Furious 7

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The latest installment of the Fast & Furious Series, Furious 7, was released this past weekend. Now I will admit, I am a bit biased because I've been a huge fan ever since I saw the first film, but the box office numbers can speak for the films success. According to the Hollywood Reporter, in less than a week the film has made over $489.5 million, including $315 million internationally and $174.5 million domestically.

As a huge fan of this series, I really only had one complaint. For a series that is based around, and really got it's start by focusing on car racing, this installment had very little of it. The film was taken up by mostly guns, fighting and big explosions. Don't get me wrong, I've come to expect this is most new action films, but when it overtakes what a good portion of the series is about, then I think it becomes too much. On the plus side, the movie did retain it's string family aspect, which is something I have always enjoyed. The chemistry between the real life cast always has an incredible way of being portrayed on screen, and the movies push of strong family morals and values has always been something I've held close to my heart.

 

Regardless of the rest of the movie, I was incredibly touched by (and cried through) the tribute to Paul Walker at the end of the film. I was curious how the story would be adapted after his death, and the four months that the studio took to figure it out really showed. The end of the script and the song used was their way of being able to finally say goodbye to him, in the most heartfelt and loving way that a movie could.

Innovative Directing

As I was scrolling through Buzzfeed today I stumbled upon a post about the "18 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Elf". Even though it's only the start of November, I indulged myself in some Christmas spirit by reading this article. The article was very interesting because there really were 18 things that I didn't know about the movie. One of my favorites was that the scene where Will Ferrell is testing jack-in-the-boxes.

The reaction that he has at this moment is completely genuine. The director of this movie, Jon Favreau, used a remote control to manually make the jack-in-the-boxes pop up. This excellent directing caused Will Ferrell to have the perfect reaction. There is total anticipation and then surprise during this scene. It is one of the more memorable scenes in this movie for me because, no matter how many times I've seen Elf, I am still startled just like Buddy the Elf.

After I watched this I looked up other creative ways to direct actors so that the acting they do does not come off as phony. In the movie Saving Private Ryan, Stephen Spielberg made every single actor (including Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and Vin Diesel) go through bootcamp for 10 days. He literally put them through hell so that the actors would get a glimpse as to what war was actually like. He even went as far to feed them all old canned rations and he hired a marine give everyone orders like they were any other soldier.

This just goes to show that direction of the actors is key in making a spot-on performance by the actors and a truly authentic movie.

Creating suspension

Recently in class we watched a segment from The Fast and the Furious and watched how the scene was able to generate suspension.  In the scene Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) races Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) to some train tracks a ways down the road.  The suspense is generated by the train that is coming.  One aspect of the scene we noticed that helped to grow suspension was the feeling that time slowed down.  Not only was it slowed by slow-motion, but many shots were compiled showing close ups, the train, the cars, the train again, and then back to the cars.  The scene itself takes much longer then it should for two fast moving cars to race a quarter of a mile.  The close ups themselves even aid to the suspension.  Shots of the actors such as this one (Not the exact shot but similar)

Help capture the emotion and the intensity.  

The sound and music also helps to play on the audiences emotions and add anxiety to the scene.  There are different styles to using this sound and music.  In fast and furious you hear the roar of the engines and the train thundering down the tracks.  All of this adds to the action and the intensity.  Another movie I watched however uses sound a little differently.  In The Good the Bad and the Ugly, a classic wester, the movie has one scene in particular that uses very little sound, and only has a slow song in the background which could honestly be considered just whistling.  This movie uses the same technique of closeups to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

In this scene you have Clint Eastwood, and three other travelers in a standoff.  The scene is only comprised of shots of their face, eyes, and the occasional gun.  The feeling of slowed time is also applied hear.  No action takes place, just the actors standing waiting for the first to make a move, and there is what feels like 10 minutes of just Eastwood squinting confidently in the face of death.  

In both movies, when the train passes and the shootout is over, there is an immediate feeling of relief as you sit back down in your seat.  It is at that point you can finally notice and appreciate how well done the scene was in building up your suspense.

Robert Cannon