Outside Reading #2

This week we watched the 1971 film Duel directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie was a very interesting film. It was very different than movies I have watched before. Duel was very suspenseful, however I would tend to get very bored. Almost every scene was a car chase, cat-and-mouse-like chase, between David Mann and a tanker truck. This film descended from a short story in Playboy magazine. Duel was Spielberg's feature-length directing debut. Many of the shots in Duel are medium shots of David Mann driving. These types of shots emphasized his point of view on the chase. It expressed his emotions, thoughts, strategies, etc... The other shots the film consisted of were extreme close ups of the tanker truck. This emphasized it's physical features which were suppose to be scary. As the movie progressed the chase did as well. David Mann seemed to have lost his mind by the end of the movie when he uses a strategy to get the truck to drive off a cliff. As he looks down at the destroyed truck and what is left of his little red car. The film ends, without putting any of the puzzle together. I was very frustrated at the end because their was all this tension, all this build up. And then you don't even get to know why.

Spielberg, Steven. Duel. 1971. George Eckstein, 1971

Outside Reading#1

For fourth quarter's outside reading I have decided to continue reading New Moon written by none other than the talented Stephenie Meyer. I have found myself half-way done with the book, and still loving every second of it. It's amazing how the story sucks me in and could keep me reading for hours. Hopefully no one is reading my blog who has yet to read New Moon because I would hate to spoil it! As of right now in the story Bella has just realized her good family friend, Jacob, is a werewolf. I personally believed everything was pretty slow moving in the book until this part. With Edward gone and nothing exciting occurring I began to grow pretty bored. Besides finding out that Jacob is a werewolf, Bella also finds out some very disturbing news. Jacob and his family know about the Cullens and their secret. Bella is in complete shock when she finds out. After successfully patching up the whole that Edward left in her heart, Bella feels that the whole has come back. Apparently the Cullens, vampires, and Jacob and his people, werewolves, do not mix well. Leaving Bella stuck in the middle. I cannot wait to read more!

New Moon. New York: Little Brown and Company,2006>