Favourite Films

Favourite films:

Jaws is a 1975 adventure/ horror film about a gigantic shark terrorizing a small island town of Amity. This leads to a fisherman, a marine biologist and a police chief to “find it, catch it and kill it”. The reason I love this film is through its uniqueness as a film. Use of a giant mechanical shark makes (left) the film is great as the actor had to work around this large beast and not pretend with CGI included later unlike most films today. The film also includes its legendary theme tune composed by John Williams, the soundtrack creates huge tension and fear as the song is heard only when the shark is presence. This is used in a clever way by director Steven Spielberg who uses the soundtrack to make the shark more menacing when it could be hard to install fear in the audience, as the shark might not look real to some. Finally the film is cleverly sequenced with the shark appearance.  The shark is not shown in roughly three quarters of the film. It’s not till the hunt for the shark that the Shark makes its appearance. This creates a mysterious villain of the film bringing tension to the audience. When the Shark does make an appearance, the main character (Chief Brody ), says the famous film line, “were going to need a bigger boat’’. I love this film for its famous movie scene recognised by many and how the film sparked my personal interest in Sharks.

2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 science fiction film about humanity finding a mysterious object a Monolith buried in the lunar service that leads to a quest to find its meaning. Directed by Stanley Kubrick this film is one of my favourite films as it’s made me love science fiction. The film in particular is unique as nothing like it has ever been made. Huge model spaceship to show off the space age the sixties was in,  is connoted throughout the film. The ideas of what the future would be like is filled with “BBC 12” and “Pan Am Space” all ideas of what the people thought the new millennium would be like. However the thing that stands out to is the monolith(left). Black, flat, rectangular solid. What makes it so special to me, is the first part of the film is “The Dawn of Man”, and this scene shows the earliest ancestors of man. The primitive apes wake up to find the monolith confused and dazzled by its appearance, this changed the apes to develop weaponry and tools but is never revealed how this happens but just it happened after the monolith came. Is the monolith the start of our vast technological development? I believe the monolith is some sort of God or creator. However the monolith is made by unknown aliens. So questions cannot be answered. At the very start of the film the first three minutes are just black with this strange echoing sound is this looking straight at the monolith or is it what the universe looked like before life and everything around us was created. The end of the film is a mindblower as astronaut Dave Bowmen looks into the monolith and sees the universe and creates huge questions on what he exactly saw and what the  audience saw. The film is filled with famous movie scenes and made with a soundtrack that gets the world’s attention. This film is something that’ll never be seen like a again and will always leave questions the world will never know.  

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the third film in the Indiana Jones franchise. Made in 1989, Dr Jones’ father is kidnapped whilst pursing the Holy Grail. Indy has to stop the Nazi’s and rescue his father.  Filled with great action and comedy this is my favourite film of the Indiana Jones films. The main reason is for Indy’s father, Henry Jones Snr., played by Sean Connery. A fantastic actor who I've loved from his James Bond stint, to playing the Irish policeman in the Untouchables, I've always loved his acting. One thing the film and the other Indiana Jones films do is create incredible, well detailed sets. The tombs that Indy explores are always filled with cobwebs and booby-traps. In particular the location of the final scene is an incredible set piece that is an actual ancient structure. Al Khaznehv situated in Jordan was used as the location of the Holy Grail. Using real ancient structures creates more realism to the audience.  Finally, the events inside the Al Khazneh at the end of the film finish the great film in style. The tests Indiana Jones has to face to save his Father and get the Holy Grail are truly intense, using great SFX to replicate an invisible bridge and the death scene of the bad guy are incredible work and make this film so good. The film is one of my favourites not just because of the action and adventure but also the slight comedy included to make this the film it is.

Back to the Future is a Science Fiction films about a young typical American teenager who is best friend with a scientist that comes up with a time machine sending him back to 1955 from 1985. I’ve always loved time travel films and to me this is the best film out of all time travel films for one. The Delorean is the main focus point.  An incredible car that had so much thought and design put into it making it an ionic car today. The car is something not seen in other films. Famous cars can be thought of in films but this car is so unique and different. Filled with wires and a dashboard telling what year it is. This is great piece of movie production work. And will stay in our lives forever. The film is also a love for mine because of its use of casting. The same actors are used in 1985 and 1955. And are used in the other Back to the Future films, from the future all the way back to the Wild West. Great makeup and costumes make these characters so well to remember. Finally time travel is something I always like through the way we can see the same locations but in different times and Hill Valley is the fictional location that the film is set and we see the town change from the eighties to the fifties. Cleverly done through set design and props to make the setting more realistic. From this Back to the future will be favourite of mine forever. And what is even better unlike the other film trilogy’s all three of the Back to the Future films are fantastic.

Jake Andrews