SFL 358 Blog Entry #16 - The Fellowship of the Ring

In my eager anticipation of The Hobbit later this year, I've started reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy for the second time. The first time I read The Fellowship of the Ring, I had already seen the movie once. This will be the first time, however, reading the second two books since seeing the movies.

Now, I've actually just finished reading the first one, so I'm gonna watch the movie now! I love it!

SFL 358 Blog Entry #15 - My Letter to Tom Hanks concerning The Pacific

For an assignment in my media class, we were asked to write a letter to someone in the media calling for some kind of change. I wrote a letter to Tom Hanks, one of the executive-producers of the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and The Pacific. I'm posting the entire letter, but it is a lot longer than I anticipated, so don't worry about reading all of it. What was meant to be just a page about how there shouldn't be any nudity in the war series turned into three pages about what I liked and didn't like about The Pacific in general, including the bit about the sexuality. Anyways, here it is:

Dear Mr. Hanks,

Let me first say that I am a huge fan of your work! I am a college student and I absolutely love film. Today I write to you specifically about Band of Brothers and The Pacific. I absolutely love Band of Brothers. I saw the episodes when they originally aired and I’ve watched them several times since then. I even recently bought the book and the series on blu-ray. It’s such a masterpiece! The efforts you, Steven Spielberg, and everyone else made to make it as true to real life as possible and to make it all about the real men of Easy Company make the miniseries one of my favorite works of film of all time. Bravo!

So naturally, when I heard you guys were making another similar series about the conflicts in the Pacific theater, I got really excited to see it! I watched the entire series as soon as I got a chance, but unfortunately, I was actually pretty disappointed. I’ll start with what I liked. I love the measures you took to make it as realistic as possible. The marines’ conditions were brutal! I had no idea they had it so rough, with such outdated equipment, too. Their story doesn’t get told as often as those in Europe. The war scenes were phenomenal. They were very intense and at times quite unsettling, but that’s what it was like. I think they were handled magnificently.

One of the things I did not like so much, but I’m not sure you could have executed better, was character development and attachment. Unlike Band of Brothers, The Pacific didn’t follow one group of soldiers throughout their campaign; it followed a few different main characters, often in different places. As a result, I didn’t get to know much about these characters, and I wasn’t particularly attached as they made their way through the war. This is really a shame because I wanted to really get to know these guys like I feel I did in Band of Brothers. Though I of course in real life didn’t come even close, I felt like I experience the war with them. This just wasn’t the case in The Pacific. It felt like a lot more time was taken showing the soldiers outside the battlefield in this series than in Band of Brothers. I really don’t know for sure if this is the case, but that’s how it felt. During Band of Brothers, I loved all of the quiet time spent with soldier, getting to know them. I wouldn’t change a thing. In The Pacific, however, all I wanted was to get to the next battle. I didn’t really care so much what was happening with these characters because I constantly had to meet new ones before I got so attached to the old ones.

Now, admittedly, I don’t know the source material very well at all, so I don’t know how much you had to draw from to write the miniseries. I know Eugene Sledge has a book, but maybe it wasn’t enough on which to base an entire series. Perhaps you had no choice but to break it up into a few different marines’ stories. Because I don’t know, I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn’t have much of a choice. I didn’t like that aspect of it, but perhaps nothing could have been done better in that regard.

What I cannot excuse, however, is the excessive sex and nudity that was in this series. The violence and gore needs to be there because that’s how war was. We weren’t there, so we can’t imagine what it was like without the intense, gritty, realistic portrayal you so masterfully executed. Again, though it was very intense at times, I wouldn’t change a thing about that. But do you really need to have nudity? My friends and I were so put off by that. That’s not why we watch these war movies and series. I don’t think anyone watches these things for the sexuality. I don’t think you would have sacrificed anything valuable to the story by excluding these scenes, or at least being more subtle. Yes, these men apparently had sex with women on their time off, and yes, it shows a lot about how valuable their time off the battlefield was. But it did not need to be shown so much, or at all. For these scenes alone I can’t recommend The Pacific to any of my friends or family. It’s a real shame, too, because I think more people need to see these series to more fully appreciate what these brave men and women did for us.

Mr. Hanks, again, I am a really big fan of your work, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for you for putting so much effort into telling these stories right. I would love for you to somehow make more similar miniseries, because I know there are plenty of stories yet to be told from World War II. However, what I ask is that you keep out the explicit sexuality so that more people can appreciate it for what it is. Please do this. No one will complain about a lack of nudity. I know you’re a busy guy, and so I understand if you can’t write back to me, but I’d really appreciate it if you could. I’d love to hear what you think about all of this. I hope I’ve been respectful, and I hope you take what I’ve said seriously. Thank you.

