Casablanca is about an American nightclub owner who lives in Morocco during World War II. Rick, the main character who owns the Cafe Americain, is a tough, no nonsense type of guy who had a complicated past. Casablanca, the city where most of the film takes place is a refuge for people trying to escape the war torn Europe of the time.A man named Ugarte comes to Rick with letters of transit which he was planning on selling, but is arrested before he gets the chance. Rick now has the letters and is deciding what to do with them. Ilsa, Rick’s ex from Paris and her new man show up into his Cafe Americain one day and clearly need his help. They know Rick has the letters and want to buy them off of him. Ilsa had pretty much broken Rick’s heart a while back and now needs to convince him to give her those letters. The piano player Sam, plays a beautiful song on the piano which is also meaningful to both Rick and Ilsa because they used to listen to it together when they were a thing in Paris. Ilsa’s attempts to get the letters that Rick had now hidden in the piano have failed. She eventually threatens him with a gun and he still refuses. Michael Curtiz, the director did a nice job in this film. He made Rick out to be a heartless and troubled man for most of the film but he eventually does the right thing by making Ilsa and Laszlo get on the plane. It was interesting that the film was actually made during World War II as well. The mise en scene felt accurate for the time period including the Nazi uniforms and the decor in the Cafe. I really enjoyed how everything was brought together so well in the film.

Do The Right Thing was directed by Spike Lee, focuses on Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. It takes place on one of the hottest days in the summer in a relatively poor neighborhood. The area is made up of a largely black population but focuses on the Italian run pizza place and it’s black delivery man. Sal Fragione owns the pizza place with his two sons who are pretty racist in the film. The young black guy who is called Buggin’ Out thinks the store is racist for not putting up pictures of black people on the wall of fame in the store. He causes trouble throughout the film and mainly makes it about race. The summer heat doesn’t help the growing tension between the white store owners and the black community in Bed-Stuy. I found it very interesting that Spike Lee was cast as one of the main characters (Mookie) while he was directing the film. Spike Lee’s actual hometown was Brooklyn too. This gave the film a somewhat accurate representation of the are during that time and really captured what it was like to live in an area like that. There was a lot of rap/hip-hop in the film and the radio guy Señor Love Daddy would make broadcasts throughout it. I also enjoyed how he was cast by Samuel L. Jackson and that it was one of his starting films. As the movie went on and the tensions rose, the guy named Radio Raheem started blasting his music in the pizza place. He adored his boombox and Sal destroys it with a bat after a fight broke out. The cops eventually come and add a police brutality aspect into the film which was intended to make a statement for that time. Radio Raheem ends up getting killed in the chaos by the police. The black community was outraged and Mookie eventually throws a trash can and proceeds to help burn down Sal’s place. I think the fire was symbolic and showed that it was the summer heat that eventually ruined everything and caused a massive fight. The heat caused people to lose their tempers and I liked how the fire captured that in the end.

Antoine Doinel is a young school kid who is trying to find his way in the world. In this French New Wave film, we follow Antoine’s mischievous childhood while he is trying to find meaning in his life. Throughout the film, Antoine often finds himself getting into trouble just for the fun of it. He is harshly disciplined at home and usually gets in trouble at school as well. After skipping school and using his mother’s death as an excuse even though she didn’t actually die, Antoine runs away to his friend Rene’s house. The mise en scene in this film had a very old feel to it as it was made in 1959. The director, Francois Truffaut did a wonderful job on the film. Trauffaut is considered to have started the French New Wave movement which focuses heavily on using long takes, jump-cuts, on location shooting, natural lighting, and direct sound recording. You can tell that throughout The 400 Blows, these types of shots are used a lot. Especially in the last scene of the film when Antoine runs away from the youth detention center, there is a very long shot of him running to the water on the beach. The score used in this scene was very nice as well. The ending shot when the camera zooms in and then freeze frames is considered a very famous part of the film since it hadn’t really been done before. It was very symbolic as well because Antoine talks about seeing the sea earlier in the film and finally gets what he wanted by the end. But when he gets there, it seems like he doesn’t know what to do next or what his future may hold. Overall, I thought it was a great film.

