In this essay there will be an analyzes on five movies by different writers on films impacting motion pictures. These essays acknowledge the significance either positive or negative of the films to motion pictures as it focuses on a specific framework each film possess. The films include ‘Triumph of the Will’ (created in 1934 by Leni Riefenstahl, analyzed by Mary Devereux and put together by Noel Carroll and Jinhee Choi), Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Persona’ (created in 1967, analyzed by Lloyd Michaels), Albert Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ (created in 1960, analyzed by Robert Kolker), Martin Scorsese’s ‘Raging Bull’ (created in 1980, analyzed by Kevin Hayes) and Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (created in 1971, analyzed by Stuart McDougal).
The film ‘Triumph of the Will’ by Leni Riefenstahl is a very significant because it caused a huge amount on controversy on whether ethics or a stricter censorship is necessary to the point that some subject matters should not be touched by creators of motion pictures. ‘Triumph of the Will’ at its core is propaganda for Hitler and Nazis and in doing so won awards from it not only in Germany, but in France. The movie was made at Hitler’s request and with a large production and a lot of man power it led to a great documentary but is a very questionable subject. The film was made beautifully and portrayed Hitler as being like God, leading to the question if some subject matter such as propaganda should remain untouched by motion picture creators. The film presents a beautiful picture of Hitler, his party, and New Germany but this subject should be morally repugnant. This film sees Hitler riling up the masses, the flag ceremonies and it reminds us closely on World War II and the Holocaust. This film is a documentary, but is a Nazi propaganda as well and was used to mobilize the people, uniting the ideology of the government with the people through images and ideas. The propaganda creating the controversy rendering the question if some subjects should not be touched because of the disturbing, horrible events it documents. It is also highly selective and distorted image to persuade the public into thinking a certain way. Motion pictures is an art but should artistic and aesthetic showing of a subject be enough to explain the moral complications of the piece? Although there is no correct answer, it led to many questions being asked and subjects of film is still questioned to this day. In the case of ‘Triumph of the Will’ it is a very beautiful documentary of a distorted image put together by Nazi’s and if we find it beautiful is our character challenged? This places an ethics problem for viewers as well, if the movie is a good one but the subject of it is controversial the concept of personal moral is at question. Ethics and censorship to motion pictures will always be an ongoing matter because some would argue film is just an artistic view of something while others argue the morality factors that films lack. Some element of film will always be criticized, and people argue you can support the film without supporting the subject. Meaning ethics to film is irrelevant because to enjoy the film does not necessarily have to do with the subject but the element of film such as camera work. Although this is rather difficult because those things go hand in hand most of the time, it is the best way to explain the popularity of the love for ‘Triumph of the Will’. It is a well-made documentary with many camera frameworks done well while the subject matter is propaganda for the German public to accept the ideology of Nazi’s. Film plays a major influence in people lives especially today and if the vision of the film obscured then problems will occur if some people find that vision correct. As we look back to ‘Triumph of the Will’, the vision of the film was so obscured yet was accepted by most Germans leading to its success. At the end of the day ethics and censorship of certain subjects are important but it is also important to note that viewer can have an appreciation for the art of the film without sacrificing themselves morally. If they love the motion picture and not the subject of the motion picture the ethics of a person would not be compromised.