SFL 358 Blog Entry #14 - The Artist

So, as many of you are aware, The Artist took Best Picture and Best Directing this year at the Oscars. I can't say it was a big surprise. Because it's a silent film, it's certainly unique (nowadays), and I have to say, it was very well-done. I'm not so sure it was the best film made all year, but I'm sure it really hit home with the members of the Academy, so they loved it. Don't get me wrong - I really did enjoy it, but largely due to how different it is to what we're used to.

One thing I found quite interesting is how much they are able to convey without words. Some of the time, they follow an utterance with a caption that tells you what they just said, but much of the time, it is left to the audience to surmise from the gestures and facial cues what they are saying. I was surprised how much I was able to pick up without hearing them saying anything.

The story itself was nothing new, really. It was pretty easy to see where it was going, and if I were the type of person who guesses every plot point along the way, I probably could have gotten it pretty close. Put simply, it's about a silent film actor who struggles as the film industry moves on to films with sound.

The acting, on the other hand, was really quite phenomenal. Jean Dujardin earned his Oscar for Best Acting as far as I'm concerned. He was very fun to watch throughout the whole thing. I recommend this to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

SFL 358 Blog Entry #13 - The Hobbit is Coming!!!

I am SOOOOOOO excited for this movie!!!! The first part doesn't even come out until December 14, 2012 (the second part comes out December 13, 2013)! Aaaaghhhh! I can't stand the long wait! Fortunately, however, Peter Jackson has been posting production videos online that show different aspects of making the movie as he's making it. A new one (#6) just came out yesterday (found here), so that explains my recently heightened excitement. Also, I just finished reading The Hobbit for the second time last week, so now I remember what exactly to expect from these films!

For those of you familiar with the book, you're probably wondering, "At that point in the book will the first movie end?" We don't know for sure yet, because they haven't revealed that officially, however, if you watch video #6, Peter Jackson kind of gives it away. He says they're currently filming part 2 and they're in Laketown, but they can't show us that yet because that movie doesn't come out until 2013. So, from that, we can deduce that the dwarves and Bilbo do not make it to Laketown yet by the end of the first film. Then, later in the video, they show the filming of the dwarves floating down the river in barrels. So, if they can show us the dwarves in barrels, yet they can't show us Laketown, that most likely means that the first part will end as they escape in barrels! More to follow later as more information comes out...

SFL 358 Blog Entry #12 - The Oscars

If you can't tell, I love movies! So naturally, I'm pretty interested in the Oscars. I haven't always been, but this year, I decided to see many of the films up for awards, including all the films up for Best Picture. It was neat to actually be interested in who won because I was familiar with all the nominees! I'll write more about this later and give a better post about my Oscars experience this year!

SFL 358 Blog Entry #11 - Marriage Counseling Ad

For my class, my group and I had an assignment to produce an ad promoting something about the family. Chantel Jarrett, Stephanie Lyon, Jacqueline Kiewra, and I came up with the following commercial promoting marriage counseling at the BYU Comprehensive Clinic. I'd also like to give credit to Adrienne for her awesome acting skills! Enjoy!

SFL 358 Blog Entry #10 - The Lord of the Rings (the books)

My current favorite book is The Lord of the Rings. I know what you're thinking: "Hey, I thought that was three books!" Well, you're right, but I love the trilogy as a whole and I can't pick only one of them that I like the most. I actually hadn’t heard of The Lord of the Rings before the first movie came out, but after I saw it, I instantly fell in love with the series and read each book as quickly as I could. It is about a hobbit who, after chancing upon an evil ring of great power, must rely on new friends to journey into the heart of the evil land and destroy the ring. Not bad for one sentence, eh?

The books are packed with so much detail concerning all the numerous cultures of the imaginary place called Middle Earth. When one reads the trilogy, he gets just a small glimpse of the entire world Tolkien created. That’s one of the things I love about it. He created entire cultures, languages, and histories for his books, and though these three books make only references to this world, the thoroughness of the author’s work truly shines through. The story itself is great, too, as the heroes rely on friends and undergo many personal sacrifices as they seek to do what is right. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read it yet!

For those of you who have read it, I recommend The Silmarillion. It is basically the history of Middle Earth from very beginning up until The Hobbit. It's only for die-hard Tolkien fans, but it's great!

