Chaos Theory

During Mr. Bennett's film class today, the intriguing idea of Chaos Theory wrapped around my ever-expansive mind.

*Stolen from my good friend wikipedia*

"Chaos Theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions; an effect which is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. Small differences in initial conditions (such as those due to rounding errors in numerical computation) yield widely diverging outcomes for chaotic systems, rendering long-term prediction impossible in general.This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future behavior is fully determined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. In other words, the deterministic nature of these systems does not make them predictable. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos."

From what my meek mind understands currently about this theory, I think that essentially anything that affects said subject will never have a truly predicatable outcome, because there are too many unknowns and determining factors that could possibly affect it. Or something like hat

I feel like the rat maze that Dr. Screbher is examing is an example of how the Chaos Theory is placed into effect. The subject, the rat, easily has many paths and possibilities to follow throughout the maze. Yet, throughout the said maze, the rat can easily run into a dead-end path, or go towards the wrong direction. Simply put, there are too many outcomes and factors that can make for a truly predictable outcome, because the rat won't necessarily find his way to the end of the maze. Perhaps he goes into one direction, or another, or even stays at the "wrong" end, or stays at a different end. Regardless of the final outcome, is it truly possible to predict that exact correct outcome, out of the many other outcomes this said situation can bring? 

Maybe thats how life functions.

Dark City Film Post

Films such as the Dark City are always reminiscent of the life that I desire to live one day. A life of mystery and excitement, mystery and endless enjoyment around each corner. Yet at the end of the day, it's a moment of introspective thoughts culminated from thoughts throughout the day.

These film noirs, The Asphalt Jungle and Dark City have proven to be that gritty, yet slick lifestyle that I desire to be part of. A lifestyle where danger is lurking around each corner, where situations where life and death wrestle with each other, and such.

Much like what I said about The Asphalt Jungle being an allusion of my favorite genre of music, rap, Dark City just happens to be an updated version of the mafioso gangster mannerisms that rap offers.

Dark City reminds me of another Jay-Z album that I absolutely adore, which is American Gangster. The connection between American Gangster and Dark City is definitely more clear than the connection between American Gangster and The Asphalt Jungle. After all, American Gangster was basically an update from Reasonable Doubt (as stated in my other film post), and just makes more sense.

One moment in the Dark City specifically stuck out to me, and that was the rat maze that Dr. Daniel Schreber was toying around with in the beginning of the film, when Anna comes into the room. In American Gangster, there is a section in the album where Jay-Z contemplates about the idea of success and failure, but soon falls into failure. Yet he repeats the process all over again.


The rat maze in Dark City represents the fact that Murdoc was trying to find his way to success, the end, and happiness, and a song in American Gangster, "Success" shows the artist trying to find his way into having success. But yet, the song that follows quickly after that, "Fallin'," quickly shows how you can lose your way trying to find success, or the final end. Jay-Z is basically in a maze trying to find his way out of this "Fallin'," and basically trying to find his "Success."

The Asphalt Jungle Film Post

Foreword: My dearest apologies for not posting throughout the week.

I feel that the film The Asphalt Jungle is more significant than the other films that we have watched in film class mainly because of one reason. This one reason is that The Asphalt Jungle is a vivid representation of the mafioso / early nineties late-rap lifestyle that so many of my favorite rappers have rapped about.

One clear representation of what the Asphalt Jungle was to my eyes, is the great rap albums, Reasonable Doubt & American Gangster from Jay-Z. All of the works of art have that classic plot of where the character hustles his way to make it big, makes it big and revels in the lifestyle that money can easily buy, and finally has their downfall. In the Asphalt Jungle, it's briefly in the scene where Ciavelli is about to have that sweet satisfaction of breaking into the safe and finally getting their jewels. In Reasonable Doubt, it's the song Cashmere Thoughts, a lacadasical romp through Jay-Z's monetary exploits and adventures. In American Gangster, it's the songs, Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...) and Sweet, where Jay-Z raps about winning it into the big time, and just simply seeks to rap about his success.

Just a thought

The Seventh Seal Film Post

I always seem to inadvertently not post the film notes / thoughts I have in my looseleaf up onto to my blog. It's not that I'm irresponsible, the thought always passes my ever-expanding mind.

Anyways the first moment that struck me upon the film was the quote "Love is perfect in it's imperfection." Maybe it is just me, but quotes like these just stick with me.

In all honesty, while the quote does sounds rather cliche and those "something you would say about that subject" matters, why criticize the quote when it is so true? I mean, throughout the film, the bond of Jofs and his wife is certainly imperfect, and yet it seems so perfect. Throughout the film Jofs and his wife are faced with many difficulties, even when they meet Antonious Bloch and the squire, and even throughout the film itself. But yet even throughout the film, through all these trials and tribulations, their connection seems so perfect. So love is truly perfect in it's imperfection, because love always will prevail even through adversity.

