references in the movie nobody gets who’s under 30.  Forrest Gump is a brilliant piece of work that through it’s intricate storytelling, it inspires us all to ignore our college educations or skip higher education altogether and start a random career like shrimp boating that would make any etsy-fused, hippy parents happy*.  All in all, if you’d like to watch a movie that makes you dare to dream about having an unsteady career and failed love life until the woman of your dreams needs you to adopt her son, then this movie is for you.

Although loved by millions, I fail to see the charm from his movie. Of course I could go into this huge speech on how despite his disabilities Forrest Gump lead an amazing life and that inspired me to be a better person, but you can literally not go a day without some soccer mom shoving a pamphlet into your face on how special every person is.  I just don’t care anymore. I feel that this movie is as original as a cheap, cardboard gas station birthday card. Now, before someone sets the dogs out on me, yes of course I hadn’t seen a movie where a man spends his youth shaking his hips for Elvis Presley and then grows up to be a shrimp boat captain before Forrest Gump, but I feel that with movies like Forrest Gump, someone can just take the story, change the names of the characters and where they live and rebrand it as The Fault in our Stars or something. The entire movie is so predictable. Now, yes of course I didn’t know Forrest Gump was going to grow up to become a Ping-Pong champion at the start of the movie, but the entire movie Forrest would have something mediocre, an obstacle, and then his entire life would suddenly becoming amazing. For example, his leg brace: his leg brace caused him to be made fun of, and whilst he was running away from bullies, his leg brace broke off. Now, miraculously after having insanely stiff legs that could barely bend at the knees, once the brace popped of, it was like Husain Bolt possessed him. Fast forward through his life a few years later when he was captain of a shrimp boat, he and Dan were having no luck collecting shrimp, but then suddenly his guardian angel swooped in again, destroyed the only source of income in a very unsteady looking region and probably left thousands struggling on foot stamps, but Forrest was finally able to catch some finger food so it’s okay. I guess this pattern was suppose to represent that life will always get better and if you see the good, good will come to you but honestly, I don’t think a good attitude means anything. No matter how hard I smile and how many punny smiling kitten t-shirts I wear, if I got bored on a Saturday afternoon and bought a shrimping boat, the only thing that would happen would be a dent in my college funds, and I’m bitter about it.   like this just set people up for failure. I mean, my sister and I saw Spy Kids together and we really wanted to join gymnastics after it, but the only thing that happened was after like 3^rd class, the gymnastics centre gave me a skin infection and it wasn’t some behind a butcher shop back alley sort of thing, it was a proper athletic centre we went to.

Maybe I didn’t really enjoy Forrest Gump because I couldn’t find it relatable. In one moment of the film, Forrest talks about how “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”. Of course that is a lovely sentiment that represents how we can’t predict our future, and although that goes great on a T-shirt, I don’t think it really has a place in modern day society. Today children are born and have their entire future planned out so they can get into a good university so they can achieve a good job and then do the same for their children. There is nothing unpredictable. I mean, whether a tiger mom forces her child to play the piano or violin can vary, but I think the majority of us won’t have a life that starts with a leg brace and football and ends with a shrimping business and a hidden son. Forrest Gump could be a dramatization of the different periods and things people go through during their lives, but I think the majority of us are happy with achieving mediocrity. Maybe people like Forrest Gump because it dares you to dream about what your life could be.

With my handy-dandy Google skills and my terrific brain, I think we can come to the conclusion that the main theme of the movie was that you could overcome any challenges that came your way and succeed. You could succeed like Forrest did with his physical and mental challenges and live a successful and eventful life. I guess the moral of the story would be to just roll, or should I say run, with what life gives you (ba dum tiss). Like I said in previous paragraphs, this is evident from when Forrest overcomes his leg brace and grows to be a fantastic runner that lands him a spot into a good university and from when his shrimping boat business, after long periods of dry spells with no catches, suddenly becomes very successful. Most meaningfully, I think this is also displayed with Forrest’s always-positive attitude. It feels as if Forrest has a blanket over his eyes the entire film where he can only see the good, not the bad. This caused many to become irritated with him like Lieutenant Dan over his legs and loss of military career, but many he met grew to look past his disabilities and like him due to his personality. He always as good intentions, but he isn’t always able to display it, which was evident when he attacked Jenny’s boyfriend at her university. Overall, although I feel that the “over-coming obstacles” theme of a movie is really overplayed and cliché, the movie can be inspiring for some to love people the way Forrest did and always see the bright side.

Throughout the movie, I thought the acting and scenes were fine, just with the message of you can do anything, it felt really overplayed and just boring. This had been my 5^th or 6^th time watching the movie and the only thing that was running through my head during the movie was how I could fall asleep without Ms. Kilgour noticing. There were moments though, throughout the movie, which I really appreciated for Forrest Gump’s innocence. My favourite scene, although short, would have to be when Forrest Gump offered Lieutenant Dan

