Week 7 - The top directors working in Hollywood today

Movie Review Writing Part II is due today! (Oct. 27)

So many directors, so little time!

New movies come out every month, and there are many great directors we won't have time to discuss. Some of them appear on this list of the top directors working in Hollywood today. Many of these names may be unknown to you, but you will probably see their movies at the cinema or when they are presented with an Academy Award. In this class, we have already looked at Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino who appear on this list. We will also learn about Martin Scorsese (next week!), the Coen Brothers, and Peter Jackson. Let's check out some of the lesser-known names on the list, and then we'll focus on one of them, Karthryn Bigelow, the only woman director we'll study this year.   Another list of directors

• Ben Affleck - Argo (2012), Gone Baby Gone (2007)
• Ang Lee - Brokeback Mountain (2005), Life of Pi (2012), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016) Gemini Man (2019)
• David O Russell - Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Hustle (2013), The Fighter (2010) Joy (2015) 
• Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Birdman (2014), Babel (2006), The Revenant (2016)
• Steve McQueen - 12 Years a Slave (2013), Widows (2018)
• Alfonso Cuaron - Children of Men (2006) Gravity (2013), Roma (2018)
• David Fincher - Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999), The Social Network (2010), Gone Girl (2014), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
• Richard Linklater - Boyhood (2014), Last Flag Flying (2017), Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)   Boyhood PDF  ⤆
• Spike Lee - Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcom X (1992), Summer of Sam (1999), BlacKkKlansman (2018)
• Wes Anderson - Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018) The French Dispatch (2020)

The two directors below are not "Hollywood Directors." However, they are great and well-known, and frequently appear on stage at awards time. 

• Danny Boyle - Trainspotting (1996), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Steve Jobs (2015) Battle of the Sexes (2017), Yesterday (2019)
• Tom Hooper - The King's Speech (2010), Les Miserables (2012), The Danish Girl (2015), Cats (2019)

Blog Post: Choose one of the directors above. The director's name will be your title. Watch all the trailers for that director. Make a blog post that reads ... 

I chose the director ( ... name ...) and I watched the trailer for (... movie title ...). I want to watch the whole movie because ... .
     or
I chose the director ( ... name ...) and I watched the trailer for (... movie title ...) and (... movie title ...). My impression of the trailers is ... .
     or
I saw the whole movie (... movie title ...) by (... director's name ...) at the cinema (or on video or streaming TV). My impression of the movie is ... .

Spotlight on Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow (born 1951) has directed about a dozen movies, but it was her two war movies that made her reputation as a great contemporary director. "The Hurt Locker" (2008), was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning six, including Best Director, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. "The Hurt Locker" is a very tense film about a group of soldiers in Iraq whose job is to disarm explosives. The movie is admired for its realism and for its accurate portrayal of the war in Iraq.

Bigelow's next movie was "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012), about the hunt for Bin Laden by the C.I.A.  It was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one, for Best Sound Editing. Some people found the movie controversial due to its depiction of torture and the implication that torture was helpful in finding Bin Laden. However, the movie strikes a nice balance between being suspenseful and telling a reasonably accurate story about events in Afghanistan and Pakistan leading up to the capture of Bin Laden in 2011.

Bigelow's most recent movie was "Detroit" (2017). About riots in Detroit in 1967, this movie received critical praise, but it did not do well at the box office.

Bigelow was the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director. (Now there are three women who have won.)

* Kathryn Bigelow was married to director James Cameron from 1989 to 1991. They were both nominated for Best Director in 2010. Bigelow won for "The Hurt Locker."(Cameron's movie was "Avatar.")

"The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty" are available on DVD in the Tsurumi University Library.

