Screwball/Romantic

Screwball comedy is something I think that you have to get used too. It is something really different from the traditional comedies of our era. The film His Girl Friday (1940) is a prime example of a screwball comedy. This movie takes place in a newspaper headquarters. It is the story of the head director trying to get his wife back that works in the same building. It shows some different aspects of comedies and has some good scenes in it. Screwball comedies are different from romantic comedies in a couple of ways. An example of this, is that screwball films don’t really show that intense sexual interaction, and or realistic romance. It tends to emphasize the funny side of love versus the serious side. It often makes fun of the process that romantic comedies intend to do. The characters are also often eccentric. This is true of the characters in His Girl Friday. This is seen when the character that is in love with Earl Williams, suicide attempts are ignored. By more or less ignoring the suicide, it is the most upbeat way of dealing with it. The ending of this movie is also typical for a screw ball comedy because the action happens until the very last moment.
In romantic comedy one gets a different sense of the humor because there are a lot more physical and romantic aspects. An example of a romantic comedy we watched in class was, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). This is a typical romantic comedy in many ways. It emphasizes love versus comedy. This movie in general was sad and emotional; it hits the heart a lot more then the screwball comedy. The plot does slow down at the end which is also typical of a romantic comedy. This leaves the audiences questioning if they will end up together.
The two films His Girl Friday and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are very good, but very different. His Girl Friday falls under the "screwball comedy" category while Eternal Sunshine is more of a "romantic comedy."

The Western Aspect

A topic of theme I am picking to write about is about Unforgiven and StageCoach. The first topic I am going to discuss with you is that cowboys are very reckless and will shot for no reason. In the film Unforgiven you see gun play in a lot of the scenes they show. It is almost a normal to expect a gun in almost every scene you see. But the cowboys in the movie do show some different sides to them involving the guns. For example Ned can’t shoot because he can’t shoot an innocent man. Will has to take over and kill him for Ned. This shows that Ned has some judgment and sees what will happen if he does. But on the other hand Will does not show any remorse when killing someone and does it with no thoughts. In a totally different scene you see Will not kill anyone and he just seems very calm about the whole situation around him. StageCoach on the other hand seems like they don’t use guns as much as they did in Unforgiven. This to me is very odd because in a western you see a lot of guns and in StageCoach you do not see many at all. An example of this is when Ringo tries to escape and the sheriff doesn’t even fire a shot he just runs after Ringo to stop him. I really don’t know about this movie because you want to see gun play in a western and I don’t like that there wasn’t much in the movie.
Another topic I will talk about is the role of women in the two films. In StageCoach they do not play as a big role and do not see them in many shots of the movie. I mean some scenes have them but throughout most of the film they just play a person who cleans and helps the home. But in Unforgiven it is the totally opposite. They play a big role and they are really all way thought the movie. One of the whores cut her faces cut up and the rest of them put a bounty of the heads of the cowboys who did this. This shows that they have a power or importance in the movie which is a very weird thing to see. Another thing you see in the two films is that the sheriff doesn’t seem to have much influence. In Stagecoach the sheriff holds Ringo the whole trip but he really doesn’t show your typical cop beating up on the inmate. But in Unforgiven little Bill shows no mercy on the cowboys and whoever get in his way. He whips beats and does anything he can to stop the violence in his town.

Behind the scenes

Hondo Behind the scenes

The film I chose was Hondo and it was directed by John Farrow in 1953. The main character Hondo is played by John Wayne a lone cowboy on a mission. When Hondo first came out it was a little too late. What i mean by that is that the film actually incorporated 3-D throughout the film. But when they released it the film was at the very end of the 3-D boom for the time period. But too be at the end of the period it actually did pretty well in the box offices. People were excited to see there favorite cowboy back in the saddle after three years without him in the spotlight of a western. As Bob Furmanek and Jack Theakston say “John Wayne's western masterpiece HONDO (1953) has long been heralded by critics as one of “the Duke's” finest independent achievements.” It shows that the critics actually really liked Hondo and what John Wayne contributed too it.
But they go on to say that the public was not very interested in the film which seemed wrong to me. I got the impression that the audience really liked Hondo but I honestly don’t know. The public wanted too see a great 3-d movie and maybe it did not live up too there dreams of what they were hoping. Personally I liked the 3-d I saw in the movie and it added a aspect I would have not expected. I think that today it would have done not too great. Just because these days’ people really dislike westerns because of there simplicity of the same boring plots. But back then I would have thought it would have done really well.
John Wayne as Hondo in the film did a tremendous job in the movie. He did an awesome job with acting and he played once again the strong silent type looking I thought for a fight. But he also had a soft side to his madness and actually cared about others and there feelings. You just expect John Wayne too be this big tough angry cowboy who is the bad guy. But no he is the hero of the movie and helps the people of the Mexican desert. The other charter I am going to tell you about is the little boy Johnny. He plays a key role in the film because he plays as the ambassador between his mom and the Indians. He is just a really layed back kid and plays his role really well. I enjoyed him the movie and would like too see more of his films. The music in the film went hand and hand with each other. I thought the music played a great role in tying the movie into the old west. It was the typical cowboy music that everyone knows and expects out of a western these days. Too sum up the movie i would half to say that i really enjoyed the film and it was all around a decent movie. I would recommend it too anyone who likes westerns or John Wayne. The picture is from http://www.mikequatro.com/westernposters/hondo.gif