Tag: Action
-
Red River. Dir. Howard Hawks. Monterey Productions. 1948.
American expansionism and the frontier myth – the romanticisation of prosperity found in claiming the ‘wilderness’ and the forceful expansion of the American border – pillars of the Western genre [1]. From Jan Troell’s The New Land (1982), John Ford’s Wagon Master (1950) to Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush (1925); Western cinema has constantly glorified the rich…
-
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. Dir. By David Yates. Warner Bros Pictures. 2010.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (2011) is the penultimate film in the franchise. Harry, Ron and Hermione begin a desperate race to understand the instructions Dumbledore leaves after his death, concluding they must find and destroy the horcruxes that keep Voldemort alive before he discovers their quest. The horcruxes are objects containing…
-
Togo. Dir. Ericson Core. Walt Disney Studios. 2019
What does he bring to the breed? The heart of a survivor. [1] The relationship between men and dogs is often explored within film. The contrast between rambunctious, troublesome animals and dominant, controlling men is a source of comedy, drama and widely popular with audiences. Seen in the likes of Beethoven[2] and Marley and Me[3],…
-
Children of Men. Dir. by Alfonso Cuarón. Universal Pictures. 2006.
Children of Men (2006) dir. by Alfonso Cuarón is a science-fiction action drama that takes place in a Britain in 2027. The world for around 18 years has been infertile, unable to produce children. This dystopian scenario has caused all the worlds countries to collapse with the only surviving nation-state being Britain. Britain has remained…
-
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Universal Pictures. 1982
Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), despite its tearful conclusion in which 10-year-old Elliott is parted from his extra-terrestrial friend aptly named ‘E.T.’, is revered for its thematic sentimentality (popularised by its iconic John Williams score) and stood him in contrast to his contemporary auteurs such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, who adopted…
-
See Spot Run. Dir. John Whitesell. Village Roadshow Pictures. 2001.
Agent 11 is one of the most decorated agents in the FBI, but he doesn’t always play by the rules. This time, his vicious attack on mob boss Sonny Talia (Paul Sorvino) has made him the target of a hit. When internal corruption leads to his Witness Protection being compromised, he must…
-
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. Dir. Tom Ellery and Bradley Raymond. Walt Disney Home Video. 1998.
In Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, Pocahontas voyages to England with John Rolfe, an English diplomat. She must stop the villainous Governor Ratcliffe’s manipulation of King James and prevent the King from declaring war on the Native Americans. As expected in a Disney film, she just happens to fall in love with Rolfe…
-
Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!. Dir. By. Peter Lord. Columbia Pictures. 2012.
Aardman never shy away from the ludicrous. So when a crew of incompetent pirates endeavour for protagonist The Pirate Captain to win the Pirate of the Year Award by relying on the commercial value of his prized dodo companion Polly (who should have been extinct for 150 years and is believed to be a parrot)…
-
Okja. Dir. Bong Joon-ho. Netflix. 2017
There are two kinds of pigs that make an appearance in Okja; genetically modified super-pigs and greedy, corporate capitalist pigs. The slaughterhouse scene forces the viewer to dispel any false idealism surrounding the reality of the meat industry, an explicit criticism of how human exceptionalist thinking blended with modern ‘capitalist delirium’ [1] has ruined the…