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Cinema Critique
This scene is from the movie, The Untouchables. It's very interesting and embodies themes like loyalty and corruption or even perseverance. This film really recreated the 1930’s Chicago and I felt the sets of the scenes were well thought out. They were also good at coordinating clothing with like moods, like wholesomeness with white clothing and corruption with black clothing. But the untouchables are kind of represented through individualistic clothing styles. The scene is mimicking the Odessa steps another famous scene. The director puts his own spin on the scene while still having the baby stroller rolling down the stairs.
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The scene starts out slow mo and camera closes up on one of the gun men. Before this there is a shot of the clock which is reoccurring. The way they film the shooting is interesting by first showing the action of holding the gun and a little recoil but then cutting to the other side as the others fall with the sound of the bullets. While this is all going on in slo mo they pan over from the top of the stairs and get a wide shot of the shooting at the top. the camera cuts then to a close up of man being shot and his reaction. The scene goes without talking so when we next get a close up of the mom as her baby goes rolling down the stairs we can only guess that she's saying no. We then get a close up of the baby and they finally realize hes rolling down the stairs in his stroller. This part I think is amazing because while still in slo mo the shots cut back and forth to the stroller being shot at and shot by while its cuts to the men being shot after and the direction down stairs to the other gun men. we then get a close up on the wheels right before it hits the bottom. As the baby is saved the time returns to normal and the scene gives this heart warming moment when we find out the baby was untouched and okay, smiling.
Documentary Review
Blackfish is a documentary from 2013 which was made to raise awareness of the danger of keeping the orcas in captivity, specifically in SeaWorld and other marine amusement parks. The film is very effective in the technique it uses to raise moral questions to the audience and combined with the fact based approach really catches the attention of the viewer. The film follows the life of a male orca named Tilikum. The question presented in the film is if Tilikum's aggressive behavior is a byproduct due to his many years of captivity of being coerced to do things against his nature. The film also questions if humans themselves really have the right to incarcerate these animals and separate them from their natural habits in the wild and families. Blackfish uses logic in its claim stating that an orcas are intellectual beings that notice all of its surroundings and all human interactions. As shown in the film when taken out of their natural habit the resulting factors lead to mental stress and aggravation. Blackfish uses the emotions of the animal trainers and logic to persuade viewers boycott SeaWorld in order for them to undergo financial downfall, hoping it will make them change their practices in abusing the whales.
I really liked that the film's ability to open up people's eyes to the mistreatment of whales and SeaWorld itself. I also really like how effective the film is in using ethos through the logic given in the interviews and information. I felt some of the interviews themselves were very emotional and appealed to the audience especially when talking about death. When John Crowe talked about how wrong he knew it was but did it anyways, It gave me this feeling of asking myself why do humans do unmoral things for an assentive like money. I really dislike animal abuse so this film really struck me hard and made me really open up my eyes to the situation. When I was younger living in Orlando I would go to SeaWorld a lot not knowing how animals were treated and how this captivity affected them. I really enjoyed the old film itself and seeing the shots of the orcas out in the ocean and how the trainers would train with them. In certain moments like especially during the interviews with the seaward workers I felt their unknown knowledge that the orcas really die faster in these pool environment left us thinking why the people who take care of these animals are misinformed. I noticed that some film techniques in the film were like the cross cutting between a black screen and the trainer and whale themselves during the phone calls. The music and tone of the callers kind of brought this darkness and put the viewers on edge. I think animation itself was another really big film technique used here and in specific events like the court cases having the people drawn out on line paper was a good choice by the director. The words were more of typed out on the screen while the intense music and clicking of the typewriter were the only sounds. I also felt the music was a really good technique and helps the audience focus in on the listening aspect.
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I would definitely recommend this film to anyone who wants to learn more about SeaWorld or unmannered treatment that goes on in these animal amusement parks. The emotion behind them talking about the trainers death really left me almost crying and filled me with sorrow for both the trainer and animal. This questioning of morals and factual evidence catches the audiences attention and really reaches out so maybe the viewer can help create change. This documentary really will change your point of view on animal treatment and if humans really are even in the right by taking these animals out of their own homes. Overall if you are looking for a film that you want to cry and be opened up to this world of animal captivity and mistreatment, then I think that film hits home and is a good informative documentary.