What Makes a Great Film?

Blog posts..... Let's get it.

Although there are uncountable ideas on what makes a great film, there are three that stand out to me.   

In my opinion it seems to me that the number one thing audience members look for in a movie is an engaging storyline, the one and most important element that connects and holds the entire film together. Although at times the storyline of a film seems jumpy and confusing, if well made, there is always that one aspect or moment within the movie that creates a compelling plot. This essential attribute in a film is what keeps viewers interested in wanting to always know more like what will be the protagonist's or even the antagonist's next move, who will succeed or who will fail or if there will there be a plot twist. One example of a film with an engaging storyline would be Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino (2008). As if he already didn't have enough to deal with, having his family constantly trying to drive him away for their benefit, Korean war veteran Walt Kowalski is living in a crime-ridden Detroit neighborhood forced to confront his own sense of prejudice when a troubled Hmong teenager who lives just one house down attempts to steal his most prized possession. Knowing the main character, Walt Kowalski, the storyline becomes even more interesting as the plot progresses, due to his shocking change of heart. However, the film does come with a rather sad yet satisfying conclusion.

Another significant component is making a great film would be the characters. Of course characters are physically the most important element you need in a film, who they are and their personalities, traits and qualities are what makes them so crucial to the general idea and concept of a film. As a movie gradually moves along in the story, we are able to interpret by a character's actions and words who they are and weather we choose to either like them, dislike them, empathize with or just flat out ignore them no matter how trivial or major they are. Characters are a way of setting the tone for a film and are what the plot mainly revolves around. For example in Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund's Cidade de Dues aka City of God (2002), there are many characters that have different backgrounds and come from different worlds but are all completely essential to the entire plot and how it develops. Theire past, present and future can highly influence the films direction.

Lastly the third attribute in making a great film is production value/mis en scene. A high production value can help set the tone, emotion and meaning of a shot or scene. Although not many audience members pay full attention to the production value of different scenes, it is very crucial to a film. Different elements, major or trivial, that make up the production of a scene or sequence are extremely important depending on what type of scene is taking place. The detail that goes into creating production value is what makes these films so worthy of appreciation, that is to those who notice it. For example in Michael Bay's Transformers (2007), the production value is extremely high, due to the obvious fact of numerous back to back explosions of buildings, cars you name it. These type of elements are what makes a films production value skyrocket.