The Full Monty

The Full Monty is a movie about Gary "Gaz" Schofield and Dave Horsefal who were once steel mill workers who after being laid off decide to make their own strip tease show after they see a crown of women lined up to see the popular Chippendale dancers.  When they get everything set up they acquire a few more dancers including Lomper, Gerald Cooper, Horse, and Guy.  The men set up their routine advertising that they go “the full monty” which means that they fully expose themselves in the show.  Dave gets self-conscious and decides to leave the group but comes back minutes before they go on stage because his wife encouraged him to do it for the money he would get.  They go on stage and perform a very successful dance which is loved by the audience. 

            This movie was put together well as an entire piece. The different scenes played into each other well in order to be successful.  The transitions between scenes were also good because they helped make all of them fit together.  In some spots the movie moved slowly but these parts are integral to a movie because this is when things get set up.  Without these lulls in the action where characters are defined and the plot is set up the movie as a whole will be lacking.  Nowadays when we see movies we look for action, adventure, and for things to be brought up instantly; but movies like this are the ones that someone can really get into and sympathize with the characters.  The characters also help make the movie good as a whole because if there is a good plot but not so good actors the plot will suffer.  In The Full Monty the characters are forced to do what they have to do in order to survive which is what many people in our would have to do today.  They convinced me that their struggles were real and showed that in order to get through our tough times we have to do what is necessary. 

            I thought that this movie was put together well as a whole.  Many times films depend on one or two different aspects of a movie to carry the whole thing.  But in The Full Monty they use all aspect to make the movie as a whole strong.  Each piece was done right and carried its own weight in the movie.

Cider House Rules

Cider House Rules is about an orphan, Homer, who lives at an orphanage having been returned by foster parents twice.  The director of the orphanage, Dr. Wilbur Larch, is an ether addicted abortionist who teaches Homer how to perform abortions.  Homer never goes to high school so he is forced to learn to perform abortions.  He doesn’t believe in abortions though so he runs away with a couple that came to Larch for an abortion.  He works on their apple farm with Arthur’s crew, Arthur is another worker.  Arthur rapes and impregnates is daughter Rose who comes to Homer to get an abortion.  Although Homer doesn’t agree with abortion he decides that in Rose’s case he will do one.  After this Rose decides to run assay, Arthur, her father, goes to say good bye; when she sees him she stabs him and fleas.  Homer comes upon Arthur and his dying wish is that he tells the police that the cause of death was suicide.  Homer then returns to the orphanage to find out that Larch has died, but Larch adjusted Homers medical records so that he couldn’t go to war and also that he adjusted his educational records so that he would be next in line to run the orphanage. 

            This movie was intriguing because of the concepts it dealt with.  Abortion is a hot topic today and this movie gave a view of it that others don’t.  It showed how people struggle with tough decisions and how tough some people’s lives are.  The things that I noticed in this film were the acting and the tough moral decisions that each character had to make. 

            The acting was great in this movie; they all convinced me that their part was an actual part in a story going on.  Homer was in a tough position in multiple spots like when he decided to run away from the orphanage and at the apple farm but he kept his composure showing confidence in his job.  Rose’s acting in the film was also good because she had to show worry, anger, and a large amount of stress. I believe that she did a good job convincing the audience that she was in a troubling time in her life.  The acting helped bring the film together as a whole, it the acting was lacking the film would have a large hole in it that could not have been filled by anything else. 

            The tough decisions that people were put in also helped the movie as a whole.  It kept the movie interesting and fed it well.  When Homer was put into the situation with deciding whether to be an abortionist whether or not he agreed with it brought stress to the movie because it is a popular topic that in today’s world is hard to deal with.  Rose was in a tough situation as well because she was raped and impregnated by her own father, she then was forced to decide whether an abortion was a good idea.  Homer ended up putting his own moral fibers aside in order to help Rose. 

            The movie altogether was good.  Some aspects really helped the movie as a whole be what it is.  I think the topics that they covered in the movie were an important part of the movie as a whole because without interesting topics there isn’t anything to be interested in.  The whole thing was constructed well in order to make a successful popular movie.  

High Noon

The movie High Noon is an interesting movie even though it was in black and white.  The movie is about a man, William Kane, who is the sheriff of a small town and when he was going to retire to move away with his new wife he hears about a guy who is coming to town who is not a good guy.  So he decides to stay in town in order to protect his town.  His wife says that she will not wait to see if she will be a widow so she gets a train ticket headed out of town.  When the train gets into town and Frank Miller, the bad guy, gets off the train he is after Kane because he is the one who put him in jail.  Kane tries to round up townspeople to help him defend his town but with little success, no one wants to fight or risk dying.  When Miller gets into town a fight rages, guns drawn and shots ring through the town as Kane’s new wife, Amy Fowler, runs through the city trying to see if her husband was still alive.  Kane takes down Miller’s posse and eventually takes down Miller in the middle of the street. 

            In High Noon there are a few key aspects that stuck out to me, they included the acting, the lighting, and the music played.  These three aspects help make up for the movie being in black and white.  Without these strong aspects in the movie it would not have been as good because the black and white would have been distracting.  I thought that the director did a good job of convincing the audience, me, that the plot was real and possible.  When we think of westerns we picture what would happen in this movie, an antagonist comes to town to seek revenge and a battle surges ending with the protagonist prevailing.

            The acting was great in my opinion.  Every character did their job in order to bring the film together.  Kane defending his city with his emotions focused on bringing security to the town.  His wife with her anger towards her husband for deciding to stay in town to risk his life. When Kane went around searching for help to fight against Miller and everyone turned him down they all seemed to have a look of fright on their face and even in their voice.  When Kane goes to the church to get help and the preacher says that he doesn’t want to send his people out to fight he sees very concerned for the wellbeing of them but there is also a sense of worry about what is coming in the future.  All of the actors did their job well to convince me and make me believe the actors were real. 

            The next aspect is the lighting, when a movie is in black and white it is hard to keep the lighting right in order to be sure that everything can be seen by the viewer.  Along with that, since most of the movie was shot outside with the bright light, the director had to make sure that the contrast was right so that there wasn’t too much glare.  The movie was shot well enough so that I could clearly distinguish what was going on and who was doing what.  In the scene where Miller is holding Kane’s wife hostage and they were out in the street, it was a little bright making it harder to see the action but it wasn’t enough to make the lighting poor.

            The last aspect is the music that was played during the film.  Music is a very important part to a movie because, even if we don’t realize it, sound plays a huge role in bringing the piece together.  Without sound it can be hard to make the scenes dramatic and make the viewers feel the suspense in the movie.  I thought that the music played in the movie was good for the scenes.  When there was action going on they used drastic differences in volume and types of sound in order to heighten the suspense and make the viewers wonder what is next to come.

             Overall I thought that High Noon was well put together and a very interesting film.  The fact that if was in black and white had no effect on how I viewed the movie because the key components were strong enough to keep my attention.