Big Fish Blog, MC Buhl

If given the opportunity to grow, most people take the chance and grow and learn as much as they can; hence give a goldfish a bigger bowl and it will grow. Once Will realized his father was not telling lies for the sake of attention Will then understood and respected his father more, allowing him to grow. This was important for the reason being that a son was struggling to get to know his dyeing father. He sat down and even asked him to show his real self instead of hiding behind his stories. But Edward was already one with his stories, he always was.

Once he accepted his father for who he was Will grew as a person, and also his love for his father also grew. This was Will’s fishbowl growing. Mystery does allow the mind to wander, guess, and explore a limitless journey. Without mystery life would be boring; the perfect example of this was when Will found out the “real” story of the day he was born from the family doctor. He realized the real story is not as fun and exciting as the embellished story his father tells over and over. Towards the end of the movie when Edward asks his son to tell him how he dies the movie comes full circle almost as we understand that the man and his stories are not two separate entities, but one being. You cannot separate Edward from the stories more than the stories from Edward. At the end, the embellished final story of Edwards life is how becomes the big fish that he has always been.

Edward was trying to teach his son Will how to love life, but I also think he was trying to help him understand that life is made up of amazing moments and also crazy moments that build character. Even if the event didn’t happen the way you tell the story it does not matter because the adventure of the story being told is what matters.

Movie Clips and Film Techniques: Joy Brackett

Ice Age-Bunny Short:

This short depicts and old bunny couple and the wife has died. The moth comes in the house and the bunny eventually follows that moth into light which resembles death. This right here is a common depiction of death that we see within movies over and over again. The images and music create meaning. The images (clothes, appliances, etc.) show that this is set  in the 40's or 50's.  The moth is used to symbolize the angel of death. Also, the whole film is barely lit therefore the only thing bright is death and since he is reuniting with his wife, it is a happy time which is conveyed clearly. Also things are filmed fast and slow which depicts the bunny's internal struggle.

Harold & Maude:

We watched various scenes from this movie and we see that Harold is fascinated with death while Maude loves life. A neat way they used zoom in and out was with the field of flowers that from a distance look alike but close up they are unique and different. This conveys that we are all unique but unfortunately allow ourselves to be treated as if we are the same. Overall this is an existentialist film and promotes uniqueness and confidence in self.

The next scene we watched in this movie had no dialogue at all and is rather hilarious. The son keeps chasing away girls that his mom chooses for him and after he does this for the umpteenth time, his mom measure him up and down. She has no idea how to control him. By using a close up shot, you can read all of her thoughts with just one pan of a shot. The son then looks at the camera which includes the audience in his mischief but ultimately in the end, the mother once again shows dominance which is supported by the use of camera angles.

Northfork:

This clip was very short and is a sequence of Buffalo in the land of progress so they are annihilated. You then see a boy running trying to get back to the house where angels are. The use of zoom out and moving along with the boy helps the audience to feel and understand the emotion.

The next clip shows a coffin on top of a car. This is a touching and emotional scene because graves had to be moved because the graveyard was going to become flooded. This coffin had to be uprooted which is difficult for the family in general. The car was in motion and the camera followed that journey into transcendence and stability as they drove into the mountains.

Paris, Texas:

We watched many clips of this in class so I decided to focus on the film techniques more so than the storyline. There are a lot of desert, cliffs, and canyons in this movie and a lot of the camera focus is on that as opposed to the characters. You actually do not see a human for a while in the first scene of the movie. The huge rock in the background is rather disruptive which depicts a rather disruptive scene. Later, the camera then focuses on power lines, and other means of communication. This is not pointless and has great meaning. it even shows the character's point of view which is of the power lines. This displays that his focus for some reason is solely on that. You later realize he has a son and wife who he has lost connection with. All these camera shots have meaning because he wants communication with his wife. He has lost all meaning of life without her and is really struggling. He rarely talks in the movie until he is with his wife which shows our human need for communication. It is a way of life and without it life is simply not possible.

Pink Flloyd's "The Wall":

I have to be honest, I have never seen anything like this before in my life. I found this very interesting and slightly depressing. This tells us the story of Pink who is the lead singer of the band. This singer ultimately has a terrible life and this is conveyed in many disturbing images such as blood going into the sewer, a suffocating mother depicted by a flower, and status icons that make up a wall. It also displayed many broken relationships with women which was conveyed with quite a few disturbing phallic symbols. The judgment scene then shows he is crazy therefore he convinces himself that is true. They use interesting colors and movements to capture his crazy state and his consciousness. The things depicted in this movie ultimately display that everything is broken (whole world) and ends on a depressing note.

Zardoz:

This was a fun one to watch as it was the first film Sean Connery does after James Bond. This is ultimately a play on The Wizard of Oz and has epic music and camera motion to result in overall epicness :)

Decalogue: Joy Brackett

Decalogue one:

This short film was based on the commandment "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The young boy is very fascinated and curious why people die. He is beginning to think and realize that a lot of things do not matter if he is just going to die anyway. This is a questions many people struggle with and use as an excuse not to live a fulfilling life or try and discover a deeper meaning. This route is easy and can cause a lack of love and a disastrous end. This is a dangerous perspective to have.

The father and the son both love making calculations and that is the most important thing in their life. Just as the commandment says, they were making gods before God by holding this to such a high importance. They (especially the dad) put technology before God. They both did this but the son was actually seeking while the dad knowingly put technology first and had no regrets about it. A series of things then go wrong and the son eventually dies. This displays the point that we think we can control the outcome but we cannot and must depend on God. The dad realized this within his son's death because he was hopeless and there was nothing that could be done. The dad goes to the chapel at the end and seeks redemption. This displays how we many times disobeys but God still loves and wants us. This is also applicable to everyday life. We as humans seek control and we ultimately do not have that. We feel as if we have a right to control and deserve to plan our own lives as we wish. The realization that it is out of our hands is vital and we must first do this by having NOTHING else before God in our lives. If we do that, we will become selfish and neglect His love.

Decalogue five:

This film was based on the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." The first film was depressing, but this film proved to be a little more dark and disturbing. The film occurs in the same apartment building which I found interesting. The main character (Jacek) is planning to kill the whole time just for the sake of killing. Although he was an evil man, something that stuck out to me was when Jacek jokes around with the little girls and actually smiles. You see his humanity and that every person is fully human, some are just lacking love. To sum it up quickly, he ends up killing someone and receives the death sentence which is where I would like to focus the rest of this blog. Is the death sentence preventing crimes from happening or revenge? Is this just? There is no right or wrong answer but it is very interesting to think about. It may seem right to kill someone who killed someone else, but what are our motives? It should be to stop this evil from happening but I believe many are seeking revenge which takes the justness away from the situation. Ultimately God is the judge and He will do to those as He wishes accordingly.