唐山大兄 aka The Big Boss

I love kungfu movies and no one does it better than Bruce Lee. I mean just look at that face ↑. Having said that, it isn't his best film or even a great Bruce Lee film. I'm probably only saying that though because netflix forced me to watch the movie with horrid english dubbing. The movie was full of super cheesy, hard to listen to dialogue. The movie had a few key features that helped it overcome this shortcoming though. First was the 'easy-going working class proletariat' vs. 'evil corporate bourgeois' storyline. Its good to see that in a movie because the working class are under represented in movies. Second is that Bruce Lee can make anything look cool. 'Oh no! There's an eight foot gate in my way.' What does Bruce Lee do? Jump over it in a single leap and calmly eat a chip. 'Oh no! There's six guys with knifes about to try to kill me.' What does Bruce Lee do? Jumps, kicks two of them in the balls, and then calmly eats a chip. So cool!!!! 

So this is my first post and I've never done anything like it so here I go. I guess I'll begin with a brief intro into why this is occurring. I like film. I like film a lot and figure I might as well just type some words on the what I watch. And if you wondering about the name of the blog, well it's quite simple. 'Movement-Image' is the name that the great French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave to film. ¹ Without further ado, I give you:

Dial 'M' for Murder

Ahhh, you got to love Hitchcock. He's one of those directors whose films are so precise. It seems like he is in control and everything is being shown and seen exactly the way he wants. Its hard to put a finger on why he's so good at this. It may come from being part of the film industry from the early days. His movies aren't filled with the bells and whistles of modern pictures. They rather present themselves as thought out dialogue pieces, similar to theater. I love the dialogue in the movie. There aren't any explosions or action packed scenes with quick camera movements. Just lightning paced discussions that you have to really concentrate to follow.

I don't know how many people this happens to but I was rooting for the bad guy. While he was a bad person, I mean he did try to kill someone, he has some of the wonderful characteristics of the type of people I like in movies.

a. He's been mistreated by someone and seeks revenge on them. (and boy do I love revenge flicks)

b. He's intelligent

I feel like if you switch the plot around a little bit, like he's trying to get revenge on Grace Kelly because she poisoned and murdered his mother, we'd be rooting for him. Well anyway this is the end of the beginning. I think I'll enjoy this film diary quite a bit. Its fun to ramble on, even if no one is listening. (Is this a sign of insanity?)

1. From Wikipedia: Deleuze, commenting on the philosophy of Henri Bergson, dismisses the conception of cinema as a succession of still photographs. Instead, he argues that cinema immediately gives us movement-image.[2] Figures are not described in motion; rather, the continuity of movement describes the figure (p5). In this respect, cinema embodies a modern conception of movement, "capable of thinking the production of the new" (p7), as opposed to the ancient conception of movement as a succession of separate elements, exemplified by Zeno's arrow. The capacity for thinking the production of the new, being open to chance and accident, can be seen in the action-mime of Chaplin and the action dance ofFred Astaire (p7).