ice cream. I thought it was so charming and really showed how Forrest was always looking out for others, even when the only thing he had to give was a frozen treat. That was a scene that made me smile and I felt like Forrest, although as generic as my sweatpants from Costco, was a really big sweet heart which relates to his personality I described in the paragraph above.I find it interesting how Forrest Gump the movie and it’s production also relates to his (Forrest’s) life in the movie. Whilst typing away at my computer, I discovered that many actors rejected Forrest Gump because they thought it wasn’t going to be a success but it went on to win 6 Oscars and a spot in the IMDb top 250 movies. I guess in a way this projects into how not much was expected of the actual Forrest Gump (in the movie) but he went on to achieve greatness: much like this movie. I also appreciate the attention to  in this movie. Lieutenant Dan’s legs that were animated to be cut off looked really realistic, Bubba’s prosthetic lip to give him his look looked like the actor had been born with it, and Forrest’s appearances in old television, although some critics squawk that it wasn’t good enough, I felt complimented the movie nicely. The realism displayed in this movie shows in the many Oscar’s they were able to snatch up, but this realism also came at price for many actors. Mykelti Williamson, the man who played Bubba, went on a bit of a dry spell after the movie in his career. The movie was a huge success, but many casting agents believed that he really was Bubba: a bit of a local idiot that the casting crew was able to roll off the street and into his movie, but he was actually a credible actor playing a character (who would’ve thought, an actor of all people). Although this movie was a huge success, it’s popularity acted as a peak in some of the actor’s careers where everything went downhill from there.

Now, the last thing I’d like to discuss is the feather in the movie. Although only floating around for a few seconds of screen time, it was apparently important enough for Wikipedia to dedicate a section to it**. Now, although you can tell its significant as the music plays and the feather dances in the air which was probably another lengthy animation process the crew went through to create it, but in my analysis I discovered that the feather floating in the wind of life is also another way to represent how you never know where life will take you, similar to the box of chocolates. Although only a small part of the movie, it acts as a summary of a movie showing that, like Forrest, you’re a feather floating in the wind waiting to land in a shrimping business or a war, wherever life will take you. Although I don’t respect that message, I believe that life can be easily planned out and the only spur of the moment decisions you need are what flavour of frozen yogurt to get, this movie is one that we can watch throughout our mediocre lives that will make you dare to dream about how significant we are.

            Thank you.

*Not to say that it isn’t an honest career

**Not that I would use Wikipedia as a credible source for information

Summary of the movie (background information):

The movie starts in 1981 where we meet Forrest Gump: he’s sitting at a bus stop with his small suitcase in one hand and box of chocolates in the other. To pass the time whilst waiting for his bus to take him to his friend Jenny, he begins telling his life story to strangers. Starting with his childhood, he recollects his young life and majorly, the first day of school where he met Jenny whom he was immediately taken with. They grow up to have a strong friendship and during childhood, as he runs away from school bullies, his leg brace brakes off revealing that he can run very fast. This running proves to be useful to him for it earns him a scholarship to the University of Alabama to play football. After receiving his degree, Forrest joins the United States Army where he serves in Vietnam. There, he meets Bubba, a past shrimp fisherman and they quickly form a tight bond and make a plan to go into the shrimping business once they are deployed from Vietnam. One day though, whilst Forrest and Bubba are on patrol with their platoon, they are attacked. Forrest, with his running skills, makes it away untouched from the firing, but once he realizes Bubba is nowhere to be found, he goes back to find him and manages to rescue four of his platoon members, including Lieutenant Dan, his leader, who demands to be left behind but Forrest carries him away anyways. Forrest does not reach Bubba in time and unfortunately, he does not make it, but for his courage, Forrest receives the Medal of Honour. Lieutenant Dan looses both of his legs due to the attack and carries a resentment and anger towards Forrest. Following this, Forrest Gump invests his time into Ping-Pong gaining enough skill to travel to China to compete for the United States army and this talent brings fame which is displayed in his interview on The Dick Cavett Show next to John Lennon. After this interview, he comes into contact with Lieutenant Dan who has become an angry alcoholic living off of government money. They celebrate New Years together and when Forrest reveals his plan to still carry out Bubba’s plan to join the shrimping business, Lieutenant Dan finds it ridiculous and promises to be his first mate if he ever does. Forrest later is placed out of service from the military, ending his Ping-Pong career. Forrest then uses the ping pong advertisement money he’s gained to start a shrimping business. Dan joins Forrest as first mate and their efforts turn out to be less than bountiful. Then, after Hurricane Carmen wipes out all other shrimping boats but their own, their business prospers. Forrest later returns home to care for his dying mother and he leaves the company in Dan’s hands. Dan invests both of them into Apple the computer company making both of them very wealthy. Jenny then returns to Forrest and they spend a short while together but after Forrest proposes to her and she refuses, they spend one romantic night together and then she leaves. Forrest, unknowing what to do, spends the next 3 years running across the country causing him to become another household name. After he ends his marathon, he receives a letter from Jenny asking to meet him. Then, we are brought up to speed of Forrest waiting for the bus to bring him to Jenny. Forrest meets Jenny at her apartment and he is introduced to their son and they start a family again together in Greenbow, Alabama. Jenny dies from disease shortly after they are married and Forrest spends the rest of his time caring for his son.

Works Cited

"15 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Forrest Gump." ShortList Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2015. <http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/films/15-things-you-%28probably%29-didnt-know-about-forrest-gump#>.

"Here's Everything You Never Knew About 'Forrest Gump'" AOL Moviefone. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2015. <http://news.moviefone.ca/2014/07/04/forrest-gump-facts/>.