Realism

While many people attribute realism in film to simply a story containing events that are believable to occur in real life, Andre Bazin has a much stricter set of standards for true realism in film. As he reveals in his article, it is not enough for films to merely have realistic events and performances, the filmmaking techniques themselves must also be realistic. This means that anything that occurs in film but not in real life must be removed in order to achieve a true sense of realism. These include techniques such as editing, music and non-diegetic sound. Also, no film can intend to create emotion in a viewer.

There are several problems with Bazin's standards. First and foremost comes the fact that films this realistic aren't interesting. By taking away editing, music and all other flourishes, one takes away much of the creativity of the film. The filmmaker can only show the events that are happening, but cannot make it unique or interesting to watch. Without any of these techniques, the movie loses that which makes it a movie. Bazin's standards are created in order to make a film so realistic that it doesn't seem like a movie. This is an impossible task, though. No matter how little editing, music or fantastic elements are used, the audience will be aware that they are watching a movie. Audiences don't need or want a movie to live up to Bazin's standards of realism. Most audiences are perfectly willing to accept an entertaining film that simply doesn't stretch the realms of believability too much in the events.

psychoanalysis in Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 represents far more in the way of psychoanalysis than the first film did. While the first film did reference the fact that Tony Stark took over the family business from his father, it did not delve deeply into how that affected the character. The second film in the series decides to explore that theme further. It portrays Tony Stark as an alcoholic party boy, and uses the lack of care he received from his father as an explanation of that. His father is portrayed as a workoholic who never had time for his family, and this deals with some freudian issues that add to the characterization of Tony Stark.

The film also contains a more noticeable use of the feminism theory. In the first film the only major female character was Tony's assistant/love interest Pepper Potts. In the new film, however, she is promoted to head of the company. This represents a higher position of power for the female role. Also, the character Black Widow is introduced. Black Widow is a secret agent and, unlike Pepper Potts, actually fights some of the villains of the movie. She has an action sequence in which she knocks several men unconscious while in a skintight leather suit. The fighting is meant to make her appear to be a stronger character, while the suit is meant to instill male interest in the character. The main protagonists are all still male, but the increased use of feminism shows an interesting growth.

While not necessarily better than the first film, looking at psychoanalytic theory shows that Iron Man 2 is more psychologically deep than the first film. This represents an interesting idea and shows that the filmmakers are adding more layers to make the story more complex.

Reel 13

Have to Get Back Down There

This short is a documentary about a recovering drug addict that is presented in a very interesting way. The story is shown through animation. Stick Figure cartoons represent the man and the people around him in his story of how he gave up drugs and how he is still working to fully get rid of them. This technique allows the story to be much more interesting than if it simply showed the man telling his story.

The film's one weakness is also a strength in some respects. The quality of the animation is very weak. The people are poorly drawn stick figures, but that is not totally bad in this case. It represents a simplicity which comes into play with telling the story. The man's story is not a complicated one, but rather a very simple one, which doesn't detract from the emotion that is felt for the man's unfortunate situation.

This short uses an interesting symbol in the form of waving pink lines in order to represent the man's drug addiction. When he leaves New York City behind, he leaves the drugs with it, but when he gets into an accident, the addiction returns along with the pink lines. This symbol would seem out of place in a live action movie, but in animation it totally works.

The movie ends by referencing the title, which shows the man's motivation to get off of drugs. He has a daughter down in Florida, and he knows he can get off of drugs because he needs to see his daughter, and that is more than enough incentive to kick the habit.