It's a Wonderful Life

Earlier this week, I watched It's a Wonderful Life (for only the second time).  I noticed that in the scene where George and Clarence are drying their clothes after having jumped in the river, the framing is such that George is enclosed by the clothesline.

I may be making too much of it, but I think this could mean two things.

First, this could illustrate George's skepticism about who Clarence is.  He doesn't fully accept his claim to be an angel, and this visual divide between the two represents the barrier of George's unbelief.

Second, this separation of George could act as a foreshadowing of the world Clarence will show him where he's never been born.  He's set apart visually to prefigure his absence from Bedford Falls.

---&---

I also noticed a slight but significant difference between George's two interactions with the man whose tree he runs into with his car.  Right after George hits the man's tree, the man complains to George and says, "My great-grandfather planted this tree!"  After George wishes that he'd never been born (and thus hasn't run into the tree), he encounters the man and comments about his tree, and the man mentions that it's "one of the oldest trees in Pottersville."  In both, the man is concerned with his tree, but in the world with George, his concern is more personal (related to his great-grandfather), while in the world without George, his concern is centered on the status of the tree itself.  Such a difference in the man's concerns seems to suggest that in the world with George, a greater emphasis is placed on personal connections.

Julie & Julia

Recently, I re-watched Julie & Julia and noticed the significance of a detail.

The day after Julie experiences many disappointments (she falls asleep and doesn't hear her timer so she burns the stew; Judith Jones, the editor of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Julie's dinner guest, cancels because it's raining; and then, worst of all, Julie has a fight with her husband over how concerned she's become about her blog), she goes to work wearing a turtleneck, over which she conspicuously wears the necklace that her husband gave her for her thirtieth birthday earlier in the movie:

This prominent display of the necklace tacitly indicates that Julie is thinking about those better days in her relationship with her husband.

Indiana Jones

Lately, I've been reading Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? from Science to the Supernatural, the Many Mysteries of Indiana Jones by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg.  Recently, I read a section about zeppelins and how they relate to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  The book claims that "after recovering the Grail diary in Berlin, the Joneses attempt to leave Germany aboard the majestic LZ 138 zeppelin," but when I referenced the film, I found that the ship's designation is actually D-138.  It's glimpsed in only a couple shots, though:

I hadn't noticed this detail before, but since it was drawn to my attention, I now think that it's slight reference to THX 1138, George Lucas's first feature film.  There are similar references in the Star Wars movies.  In A New Hope, Luke, in disguise as a stormtrooper, fabricates a "prisoner transfer from cell block 1138;" in The Empire Strikes Back, General Rieekan gives the order "Send Rogues 10 and 11 to Station 38;" and in The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith, there are battle droids whose markings bear passing resemblances to the number.  (See more details here.)

When I re-watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull earlier this year, I noticed a 138 there, too.  It's one of the house numbers in the mock town that's destroyed by an atomic bomb test.

Star Wars: Rebels - S1E5 - "Breaking Ranks"

At the beginning of the Rebels episode "Breaking Ranks," there's a brief establishing shot of Lothal City.

At first, I noticed only the visual symmetry that this shot has:  the Imperial facility is centered, and the Star Destroyer on the left is somewhat balanced with the sunset on the right.  Then, I realized that there's a contrast between the two sides of this shot and that this contrast illustrates how the Empire's occupation is changing Lothal.

The right side of the shot shows a bright city with rolling hills beyond it, but the left side shows a darkened city emitting smoke from Imperial factories.  The Star Destroyer overhead indicates the Imperial oppression, and the sunset with which it's balanced may even represent the fading of the old days of Lothal.

There are episodes later in the series that demonstrate more clearly how the Empire is stripping the planet of its resources ("The Occupation" S4E5 and "Crawler Commandeers" S4E8), but this episode shows it in its early stages.

Star Wars: Rebels - S1E4 - "Rise of the Old Masters"

I recently started re-watching Star Wars: Rebels.  Even before I got to it, I was thinking about "Rise of the Old Masters," and I realized that it's significant that Luminara Unduli is the Jedi Master in this episode.

