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Modern Times-1936 June 5, 2010

Posted by ultimateserge in 1936, Charlie Chaplin, Classic Comedy, Film, Greatest films, Movie, Paulette Goddard, The Tramp.
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Rating*****

Directed By:Charlie Chaplin

Starring:
Charlie Chaplin
Paulette Goddard
Henry Bergman
Stanley Sandford
Chester Conklin

Pros:
• Insightful message of Industrialism and the unfortunate sacrifices that come
with it.
• The truth about capitalism, and especially the American Dream
• Beautiful musical score

Cons:
• None

In the last use of his “Little Tramp” character, Chaplin creates a portrait of mass production that is both harrowing and insightful. A talkie in its own right, the tramp is still a quiet figure continuing his mischief. As usual with Tramp, his companions being runaway/beggar females or children, at first this may not seem to cover ground that Chaplin’s proceeding work have not done. However, Chaplin succeeds in making a mockery, rightfully, of mass production, and the inhibited horrors that accompany it.

As a factory worker, he is so pressured that even a momentary annoyance by a pest can effect his work tremendously leading him getting caught in the (innerworkings) of the factory. The manager of the factory is displayed as a ruthless man worried only about increasing profit, as to order the tramp to get back to work on his break. An ingenious scene occurs with the testing of a device that would dramatically cut the length of lunch breaks by giving a machine the power to actually “feed” workers.

The whole tale displays the Tramp’s inability to hold to a steady job, getting fired or eventually giving up realizing his inability to function in certain environments. His multiple outings with the law, always humorous include the only instances that he is in peace with society. This is so vivid that at is explained life in his jail was comfortable.

. It is truly remarkable to view a man set out to voluntarily be placed in jail because he is dysfunctional in society; or rather, society is dysfunctional in regards to him. Even after he meets the girl, his luck does not increase, but his ambition and motivation to gain an income increases. For the first time, he exclaims that he will get them such a house, even if he has to work for it. After all their ambition and motivation is drenched, the couple does not give up, though admitting that happiness is very hard to reach. They can wish and fantasize for the American Dream as much as they want, but it is far from their grasp.

This is one of Chaplin’s most somber films, one that after all these years has held its poignant grip, continuing to ring true generations later.

Seven Samurai June 10, 2009

Posted by ultimateserge in 1954, Akira Kurosawa, Daisuke Katō, Foreign, Greatest films, Isao Kimura, Japan, Minoru Chiaki, Samurai, Seiji Miyaguchi, Seven Samurai, Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshio Inaba.
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Format: Foreign

Rating:
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
Starring:
Takashi Shimura
Toshiro Mifune
Yoshio Inaba
Daisuke Katō
Minoru Chiaki
Isao Kimura
Seiji Miyaguchi
Seven Samurai is in every sense of the word a: complete film; a film with barely any mentionable flaw. Seven Samurai isn’t just a great or extraordinary film but one paved the way for other underdog movies.

Kurosawa doesn’t waste time in introducing the forces of good and evil. From the start he makes us judge that the poor farmers are losing their honor and integrity because of the greedy monstrous bandits. It is very fortunate that Kurosawa gives so much screen time, especially of the farmers, to grieving. He displays that these farmers have shed their hope of a better life with the bandits around. The only hope according to the Granddad is to hire a couple of sturdy Samurai.

The search for the samurai takes up a large bulk of the film and rightfully so. Unlike the farmers pre-conception that hiring samurai with the single reward of food as tasteless as rice may be tricky, the samurai take up the job with little hesitation. The samurai show that they have little interest in the small reward but only are accepting the job because of the thrill such an experience may bring for them. Kurosawa shows us the unimportance of the reward by displaying the farmers treatment of the samurai in the past. It clarifies that the samurai fight for the sake of fighting and less for the sake of the victim.

Kurosawa’s film displays fight scenes that should shame current Hollywood gimmicks like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The scenes are technical and logical and practical in nature and in no way are they bloated. It sounds as if watching multiple similar fight scenes may become repetitive but not at all. The fight scenes are real and eye-popping because the fighters are real and imperfect in their own way. Some make horrid mistakes, others display signs of high valor and for the farmers: they all await to get their hands on the bait.

Kurosawa not only directed but also co-wrote this magnificent tale of heroism and forgiveness that had never before displayed, in such a way, on film. Seven Samurai isn’t a film about good and evil but about the ugliness that occurs on both sides.

Though all the performances are top-notch, Toshirō Mifune demands much credit becasue of his wild and over the top portrayal of Kikuchiyo which is more than Oscar-worthy and simply unmatched by any other actor in the film. The cinematography is also a stone mark of the film that cannot be ignored. There is certain humor and melancholy in each frame of the film that takes it beyond Cinema and at times gives it a sense of reality; a sense that stays with the viewer much after the closing credits.

There are many great films that have lost their touch through time, yet Seven Samurai and most of Kurosawa’s work has withstood the test of time. Seven Samurai stands up there with Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, and Fellini’s 81/2, as Cinema’s greatest masterpieces.
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