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Warrior, directed by Gavin O’Connor, is a great story about two fighters’ rise to success. Like The Fighter (with Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale), Warrior is a based on a true story about two brothers (played by Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton) and fighting. Unlike The Fighter, Warrior is about MMA (mixed martial arts) and the brothers are both going for the title.

The story was good. It kept me interested throughout. It’s hard to comment further without ruining the movie. Let me just say that the brothers fight through personal and professional adversity to find their way to the big-time.

The fight scenes were great. They were realistic and entertaining. Usually I do not see many body-slams or power-bombs in the real MMA, but it is expected that the director would liven up the action a bit like they do in boxing films. Real heavyweight boxing matches are much more boring the fight scenes in Rocky. The shooting of the fight scenes was also real. It was like watching a real MMA fight from home because they seemed to use the same production that is used to televise the bouts.

The acting was great. Jennifer Morrison, most famous for her role on the show House was very convincing as one of the fighter’s wife. Nick Nolte also shines as the fighters’ alcoholic father.

This movie reminded me a lot of The Fighter because they are both great movies about fighting. The MMA action of Warrior made it a bit more exciting than the boxing of The Fighter. Even at over 2 hours long, both kept me interested in the story and not watching the clock. Warrior, like The Fighter is a great movie and I highly recommend it.

~RC

Comments?

4.5 out of 5 grinds

I rented Cowboys & Aliens on iTunes. I do not go to the movie theatre anymore because I hate dealing with behavior of other people. Don’t get me started.

Cowboys & Aliens takes the classic western story and turns it upside down. The movie starts out as a normal western with a tired plot. Then the Aliens arrive. The prototypical western film protagonist and antagonist are forced to team up against a larger foe.

For what this movie sets out to accomplish, it achieves. It’s a movie about cowboys and aliens. Don’t expect Shakespeare. Having said that, I think the plot was well crafted and I was kept interested throughout.

The special effects were great and they did not hold back on gore. If you were fighting powerful aliens on horseback, of course the horses are going to die horrible deaths. It’s those details really make the movie seem real in it’s made up world, i.e. its verisimilitude.

Olivia Wilde is in the film. She looks amazing. Aside from Mila Kunis, Olivia Wilde is the hottest actress working in Hollywood today. I have no complaints about her acting in this film. The movie also stars Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. Daniel Craig is British and his American accent was convincing enough.

I’ve seen a lot of critics criticize this film. Peter Martin of Twitchfilm.com writes:

I think Peter Martin is missing the point. Cowboys & Aliens takes two classic genres and contrasts them. Of course the alien aspect of this movie is the more exciting aspect of the movie and moves the plot. I think the movie plays up the difference in styles while combining the two well. This is not a movie that wants to be a Western. Cowboys & Aliens is a Western that wants to be a Sci-Fi.

Peter Martin also had this to say:

Peter Martin and I agree on one thing. We both want to see Olivia Wilde naked as many times as possible. The one thing that he leaves out is that she is wearing a partially see-through old timey dress throughout the first half of the move that gets wet more than once. I don’t know what more Peter Martin needs but I suggest he types it in a search engine. Do you need to see nudity in a movie to enjoy it? Olivia Wilde has been naked in movies before. We’ve seen it. We will live.

I recommend Cowboy & Aliens to anyone who loves Sci-Fi. It is very violent and very graphic. Take your kids if you want, I’m not going to tell you how to raise them. There is not any nudity but, as previously stated, Olivia Wilde is prancing around in a see through dress half the movie. The film was beautifully shot, the editing was elegant and the acting was good enough. This is a fun movie.

~RC

Works Cited

Martin, P. (2011, July 29). COWBOYS & ALIENS Review.

Retrieved December 18, 2011, from Twitch: http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/07/cowboys-aliens-review.php

Comments?

