Cinema as an Art

         I agree with this thought to a degree, but I believe there are many directors out there who feel their work is an art and those who watch it think the same. The only thing that would lead me to agree with this point is that many movies hire actors who are well known to attract viewers, but are not necessarily the perfect person to play the role. Directors take advantage of well-known names because they think this will increase the box office sales, and in some cases it will. I do think that movies exhibit an artistic quality though in terms of the shooting, as in where, how and why they film the way they do. This could be the angle a director uses, or how often they switch scenes. It is tough to say which opinion is correct, because people go to the show to be entertained, so there really isn’t anything wrong with the director aiming for entertainment opposed to a work of art. However, I think the story behind the film is dependent on how the director chooses to approach it.

 

"Shutter Island"

         To watch a film that challenges you and keeps you guessing is an art form in itself. The script, the characters, the plot, each of these things must work together to create a dynamic storyline that will challenge the viewers. I think that the last movie I watched that really challenged me was “Shutter Island.” This movie lead me to believe that the main character, played by Leonardo Dicaprio, was a police officer who was trying to solve a murder in an insane asylum. While in the end, it turned out that he was crazy all along and everything he did was fictional and occurred only in his own mind. Even after seeing the entire movie through, I was still left confused and I found it interesting that people understood the movie differently. Some believe that he was really crazy, and others believe that the workers made him believe that he was crazy. I couldn’t tell you who's solution was correct, but the movie was so in depth and created so carefully that one would have to pay extremely close attention to the minor details in order to fully understand the overall concept of the movie.

       

In the movie, “Shutter Island,” there were a lot of strange occurrences in the film that would lead the viewer to believe he was crazy, but he seemed so calm and collected that one would question it. It was almost as if he had a split personality that I had a hard time distinguishing between. There were also a number of flashbacks that only further complicated the story. It was definitely a psychological thriller, but it may have been too hard to follow in the end.

Image Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_Island_%28film%29

http://www.examiner.com/article/current-picture-shows-martin-scorsese-    s-shutter-island