Akira Kurosawa's 'High and Low'

High and Low is a 1963 film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. Mifune’s character is Gondo, a shoe executive who is forced to choose between personal success and honor, controlling stock in a shoe company and paying a huge ransom to a kidnapper for the life of his chauffer’s son. Either way, Gondo loses, but the decision is still a difficult one to make. This summary is detailed and is not recommended to those who feel it may take away from seeing the actual film. Thanks for reading and I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a like and a comment:

High and Low by Akira Kurosawa

Mark 8:36 "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

Executives of National Shoes meet with Gondo, a fellow executive, in his home to discuss making cheaper shoes that are more profitable. Sales are flat because the shoes they make now are too durable. Gondo believes that their shoes should be well-made. The other executives think the president of the company is too old fashioned and they want to buy out his stock. They want Gondo to join them in this; he has 13%. But if he does join them, they will only make him the company’s Executive Director but not its President. 

Gondo is loyal to the old man’s commitment to quality. He also believes that durable shoes are more profitable than flimsy shoes the long run. His fellow executives disagree and leave in anger. 

Outside, they plot. Why was Gondo confident enough to throw them out of his house? The executives promise Gondo’s accountant, Kawanishi, partnership in the company in exchange for his help in finding out what Gondo's plans are. 

Meanwhile, Gondos’ son, Jun, and Shinichi, the son of his chauffeur, are playing cowboys and Indians (Jun is playing the Cowboy). Gondo tells his son that he has to attack or be attacked. 

Gondo knows his fellow executives want him out but he is ahead of them. Gondo’s wife tells him that “Success isn’t worth losing his humanity.” 

Gondo gets a call from the Osaka hotel, hangs up the phone, and orders Kawanishi to go to the Osaka Hotel right away. Gondo is tense and his wife asks him If everything is all right. The phone rings. Again, Gondo answers it. His face relaxes. He tells the party on the other line that it’s within his limit and that he’ll be sending a deposit tonight. Gondo hangs up the phone and it rings again. He answers it and smiles. He hangs up the phone and toasts a glass of wine with his wife—the deal is set! His share, he tells her, isn’t 13%; it’s 47%! He is buying controlling interest in the shoe company. He took loans out on their home and raised 50 million yen to get this deal. He put up everything they own to get this deal!

Aoki, his chauffeur, comes in and asks for his son Shinichi. The phone rings and Gondo answers it. The man claims that he has kidnapped Jun and demands 30 million yen by tomorrow. Gondo agrees to pay without hesitation and stops Kawanishi from calling the police as doing so will endanger Jun’s life. Jun comes in from outside in his cowboy costume. Gondo is relieved, thinking the call was a prank. But where’s Shinichi? Jun tells Gondo that they switched roles but Shinichi never came back. Aoki goes outside screaming for his son. Gondo calls the cops who arrive in a furniture truck disguised as delivery men. 

Inspector Tokura orders his men to tap Gondo’s phone. Gondo wants to publicize the kidnapper’s mistake but Tokura believes that doing this will endanger Aoki’s son. Gondo doesn’t believe they will hut Aoki’s son but Tokura insists on Shinichi’s safety 1st and catching the kidnapper 2nd. 

Police talk to Aoki who’s a widower. The kidnapper calls. Police listen. The kidnapper knows he has the wrong boy but he wants the 30 million yen anyway. Gondo says he won’t pay; the kidnapper laughs and hangs up. Gondo can’t believe this; the kidnapper just wants to humiliate him into throwing away his hard-earned money. Jun, his son, cries because he feels responsible for Shinichi’s disappearance. Gondo’s wife speaks up; she wants him to pay the ransom for Shinichi because he was going to do so when he thought the kidnapper had their own son. Gondo’s accountant, Kawanishi, is running out of patience because he doesn’t believe there’s any sense in paying the ransom because the boy is probably already dead.

As Kawanishi is about to leave the phone rings and Gondo calls out for Kawanishi to come back. The kidnapper allows Shinichi to speak with his father and Aoki breaks into tears. Kidnapper hangs up. Aoki begs Gondo to get his son back. Gondo paces the floor with Aoki on him like a cheap suit. Gondo finally stops and tells Aoki that he can’t do it. Then, he tells Kawanishi to postpone the flight to Osaka. 

Police close the curtain and stay the night. 