After the Ghost crew hears Senator Gall Trayvis's broadcast claiming that "one of the Republic's greatest peacekeepers, Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, is alive," Kanan says that "she was a great Jedi master, brave, compassionate, disciplined" and tells Ezra that "she'd made an excellent teacher for you."  From the moment she's introduced, Luminara is presented almost as the epitome of the Republic-era Jedi, but in this time period (the "dark times" of the Empire, as Obi-Wan describes it in A New Hope), she's more suited for this idealization than some other Jedi.  Luminara's name is related to lumen (gen. luminis), the Latin word for light, so in a way, she's the embodiment of the light side of the Force and acts as a symbol of the old Jedi order.

Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace

I recently re-watched The Phantom Menace for research for my Star Wars blog, and it gave me an opportunity to develop a couple ideas I had.

During their dinner conversation, Padmé tells Anakin, "Our ship was damaged, and we're stranded here until we can repair it," and he replies, "I can help; I can fix anything."  His prodigious technical ability seems to be an attribute of his status as the Chosen One.  In the same way that he will restore balance to the Force, he can restore balance to mechanical systems and get them to work again.

Like Return of the Jedi, the title is ambigious.  There are three characters who could be "the phantom menace":  Anakin, who is only a child in this movie but will grow up to become Darth Vader and terrorize the galaxy; Palpatine, who uses his position as a senator to disguise his identity as a Sith Lord; and Darth Maul, who mysteriously appears in order to track down Queen Amidala and harrass her Jedi protectors.

Metropolis

Earlier this week, I watched Metropolis for the first time in something like thirteen years.  I think previously I'd watched a rather low quality version I'd found on the internet, but this time I watched a DVD of a restoration from 2002.  In any case, I noticed a fairly trivial detail.

A little less than halfway through the movie, Maria tells the gathered workers about the Tower of Babel.

The image of the tower seems to be based on the painting "The Tower of Babel" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder from 1565 (it's called the "little" Tower of Babel to distinguish it from an-other painting Bruegel did):

Coincidentally, a day or two before I watched the movie, I'd read the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9.  The version in Metropolis is somewhat different, though.  Here's the text from the intertitles:

Come, let us build us a tower whose top may reach unto the stars!

And on the top of the tower we will write the words:  Great is the world and its Creator!  And great is Man!

... but the minds that had conceived the Tower of Babel could not build it.  The task was too great.  So they hired hands for wages.

But the hands that built the Tower of Babel knew nothing of the dream of the brain that had conceived it.

One man's hymns of praise became other men's curses.

People spoke the same language, but could not understand each other...

"HEAD and HANDS need a mediator."

National Treasure

A couple times over the last half a year or so, I was thinking about the names in National Treasure.  The FBI agents say the full names of two of the characters:  Benjamin Frankin Gates and Patrick Henry Gates.  In the credits, the grandfather's name is given:  John Adams Gates.  Obviously, they're named after figures from the American Revolution (similarly, Dr. Abigail Chase seems to have been named after Abigail Adams), but Ben Gates' name also fits with one of the other themes of the movie.

Benjamin (בִּנְיָמִין) is a Hebrew name that means "son of the right [hand]."  The shortened form Ben is the Hebrew word for son (בֵּן).  While the character in National Treasure is named after Benjamin Franklin, the etymological meaning of his name coincidentally illustrates the filial obligation he feels, not only to his ancestors but also to the Founding Fathers.  This is evident in the pledge that the grandfather devises for Ben early in the movie:  "Benjamin Franklin Gates, you take upon yourself the duty of the Templars, the Freemasons, and the family Gates."  In light of his name, it's also appropriate that the search for the treasure culminates in him, the son of his forefathers.  As Patrick says after they've found the treasure:  "We're in the company of some of the most brilliant minds in history because you found what they left behind for us to find and understood the meaning of it.  You did it, Ben.  For all of us.  Your grandfather and all of us."

Although it doesn't fit as well as Ben's name, Patrick's name also provides a hint of the father-son relationships in the movie.  The name itself means "noble," but it resembles patris, the genitive form of pater, the Latin word for father.

