Persepolis Movie Review

I have never really heard of “Persepolis” until I was in English 1106. I thought it was really interesting, yet somewhat strange, that such a serious topic was portrayed in a graphic novel. After reading, however, I was blown away. I think this is probably one of the best ways to depict a situation like this. Since I had never heard of the novel, I definitely didn’t know there was a movie to go along with it.

I’m not going to lie, I had very different expectations of this film. I thought it was going to be a lot different than it actually was. When the lights dimmed down and the projector started running, I was expecting real, live people to pop up and start telling the story of a little girl caught in the middle of the Iranian revolution. I was hugely mistaken. It was like the comic all over again. I was a little disappointed because I didn’t think that the film would be all that great animated. It didn’t even seem animated compared to the amazing digital graphics we have today. It was almost as if it was the comic in a flipbook style. The way the pictures moved throughout the film was like a bunch of drawings shown really fast one after the other.

After I got over the fact that there weren’t actual people in the film, I began to watch it a little bit closer. The way the movie was portrayed isn’t really the traditional way of showing a film. This ties in to the reasoning for the graphic novel as well. It makes you think a little more than you would for a blockbuster film.

The film was clearly made for a French audience, yet somehow I feel like the subtitles made the movie that much better. I felt like I had to concentrate that much more on the movie and the meaning, rather than just becoming a vegetable right when the movie starts rolling.

The film starts off in present time. The characters are in color, and if you haven’t read the book, you don’t really know what’s going on. Then, Marji starts to recall the past, and that is when the story really starts. It all starts when she is a little girl. The revolution hasn’t quite started yet, but people are starting to rise up. The story goes on to tell about Marji’s life as she becomes a young woman.

The comic is quite different than the film. Of course, not everything that is written down on paper will be in the film, but there are some things that aren’t in the text either. For example, some of the language in the movie is a little more on the explicit side, whereas the text might not be able to show that.

Some scenes in the movie were a lot more drawn out than in the text. For example, when the police pulled Marji’s family over and followed them to their house, the film took more time to explain what actually happened. The novel just said that they emptied the bottles, and that was it. On the contrary, there are many scenes that are more drawn out in the text. When Marji’s family is visiting with their family friends, and the husband is telling everyone about his torture in jail, we get a lot more description in the comic.

An actual movie critic would probably have a lot more to say about this than any amateur Virginia Tech freshman. However, we have all read the book and watched the movie, which makes our credibility fairly outstanding. I would definitely recommend either the graphic novel or the film to anyone, not just people who like graphic novels, or the Iranian revolution. This novel and/or film should be read and/or watched sometime in a person’s life.

Suggestions for Writing 2

Both reviews for the movie Spider-Man 2 were very thorough, yet came from very different angles. Gilchrist first described the way in which you should go about writing a movie review, then moved into summarizing the actual film. Later, he expressed his own personal views about the movie with different examples. However, right from the start, Ebert jumped into how great he thought the film was. He expressed his love of the movie and then moved on to give some background information and his opinions of the first film. Later, he summarized the film, very thoroughly I might add, and then brings it back around with his enthusiasm to recommend this film to anyone and everyone.

The reviews channeled in on a lot of the same things. Each talked about the relationship of the movie to the original comic, the special effects, and plot development. However, they each had very different opinions about those things. I felt like Gilchrist picked out every possible little flaw for each of these, whereas Ebert praised them continuously. I think it's safe to say that the only thing these two critics agreed on was that the movie was about a superhero named Spider-Man.

Gilchrist describes the camera's being "no more free than here", meaning that the cameras jumped into the action a little too much. Also, he describes the script in the non action scenes to be slow moving and some scenes as almost pointless. Ebert, on the other hand, thinks the action scenes are better than ever. The way Spidey moves through the skyscrapers is less comic like and more real life. And the way he praises the non action scenes, you would think that he wanted to jump into the scenes himself. He loved the subtle details that made the movie more in depth and added more drama to the mix.

In the end, it all depends on what a person likes. Do you like the deeper, dramatic scenes in action films, or would you rather it be pure action and nothing else? Do you want the special effects to be as real as ever, or would you have them have a direct connection to the 1970s comic? Again, it all comes down to what you prefer. The critics did a very good job of challenging the reader to think for him- or herself, wondering if they actually enjoyed the second Spider-Man movie, or if they should wait for Spider-Man 3 so they can rekindle the respect that Spidey deserves.

Persepolis

I never knew a whole lot about the Iranian revolution until I read Persepolis. I was shocked at how brutal and violent it was. I mean of course I knew that a lot of people died and it lasted a long time, but I didn't know that it was so horrific.

Reading the graphic novel completely changed my outlook. I think that it got the point across a lot stronger than a regular prose would simply because of the graphics. It is a lot more blunt and to the point. In the graphics, the author depicts things literally exactly how she sees them.

I liked the movie a lot more than I thought I would. To be honest, I actually thought it was going to be real actors and not just a cartoon. It was a lot different than other animated films that I have seen. I'm pretty sure that all the cartoons I've seen do not scream prostitute and cuss words randomly. It showed a lot more than the novel because it can fill in those gutters. The film also shows a lot more detail that the novel doesn't necessarily have time for. I liked the movie. I would probably watch it again and possibly read the graphic novel again too.

They Say I Say Ch 1 Ex 1

A) Recent studies show that there are dangerous levels of Chemical X in the Ohio groundwater.
B) The editor believes the novel has certain flaws
C) Many people think football is boring.
D)Many women think that male students dominate class discussions.
E) Many critics believe that the film is really about the problems of romantic relationships..
F) Some people believe that the templates in this book will stifle their creativity.

Eisner and McCloud

After reading the Eisner and McCloud articles, I've changed my opinion on comic books. I always thought they were for little kids or, not to be stereotypical but, nerds. They always reminded me of those comic book conventions also. However, I never realized how many great movies that I have actually watched that are based on graphic novels. I actually didn't even know that there were graphic novels that weren't just like the comics that are in the newspaper every Sunday. Now, I've gained a lot more respect for this type of literature. It is a completely different way of describing details and feelings. I feel that it keeps the reader much more engaged because it's not just line after line of words on a page. I am looking forward to the change that this class has in store. I'm so used to having to read boring book after boring book in my English classes. This will be a nice adjustment from what I am used to.