Planes Tranes And Automobiles Essay, Research Paper
Story line: it s two day till thanksgiving and Neil page just finish his business trip in new York city and all he wants to do is catch his flight back to Chicago to be with his family for the holiday. Instead, his flight got cancelled and he meets an over friendly guy with a huge blabbermouth and tell to many bad jokes. Pretty much the guy you don t want to get stuck with and the one that would drive you insane.
Del Griffith the corky zany shower curtain salesman who always has some kind of advice decided to accompany Neil in the same direction as his home of Chicago.
This movie is hilarious comedy that turns into a mini-drama at the middle and at the end of the movie. As for the casting of this movie john candy and Steve martin were perfect for the parts. Especially john candy. He really brought the character of Del to life. They are complete opposites. One of my most favorite scenes was the bathroom scene when they had to share a single hotel room with one bed for the night. You can really learn about there characters in this funny part. Neil page was in the shower and when he went to get out the bathroom was a mess not just a mess but beyond messy. If this were your bathroom your mom would ground you for life. Del left Neil one small face wash clothe and the rest of the towel were on the floor there was socks soaking in the sink all kinds of toiletries open and all over the counter. So basically del was a slob. I think dirty disgusting slob would characterize it. Neil by this point is going to have his second nervous break down. This is where he started to verbally assault Del. Neil says; You know I could sit through an insurance seminar and still look happy and the others would say how do you do it? And I would say, because I can take anything, I ve been with Del Griffith this really shows Neil s character. He is beyond annoyed.
The camera positioning really makes you feel like you are in the movie and you can feel what the characters feel. There is a great establishing shot that is of Neil s home that keeps on popping up after a chaotic event. It is a very still shot of the front of his house with no movement except snow falling and the lights are on. I think this shot is to make the viewer realize that Neil s house is still because Neil is not home. This shot keeps on coming back and there are little subtle changes like the lights go out.
The movie also had a panning shot, which took place in Braidwood Inn. The started with the view of the room then it panned towards the left of the room then to right of the room. This shot was supposed to be what Neil and Del saw as their room. Then the shot panned all the way around the room in a circular motion as if it camera was spinning in a circle from the center of the room. The camera stopped on the bed. There is only one bed in the room and this is when they realized they were going to have to share it. Another great panning shot is when Dell s friend Gus was sending his son Owen to pick the guys up and take them to the train station. The truck pulls up and you hear the door slam. Owen walks to the front of the truck. He is not in the camera s view except for a close up of his boots. Which were dirty old work boots. The camera slowly pans upward of his body. Next you see his dirty ripped blue jeans then his typical red hick like flannel. Then the upper body shot. He is chewing tobacco and spitting. He is also making this really weird snorting slash-grunting noise. That is funny but overall the shot really make you see Owens character. It also gives him this very scary appearance.
There is a great low and high angle shot when Neil was walking back from were his rent-a-car was supposed to be. He was trying to walk down the side of an over pass to get to the rental place s office. There was angle up shot as he was trying to walk down the side of the overpass it showed the view of the height from where Neil was standing. Then Neil falls down the hill. The next shot was an angle upward shot to kind of show where Neil was standing down to where he was now laying.
Sounds are very important in a movie. Like in the beginning it of the movie when Neil was trying to catch a cab to the airport you could here the chaotic ness of the city during rush hour and everyone trying to get out of the city or home for thanksgiving. You could here tons of background noises, car horns, footsteps, screeching of tires, people talking, people yelling, and most of all the characters huffing and puffing while the are running.
This movie is filled with tons of cinematography, sounds, different characters and many different locations. With out all of these things the movie would be just boring. All of this stuff contributes to how the audience feels and how it can make the audience part of the movie. John Hughes wanted the actors to put a lot of themselves into the characters. This really makes the movie even funnier. I would recommend watching this movie to anyone who has not seen it.