Hollywood Shuffle

Hollywood Shuffle was not what I expected it to be at all. I was surprised at how large of a role the stereotypical aspect of the film would be. Bobby Taylor's struggle to fulfill his dreams of becoming an actor was clouded by the stereotypes towards the black community.



The discussions in class comparing the film to Crash was something I didn't think of before. The stereotypes laced throughout the film Crash are intense, powerful and not put in there as a comedic aspect of the film. Hollywood Shuffle was pure comedy and therefore made the stereotypical message not as serious as the scenarios in Crash. As someone mentioned in class, we all laughed because it was true but we didn't get to see the severity of how the situation has affected lives, whereas in Crash, the film is a drama and every situation is serious and realistic. With Crash being somewhat over the top with it's stereotypes, it is effective in it's message. The comedic approach in Hollywood Shuffle was another way to appeal to it's audience.
 


Another thing that I didn't like about this film was the ending. Eddie Murphy was mentioned in this film, and the director and producers of the film wanted a guy that could act like him. Eddie Murphy was clearly famous and respected in this film's time period, so why did Bobby give up so easily because his VERY first movie role wasn't a majorly serious one? I wish that he hadn't given up and slumped over to the post office. If Bobby had stuck out the role, gotten his face and name out there as an actor, then he could be on his way to fulfilling his dreams and being a respected name such as Eddie Murphy was. Sure, maybe this is somewhat far-fetched, but Bobby accepted the stereotype and gave up after 5 minutes on his first film set. I don't think Eddie Murphy reached where he is today without a little hard work and dedication, however I'm trying not to take this ending or movie as a whole too seriously.

Aliens

I usually love sci-fi movies but Aliens wasn't all I thought it was going to be. It did entertain me for the 2 hours and 15 minutes of screen time but I don't think it is a movie I would wanna watch over and over again. However, after hearing what happens to Ripley in the next movie, I would want to watch that. I wonder how they would get her to go back into space for a third time especially after these first two experiences.

I didn't make a connection between Ripley and "The Final Girl" that we explored earlier when watching A Nightmare on Elm Street, yet after it being mentioned in the reading and in class discussion, I can see how the two relate. This movie is very similar to a horror film. Its a group of people being attacked by these terrifying monster species, same as the teenagers being attacked in their sleep by Freddy Krueger. Ripley was not only the final girl but the final human in the first Alien movie, and in this one she fights off all the Zenomorphs, including the powerful "queen bee" mother.

I thought the class's discussion on the final 15 minutes of the movie was interesting because how could they not agree that the gender of the final Zenomorph mattered? I thought it was a very intense moment when we watch Ripley and the Zenomorph staring at each other, and Ripley shows her her flame thrower weapon and what it can do, and she tells the other two approaching Zenomorphs to back down. As Ripley was protecting Newt, the Zenomorph was protecting all of her eggs. I believe Ripley and Newt would have walked away fine after that moment, however Ripley couldn't not light those eggs up on fire, and the movie did need a powerful climax ending (duh).

It is obvious in this scene that the most powerful Zenomorph is a female. We can see the tubes connected to her body, producing these large eggs, and seeing a female villain wasn't popular at this time, and it hardly is today as well. Female heroes and villains are still something rare in film today, yet it has increased greatly. Ripley paved the way for other movies to follow suit and see how powerful a female hero can be. The female heroes of today's films are ones such as Katniss in The Hunger Games (go Katniss!) or unfortunately Bella Swan from Twilight (terrible female heroine role model). I also thought it was provoking to watch the female Zenomorph literally rip off her uterus (so to speak) aka those tubes to chase after Ripley. It made me question the species because how can she return to those tubes and keep producing eggs (if the planet wasn't going to be blown up). It was an interesting scene to watch and definitely my favorite moment of the film.

Blue Velvet

Oh David Lynch. I have seen Mulholland Drive, a very famous film by David Lynch, so I knew what to expect when I heard we were watching Blue Velvet. David Lynch is considered one of the great filmmakers of our time, and I can see why, yet I am not a huge fan of his films (sorry!) His films can just be too weird for me and my liking's.

I did really like the way this film was put together however. The reading discusses how Lynch uses the 50's pretense to mess with the audience's head. The postmodernism of the film where Lynch toyed with the time period in which the film took place was clever. The opening of the film couldn't have been more 1950's America. We see perfect little houses, a smiling happy firemen, and a white picket fence with red roses and a beautiful clear blue sky behind it. Then, some guy collapses in his yard while watering it while a little boy looks on. Immediately the audience knows that the film isn't what it seems like it's going to be. Bye bye to the happy images we saw because the movie was about to get weird--real weird.


The characters in this film also intrigued me. Jeffrey was an interesting lead and its hard to know what his motivation was for things he did in the film. We don't get a back story on any of our characters, and by the end of the film we don't know much more about their lives then we did before. That's one part of the film that made me not like it as much; I didn't care about the characters I was watching and there was no connection to them. Dorothy was a messed up woman because of what this Frank Booth character was doing to her, yet we don't know how she was before all this happened. The dry humping scene was by far the weirdest thing I have ever watched. Afterwards, we can see Dorothy is shook up from this, yet 5 minutes before she was victimizing Jeffrey. I don't know if Dorothy just wanted to treat someone the way she was being treated, as almost a release, or if she just enjoys weird rough sex like that. I think Jeffrey was drawn to that because it was a new experience (or so we believe since we don't know about his previous sex life) and what 20 something year old college man wouldn't be intrigued to try that with an older woman? Frank Booth was an interesting villain to say the least, but somehow I wasn't afraid of him. His weird mannerisms just took away from his villain persona. He clearly loves to say the word fuck and he just sounds idiotic while doing it. His weird obsession with blue velvet reminded me of Crispin Glover's character in Charlie's Angels and his weird obsession with female hair. And then the whole lipstick scene just didn't make sense. It was just weird thing after weird thing. And the fact that his weird oxygen breathing wasn't explained either just frustrated me. This film left me with not knowing enough about the characters I was watching.



Crispin Glover from Charlie's Angels

Overall, Blue Velvet follows David Lynch's auteur style. If we watched this film and I didn't know who the director was, I would guess Lynch because I would immediately recognize his auteur from Mulholland Drive. Lynch creates something on screen that makes people talk and enjoy his films, but I am just not a fan of his style.