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In Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Persona’, analyzed by Lloyd Michaels, the critical reception of the film had great success the day it came to America in 1967. ‘Persona’ was argued to be one of Bergman’s masterpieces even going as far to say ‘one of the century great works of art’. France Journal called it Bergman’s most beautiful film and an international panel has coined the movie top ten greatest films of all time. ‘Persona’ is still a modernist art that cinema has yet to produce. ‘Persona’ is described to have fragmentation, self-reflexivity, and ambiguity to human movement that has never been seen before. Bergman was said to have a very strong vision as well as a medium during his established career that made ‘Persona’ into a great success. Despite many raving reviews initially and many reviews in the beginning, analysis of the film dropped significantly in recent times going on to a decade. This is because with the ascension of postmodernism Bergman is now regarded as a conservative artist who devalues human traditions. With ‘Persona’ not having a mask nor gestures found in most postmodern narratives, Bergman decides to use close ups towards the face. Furthermore, a few new critics would even deny the achievement of his body of work. This is because they would deny his body of work and not many people have interest in gravitas and his cinematic vision for the new generation of post modernism. This increased further when European cinemas that praised Bergman and even nourished him in the beginning of his career has rapidly declined after his retirement from filmmaking. To add on further the decrease in interest in ‘Persona’ is associated with academic film studies look towards nonwestern cinema, studio history, queer theory just to name a few. The makings and the analysis for essentialist movies such as ‘Persona’ has become obsolete. However even with relatively few critics analyzing ‘Persona’ there is still a limited amount looking at different frameworks in the film. Frameworks such as genre, female sexuality, and acting technique. Although there is a limited amount of new analyze available Bergman is no doubt responsible for to help shape the cinema realm with his approach to motion pictures. A few of his contribution that even today remain fundamentally unchallenged is the intellectual content as well with the emotional force that his films bring on film. Bergman also created expressive and prolonged silences in films and have a cluttered sound track. As well he would do close ups on actors for aesthetic value. He uses these styles in almost all his films, but in particular ‘Persona’, when he extensively uses all these techniques. ‘Persona’ with the extensive use of all the techniques was original at the time the movie came out and is still virtually never repeated in films after. The film is a unique cinematic experience to this day as well it had a beautiful yet mysterious feel to the movie. With all the positive reviews to ‘Persona’, some negative reviews suggest that it is a very complex film to understand. Many critics cannot fully understand a provide analysis on the film watching it only once. Moreover, there is controversial subject matter in the film. It is well documented that a censorship of the original film was needed until the reinstatement in 2001. To close, the critical reviews to Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Persona’ were mostly positive praising its techniques creating a beautiful film. Although it is not without criticism as being one of the hardest films to understand and the haunting images that it shows requiring censorship to the movie. ‘Persona’ is still a unique film to this day as his style was never copied after the making of this film.
In Albert Hitchcock’s film ‘Psycho’, analyzed by Robert Kolker, music played an integral role. Music has always been an important factor to film even before sound in a film there would be a piano or an orchestra, playing along with the film in the theatre. Music is so important towards film because they work together to portray a story with sound going together with the visual structure of the film. Image and sound go hand in hand and that is the case with Psycho that when you hear a certain song it immediately brings the images of that film to your head. Bernard Herrmann, the composer to the music in ‘Psycho’, worked closely with Albert Hitchcock and the pairing was synchronized creating a perfect timing when conflicting movements in the film to the music to go along with what was happening. Bernard Herrmann focused on the type of music that was almost a film music genre that would not interfere with the cinematic showings of the film, yet it glides with the film making it very synchronized. The music in ‘Psycho’ was not dramatic but created a fortitude with the sequence of the film. It created a stressful and deep emotional sound in a sequence or shot that required it. After the creation of ‘Psycho’, Bernard Herrmann was again the composer for Albert Hitchcock in the film ‘The Wrong Man’, doing what no other person has done. This is composing music to two films with the same director. The partnership that started with ‘Psycho’ created the notion that films, and music should never be separated as sound really complements the visual images towards a story. ‘Psycho’, which was a masterpiece in film composing, but created the notion, that give many the impression of music being an inseparable part of film and is an extension to the directors’ vision when creating the movie. An example of in ‘Psycho’ is when the peeping Tom was being filmed and it went along with the quasi musical creating an active expectation that something might happen. This type of strategy can be seen in horror movies today when the sound and image create the idea that something might jump out at the character at any given moment. ‘Psycho’ was considered the last great Herrmann and Hitchcock collaboration, using Herrmann’s musical vision and Hitchcock’s artistic vision it created a synchronization to the film like never before. To close, music plays an integral role in films and that could be seen in ‘Psycho’. The film composer works with the director of the movie to best synchronize the sequence or scene with the music created to best tell the story. It allows the audience to ‘feel’ the event in the movie that is happening.
