Alien Final Project

Pan's Labyrinth

Vidal’s Watch

During the course of the film the viewer begins to notice significance with Captain Vidal’s watch and the way he chooses to live his life. His pocket watch represents “his desire for order, precision and unfailing obedience” (Edwards 142). There are many key scenes in the film that reference his pocket patch in one-way or another. For example, the viewer understands the importance of the watch to Vidal during the scene where they are sitting down to eat at the table. The pocket watch was the only item that his father had left him when he had died, so the watch has sentimental value to him even though it represents the death of his father. Vidal is obsessed with cleaning and maintaining his watch in order to keep it running because the watch also represents his life. For if the watch were to stop working then Vidal’s life would surely also come to an end. This is why at key moments in the film where Vidal’s life is in jeopardy he takes out his watch to make sure it is still running.

Reality vs Ofelia’s Fantasy

There are many instances in the film where what is going on in Ofelia’s fantasy is also occurring in reality. According to Kim Edwards author of Alice’s Little Sister: Exploring Pan’s Labyrinth “the fairytale realm – that submerged sub-text – becomes an insightful commentary on war and the rules of society and gender in the real world” (145). The first instance where we can see the two worlds collide is when Ofelia’s is sent to retrieve the key from the toad. The toad represents Captain Vidal because he is also in possession of a key, his key being to the storage room while the toad’s key is to the locked door in the Pale Man’s room. The next similarity between the two worlds is the dining room scenes in the way that “the hypocritical, greedy, devouring adults at the Captain’s dinner table are visually doubled with luxurious and horrific temptations of the Pale Man’s banquet hall” (Edwards 144). But similarities do not stop there as explained by Kim Edwards “complete with the two hosts at the head of the tables framed by fireplaces with leaping hell flames” (144). Ofelia’s fantasy also crosses over into reality in the way that the “appearance of an insect and the existence of the portal to the Labyrinth” (Edwards 143). At the very begging of the film Ofelia “is rewarded with her first glimpse of this magical place’s genius loci: a chattering stick insect she identifies as a ‘fairy’” (Smith 4). The use of transitions also makes it difficult to distinguish what is reality and what is Ofelia’s fantasy. For example when the shot goes from reality into the mother’s stomach when Ofelia is telling her baby brother a story.

Alien

The movie Alien is unique in such a way that the movie goes from being a science fiction movie to a horror movie in the middle of the film. The horror aspect of the movie is quite apparent through the various filming techniques that are implemented throughout the course of the film. The director of Alien chose to use a very dark set when making this movie in order to add the horror aspect of the film. In addition to the dark sets the directed uses cuts or pop ups of the alien in order to scare the viewer. The use of close-up shots of the alien was also used in order to scare the viewer.

The alien and the humans in the movie are portrayed in the same manner. The reason I say this is because “it attacks the rest of the crew because they threaten its survival (Mullhall 18).” The alien and the humans both have the instinct of survival that is why they are trying to destroy each other over the course of the movie. Another similarity exhibited between both species is in the way of how they reproduce. This is apparent in the film when Kane “is impregnated with an alien fetus which his body then brings to term and labors to bring forth into the world; he undergoes a nightmare vision of sexual intercourse, pregnancy and birth (Mullhall 20)”.

Throughout the movie the use of music is not present for the most part. The reason I believe the director chose to not use music in the majority of the film was because it actually made the movie more suspenseful and added to the viewers feeling of fear. The lack of music made the viewer pay more attention to the dialogue of the movie and also gave the viewer the feeling of how alone the cast of actors actually were. The score of the movie goes along with what the actors are doing. A perfect example of this is “the suddenly deadened soundtrack and sequence of overlapping dissolves that chart Hurt’s emergence into conscious awareness seem to mimic the mode of that emergence (Mullhall 16).” Music is present in the movie at the very end of the film when Ripley finally destroys the alien. I believe that the use of music represents mankind’s victory over extraterrestrial beings.

Works Cited

Mulhall, Stephen. “Kane's Son, Cain's Daughter.” On Film. London: Routledge, 2002.

12-32. Print.

Scott, Ridley, dir. Alien. 1979. Twentieth Century Fox, 2009.

Thompson, Kristin. "Alien." Storytelling in the New Hollywood. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1999. 283-306. Print

Critical Blog on Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove

The movie Dr. Strangelove is “the most shattering sick joke I’ve ever come across [and] at the same time, one of the cleverest and most incisive satiric thrusts at the awkwardness and folly of the military that [has] ever been seen on the screen” (Kubrick). This movie came out in the height of the cold war and was meant to ease the tension of its viewers. The use of comedy in the movie was very dark in my opinion making a joke out of what could be the end of mankind, but “comedy can be more realistic than drama because it takes into account the bizarre” (Kubrick). The movie was shot in black and white, which I believe played into the movies dark satiric comedy very well. The way the movie was filmed gave the viewer the feeling that they were there through the filming technique of point of view shots. The movies score was not as prevalent as in other movies that I have seen, but there is one scene where the music set the scene. The best example in the movie where music sets up the scene takes place at the very begging where they are on the plane. The music cues in and makes the viewer feel as if something big is about to happen. The music sets up the pilot’s speech about how they were going to complete their mission no matter the cost. Another filming technique that was used during the course of the film was the use of extreme to medium close-ups. The use of extreme close-up shots in this movie were set in place to show the dominance of the character, this is apparent when the commander is talking to his second man in charge in his office. Overall in my opinion this movie is the starting point in film history where a movie takes a very serious situation and portrays it through the use of comedy.

Works Cited

Kubrick, Stanley, dir Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and love the Bomb. 1964. Columbia Pictures, 2009.

Stillman, Grant, "Two of the MaDdest Scientists." Film History. 20(2008): 487-500. Web. 24 Aug. 2009.