My second thought involved the girl who was going to burned for "being a witch." One of the images that the cameraman takes is a diagonal shot of the girls arms and legs spread out on the cross. As the wooden cross lays on the tree, I feel that the girl and the wooden cross represent the idea that God is dead. The cross and the girl, in my opinion, allude directly to Jesus and his common representation as a figure on the cross.

In the final scene, when Death reveals himself to the six remaining people (not including Jofs and his wife), I believe it's an example of irony, and a possible view upon the existance of God. Before Death appears himself in front of the people, the heros are reading a passage from the Bible describing the 7th Seal. It shows that there is silence in heaven, seven angels, and seven trumpets. However, when Death appears upon the dining room, he is shown as the seventh person in the room. This possibly could mean that Death was the "last angel."

Perhaps Death as an angel means that God cannot exist without Death, because God must have his angels to protect him, or it is a example of irony, and a small joke made from the director.

I also noticed that when Jofs and his wife were finally at the beach and Jofs reveals his vision that he had. He mentions that there was a "fool with the lute." Yet, Jofs is seen throughout the film to have expertise in the lute, and he is often cited as the "fool" throughout the film. Perhaps another example of irony.

Runaway Train Super Post

As we finished the envigorating movie, Runaway Train, I can honestly say I was thoroughly impressed throughout the movie. While the movie was (described by Mr. Bennett too) as being very flashy and glitzy, even past that action, the movie was still quite desirable.

One of the first themes I saw briefly was power versus powerlessness in a scene when the train is entering the forest. The camera gives a birds eye view of the train and the forest, allowing us to focus on every aspect of that shot. We focus on the trees that surround the train, and the mountains that are immersed over all. I believe this is an example of power / powerlessness because while the train is main aspect of the whole movie, and it is considered a "powerful" object, in comparison to everything else, the train seems so miniscule and unimportant. It just puts itself onto natures background.

The train itself, while it represents Manny, I think it represents more than just Manny. I believe it represents the integrity that partners can share, because the train cars that connect to each other are bound so tightly, but yet, if you break that bond for good, like breaking the connection between train cars, then that relationship is lost forever. This happened throughout the movie, as the train originally contained all the cars, but yet as the movie continued on, and Buck, Manny and Sarah advanced on, the relationship became more strained. Finally though, as Buck, Manny and Sarah reached the final train car, the relationship finally broke. Hence the train represents the integrity that partners can share, in both bad and good ways.

The train itself also represents the perserverance throughout anything. Much like Manny, the train continues on, crashing through obstacles (such as the other train car, or the wooden tunnels), and will never stop against everything. Even in the last scene, when Manny is standing on the train through the blustering snow, Manny, nor the train still continue on, unopposed by anyone or anything, as long as time will always go on.

Once again, I truly enjoyed the movie, Runaway Train, because while entertaining, it taught me these life lessons that I'll keep in my heart throughout life.

EDIT:

Alright scratch that previous conclusion, that was a little too cheesy and fluffy for my taste. To be honest, I'm not really a cynic nor a pessimist. Maybe that's why I seem to be "glorifying" (used broadly) all these themes and observations I notice throughout the movie. Yet to be honest, these are the themes that really stuck out to me throughout the movie, and (to anyone that does disagree) shouldn't everyone be able to voice their opinion?

Maybe that's why I symphatize the critic sometimes ...

Citizen Kane Part 1

Currently in Mr. Bennetts film class, we're watching a historically significant movie, Citizen Kane. While we haven't finished watching the movie yet, at the very least, the plot is about the mystery of the death of Charles Foster Kane, a relevant newspaper magnate.

Throughout the movie, one motif has stood out to me immensely. The motif of the windows, to me, represents the revealing of more beyond the surface. Each time a window is shown, when Kane is shown bedridden with his snowglobe, or when Kane, Leeway and Berstein are discussing matters in the office, the window is always shown to reveal the inner thoughts, conscience and emotion.

For example, the first occurence of a window is when Kane is shown at the moment of his death with the snowglobe in his hand. The window is shown first, and then the camera zooms in upon Kane himself, as the window indicates the entrance of more than meets the eye.

When Kane, Leeway and Bernstein are discussing matters within the office, the camera zooms in from the window as they continue to talk amongst themselves. The motif of the window speaks true again because when we enter the scene from the window, it reveals their hidden motives, allusions, foreshadowing and so much more.

The motif of windows will surely stand out as the film continues on.

Stalin Quote

I forgot to post this a couple days before but I found this interesting.

While we were browsing through Mr. Bennetts pictures of his trip to Europe, there was one quote that particularly interested me. This quote was:

"The death of a million people is a statistic, the death of one is a tragedy."

Stalin specifically said this quote, and I find the meaning of the quote very profound. I think it's appalling that the death of millions of people is just regarded as another fact of life. While death is eminent regardless, why do we treat the death of so many as another daily occurence. I'm not saying that it should be a public tragedy for these people, but death is death, and it's heartbreaking, at the very least, that the death of so many would be significantly more important than one person.

Just a thought.