Emotion

Recently I watched The Patriot for the first time and loved it. One of those few Mel Gibson films made when he was actually a likable fellow. haha Braveheart is also one of my all-time favorites as well. Anyway....



...despite what kind of a guy Mel Gibson may be in reality....dang, can he act! The way he conveys emotions onscreen is phenomenal and the viewer gets a sense of reality from the performance, or at least I can. That is one of the things I love most in a movie: its ability to make you feel the emotion and relate to the characters. I think Peter Jackson hit the nail right on the head with the Lord of the Rings trilogy in regards to conveying emotion. The scene at Mount Doom is especially heavy and effectively portrayed. I have had others tell me that they really didn't feel the emotion, or that in general they thought the Lord of the Rings films were straight up boring. To each his own I guess, but the Lord of the Rings are possibly my favorite films, taking into consideration the solid plot, dialogue, cinematography, exceptional score, choreography, and profound parallels and messages.

And then on the other side of this, you have the films that COMPLETELY fail at portraying emotion. (Transformers anyone?) They attempt to create the same kind of effect as truly powerful films and classics, but it ends up coming off as cheesy and forced. Then, instead of drawing you into the film, it becomes almost painful to watch, and in some cases you just end up feeling detached from the movie. Little disclaimer here....I do enjoy watching the Transformers movies. I know, I know, you can hate me for it, but sometimes I'm just a sucker for action movies. That's why I LOVE it when I can find a great action movie that is a quality film as well.



I'm sure there are different films that just click for different people. Some may be drawn to or impacted by a movie, while others may see it as dull. I think a successful filmmaker is one who has drawn everyone (or most everyone) into the film.