Film Noir alters the perception of characters.

In the Film Detour one of the very first stereotypes of Film Noir is the Omniscient Narrator and the Flashback. This is shown by the main character Al Roberts and his down on luck attitude in the beginning of the movie. This is very reminiscent of one of the more famous movies in the Film Noir Citizen Kane were their demise is shown early on. Even though in this case we don't learn of his full demise until the end Al Roberts shows his distress by being like Eeyore in every way and seems to hate the world. He then tries to convey to the audience his side by narrating his story in a flash back which last for 90% of the movie. He begins to try and show how he is out of luck and his girl has left him to go to L.A. He decides to go after her and that’s when things hit the fan. After finding a car ride to Los Angeles after days of hitch hiking he gets into a predicament when Charles Haskell Jr., the car owner, passes away in his sleep. Trying to convey his innocence he reasons with the audience that no one would believe him and hides the body and takes his personality. Thus following the stereotype of Film noir, he pours his conscious out to the audience while going against what is right. Though now a days with CSI and the NSA im sure Gibbs could have saved him. Anyway this stereotype runs right along with the movie with Roberts trying to reason what he had to do. And through his conscious he is kept under Vera’s finger nail because he knew leaving Haskell Jr. there was wrong. In the end it shows his ultimate demise being taken to jail where his final plea is said to the audience “Fate, or some mysterious force, can put the finger on you or me for no good reason at all”.

How "Freaks" is not a Horror

For the movie Freaks, I believe that it was placed in the horror category for the wrong reasons from a society that is not as accepting as today’s is. From my perspective it would be more like a drama/thriller/human rights genre. Freaks showed it was more of a drama by switching relationships, going from Phroso and Venus relationship problems to the difficulty of Siamese twins getting married to the, lack of a better word, “gold digger” marriage of Hans and Cleopatra. Along with the relationship drama Freaks had a lightheartedness about it, where Phroso forgot to take Venus out because what looked like he was taking a bath but in reality a skit for his next show. The theme continues with the Siamese twins too. Where Rosco is marring Daisy but since Violet (no nice way of putting this) stuck with her, the drama of the relationship ensues. Later on in the movie Violet gets engaged and the two men meet for the first time they offer that they each should come over some time and act as if there isn’t a problem with the idea. There isn’t as much to joke about when Hans is marring Cleopatra, where her goal is to get to Hans fortune. This shows that it is more of a soap opera thriller than horror. Cleopatra discusses this with strongman about how they will become rich while others over hear and not until the “One of us” song Hans learns of her true intention. The thriller comes in next where Strongman comes in but stopped by Phoso, once outside attacked by the others in the circus. This is where people of today would see it as a thriller not a horror. The people are not supposed to be scary here it’s the fact that there are people coming to kill you. This is where today's society and early 20th centuries clash. They maybe different and out of what we call the norm but as the movie tried to portray they are human beings that love, joke, have real life drama, and most of all have feelings too. 

Sherlock Jr. and Keaton's variety Gags

         1. Sherlock Jr. displays a wide variety of visual gags and stunts. How effective are they and how they relate to contemporary comedy.

        The stunts in Sherlock Jr. are classics now and have become repetitive to everyday society there is still no doubt with the right music they can at least get generate a smile. Though in the early days of moving pictures there wasn’t any other way. Keaton I believe shows his comedic skills in numerous ways from the banana peel to scene jumping to the runaway vehicle. Depending the amount of video games you have played the banana peel gag is still relevant if you want to finish well in Mario Kart. The peel has become the icon of slipping so much so that there is even Mythbusters episode busting the myth. The other gag was scene jumping, while not used as much by today’s standards it is a Looney Tunes classic, from jumping out of paintings in Looney Tunes: Back in Action to Bugs changing the background on Daffy. Though not done in this century the gag of changing scenes on Daffy I think was the best Tune. The changing of scenes on the actor makes it easy to bring up new or different material which give the creator comedic freedom. Lastly there is the runaway vehicle scene with well timed clearing of obstacles and one of the most recent uses is in Anchorman 2. Though there was a bit of a twist with thinking its cruise control, laughs were still had at the rampaging van that had a mind of its own veering across traffic.