8th Wonder of the World

Let's talk Kong...

Welcome to Film Studies

Welcome to film studies. To start things off, we're going to look at a few short films. All of the shorts below are currently playing at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

From Wikipedia: "The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the Sundance Institute, is an American film festival that takes place annually in Utah. With 46,731 attendees in 2012, it is one of the largest independent film festivals in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers."

Your task is to watch at least two of the following films and post a response in the "comment section" below. Be sure to include your name to get credit for your contribution. What are we looking for in our online discussions? Observations, questions, opinions, interpretations, etc. The more specific, the better. This means you should respond to SPECIFIC moments of the films as well as to the films overall. Feel free to respond to your peers. Remember, our goal here is to have robust, thoughtful, challenging discussions. Also keep in mind that this online component is part of the CLASS EXPECTATIONS. That means that everything you enter on this blog needs to be CLASS APPROPRIATE. The more you contribute, the better your grade. The more thoughtful and curious your contributions, the better your grade.

We're probably not going to have as much formal homework as some of your other classes, so your online participation will certainly impact your grade. Plus, it's fun and interesting and it's about movies. And that's why we're all in the class, right?

Okay. Have at it...

Japan started producing samurai movies in the 50s and 60s. Akira Kurosawa directed quite a few early classics, each one considered not only a great samurai movie, but great movies period.







In the late 60s and 70s, samurai movies took kicked it up a notch to compete with Chinese kung-fu movies. (More about them later...)










This plus Godzilla, somehow, lead to this...



Anyhoo, back to reality.

Chinese and Japanese relations have, historically, been strained. Bruce Lee's film The Chinese Connection is about a Chinese martial arts school that must defend its honor against its Japanese rivals.




Recently, a film entitled Ip Man explored the same teritory. It is the 'real life' story of Bruce Lee's real life instructor.




Here are some of the Chinese 'kung fu' classics:






















Maybe one of the most ground breaking kung fu movies was Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon.




Of course, over the years there have been some pretty terrible martial arts movies that have diminished the grandeur of the genre:






One more thing... Thailand has martial arts movies, too. This next fight scene is one take. It's from a movie entitled The Protector.




Also - here's one more scene from Crouching Tiger...




And also also, martial arts films have influenced nearly every aspect of Western action film making...

Action Shots

The following fight sequence is from the 2005 film The Protector. You might want to watch this once more than once. It is one single shot - no cuts or edits.




The next scene is from Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon (2012). It's pretty much the opposite of The Protector.




Here's one more. It's from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

21st Century Cinema

Supersize Me (2004)

Bowling for Columbine (2002)

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2004)

 Man on Wire (2008)

Lord of the Rings

Persepolis (2007)

The Triplets of Belleville (2003)

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Gone Nutty (2002)

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Cinema in the 90s

Unforgiven (1992)

 Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Forrest Gump (1994)

The Matrix (1999)

Thelma and Louise (1991)

Strange Days (1995)

Clerks (1994)

 Schindler's List (1993)

Philadelphia (1993)

 Dances with Wolves (1990)