American Beauty

Director : Sam Mendes
- Mendes was a 33 year old "rookie" director and the studio was taking a risk. Still, Speilberg was a powerful ally.

Writer: Alan Ball
- He was unsure with the post modern film that he had written with the implosion of "The American Dream" and the middle class disfunctional family. However everyone was taken waway by the script and dreamwork says "The script met the company's goas for producion a challenging film.

Dreamworks
Put up the 15 million dollar budget and the film was almost pulled serval times. In comparision to the 200 million dollars for the blockbuster "Gladiator" released in the US a year later.
It is a modest film with no special effect just the setting of a normal glossy lifestyle , but obviously it is not what it looks.
DreamWorks, LLC, also known as DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks SKG or DreamWorks Studios, is a major American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games, and television programming. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses totalling more than $100 million each. Its most successful title to date is Shrek 2.[1].
The sales was 350 million world wide including the UK.

Characters

Lester

Lester in a depressive man, who wakes up one day and releases what he had become and rebels against the conventional American man ideal.

American Dream and The Pursuit of Happyness.

http://wbai.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9437&Itemid=2

While looking at the film on the internet i came across the review which is about the american dream with The Pursuit of Happyness. I found it really interesting on his take of a black poor man becoming a success.

"I met my father for the first time when I was 28 years old. When I had children, my children were going to know who their father was."

"Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something. Not even me. All right? You got a dream? You gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they want to tell you you can't do it. You want something, go get it. "

The Pursuit of Happyness also presents the American Dream as an achievable reality. It begins when Chris asks a Dean Witter broker (who he sees getting out of a bright-red Ferrari) what's needed to do the job. The answer he gets back is this: "You've got to be good with numbers and good with people." Chris believes he has those skills and aggressively pursues executives at Dean Witter once he discovers internships are available. As you can see from the quotes above they are the advice he gives to his son, they a centraly about family and believing all in youself.

When watching the film the first feeling i got was an American Raising aspiration film. Everthing has a warmly glow to it ( including the film poster), you have a great suspiction that you know that everything is going to work out well. Anyone cannot watch The Pursuit Of Happyness and try and deny that it hasnt got anything to do with American dream as even the title is to one of the rights to an American.

However going back to the article, which i attached at the beginning of the post. Ok im not totally in agreement with it however seeing that view it made me think more on the characters within the film.

"Black and poor, to dwell in the white man's stock market heaven."

That is completely true, Chris is the only black guy to even be in the stockmarket office, or even outside of where he lives. The only time you see another black guy in the film is Chris friends who own a shop in the glumest place. This surprises me because now days in film, television etc are so careful to be poltical correct and make sure that even within a shot at a school playground there are different ethnic groups to not offend anyone.

But this is my view in the 21st century and now looking at the film i realised it it following a real life story set in the 1980s so i suppose things were different then, and maybe the best jobs did go to white men. Imagine if it was set now it would be completely different, or even a few years time once Barack Obama have been in power for a while?

Anyway that was a bit side tracked, The Pursuit of Happyness is a light warming film that is great to show the American Dream actually works.

Case study - Dark Knight

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Entertainment/MovieNews/2009/02/22/8482021-sun.html

Sucess in oscars and other film awards shows ^^^.

Basic film information.

Runtime: 2 hrs 33 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Jul 18, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $533,184,219

http://www.mymovies.net/news/news_item.asp?s=1&n=6&filmid=5580&nid=5148

As you can see from this article it was a massive hit from the first weekend, outselling all other films. Personally i think it could do with the death of Heath Ledger which made people want to see his last film, admittly thats why i went. However when i sat down in the cinema and watched my first batman film i was impressed with it and it was all what i expected with the effects and the creation of the gothom town.

Continuing case study on The Dark Knight

Warner Brothers( as i said previously) are one of the oldest running film companies. Harry , Sam, Jack, Albert Warner started producing films in World War 1 and in 1918 they opened Warner Bros, in the a studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack Warner produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert Warner were in control of fiance and distribution.

The first important deal for the company was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwood's 1919 Broadway play.

"Warner Bros turned more realistic and gritty story lines, and was said to glorify gangsters and became the "gangster studio".



Warner's cartoon unit had its roots in the independent Harman and Ising studio. From 1930 to 1933, Disney alumni Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising produced a series of musical cartoons for Leon Schlesinger, who sold the shorts to Warner. Harman and Ising introduced their character Bosko in the first Looney Tunes cartoon, Sinkin' in the Bathtub, and created a sister series, Merrie Melodies, in 1931.[103]"

Warner Bros successful films

Selena
Looney Tunes
Superman
Lethal Weapon
Ocean's Eleven
The Matrix Series
Polica Academy
Gremlins
The Wizard of Oz
The Butterfly Effect


"Bought to you by Warner Brothers"

Warner Brothers have adapted the way of life, with there own website...
http://www.warnerbros.co.uk/web/main/movies/movies.jsp?frompage=wb_homepage_uk

Allowing all there films to be in one online shop so you can be spoilt for choice on the amount of films they have produced.

Also they have immersed themselves merchandise for films, including Warner bros logo on tops etc. and toys, games that are connected with certain films.
http://www.wbshop.com/

American Dream and Hollywood

American Dream, what is it?

- Pride

- success

- work hard

- free choice

- freedom

- happiness


"The phrase's meaning has evolved over the course of American history. The Founding Fathers used the phrase, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." it began as the opportunity to achieve greater material prosperity than was possible in their countries of origin. For others it is the opportunity for their children to grow up and receive an education and its consequent career opportunities. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the restrictions of

Is the American Dream reality now?

Of course Barack Obama becoming president on the United States is a major step forward for Americans, being the first black president shows how far America has moved on since the days of Martin Luther King.

However isn't it about greed?, when i watch American TV programmes like The Hills, where it is meant to be real life teenagers living there lives, to be happy it seems to have loads of money big houses and want they want they get, so is this the American Dream? Americans also seem to have the reputation of being over the top and having to be the best, which i suppose is pride in their country but can also be portrayed as greed and show offs.

OK, so i have talked about the basics of America Dream, but how is the American Dream presented in Hollywood films?

Films are great way of showing the American Dream to the world and it is not completely forced upon and learn about it while being entertained. Films like Forest Gump, where a message that even of your are not the most capable if you try your hardest you can succed in life, Also a stable family can lead to a better future.

Another two films are Of Mice and Men, which was originally a book by John Steinbeck and has been made into a film a few times. This follows to men living in America trying to make themselves a better life, by having the dream to work together on the own land and "live of the fatta the land".

Pursuit of Happiness, with Will Smith, is a really good example of the American Dream. Mainly because "Pursuit of Happiness" is part of the saying of the American dream. It is about "Chris Gardner has big dreams for him and his family but it doesn't seem to come together for him. Chris has an opportunity to be a stock broker but first he has to go through a grueling internship which means no pay. Chris decides to do it but when his wife leaves and he is evicted, he has to take care of his son on his own. So they find themselves sometimes living on the street and struggling to get by. But Chris is determined to make it."