The next day, Gondo is still resolute on his position to not pay the ransom. If he does he’ll lose everything. His wife wants him to pay the kidnapper. He reminds her that she is spoiled to the good life he provides for her. He could someone blackmail him now? Gondo's frustration is all over the place. He gives the check to Kawanishi and orders him to take to go to Osaka and buy the stock. Kawanishi refuses to take the check because Gondo will be hated for not paying the ransom for Shinichi. Kawanishi believes that life is more important than money.

Whoa! Now, Gondo is really confused. Just last night, Kawanishi didn’t give a damn about Shinichi and wanted to close the Osaka deal right away. Kawanishi tells Gondo that the shoe company executives offered him a deal and Gondo throws Kawanishi out of his home. Aoki comes back in crying and apologizes for asking Gondo to pay the ransom. After all, Shinichi is a smart boy and can take care of himself. Aoki says this before going off to a corner to cry. The police feel sorry for Gondo.

The phone rings. The kidnapper orders Gondo to open the drapes so that he can see in the house. The cops lie on the floor and Gondo opens the drapes. 

Gondo agrees to pay the ransom but wants to see the boy to make sure he is ok. The kidnapper says he’ll think about it and hangs up. 

Gondo calls the Bank of Tokyo and tells manager to send him 30 million yen right away. Aoki falls to his knees. 

The police check the pay phones in the area. They listen to recorded tapes calls for clues. Kidnapper calls and instructs Gondo to bring suitcase on bullet train. 

On the bullet train, the cops whisper amongst themselves about their respect for Gondo. The PA calls for Gondo to take a phone call. It’s the kidnapper; he has the boy at the foot of the Sakowa river. He orders Gondo to look out the window and to throw the suitcase out in between stops so he can’t be caught by the cops. 

Police snap a picture a man and a boy standing by the Bridge as the train passes it. Gondo pushes the suitcase out the widow and someone picks it up immediately. Gondo and cops get off at the next stop and find Shinichi alone by the bridge. The cops feel sorry for Gondo and vow to catch the kidnapper. They walk the area around Gondo’s house for clues. Kidnapper sees Gondo and his unselfish deed on the front page of the paper; he’s a hero! 

At police HQ, cops study film they shot from the train. A woman with a large hat has Shinichi by the bridge. Cops ask Shinichi if he remembers anything. Aoki yells at Shinichi to remember. Gondo stops Aoki from yelling at boy. 

Bankers visit Gondo’s house to let him know that they expect their money on time. Meanwhile, the police examine map of area around Gondo’s house. They narrow down where kidnapper lives. 

Tokyo, Osaka,and Nagoy are the only places to call train from.

At police HQ, investigators review the evidence they have collected so far:

Detectives go to a railroad station near Yurakucho, Tokyo but no one there remembers a man using the phone there last night; as for the ether, the suspect is probably in medicine. Ether is also used in repair shops; a farmer noticed a gray car. Eighteen similar cars has been stolen in the last month. But 1 of the cars was stolen just before the case broke! None of the 1,000 yen notes have turned up yet. People report seeing dozens of men with boys Shinichi’s age; a turnpike toll collector tells cops that in 1 car he happened to see a boy under a blanket with a toy rifle and a cowboy hat. 

Detectives interview employees of the bullet train to see if there were any grudges among them. Bos’n, a senior detective, interviews the executives at National Shoes to see if they held any grudges against Gondo. The executives openly express their resentment towards Gondo for trying to go behind their back to take control of the company; none of them, however, will admit to holding a grudge against him. Detectives interview a line worker who thinks Gondo is a fine boss to good workers despite his temper. Detectives, under Inspector Takura, discuss results of meeting.

Case seems impossible to break. Inspector Takura reminds detectives of Gondo’s pain. Division 3 calls Takura to let him know that they found the stolen car!

Back at police HQ, detectives listen to the taped phone conversations between kidnapper and Gondo. The sound of a passing train can be heard behind the kidnapper. The train is near his hideout! Detectives find a specialist in the area who tells them that the train on tape is the Enoshima trolley.

Detectives take Shinichi to the bridge where they found him to try to help him remember a clue.  Later, Aoki takes his son out in the car to look around the area on their own. Shinichi finds a tree he remembers peeing by. 

