Notes on deer hunter.

Group: alex Terry and hope long
Screen play : deer hunter
Film adaptation: yes


Russel crow: Nick/Mike
Vince Vaughn : Merle / Nick
Julia Roberts: Linda
James Franco : sal

Changes:

Post apocalyptic north America after 9-11

Hunting deers for survival,

Deer Hunter

Based on our brash choice selection of "Deer Hunter" I expected a very bad screenplay, however this screen play was the exact opposite. In-fact it was intriguing and quite possibly one of the best I've read. I had no clue that it would turn into a war, tragedy, type of screenplay that has a lot of human truth in it. The ending scene was quite possibly one of the most endearing, americana type of scenes ever.

However, after reading the screen play I had to go back and watch the movie with the golden cast of Dinero, Streep, and Walkins to name a few. I can't decide which ending I like more. The movie's was very endearing, but there is something about Nick's toast in the screen play that is fantastic.

It's a shame the movie didn't follow the screen play exact, but then again, the screenplay should have been a novel with how long it was. 3 hour movies are long enough as it is!

I enjoyed them both thoroughly, but I think I prefer the movie to the script, you can see more of the creative freedom the director took. He merged the characters of meryle and nick to form a Mike and left the depression mainly to nick in the movies, it helped separate them out in my mind a bit more and made it more digestible. The director also left things out like the gruesome baby scene. (Thankfully) he probably would have gotten a lot of criticism.

All in all, a good memorable movie and screenplay.

Day of locust

This book resonated with me in a very interesting way.

As a senior on the verge of graduating and looking for a new home to move my turtle shell to, I found the way Nathaniel west described California to be quite appalling and intriguing at the same time. Due to media we are typically looking at California through rose colored lenses, but he juxtaposes this common belief and paints it as a "place where some go to die"

He seems to carry this theme throughout the book, constantly flipping ideals on their heads. For instance, you would expect a young college graduate from Yale to move out there and do quite well for himself, however he seems to find himself (Tod) In these weird scenarios. Traditionally, you would expect him to find the girl of his dreams and get taken on this wild ride, but the girl he adores won't even give him the time of day. Also, the dwarf scenario with Abe is just bizarre.

Tod being a b movie script writer seems ironic while I am reading a book. However, as we discussed in class, it must have been written as a movie or meant to be read as a movie. It would be interesting to read this book with a live music performer like they used to have going as the sooundtrack of the movies.

He confuses the reader with setting twists, character twists, and lyrical dialogue.

List of genres

Western
Romance
Comedy
Classical
Foreign
Documentary
Independent
Futuristic
Epics
Animals
Pixar/Disney
Stop motion
Fairytales
Historical fiction
Silent
War
Cult
Family
Porn
Anime
Soap opera
Adventurous
Thriller
Slasher
Gory
Suspense
Horror
Psychological thrillers
Drug related
Medical/hospital
Aviation
Indie
Americana
Old south Louisiana
Chick flicks
Musical
Expressionistic
Surrealist
Propaganda

Harry Potter

So, this week, I've decided to continue reading Harry Potter.

I'll be the first to admit that this is my first time through the series. Ordinarily this wouldn't be quite as odd, however, one would not think that I had never read the series seeing how I've founded the Quidditch team here on campus my freshman year. I then went on to form an international non-profit that governs Quidditch teams throughout the world.

Perhaps the irony is setting in, yet, I am glad I can use this class as an excuse to finally get through them.

This week I was trying to finish the 4th book, "The Goblet of Fire" and I have become pleasantly surprised how much they left out in the movie. I get a chance to live the tale of Harry with a new look.

Jo did a wonderful job capturing his nervousness leading up to the trials he faces being the schools champion that the movies never captured. Although, based on my experience with the movies, after the 4th movie I started to resent Jo a little bit as an artist. Her path of self discovery is an endearing tale, yet leaves little room for introspection when she spends the first 4 books created a wonderful universe, and then spends the last books destroying it. True, it is just part of the heroes journey, but it also rubbed me the wrong way a bit, as if she was cashing out. Granted, there had to be peace in the books and movies for her to gain an understanding and finally close a chapter in her life and move on, but what if it was a tragedy? Would my/ the worlds perception of the tale change?

Metropolis

To be honest, I had an extremely hard time getting into this movie. It had a story that was lacking and the pure fact that it was a silent film put me right to sleep every time I watched it. This could be due to the fact that I am desensitized by modern movies, however it was lacking in a few things. The set up was drawn out and the conflict between father and son was a bit cliche. The special effects were superb for the time, but all-in-all many scenes could have been cut out to save some time and to make the story more concise.

Hunger Games

This book was had to fall into at first, which could have been completely fashioned to be that way by the author. The whole book, in a sense mimics the narrative created within it. Katniss was hard to fall in love with Peeta much like I was the book. However, once I got into it, it was like I had become love-sick. I couldn't put it down, my heart was racing, it was new and completely unique.

Every successful story has inherent human truths within it (Much like a great advertisement I might add) and this story captured a lot of the emotions within my first love story. At time in the story however, I found my self caught up more in the environment the author created than the characters themselves. The thoughts of force-fields, hovercrafts, and magical flying cameras. Juxtaposed with this Huckle-berry finn vibe that consumed District 12 was baffling. At times I felt myself forcing my mind to resort to the Cowboys V.S. Aliens setting just so I could wrap my mind around it.

However, one of the main questions I came across was, "If they have all of this sweet technology, how is it that their weapons hadn't advanced much past the stone-age?" It perplexed me, why couldn't they be given lazer cannons, tazers, and plasma swords? If the author wanted to keep them as savage as possible, then why give them some sort of advanced night vision moon-glasses?

Once I started to stomach certain variables throughout the book I began to read deeper into the societal segregation, cultural symbols, character archetypes, and over-arching story. I enjoyed the cleverness of placing this within N. America and keeping the world boundaries relatively small, It's almost I could picture it all happening within the size of one state in the Mid-Atlantic region. The hovercrafts reminded me of the jetsons for some reason, the interviews like American Idol stage set-ups in the streets, and the actual event to me was reminiscent of The Most Dangerous Game, or any of these.

I loved the book and look forward to the next one! (The costume descriptions were breath-taking)