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Auteurism

In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock. Kevin Smith has make the grueling trek from an unknown, extremely low-budget filmmaker to a well known and respected filmmaker thanks to the help of his vision to stick to the basics. His films are about normal, middle class life adding elements of humor, drugs, and the daily struggle of blue-collar workers. Smith was born and raised in Red Bank, New Jersey. He grew up going to the very same Quick-E Mart in which his first widely received film, Clerks, took place (www.uidaho.edu). Smith always uses his own experiences as a lower-middle class male in New Jersey to compile his scripts, and adds his own humor as well as the humor of recurring actors who appear in his films. His four semi-cult hit films are

(in order of production): “Clerks”, “Mallrats”, “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma”. In all four of these films, Kevin Smith wrote the scripts, directed, produced and made appearances in the films. Smith not only acts in all of the films, but also acts the same character in all the films. Jay and Silent Bob are two characters that make appearances in every one of Kevin Smith’s films. These characters are based on characters that Smith made up in his comic book entitled “Jay and Silent Bob.” Smith always plays the role of Silent Bob and Jay is always played by actor Jason Mewes. Most of Smith’s films deal with a few twenty-somethings trying to overcome the basic obstacle of avoiding boredom. While there are always off-color and slightly controversial bits of conversations in his first films, Smith approached a slightly more controversial topic than usual in his last film, “Dogma.” “Dogma” starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as two fallen angels that would do anything to get their wings back. Smith took this opportunity to make a film in which he could finally vent some of his anger about his religion and how boring it is. Smith is indeed a religious person, but he believes that the church has nothing to attract the youth, nor to keep their attention. Because of this, he created “Dogma” which mixes humor and the church to make Christianity more interesting (www.zap2it.com). One such example is when the people of New Jersey make a new icon named “Buddy Christ,” who is a figure of Jesus Christ with his thumbs up, winking and grinning at his fellow Christians. Smith has taken everyday occurrences, added humor and a bit of obscenity and crafted them into scripts. Smith has then taken these scripts and directed, and produced full-length films in which he also acted. After the film was fully shot, Smith then edited all of his films (with the exception of “Mallrats”). Because of all of the work that Smith single-handedly put into his independent films that ended up drawing a huge crowd of fans, he can surely be called an auteur. Remaining on the topic of controversial films, another director comes to mind. This director had an ultimate goal that he desired to “…make films that will capture the Black experience by any means necessary” (Smith 437). He stirred up much controversy with the content of his films within the film world, and because of this had to create his films with little outside help. This auteur is, of course, Spike Lee. Shelton Jackson Lee was born in 1956 as the son of a Jazz musician and an art professor. Lee later grew into the nickname Spike and because of his parent’s background, he became interested in the arts. It wasn’t until college that Lee decided on becoming a filmmaker. Directly after graduating from Moorehouse College, he immersed himself into fulfilling his dream “…to put the vast