Key Movie Components

There are several components that make a movie great. Movies (films) are often more than just entertainment. If you can sit through a movie and believe they are set in a certain place, believe that the actors are not actors, then the movie has at least done part of a job.

My favorite component is Cinematography. It is what is considered the visual beauty of the film. Many movies through out time have displayed great photography, whether it is of landscape, how a shot was made or sweeping camera angles. Often times this can make an average story a great movie.

Acting is obviously a component of movies. Though it is not always important that an actor act realistically as over acting was prominent back in the day, but it is important that they do act in character. This will not make or break a movie, but a miss delivered line could kill a scene.

Music, another one of my favorites, can set the mood to a film. Some of my favorites are John Williams, Hitchcock's Composer, Danny Elfman, and countless others - both classic and current films. You would remember them by watching King Kong, Gladiator, North by Northwest, Sunset Blvd, Back to the Future and many more. A bad score can also take an incredible movie down to a great movie. My favorite example of this is Dark City.

Song Direction. QT, Scorsese, Crowe, and a few others really know how to pick songs for their flicks. Scorsese is my favorite as he picks odd songs, but they fit perfectly with what he is trying to say. Tarantino is also near perfect as it applies to picking songs. I never hear any of his songs until he plays them in his movie then I love them.

Story, more important than plot, is what keeps us interested. A boring story can turn any music choice, cinematography, and score into mush. Write your story well.

Plot. How the story is written is still very important and can often make a great story really great. But, many plots have been done a thousand times, so it is the story behind it tha makes it different.

All in all, it really comes down to how the story is told - which is essentially all things combined. The Aviator is a great example that perfectly blends all together - all are above average as pieces, but combined - wow - it is a sweeping big screen picture as big as Howard Hughes was himself. These can all influence how movie reivews are written or whether or not one makes a top movie list.