The Shawshank Redemption

1. Take note of the visual imagery in the film. How does the Director convey the bleakness of prison life? When, how and to what is this imagery contrasted?

 Right when Andy goes into the prison we can see a very dramatic long dark hallway and bars that lead to a door with only a small little opening for the poor person behind the door to see out of. This shows a very large amount of human confinement with very inhuman conditions for the prisoners. When Andy requests a poster of sex symbol, Rita Hayworth, he used it ad a way to mentally escape from the confinement of prison. When he sees the poster it reminds him of the outside world and the company of other human beings. The poster is a way of showing the freedom and pleasant things in life Andy wishes for.

2. What is the significance of Andy asking the prisoner’s name – the ‘New Fish” beaten by the guards?

The significance of Andy asking the new prisoners name that was attacked by the guards for crying, is that it shows the others who bet on him, such as Red, being the first one to break down that you can't really judge someone based off looks or if you dont know them extremely well. Darabont sets up the film to make it seem as though Andy will not be able to handle prison life based off its atmosphere, but it really is a subversion that we see when Andy has himself together just fine and shows no signs of fear after the new prisoner dies.

April 24th Pans Labyrinth

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1. What is this movie personally telling or teaching you? What is the film’s ending trying to personally convey to you? 

In my opinion, Pan’s Labyrinth was about disobeying the person or thing more in power of you in order to do what is right. The movie taught the message that if this was done correctly then it would pay off in the end. Ofelia decides to disobey the reign of her cruel and evil father and mother. She simply does as she wishes in hopes to obtain her wish of becoming a princess in parts of the movie, for example, and she does it no matter what it takes. The ending of the film, I think, is trying to say that everything may not be as it necessarily seems. To support this, in one of the end scenes we see a faun. This faun disappears when shifted to the parents POV. This suggests that the whole fantasy world was in Ofelia's mind. 

2. Watches and time: What is the symbolism and backstory to Captain Vidal’s watch? Why is it an important plot device?

Captain Vidal’s watch at first glance seems to be nothing of symbol or interest, but with further examination we see otherwise. When looking at it closer, we see that the watch represents the want of rule and power that Captain Vidal has. It represents that he will do whatever it takes to get his way or have control over everything and anyone else. As well as the broken gears in the watch represent Captain Vidal’s death and loss of any sort of power. The watch stands as an important plot device because it strongly relates to the movie's message. The watch, as stated before, represents Captain Vidal’s death along with the death of a form of evil. This relates to the message of Pan’s Labyrinth because it shows that if you try enough and listen to your own mind, then good can and will overrun evil.

pans labyrinth 55 minute

Is this a typical Hollywood movie? Discuss.

In my opinion, as of as far as 55 minutes of the film it is as far off from a typical Hollywood film that would be seen in this day and age. First of all, the movie the use of color gradient in different ways with both warmer orange color masks, and cool blues at other times where fear or eeriness is meant to be created for the viewer, while oranges are used for more excitement or anxiety at other parts of the film with warmer color gradient. Also, Pan's Labyrinth was made to be more of a fantasy drama but ended up having many horror aspects to it, the main aspect being the pale man monster.

What are the conventions of a Hollywood film? How is this one similar/ different.

Pan's Labyrinth shares many of the same conventions that are met with other typical Hollywood films. Most Hollywood films consist of conventions such as appropriate sounds. The sounds match the environment even if the sound is directly being shown in the shot. For example, if a drop of water was heard in a dark cave in the shot but we didn't see the drop of water in the shot, this is appropriate sounding to fit certain environments and settings. We see this convention in Pan's Labyrinth. Another similar convention seen in both the movie and a typical Hollywood film is lighting and costuming. In a typical Hollywood fantasy film costuming is very odd and the same thing matches with the colored lighting, often being a greenish or yellow color. In Pan's Labyrinth the color is blue and orange primarily, which is one huge difference i saw from a typical fantasy Hollywood movie. However, I was not surprised to see the obscure and out of the ordinary costuming of the fantasy world's creatures in Pan's Labyrinth.