The Birds

What Hitchcock does in most of his films which I love is he takes something we do and see in an average every day life and turns it into something terrifying.  He made people scared to take showers, made you think twice about your neighbors, and think what if there were murderers at your dinner party hiding a body in a chest.  The Birds is no different.  The reason he gave no concluding explanation to why the birds viciously attacked people was he said that in giving a reason, he would be turning his film into science fiction.  This film is supposed to be very real and make you question what if something that seems harmless that is always around you suddenly became deadly.  Hitchcock wants the audience to consider that this could happen giving his film that frightening element, (or at least for back then, now its a little more laughable then scary).  Having very little music, the sound is extremely important.  The sounds of the birds needs to be realistic and give the audience chills.

American Graffiti

This film is largely about a group of teens from the 60's just hanging out on an average summer night.  They cruise around in their cars starting street races and fights and picking up girls.  There is no one story line, just a bunch of characters doing their own thing.  No clear objective or goal is in mind for these kids, other then Curt who is still debating on leaving for college.  The music is a huge aspect of the film.  From the rock and roll music coming from the car stereo to the jukebox in restaurants the music gives a complete realism to the scenes.  I personally am not too familiar with the time period, so at first I thought they actually had a destination through all that driving.  Further into the film I realized that just aimlessly cruising around with no destination was their idea of something to do letting the night and people they run into control the events.

Psycho

Every time I see this film, I am more and more intrigued with the character of Norman Bates.  He just seems quiet and normal with a dominating mother who he cares for.  Its not until the ending it is revealed he's completely insane.  The music is so critical in Psycho with it alone building the suspense.  Watching the famous shower scene with and without music, there is such a huge difference.  One scene that I have always loved is when Norman is carefully covering up the murder that his "mother" had just committed.  The entire scene has no words and you are so focused on what he is doing making sure he cleans up every spot of blood.  At this point, you need to stop and realize that you are almost rooting for him to not be caught and successfully cover up the murder.  

Edward Scissorhands

With any Tim Burton film, you have to expected the production design, art direction, and costume design to be very different.  Edward Scissorhands is a prime example of classic Burton.  Everything about Edward stands out from the neighborhood where every single house is the same with a different solid shade of a pastel color.  From his dark, broken down mansion up a mountain to his black outfit, he is a complete contradiction from everyone else.  The second you see the design of his home you immediately know this person does not belong.  Very early in the movie the audience realizes how truly genuine and pure he is despite the sharp knives and scissors he has for hands.  He is so gentle with the lethal weapons attached to him he can cut a dogs hair.  When Edward does speak, which is barely ever, he talks in such a low and soft tone furthering the idea that he is completely harmless...well, until you try to kill him after you hurt the girl he loves.  The entire production brings out the sympathy for Ed needed to make this movie impressionable.

Network

For our unit on screenplay, Network is definitely the perfect film.  The entire movie is just the screenplay.  This 1976 film emphasizes how crazy and extreme the news is behind the camera.  The memorable character Howard Beale is played by Peter Finch.  When ratings get too low he is fired.  His response to this- announce on air he's going to kill himself.  This of coarse skyrockets the ratings so they keep him on.  As he completely descends into lunacy the viewers cant get enough of him.  He becomes their channel into their own anger and frustration.  The famous line that is said with such power is "im mad as hell, and im not gonna take it anymore".  The news has not changed since this movie, people are still so intrigued by the craziness and wild antics of people that they cant look away.

His Girl Friday

A newspaper editor Walter Burns ' ex wife is about to be married to another man.  In the coarse of only one day, he tries to get Hildy to come back to him and leave her soon-to-be husband.  Cary Grant plays Walter who uses tricks and anything else he can to get her to stay.  After a series of sabotaging and convincing her to investigate one last murder case, she goes back to him.  There wasn't any music at all that i can remember except for in the beginning and end, and was mostly all dialogue.  I've even read that this movie is one of the first to have the actors speak their lines over each other instead of waiting  for them to finish.  This was meant to give a more realistic tone of conversations.

Twentieth Century

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Twentieth Century is the insane, slightly over the top character Oscar Jaffe, played by John Barrymore.  I thought his face was going to fall off his facial expressions were so exaggerated.  The story is that he is a successful Broadway director working with a wannabe new actress named Lily Garland.  As time goes on she becomes a star to the point she wants to leave and grow further as a movie actress.  Realizing his shows are nothing without her, he follows her on the Twentieth Century train where the rest of the film takes place.  There are a good amount of laughs throughout the film and Barrymore's performance is worth watching.