Humanistic psychology is an approach to psychology that places an emphasis on self-actualization, peak experiences, belonging and self-esteem. American psychologist Abraham Maslow was considered to be the leading humanistic psychologist. In Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” more primitive drives like food, air, and sleep took priority over more sophisticated drives like morality, self-esteem and achievement. Only when the more primitive desire for food is met will a person realize their higher desire for more sophisticated desires like achievement. Humanistic psychology states that human beings do not reach their full potential until they reach these higher “self-actualization” needs. Another aspect of humanistic psychology is the “self-centered” theory of psychotherapist Carl Rogers that states individuals see the world only by their experiences. People use this perception to direct their behavior to satisfy the needs of the total self. Rogers says that a person strives for self-actualization, self-maintenance, and self-enhancement in the individual development of personality. The humanistic approach to psychology is a stark contrast to classical behavioral psychology. Humanistic psychology does not scientifically dissect and analyze people’s actions but instead looks at people as thinking and feeling individuals.

Humanistic psychology and existential humanism has never before been more fully supported than in the movie Fight Club by David Fincher. The movie begins with the lead character (who will be referred to as Jack) not being able to sleep. It is a big problem. After being denied drugs by a doctor he starts going to support groups. Even though he does not suffer from any of the afflictions, he regularly attends support groups for men with testicular cancer, people with tuberculosis, and many other diseases. He finds that when he is able to cry at these meetings, he sleeps like a baby. This is right out of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Sleep is a physiological need on Maslow’s chart and therefore takes priority over self-esteem, security of body and respect of others. Jack is willing to completely disrespect these people by attending these meetings. These people are exposing their lives while Jack watches and pretends to be one of them. A lot of times in the group therapy sessions, the attendees will split into groups of two to hug and cry. That is definitely a choice by Jack to forfeit his body security and self-esteem for a moment. He does not care; he just wants to sleep. The irony is that Jack is pretending to be ill as a way to be well.

Through a chance visit and an improbable explosion, Jack finds himself living with Tyler Durden, a hip, witty and handsome soap entrepreneur. Tyler Durden and Jack start an underground “Fight Club” and Jack abandons the support groups for the exhilaration of fighting. The “fight club” is actually the perfect humanistic treatment plan. Humanistic psychology emphasizes peak experiences, belonging, self-actualization, and self-esteem as a way towards self-fulfillment. What better way to have “peak experiences” than to fight another man until one of you gives up. The “fight club” also offers belonging. There are many members of the fight club and nothing brings you together as a group of men like physical violence. The club also offers self-actualization. There is no better way to gain self-knowledge than fighting. You learn your physical as well as your mental limits. Self-esteem is also gained by fighting. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. The self-esteem comes from entering into combat. One of the schools of thought that launched humanistic psychology was the “Gestalt Psychology”. Gestalt is roughly translated from German as meaning “form” or “whole”. Maslow was a student of Gestalt psychology and was influenced heavily by the holistic approach to psychology. Gestalt therapy relies heavily on confrontation. This is an important connection to make because Jack has abandoned his therapy for the fight club. The fight club is a Gestalt therapy. The fighters definitely need to own their actions when they are fighting and accept the consequences for their actions. This is a major component of Gestalt therapy. The only difference is that the stakes are so much higher in the fight club that the therapy works better.

The club grows and evolves and soon resembles a cult. Members all shave their head, wear all black, shout out slogans in union, and begin to commit acts of vandalism around the city. Jack begins to question the direction of this organization. He confronts Tyler Durden and discovers that Tyler Durden is really another one of his own personalities. This is like Carl Rogers theories on self-actualization gone really badly. Tyler Durden was everything that Jack wanted to be, but couldn’t. He was handsome, motivated, inspiring and had big plans. Jack was stuck in a job he hated and he did not seem to have any friends before he “met” Tyler. Jack’s life was stuck boring. He created Tyler and became Tyler as a twisted self-actualization tendency.