The detectives drive around looking for Shinichi and his father and get a call from the crime lab letting them know they found fish oil, blood and mackerel scales on the stolen car. Car was at the Koshigoe Market near the trolley.

While cops are at market interviewing a fish vendor, a car goes by and hits a pothole that splashes mud, blood, and fish scales on the cops—they are getting closer! The vendor tells them that the trolley goes under a nearby cliff that offers a view of Enoshima island where Gondo lives!

Aoki drives around with Shinichi still trying to get the boy to remember something that can help the investigation. Bos’n and fellow cop go to cliff to compare their map of Enoshima to their vantage point—both match!

Shinichi recognizes a tunnel. Bos’n driving 1 road and Aoki on another road just miss each other at an intersection! Bos’n returns to Koshigoe to get Aoki to show them kidnapper’s hideout. Shinichi and Aoki get out car to look around on foot. Cops find them and they find the cops! Aoki bursts into tears; he thinks everything is his fault. 

Shinichi recognizes a small villa the kidnapper took him to. Here, they find a couple dead from a heroin overdose

Police headquarters:

Police hold a press conference. The man and woman they found at the villa died from a heroin overdose. The heroin they used was 90% pure; by comparison, regular heroin is only between 70-75% pure. A note by the bodies said: “Bring us stuff or we’ll spend money and not do what you say anymore.”

Cops also recover some of the marked money Gondo paid the kidnapper at the scene, 2,500 $1,000 yen notes. The dead couple were caretakers of the villa. The Inspector tells the press to keep a lid on it. He wants the kidnapper to think the junkies are alive so that he can try to go back to the villa and kill them. 

The executives of National Shoe voting Gondo out makes the front page of the paper. The kidnapper dumps all the money out the briefcase when he sees a picture of it in the paper.

Police go by Gondo’s place to get him to claim the 2.5 million yen they recovered from the dead addicts. Kawanishi asks Gondo to maintain an honorary post at the company to counter negative public opinion. Gondo rejects this offer and kicks Kawanishi out. 

Aoki shows cops picture Shinichi drew of the kidnapper. Shinichi looks out the window and calls everyone’s attention to a plume of pretty pink smoke. The cops treated the briefcase with a chemical that would create pink smoke if burned. 

Bos’n checks out local incinerator. Old man there remembers someone bringing a box for him to burn. 

Bos’n stops by hospital and sees man with scar on his left hand, the same hand wrapped in bandages that Shinichi drew. The young man’s name is Ginjiro Takeuchi. He had taken 3 days off work during kidnapping; his apartment faces Gondo’s house; one of the pay phones is near his apartment; he’s a medical student; his name is on the medical report of the couple they found at the villa that OD’d on heroin—Bingo!

Inspector wants suspect to reconstruct his own crimes. Their plan is to buy purchase heroin from Takeuchi on behalf of the dead couple they found at the villa. When he delivers the dope to the dead couple they’ll nab him. 

Takeuchi waits at shipping harbor to kill time. When he leaves, hobos and other random characters follow him. 

Cops radio Inspector Tokura to let him know that Takeuchi purchased a bouquet from a florist. Takeuchi stops by a pay phone then ducks into a nightclub. He sticks a red flower in his shirt pocket and sits at bar. He is wearing sunglasses. He blends into the crowd of dancing people. 

Cop radios inspector that Takeuchi is at ‘Dope Alley.’ 

The narrow alley is clogged with addicts. Takeuchi walks through a tangle of arms. He looks them other until he finds a woman by herself (this is how he found caretakers at villa). 

Cops are confused and don’t understand why Takeuchi would go to addicts before getting dope. 

Takeuchi takes the girl into a motel. Inspector thinks Takeuchi uses addicts for guinea pigs.

Woman OD’s, still clutching the hypodermic needle.

Takeuchi re emerges on the streets. Cops watch him from unmarked police car. 

Gondo looks at women shoes in a storefront window. Takeuchi approaches him for a light and follows him. Cops go to villa and cut the radio up loud as if the addicts are inside partying. When Takeuchi knocks on the door and says “I got the stuff,” The cops come out. He runs but they catch him. He opens his hand and drops the dope. 

The cops recover most of Gondo’s money. Men from the bank prepare Gondo’s home and possessions to be auctioned off. 

The front page of the paper reads: “Kidnapper gets death sentence.”