The World War II film Inglorious Basterds takes a different approach to most WWII films. Most WWII films focus on strictly the facts while Inglorious Basterds focused mainly on satire and legend. The Inglorious Basterds are a mainly Jewish force that are tasked with killing Nazis in the film. The Nazis are afraid of them mainly because of the legends and rumors surrounding them. Yes, they do bash Nazis brains in with bats and kill many others in the film, but it seems like the Nazis peg them out to be almost mythical. The film tried to be almost comical at times and really had a funny approach to a very dark time. They even used music in the film that was way past the time period. I enjoyed the film and I think Quentin Tarantino did a good job for what he was trying to accomplish. It wasn’t exactly historically accurate but it did capture the feelings of hatred against the Nazis and their feelings toward the Jews. From the opening scene when the Nazi inspector was finding the Jews hidden under the floor boards, it was a pretty thrilling viewing experience. Also, the Nazi sniper that had at least 200 confirmed kills was an interesting touch to telling the story. He pretty much became a celebrity for what he had done as a soldier and when he tried hitting on the Jewish girl that survived the attack from the opening scene, it was very interesting to me. The mise en scene from the film was what I expected from a WWII film. They had the uniforms and the whole old buildings from the time period down pretty well. I also liked how the Inglorious Basterds were cast mainly as actual Jews. Overall, I liked the film, and I liked how all of the editing, cinematography, and sound tied together the feelings that would’ve been felt at that time period.

Shutter Island is a captivating film about a mental patient who doesn’t even know that he’s in a facility. He plays out an elaborate role play as a U.S Marshall (Teddy Daniels)trying to find and escaped mental patient. The whole idea of him finding her is staged by his doctors trying to make him realize that he is a mental facility. Martin Scorsese did an excellent job directing this film. The mise en scene also brought the whole feeling of the movie together. Between the outfits that the Marshalls were wearing(Teddy and Chuck) and the old feeling of the A,B, and C blocks, it really felt like a throwback to the 1950s. The old civil war fort that was used as C block was done especially well. The scene wear Teddy talks to George Noyce was very eerie. The score was creepy as well as the lighting used. There were deep shadows mixed with Teddy hallucinating his dead wife. In my opinion, the whole feel of the film was very creepy and mysterious. Towards the end of the film, we find out that Teddy is actually the mental patient and has been at Ashecliffe for two years. His actual name is Andrew Laeddis and he killed his wife because she killed their three children. This shocked me because he was played out to be the main protagonist throughout the film and we find out that he actually had a very traumatic and dark past. We were led to believe that Teddy didn’t kill his wife and that Andrew Laeddis(who is actually him) burned his house down and killed her. We find out that it was actually Teddy(Andrew) and that he covered up his memories with an alter ego. It was nearly impossible for Andrew to admit that he killed his wife and it felt like he was still the good guy at the end of the film. I believe it was done very well and i really enjoyed this film.

Bonnie and Clyde is an exciting movie about two unlikely partners. Bonnie first meets Clyde when she catches him eyeballing her mother’s car. She confronts him and he plays it off stating that he was just looking to buy a new car. This subtle response shows how Clyde is a sly fellow and can talk his way out of sticky situations. This first meeting tells us a lot about Clyde and his personality. Bonnie starts walking with Clyde and trying to figure out what his deal is. He seems to love saying that he cut off his two toes in prison to get off work detail. He repeats it a few times throughout the film. As Bonnie and Clyde are talking it seems like Bonnie thinks he’s full of himself and doesn’t really believe much of what he is saying. Clyde precedes to rob a store to prove a point and Bonnie runs off with him in his car. One odd thing about the film to me was Clyde’s relationship with Bonnie. They were obviously in love, but Clyde would often reject Bonnie’s sexual moves on him. The scene where they drove off after their first “heist” is a great example. Bonnie was trying to make out with Clyde and he was telling her to slow down and stop. Then he explained how he “isn’t much of a ladies’ man”. This was odd to me because he was clearly charming her and trying to impress her and then doesn’t want to do anything sexual with her.