[My personal thoughts and recollections about Kathryn Bigelow and her movies were supplemented with details, dates and numbers from Wikipedia. - Kevin]

Kathryn Bigelow Biographies:
Wikipedia
IMDb
Biography.com

Links to trailers and clips to some of Kathryn Bigelow's movies:
Point Break (1991) - trailer; a thriller about a cop who goes undercover as a surfer; starring Keanu Reeves
Strange Days (1995) - trailer; a science fiction thriller written by James Cameron
The Weight of Water (2000) - trailer; starring Sean Penn
The Hurt Locker (2008) - trailer; a realistic war movie; starring Jeremy Renner
The Hurt Locker (2008) - "Drop the phone!" clip 
Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - trailer; a realistic war/C.I.A. movie; starring Jessica Chastain   Zero Dark Thirty PDF  ⤆
Detroit (2017) - trailer; true crime drama related to the 1967 riots in Detroit

Please look at these two sentences:
English is taught at Tsurumi University. / English was taught at Tsurumi University.

All students should do this form:
Simple Present Passive vs Active Sentences

To Do List

1) Blog post as explained above

2) Boyhood PDF*

3) Zero Dark Thirty* PDF

4) Finish Passive vs Active Exercise from last week

5) Do 'Simple Present Passive vs Active Sentences' form above

6) Show me your Writing Part II
7) Movie Writing Part III: Write your comments and opinions about the movie in a paragraph. 

* Boyhood is a movie by Richard Linklater (top list). Zero Dark Thirty was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. ⤆

Week 6 - Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood (born 1930) first became famous as an actor in the American TV cowboy series "Rawhide" (1959-1966) and in various spaghetti westerns. His violent police series "Dirty Harry" established him as a popular anti-hero of violent crime movies.

His first turn at directing was for the psychological thriller, "Play Misty for Me" (1971), in which he also starred. While the movie is not considered one of his greatest, it was highly praised and showed Eastwood's directing potential.

In recent years, Eastwood continues to act, but he gets the most attention for his movie directing. Several of the movies he directed have received the highest praise and awards. For the western movie "Unforgiven" (1992), Eastwood both starred and directed. This movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Eastwood received the award for Best Director. This movie was remade as a Japanese jidaigeki in 2013 (but not by Eastwood).

Eastwood again won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director with his boxing movie, "Million Dollar Baby" (2004), in which he also starred. Other excellent and critically acclaimed movies directed by Clint Eastwood are "The Bridges of Madison County" (1995), "Mystic River" (2003), "Flags of Our Fathers" (2006), "Letters from Iwo Jima" (2006), "Changeling" (2008), "Gran Torino" (2008), and "Invictus" (2009). A musical directed by Eastwood, "Jersey Boys" (based on the Broadway musical), came out in 2014, followed by "American Sniper" in the same year. In 2016, we saw "Sully" (2016), starring Tom Hanks. It was based on the true story of an emergency plane landing on the Hudson River, which happened in 2009. In 2019, Eastwood's film, "Richard Jewell", was released.

* Despite Eastwood's long acting career, he has never won an Academy Award for his acting, although he has been nominated twice (Unforgiven, 1992; Million Dollar Baby, 2004). He has been nominated for Best Director by the Academy Awards four times, winning twice.
* Eastwood was mayor of the town of Carmel, California, from 1986-1988.
* Eastwood is also an accomplished musician. He composed much of the music for the soundtracks to many of his movies.
* "Letters from Iwo Jma" (硫黄島からの手紙, 2006), is almost entirely in Japanese. It shows the battle for a strategic island in the Pacific during World War II from the point of view of the Japanese. Another movie, "Flags of Our Fathers" (2006), shows the same battle from the point of view of the Americans.

Many of Eastwood's movies are available in the Tsurumi University Library.

[My personal thoughts and recollections about Clint Eastwood and his movies were supplemented with details, dates and numbers from Wikipedia. - Kevin]

Clint Eastwood Biographies:
Wikipedia
IMDb
Biography.com

My Bag clip, from 'Million Dollar Baby' listening exercise for PDF handout.