Gondo visits Takeuchi in jail. Gondo is making shoes again, has his own company, and is determined to build it up like National Shoes. Takeuchi refuses a priest and refuses to apologize. He’d always look with envy from the window of his cold apartment at Gondo’s big house high up on the hill. He wants Gondo to see that he isn’t afraid to die. Takeuchi cries and complains about the Hell his life has been. He cracks and the guards take him away from the glass and back to his cell. 

Sex without love: a scene analysis of 'Nymphomaniac'

A scene analysis of Lars Von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac'

Lars Von Trier’s 2013 film, Nymphomaniac, follows Joe, a nymphomaniac who renounces love and pain and for a life of sexual exploration. In this presentation I will analyze key scenes from the film. Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment. 

(3:24)

A middle aged bachelor leaves his home to go to the grocery store and on his way home he finds a beaten and bruised woman in the alley. He takes her home and she tells him the story of her life and the discovery of her sexuality. She asks Jerome to take her virginity.

Analysis

The 1st stage of Joe’s sexual awareness is pleasure which begins in her childhood. Not yet aware of her power yet, she is a nymph which, using Seligman’s fishing analogy, is the bait. All she understands is that it gives her pleasure. Her father in this scene helps her to experience herself through his love of trees, particularly, the ash tree, which serves as a metaphor for her, and its rustling leaves that represents the feelings and sensations she can experience within herself. Later, she asks a stranger to take her virginity in a scene that foreshadows the many cold impersonal encounters she will have thought the film.  

(19:08) 

Joe is a teenager now. She and a friend named B have a contest to see who can have sex with the most male passengers on a train. After falling behind, Joe compensates by giving a blow job to a married man saving his load to get his wife pregnant. Joe wins the candy.

Analysis

In this scene, Joe goes from discovering her bait and losing her virginity to a stranger to winning a contest by fucking the most men on a train ride. On this ride, she becomes aware of the power her sex has over men and how to use sympathy to play on men’s emotions. The key to her power is that she has no emotions invested in any of these encounters. In a world controlled by men, Joe learns that she can control men as long as she doesn’t fall in love with them. 

(42:06) 

Joe and her friend B start The Little Flock, a club for women who reject love and embrace sex with as many men as possible, no man more than once. Joe tries to follow in her father’s footsteps as a doctor but drops out and applies for a job at a printing company where she reunites with Jerome who took her virginity. He is sitting in for his uncle who runs the company and hires Joe as a jr. secretary. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start when she rejects him. He goes out of his way to humiliate her by making her do menial tasks. However, after a while she falls in love with him. Before she can let him know her feelings he leaves the company with the secretary. She tries to remember him by selecting pieces of other men that remind her of him but she eventually forgets. 

Analysis

Power is about control which is why Joe avoids relationships and love which, she tells Seligman, is humiliating because love is an emotion and emotions can’t be controlled. 

Wikipedia:

In music theory, the tritone is strictly defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones.[1] For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three adjacent whole tones F–G, G–A, and A–B. According to this definition, within a diatonic scale there is only one tritone for each octave. For instance, the above-mentioned interval F–B is the only tritone formed from the notes of the C major scale. A tritone is also commonly defined as an interval spanning six semitones. According to this definition, a diatonic scale contains two tritones for each octave. For instance, the above-mentioned C major scale contains the tritones F–B (from F to the B above it, also called augmented fourth) and B–F (from B to the F above it, also called diminished fifth, semidiapente, or semitritonus).[2] In twelve-equal temperament, the tritone divides the octave exactly in half.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4952646.stm

(1:07:24) 

Joe has so many lovers, that she has to create a system to keep them organized. One of her lovers breaks the schedule and leaves his family to be with Joe. The man’s wife confronts Joe who admits that she does not love the woman’s husband.  

Analysis

The word organization is the key to understanding this scene. In the previous scene at the printing company, she organizes Jerome’s desk like she organizes her lovers in this scene. Jerome, then, tells her not to touch his desk and messes it back up. Joe’s fixation with organization is about power. The power to control her emotions and the emotions of others; the power to keep herself from falling in love. This is why, in both instances, someone fell in love: in the previous scene, Joe falls in love after seeing order in the clutter on Jerome’s desk; and in this scene, with H leaving his wife and 3 sons to be with Joe. Both of these scenarios happen after Joe makes an attempt to organize something. And in both cases, she learns that love is not something that can be controlled which is why she distances herself emotionally from others. This is a warning for anyone thinking they are immune to falling in love; it can happen to anybody at anytime and if that person has no love invested in you and nothing to lose—or not as much to lose—as you, that person will hurt you. This is why you have to be careful with your heart: 

Proverbs 4, 23: Above all else, guard your heart,

for everything you do flows from it.

