Unit 26, Task 1
Western film genre
Western is a genre devoted to telling stories, set in the American west, of the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the later 19th century. Characteristics of westerns were taken from popular western fictions created before film became a widely used art form. They typically include a cowboy, gunslinger or bounty hunter depicted as a wanderer. They are often shown wearing a Stetson and spurred boots carrying revolvers or rifles.
Westerns were popular in the silent era; however, when sound was introduced in 1927-28 major Hollywood studios stopped making westerns to make larger scale films, opening the door for smaller studios to make countless low-budget western features and serials in the 1930s. Westerns popularity was re-established in 1939 by major studio productions such as “Union pacific”, “Destry rides again” and John Ford’s notable “Stagecoach” hitting the big screens with great success making John Wayne a star after a decade of new westerns.
Clint Eastwood was another actor made big by the demand for western films in the 1960’s with his ‘Dollars trilogy’. The production companies say there is an opportunity in the film market for these popular westerns.
Western films conventionally portray conflicts between Native Americans and white settlers, showing the Natives as the villains when they won’t do what the white people want, which is usually some sort of money making scheme. Even when there was a white person doing wrong against the Native Americans it was always another white person to save the day. This was a typical western movie plot amongst variations, but later in the western era, the less culturally bias westerns showed Native Americans through a fairer light, sometimes with an outcast Native American defending the white settlers from the other angry natives. Others show outcast white settlers helping to save the Native Americans from the richer white people who usually have some plan to remove the Native Americans as part of a money making scheme.
In stagecoach, John Wayne plays an outlaw cowboy who is being chased by the military during a time when the Native American, Geromino, and his Apache Indians are attacking white people as a protest to being on their land. When a coach full of travellers all wanting to make a trip for different reasons is making its way through territory so dangerous the military won’t even escort them, John Wayne’s character, the Ringo Kid, after being arrested by the coach, saves the passengers and driver from the Apache Indians.
In this case the Ringo kid is the wanderer, the stagecoach come across him in the middle of the Native Americans land, at this point the military are still with the stagecoach and so arrest him; it is later, when the military leave the escort that the stagecoach is lucky enough to still have the Ringo kid there with his sharp shooting skills to hold off the Apache Indians until more military come to their aid. The Native Americans, the Apaches, aren’t given much screen time. No Apache is introduced in the film, they are only talked about as a collective group, except for the leader, Geromino, who is mentioned but never seen. This shows that they are not thought of as important people in that time and setting, they are merely props to make a story more interesting.
‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ is a spaghetti western, which follows three men in their hunt for gold. Rather than focusing on the rivalry between white settlers and Native Americans, this western shows how three cowboys, who don’t seem to be bothered by the civil war, meet each other various times along their journeys all looking for the same treasured gold. This is an early example of a western that depicts the white man as the bad guy, showing these men against each other and it being almost a coincidence that they are in the west which could cause more problems than necessary for the characters, but in doing so creates an exciting film.
The Lone Ranger is another film that shows the white man as the bag guy, this time with the Apache Indians playing a much more prominent role in the film. With Butch Cavendish and Latham Cole planning to harvest all the silver on the Apache’s land, it up to the Lone Ranger to work with Tonto and the rest of the Native Americans to stop the rail works and mining and save the Apache’s sacred land.
Western is a genre devoted to telling stories, set in the American west, of the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the later 19th century. Characteristics of westerns were taken from popular western fictions created before film became a widely used art form. They typically include a cowboy, gunslinger or bounty hunter depicted as a wanderer. They are often shown wearing a Stetson and spurred boots carrying revolvers or rifles.
Westerns were popular in the silent era; however, when sound was introduced in 1927-28 major Hollywood studios stopped making westerns to make larger scale films, opening the door for smaller studios to make countless low-budget western features and serials in the 1930s. Westerns popularity was re-established in 1939 by major studio productions such as “Union pacific”, “Destry rides again” and John Ford’s notable “Stagecoach” hitting the big screens with great success making John Wayne a star after a decade of new westerns.
Clint Eastwood was another actor made big by the demand for western films in the 1960’s with his ‘Dollars trilogy’. The production companies say there is an opportunity in the film market for these popular westerns.
