The Godfather

An actor pretends to be someone else-the character he or she is playing in a movie. When an actor gets a role in a film he develops the character by using different acting styles or technique. Being able to act in various styles gives you a better chance to become a successful actor.

The actors who played in The Godfather that I choose to classify are Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and James Caan. These three actors are used to playing in dramatic films and can be classified with the same acting technique. The technique would be method acting.

Method acting (often known as “The Method”) is perhaps the most famous often ridiculed and parodied. The Method requires actors to draw on their own memories and experiences to reach the heart of the character so that they more genuinely fell the emotions they’re portraying instead of just pretending to (Goodykoontz 2011).

Marlon Brando exhibits this technique in all of the films he has starred in. His first screen role was a bitter crippled veteran in “The Men in 1950. True to his method he spent a month in bed at a veteran’s hospital to prepare for the role (http://www.filmbug.com).

In “The Godfather when he auditioned he put cotton balls in his mouth to make it seem like he had  puffed cheeks the character he was playing was supposed to have.

Marlon Brando does such a great job at becoming the character he is portraying he should have been in the films that he has been in because this is the acting style that he is used to.

Besides “The Godfather” Al Pacino has used method acting to play characters in films such as a cop called “Serpico” and “Tony Montana” in “Scarface”..

Pacino wasn’t the actor that everyone wanted when “The Godfather” was being made. Francis Ford Coppola had his heart set on him and the film was a hit and earned Pacino his first Academy Award nomination for “Best Supporting Actor” (http://www.imdb.com).

Al Pacino has been categorized as a dramatic actor and the films he has played in, in his career seems as if they were made for him because he fits into them very well.

When it comes to James Caan, the acting technique he was known for is the Meisner technique. This technique is supposed to use different techniques to build on one another. Students work on a series of complex exercises to develop an ability to first improvise, then to access an emotional life, and finally to bring the spontaneity and richness of personal response to textual work http;//en.m.wikipedia.org.

Although James Caan used this technique in some of his works he used method acting in “The Godfather” because his portrayal of Santino “Sonny” Corleone seemed to be coming from a part of his true self .

I believe actors use different acting styles according to the character they are supposed to portray. In order for an actor to truly put himself into character he must know the character and bring a bit of himself into it as well.

References:

Goodykoontz, 2011 Film: From Seeing to Watching, San Diego, CA, Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

http://www.imdb.com

http://en.m.wikipedia.org

 

 

 

 

A Bronx Tale (Biker’s Fight)

The three basic categories of film sound requires careful balancing to serve the story…(Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs., C., 2011) in this scene the dialogue between one biker and Sonny seems to be an understanding that they just want to have a couple of beers in the bar and they will be on their way. After ordering their drinks the biker’s shake their beers up and sprays the bartender with them. Sonny asks them to leave and they refuse. You are able to heard them talking and in the background “Come Together” a song by The Beatles is playing and you can barely hear it. Since the biker’s won’t leave when asked Sonny locks the door to the bar and says “now youse can’t leave” and the only sound you hear is Calogero narrating the scene, the biker’s are silent and the camera scans all of their faces one by one. Then the fighting begins.The sound effects are breaking glass, grunting, slapping and punching sounds, a song called “The Ten Commandments of Love” is playing. The music is louder now then the other song that played before and the dialogue is lower this time. You are able to tell there is a fight going on in this scene by the sound effect and the dialogue between the men. I don’t think the music in this scene let’s the viewer know the fight scene is happening however, in the era in which the movie was made it was a song from that time.

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs., C., Film: From Watching to Seeing

Youtube.

 

A Bronx Tale

Title: A Bronx Tale

Writer: Chazz Palminteri

Director: Robert DeNiro

Year: 1993

Actors: Robert DeNiro, Chazz Palminteri, Joe Pesci, and Francis Capra

In this scene from A Bronx Tale, Calogero and his friends are riding in a car on there way to the other side of town to finish a confrontation with some kids from the other side of town.What Calogero doesn’t know is that his friends have Molotov cocktails in the car. When he realizes this he wants to get out of the care but he doesn’t want his friends to know this. Sonny appears just in the nick off time to rescue him.  After Calogero gets out of the car his friends go to a record shop and throw the cocktails and one of the guys in the store throws on of them into the car and the car is engulfed in flames.

The lighting in this scene is low-key, it is used to establish the mood of the scene and give it the dramatic feel the director wants. Low -key lighting in dramas seem to remove the color from the picture and puts certain areas into shade. The benefits of the use of low-key lighting makes the viewer just focus on what the director wants them to focus on at that time. The focus of this part in the film was the actors talking about what was about to happen when they got to their destination. After they get to their destination when they throw the cocktails into the store, the store seems to have high-key lighting against the low-key lighting of the surroundings.

Resources:

Film: From Watching to Seeing:  Goodykoontz,B., & Jacobs, P. C. 2011, Bridgepoint Education, Inc.