Weekly Film 10 (Texas Killing Fields)

Texas Killing Fields is a 2011 Crime, Drama and history film directed by Ami Cannan Mann and written by Don Ferrarone. It only made £635,798 thousand in the box office.

"Souder, a homicide detective in a small Texan town, and his partner, transplanted New York City cop Detective Heigh, track a sadistic serial killer dumping his victims' mutilated bodies in a nearby marsh locals call 'The Killing Fields'. Though the swampland crime scenes are outside their jurisdiction, Detective Heigh is unable to turn his back on solving the gruesome murders. Despite his partner's warnings, he sets out to investigate the crimes. Before long, the killer changes the game and begins hunting the detectives, teasing them with possible clues at the crime scenes while always remaining one step ahead. When familiar local girl Anne goes missing, the detectives find themselves racing against time to catch the killer and save the young girl's life."

This film reminded me very much of Seven as it featured two detectives solving a series of murders however in my opinion, I prefer Seven because you were able connect with the characters and got to know the protagonists families more enabling you to feel more sympathy. Although i did enjoy this film i felt the ending wasn't very well put together because it didn't reveal who the murders actually were and one mysterious character being shown throughout; we never found out who he actually was. 

Weekly Film 9 (Top Secret) to be continued

Top secret! is a 1984 comedy film written and directed by Jim Abrahams, whose previous picture had been Airplane!.  This film is a parody of both the musicals starring Elvis Presley and spy films of the cold war era. The film had a budget of £5.9 million and made £13.5 million in the box office. It's cast includes Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge, Peter Cushing and Omar Sharif. 

Val Kilmer stars as Nick Rivers, a handsome American 50s-style rock and roll singer. While performing in East Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful heroine and becomes involved with the French Resistance. 

Weekly Film 8 (The Hunger Games Mockingjay: Part 2)

The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 is a 2015 Adventure, Sci-Fi film directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Peter Craig. The budget of this film was £106.2 million and made £347.9 million in the box office. This film was part of the third instalment of the Hunger Games trilogy but the producers split the last book into two films. This enables the producer to generate more money because they have more films and the large audience will raise their gross. 

After young Katniss Everdeen agrees to be the symbol of rebellion, the Mockingjay, she tries to return Peeta to his normal state, tries to get to the Capitol, and tries to deal with the battles coming her way...but all for her main goal; assassinating President Snow and returning peace to the Districts of Panem. As her squad starts to get smaller and smaller, will she make it to the Capitol? Will she get revenge on Snow? Or will her target change? Will she be with her "Star-Crossed Lover", Peeta? Or her long time friend, Gale? Deaths, Bombs, Bows and Arrows, A Love Triangle, Hope. What will happen?

The film contains themes of survival, protection, poverty, power and conflict. These themes are the same as the last two films because they are all based around the same story, although all the films show different story lines and how their lives progress the themes are all predominantly the same. 

Weekly Film 7 (The Hobbit: The Battle Of Five Armies)

The Hobbit: The battle of five armies is a 2014 adventure, fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson and written by Fran Walsh. This was also based off of J.R.R Tolkien's book. It had a budget of £166 million and made £643.9 million in the box office. This film is the third and final film of the Hobbit trilogy. Being the final instalment of the series and being based from the books, the film already had a wide audience and so was able to make more money. 

After the Dragon leaves the Lonely Mountain, the people of Lake-town see a threat coming. Orcs, dwarves, elves and people prepare for war. Bilbo sees Thorin going mad and tries to help. Meanwhile, Gandalf is rescued from the Necromancer's prison and his rescuers realize who the Necromancer is.

The battle was the main awaited scene of the movie and was very exhilarating but i felt it took it's time to build up and some of the talking and deciding was long winded.

Weekly Film 6 (The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a 2013 high fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson. It was produced by WingNut Films in collaboration with New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and is the second installment in the three-part film series based on the novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.  The budget of the film was £149.6m with it's total gross being £171.7m. 

