Jaws

The film Jaws is a classic demonstration of how impressive of a director Steven Spielberg is. While Jaws was an adaptation of a novel, the fact that it was such a hit in the box office made it an original success. Another interesting factor that came into play was the soundtrack, more specifically, the main song. To this day that it is the song people hum in an intimidating or fear-filled situation. Who would have thought that two notes solely would make such an impact on the mood the film is portraying? An interesting fact relating to the “soundtrack” that I learned about this film in another class relates to the initial scene where the girl swims out to the buoy and gets attacked by Jaws. Her screams and cries seemed so realistic and makes your skin curl and instantly your smile turn to a frown; those screams were real. The rope or machine that was pulling the actress around underwater was actually causing her extreme physical pain. I love that Spielberg left the scene that way and did not feel the need to re-do the scene and make her screams less horrifying to listen to. That just shows how meticulous of a director he is, leaving the audience at the edge of their seats constantly and as involved as they can be in a film. 

Batman Returns

I am probably one of the few who have not seen Batman Returns. I have seen all of the other Batman movies, but for some reason I never saw this one. First off I love that it has such a different feel than all of the other Batman films I have seen. I love that Tim Burton was the director because it gave this movie a darker and more emotional feel than the other Batman movies that I have viewed. As for the ideology behind Mise en scene, in the beginning when Christopher Walken was passing out presents to Gotham, the Penguin’s crew of scary clown-like masked men has meaning behind it. What made it so meaningful was because, clowns are supposed to make children happy and are typically in happy settings, so to give them this creepy eerie appearance made it kind of pull at your emotions and make you uncomfortable in a scene that is supposed to portray something happy. Another example of the Mise en scene idea is when Michelle Pfieffer first became Catwoman and destroyed many of the things in her apartment including the neon sign that originally said “hello there” and after the destruction all that was left was the world hell. That relates to the meaning of her transition from a quiet little field mouse into a hell-raising Catwoman. As for the visual elements, there seemed to be a lot of the action scenes that went to the beat of the music playing. I thought that was interesting and appealing to hear, as well as see. It was not my favorite film we have viewed so far, however I think it was extremely appropriate to relate it to the lecture we had on production design.