SFL 358 Blog Entry #9 - The Hatchet

My favorite book as a child was The Hatchet. It is about a boy named Brian whose small plane crashes in the middle of a Canadian forest because the pilot suffers a heart attack. Left alone with no means of communicating with the outside world, Brian can depend only on himself to survive and somehow make it out of there. He learns to live off the land and eventually finds a way to get rescued.

What I loved about The Hatchet as a boy was reading how Brian creatively uses his wits and everything around him in order to survive. I particularly enjoyed the level of detail the author used in describing all the hunting and other survival skills, as well as the many instances of intense suspense as Brian came across some dangerous animals. The book really excited my imagination and I often pictured myself in Brian’s place and tried to figure out what I would do to survive. It was my favorite book for a long time.

SFL 358 Blog Entry #8 - Moneyball

Moneyball is one of the nominees for Best Picture this year in the Oscars. It's about the General Manager of the MLB Oakland Athletes (Brad Pitt) who, with an extremely limited budget and the help of a young mathematical genius (Jonah Hill), comes up with a new strategy for building the perfect team. They use statistics alone to figure out who should be on the team, thus totally disregarding talent scouts and basically the whole way the MLB has been run for decades.

I really enjoyed the movie. All the actors did a great job and they even used real footage from the 2002 games, which I thought was really cool. And though I'm not by any means a fan of baseball, the story really pulled me in. I was very much invested in the Athletes and was hoping they would win the whole time. That being said, however, I wouldn't exactly call it Best Picture material. I do highly recommend it, but I don't think it will win the award.

SFL 358 Blog Entry #7 - Clocks

I usually write about movies, but this time, we were asked to write about music. I'm writing about my favorite song, Clocks, by Coldplay. This has been my favorite song since I first heard it 6 or 7 years ago on ER (yes, I used to watch ER)! I loved it right away, but it was a while until I found out what it's called or who Coldplay is. Since then, however, I've probably listened to it hundreds of times! It has such a soothing effect on me. I can be in any mood and as soon as I hear it, all is good! I'm not sure what it is about it, but no other song has quite the same effect. So, there it is! Listen to it!

SFL 358 Blog Entry #6 - The Tree of Life

Now, you may be thinking, "Wait a minute, Chris, I thought this movie was about Brad Pitt and Sean Penn having family difficulties or something, so why on earth did you post a picture of some dinosaurs?" Well, all I can say is, though it takes place both in the 1950's and the 2000's and centers on Brad Pitt's (or Sean Penn's?) character, this is indeed a picture from the movie. Needless to say, this is a weird movie!

Before I go on, I must admit I only watched the first 50 minutes. I simply couldn't take any more! The only reason I wanted to watch it is because it's on of the Best Picture nominees this year, but it turns out that wasn't enough of a reason to get me to watch the whole thing. It's very disjointed and hard to follow. At about 20 minutes into the film, you get about 15 minutes of CG nebulae and creation on earth. And, as the picture suggests, you get some dinosaurs! Why, you ask? Shoot, I ask that, too! Why??? If you can stick it out, then go for it, but just know that it's going to get weird!

In terms of media, it doesn't appear to have anything inappropriate in it :)

SFL 358 Blog Entry #5 - Parks and Recreation

I just wanna give a shout-out to one of my favorite TV shows right now! First, to those of you who watched the show when it first started and were not impressed, or felt like it was a rip-off of The Office, let me tell you I felt the same way! Season 1 was not very impressive. They hadn't quite figured out what they were going for and none of the characters were particularly likable. I gave up watching pretty quickly.

However, a year or two later, I heard that it was actually a good show. My friend explained to me that it got a whole lot better after the first season, so I checked it out. And LOVED it! Season 2 was really good! And then they added a couple great characters for season 3 and it got even better! I definitely recommend giving it a shot. It has developed its own rhythm and no longer feels like The Office. It's also a pretty clean show, at least compared to a lot of what's out there now. Watch it! Just don't bother with the first season!

SFL 358 Blog Entry #4 - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Here's another great movie. It's the prequel to the original Planet of the Apes, telling the story of how the apes become more intelligent beings. The protagonist, played by James Franco, is a scientist trying to find the cure to Alzheimer's. He comes up with a serum that enables the brain to repair and rebuild cells and tests it on chimpanzees, only it actually makes them incredibly smart. Mischief and mayhem ensue.

I really didn't know what to expect for this one, but the effects looked cool. I was very impressed however, with the movie as an entirety. The characters are very believable as well as all the motives. I was left with no unwanted questions, such as why the character does what he does or how something happens. I also have to give mad props to the digital effects team. The apes are so realistic, especially the main chimp, Caesar. Andy Serkis did an amazing job giving him a distinct personality.