Another aspect of humanism is existential humanism. Existentialism is simply the belief that man’s existence precedes his essence. That means that man’s substance is not pre-determined, but chosen. Jean-Paul Sartre connected humanism and existentialism when he wrote, “But there is another humanism, the acceptance that there is only one universe, the universe of human subjectivity. Existentialism is not despair. It declares rather that even if God did exist, it would make no difference.” (Sartre, 1956) Sartre is saying existentialism and humanism are closely related because each declares that people are in control of their own lives. Fight Club also touches on themes of existentialism. Jack’s old apartment and old job were boring. Jack did not become Tyler Durden, his essence, until after. Jack’s existence definitely preceded his essence. Another existential theme the movie presents is the reoccurring idea about Jack’s old life was not a life of their choosing. The fight club and subsequent cult was the life that they had chosen, not a life they were sold. That is right in line with the existential idea and humanistic idea that people need to take charge of their fate. The irony is there. Only when the members choose to enter a cult like atmosphere is when they truly become individuals.

Humanistic psychology has been heavily influenced by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The humanistic theory on where people get their personality from is summed up by the book as, “A drive toward personal growth and higher levels of functioning.” (Morris and Maisto, 2010) Alfred Adler, who is considered to be the father of humanistic psychology (Cain, 2002) , created an “individual psychology” which states that individuals strive for superiority. This is a lot like Friedrich Nietzsche’s “overman”. “What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock or painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman.” (Nietzsche, 1961) In the movie Fight Club Jack says that he was "close to being complete," and Tyler responds "Never be complete, stop being perfect; I say let's evolve." (Fincher, 1999) That is a perfect summation of humanistic psychology and Nietzsche’s theory of the overman. This movie is more on the Nietzsche humanistic side because of the type of improvement the men make. Walter Kaufman wrote, “Wealth and military might were never signs of great power to Nietzsche’s mind; and he realized fully that power involves self-discipline: this is, in fact, the central point of his conception.” (Kaufmann, 1950) It seems important to note Nietzsche because the men do not become successful or improve themselves by societal standards. The men attempt to evolve in a violent way. It seems as if there is no goal and no point of any of their actions outside of the context of Friedrich Nietzsche. No one would enter a self-actualization program like this.

Works Cited

Cain, D. (2002). history, and evolution of humanistic psychotherapies. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Fincher, D. (Director). (1999). Fight Club [Motion Picture].

Kaufmann, W. (1950). Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Morris, C. G., and Maisto, A. A. (2010). Understanding Psychology. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Nietzsche, F. (1961). Thus Spoke Zarathustra. London: Penguin.

Sartre, J.-P. (1956). Existentialism is a Humanism. World Publishing Company.

Comments?

Reservoir Dogs, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, is an iconic film. The movie centers around a diamond heist gone bad. In the aftermath of the bloody debacle, the surviving thieves are left at the hideout wondering what went wrong. Filmed for a modest amount of $1,200,000 (IMDB, 1992) in Los Angeles, California, the film was the directorial debut for Tarantino. The movie blended an all-star cast of actors including Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn and Lawrence Tierney.

Tarantino uses many different camera techniques. The opening scene uses a circling camera shot as the protagonists are assembled around a table. When they leave the coffee shop, there is a slow motion title sequence with the heroes walking at the camera. That shot has become iconic. It has been parodied many times like in the movie Dead Scared in 2004. The scenes in the warehouses use many wide angle shots that go on for minutes. Tarantino effectively utilizes an open frame in many important warehouse scenes. The torture scene uses the open frame technique. The cop’s ear is hacked off just out of frame. The scene is considered to be one of the most violent scenes in cinema history. (Winning, 2011) The most horrible part occurs out of frame. The film uses 70’s classic music to convey to the audience that the protagonists are a type of man that is not around anymore. A “tough guy” type character reminiscent of actors from the 70’s like Charles Bronson. Charles Bronson is mentioned in high regard many times in the movie.

This movie is a masterpiece. The way the plot is structured is brilliant. Reminiscent of movies like Citizen Kane, the plot jumps around chronologically to reveal the truth at a pivotal moment. The scene where Mr. Blonde is cutting the kidnapped police officer’s ear off is the pivotal scene in the movie. One of the most memorable shots in the film has to be Mr. Blonde dancing around with a straight-edge razor to “Stuck in the Middle with You.” Somehow, Tarantino was able to make a torture scene funny. This scene is very important in the plot. When Mr. Blonde is about to light the cop on fire, he is shot and killed by Mr. Orange. This reveals the answer to the main question in the first half of the movie: Who is the rat? This scene then acts as a branching off point to the flashback story about Mr. Orange and how he was an undercover cop the entire time. Then the plot resumes back to the former timeline after Mr. Blonde is shot by Mr. Orange. This is a great example of complex plot structure as the story follows a non-linear path.