Western films conventionally portray conflicts between Native Americans and white settlers, showing the Natives as the villains when they won’t do what the white people want, which is usually some sort of money making scheme. Even when there was a white person doing wrong against the Native Americans it was always another white person to save the day. This was a typical western movie plot amongst variations, but later in the western era, the less culturally bias westerns showed Native Americans through a fairer light, sometimes with an outcast Native American defending the white settlers from the other angry natives. Others show outcast white settlers helping to save the Native Americans from the richer white people who usually have some plan to remove the Native Americans as part of a money making scheme.
In stagecoach, John Wayne plays an outlaw cowboy who is being chased by the military during a time when the Native American, Geromino, and his Apache Indians are attacking white people as a protest to being on their land. When a coach full of travellers all wanting to make a trip for different reasons is making its way through territory so dangerous the military won’t even escort them, John Wayne’s character, the Ringo Kid, after being arrested by the coach, saves the passengers and driver from the Apache Indians.
In this case the Ringo kid is the wanderer, the stagecoach come across him in the middle of the Native Americans land, at this point the military are still with the stagecoach and so arrest him; it is later, when the military leave the escort that the stagecoach is lucky enough to still have the Ringo kid there with his sharp shooting skills to hold off the Apache Indians until more military come to their aid. The Native Americans, the Apaches, aren’t given much screen time. No Apache is introduced in the film, they are only talked about as a collective group, except for the leader, Geromino, who is mentioned but never seen. This shows that they are not thought of as important people in that time and setting, they are merely props to make a story more interesting.
‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ is a spaghetti western, which follows three men in their hunt for gold. Rather than focusing on the rivalry between white settlers and Native Americans, this western shows how three cowboys, who don’t seem to be bothered by the civil war, meet each other various times along their journeys all looking for the same treasured gold. This is an early example of a western that depicts the white man as the bad guy, showing these men against each other and it being almost a coincidence that they are in the west which could cause more problems than necessary for the characters, but in doing so creates an exciting film.
The Lone Ranger is another film that shows the white man as the bag guy, this time with the Apache Indians playing a much more prominent role in the film. With Butch Cavendish and Latham Cole planning to harvest all the silver on the Apache’s land, it up to the Lone Ranger to work with Tonto and the rest of the Native Americans to stop the rail works and mining and save the Apache’s sacred land.
Task 2
Auteur – Baz Luhrmann
An auteur is a Film director that maintains creative control over the movie often writing the script them selves and making important decisions about the plot, scenery or acting. The also show recurring themes and collaboration throughout movies they make often reflecting their background and upbringing.
They have unique styles, each creating their own signature within the title of auteur. An auteur will often have a favourite genre of which they direct creating similarities. Because of the auteur theory, the director is one of the main authors of the film and therefor is the original copyright holder under European Union law.
Francois Truffaut says: “A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the original material.”
Baz Luhrmann is well known for five feature films: Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo & Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Australia (2008) and The Great Gatsby (2013). These are amongst many other shorts that he has directed.
20th Century Fox have produced every film that Luhrmann has directed. Fox was the only studio that allowed him to maintain his artistic independence; they take care of the business side, giving him and his wife, Catherine Martin, more development time of the creative process. Catherine has worked on all of his films, as has editor Jill Bilcock. This collaboration gives similarities to his movies.
Luhrmann’s first movie, ‘Strictly Ballroom’ was influenced by his youth, when his parents entered ballroom dance competitions in Sydney, their hometown. Some of his other films are also set in Australia, clearly influenced by his background. Luhrmann also includes the same actors in multiple films; Nicole Kidman plays the lead female in ‘Moulin Rouge!’ and ‘Australia’, Leonardo DiCaprio plays the male lead in ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ and John Leguizamo appears in ‘Moulin Rouge!’ and ‘Romeo & Juliet’. These actors playing in more than one of his films shows how they must have had a good experience on the first film. In 2008 Nicole Kidman agreed to play the female lead in ‘Australia’ without looking at the script, and when trying to convince fellow actor Hugh Jackman to accept the male lead role he told her he hadn’t even seen the script and to which she replied, “forget the script, Baz Luhrmann is directing it.”