Bones - S8E15 - "The Shot in the Dark"

Over the last few years, I've been slowly re-watching Bones.  Recently, I watched "The Shot in the Dark" (S8E15) and noticed a detail that's not particularly significant but that does provide a subtle connection between this episode and previous episodes that deal with Dr. Brennan's relationship with her mother.

After Dr. Brennan is shot, she has a number of visions in which she sees her mother.  In some of these, she's wearing a dolphin necklace:

In two previous episodes, Dr. Brennan comments on her mother's love of dolphins.  In "The Woman in Limbo" (S1E22), when her mother's remains are found in the Jeffersonian, she remarks, "I remember this belt buckle.  I borrowed it without asking.  First day of high school.  My father had it specially made for my mother because she loved dolphins."

In "Stargazer in a Puddle" (S2E21), she points out a drawing of a constellation in a murder victim's home and says, "This one's Delphinius [sic], the dolphin.  It was my favorite when I was a child.  My mother and I both loved dolphins, so that was something that we shared."

The dolphin necklace that she's wearing in this episode is never commented on, but it does provide a link to these earlier, related episodes.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S5E19 - "To Catch a Jedi"

This post contains spoilers.

Recently, I re-watched the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "To Catch a Jedi" (S5E19) and noticed an interesting detail.  Near the end of the episode, Barriss Offee (whose identity isn't revealed until the next episode) steals Asajj Ventress's mask and lightsabers and, disguised as Ventress, attacks Ahsoka Tano.  During the fight, she slashes a pipe so that the resulting exhaust temporarily stuns Ahsoka.

At first, I thought this was just a reference to a similar event in The Empire Strikes Back, where Luke directs exhaust from a cut hose in the carbon freezing chamber at Vader, creating enough of a distraction so that he can retrieve his fallen lightsaber, but it actually has a closer analogue in an earlier episode of The Clone Wars, and this holds greater significance.

In "Cloak of Darkness" (S1E9), there's a lightsaber duel between Luminara Unduli and Asajj Ventress in which Ventress does the same thing:  she cuts a pipe in the Jedi cruiser so that the steam compromises Luminara's vision.  Ahsoka was present at the duel (albeit the later stages), and since Barriss is Luminara's padawan, it's likely that she's familiar with it, too.  In "To Catch a Jedi," she adopts this move as an-other facet of her disguise and an-other way to make Ahsoka believe that she is Ventress.

Breaking Away

Last month, I watched this performance of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, subtitled "Italian."  It reminded me that the fourth movement is used in the soundtrack of Breaking Away.  I'd realized before that there's a connection between the "Italian" symphony and the affinity of one of the main characters for all things Italian, but I had two more realizations about the use of this movement in the soundtrack.  Earlier this week, I watched the movie again to reacquiant myself with it.

Dave Stohler, one of the main characters, is obsessively interested in bicycle racing and the Cinzano team in particular.  About twenty-four minutes into the movie, after he's learned that the team is coming to race close to where he lives, there's a scene where he rides his bicycle down the highway as part of his training.  The fourth movement of Mendelssohn's symphony is used as the soundtrack here, and its "presto" tempo marking matches the ever increasing speed at which Stohler races and his urging himself to go "Faster!"

The other realization I had is that there's something of a similarity between Stohler's pretending to be Italian and Mendelssohn's writing a symphony inspired by Italy.  Of course, these aren't exactly the same, but common to both is this looking to a foreign culture.  Neither is the genuine article:  Stohler is American, not Italian, and the "Italian" symphony, unlike some of the veritable Italian music used in the film's soundtrack, was written by a German.

Les Misérables

I've been (slowly) re-reading Les Misérables, although this is the first time I'm reading this particular translation (by Julie Rose) and the first time I'm reading an unabridged edition.  Recently, I read Chapter VI ("Father Fauchelevent") of Part One, Book Five, and this reminded me that the movie treats this scene differently and that I'd intended to write about it years ago.  Earlier this week, I watched the movie again so I could write about it.

