Blog Post 7: The Life Aquatic

Welcome to the Blogging Brooke

This week in class, we that the pleasure of watching a film by one of the world's best directors, Wes Anderson. We watched the 2004 film, The Life Aquatic featuring Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Willem Defoe, I am a huge fan of Willem Defoe, and when I first watched this movie, I remember screaming with happiness when I saw him on the screen.

Here is a link below that will take you to the Trailor:

One of the main things that Wes Anderson incorporates in his films the importance of family and friends. This is what I would like to talk about in my blog today. In this film we are introduced to Ned (Owen Wilson), who is an airplane pilot. Ned tells Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) that he is his illegitimate son and that is when their father-son bond started to form, but like every family, they had their fights. Through all of the fights, Ned and Steve still found their way back to each other. One of my favorite fight scenes is towards the end of the movie when Steve finds out that Ned has been lying about sleeping with Jane (Cate Blanchett), the journalist reporter on their mission to find the jaguar shark that killed Steve's friend.

Ned was a desperate man hoping to have a father figure in his life and to be a father figure to Jane's baby since he did not have that growing up. Anderson did a very good job at tugging at the audience's heartstrings in many scenes of the move, even though the makeup of the film seemed comical. All Ned wanted was to be loved by people he could call family. The closest he got to reaching that goal was the relationship he built with Jane and Stave on their mission to find the jaguar shark. Unfortunately, Ned never got to live out his dream of having a true family because he died in a helicopter accident.

The film ends with Steve finally seeing the shark with the remaining members of his crew. In that moment, you see all of them come together as a family. They had been creating the documentary for months now, and Steve finally got his happy ending of getting film on the jaguar shark, however he is missing a crucial member of the crew, Ned. In the end scene, we see the crew members watching the documentary and getting emotional in Ned's memorium scene. Jane is seen holding her baby and then the camera pans over to the crew and you see an empty seat; I know that this seat was saved for Ned. All I can say is Ned's spirit will be watching over his "family" in heaven. Seeing this film again after not seeing it for a while made me both happy and sad. The way that Wes was able to make a movie both comical and sad is a gift. He is one of the world's best directors, and I recommend everyone watch this movie.

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Blog Post 8: Pan's Labyrinth

Welcome to the Blogging Brooke, Today I will be talking about a 2006 film directed by Guillermo del Toro called Pan's Labyrinth. I enjoyed watching this film, however, the only critique I have is that we watched the Spanish Version with English subtitles, and I feel like the subtitles are a little distracting to the film. Pan's Labyrinth reminded me and my roommate both of the film Spirited Away. It reminded me of Spirited Away because in this film, Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi), leaves her hometown and ends up in a world totally unfamiliar with the one she has known. This ties into the film Pans' Labyrinth because Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), ends up in the Labyrinth world. In this world, she is a completely different person who faces obstacles and lives a different life. Side note: thing that is interesting to me is the movie covers. They look very similar, and they have a similar story line. It makes me wonder if Guillermo h...

Blog Post 13: JAWS

Welcome to the Blogging Brooke, We had the opportunity to watch the cinematic masterpiece; Jaws . Jaws is a horror film that was released in the year 1975 and was directed by Steven Spielberg. I watched this movie for the first time when I was about twelve years old, and getting the chance to watch it at age twenty-one, I understood and appreciated the film and all that took place from a cinema graphic standpoint. I would just like to vent and appreciate the camera angles, greenscreen use, CGI, and the actors. Throughout the film I felt as if I was living on Amity Island with everybody else. This film is different from other Horror films I watch. I am used to watching films like; Annabelle, The Conjuring, The Black Phone, IT, and The Visit , where the intensity of the movie does not start right at the beginning of the film. However, in Jaws, the film opens with an intensity grabbing scene because we see a woman run into the ocean away from her boyfriend, and gets eaten by a ...

Blog Post 2: About Brooke

Hello, My name is Brooke Duncan. I am a Junior at North Central College. I am majoring in Computer Programming, Interactive Media Studies- Technology with a minor in Marketing. I am also a part of the North Central College Women's Volleyball Team. My interest in the arts developed at a young age. I was always seen holding colored pencils, markers, paintbrushes, etc. I would describe myself as a creative person. My specialty lies in sketching, painting, and ceramics; however, more recently, I have expanded my talent in digital art and design. At NCC, I have taken classes that require using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Additionally, I am also interested in editing. The only editing I have done thus far is for student made magazines and various social media posts for friends and family. I believe that my creative talent with the addition of my editorial skills could potentially be useful in the field of film, particularly in the realm of special effec...

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