During World War 2, France was unable to obtain British or American films due to the Nazi occupation. After the war, years worth of films that were made during the war were introduced to France. Sylvester Stallone is discussed as the director being analyzed. Three of his films are summarized: Rocky, about a small-time boxer given a title shot, uses techniques like first-person shots to involve the audience; Over the Top, about a struggling trucker who enters an arm wrestling competition to win money to care for his son, uses angles and lens flare; The Expendables 2, about a group of mercenaries on a mission of revenge, features well-filmed fight scenes using punches and camera

1. Lecture write up 3
During World War 2 Francecouldn’t get any British or American films due to
the Nazioccupation.
After World War 2 year’s worth of films were introduced to France which were
made during the war.
A director that can be considered as an auteur will have similar…
 Themes
 Technical construction
 Dialogue
 Actors
Auteurs are recognised by their identifiable style for example the way that J.J
Abram’s uses lens flare in all of his movies on shots. For example in super 8
when the train crashes he uses lens flare during the kids filming scenes.
Auteurs:
 Michael Scorsese
 Alfred Hitchcock
 Coen brothers
 Stanley Kubrick
 Wes Anderson
 Steven Spielberg

2. Director Task
Sylvester Stallone
I have chosen to study Sylvester Stallone as my chosen
director. Not many people realise that Stallone is both
an actor and a director and he has directed many of his
own movies like ‘Rambo’ and ‘The Expendables’ as well
as acting in them as well. He has also directed less
popular films like ‘Over the top’ and ‘Escape to victory.’
For this task I have decided to watch ‘Rocky’, ‘The
Expendables 2’ and ‘Over the top’ to study his directing
skills.
Rocky
Rocky was a film written and directed by Sylvester
Stallone in 1976 and is still popular in the sporting film
industry today. The general story of this film is that
Rocky Balboa is a small-time boxer who seems to be
going nowherein life, as he works day-in and day-out
as a collector for a loan shark and fights in clubs for
money. Further into the film the heavyweight
champion of the world Apollo Creed chooses Rocky at
randomas his opponent in a title fight, Rocky realizes
he now has the chance to provehe is not worthless.
With Adrian as his supportand Mickey becoming his
trainer and manager, Rocky fights Creed in a dramatic
well matched fight between them both. At the end of
the fight they both go down at the sametime and it’s a
dramatic slow motion rise to get them back up on their
feet.
Rocky ends up getting up firstand wins the fight. This then makes him the heavy weight
champion of the world and the start to his fame filled career in boxing history. I havewatched
this film time and time again since I was young and I enjoy it every time. This was one of the
firstfilms that Stallone directed and what kick-started his career in film and acting. The film
was a risk as he had never been in or filmed any other films before but was given a break by a
production company which gave him one preview of his film to a small audience in a theatre
and depending on their responsewould depend on whether they went through with the film
or not. The responsewas astonishing fromthe crowd so the film was published. Stallone uses
many different techniques in his films during the fighting scenes to make them appeal to the
audience.

3. For example he uses first person POV shots during his fight scenes to give the audience a view
of whatthe fighter would see when he is throwing punches it also makes the audience feel like
they are Rocky or Creed which works really well. He also uses over the shoulder shots to show
the closeup view of a punch to the other opponent which works wellwith the slow motion he
uses. Overallrocky is a well-constructed film with a wide rangeof techniques and camera
angles making it one of the best films I have watched.
Over the top
Lincoln Hawk is a struggling trucker who armwrestles on
the sideto make extra cash while trying to rebuild his life.
Hawk's estranged wifeChristina, who is very ill, asks that
Hawk pick up their son Michael from military schoolso
that the two of them can get to know each other. At first
Michael wants nothing to do with him as he has left him
for 10 years without any form of contact which later in the
film is not true as his mother had been hiding the letters
fromhim. Throughoutthe film hawk and Michael get on
better and start to do some father and son bonding with
morning work outs and teaching him how to drive a truck.
Itthen gets to the point whereMichael’s mother dies and
he blames it on his dad and runs away to his granddad,
who then keeps him away fromhis dad as he doesn’ttrust
him after leaving him for 10 years. Hawk then enters an
arm wrestling competition to earn the prize reward to be
able to buy a house and set us a business to prove to his
son he can be a stable father.son he can be a stable father. He ends up winning the competition as his son turns up to cheer
him on. Overallthis film is brilliant in both story line and the way it is filmed. The film was made
in 1987 starring Stallone as hawk and is one of his least popular films he is in but I still think it is
a good film to use as an example as it uses a good range of camera angles and techniques I can
talk about. During the bar scene wherethe firstarm wrestletakes place Stallone uses different
camera angles to show how the character is feeling these include a POV shotas he is walking
up to the table it then switches to his expression on his face which works wellas a comparison
shot. There is also a few Arial shots used in the scene showing the crowd surrounding thetable
which is similar to the ones used in the match at the end of the film. Stallone also uses lens
flare in the scenes In Vegas when they are arm wrestling to use as a background a little like J.J.
Abrams uses in his movies, this works wellas part of the scene as it gives the background of the
shotmeaning of tiredness as it is blurred which may be used to show how hawk is feeling
during the match. Overallthis film works really well as a whole and is a good example of
Stallone’s directing techniques when it comes to films.

4. Expendables 2
The Expendables leader Barney Ross, Lee Christmas, Yin
Yang, Hale Caesar, Gunner Jensen, Billy the Kid, the
team's newest recruit are deployed to Nepal to rescue
Dr. Zhou They also rescuethe captured mercenary
Trench, Yang leaves the group to escortZhou back to
China. After returning to New Orleans, Billy tells Ross
that he intends to retire at the end of the month and
live with his girlfriend Sophia. Later, Ross is forced to
accept a mission from CIA operativeMr. Church. They
are then ambushed by international criminal and arms
dealer Jean Vilain, his right-hand man Hector and his
mercenary group who have captured Billy he
roundhousekicks a knife through Billy's heart and flees
with the Sangs by helicopter. Through the rest of the
film the expendables task is to retrieve the plutonium
and kill villain as revenge for Billy’s death. They finnaly
catch up with villain and fight their way through the
airportwith trench and booker.
Christmas decapitates Hector, while Ross and Vilain fight hand-to-hand. Ross defeats Vilain,
stabbing him and avenging Billy. Overallthis story works really well as a wholeas parts of the
film link with others in the end and the action scenes work really well. Stallone uses a wide
range of techniques when filming the fight scenes and how the camera captures the punches. A
scene I really like in the film is where vilian and barney are having there final showdown fightin
the depths of the airport whereeach character has there winning sequences for example when
stallone runs at him and grabs him and throws him to the ground with force then goes for
constantbody shots. This is really well filmed with convincing angles to make it seem like the
punches are making a brutalconnection. Stallone also uses aperture really well in the film to
show importanceof characters. Overallthis is a great film with both story line and how it is
shown.