Reservoir Dogs is similar to The Godfather in a few ways. Both films create sympathy for the main characters by looking at criminals in a humanizing manner. The opening scene of Reservoir Dogs shows a bunch of guys having breakfast and talking about pop culture. The men are well dressed, quick witted and funny. Not the conversation you may expect to hear from a group of murderous thieves. The Godfather creates sympathy for the mafia families by portraying them as family centered. In both films, the sense of morality is severely blurred. Cops are the bad guys; the criminals are the good guys. Reservoir Dogs goes a step further by concentrating on the element of the undercover cop. Mr. Orange, played by Tim Roth, is completely sympathetic as a character even though he is a police officer working against the protagonist group of thieves. It seems the antagonist of the film is the situation itself.

Quentin Tarantino uses similar names in his movies. The names he uses are directly relatable to names of characters in other movies. In Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Blonde has a parole officer names Seymour Scagnetti. In Natural Born Killers, written by Tarantino, the detective who was assigned to capture the murdering protagonists was Jack Scagnetti. On Jack Scagnetti’s IMDB page, it is claimed by an unconfirmed source, that Jack is Seymour’s nephew (track100, 2009). In Reservoir Dogs, the protagonist criminals use alias to conceal their identity from each other like Mr. Pink, Mr. White etc. Mr. Blonde’s real name is Vick Vega. In Pulp Fiction, written and directed by Tarantino, the murdering protagonist played by John Travolta is Vincent Vega. The two characters are in fact brothers in another project of Tarantino called The Vega Brothers that has not yet been made. Tarantino was recently quoted as saying, “…since they both died, it would have to be a prequel.” (Sciretta, 2007) The name “Vega” is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. In ancient Egyptian astrology the star appears in the constellation that represents the vulture. Considering the two characters Vick and Vincent Vega and their preying ways, the name seems to fit.

Roger Ebert said, “Tarantino doesn't do much with his characters except to let them talk too much.” (Ebert R. , 1992) This could not be further from the truth. All of the important characters are vividly expressed through elaborate backstories. Mr. Orange is explored by following his journey through trying to convince the other members of the gang that he is not an undercover police officer. The character of Mr. Blonde has scenes of amazing dialogue, but what made his character the most memorable is what he did when he was not talking, like cutting a guy’s ear off. Ebert also says, “The idea is that the tough guys, except for Tierney and the deranged Madsen (Mr. Blonde), are mostly bluffers. They are not good at handling themselves in desperate situations.” (Ebert, 1992) This is another incorrect statement by Ebert. The only guy that made it out of there alive was Mr. Pink. Everyone else handles the situation improperly. As annoying as he was, he was right about everything. They were set up. Mr. Pink stayed out of any allegiances. That is what kept him alive. Desson Howe of The Washington Post wrote, “With the exception of the opening scene -- whose purpose is chiefly comic -- the movie is one, extended climax. Even with flashbacks and other time jumps, it never lets up.” (Howe, 1992) Mr. Howe has it correct. Reservoir Dogs has stood the test of time and will be continue to be one of the greatest gangster films ever.

Works Cited

Ebert, R. (1992). Reservoir Dogs. Chicago Sun-Times.

Howe, D. (1992). Reservoir Dogs. The Washington Post.

IMDB. (1992, October 22). Reservoir Dogs. IMDB, 1.

Sciretta, P. (2007, April 7). Quentin Tarantino talks Vega Brothers, the Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs sequel/prequel. Film, 1.

track100. (2009). Det. Jack Scagnetti. IMDB.

Winning, J. (2011, July 20). 20 Most Violent Movies. Total Film, p. 20.