The Great Gatsby

Leonardo Dicaprio and Toby Maguire look to take the top spot in the box office in a few weeks in the Gatsby adapted film. The reported budget was about $120 million or more. This wasn't the first time Gatsby has been adapted for a film it's actually the sixth which comes to a surprise to at least me. The most famous remake starred Robert Redford but ended up flopping.

Saving Private Ryan Discussion

Saving Private Ryan was a powerful film conveying messages and themes through the distance and framing of shots. One example you might say would be the scene in which  private jackson finds himself in a sniper vs sniper battle. The distance of the shot creating space between the two snipers represented a lack of connection between the two in a sense that neither know each other or have any reason to kill each other. Although it’s Jackson’s obligation as a soldier for the U.S. to kill this enemy sniper. As for framing during the scene the medium shot/close up shot of the German sniper really allows the audience to get a feel for the expression of his face and how he comes off not really wanting to kill anyone. When it comes to Jackson, Speilberg decides to really stray away from focusing on Jackson and instead keeping focus on the sniper rifle, which explains how Jackson becomes one with the sniper rifle when he’s forced to use it. I think Spielberg wanted to created a seperation between Jackson the sniper rifle giving a feel that it’s not Jackson killing people or wanting to kill these people, it’s more so the rifle. 

Netflix looking to acquire more original programming

At first what sounds good ends up possibly being  a bad factor for hollywood. Netflix states because they're past deals have gone bad, as in the shows they acquired rights to flopped, they've decided to become a lot more picky in what they choose to buy. What does this mean? This means TV producers might start taking losses. It's most apparent for companies like CBS and Viacom because they've been the production teams selling most of their shows to Netflix. Netflix stated they wont be renewing any past deals with the two companies which could be a major hit to their yearly revenue. Read more at; http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-netflix-revenue-hemlock-grove-house-cards-viacom-media-earnings-nomura--20130423,0,2075697.story

Munich Plot Overview

Steven Spielberg has been involved in countless productions of movie’s which have led him into becoming a special kind of director. He’s a director who want’s to continue to re create past historical events in hopes of keeping generations of people in touch with the past, help prevent terrifying events from ever happening again, and simply educating society. Spielberg creates a powerful reconstruction of the terrifying events that had happened at the 1972 Munich Olympics through the film, “Munich”. Eleven Israeli athletes were captured, held hostage, and eventually murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. Although some may think the most important aspect of these happenings was the killings, Spielberg decides to concentrate on the story that happens next after the dramatic events in Munich happened. The movie follows a squad of Mossad assassins led by Avner Kaufman who are assigned to track down and kill the associates responsible for the murder of the Israeli athletes. An interesting aspect to Avner was the fact he resigns from Mossad, continuing the operate the squad with no official ties to Israel. Avner’s team contains four Jewish men, Steve who is a South African driver, Hans a document forger, Robert who strangely enough is a toy maker and is trained in defusing explosives, and lasting Carl a former Israeli soldier who is trained in cleaning up the messes there assassinations may make. Avner leads his team throughout Europe using cleverly placed bombs, simply shooting down targets to take down those involved in the massacre. Towards the end of the film, Robert, begins to question the morality of the mission believing revenge isn’t the way to honor those who were killed, Avner allows him to take a break as he slowly start’s to believe Robert. After they succeed in the assassinations of the Dutch assassin, Steve, Hans, and Robert all being to discuss the worth in continuing their mission. Although it seems it’s was too late to rethink what they were doing as Hans is found stabbed to death and Robert is killed in an explosion. A paranoid Avner decides to rush to New York City and continue his life with his kids and wife. Avner finds Mossad continuing to urge him to rejoin Mossad, although it only leads Avner to question the effectiveness of the operation. Ephraim finally admits the fact there was no evidence linking any of the targets to the Massacre, with the  film ending with Avner refusing to return to Israel. 

- Mike Knox