Would you like to play a game?
It’s only taken me 15 years or so, but I have finally hacked my way through the SAW franchise. The reason? Morbid curiousity.
So here is the ‘Short Film of the Day’, 2003’s SAW. Oh, and some thoughts on the franchise as a whole (excluding the new Chris Rock one as I haven’t seen it yet)
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Emerald Fennell won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for this, the screenplay itself was on the Black List a few years ago, and it struck me as odd as the script itself is one of the more conventional things about the film.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
[This article is an edited version of an assignment originally written for my MSc.]
Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, took issue with the patriarchal society which was being represented in film at the time. She argues that the male gaze “projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly.” This is an exhibitionist role that women are fulfilling, their appearance is coded “for strong visual and erotic impact”, meaning that they are on screen to be passive and a part of the spectacle. This is the opposite to the male on screen, who is active and a part of the narrative, they are the subject of the look, the point of view of which we view cinema. Mulvey argues that Hollywood classical cinema reinforces the male gaze. But how does this relate to the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster?
[This article is an edited version of an assignment originally written for my MSc.]
Arguably the first summer blockbuster, Jaws is an Ahab-like tale of a journey to kill a shark which has been terrorising the waters of Amity Island. The film, which starred Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, grossed $470.7m worldwide in the box-office from a production budget of $12m.
However, I want to go explore how the film has more beneath the surface than just it being the blockbuster classic it is viewed today. As I will go into more detail, I feel that Jaws tells more of American attitudes, American politics, and also the values held by the movie studios of the era, than what is immediately shown.
[This article was originally written as an assignment for my degree.]
Panos Cosmatos’ 2010 debut, Beyond The Black Rainbow is a strong statement of intent. The film crosses the genre line between science-fiction horror and psycho-thriller, whilst simultaneously identifying as a piece of film from the plots period, 1983.
[This article was originally written as an assignment for my degree.]
Mandy is a film split in two.
[This article was originally written as an assignment for my degree.]
There is a danger in calling him ‘the son of George P. Cosmatos’. Because even though he worked on Tombstone as the second unit director (the residuals of which he used to finance his work), he holds no through line to the director of Cobra, and Rambo: First Blood Part II. In Beyond The Black Rainbow and this year’s festival hit, Mandy, Panos Cosmatos has already dictated a style of filmmaking that is unique, but at the same time a stew of influences and styles.
On 12th September 1970, Hullmuth Costard took a load of cameras to Old Trafford and filmed George Best playing football against Coventry City. The final film, ‘Fußball Wie Noch Nie’ was released in 1971, its status as a document to the best footballer to never play a World Cup only being a footnote.
A footnote I discovered in 2006, with the release of ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’, my hunt for this film began. A hunt which ended in 2020. This is my edit of the film.
Been extraordinarily busy over the last month with Uni work. My Dissertation on Michael Bay has turned into torture, one word, one explosion, one fucked-frame at a time. On top of that is the usual deadlines and life crap thrown my way.
As such, I haven’t been to the cinema to see new releases as much as I wanted to. I will catch up in the summer, but have only seen a few and as such means this is just a round-up post.
This series focuses on the one and only Michael Bay. Attempting to deconstruct his filmography, one film at a time. The ideas explored here may or may not end up in my Dissertation about Michael Bay and Post-Cinema.
And to answer the question: Does it ever rain in a Michael Bay movie?
It is fitting that the last film (until Michael Bay releases his next feature) in this series for my dissertation should be a sequel to Michael Bay’s own original property, BAD BOYS.
The reason for looking at this sequel is to help identify what different filmmakers do with a similar playset. BAD BOYS FOR LIFE is the most coherent and mature in the series, and that might have something to do with the fact that Michael Bay isn’t directing this one. It’s Belgian duo, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.
