Final Post

I had never watched many films in class. I asked some of the domestic students is it true that watching movies in class is sometimes part of the lecture either in high schools or colleges. Back home, watching films is class is not a usual thing for me. I did not realize that I actually could get knowledge from watching film. I never thought that old movie could be interesting, but still depends on the movie plots.

After few weeks attend in this class, I do enjoy some of the movies but not all of them. For example, I do enjoy watching Court Jester (1955). There are senses of humor in this movie that I really like. The second movie that I enjoy is The Sword in the Stone (1963). Not only because that it was a Disney movie, but the content of the movie. This movie is that kind of morally uplifting stories. This story includes magical adventures and provides life lessons that indicated. In general, history film or medieval films is a new field of study. From my personal experience, I would say that watching history films in class would be a good idea for students.

The Passion of Joan of Arc vs. The Pilgrimage

I choose to compare between the first movie that we’ve watched in class, The Passion of Joan of Arc, and the recent movie, The Pilgrimage. There is a big difference between the two of this movie not only based on the technology improvement, but also the plot of the movie. In the movie The Passion of Joan of Arc, I was confused watching it most of the time. I believe one of the reasons is because it was a silent movie. Other than that, The Passion of Joan of Arc transition was also a little bit slower. There is some part of the movie shouldn’t take so much time. This movie actually can be a short video if some of the scenes can be shortened.

The movie The Pilgrimage was made in 2017. We can see that there is much more improvement in the movie. I found myself enjoyed watching this movie and it is easier for me to understand and relate to the movie. Along with that, there are some aspects that I found really interesting. They used a lot of languages to communicate with each other. Other aspects that I like about The Pilgrimage are the plots. It has a really nice plot of stories that make the movie interesting. The conclusion is, there is so much improvement in the movie industry and I believe that there are still more that can be improved.

Critiques on How to Train Your Dragon

For my first double feature paper, I choose the movie The Sword in the Stone (1963) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010). Both of this movie are animated fantasy film. The Sword In The Stone was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, scripted by Bill Peer (based on the TH White Novel), and the music in the movie was composed by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman (The Sherman Brothers). On the other hand, How to Train Your Dragon was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois.

Historically, one of the effective ways to teach a lesson is by storytelling. The movie How to Train Your Dragon has a great message to the audience, especially children. One of the aims in this was to send a modern message. Characters for medieval usually viewed as large and tough, especially for the Vikings. Hiccup, which is the main character, have weak characteristics such as lacks strength, charisma, and confidence. Despite being weak, he tried to convince his father and the village that they are wrong. When Stoick sees the final results, he discovers that the dragon is really quite sweet.

Toothless the dragon has an interesting and imaginative design than any other normal dragon. For me personally, think that Toothless’ facial expression and body movement are very cat like most of the times. Overall, this is a charming and enjoyable film about family and friendship that can appeal to any age of group.

Open Post: Animated Films

Growing up watching Disney’s movie has been part of me even until today. We watched an animated film Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone last Thursday. Watching this movie, I suddenly felt nostalgic and filled longing for the past. I remembered that my sister and I used to watch Disney’s movie rather than our local animated films. It also reminded me that we actually did not really understand what the movie is about especially when English is not our first language. One of the reasons why we were watching Disney’s movie rather than our local animated films is to improve our understanding of the language. It was a privilege for us during that era. Today back in Malaysia, kid gets to change the voice from the original sound to another language such as Malay. The reason is that children would understand the film. It is obvious that the technology has been improved, but nowadays kids would not know the struggle for us the 90s kid to understand a movie with a foreign language.

One of my favourite animated films is “Frozen”. This is a modern movie that was made in 2013. Frozen is a 3D computer-animated musical fantasy film that was produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. This story is about two sisters, Princess Elsa that have control for magic, and her younger sister, Anna. The important lesson from the movie is that family is important. The relationship between Anna and Elsa clearly emphasizes family love. My favourite part of this movie is, when Anna was dying because of a frozen heart and the only cure was a true love. Instead of getting kissed by a prince charming, Elsa’s sacrifice has melted her frozen heart. This kind of lessons should be implemented in modern animated films because women do not necessarily need a prince charming in their lives, and from a very young age, kids should know that.

My outlook on Hollywood History class

Before the class started, I expected that we will watch a lot of old films since the class is about Hollywood history. Since I have never really watched an old film from any country other than mine, (Malaysia), this class is an opportunity for me to have a better understanding of Hollywood.

As we all know, Hollywood blockbusters are well-known internationally. For example, the latest Avengers movie titled Avengers: Infinity War, has been welcomed very well in Malaysian cinemas. I would say that I watch more modern Hollywood than movies from my own country. A difference that I can see between Hollywood and Malaysian movies is that the movie-making techniques in Malaysia are still far behind. In addition, Malaysians are conservative even though our country is a multiracial country. They tend to keep the values and cultures of Malaysians. Therefore, certain behaviors and beliefs from Hollywood movies could be excessive to Malaysians due to a difference in culture.  

My thoughts about medieval movies will include royalty families, war, and castles. My first impression of our first movie in class was interesting. We were watching “The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)” and it was a silent movie. We were able to read only the subtitles because the movie was nonverbal. Reading subtitles is not a problem for me because back home we used lots of subtitles for most of our dramas and movies since our country is a multilingual country. Some people might have a problem with subtitles because it would be hard for them to watch and to read at the same time. Even though it was a nonverbal movie, the facial expressions and background music plays a big role in telling the story. I never thought that I could stay awake for the whole movie and understand it well.

My expectation for this Hollywood history class would be expanding my knowledge about all aspects of medieval films. Having a better understanding would change my definition and thoughts of medieval films.