In the film ‘Raging Bull’ by Martin Scorsese, analyzed by Kevin Hayes, the depiction of women and the lack of perspectives and ideas that women have in the movie, is called into question. In all scenarios of the movie a women’s viewpoint, narrative, insight, and feeling must be seen through the lens of Jake. Women in this film is only known through Jake’s subjectivity and are objects of interest that he has. The depiction of women in this film is also criticized in this film because of the way a women’s consciousness is presented. In the film, it is seen that the women’s consciousness does not need to be known, uninterested to be known, or image of being seen as crazy, obsessive, jealous, violent in nature. The narrative of women portrayed in this film as historical gender ideologies, where women are the other or less important to know about than the men. Jake’s subjective view of them is more important than what is actually going on in their heads and the limited access to the female characters leaving only their actions, limited dialogue, and Jake’s point of view. To add on Jake is seen to objectify women as being either good girl or bad girl which is a branch of stereotypical roles representing women by Hollywood films. Women play limited roles in Hollywood films which consist of the virgin, wife, mother, or whore. Men are the center of Hollywood narration and the determination of a good or bad woman is up to the judgment of a man. This is the case in ‘Raging Bull’, where Jake’s first wife Irma La Motta, where she was only there for Jake and once the entrance of Vickie she is no longer in the film. Moreover, all the scenes she is in the camera is faced on Jake and shows off his physical attributes while the women are almost seen as sexual objects. Vickie in the movie was seen as a highly sexualized appearance because Jake was still married to Irma when he slept with her. Irma was seen as a worker for Jake in the kitchen as he waited for her to cook the steak for him. He even had some remarks about her cooking, telling her not to overcook it or it will “defeat its own purpose”. He then goes on yelling at her to bring the steak to him and she immediately responds to him without hesitation. In the case of Vickie, she is seen as the trophy wife, the first scene with her portrayed her as a sexually objectified manner. She is not seen as an individual person but an object to Jake because of her looks. This movie has depiction of women where they lack their own identity and constantly being subordinate to Jake. They are seen as objects and their perspectives and thoughts are not presented by the director. To conclude, ‘Raging Bull’ by Martin Scorsese does portrays women subordinate to men. They follow the traditional stereotypes that were infamous in Hollywood at the time. This cause women to be unfairly represented in film it looks like they are second to men is only there to serve them in a certain manner whether it be sexually or doing house work.
In the film ‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Stanley Kubrick, analyzed by Stuart McDougal, it questions the depiction of masculinity and the portrayal of sexuality. In this film it is seen that gender identification and sexuality need reconsideration. Masculinity in this movie is portrayed as a male excessive display of violence is necessary. To add on the male gaze in this film is also significant analyzed on how they look at women. Moreover, the portrayal of heterosexual males in the film is seen to show sadism as well as machoism through sexual rape, violence and even consensual sex. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is a film that links masculinity with portrayal of sexuality through highly eroticized self-reflective way. This is seen through the main character Alex and his tension before and after his arrest. His masculinity is shown by the sheer violence he shows when his gang is in a fight. Furthermore, they are seen affirm masculinity by viewing women as a sexual object with a group of homosocial conversations. Through the Alex being portrayed as a masculine subject and feminizing objects with his gaze, the tension of erotic male homosocial groups towards females represented with heterosexuality and violent masculinity which can be seen through sex and rape scenes in the movie. Some examples from the film are: Alex and his gang near rape of women, Alex and his gang beating up Mr. Alexander and his wife, and Alex attack and murder of Catlady. These example of masculinity and sexuality men towards women is called into question. Obviously not all men display masculinity in such a way as well not to sexualize and use women as sexual objects. Moreover, the films showing of heterosexual behavior encounter become more incidental to a more serious meaningful act of male violence. This movie is clearly not fair judgment on heterosexual behavior as not all will resort to male violence and objectifying women for sexual needs. To conclude, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ questions its depiction of masculinity and sexuality as it portrays heterosexual needs of a man views women as sexual objects and see masculinity as a need for violence to show it. This highly controversial film creates a questionable depiction of sexuality especially heterosexual men and masculinity shown by male violence.
To wrap everything up all these films in one way influenced motion pictures. Through the different framework’s critics viewed the films in certain perspective. It helps understand the entire influences of the film and maybe even motion pictures as well as how it was seen and viewed as once the movie first came out.
References
- Carroll, N., & Choi, J. (2010). Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures: An Anthology. Vancouver: Crane Library at the University of British Columbia.
- Hayes, K. J. (2005). Martin Scorsese’s ‘Raging Bull’. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
- Kolker, R. P. (2004). Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’: A Casebook. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- McDougal, S. Y. (2009). Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Michaels, L. (2004). Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Persona’. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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