Isaacson: Blade Runner

The central element of Blade Runner is the ambiguity of humanity and the human experience. Occurring in dystopic future where science and technology has greater power over culture than the dreams of the people that inhabit it. In this future humans have perfected "replicants," artificial persons who are exploited by "real" humans as commodities despite the claim by their maker, the Tyrrell Corporation, that they are "more human than human." Humans also remove two of the primary lifelong motivators from the replicants, the ability to have pass on pieces of themselves through offspring and the uncertainty of death, because they cannot reproduce and they have a four year lifespan. This is similar to the controls placed on AIs in William Gibson's Neuromancer and it comes to a similar conclusion; replicants are banned on Earth and an found are "terminated" by a Blade Runner, a police officer specifically trained and authorized to kill replicants.

However, despite theses small differences, the film is incredibly ambiguous as to who really is human. It's obvious that the replicants Deckard, the protagonist and highly skilled Blade Runner, has been hired to terminate are not human; also clear is Rachel's status as a replicant. However, the humanity of ever other character in the film is open to interpretation. We are told by Tyrrell, with the introduction of Rachel, that she believes herself to be human and had false memories of her life before her manufacture implanted so that she might be more human, or at least more emotionally controllable. Both of the Blade Runners, Deckard and Gaff, are solitary men that do not have familial connection and that share many of the eccentricities of the replicants. For example, replicants become heavily emotionally involved with certain objects, perhaps because of the very limited time they have to interact with them; everywhere that Gaff goes he makes an origami figure out of available everyday objects, a bizarre sentimentalization of objects and wish for a personal history when considering this hardened killer. Through this we are also given one of our biggest clues for Deckard identity as a replicant; he dreams/remembers a sequence where a unicorn is running through a field and the final origami that Gaff leaves him is a unicorn, suggesting that Deckard's memories or desires are a scientific matter of filed data which Gaff has access to in the same way that he had access to Rachel's memories. Other characters in the film, from Bryant to Tyrrell himself, are circumspect in their humanity, particularly since none of them can be sure of their own humanity either. Thus, the line between replicant and human is blurred to the point where lifespan and involved emotional response are the only real indicators of the difference; the continued discrimination against replicants is not a matter of their inhumanity but of their inability to effectively fight back given their four year lifespan. They are useful to the ambitions of "real" humans so, much like our slaves now and historically, their humanity is not an issue that the slavemaster is concerned with.

Isaacson: Casablanca

The political expediency theory, which was very important at the time of Casablanca's creation due to the USA's recent entrance into WWII, is best demonstrated in the film by Captain Renault's dramatic change of heart at the film's end. He shots and kills his German commanding officer, Major Strasser, to allow Victor and Ilsa to escape to America. This doesn't really make sense in the context of the film, Victor is Czech and going to America so he feels no nationalistic pride for him and he was just betrayed and placed at gunpoint by Rick, but it had to be done to please its audience who were feeling intensely nationalistic. Thus, the film comes to represent America's inevitable triumph over the Germans even with the odds placed squarely against them, something American audiences were hoping for in the still uncertain time of 1942.
The mise-en-scene of this final sequence is interesting and draws a distinct line between the good and evil characters. The dominant in most frames is either Rick or Renault, the two character's whose actions cause the events to unfold. The lighting key is seemingly ambient, but it is also focused to stress the light clothing that all of the "good" characters wear making them seem purer than the darkly dressed Renault and Strasser. The camera proxemic is normally personal or social, only becoming intimate during the talk between Rick and Ilsa. This, combined with the slightly downward angle of most scenes, make the audience feel like they are watching the action unfold from a more 3rd person perspective with the exception of the love triangle subplot which they should be emotionally invested in. Most frames are dense, having at least two or three characters in the frame at all times, which stresses the relationships between the characters. Most frames are also tightly framed, conveying the tension that the characters feel in this life or death situation. Finally, the character proxemics are used to convey ideological similarities and differences. For example, when Strasser arrives at the airport he stands near closer to Renault than Rick does, conveying their similar ideology, but as Strasser acts he move further away from Renault so that Rick is closer, conveying the shift that has occurred in Strasser at that moment.

