When Harry Met Sally

When Harry Met Sally follows several of the clichés of the romantic comedy genre. Harry is the carefree guy who befriends Sally, the friend of his girlfriend who lets him tag along on her drive to New York City, the most common setting for romantic films. In the beginning, Sally hates Harry and is glad when they make it to the city and part ways. After meeting up a few brief times throughout the span of about 10 years the two become closer and grow to be great friends, one of the most popular clichés in romantic films. Harry and Sally become best friends, there for each other in good times and bad, going out to eat and talking on the phone on numerous occasions. 

At one point in the film, Sally is at a low point in her life and with the convincing of her best girlfriend, Marie, she complies with her subtle feelings for Harry and the two end up sleeping together. They view it as a mistake and go on with their lives as friends; another cliché, in that the two friends are almost about to get in to the relationship the audience is expecting and rooting for, and they don’t. It isn’t until the conclusion of the film that they become more than friends and actually have a romantic relationship, the classic happy ending. 

In comparison to all the other romantic comedies out there, When Harry Met Sally can most definitely stand the test of time as something to be judges as artistic in the distant future. Despite the implementation of several romantic comedy clichés, it is ultimately a great story that uses these clichés in a not so obvious and monotonous way. These clichés make the genre what it is, and a great romantic comedy wouldn’t be successful without applying some of these techniques, it is just the way that they are incorporated in the film that will make or break its success.

The Thin Red Line

Without a plot a film is just a series of events occurring in a somewhat organized manner. The goal of filmmaking is to create a film that tells a story and engages the audience, setting a mood and forcing the audience to think and follow the storyline. In the film The Thin Red Line director Terrence Malick did the exact opposite. His film conveyed no plot what so ever.

The filmmaker is responsible for successfully expressing their plots and underlying subplots to make a film seem much more intriguing and well as the ability fully engage and immerse the audience through the power of visual story telling. It is ultimately the filmmaker’s responsibility to keep the audience in mind when creating a work of art, since the films are ultimately produced for the audience’s viewing pleasure. The greatest of film stories are able to convey the filmmaker’s inner thoughts in a subtle and captivating way, though the filmmaker shouldn’t go so far as to compromise the integrity of their film just to please the audience. A story shouldn’t be written purely on the principle of audience acceptance, but to some extent it is acceptable to make changes to comply with the views of society.

The nature of the production of The Thin Red Line was unpredictable and seemingly unorganized. There were odd segments of video, such as the alligator entering the water at the opening of the film and the struggling baby bird, which seemed to have no real significance or relation to the progression of the film. Malick failed in the aspect of creating a vision in filmmaking, but that’s not to say the film was a failure. True it has no real plot, but it has a decent story behind it that makes it an acceptable but lacking film.

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth is a mythical tale based around the Spanish Civil War. The key point that made this film enjoyable and entertaining to watch was the fact that there is a constant struggle between reality and fantasy. The fantasy world allows the main character, Ofelia, to escape from her nightmarish reality; there needs to be a sense of realism or else the story would seem too unreal and out of the question. The slight attachment to realism makes the film’s storyline seem possible in the real world. Writer/Director, Guillermo del Toro, successfully implemented the themes of obedience/disobedience, such as obeying stepparents in the classic tale of Cinderella as well as Stepmom, and sacrifice for the greater good, as implemented in The Terminator and Titanic. 

Ofelia is a young girl who grew up by her mother’s side after the death of her father. She cares for her mother greatly and is obedient towards her, never arguing but she has a tendency to run off and disappear for hours at a time which worries her mother. Despite her negative feelings toward her new father, Capitan Vidal, Ofelia respects him to please her mother, who only wishes to provide for her daughter and soon-to-be son. Capitan Vidal does not stand for disobedience and is a very controlling fascist leader who wants everything done his way and seems to care about nothing but the birth of his son. As far as sacrifice goes, Ofelia’s mother sacrifices her life for her son, and in the end Ofelia sacrifices her own life for her little brother, thus completing the final task necessary to claim her throne. Although Ofelia dies in our world, her spirit lives on in her father’s kingdom, her fairy-tale land where she is truly happy.

RoboCop

RoboCop failed to exhibit any characteristics of a realistically violent film. All of the scenes that conveyed violence, which were a majority of the film’s content, were blown way out of proportion and a bit too graphic and unrealistic. That is not to say that all of the violence in the film was unnecessary, it was merely inflated to comply with the action/adventure demanding patrons of the time period. It just depends on the extent of the violence displayed as to whether or not it is meaningful enough to drive the story forward, or merely incorporated to excite the audience.

The film exhibits characteristics of “fun” violence that are created merely for the purpose of entertaining the audience and providing excitement. The kill scenes were extreme at times where you want to look away and just stop the movie but you are anxious to know what is going to happen next so you keep on watching. The violence is a crucial element to be implemented in the film; without it the movie would not be as enticing. Some aspects of the violence portrayed in RoboCop were realistic, such as the convenience store holdup, but at the same time a bit extreme, such as the slaughter of the business man at the failed robotic policeman presentation. The beginning of the film is a bit uneasy to watch when Officer Murphy was shot more than any person should ever have to suffer through, but as the film picked up the violence is accepted and embraced because it pushes the story forward. 

RoboCop, the new and improved Alex Murphy, is a hardcore piece of machinery that would stop at nothing to serve justice. With a film of this genre and caliber, it is expected that some extent of violence should be implemented. All in all, the violence exhibited throughout the film was created more for entertainment purposes to entice the viewing public rather than as an artistic composition.