‘Strictly Ballroom’, ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and ‘Moulin Rouge!’ are known as Baz Luhrmann’s red curtain trilogy. A red curtain feature is one that promotes audience participation during screenplay, making the viewer aware that they are watching a movie, not real life. This puts distance, or a curtain, between the viewer and the characters, much like a show theatre. This style relates back to Luhrmann’s interest in musical theatre and his studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts.
Luhrmann’s directing style makes his films quite distinct from others, they all use fast paced editing and loud melodramatic acting with vibrant mise-en-scene and popular music.
In Romeo & Juliet the movie starts with a newscast of lovers found dead, being a re-make of a well-known story most would already know the outcome so the interest is more in how the story is portrayed. In other movies, Luhrmann gives away something at the beginning leaving anticipation in how the characters get to that point. In Moulin Rouge! Satine is seen coughing blood near the start of the movie, giving us information that the other characters do not know. In The Great Gatsby the opening scene is Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s best friend, talking to a doctor about Gatsby in the past tense. This makes it obvious that Gatsby has died and instantly makes the viewer want to know why and how.
One of the most interesting things about Baz Luhrmann as an auteur is the way he uses modern music in films set long before this kind of music would have been written. Moulin Rouge! in particular uses music that was written a long time after the setting of the film. Set in 1899, music by Nirvana, The Police, Elton John, Madonna, Queen, and David Bowie was seen to be out of place by some people, but many thought it added great interest to the film and made it more relatable with music people knew before the film was released in 2001.
In ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Luhrmann makes the whole film modern by setting it in 1996 and using guns, cars and helicopters to give a new viewing experience to the already popular 1595 play by William Shakespeare.
This idea of changing the time of the setting of the story was unusual but something that Luhrmann is good at doing. It’s things like this that put Baz Luhrmann amongst other world class auteurs as a credit to the film industry.
An auteur is a Film director that maintains creative control over the movie often writing the script them selves and making important decisions about the plot, scenery or acting. The also show recurring themes and collaboration throughout movies they make often reflecting their background and upbringing.
They have unique styles, each creating their own signature within the title of auteur. An auteur will often have a favourite genre of which they direct creating similarities. Because of the auteur theory, the director is one of the main authors of the film and therefor is the original copyright holder under European Union law.
Francois Truffaut says: “A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the original material.”
Baz Luhrmann is well known for five feature films: Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo & Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Australia (2008) and The Great Gatsby (2013). These are amongst many other shorts that he has directed.
20th Century Fox have produced every film that Luhrmann has directed. Fox was the only studio that allowed him to maintain his artistic independence; they take care of the business side, giving him and his wife, Catherine Martin, more development time of the creative process. Catherine has worked on all of his films, as has editor Jill Bilcock. This collaboration gives similarities to his movies.
Luhrmann’s first movie, ‘Strictly Ballroom’ was influenced by his youth, when his parents entered ballroom dance competitions in Sydney, their hometown. Some of his other films are also set in Australia, clearly influenced by his background. Luhrmann also includes the same actors in multiple films; Nicole Kidman plays the lead female in ‘Moulin Rouge!’ and ‘Australia’, Leonardo DiCaprio plays the male lead in ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ and John Leguizamo appears in ‘Moulin Rouge!’ and ‘Romeo & Juliet’. These actors playing in more than one of his films shows how they must have had a good experience on the first film. In 2008 Nicole Kidman agreed to play the female lead in ‘Australia’ without looking at the script, and when trying to convince fellow actor Hugh Jackman to accept the male lead role he told her he hadn’t even seen the script and to which she replied, “forget the script, Baz Luhrmann is directing it.”
‘Strictly Ballroom’, ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and ‘Moulin Rouge!’ are known as Baz Luhrmann’s red curtain trilogy. A red curtain feature is one that promotes audience participation during screenplay, making the viewer aware that they are watching a movie, not real life. This puts distance, or a curtain, between the viewer and the characters, much like a show theatre. This style relates back to Luhrmann’s interest in musical theatre and his studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts.
Luhrmann’s directing style makes his films quite distinct from others, they all use fast paced editing and loud melodramatic acting with vibrant mise-en-scene and popular music.
