Essays on Martin Sheen

It was a pleasure reading this article. The concepts were a welcome review of sound’s role in filmmaking. ‘Designing a Movie For Sound’ by Randy Thom was thorough.. Normally, in the world of film today, audiences expect ‘nice’ songs to accompany story. These musical sound-bytes, designed by movie-makers, pander to their wishes, thus – contributing nothing of a shared, integrated structure to the overall mise-en-scene of the film. In stunning contrast, Thom discussed the legendary, extraordinary sound design of the movie, Apocalypse Now, describing how Coppola imbued the film into the sound, giving the characters “the opportunity to listen ...

The film our group watched to complete this assignment was the 2006 crime drama The Departed, starring Leonard DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen and Jack Nicholson (The Departed). Beginning in the first few minutes and continuing to the end, our group found a number of ethical issues and dilemmas. One of the most significant ethical issues that our group found was the decision by the seemingly moral and ethically strong police officer Qeenan to persuade the new police recruit Billy Costigan to infiltrate the local mob. Qeenan’s recruitment of Costigan, presents a number of interesting ethical questions such ...

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and in Francis Ford Coppola’s loose adaptation/re-imagining Apocalypse Now, the character of Kurtz is portrayed as a white man who has chosen to separate himself from his civilized contemporaries and rule over a native sect of people in a faraway land. While both characters come from the same source, there are significant differences between the two. While Heart of Darkness’ Mr. Kurtz portrays specifically the imperialism and hopeless ambition inherent in the ivory trade, Apocalypse Now’s Colonel Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando) inhabits the horrors of the Vietnam War and what happens to ...