In both the movie and the book, Jean Valjean, in the guise of Monsieur Madeleine, comes upon Fauchelevent, who is trapped under his cart and slowly being crushed by it.  In the movie, Valjean, with the aid of a beam he uses as a lever, lifts the cart off of Fauchelevent:

Javert witnesses this feat and afterwards starts to suspect that Monsieur Madeleine is really Jean Valjean, whom he knew as prisoner 24601 and whose great strength he witnessed in an earlier scene where Javert has Valjean retrieve the flag, which was still attached to a mast:

(In addition to this visual parallelism, the two scenes are underscored by the same music.)

In the movie, the main purpose of this scene with Fauchelevent's cart seems to be the stirring of Javert's suspicion.  The demonstration of Valjean's compassion and setting up Fauchelevent's later repayment of this kindness are minor in comparison.  In the book, however, this scene is a bit different and primarily illustrates Valjean's character.

In the movie, Javert becomes suspicious about Madeleine's true identity only after he lifts the cart, but in the book, he makes it clear that he remembers Valjean's strength beforehand.  In Chapter VII ("Despair from the Inside") of Part One, Book Two, the narrator explains that "not one of the galley inmates could hold a candle to him in physical strength.  In hard labor, for twisting a cable or turning a windlass, Jean Valjean was equal to four men.  He would sometimes lift and carry enormous weights on his back and would occasionally himself replace the tool known as a cric, or jack... His inmate pals had nicknamed him Jean-le-Cric."

In Chapter VI ("Father Fauchelevent") of Part One, Book Five, after Valjean offers increasingly larger sums of money to any man who will get under the cart to lift it off Fauchelevent, Javert remarks:  "You'd have to be a monster of a man to lift a cart like that on your back. ... Monsieur Madeleine, I have only ever known one man capable of doing what you're asking here. ... He was a convict. ... From the jail in Toulon. ... I've only ever known one man who could stand in for a jack.  And it was that convict."

Despite these comments, Valjean gets under the cart and lifts it off Fauchelevent, basically admitting that he is the man whom Javert remembered.

The other significant difference is that in order to save Fauchelevent, Valjean puts himself in the same perilous position, even though, as the narrator explains, Fauchelevent is "one of the rare enemies Monsieur Madeleine still had" and that he "had done everything he could to hurt Madeleine" in terms of his business.  Valjean remains there, trying to lift the cart, even though the crowd in general and Fauchelevent specifically try to persuade him to get out.

The scene in the movie shows Valjean simply doing a good deed that has unintended consequences, but the stakes are much higher for him in the book, where he puts himself at risk by going under the cart and he knowingly stokes Javert's suspicions, all for the sake of a man who is his enemy.  Valjean's saving Fauchelevent under these conditions illustrates his extreme selflessness.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S3E1 - "Clone Cadets"

Recently, I found a note I made about a detail in The Clone Wars episode "Clone Cadets" (S3E1).  At the time, I decided not to write about it because it seemed too small of a point, but since significant details (especially in Star Wars) are the sort of thing I've been focusing on lately, I thought I'd write about it now.

The episode follows a particular squad of clone troopers (Domino Squad) who are having trouble working together.  While watching the squad perform poorly in a training session, Shaak Ti remarks, "The one they call Echo never adapts to the situation," and the bounty hunter El-Les, who is helping the Jedi train the clones, comments, "CT-782 seems to follow his own path.  He can't do it all alone."  Two other clones argue with each other too much and are shot down by training droids, and the last clone surrenders when he's surrounded.  Shaak Ti then summarizes the squad's problem:  "If these cadets can't get past their short-sighted selfishness, they will never come together.  Unity wins war, gentlemen."

Later in the episode, Commander Colt comes to watch a few squads perform their final tests.  The squads meet him in a hangar, and after Bravo Squad is chosen as the first squad to run the simulation, the clones file out of the hangar.  As each squad turns in formation, the clones stomp their feet, but while the clones in the other squads all stomp their feet simultaneously, the clones of Domino Squad stomp their feet at different times.  In the shot, they're shown from the waist up, so it's easier to hear the various footfalls than see them.

This detail shows that the clones are still a bit too independent and aren't yet working together.

