Ski Race Script | Autofarm Cheat , And More! -2023
Stanley Kubrick's landmark epic pushed the envelope of narrative and special effects to create an introspective look at technology and humanity. Arthur C. Clarke adapted his story "The Sentinel" for the screen version and his odyssey follows two astronauts, played by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, on a voyage to Jupiter accompanied by HAL 9000, an unnervingly humanesque computer running the entire ship. With assistance from special-effects expert Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick spent more than two years creating his vision of outer space. Despite some initial critical misgivings, "2001" became one of the most popular films of 1968. Billed as "the ultimate trip," the film quickly caught on with a counterculture audience that embraced the contemplative experience that many older audiences found tedious and lacking substance.Expanded essay by James Verniere (PDF, 691KB)
Ski Race Script | Autofarm Cheat , And More! -2023
A compelling whodunit reminiscent of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett, "Chinatown" was among the most renowned films of the '70s and holds up impeccably today, thanks to am Oscar-winning script by Robert Towne, flawless direction by the unconventional Roman Polanski, and gorgeous cinematography by John A. Alonzo. A Los Angeles private detective (Jack Nicholson), hired to investigate an adultery case, stumbles onto a labyrinthine plot of a murder involving incest and the privatization of water through government corruption and shady real estate deals that incriminate some of the city's most powerful tycoons. Ultra-glamorous Faye Dunaway is the widow of the murdered water commissioner Nicholson's investigating, and John Huston is her father with more than his share of secrets.Expanded essay by James Verniere (PDF, 828KB)
Told entirely in flashbacks, "D.O.A." is even more cynical than the average film noir, and this cynisism helps distinguish if from other films of the genre. Directed by Rudolph Mate, the film is fast-paced and suspenseful. The use of jazz music, combined with intense close-ups of the musicians, adds to the chaotic, claustrophobic feeling of the film. Edmond O'Brien plays a certified public accountant who awakens after a hard night of drinking feeling worse than the worst hangover. When he goes to the doctor, he learn he's suffering from "iridium" poisoning and has only a few days to live. Determined to find his killer, and aided by his secretary and fiancé Paula (Pamela Britton), he traces a shipment of iridium and kills the men who poisoned him with the lethal chemical. O'Brien is excellent as an ordinary man doomed by circumstance and trapped in a nightmare world.
Spike Lee's provocative story of one long, hot day in the Bedford-Stuyevesant neighborhood of Brooklyn sparked controversy even before it opened in theaters. A study of race relations that for some in the community seems black and white -- literally -- but more often it's a gray area of mutual tolerance. Writer-director Lee also stars in the film whose cast includes Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, John Turturo and at least half a dozen other actors who would go on to bigger and better roles.Expanded essay by David Sterritt (PDF, 630KB)
Gary Cooper is a sheriff who's about to marry Quaker Grace Kelly and hang up his star, but is forced into a final gunfight alone when the townspeople refuse to help him. The film's 84 tense minutes are meant to correspond to the actual time in which the plot unfolds. Carl Foreman wrote the script and planned to direct until the Hollywood blacklist intervened and Fred Zinnemann was tapped to take over. Supporing actors include Thomas Mitchell, Lon Chaney Jr., Lloyd Bridges and Katy Jurado. Beside Cooper's taut Oscar-winning performance, the most unforgettable element of the film may be its theme song ("Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'") by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington.Movie still
A milestone in film history, "Kid Auto Races at Venice" features the debut of Charlie Chaplin's little tramp character as he continually disrupts a cameraman trying to film a soapbox derby car race. A contemporary review in The Cinema noted, "Kid Auto Races struck us as about the funniest film we have ever seen. When we subsequently saw Chaplin in more ambitious efforts, our opinion that the Keystone Company had made the capture of their career was strengthened. Chaplin is a born screen comedian; he does things we have never seen done on the screen before."
Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning script and Sidney Lumet's deft direction paint a piercing and vitriolic satire of television news. In an inspired final performance that earned him a best actor Oscar, Peter Finch plays news commentator Howard Beale who loses his perspective when he's fired by his faltering network. Flooding the airwaves with delusional rantings of self-empowerment, he becomes a messiah to an audience equally fed up with the establishment. In one impassioned tirade, Beale incites viewers to shout "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" William Holden portrays the fading TV executive and Faye Dunaway (Oscar winner for best actress) is the cutthroat program director who'll do anything for ratings. Chayefsky's script won an Academy Award, as did best supporting actress Beatrice Straight, who plays Holden's wife. On screen for five minutes and two seconds, Straight's is the briefest performance ever to win an Oscar.Expanded essay by Joanna E. Rapf (PDF, 813KB)
When ad exec Cary Grant is mistaken for a government agent, he's thrust into a world of spies, including James Mason and his henchman (Martin Landau). They try to eliminate Grant but he is inadvertently framed for murder. On the lam, he boards a train to track down the man for whom he is mistaken. There he meets a beautiful blonde (Eva Marie Saint) who helps him to evade the authorities. His world is turned upside down yet again when he learns the woman isn't the innocent bystander he thought she was, and it all culminates in a dramatic rescue and escape atop Mt. Rushmore. With the help of screenwriter Ernest Lehman's tight script and snappy dialog and a highly animated score by Bernard Herrmann, director Alfred Hitchcock crafts one of his most stylish and entertaining thrillers.
Solomon Sir Jones was a Baptist minister and businessman who also had an important career as an accomplished amateur filmmaker. Jones was born in Tennessee to former slaves and grew up in the South before moving to Oklahoma in 1889. As described on the website of Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the Solomon Sir Jones films in Yale's collection consist of 29 silent black-and-white films documenting African-American communities in Oklahoma from 1924 to 1928. They contain nearly 355 minutes of footage shot with then-new 16-mm cameras. The films document a rich tapestry of everyday life: funerals, sporting events, schools, parades, businesses, Masonic meetings, river baptisms, families at home, African-American oil barons and their wells, black colleges, Juneteenth celebrations and a transcontinental footrace. Jones also documented his travels. IndieWire termed these films "the most extensive film records we have of Southern and urban black life and culture at the time of rapid social and cultural change for African-Americans during the 1920's, the very beginning of the Great Migration, which transformed not only black people as a whole, but America itself." The Smithsonian also has nine reels of film, comprising approximately two hours of footage. The films have been preserved by Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Jim Jarmusch has emerged as a leading figure in independent cinema, and this, his first major film, reflects his non-traditional style. From an earlier version of a script written with his punk rock musician friend, John Lurie, Jarmusch fashioned the piece into a three-part black comedy set in New York, Cleveland and Florida. His main characters, three disillusioned young people played by Lurie, Eszter Balint and Richard Edson, do little more than watch TV, go to movies and play cards. Citing inspiration from the works of Andy Warhol, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, Jarmusch has adopted a minimalist approach to his work that often straddles several languages and cultures.
Before "They Call It Pro Football" premiered, football films were little more than highlight reels set to the oom-pah of a marching band. In 1964, National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle agreed to the formation of NFL Films. With a background in public relations, he recognized that the success of the league depended on its image on television, which required creating a mystique. "They Call It Pro Football," the first feature of NFL Films, looked at the game "in dramaturgical terms," capturing the struggle, not merely the outcome, of games played on the field. Written and produced by Steve Sabol, directed by John Hentz and featuring the commanding cadence of narrator John Facenda and the music of Sam Spence, the film presented football on an epic scale and in a way rarely seen by the spectator. Telephoto lenses brought close-ups of players' faces into viewers' living rooms. Slow motion revealed surprising intricacy and grace. Sweeping ground-to-sky shots imparted a "heroic angle." Coaches and players wearing microphones let the audience in on strategy and emotion. "They Call It Pro Football" established a mold for subsequent productions by NFL Films and has well earned its characterization as the "Citizen Kane" of sports movies.Expanded essay by Ed Carter (PDF, 281KB)
At the time "Unmasked" was released, Grace Cunard rivaled daredevils Pearl White ("The Perils of Pauline") and Helen Holmes ("The Hazards of Helen") as America's Serial Queen. In the film, Cunard is a jewel thief pursuing the same wealthy marks as another thief played by Francis Ford, brother of director John Ford and himself a director and character actor. Cunard, in the mode of many women filmmakers of that era, not only starred in the film, but also wrote its script and parlayed her contributions into a directorial role as well. Produced at Universal Studios, the epicenter of female directors during the silent era, "Unmasked" reflected a style associated with European filmmakers of the time: artful and sophisticated cinematography comprised of complex camera movements and contrasting depths of field. With a plot rich in female initiative and problem-solving, Cunard fashioned a strong character who does not fit the image of traditional womanhood: she relishes her heists, performs unladylike physical exploits, manipulates court evidence, carries on with a man who is not her husband and yet survives the film without punishment. In essence, the character Cunard created echoed the woman behind the camera. Today, "Unmasked" serves as a succinct but illustrative example of the role of women in film history, as depicted in fact and fiction. 041b061a72