Film/Text and Culture

My favorite aspect of this movie would have to be the comedy laced in.  Being a comedy fan, of course this is what I picked out.  Everything from the little timeteller man shuffling around, to the huge hulking giant carrying a big mallet, to the mama’s boy who mama doesn’t really like, they were my favorite characters.  Who doesn’t love a little humor every now and then?

On to some serious stuff I learned today.  I would like to point out that the scene where Sanjuro is being beaten up is pretty much exactly the same scene in The Glass Keywhere Ned Beaumont is beaten up, including the two cronies sitting playing a game and the main character’s cunning escape.  This must be Heisler’s “tip of the hat,” just like George Lucas’ in Star Wars that we discussed today (which really made me want to see those movies again).

Why do directors copy scenes from other directors’ works? It has two sides to it: some might say that this is an easy way out of making a movie, just put a bunch of scenes together that have worked really really well in the past and make them your own.  But I think it is much more than that.  It’s not like they are copying the whole movie (oh wait that happens all the time…), directors are just using little bits that show that they know what a good scene is made of.  I like it.  It works. It entertains the crowd. So why not?

After today’s class, my view  of the book “The Glass Key” has changed completely.  I have never been able to analyze a book the way we did in class today, and it was interesting to break down the true meaning behind every word that Hammett writes.  The scenes came to life, more than a film ever has done.  I feel that the words Hammett uses in the book are so full of imagery, so full of meaning.  The play between red and white in the room where Janet and Ned Beaumont are talking, their play on words, the furniture descriptions, really got to me.

 The fact that Hammett never lets us as readers get into the character’s thoughts is a great way to tell the story, because the story is pretty much based on what everyone is thinking about everyone else.  We are left on the outside, making us characters in the story, trying to solve the murder.  It is a genius way to write a novel.

After analyzing the book like we did in class today, I have become excited to see what else we are going to be doing during the next three weeks.

Well I didn’t write anything yesterday so today I will talk about the movie “The Glass Key” as a whole, combining the two days.  The title at first confused me.  The original book, written by Dashiell Hammett, is where the movie gets most of its plot lines, with a few exceptions, as what happens with all books-made-into-movies.  I am not really a fan of the whodunit genre (I’m more of a romantic comedy girl) so I was expecting to be bored.  The movie in fact was actually better than I expected.  I really grew attached to Paul Madvig, and throughout the movie I really thought he was the one who killed Taylor.  Well I was wrong, which was a nice way to end the movie.  Of course, Ned gets the girl, as was expected, but not in the way I thought it would happen.  Madvig to just hand her over? It didn’t seem right. Except for him taking the ring back. I loved that.

 I just got finished reading the book.  Some of the dialogue in the book was exactly the same in the movie, and at some points the movie scrambled scenes around from the book.  Overall I liked the book better, because it gave me a chance to reread sections that I didn’t pick up the first time.

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