Film Blog 1 - The Modern Attempt at Silent Film

                A film of silence.  Nowadays, it is almost unheard of to see a film that has no sound.  However, the first films in history had neither sound nor onboard music.  Most music was performed where the silent films were being shown.  Again, unheard of today . . . but there have been attempts.

                There are a few films within the past 30 years that have attempted this feat.  One of the funniest attempts was done as an extra for the American action-comedy Shanghai Knights.  The original film is downright hilarious.  One of the extras is even funnier than the film.  It shows the normal film, sepia-toned to look old, using caption-pages to indicate lines being said, and the film was sped-up slightly to look old-timey.  The attempt did show up in its “predecessor” film, Shanghai Noon, also as an extra.  It is not uncommon to see an old Western gunfight in a silent film, but to see a martial-art silent film is an interesting idea.  I also found it humorous within the ending of Shanghai Knights, that a trouble-making street-urchin was named Charlie Chaplin, the so-called “king” of silent pictures.

                Probably one of the most humorous attempts at a silent picture in the modern talkie era is the Mel Brooks film Silent Movie.  The movie is absolutely hilarious in which a ne’er-do-well director tries to assemble a star-studded cast to make a silent picture.  The antics in the film are extremely funny.  It is probably the best attempt to make a silent film in the modern era.

                However, nowadays, silent pictures are not being made.  Audiences nowadays need the sound and the tones of the speaking actor to feel something out of the movie.  I think the funniest comment about modern day’s perception of the silent film is very true; “people don’t go to the theater to read, they came to watch.”  Sound is a pivotal part of movies these days because sound opened the doors for the action films like The Matrix to be made.  In fact, if The Matrix was conceived during the silent film era, it would suck heavily.

                The old silent films usually had one basic plot.  Movies these days have multiple plots.  One example of a multi-plotted movie is Transformers.  Even though the film has one major plot, there are a number of individual character plots that helped a character grow and make the film very believable.  Probably the best example of a multi-plotted film is The Lord of the Rings.  This incredible trilogy had one basic plot: to destroy the One Ring.  However, each character had their own plot; their own problems to overcome.

                Silent films are important to the timeline of film history but are very simple in nature.  Today’s films can get incredibly complex and the sound becomes necessary to that increasing complexity in film.  Maybe one day, the films will become so involving that even the audience can get involved with the film itself.

Film Blog 3 - The Sounds of Music and the Sights of Austria

                Films have been done and redone since its start in the early 1900s.  Modern remakes are filling up the theaters and people critique them.  However, there are some classic films that are American remakes of foreign films.  The most interesting one of them all is The Sound of Music.

                Believe it or not but The Sound of Music is an American remake of an old German film about the Von Trapp family.  However, the original (I have been told) is the most realistic between the two films.  Ironically enough, both films are based on the real story of the Von Trapp family.  But the American film made it more dramatic and unrealistic, just the thing that Hollywood loves to do.

                The real story of the Von Trapp family is incredible.  It’s about an Austrian family in which the mother and her family exile themselves into Italy to escape the oncoming Nazi invasion just before the outbreak of war.  They would soon leave for London and then eventually arrive in America.  The Captain von Trapp was an anti-Nazi but was offered a commanding position of a Kriegsmarine but turned it down, mostly for his kids and wife.  Of course, prior to the oncoming war of the Nazis, Maria and Georg were in fact married for ten years.

                The story is a great story but unfortunately, the real story was just a little too bleak for American film, even though the era of WW2 films was in motion during the sixties.  Coincidentally, the original film was done in the late fifties in Austria called the Trapp Family and is based off the book of memoirs by Maria von Trapp herself.  This incredible musical has made Rogers and Hammerstein incredibly rich.

                Rogers and Hammerstein have been a filmmaking duo for a while.  While most of their other works focus on comedy and drama, The Sound of Music has been considered by many to be their most successful film.  Though Oklahoma is still in the Top 100 films in American History, this duo has made quite a name for them.  Of course, South Pacific did have an effect on the men who were fighting in the Pacific during the WW2.  Regardless, Rogers and Hammerstein have done well for them.

