Sugar Cane Persepolis

Sugar Cane Alley and Persepolis are both foreign films trying to show what their culture is truly like. In Sugar Cane Alley the former slaves of Martinique worked in the sugar cane fields even after they had been freed. This also happened in America when slaves were freed. They continued working in the fields because they had nowhere else to go. In Martinique, however, the children were given some schooling opportunities. If they did well enough they were given a chance at higher schools. This shows how important education meant to them. Even though they were given very little money, almost all of them were sent to school. Not only does this show the importance of education for the former slaves but it also shows the whites' willingness to let the black kids go to school with their kids.
In the movie Persepolis we are shown a totally different look on Iran than we know. When we, as Americans, think of Iran, we think of Muslims and terrorism. While these are both big things in the Middle East, they are not everything that they have to offer. In the movie we were shown what Iran was like before the war. It seemed pretty normal. The women didn't have to wear a head scarf and the police didn't carry automatic weapons. Most of the clothes they wore were pretty Westernized. When the war came, everything changed. The more fundamental Muslims took over and made irrational laws such as women having to wear head scarves. They also got rid of anything that might have been considered Western, or, American like our music and clothing. The Iranian opinion of America changed after we had sold weapons to both sides in the war. They were not too fond of the American culture because of all the freedom we have as well.
Both Persepolis and Sugar Cane Alley give us a perspective on other countries cultures and what they have to live through. They show that we don't really have a tough life compared to many countries of the world.

Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth is put together very well. It was made in such a way that the viewer is led to trust Al Gore. Because he did run for president, he is a well-known person. In addition to already knowing him, the film provides a little bit of his background. This allows viewers to get to know him better and trust him. The film was made this way to help get the message across and to get people to believe and support the message. Another way Al Gore helps make the message seem more appealing is that he makes some attempts at humor. This was seen when he was showing the graph of the past ice ages and he uses a lift to get to the top of the graph where it shows the future. Even though the film is just a compilation of his power point presentation, Gore finds ways to make it interesting while remaining factual and formal. If I had to guess, the Inconvenient Truth probably convinced a lot of people to change their habits of using so many resources because they harm the environment.

Night of the Living Dead

I think that zombie movies are so popular for several reasons. One reason is that there's a huge "what if" involved: What if a zombie apocalypse actually happened? What would I do? This creates a huge curiosity issue. People want to gather as much information as they can about what could happen so they can feel prepared. The reason that this question arises is that a lot of people have been taught that the last days of the world are now and that makes people wonder how it'll end. A zombie apocalypse provides a scenario so people can think they know what's going to happen in the future. People also have the idea in their head that if it were to happen, then they are one of the lucky few who would survive and start to build civilization back up. Everyone thinks like that, myself included. The idea that we could be a hero makes us almost want a zombie apocalypse to happen. In reality, I don't think anything like a zombie apocalypse will ever happen. If something like it did happen, I think that most people would be so shocked that something like it did happen that they wouldn't do anything for a while. After most of the shock went away, however, there would be some uprising all over.

Nightmare Before Christmas

In both movies we watched from Tim Burton, Christmas was part of it. In Edward Scissorhands, Christmas was taking place during the climax of the movie. All that was shown or said about Christmas was about gifts or parties. Not one religious view on it besides from the religious lady who was viewed as kind of a bad person in the beginning. Similarly, in A Nightmare Before Christmas, the Christmas holiday isn't seen as a religious holiday. Instead it's shown as a holiday to get presents and basically worship Santa Claus. Not once is there a mention that it's actually about the birth of Christ. This shows that Tim Burton might not be a very religious person. If he is, he has certainly done a good job showing that he isn't. With Edward Scissorhands, he at least shows something religious. In Nightmare Before Christmas, however, there is absolutely nothing to suggest religion having anything to do with Christmas. This could have something to do with the fact that Tim Burton is not the director of the movie so he didn't have that kind of control. Maybe if he was the director, then he would include some other visuals in the first Christmas scene in order to create a somewhat different view.

Edward Scissorhands a hero?

If Edward saving Kevin made him a hero and got rid of Jim, it's hard to tell where his life would go. He very well could have gotten the girl and I think he would've anyway if he wasn't hated by certain people. Whether or not he'd have a "normal" life is harder to tell. I think it would be hard for him to live a normal life even if he somehow got real hands. He would never feel the same as everyone else because of his background. He was popular in the town because of his unique hands. If he did get real hands, he would fall out of the limelight fairly quickly and it's hard telling how he would react to that. I don't think he would ever be able to live a normal life but very well could have gotten the girl.