Links to trailers & clips from some of Clint Eastwood's movies:
Play Misty for Me (1971) - psychological thriller; trailer
Pale Rider (1985) - western; axe handle fight scene
Mystic River (2003) - drama; trailer
Million Dollar Baby (2004) - boxing drama; trailer; also short boxing clip
Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - war; trailer
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) - war; trailer; starring Ken Watanabe & Kazunari Ninomiya
Changeling (2008) - true historical drama; trailer; starring Angelina Jolie
Gran Torino (2008) - drama; trailer
Scene from Gran Torino (2008)
Invictus (2009) - true drama; South African history; trailer; starring Morgan Freeman & Matt Damon
J. Edgar (2011) - true biopic of J. Edgar Hoover, former FBI director; starring DiCaprio; trailer
Jersey Boys (2014) - musical about the American band, The Four Seasons; trailer
American Sniper (2014) - war movie about a soldier in Iraq; based on a true story; trailer
Sully (2016) - trailer; starring Tom Hanks
The 15:17 to Paris (2018) - trailer
The Mule (2018) - trailer
Richard Jewell - 2019 trailer; based on a true story
Cry Macho (2021) - trailer (Eastwood is now 91 and still acting and directing!

Gran Torino (2008)

Gran Torino - Gang Recruitment clip
Gran Torino - Get off my lawn clip

Two versions of "Unforgiven" (Japanese version not directed by Clint Eastwood)
Unforgiven (1992) - western; directed by Clint Eastwood
Unforgiven [許されざる者] (2013) - jidaigeki; Japanese remake; directed by Lee Sang-il

Morgan Freeman has starred in 3 movies directed by Clint Eastwood, and they all appear in this list of Top 10 Morgan Freeman Performances.

Watch as many Clint Eastwood trailers or clips as possible.

Movie Writing Assignment

Do Part II on the handout from last week. Introduce the story a little. Tell the situation the characters face and how they begin to deal with it. Don’t tell the ending and don’t write any spoilers (like which character dies).

If you want to chance the movie you will write about, it's OK, but you have to re-do Part I.

To Do List

1) Watch as many Eastwood trailers and clips as possible

2) Do the My Bag listening
3) Active and Passive exercise

4) Do the Movie Review Writing assignment, Part II. This is due next week (Oct. 27)!

____

Passive vs Active

Present

People say this class is difficult. (active)

This class is said to be difficult by many people. (passive)

Many people eat pancakes at breakfast. (active)

Pancakes are usually eaten at breakfast. (passive)

Past

I finished my homework in 10 minutes. (active)

My homework was finished in 10 minutes. (passive)

Everyone had fun. (active)

Fun was had by all. (passive)

In general, it's better to use active case, but sometimes, you need variation in your writing. Passive case is also useful sometimes for making the subject more vague.

Example of evading responsibility by using the passive case

I made a mistake. (active)

A mistake was made. (passive)

Passive vs Active Exercise

Week 5 - Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino has not made as many movies as some of the directors we've studied. However, he has become one of the most influential people in the movie business. He is mainly praised for his creative screenwriting, especially his knack for clever dialog. He first became known when he wrote and directed the independent movie, Reservoir Dogs (1992), now a cult favorite. His masterpiece, Pulp Fiction, which he also wrote and directed, came out in 1994, and it was a huge critical hit. It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, winning one, for 'Best Original Screenplay.' It established Uma Thurman as a movie star, boosted the career of Samuel L. Jackson, and was a big comeback movie for actor John Travolta. In the years following, Tarantino wrote and directed Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill (2003/2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2016). Quentin Tarantinos movies are known for their homage to directors and B-movies from the past, especially Kung Fu movies and Blaxploitation films, which have inspired Tarantino's use of over-the-top violence. His movies always have great pop music soundtracks. His most recent movie is the widely acclaimed Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), which won two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy..

Many of Tarantino's movies are available in the Tsurumi University Library. 

[My personal thoughts and recollections about Quentin Tarantino and his movies were supplemented with details, dates and numbers from Wikipedia. - Kevin]

Quentin Tarantino Biographies:
Wikipedia
IMDb
Biography.com

Before you watch the Pulp Fiction (Big Kahuna Burger) scene, please read:

Scenes from Pulp Fiction for handout to be done in class (the two links are for one scene): PDF Handout
1) Pulp Fiction - Big Kahuna Burger
2) Pulp Fiction 1994 Best Scene
Turn volume up; the clips are difficult to hear.