After the first robbery, Bonnie was hooked and wanted to enjoy an exciting life of mischief and crime with Clyde. When they come across C.W. Moss, it seems like they are shopping for a new member to add to their “Barrow Gang”. Moss seems like a goofy, gullible kid. Another interesting thing to me was how Clyde actually cared about some people, even the people he was robbing. When he robbed that grocery store and the butcher tried killing him with the cleaver he seemed shocked. He was asking Bonnie why that guy was trying to kill him when he clearly just robbed his store. It was like in his mind he was saying that he wasn’t actually a bad person. Another instance was at that farmhouse that the bankers owned. He shot up the sign and let the farmers who’s farm it had been shoot the windows. It seemed that from this point on in the film, Clyde had a vendetta against banks.

Jump to later in the film when Bonnie, Clyde and Moss meet Clyde’s brother Buck and his wife. Clyde seems very close with his brother. When we find out that Buck had broken out of jail, we knew that the “Barrow Gang” was about to get two new members. The gang goes to a house in Missouri which they had paid for to hideout in for a while. The police eventually show up and things get very intense. They kill a few cops and get away. Buck’s wife Blanche was freaking out the whole time and screaming at the top of her lungs. We find out pretty quickly that Bonnie hates everything about Blanche. Also, now that they have killed a couple of people there is no way they can stop running. As the robbery and crime continue, things keep getting more and more intense for the gang. It becomes obvious that they most likely won’t make it out of this mess alive. Throughout all of this, Clyde is the main person holding the group together and defusing fights and arguments.

The gang eventually finds themselves in a small hotel. Bonnie starts sassing Blanche again and she starts yelling at Bonnie. Clearly a lot of tension. Clyde once again defuses the situation bye having Blanche go get chicken and ice cream with C.W. Moss. At the store, a bystander spots a gun and tips off the police. Blanche and C.W. get back to the hotel and an insane amount of cops show up. They also have an armored vehicle. A firefight commences and explosives are thrown at the cops. Buck gets shot in the head but is still alive and Blanche gets hit in the eye with class from the window or something. They somehow make it out alive but are then attacked the next morning in the field where they stayed. Buck and Blanche are left behind and Clyde gets shot in the arm, Bonnie gets shot in the shoulder when they are wading through a river. Eventually, they go to C.W.’s house and we meet his dad. He acts very hospitable but is actually pissed at C.W. for running with them(and getting his ridiculous tattoo). His dad makes a deal with the police to save C.W. from being killed. While C.W. goes into town with Bonnie and Clyde, he stays in the hardware store and smiles as Bonnie and Clyde drive back to his house because they were spooked from the police. As they are driving back and sharing an apple, they spot C.W.’s dad fixing his truck. Clyde gets out and sees C.W.’s dad dive and crawl under the truck. The police hose down Bonnie and Clyde in an overwhelming and gruesome manner. The End.

Citizen Kane is an interesting movie about a man that has everything, but also nothing. It shows the humble beginnings of Charlie Foster Kane and how he was sent away in order to obtain a better life. To me, Kane being sent away from his parents was a deal with the devil. Although Kane was unwillingly sent away, he basically lost his parents in order to achieve wealth and fame. When Kane started growing as a newspaper magnate, he seemed to become more isolated and started losing his friends and the people he loved. His first wife no longer loved him, and the singer he was seeing, Susie Alexander, started growing closer to him. Throughout the film, it seemed that nobody really understood Kane or had any idea why he did the things that he did. In my opinion, the only person who understood Kane was himself. He basically forced his wife into being an opera singer so she could be in the same standing as he was. He built a priceless castle named Xanadu for him and his wife to live in, and she didn’t even want to live there. He manipulated his wife into doing what he wanted when she clearly didn’t want anything to do with it. This lead to her eventually packing up and leaving Kane. He died shortly after and his last words were “Rosebud”. This was the name of his sled from his childhood. It basically showed how his childhood was ripped from him, which led him to become a lonely, possession driven man who nobody understood. When people were going through Kane’s countless possessions, they drew a blank on what any of them actually meant. He had so many expensive objects from all over the world that were nice and all, but didn’t tell anyone anything about Kans himself. Nobody could even make sense of the last word he spoke…Rosebud.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.