In Romeo & Juliet the movie starts with a newscast of lovers found dead, being a re-make of a well-known story most would already know the outcome so the interest is more in how the story is portrayed. In other movies, Luhrmann gives away something at the beginning leaving anticipation in how the characters get to that point. In Moulin Rouge! Satine is seen coughing blood near the start of the movie, giving us information that the other characters do not know. In The Great Gatsby the opening scene is Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s best friend, talking to a doctor about Gatsby in the past tense. This makes it obvious that Gatsby has died and instantly makes the viewer want to know why and how.
One of the most interesting things about Baz Luhrmann as an auteur is the way he uses modern music in films set long before this kind of music would have been written. Moulin Rouge! in particular uses music that was written a long time after the setting of the film. Set in 1899, music by Nirvana, The Police, Elton John, Madonna, Queen, and David Bowie was seen to be out of place by some people, but many thought it added great interest to the film and made it more relatable with music people knew before the film was released in 2001.
In ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Luhrmann makes the whole film modern by setting it in 1996 and using guns, cars and helicopters to give a new viewing experience to the already popular 1595 play by William Shakespeare.
This idea of changing the time of the setting of the story was unusual but something that Luhrmann is good at doing. It’s things like this that put Baz Luhrmann amongst other world class auteurs as a credit to the film industry.
Presentation notes
Baz Luhrmann
Films
· Strictly ballroom,
· Romeo & Juliet,
· Moulin Rouge,
· Australia,
· The Great Gatsby
Background
· Born in Sydney
· Parents were ballroom dancers
· Fascinated with movies and musical theatre
· Attended national institute of dramatic arts to pursue a career in acting
Collaboration
· Nicole Kidman- Moulin Rouge, Australia
· Leonardo DiCaprio- Romeo & Juliet, Gatsby
· Worked with wife Catherine Martin on all of his films
· Together they created ‘Bazmark Inq’
· Editor Jill Bilcock has also worked on all of his films
· All films produced by 20th century fox
· Stories with world wide appeal but keeping loyal to his background
· Fox was only studio that allowed him to maintain his artistic independence
· Fox take care of the business side of things allowed Baz and his wife extended development time of the creative process
Favours genre of Romantic Comedy
Visual and aesthetic style
· Bright costumes
· Energetic dancing
· Exaggerated performance
Directing style
· Fast-paced editing
· Loud melodramatic acting
· Bright, vibrant mise-en-scene
· Popular music
‘Red curtain vision’
· To actively promote audience participation
· To make audience aware they are watching a movie not real life
Makes audience aware of outcome at start of film
· Romeo & Juliet- news cast of lovers found dead
· Moulin Rouge- Satine coughing blood
Auteur
· Distinctive recognisable style
· Follows a theme –bright colourful costumes, eccentric acting, collaboration, fast paced editing, recurring theme of difficult love
Bazmark inq motto
“A life lived in fear is a life half lived”
Films
· Strictly ballroom,
· Romeo & Juliet,
· Moulin Rouge,
· Australia,
· The Great Gatsby
Background
· Born in Sydney
· Parents were ballroom dancers
· Fascinated with movies and musical theatre
· Attended national institute of dramatic arts to pursue a career in acting
Collaboration
· Nicole Kidman- Moulin Rouge, Australia
· Leonardo DiCaprio- Romeo & Juliet, Gatsby
· Worked with wife Catherine Martin on all of his films
· Together they created ‘Bazmark Inq’
· Editor Jill Bilcock has also worked on all of his films
· All films produced by 20th century fox
· Stories with world wide appeal but keeping loyal to his background
· Fox was only studio that allowed him to maintain his artistic independence
· Fox take care of the business side of things allowed Baz and his wife extended development time of the creative process
Favours genre of Romantic Comedy
Visual and aesthetic style
· Bright costumes
· Energetic dancing
· Exaggerated performance
Directing style
· Fast-paced editing
· Loud melodramatic acting
· Bright, vibrant mise-en-scene
· Popular music
‘Red curtain vision’
· To actively promote audience participation
· To make audience aware they are watching a movie not real life
Makes audience aware of outcome at start of film
· Romeo & Juliet- news cast of lovers found dead
· Moulin Rouge- Satine coughing blood
Auteur
· Distinctive recognisable style
· Follows a theme –bright colourful costumes, eccentric acting, collaboration, fast paced editing, recurring theme of difficult love
Bazmark inq motto
“A life lived in fear is a life half lived”