                While The Sound of Music is one of America’s top films, the film’s music has been part of America’s lexicon.  At the same time, the song Edelweiss was once believed by American audiences to be Austria’s national anthem.  Of course, this misconception did die away soon when they learned that the song was nothing of the sort.  The movie’s music, due to Rogers’s incredible musical annotation, has been redone and used in modern talent contests.  The popularization of the music will forever be part of America.  With songs like “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, “My Favorite Things”, and “The Sound of Music”, the movie has grossed an incredible amount of adoration from the generations that loved the music so much.

                This movie will always be one of the top films in American film history.  With its incredible music and incredible vistas of Austria, the movie is visually and musically stunning.  The currently three surviving kids will know that their mom is still one of the greatest characters in American film.

Film Blog 2 - Modern Film Revisited From the Golden Age of American Film

                Film is important to history.  Without the invention of the first camera back in the 1800s, the video camera would never have been conceived.  Regardless, since the film industry had its start in the early 1900s, films have entertained millions of people.  Some became a part of the American lexicon and legends were born.

                Legends were reborn in the form of old myths and folk tales from across the sea.  The 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood is one folk tale that has been told and retold for hundreds of years prior.  However the case, Robin Hood films have appeared in numerous decades, but the 1938 film did have one of American films’ heroes: Errol Flynn.  In his first film, Flynn was celebrated for his antics and his wits as well as his handle with a sword.  His skill was greatly appreciated and has been heralded and even spoofed in a number of later versions.

                One such spoof is the world famous version directed by Mel Brooks; Robin Hood: Men in Tights.  It is a great and hilarious film for those who love a comic version of the timeless classic story.  Cary Elwes did play an excellent Robin Hood who so uppity in his swagger but still had the timeless wit of Flynn back in the 30s.  Of course, that high-class wit would come into contact with the common man as he teamed up with Achoo and his well-known companions like Little Jon and Will Scarlet.  Of course, being the crazy man he is, Mel took it upon himself to spoof Friar Tuck as the ever hilarious Rabbi Tuckman.  Mel Brooks’ film has been laughed at since the 90s.  Its main plot has a lot of similarities to the ever-so-popular Robin Hood film done by Kevin Costner’s Prince of Thieves.

                Nearly all of the Robin Hood films leading up to the 21^st century have been based on the retold story version but hardly any of those films had a decency of truth to them.  That all changed in the 2010 picture of Robin Hood.  Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott teamed up for this new version which is a much darker version of the Robin Hood legend.  At the same time, with the literalists at the ready, the movie created a huge buzz that it was incredibly well made and time period critical.  Thanks to this new innovation to bring out the connections to actual history, the 2010 Robin Hood was welcomed greatly.

                The 102 year history of the Robin Hood legend has brought about very few changes to its basic plot.  Virtually every single Robin Hood film has Robin Hood battling against the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John.  Not many films have deviated from this basic plot.  However, many films included issues from the time period, of when the films were released, interweaved in them.  The most current Robin Hood does one better (in the author’s opinion).

                Just after the 2010 release of Robin Hood, the History Channel played a documentary on the history of the legend and how the original films came remotely close to the real legend of Robin Hood.  Incredibly, several scholars of the real Robin Hood legend actually helped make the new version.  With the new incredible efforts to discover the roots of the actual legend of Robin Hood, they were able to create an interesting connection to history.  It is 1199, just before King John came into power.  After learning of his brother’s death in France, John takes over the country and taxes his people into submission.  After learning of the baron’s strife in the north, John rides out to defeat them only to get beaten himself.  He was forced to sign the Magna Carta on that battlefield.  In the movie, it was a first version developed by Robin Longstride’s father called the Charter of the Forest.  At the end of the movie, John burns it and declares Robin Longstride aka Robin Hood to an outlaw.

                The 2010 version is more historically accurate than its predecessors for the past 102 years.  Other than the increase in historical truth, the Robin Hood story is still one of the most famous timeless classic stories that will be retold and filmed countless times.  It is a story about the oppressed conquering over the oppressors.  Most people do believe that Robin Hood is the first real superhero.