Obsession

Obsession is defined as the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc. This being said, there is at least one case of obsession in every film we've seen so far. In The Dark Knight, the Joker is obsessed with causing chaos and Batman is obsessed with finding the Joker. In Singin' in the Rain, they were obsessed with making a movie that talked. In High Noon, Kane is obsessed with his job. In Proof, you could say that Catherine is obsessed with her father. Finally, in The Prestige, there is obvious obsession in Angier's life.

The Dark Knight is a very peculiar film when it comes to obsession. Most of the characters in the film are somewhat obsessed. Batman is obsessed with stopping the Joker and trying to get rid of the Batman. Batman's intentions are good and some good did come from stopping the Joker eventually. However, he used a rather weird method to finally bring an end to the Joker. He had Fox spy on the whole city using a giant sonar system, just to find his enemy. This might be seen as taking it a little far but he did what he thought he had to do. The Joker was definitely obsessed with causing chaos and fighting Batman. He shows this when he is being interrogated by Batman. He said, "You just couldn't let me go, could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible, aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won't kill you because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever." You could also say that Harvey Dent is obsessed with justice. He goes maybe a little overboard trying to find answers when he threatens to kill someone if the coin landed wrong, shown in the picture below. Before that, he stole an ambulance with the man who shot Gordon in it. That was where we started to see Harvey go from good to bad.

Singin' in the Rain is a great film about movie making and you don't really notice obsession in it unless you think about it. When the idea of talking in movies was introduced to the characters in the movie, they were shocked and claimed that it would never catch on. Very shortly after they said this, they were, in fact, attempting to make a talkie. In doing so, they had some issues and they became obsessed with fixing them. Don Lockwood, was obsessed with making sure Kathy got her chance at being a star. Together they came up with the idea of making the movie a musical. Since Lina wasn't a good singer, they came up with the idea of Kathy covering the voice of Lina so it would sound good. Good definitely came out of this obsession as Kathy was discovered as the true singer. For Lina it wasn't good, but she was seen as the "bad guy" in the movie so we view it as okay.

In High Noon, it is pretty easy to pick out the obsession. It's Kane's obsession to his job and with that, protecting the town. He's so obsessed that he loses his partner and all of the towns support. Even though no one in the town agrees with him, he still decides to take on four villains all on his own. Also, in the beginning when Kane and his new wife were leaving town, he told her that he had to go back. She told him she'd leave him if he did go back. Despite this, they still turned around so Kane could protect the town. I'd say that that's obvious obsession because he risked his relationship with his new wife just to do his job that was relieved from him. He is also set on the idea that Frank Miller must die when he got there. This is why he tries to get deputies but his efforts come up short. He goes to the point that he knows he is likely to die, shown in the first 30 seconds of this video, but he still goes through with it.

In Proof you have to look a little bit harder to see the obsessions. Catherine, as I see it, has an obsession with her father. When Catherine is going to college, she loses contact with her father and calls Claire to see if she knows what's wrong. When she finds out that Claire doesn't know, she no longer wants to talk to her. She then made a relatively short road trip to her fathers house that was thirty minutes away just to see that he was okay. He claimed he was too busy to answer the phone and that it was a distraction. This shows that he was obsessed with his work even if it didn't make sense to other people. Catherine also lived with him for a long time to make sure that he was okay. When he died and Claire came for the funeral, she seemed set on taking Catherine back to New York and maybe seeking help for her sanity. She was so sure she'd bring Catherine back with her that she went ahead and sold the house that Catherine had been living in for the past few years. While all of that is happening, Hal is pursuing his obsession of finding out if Catherine's proof is a proof and if she really wrote it. This obsession did lead to good because we are led to believe that it is indeed a proof and that she did write it. We see this at the end when they start going over it together.

Finally, we come to The Prestige. The Prestige has the most obvious obsession out of all these films. Angier is most definitely obsessed with seeking revenge on Borden and eventually finding the secret to Borden's "Transported Man" trick. He demonstrates his obsession several times. When he was seeking revenge, he went to Borden's show and shot Borden. This wasn't enough for him though. When he saw the transported man, he wanted to do it as well but better so he could steal the fame. At first he was successful because of his showmanship but because of his obsession, he had to make it real. He brought Fallon's life into the problem and buried him alive to ask Borden what the secret was. He traveled to America and spent an enormous amount of money to get the real thing. This caused him to kill himself every time he performed the trick. Because of this, Borden is accused of murder and Angier just let it happen instead of letting him live. This turned out for the worse for Angier because he didn't know there was two of Borden and the one that survived killed Angier. This is an example where no good came from the obsession. This video demonstrates Angier's obsession quite well when it comes to finding Borden's secret.