If you’re in love with someone who loves you, hurting you will hurt them as well. It’s like the Cold War’s MAD policy that insures peace because a full-scale nuclear war will destroy both sides. This is why Joe has no remorse for destroying H’s marriage when she tells Seligman: “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.” H was just another lover she had no emotional investment in and, therefore, nothing to lose. 

(1:25:45) 

Joe visits the hospital to see her father who is dying of dementia. Seligman tells her that it is common to react sexually in  across and offers an analogy of polyphony. 

Analysis

Joe uses sex to escape pain. In this scene, every time she is confronted with something painful or difficult, she finds someone to have sex with . The forest is a metaphor that she herself is not aware that she is using sex to address her pain. She loves her father and this is the reason she renounces love and relationships with men other than sex. Her orgasm is the death of her father’s half of her persona consisting of love and feeling. No more will she expose herself to being hurt. The ash tree’s nakedness is fear, the fear of pain that she uses and will continue to use sex to avoid at all costs.

(1:42:07)

Joe develops a ritual of walking alone. One day, she finds a torn picture of Jerome and Liz. A hand reaches down from above, she looks up, and there’s Jerome, smiling. He and Liz got into a fight and he tore up the picture. Joe recalls the time that B told her that the secret ingredient to sex is love.

Analysis

Joe reunites with Jerome. Then she has a flashback of B telling her that the secret ingredient to sex is love thinking that bringing Jerome in with her other 2 lovers will bring back the sensitivity and pleasure she once got from sex. The cantus firmus is the foundation of a polyphony; likewise, Jerome and the love she once felt for him, is supposed to bring the same enjoyment to sex that her father brought to life. But because of the pain associated with her love for her father and his death, Joe has shut off that part of herself to Jerome. This is why she feels numb. In Nymphomaniac part 2, Joe searches for the feelings she loses in this movie. 

Sex over love, sex over pain: an analysis of 'Nymphomaniac'

An analysis of Lars Von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac'

In this video, I will analyze key themes from Lars Von Trier's 2013 film 'Nymphomaniac.'  

The film’s all-star cast includes Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard (Insomnia), Willem Dafoe, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Shia LaBeouf as Jerome, and Stacy Martin as the teenaged Joe. This film challenges the social conventions of sexuality through a woman who pursues her desires openly while eschewing any emotional intimacy with or responsibility for those affected, including men to whom she declares false feelings to entire families these men abandon to be with her. The film works sociologically as well as a metaphor of how society’s growing appetite for and desensitization to stimulation is alienating us from ourselves and the emotional needs of others, a theme similar to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1975 film called Salo, based on Marquis De Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom. Instead of pleasure, that film describes civilization rotting to a point where it is incapable of distinguishing pleasure from shit. The film was (and still remains) extremely controversial and is still banned in many countries. Charlotte Gainsbourg is incredible in this film, Nymphomaniac, as she is in Lars Von Trier’s 2009 film, AntiChrist, which also stars Willem Dafoe. Since leaving the Transformers franchise behind, Shia LaBeouf has become a seriously good actor (He is stellar in this film). If you like this video, I would appreciate if you'd like it, leave and comment, and join my channel for more videos like this.

Scene analysis of Raging Bull: a brutal spin on the Old and New Testaments of the Bible

Raging Bull is 1980 film by Director Martin Scorsese that is widely regarded as 1 of the greatest ever made. Actor Robert DeNiro stars as middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta whose  opponents in the ring pale next to his opponents within himself. The script was written by Paul Schrader and is based on Jake LaMotta’s 1970 memoir ‘Raging Bull: My Story’. In this analysis, I will examine the film's symbolism and its key themes such as:

• Rage
• Lust
• Gluttony 
• Jealousy
• Atonement
• Born again
• "Now I see"

Clip 1

In the opening credits, we see the main character of the film shadowboxing in a boxing ring enveloped in smoke. Jake LaMotta is struggling with demons within himself. The boxing ring is his altar and the blood he spills in it pays for the sins he commit outside of it. The boxing ring is also an outlet for his passions. His nickname, “Raging Bull,” implies a creature that is driven by its emotions and appetites. But just as passion brings about the boxer’s downfall it is also what helps him to turn his life around. 