Isaacson: The Social Network review

The Social Network is a film, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, that portrays a fictional version of the events surrounding the creation of the social networking website Facebook. The film focuses on the sites founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and his relationship with co-founder Eduardo Saverin, fellow Harvard students Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and founder of Napster Sean Parker.
The first thing that the film does well is the foreshadowing provided by the way the film is presented chronologically. While it starts in 2003, throughout the film it also skips forward to years later when Saverin and the Winkolvoss twins are both suing Zuckerberg for infringement on intellectual property rights. This shift forward to past Zuckerberg's falling out with both of these parties establishes a sense of foreboding throughout the film; you know that these relationships are doomed even during the happiest times.
Another aspect of the film that aids this feeling of foreboding is the sound track, performed by the frontmen, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, from industrial rock groups Nine Inch Nails and Bauhaus. Even though there is very little violence the soundtrack builds like a horror film and it are words that serve as the murder weapons when Zuckerberg reveals his true intentions and places the metaphorical knives squarely in other characters backs.
Ultimately, The Social Network succeeds in being a masterful drama by making words performative; they serve as signifiers of mental action, which is the battlefield when discussing Intellectual Property. Any film that is directed well enough to make the words of the characters so important that it makes litigation interesting is one worth of praise, and this film does exactly that.

Isaacson: Avatar

My avatar is a graffiti artist. He has strong convictions and realizes that often what is legal or illegal is not the defining line between what is right and wrong. He avoids the authorities and knows that anonymity has a great strength. He works mostly at night and as quickly as he can, not having the time to consider and edit but accepting it as the reality of the here and now. He is attempting to publish work whose artistic status is debated on a mostly non-receptive public. While his artist can be seen as coming from the art of the past it has made a jump from old forms and old contexts to the urban and the fractured. His medium is variable, and he uses this to his advantage. Sometimes colours leap off the wall and sometimes they are greyscale or intentionally underplayed. He works with different nozzles, having no preference for any but as an instrument of communication. Still, he has a style and he has a goal. His works is political, cultural, social, male, female, gay, straight, obscene, humorous, serious, dark, light; it is anything that conveys himself or his feelings onto the walls of the city and into the collective consciousness of its people.

Isaacson: Beowulf-SceneAnalysis

One scene in the movie Beowulf that needs work is the death sequence for Grendel. The lighting is low key and comes from the water in the cave that the scene is set in; also, Grendel's mother appears to glow in the dark which leads to a confused lighting from both above and below with muddles the contrast and makes the scene feel fake. Camera proxemics are personal with the scene being shot from above and Grendel, who is lying on the floor of the cave, stares almost directly into the camera as he dies. This makes the viewer feel a connection with him when he is supposed to be the monster and until that point has been portrayed as such. The character proxemics are intimate, with Grendel's mother stroking his head as he dies. However, the director decides to keep her mostly out of the frame which ruins any feeling of intimacy that exists between the two characters. The dominant is Grendel, since he takes up most of the space in the shot and is placed in the center of the frame, but he also blends in with the background and the only contrasting element are the seconds of Grendel's mother's glowing hand and her face in the reflection of the water. The form is open, suggesting that there is much out of frame which we cannot see. However, in a scene that is supposed to reveal more to the viewer about the antagonists and their motivations this seems to suggest that we will never see the whole picture. Finally, because of certain mistakes like the water not glowing anywhere except to help contrast Grendel from the floor of the cave, the CGI feels fake and sloppy to the viewer and betrays any suspension of disbelief s/he might have had.

Isaacson: Similarities and differences between The Wolfman(1941) and The Wolfman(2010)

One of the most striking things about The Wolfman(2010) is its visual style. The whole film appears to have been shot through a grey filter, which I believe was a way for the filmmakers to replicate some of the intense lighting effects seen in the original. The best time when this can be seen are the two films werewolf bite sequences. In both movies Lawrence and Larry chase the wolf attempting to protect an innocent victim. Both sequences have very low key lighting, attempting to replicate the lighting of the full moon alone, and both scenes are also heavily obscured by fog. However, there are also some notable differences between the original and the remake: length, technology, set design, and use of American and foreign actors. The original was a short film, 69 minutes, while the remake runs almost two hours at 119 minutes. Also, due to the vast difference in technology between 1941 and 2010 makes the direction of the film radically different, the original keeping much of the action hidden while the remake focuses on the gore of the werewolf's destruction. The set design is also radically different, with the village in the remake appearing far more rundown and foreign then the tidy, Americanized village of the original. Also, some of the remake occurs in different locations while all of the original is set in the village. Finally, we the exception of the gypsy women, nearly all of the characters from the original are very American. They speak with American accents and wear American style clothing. However, in the remake the filmmakers embrace the foreign setting. Even the origin of the protagonist is shifted, Larry coming from California and Lawrence coming from London. This is indicative of the shift in Hollywood that has occurred between the two films, with filmmaking now being more of a global enterprise and American filmmakers being less afraid that American audience won't be able to empathize with foreign characters.