What Makes a Good Film?

What Makes a Good Film?

A Blog by

Mitchell A. Quondam

Firstly, when I say “good,” I mean critically well, one that people go back to and enjoy watching over and over again. There is a distinct difference between a movie being financially successful and one that is critically acclaimed.

As an example, let’s look at Transformers 3. The film was panned by critics and is considered a critical flop, and yet it is the 5th highest grossing film of all time. This is because there was hype for the movie, and it seemed cool at the time, but behind all the special effects and explosions, was a weak script with unlikable characters and moments that were supposed to be funny falling flat.

Now, compare Transformers 3 to the Shawshank Redemption, currently #1 on the Internet Movie Database’s top 250 films of all time. Financially, Shawshank didn't make back what it cost when it was in theaters  but people did love it. The dialogue worked, it had an investing story, and, although it didn’t have to, it ended the film on a high note as a bonus. The issue is that, compared to giant robots and explosions, a movie that takes place in a 1940s prison doesn't look all that appealing in trailers.

This is not to say that a critically acclaimed motion picture can not have explosive action. The Terminator 2: Judgment Day is proof of this. Both a critical success as well as a financial one, James Cameron proved that action movies can have a story, which he proved again on Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time. Although many consider Avatar’s plot cliché, it still had one and was well written, complimenting its visual style ably.

What truly makes a good film is 3 things, the writing, the acting, and the directing.

Writing is maybe the most important. The story needs to both carry the plot and incite emotion from the audience. As someone who frequents the theaters  I have seen good and bad examples of this. In Transformers 2, when we are lead to believe that Shia Lebouf died, nobody cared, because his character was uninteresting and weak. However, jump foreword 3 years to the Dark Knight Rises, and people were literally crying when SPOILER ALERT! TURN BACK! Batman flies off towing a nuclear bomb and seemingly dies, which moves right into the next topic: the acting.

Christian Bale brought a lot of humanity to the very unrealistic Batman character. He built a character that people could relate to, (and I give director Christopher Nolan a lot of credit for this too) and got people emotionally invested in Batman’s story, as ridiculous as it is. It takes a certain kind of actor to play a role like that, especially considering that half the time his face is covered, so he has to act a lot with his eyes, and voice.

Lastly, the director is important. I could write an entire essay on what Michael Bay does wrong, but I’ll sum it up to this: he makes financially successful films. He builds up hype for his films by producing trailers showing off his action scenes and then people flock to see his films, but besides those action scenes, the story and acting is weak. Christopher Nolan makes people flock to see him because people know that he is a good director and won’t disappoint them. He could put out a teaser that just says “Inception: A Christopher Nolan film” and people would be excited months in advance.