Clip 2

The story opens in the dressing room of a nightclub where a fat and retired Jake LaMotta is preparing to do a stand-up routine. He sits in front of a mirror but he is not looking at himself as he reads these lines: “and though I’m no Olivier and before Sugar Ray would say: “the thing ain’t the ring, it’s the play” so give me a stage, where this bull here can rage, and though I can fight, I’d much rather recite, ‘That’s Entertainment!’

Clip 3: Rage

Jake’s marriage is falling apart because his wife suspects him of infidelity. The explosive rage that makes him a great boxer is on display here as he and his wife get into a fight over a steak. Right off the bat we get to see 2 sides of Jake’s personality, rage and lack of discipline. This scene also introduces Jake’s little brother Joey, played by Joe Pesci, and Frank Vincent who plays the role of Salvy Batts, a member of the mafia. The clip following this one is a continuation of this scene where we get to see the brothers interact and learn that they are partners with Joey being Jake’s manager. 

Clip 4: Lust

Joey introduces Jake, who is still married, to a 15 year old girl named Vikki. Jake saw her in a nightclub with a member of the mafia and became obsessed with her. Joey knew her and introduces them in this scene, which takes place at a public swimming pool. The black and white clothes Jake wears in this scene represents the conflict he has within himself in contrast to Vikki who wears all white. Also, the chain-link fence enclosing the public pool and that also separates Jake and Vikki is in the pattern of crosses going along with the religious iconography throughout the film.

Clip 5

This scene is a montage of Jake’s fights and him marrying Vikki shot to look like a home movie and also shot in color in contrast to the boxing cuts,which are shot in vintage black and white. These brief clips are the only instances in the film that Jake looks happy. This montage was an efficient way to move the film along without being distracted from the main theme, that of Jake’s struggles within himself. 

Clip 6

This is the 1st of 6 meetings between LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson. To research actual boxing matches, Scorsese went to Madison Square Garden and saw fights with a friend. He realized that he didn’t know how to shoot boxing matches. DePalma smiled at Scorsese and wished him luck.

Director Michael Powell (The Red Shoes, Peeping Tom, etc.) was the one who first noticed that the gloves in the movie were the wrong color. This is what prompted Scorsese to shoot the film in black and white.

The fights were patterned after dance styles such as the tango, the foxtrot, the mambo, and the waltz. 

The fighter playing Sugar Ray is Johnny Barnes. He was 1 of many actual boxers Scorsese used in this movie.

Clip 7: Gluttony

This scene shows one of the many battles confronting Jake: his weight. In between fights he picks up a lot of weight. But also in this scene we see that Vikki is unhappy. Also, we see the politics of boxing, that despite Jake’s success he is not guaranteed a shot. Joey convinces Jake to throw an upcoming fight with a weaker opponent named Billy Fox. Later, at a nightclub, Jake and his friends are having drinks and Jake is boasting about his upcoming bout with Janiro when Vikki throws in her 2 cents, saying that she thinks that Janiro is good-looking. Jake is consumed with jealousy and he is even more determined to destroy Janiro in the following scene after this one.

Clip 8

In this scene, Joey spots Jake’s wife, Vikki, in a nightclub with a local hood named Salvy Batts having a drink. Joey confronts them and he and Salvy fight.

Clip 9 

Once again, we have Jake and Sugar Ray in the 3rd of their 6 fights. This is an interesting scene because at this point in the film, Jake is battling on several fronts in his life and career. He knows that he has to win every fight to even have the smallest chance of fighting for the title, which the mafia controls. And his storybook marriage to Vikki seems to be falling apart. This fight is symbolic in that it shows Jake’s state of mind. The smoke, the groaning effects, the shimmering images as if through heatwaves all add to the surreal point-of-view Jake has at this point of career and life. Also, this match is a metaphor for Jake’s entire life in that he’s being led on blind instinct as illustrated when Jake sits on the stool in his corner and the rope covers his eyes. His life, like this match, seems to be occurring in a nightmare that is further reinforced by the camera techniques used in this match. The camera whirls around to show Jake’s perspective, as though the world is a merry-go-round. 

