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What I see when I watch other peoples movies, Boyz-n-the-Hood. Let's talk about the opening shot of the stop sign, simple and straight-forward: push-in on a standard American stop sign with a slight tilt up to a descending flight - on the downwind as it makes its final into LAX. No music, just ambiance - preceded by the sound of street violence over black. What I see is a filmmaker, in this case, John Singleton, telling us to STOP, and LISTEN - STOP and LISTEN to what I have to say. STOP and LISTEN to the story I have to tell. But that's not all, because the stop sign is preceded by the sounds of violence, it's also saying, STOP THE VIOLENCE, STOP KILLING ONE-ANOTHER. Yet there's more, the STOP plea also comes after a series of title cards informing us that 1 out of 21 black men in the United States die at the hands of other black men. So... Just... STOP. Now if you take that opening message, and you weave in all the other themes of the movie: broken families, broken neighborhoods, communities destroyed by police,  neighborhood properties being acquired by bankers and real estate investors who work a little too hard to keep black families from creating multi-generational wealth - then we can create an overall retroactive meaning with the opening shot, it becomes STOP, LISTEN, WE MUST WORK TOGETHER IF WE'RE GOING TO SUCCEED TOGETHER BECAUSE WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, THE ODDS ARE AGAINST US SO IT'S ALL ON US - BUT WE'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO IF YOU DON'T STOP. By the way, this is my favorite opening shot of all time. Like, in any movie. It's so incredibly powerful and gets me invested right away. I have thoughts on the descending airplane too - mostly pertaining to the idea of being stuck, trapped, there's no escape... but that's for another episode. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EricNorcross/ Eric on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ericnorcross Subscribe, Like, Share - and get  Cinema Theory with Eric Norcross and my original podcast, The Eric Norcross Podcast, on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts! Please contribute to my PATREON by visiting the URL: https://www.patreon.com/ericnorcross And learn more about me at: http://www.EricNorcross.com Eric Norcross is a filmmaker, writer, and artist. Reach out, ask questions, and let's create! https://www.ericnorcross.com/contact Copyright © 2023 Eric Norcross - All Rights Reserved

What I see when I watch other people's movies, The Dark Knight Rises. When The Dark Knight Rises first released into cinemas, there was a lot of discussion about whether or not Bruce Wayne survived the atomic bomb detonation. Despite the fact that Christopher Nolan provided all the necessary information for audiences to deduce that Wayne did indeed survive, there were still those who questioned  whether or not Alfred was imagining Bruce at the cafe. As a filmmaker, I interpret this discussion as a symptom of a filmmaker that has taught his audience that they cannot trust his storytelling. This is largely because Nolan has many twists at the end of his non-Batman films, and doesn't offer enough information to guide his audiences into seeing the ending that's obviously there. Even with a modest twist, like Bruce Wayne having survived a nuclear explosion, audiences begin to suspect that maybe the real twist is that he actually died. I mean, hey, there was a funeral scene, after all - and when a filmmaker gives you information, it must be regarded as important until it's verified to be unimportant. As a filmmaker, Christopher Nolan has too many indecisive or unclear endings, like in that dream movie, or - A ha! The magician had a twin! or just a really complicated storytelling approach like with Memento. But The Dark Knight Rises is a comic book movie, and I'd like to think that with a movie meant for the widest possible audience, what you see is what you get - even with a modest twist - like "wala I fixed the fricken auto-pilot". What matters here is that, despite his Batman trilogy being a mastwork of cinema (there aren't a lot of perfect trilogies, but this is one of them), Christopher Nolan cannot be trusted as a filmmaker. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EricNorcross/ Eric on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ericnorcross Subscribe, Like, Share - and get  Cinema Theory with Eric Norcross and my original podcast, The Eric Norcross Podcast, on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts! Please contribute to my PATREON by visiting the URL: https://www.patreon.com/ericnorcross And learn more about me at: http://www.EricNorcross.com Eric Norcross is a filmmaker, writer, and artist. Reach out, ask questions, and let's create! https://www.ericnorcross.com/contact Copyright © 2023 Eric Norcross - All Rights Reserved

In episode 2 of the Cinema Theory Podcast with Eric Norcross, Eric talks about the two-part miniseries, The Hogfather, based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel.  Have you seen or read The Hogfather? What are some of you observations? Send me a message through the contact form of my website: http://www.EricNorcross.com    Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EricNorcross/ Eric on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ericnorcross Subscribe, Like, Share - and get  Cinema Theory with Eric Norcross and my original podcast, The Eric Norcross Podcast, on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts! Please contribute to my PATREON by visiting the URL: https://www.patreon.com/ericnorcross And learn more about me at: http://www.EricNorcross.com Eric Norcross is a filmmaker, writer, and artist. Reach out, ask questions, and let's create! https://www.ericnorcross.com/contact Copyright © 2022 Eric Norcross - All Rights Reserved

In episode 1 of the Cinema Theory Podcast with Eric Norcross, Eric talks about the infamous Layla Coda in Goodfellas. He talks about how he perceives the use Layla in the film, and contrasts his interpretation with other theories.   Read Elizabeth Nelson's article: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/9/17/21440328/goodfellas-30th-anniversary-layala-scene-scorsese-clapton How do you perceive Scorsese's use of the Layla coda in Goodfellas? Send me a message through the contact form of my website: http://www.EricNorcross.com    Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EricNorcross/ Eric on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ericnorcross Subscribe, Like, Share - and get  Cinema Theory with Eric Norcross and my original podcast, The Eric Norcross Podcast, on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts!     Please contribute to my PATREON by visiting the URL: https://www.patreon.com/ericnorcross     And learn more about me at: http://www.EricNorcross.com    Eric Norcross is a filmmaker, writer, and artist.    Reach out, ask questions, and let's create! https://www.ericnorcross.com/contact     Copyright © 2022 Eric Norcross - All Rights Reserved