The only negative effects of media in this movie would be because of violence. Though it isn't gory, there is plenty of violence as the apes rise up against the humans. Some of it is somewhat glorified, and by that, I mean flippin' awesome! It's interesting, though, as I think about it, because I realize that all the "awesome" acts of violence are inflicted by apes on humans. You're actually rooting for the apes, which is odd because if this scenario were real, they'd definitely be the bad guys! Hmm... like I said, though, great movie!

SFL 358 Blog Entry #3 - X-Men: First Class

Before I saw it, I had heard mixed reviews, even from people whose opinion I really trust. It looked cool, but was some of the bad acting I had head about going to ruin the whole movie? After I watched it, though, I actually thought it was pretty good. Last week, I bought the movie and then watched the special features and the movie again, and I loved it! Some of the acting wasn't great (January Jones, I'm looking at you), but at the same time, some of it was phenomenal! James McAvoy (Xavier) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto) really made it a great movie. If you're extremely loyal to the comics, you might not enjoy some of the differences, but if you like the previous movies (well, X-Men 1 and 2), this is a great prequel. I highly recommend it!

As far as media content is concerned, it wasn't too bad. The worst of it falls into the clothing category. One of the characters, Emma Frost, is constantly showing cleavage and there are some other scantily-clad women as well. The violence in the film, however, is handled very well, and none of it is glorified, really. In fact, Xavier consistently tries to avoid violence and talk others out of it as well. He calls for more peaceful means of handling conflict. Great movie!

SFL 358 Blog Entry #2 - In Time

This movie has a really great premise, but doesn't carry it out very well. It takes place in the future when humans have been genetically manipulated to not age past 25. When they reach the age of 25, the countdown begins. As they work to prolong their lives and extend the clock that displays on their arm, time is literally money. Justin Timberlake's character, who has grown up in the poorest district, fights to give the poor more time and bring down the entire corrupt system.

I like this unique idea and I feel like it could have been a great movie. However, the story that proceeds feels like it is being made up as you watch it. It feels like the director didn't really know where he wanted to go with it, and so he just hastily threw scenes together and came up with an ending that seemed fit. My biggest problem was the amount of questions I left the theater with. Not deep, thought-provoking questions, like "What would I do in such a world?", but rather "Why on earth did they do that? What was the point? Why did that happen? What was their motivation?" These are the kinds of questions that should usually be answered in a film. Finally, my other main beef with this movie is how the vast majority of the actors who are pretending to be 25 are obviously older. I can understand that it would be very difficult to find enough good actors who are 25, but many of the ones they chose were just not believable!

In regards to the effects of the media, this PG-13 movie was rather mild (at least I think it was). There was some violence, but it was nothing graphic. The profanity was pretty low, with only one f-bomb (which was really unnecessary). Some of the violence is glorified, but most of it is shown as evil. I don't believe this media would be very harmful.

SFL 358 Blog Entry #1 - Warrior

I enjoyed Warrior. It is a story of two brothers who have grown up separately but have come from the same broken home. For various reasons, they both end up entering a high-stakes Mixed Martial Arts tournament where they work to overcome their opponents as well as their myriad family issues. The action was very engaging and the characters were quite realistic. It was very well made.

The good themes found in the movie (at least the ones that are not spoilers) are those of hard work and perseverance. One of the brothers, Brendan, is a former MMA fighter-turned-high school physics teacher who is falling behind on the bills. In the face of losing his home where he lives with his wife and children, he decides to get back into shape so that he can earn some real money fighting. Unlike his ex-Marine brother Tommy, his victories don't come easily for him. He's been out of the fighting for a while and he's up against men who do nothing but fight for a living. His determination to fight for his family's well-being in the face of steep odds is quite inspiring.

Apart from the obvious violence (which, compared to other fighting movies, including Rocky, is not very bloody at all), some themes that might be harmful have to do with the broken family. The father, who used to be a severe alcoholic, heavily abused the mother and his two sons until the mother left and took Tommy with her. It wasn't long before she died. This history of abuse and drunkenness has caused so much strife between the father, Tommy, and Brendan. Even now, when the father has been sober for nearly 1,000 days and begs for his sons' forgiveness, they still hate him and deny him completely. They even resent each other for not being where they should have. The many strongly negative feelings towards family could be harmful to those who are already sensitive to such issues. The movie does not make a strong case in favor of forgiving others. It only shows how hurt and resentful family members can be to those who have wronged them.