Clip 10

Jake throws a fight to get a shot at the title. He does this reluctantly at the urging of Joey whose theory was that if the mob saw that Jake was beatable that they would give him a shot at the champ. Jake, a man with a great deal of pride goes along with Joey and afterwards he breaks down. To a man like Jake, throwing a fight is the ultimate humiliation. But, in keeping with the Biblical metaphors used throughout this film, “Before honor, there is humility.” In the scene after this one, Jake finally gets his shot at the champ.

Clip 11: Jealousy

Shortly after winning the title, he questions his brother, Joey, about Vikki. Word got back around to Jake about the fight Joey had with Salvy the day Joey caught Vikki in the nightclub with Salvy. Joey won’t tell Jake about the incident. Jake doesn’t trust anybody, not even his own brother. This scene illustrates how Jake’s sense of reality has been distorted by jealousy. 

Clip 12

Jake is out of control. He confronts Vikki about whether she is having an affair with his brother. Vikki fuels his rage with her own frustration by suggesting that they did have an affair, also making a lewd reference to the size of Joey’s manhood, not thinking that Jake would actually take her literally, which he does. This scene further illustrates Jake as being enslaved to his impulses, doing things that he will later come to regret. 

Clip 13: Atonement

After brutally beating his little brother in front of the man’s wife and children, Jake faces his arch nemesis, Sugar Ray Robinson, for the 4th time, alone. He suffers a savage and bloody beating that results in him losing the title he worked so hard to win. 

This scene represents the fall of Jake as a boxer, it’s all downhill from this point. The fight in this scene is Jake receiving all the punishment his conscience makes him feel like he deserves because of the beating he gave his brother and wife when he accused them of having an affair. In this fight, Sugar Ray is the sum of all of Jake’s sins. The rope holding Jake up is a cross on which he is crucified and bloodied under Sugar’s barrage of punches. Reinforcing this symbolic ritual of crucifixion are Jake’s cornermen working on him as if they are preparing him for an execution; the cornerman applying the vaseline to Jake’s face does so as though he’s making the sign of the cross. On the documentary, the sound editor said that he went for unusual sound effects for all of the fights, but for this one, particularly. When Jake is on the ropes waiting for his punishment, the crowd noises die out and a lion’s roar is cued to match Sugar launching himself at Jake. Also, the sound of winds howling replace the roar of the spectators at ringside. Visually, cinematographer Michael Chapman surrounded the ring with thick smoke to make it look like Hell and used the lights to transform Sugar Ray into a god-like silhouette.

Clip 14

Jake is now retired and owns a nightclub where he flirts with the female customers. This clip comes just before a short innocuous encounter with a couple of young ladies. They are fans of his and to confirm that they are not underage, they each give him a big girl kiss on the mouth. 

Side note* After shooting the 1st act of the film, Scorsese suspended shooting for several months so that DeNiro could gain weight to play the film’s 2nd act after Jake retires from boxing. The transformation resulted in DeNiro going from a chiseled 150lbs to almost 215lbs.

Clip 15: Born again

Without boxing as both a way to maintain his weight and also as a way to regulate his moral excesses, Jake’s life spins out of control and he is charged with serving alcohol to a 14 year old girl in his nightclub. He goes to prison where he confronts the demons inside of himself and comes out of prison broke but spiritually reborn. He makes up with his brother Joey. 

This is the darkest and most powerful sequence in the entire film as we see Jake succumb to all of his excesses without the discipline and balance of boxing, his little brother, or his wife. As the film started with him in the boxing ring alone, in this scene he is also alone with himself to confront the question why? His unlit cell represents not only his isolation as a human with his own distinct emotions and appetites but also the darkness of his inability to see that out of all the men he faced in the ring that he has always been his worst enemy. Also, another note about his weight gain. Prior to his retirement, the training he underwent for his fights kept his weight from getting out of control. I interpret his weight gain as the total lack of discipline. Besides helping to keep his weight under control, the discipline of training and boxing and the beatings he took in the ring was a way of him repenting for his sins outside the ring. Jake, the boxer, is like those in the old testament of the Bible who offer animal sacrifices to God for their sins. After going to jail and dying, in a figurative sense, Jake comes out of this type of death as a man reborn. He realizes now that he can no longer sacrifice his body and flesh for atonement and that, now, he must seek forgiveness from those he has hurt. His eyes are open and he can see that his true enemy is, and has always been, himself. 