After successfully crossing over (and under) the Misty Mountains, Thorin and Company must seek aid from a powerful stranger before taking on the dangers of Mirkwood Forest--without their Wizard. If they reach the human settlement of Lake-town it will be time for the hobbit Bilbo Baggins to fulfill his contract with the dwarves. The party must complete the journey to Lonely Mountain and burglar Baggins must seek out the Secret Door that will give them access to the hoard of the dragon Smaug.

This film contains themes of deceit, unrequited love, combat and greed. All these themes are shown throughout the film and are enhanced depending on the situation 

Mediterranea and Rust and Bone Comparison

Mediterranea is a 2015 Drama film written and directed by Jonas Carpignano. It follows two men and their dangerous journey travelling from Africa to Italy for a better life. It focuses on the hostility they go through as refugees travelling from country to country and the life and death situations they are faced with.  

Rust and Bone is a 2012 French Drama and Romance film written and directed by Jacques Audiard. Alain leaves Belgium for Antibes to live with his sister and her husband after he is put in charge of his young, helpless son. Alain soon bond’s with killer whale trainer Stephanie, but their bond strengthens after Stephanie suffers from a tragic accident.

In both the films the protagonists share a similar goal. To make their families happy. In Mediterranea Ayiva wants to please his daughter and give her the things she needs and wants. All he strives to do by travelling to Italy is to earn. Alain has the same goal. Although this goal is not obvious during the start of the film by the end this goal is obvious and Alain shows his true feelings towards his son, which is that he ends up healthy and happy.

One theme that is shown in both is escapism. In Mediterranea the film focuses predominantly on escapism as the protagonists Ayiva and Abas are ‘escaping’ Africa in search of a better life for their families. By working in Europe they not only want to escape the harsh reality of poor living in Africa but they also want their families to escape the struggles of living in Africa by sending gifts and money back from Europe in order to give their families the lives they deserve. In Rust and Bone both protagonists are also attempting to escape something in their lives. Alain tries to escape his feelings by competing in bare knuckle fights but he also tries to escape his son. Alain isn’t portrayed as the most caring father and is constantly trying to find excuses to get away from his son, but we eventually see his fatherly nature shine through when he must save his son. The other protagonist Stephanie on the other hand is trying to escape something very different. After a traumatic event, Stephanie loses her legs from below the knees. She tries to escape the feeling of worthlessness. Stephanie wants to continue her life as normal but at times is shown to start to give up.  She also escapes judgement of seeing someone disabled, she does this by being brave and doing things such as being carried into the sea to swim.

Our themes for A2 film are power, poverty and conflict all of which are used in the films which makes them both useful and potential case studies. Mediterranea has a strong theme of power. The power is shown through race. The black people who have come to Italy are the minority and the white people are the majority. In one dramatic and traumatising scene Abas gets beaten up, nearly killed by a group of white men. They have ultimate power in this scene, to be able to determine whether someone lives and dies is an example of too much power being given to someone.

Poverty is also used in this film and is evident from the very start, to have to move countries in order to give something to your family is an obvious sign of high poverty. This is still going on in the world today, people move countries in search of a better life due to the poverty and desperation that is evolving. Poverty is also used in Rust and Bone, which we can see from just looking at their living arrangement. Alain and his son now live in a small house with Alain’s sister and her husband and outside in their back garden is where they keep their animals is tiny penned cages in horrible conditions. Also Alain takes part in bare knuckle fighting to make money which can be devastating for his health.

Overall both films were evident of our main themes and included other themes also. I enjoyed them both as they both told very different stories but followed their struggles to show how life is very difficult for people. They also represent different mediums. For example Rust and Bone represents disability and Mediterranea represents race. 

Presentation

Some parts of the writing have been cut off or covered up as slideshare has condensed the presentation. Also the music and the videos are not playing on slideshare so I will be presenting this on the original Powerpoint presentation.