Downfall

In my opinion, Downfall did an excellent job visually portraying the story of WWII from the German point of view. The actor playing Adolf Hitler did an excellent job. From the beginning of the film, the director shows exactly how dynamic and powerful Hitler's presence was. Mor importantly, he is able to illustrate the line between genious and insanity that Hitler so mesmorizingly flirted with. As we begin the movie, the group of girls waiting for Hitler in the hollow, cold, and empty room right away show the power of Hitler. Each girl displayed a nervous emotion on their face, mixed with almost an overwhelming joy to actually meet the man. The downfall of the German army at the battle of Berlin mirrors Hitlers downfall as an individual. As his army begins to deteriorate, so does Hitler. Within the first few minutes of the movie, we know that this is taking place during the last hours of Hitlers life. However, it is not until Hitler begins to understand the he is losing the battle and his city, that he begins to fall apart. On several different occasions throughout the movie, we notice Hitler holds his hand behind his back, in an elegant and sophisticated sort of stance. However, the audience can see that his hand is violently shaking as if he is sick or perhaps nervous.

The camera and mise-en-scene of the movie do a lot to further illustrate the downfall of Hitler. The city of Berlin is in shambles. As the Russian army approaches, Hitler orders the army to destroy everything. We see documents and papers and enormous piles of equipment and supplies being burned and pillaged, simply so the Russians couls not get their hands on it. The camera angles and frames often help to illustrate the situation. As bombs were dropping and exploding, the camera would shake violently, as it would for a soldier first person. In one particular scene filmed in the bunkers below ground, the camera zooms in on a glass of water sitting on a desk, that shakes and the water ripples as the bombs overhead continue to drop.

The director also is able to very powerfully illustrate the horrible effects the war had on the civilians, especially the children. Multiple times throughout the movie we see civilians running helplessly for their lives while bombs and guns are being shot everywhere. In the scene with the young boy who refuses to leave the bunker he is firing rockets from, we see how desperate Hitler's army becomes. In the instance of the doctor who ran into the hospital to try and retrieve medicine, we see him running down halls empty of people, yet littered with anything imaginable in a hospital. We can hear his footsteps echo throughout the hospital, and when he comes across the room with the old and dying people, we immediatley see how helpless and powerless the civilians have become. Not only is Hitler doing nothing to supply them with help medicinally, but they are helplessly stuck in a hospital that is in the middle of a war zone.

PROJECT PROGRESS

Well, to be honest, there has not been much progress on my project thus far. Everything behind the scenes is ready, like people to interview and questions to ask, it is just a matter of getting the wheels in motion. On a good note, the filming aspect will not take as long as first anticipated. I have enough people ready to give interviews and share ideas and stories related to parking. It is just a matter of getting the camera and shooting.

Sunday Picture

This is the picture i took at 12 noon on sunday. Well, it is not exactly noon but close enough. Anyways, my bedroom is right next to the front door, so after opening the door i simply pointed, and clicked. The railings and colomns of my front porch are visible in the foreground, with my car parked in the middle, my front lawn, and a car driving past the light pole just as i clicked, that is why it is blurry. I think for just a random picture, it turned out pretty good.

Movie Titles

The first movie title I looked at was from the 1984 classic Terminator. After a brief scene showing the chaotic war against the machines in the year 2029 and a short description of what exactly how this came to be, the title scene begins. The entire title scene is battle music playing while the letters which spell Terminator cross across the screen backwards, so that the R-O-T-A-N come from left to right, and the T-E-R-M-I come from right to left. Initially, it is unclear what the letters are doing, or if the images on screen are even letters. However, by the end, the camera zooms out and The TERMINATOR is clearly written. Although the graphics are from 1984, you can tell it was the directors effort to make them look as high tech and futuristic as possible since the movie is suppose be about a war taking place in the future. Also, I feel that the letters are a similar representation of the movie because they are unclear to the viewer until the very end, which is similar to this movie. The answers to the audience's questions are not fully revealed until the end of the movie.

Diana George- Deflecting the Political

Everyday on the news America is updated on the war in Iraq, whether it is telling us we now control a certain city, or perhaps it is just a tally of the death count for that day. Either way, Americans are only exposed to a small fraction of the actual action happening in the war. If every American had total access to seeing the war every step of the way, do you feel like we would still be in this war? And if not, how long would we have lasted? If every American had that type of technology during the times of teh Vietnam War, do you believe a Desert Storm or War in Iraq would have even came to be?

Do we naturally sympathize with the execution of women, even if their crimes are equally as brutal as those of men? Is it easier to see a man be executed than a women?

Font

As far as fonts go, I feel that the Tekton Pro Ext font fits my personality. It is not the most professional looking font. I do not think any document of high importance has been published in it, but it definitely fits for comic strips and cartoons. It comes off as having a sort of laid back look, yet it is very distinguishable because it is somewhat bolder than most regular fonts. If this font was at a party with other fonts, I think Tekton Pro Ext would be hanging out with Comic Sans MS, Kozuka Gothic Pro, Papyrus, and all the Wingdings, ‘cause everyone knows how crazy those wingdings are.