Some Things Are Universal

Jesse Zell
Professor Perez Tejada
English 1102
February 21, 2009

Some Things Are Universal

When a movie is exactly what you expect, it is not memorable but can still be entertaining. This is especially true when looking at the movie Redline, which was filmed in the United States and the Bollywood movie Dhoom from India. Redline is a film from Hollywood. It is a story of high stakes gamblers who race exotic cars. The film centers around one of the racers, his war veteran brother, and a beautiful female mechanic turned driver. Dhoom is a Bollywood film from India. It is a classic cat and mouse chase between a talented thief and an almost clairvoyant detective who is a local legend.
At first glance these movies both seem to be completely different films. Redline was filmed in the United States and was marketed toward a young male audience. Dhoom was made in India and while still an action it appears to be diluted with lots of singing, dancing and side stories about love and attraction. Though the movies were written, filmed and directed on different sides of the world, Dhoom and Redline are different takes on the same basic story involving robbers, beautiful women and fast vehicles. These movies are different nations and cultures takes on the classic action/adventure genre film. Though these movies are very similar, they are not carbon copies of each other. Both movies are representative of the cultures in which they were filmed. This can best be seen in the director’s choice of vehicles to reflect the home culture of the characters, the way women are both portrayed and made up, and the different choices for the actual filming of the movies.
In both Redline and Dhoom, the vehicles driven by the main characters become not only props to aid in the Mise-en-scene; they almost become characters on their own. The difference between the vehicles used in the two movies are representative of the cultures in which the movies were filmed.
In the American film Redline, the use of super exotic cars from famous companies - with copious amounts of horsepower and very loud exhausts - helps to show the excess in which their owners live life. In a movie where the main characters are willing to bet millions of dollars on a single automobile race, these super fast, loud and beautiful cars helps to aid in the “putting on of the film.” Super exotic cars are used in an American production because cars are so much a part of American culture. If anything but the very most exotic sport scars were used in the film it would not resonate with the audience in the same way. This is because of the fact that there was a chance they saw that very exotic on the drive over to the Cineplex. The director’s choice to use product placement in the form of these automobiles is an integral part of modern American film. According to Katy Bachman of Media Week; “The silver screen is being treated like a golden opportunity for automakers looking to draw attention to new car launches.” (Bachman) Exotic cars also help to show the excesses that the characters are living.
In Dhoom, much like in Redline, the vehicles ridden by all of the main characters help us to better understand the essence of their characters. In Dhoom, the main characters, both hero and villain alike, drive motorcycles. Motorcycles are much more popular than cars in India. This is for many reasons, the largest of which is that Motorcycles are much more affordable than cars. In fact, when one of the villains in the film buys a car the gang’s leader drives it over a cliff saying that “that normal people cannot have such a car.” Dhoom and Redline both have a very large part of the movie directly based on betting on racing; the difference in the two movies is simply that the directors wisely chose to shoot scenes in which the main characters are piloting a vehicle that the audience can honestly believe they would be driving. This adds an element of realism to both of the films as well as the use of these very beautiful motocycles and sports cars adds a lot to the depth created by mise-en-scene. At the end of the day, the use of different vehicles is the directors take on how to film his genre film.
One of the largest differences between the Bollywood film Dhoom and the Hollywood Film Redline is how female characters are portrayed. In Redline the main female character was written as a sapphire-eyed hot mechanic who drives faster than the boys, answers her cell phone at 125 mph, and even fronts a band (sample lyric: ''You can grip me like a steering wheel'').(Kirschling). In Dhoom the female characters get much the same treatment of being beautiful and talented. The main difference between the Indian and American female characters is that the Indian character is treated in a more revered way. She is dressed and sings much like her American counterpart, but the director and cinematographer never film her in such a way to make her look objectified. In the Indian film the female protagonist is always shot in a flattering light. In addition, the actress never locks lips with a male actor – even in the midst of a very seductive song sung from a husband to his wife, he merely kisses her on the ankle. This choice to leave much of the sexual interaction to the imagination actually acts to heighten the onscreen chemistry between the actors and makes for a very interesting on screen dynamic.
This follows the widespread convention of not showing sexual acts in Indian films. According to Triveni Gandhi “Traditionalists within India are enraged by explicit displays of romance in movies, and they view the increased use of sexual content as an attempt to mimic “Western” culture.” (Gandhi) This is a reflection of the fundamental beliefs of the cultures and their inherent differences in culture being that they live in not only different parts of the world but among other things have different levels of industrializations and predominantly believe in different religions. Needless to say, in the American film there are lots of overt sexual acts and lots of onscreen lip locks.
It is interesting that in both the Bollywood film Dhoom and the American film Redline the leading ladies are the representative of the standards of beauty of their home country and are made up accordingly. In American Cinema it is the modern film convention to have the female main character very talented, dressed in very little clothing and to wear lots of makeup. These conventions help with the mise-en-scene and help us to better understand the female characters in Hollywood films. In Bollywood films the women are also dressed in revealing garments, however they generally are more reserved. They also wear less makeup; this is simply a mise-en-scene convention in Bollywood Cinema and it helps to reflect the Indian standards of female beauty. Ironically, both directors cast women who fall within what David Boles among others consider to make humans universally attractive. These hallmarks include: “big eyes, tall and lean, symmetrical face, well-defined muscles, thick hair, large hands and glowing skin...”(Boles) It may be coincidence but, in both movies the female main characters sing multiple times in the course of the film. Regardless of nation of origin a beautiful women singing and dancing on screen is a sure way to attract movie patrons.