At least one of the characters in every one of these films had a domination of their thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, or a desire. Obsession played a huge role in most of these films and without it, they wouldn't be very good at all.

The Prestige

When Borden tells Sarah's nephew that secrets impress no one, the first time I watched it I had to disagree. I did so because I found myself searching for the secret throughout the entire movie. Later on, however, as I watched it again, I have to agree with Borden. The secret is the part of the trick that everyone looks for but when they find out the trick has no meaning and won't impress anyone. I'd say that the line has a double meaning as well. While he is talking directly to Sarah's nephew, he is also talking to the viewers. He is telling us not to tell anyone the secret if we figure it out. I think Christopher Nolan didn't intend for this but it still applies because of the way the plot thickens and is set up. I also feel like Angier feels differently about secrets. The way he pursues Borden's secret suggests that he values the secret to the trick much, much more than the trick itself. I think he feels this way because he is naturally a better showman than Borden so he doesn't worry about building the trick up to the climax because it comes naturally. This would help explain his obsession for the secret, in my opinion.

High Noon

Most of the town was against Kane's position to fight Frank Miller when he came to town. A few of the arguments they made were good arguments. The best one I heard was in the church. It was when the guy gave the speech on how the government was almost ready to send the town money to build factories and businesses. If there was a fight in the streets then the government wouldn't want to send them money. I think that this is a very good argument. At the same time, however, I believe that when Frank got there, they wouldn't be able to let him come without a fight. From what we heard about him in the movie, I had the idea that he was a criminal and that's how he brought all the business to the hotel and the bar. If this is true, then the fact that the government would send them money if there wasn't a fight is false. They still wouldn't send them money because there'd be crime in the town. I'd say that in this case, one fight in the streets leaving four criminals dead in the street is better than just letting them come in to town and with them, bring a bunch of criminal activity.

Proof

In the movie, Proof, Catherine and those closest to her are faced with the question on if she is crazy. Hal doesn't seem to believe she is but Claire believes she is and wants to put her in an institution back in New York. I think that she may be on her way to becoming like her father but for the time being, she is not crazy. One reason that leads me to believe that she is not crazy comes from the idea that she wrote this proof that if she was crazy I don't think that she would've been able to do it. For a time in the movie, we are led to believe that she is crazy but it's later revealed what really happened in the past. When she is throwing books around and screaming that she didn't write it, I thought for sure that she was crazy. However, it then shows what had happened the night that she finished writing the proof and it does show that she wrote it. This leads me to believe that she wasn't crazy, but she had convinced herself somehow that she didn't want credit for the proof and that she wanted to give that credit to her father. This is why I've concluded that Catherine is not crazy.

Singing in the Rain

The production of Singing in the Rain was a pretty well put together movie for the most part and was very enjoyable. To me, it had a pretty clear message in it about movie making. Throughout the movie they were faced with problems in making a movie that had talking in it. Those same issues were present in the real world when transitioning from silent films to talkies. I feel that the films message about movie making was that it can be hard to make the entertainment that other people enjoy so effortlessly so viewers should show more appreciation. It could also be saying that while some people in that particular business might not be that bright, but most of them actually have to be pretty smart to be able to do their job efficiently.

The Dark Night

What is the nature and importance of truth in the film? To me, truth is one of the most important things in the film because of all the secrecy and deception. Almost all of the characters have something to hide. Bruce Wayne has obviously has one of the biggest lies as he is Batman. This is viewed when he sacrifices his Lamborghini for Reese who was threatened by the Joker. When Bruce was told he was brave for doing so, he played it off like it was an accident just like any other billionaire would try to say. Another character with something to hide is Harvey Dent. He makes his own luck by using a one sided coin which is okay until he uses that on people he is threatening. Heads, they die, and tails, they live. Obviously he can only get heads which is just mean. When Rachel is killed and Harvey looks for revenge, the coin has a burnt side which makes it fair. Even still, he kills some people and lets others go.

Movie or Film

The movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon, is a wonderful movie and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. But is it a movie or a film? I believe that it is a movie because it does not really have a good lesson other than how to fight an alien species trying to bring their planet to ours.

Thats Me

Herro. My name is Dylan and I'm a senior in high school. I pretty much act as the driver for the family. I watch many many movies and find myself quoting movies all the time. I also play quite a few video games, the most of which is call of duty. I was abducted by aliens twice. Both times they killed me, then resurrected me. That's why I will one day rule the world. That is all.