Isaiah 1: 11-16

“I do not delight in the blood of bulls,

    or of lambs, or of goats.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,”

In the scene in the parking lot, Jake cries and begs Joeys forgiveness. This is a very powerful scene and marks the final stage in Jake’s character arc, going from a man living on pure appetite and instinct (like his nickname, Raging Bull, suggests) to a broken man in touch with his humanity; from a man used to paying for sinning with his blood to a man who now pays with tears and asks for forgiveness. Also, in the background in this scene there is a cross, which serves as a sign of forgiveness.

Clip 16: “Now I see!”

This is the final scene, Jake is full circle from where he began in the 1st scene where he’s in the dressing room rehearsing his lines. In that scene, he is not looking at himself in the mirror but in this scene he is looking at himself in the mirror, reading the famous lines from “On The Waterfront” where Brando and his brother are in the backseat of the taxi. Here are Brando’s lines from that film “Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, "Kid, this ain't your night. We're going for the price on Wilson." You remember that? "This ain't your night"! My night! I coulda taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville! You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short-end money. You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charley.” After reciting these lines, Jake, dressed in a tuxedo, shadowboxes and leaves the dressing room. Charley, in this scene, is himself; he has accepted responsibility for the mistakes he made in his life. 

The film ends with the epigraph from the book of John chapter 9 and verse 25: 24 The Jewish leaders[o] summoned the man who had been blind a second time and told him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”

He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

A plot analysis of Stanley Kubrick's period drama film 'Barry Lyndon'

In this video, I will analyze key themes from Stanley Kubrick's 1975 American period drama film Barry Lyndon based on the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray.

The film stars Ryan O'Neal as an Irish commoner named Redmond Barry who sets out to make a name for himself by marrying a wealthy countess and and assuming the name of her dead husband, earl Charles Lyndon. The film also stars Patrick Magee, Marisa Berenson, Hardy Kruger, and Gay Hamilton. At the 48th Academy Awards in 1975, it won 4 awards for Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, and Musical Score.

'Barry Lyndon': a scene analysis of Stanley Kubrick's 1975 period drama film

In this video, I will give a scene analysis of Stanley Kubrick's period drama film 'Barry Lyndon' based on the 1844 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray called The Luck of Barry Lyndon. 

The film stars Ryan O'Neal as an Irish commoner named Redmond Barry who sets out to make a name for himself by marrying a wealthy countess and and assuming the name of her dead husband, earl Charles Lyndon. The film also stars Patrick Magee, Marisa Berenson, Hardy Kruger, and Gay Hamilton. At the 48th Academy Awards in 1975, it won 4 awards for Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, and Musical Score.

A review of Martin Provost's drama 'The Midwife' starring Catherine Deneuve

This is a film review of the ‘Midwife’ by French director Martin Provost. 

Director Martin Provost's 'The Midwife' is about a midwife (played by Catherine Frot) who befriends and provides comfort to her father’s former mistress (played by Catherine Deneuve) who is dying of a brain tumor. Years earlier, Claire's father shot himself in the heart after Beatrice abandoned him. Now, Beatrice seeks forgiveness and closure from Claire although she has no regrets about leaving the woman's father or the life she has lived. 

This is a terrific, well cast, directed, shot, and acted film—led by Catherine Deneuve—at 2 extremely fast hours. Very refreshing to see mature actors in romantic situations and leading roles. Having an older cast made the film more believable as though the acting and direction needed any more help in this. Life, death, and reincarnation are the film’s dominant ideas which I won’t go into for those who haven’t seen the movie. This is 1 of those movies that you have to give yourself to and not try to follow but instead just let it explain itself, and it will, trust me. The unconventional relationship between Claire and Beatrice threw me initially but once I accepted it on its own terms, I found it easy to connect, emotionally, with the characters. On a technical note, the cinematography in this film is gorgeously understated and even poetic such as the scene where Claire's son-- who is the spitting image of her father-- is juxtaposed against a projected image of her father. If you are looking for a “human” story that engages feelings and not simply a film to jump out of the screen at you, a film more real than anything you’ll find in any CG heavy film this summer, ‘The Midwife’ is a pretty good choice to spend your time and hard-earned dollar!