Even with very similar plots in the two movies, it is very interesting how differently the two movies are filmed. Redline is filmed in a very fast paced style with in-your-face action sequences and a linear story line. This overall style of filming gets you from exposition to denouement, but does so in a very unimaginative and uninspiring way. Dhoom is filmed in a much more casual style that tells a story all on its own. There is no hurry in the filming and the movie even has a break for an intermission, yet the plot never seems to stall. This seems to be a joint product of intermittent large scale choreographed song and dance scenes, and a well written script. One common element in both Dhoom and Redline is the use of large scale explosions. It seems that no modern action film can be filmed without lots of things going up in flames. It appears that both directors are fans of this approach.
Even though the movies were written, filmed and directed on different sides of the world, Dhoom and Redline are different takes on the same basic story. Both films center on robbers, beautiful women and fast vehicles. Noting that these movies belong to the same genre and are marked to the world as opposed to any one nation is not to say that they are carbon copies of each other. These movies are representative of the cultures in which they were filmed. This can best be seen in the director’s choice of vehicles to reflect the home culture of the characters, the way women are both portrayed and made up, and the different choices for the actual filming of the movies.
Works Cited

Bachman, Katy. “Car Makers Hit the Movies.” Brandweek (2009). 2 Oct. 2009 <http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=5&did=1644412261&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1235936480&clientId=30287>.

Gandhi, Triveni. “Bollywood: Kiss Kiss Hug Hug.” 25 March, 2008. < <http://www.campusprogress.org/filmtv/2728/bollywood-kiss-kiss-hug-hug>.

Boles, David W. “The Human Universal Beautiful” Cutting The City Core. 24 July 2006
<http://urbansemiotic.com/2006/07/24/the-human-universal-beautiful/>.

Kirschling, Gregory. “Redline” Entertainment Weekly (2007) <http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20035652,00.html>

No Man's Land - (Exactly)

In No Man’s Land, a heavy fog and a simple mistake play as the first two dominos to a chain of unfortunate events that end with only the ravens and the peacekeepers just doing their jobs. Because of critical media attention and the risky politics of being neutral, a situation that would otherwise be unremarkable flowers into a political, physical, and mental battle for everyone involved.