The Terminal

Earlier this week, I watched The Terminal again (because the movie starts around this time of year), and I realized the significance of a detail.

Shortly after the situation with Mr. Milodragovich (which I wrote about a number of years ago), Viktor Navorski shows up at Frank Dixon's office and tries to give him a Virgin Isle sailfish for his wall, apparently trying to mollify Dixon's anger.  Navorski must have remembered the other fish displayed on Dixon's wall, visible in a scene earlier in the movie when the two first meet:

The fish that Navorski offers, however, is considerably larger than Dixon's fish (briefly glimpsed again in this scene as the camera pans with Dixon as he sits down), and this is significant.

Immediately after the problem with Mr. Milodragovich, Dixon had threatened Navorski as a punishment for cheating the system and allowing Mr. Milodragovich to leave with the medicines for his father but without the necessary documentation.  "Do you think this is a game?  Do you think I need an excuse to put you back in that cell, to keep you there for another five years?  You go to war with me, and you go to war with the United States of America."  Dixon made these threats in front of the review board that was there to inspect the airport and assess him for the role of chief field commissioner, a position he's wanted for years, and now he blames Navorski for making him look bad.

In this particular scene, he repeats some of his threats:  "Let me make you a promise, Viktor, and this is a promise that comes from a man who is stuck here, a man who may be stuck here for the next ten years.  From now on, you and I are partners.  If I stay, you stay.  You will not set one foot in New York City, not a single toe in the United States of America.  Do you understand what I am saying to you?"

Navorski answers, "Yes, you don't like [the] fish."

It's sort of a humorous response, but it can also be taken in a somewhat more literal sense.  Dixon doesn't like the fish that Navorski freely offers because it's bigger than any of his own and makes him look bad in comparison, just as he did in front of the review board.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S5E8 - "Bound for Rescue"

In my latest re-watch of The Clone Wars, I've reached the episode arc in season five where some Jedi younglings go on an expedition to obtain the crystals for their lightsabers but then get attacked by pirates.  In "Bound for Rescue" (S5E8), I saw a detail I'd never noticed before, and while it's not very significant, I thought it was a nice touch, so I'm writing about it.

Ahsoka Tano accompanies the younglings on their expedition, and in the previous episode ("A Test of Strength"), after the pirates attack, she tells them, "Do not, and I mean do not, engage the pirates.  Your only job is to stay hidden."  She manages to get the pirates off the Jedi ship but is captured in the process.  At the beginning of "Bound for Rescue," the younglings' distress call is answered by Obi-Wan Kenobi, who intends to pick them up and then rescue Ahsoka.  He also re-iterates Ahsoka's instruction and tells them, "You will not jeopardize your safety trying to be heroes, understood?"

Damage to the ship forces the younglings to land on Florrum, which is the closest planet and also where the pirates took Ahsoka.  Since Obi-Wan's fleet is held up in a Separatist attack and the younglings are already on Florrum, they decide to rescue Ahsoka themselves.

Eventually, after disguising themselves as circus performers, they're successful in freeing Ahsoka, and as they leave the pirates' base, Ahsoka says, "I could pretend to be angry, but you were all very brave.  Thank you."

When Ahsoka mentions being angry, Byph (the Ithorian on the left) frowns:

But when Ahsoka approves the younglings' actions, Byph smiles:

It's a subtle effect, but it illustrates Byph's feelings very clearly.

Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

After writing about Anakin's body language in a scene in Attack of the Clones, I figured that I might as well also note its significance in a scene in Revenge of the Sith.

At around 53 minutes into the movie, there's a scene in Padmé's apartment where Anakin tells Padmé that he "feel[s] lost" and that the Jedi don't trust him.  Then he says, "I'm not the Jedi I should be.  I want more, and I know I shouldn't."  As he says, "I know I shouldn't," he turns away, as if he can't bear to maintain eye contact with her while admitting this fault.

In the featurette titled "The Chosen One" on the bonus disc from one of my copies of Revenge of the Sith, there's even behind the scenes footage of George Lucas directing this scene, and he specifically tells Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin, to turn away during that line.