Coppola essays

Coppola essays Brando's raspy-voiced role (later to be mimicked by a host of impersonators) was difficult in one respect for Coppola in that the actor was 47 at the time, much too young for the aging Mafia don. The problem was solved by makeup expert Dick Smith, who has accomplished similar wonders in The Exorcist (1973) and in Little Big Man (1970), where he aged Dustin Hoffman to 100 years old. Smith added wrinkles to Brando's skin by applying liquid latex, especially around the eyes and nose. A leathery appearance was achieved the same way, along with loose flesh and bags beneath the eyes. He imparted olive skin tones to give Brando a Mediterranean appearance. A special denture was inserted along his lower jawline to make the actor's jaw jut out in a completely different bite and to cause his cheeks to sag. He then stuffed the actor's cheeks with a gummy substance to affect heavy jowls, and it was this device that altered the actor's appearance drastically, giving rise to wild speculation that B rando spent hours stuffing his cheeks with cotton, facial tissue, and newspapers. The film is darkCoppola had cinematographer Gordon Willis deliberately underlight each scene; the mood is dark; and the climax, in which Michael indulges in an orgy of blood vengeance, would simply be horrific, were it not for the ironic melodies of the Rota score, which underline the humane sensibilities of the storyteller and keep us at an appropriate distance. And this points to Coppola's greatest achievement with THE GODFATHER; he simultaneously presents us with two views of the Corleone family. We see it from within, sympathizing with the motives and dilemmas of these very real, attractive and charismatic individuals; and we see it from without, in a state of suspended disgust at a moral code that knows only greed and blood. The Godfather is an insightful sociological study of violence, power, honor and obligation, corruption, justice and crime in America.The film ...

How Athens Played a Significant Role in Greek History

How Athens Played a Significant Role in Greek History Chapter I. The Physical Setting of Athens 1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History To three ancient nations the men of the twentieth century owe an incalculable debt. To the Jews we owe most of our notions of religion; to the Romans we owe traditions and examples in law, administration, and the general management of human affairs which still keep their influence and value; and finally, to the Greeks we owe nearly all our ideas as to the fundamentals of art, literature, and philosophy, in fact, of almost the whole of our intellectual life. These Greeks, however, our histories promptly teach us, did not form a single unified nation. They lived in many city-states of more or less importance, and some of the largest of these contributed very little directly to our civilization. Sparta, for example, has left us some noble lessons in simple living and devoted patriotism, but hardly a single great poet, and certainly never a philosopher or sculptor. When we examine closely, we see that the civilized life of Greece, during the centuries when she was accomplishing the most, was peculiarly centered at Athens. Without Athens, Greek history would lose three quarters of its significance, and modern life and thought would become infinitely the poorer. 2. Why the Social Life of Athens Is So Significant Because, then, the contributions of Athens to our own life are so important, because they touch (as a Greek would say) upon almost every side of the true, the beautiful, and the good, it is obvious that the outward conditions under which this Athenian genius developed deserve our respectful attention. For assuredly such personages as Sophocles, Plato, and Phidias were not isolated creatures, who developed their genius apart from, or in spite of, the life about them, but rather were the ripe products of a society, which in its excellences and weaknesses presents some of the most interesting pictures and examples in the world. To understand the Athenian civilization and genius it is not enough to know the outward history of the times, the wars, the laws, and the lawmakers. We must see Athens as the average man saw it and lived in it from day to day, and THEN perhaps we can partially understand how it was that during the brief but wonderful era of Athenian freedom and prosperity[*], Ath ens was able to produce so many men of commanding genius as to win for her a place in the history of civilization which she can never lose. [*]That era may be assumed to begin with the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.), and it certainly ended in 322 B.C., when Athens passed decisively under the power of Macedonia; although since the battle of Chaeroneia (338 B.C.) she had done little more than keep her liberty on sufferance.