All of the establishing action takes place within a trench between the opposing Serbian and Bosnian lines, a proverbial no man’s land. The message of the movie focuses more on the product of the action rather than the action itself; however, the camera assumes plenty of low-angle shots while crawling the trenches and extreme long shots while facing the warring lines from afar. Thanks to the skillful camerawork, we can almost feel the limits of the trench peak just over our heads. Special camera pans and cranes are scarce, but such prudence adds to the scenes that finally do employ such movements.

The film plays with the global ties between two warring nations and the neutral parties that must still play according to protocol. On an individual level, the soldiers not only find common ground during the time they are not vying for situational control, but they also learn that neither side is even sure who started the war. For the soldiers, the war becomes secondary to their egos and the lives of their comrades after the unconscious man wakes. That does not make the war any less real, however, and initially the UNPROFORCE is not interested in helping the men from the trench because of the political and physical energies that would be sacrificed to help them. It is the English news crew that puts pressure on the UNPROFORCE command to allow Sergeant Marchand to help, because on a global level it is more important that the UN save face. It shows that global interaction first fuels the war by the spread of disinformation, and then entangles it by the pressure to remain politically legitimate. In the end, a lone man remains to succumb to whatever fate may choose because, on a global scope, all has been attempted that is worth attempting to save his single life in the face of more unwanted global attention.

Turtles can Fly: A Comment on Iraq

A boy on the Iraqi and Turk border takes on the task of being a leader of the children in this no man's land. His name is Soran but he is known as Satellite. He uses the money from installing satellite dishes and the collection of mines to take care of the children.

The scenery is at times quite beautiful and uncharacteristic of what is thought of when thinking of Iraq from an America's point of view, While at other times, where war and the government has touched the environment, it is either mud or in decay. This stresses the effect that the government and the war have had on the Iraqi people. The brother of Agrin, a girl Satellite likes, has no arms and plays an important role in showing the hardships caused by war. Even though he has no arms he continues to remove mines from the ground surrounding the village because there is no better way of making money. Throughout the film several characters are heard making comments on the restrictions of Saddam and the government and how it prevents their safety. One thing that happens is that news is cut from the radio towers, so that the refugees and villagers cannot escape the country when the war begins. This is a protest of the director/writer against the former government's ways of manipulation. 

The actors, although not professionals, lent a reality to the film that really brought it to life. I thoroughly enjoyed this film's story and its message against oppressive governments and war.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

The content of the post written by Aubrey Winship is the first comment because blogspot will not allow you to copy paste from Word for the original post. Thanks for understanding!

Joint Security Area: JSA

Nine Queens

 upThe movie Nine Queens is a movie representative of new Argentine cinema. It is a story of two caught artists who meet in a convenience store when Marcos observes Juan attempting to pull off and money changing scam to stop by his father when he was a small boy. Marcos asks Juan if he would like to be his partner for the day due to the fact that Marcoses partner has been missing for about a week and Juan agrees reluctantly saying that he needs to make some money to help his father. These two men worked together to pull off a scam involving the sale of nine rare stamps to a stamp collector. A turn occurs in the movie when the buyer of the stamps declares that he will only buy the stamps if they are delivered to his room by Marcus's sister who is a receptionist at the hotel in which the gentleman resides. The director finishes with a denouement that will leave the audience laughing, feeling a great sense of relief for certain characters and scratching your head as the pieces fall in place.

The director of nine Queens, Fabian Bielinski is a very talented director who also happened to write the script for the film. He uses mise-en-scene through costumes and makeup especially well to help give the characters the look that helps to convey that they are living in on the fringes of an Argentinian society and that to feed themselves or get revenge for wrongdoings the must rely on themselves; there is no higher authority such as a government to help them out. The director uses costume to convey this to the audience in a way that it could never be done with just a few lines of dialogue. He also makes use of many tight camera shots to better show some of the tricks of the trade these con men use over the course of the movie. It is a clever way to show some things that are very important to the story without drawing too much attention to them. Fabian Beilinsky wrote and directed an amazing movie in nine Queens with an even better ending.

-- Written by: Jesse Zell

l'Premiere Post

Oui