Links to trailers and clips from some of Quentin Tarantino's movies
Reservoir Dogs (1992) - trailer
Pulp Fiction (1994) - trailer
Pulp Fiction (1994) - dance scene
Jackie Brown (1997) - trailer
Kill Bill (2003, 2004) - Gogo Yubari weapons scene (with Chiaki Kuriyama)
Inglourious Basterds (2009) - trailer
Django Unchained (2012) - trailer
Django Unchained (2012) - The Brittle Brothers scene
The Hateful Eight (2016) - trailer
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) - trailer

Samuel L. Jackson appears in two of Quentin Tarantino's movies in this clip of the "Top 10 Samuel L. Jackson Performances" (also one from Spielberg!).

All 9 Quentin Tarantino films ranked!

EdPuzzle

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; DiCaprio scene

Causative Verbs Practice (optional)

To Do List:

1) Watch as many Tarantino trailers and clips as you can.

2) Do the handout for Pulp Fiction
3( Do the EdPuzzle; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood scene

4) Causative Verbs Practice (optional)
5) Fill out the handout (part 1) re. the movie you choose (assigned last week).

Movie Writing Part I PDF: Due Oct. 20 (Part 1 only!)

Three steps to writing a movie review ...

1) Write a paragraph with information about the movie. What is the title?* When was it released? Who was the director (映画監督). Who are the main actors? Did the movie win some awards, such as Academy Awards or Golden Globes? What were the box office results?

* Look up the actual English title. If the movie is Japanese, write the Japanese title and also translate it. Use the official English title if there is one.

2) Write a paragraph that introduces the story a little. Don't tell the whole story and don't give a lot of details. Just tell us enough so we can decide if we want to watch it or not. And no spoilers, please!

3) Write your comments and opinions about the movie in a paragraph. This is the most important part of the movie review.

Some grammar stuff

Last week we did 2 verbs exercises. Many students had trouble.

eat - ate - eaten

• I eat there every day.
• I ate there this morning.
• Has he ever eaten there? Yes, he has eaten there before.

Things we do often, always, sometimes, never, etc. = present tense (現在形)

• I often eat a donut in the morning.
• I always eat breakfast.
• I sometimes eat a banana.
• I never eat natto.

Things done in the past = past tense. (過去形)

• I ate there this morning.
• She studied for the test last night.
• We ordered that book online a week ago, but it hasn't arrived yet.

However, the question form is different!

• Did you eat breakfast this morning?
• Did she study for the test last night?
• Did we order that book online?

Helping verbs 'have', 'has' = past participle (過去分詞)

• I have been to France.
• She has seen that movie.
• Has he ever eaten there?

He has eaten there.
そこで食べたことがあるそうです。

Has he ever eaten there?
彼はそこで食事をしたことがありますか？

Grammar Exercises (we did last week)

Verb Forms Practice

Verb Forms 2022

____

Causative Verbs

Last week ...

3) They made us ___ 12 hours a day. [to work, work, working, works]

4) The police ordered the man ___ out of the car. [getting, get, to get, gets]

*6) Jim was made ___ outside.  [to wait, waiting, wait, waits]

• make someone do something  させる
• have someone do something   させる
• help someone do something  てつだう
• let someone do something  やらせる

but ...

• cause someone to do something  させる
• force someone to do something  強いる
• order someone to do something  命ずる
• *be made to do something  やらされる

I made her do the homework again.  もう一度、宿題をやらせた。

I forced him to give me his money.  無理やり金を出させた。

The mother let her child ride on the horse.  母親は子供を馬に乗せた。

The father caused his child to laugh loudly.  父親は、子供を大笑いさせた。

*The smoker was made to use the smoking area.  喫煙者は喫煙所を利用させた。

Causative Verbs Practice