Collegebound

The Graduates is a film that tells the story of Latin American students and some of the struggles that they go through. The editing of the film is very well done. The visuals of the film work well with the story and structure of the film. The visuals do not needlessly illustrate what the voice-overs are stating. The editor of the film revealed that the necessary amount of footage required to make a documentary is about 400 hours of film. It is the editor’s job to find a story within these 400 hours of the students living their daily lives. Sometimes this process is eased by the director giving the editor the best 20 hours of the original 400 hours of film. The problem with this is that it is the best 20 hours of film according to the director. It is possible that the director may have cut out very relevant or powerful scenes.

The struggles that the students undergo range from typical teenage problems to gang violence. Examples of such typical teenage problems are fitting in and teen pregnancy. Although Latin-American students must deal with these situation more often than their Caucasian counterparts, the film should not have only focused on Hispanics. It brings up the idea that Hispanics are less than human. The film is similar to a zoo because the students are followed and studied similarly like animals are studied and followed around at the zoo. If the film focused on various ethnic students including Caucasians, it would send out the idea of equality. Students of different social and financial status could go through similar teenage problems, but this gets left out in the film because it focuses solely on Hispanics.

Aside from the film’s choice to focus on Hispanics, it does accurately illustrate the problems that plague most minorities students today not only Hispanics.

The Multiverse

People have always questioned whether or not there is more than one reality in existence. David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive presents this idea by illustrating two different realities but using the same actresses to play different characters in each reality. In the first reality, Betty and Rita randomly meet because Rita sneaks into Betty’s aunt’s house. Betty then decides to help Rita figure out her past and identity. Although they make some progress uncovering Rita’s past, they do not succeed in uncovering the whole truth The failure to find Rita’s identity is one of the things that connects the two realities.

In the second reality, Rita and Betty are both actresses. Although the actresses are the same ones who played Betty and Rita, they are now named Diane and Camilla in this reality. Camilla seems to be a huge success as an actresses, but Diane appears to be a complete failure. Diane is also in love with Camilla, but Camilla does not love her back. Their relationship connects the two realities because Betty/Diane loves Rita/Camilla in both realities. The presence of their relationship in both realities brings up the idea of fate because they are somehow connected across separate realities. However, the two drastically different realities concerning their relationship indicates the idea of choice. Betty has a good friendship with Rita, but Diane has a terrible relationship with Camilla. One reason that explains the differences between the two realities is the freedom of choice. Diane gets trapped by her love for Camilla and it eventually leads to her suicide. Meanwhile Betty embraces her love for Rita and develops a meaningful and positive friendship with her. Diane chooses to keep going after Camilla even though it is leading her down a destructive path. Betty chooses to help Rita without knowing who she is or what kind of problems she can bring into her life. Betty makes selfish kind choices whereas Diane makes selfish evil choices. The second reason why the realities differ so much is due to the issue of identity. In the first reality Rita does not know who she is and is completely dependent on Betty. In the alternate reality, Diane loses herself in her love and worship of Camilla. Since Diane does not know who she is, she ends up being miserable. Her entire life including her relationship with Camilla is destroyed because she does not know how to be on her own or her own person. Although Rita and Diane have no sense of identity, they experience the harsher fates in their respectively realities.

Tarantino’s a Series of Violent Events

Violence is a major component of the Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Each of the main character has some experience with violence. Butch’s family seems to be cursed with violence because every man for the past three generations has fought in a major war. Butch is the first one who has not had to fight in a war, but he still enters into an occupation which prospers from violence, boxing. Throughout the course of the film Butch is trying to escape the cycle of violence that has plagued is family. However, to escape this viscous cycle Butch must fight fire with fire. It is because that he is using violence for the right reasons that he is able to succeed in the end and escape. Tarantino illustrates that Butch will succeed in his quest through the mise-en-scène of the shot when Butch is leaving the apartment complex. Butch is leaving the confines of his old life symbolized by the gate and enters into a new life.

Similar to Butch, Jules decides that he no longer wants to be a violent man anymore after witnessing the miracle. Not only does Jules quit his job as a hit man, he also spares the life of the robbers. Due to him taking the miracle as a warning and changing his ways, he is allowed to live past the events of the film.

Vincent on the other hand is a different story. Although he witnesses the miracle same as Jules, he does not consider it a miracle. He repeatedly states that it was a freak occurrence and refuses to heed it as a warning. Vincent decides to continue his life as a hit man and by the end of the film is killed by Butch. Tarantino adds in a small comedic element in the scene depicting Vincent’s death. As Vincent is waiting to be killed by Butch, there is a quick shot of the pop-tarts coming out of the toaster right before Vincent is killed. Vincent is toast just like the pop-tarts are toasted.

The Shining Syndrome

Stanley Kubrick uses the characters from The Shining to illustrate several different points. Focusing on Jack, Kubrick shows the audience the importance of love, selflessness, and forgiveness. Jack claims to love his family and states how much he loves Danny, but his actions speak differently. Even before getting to the hotel, Jack has already injured Danny in the past. He claims that it was just an accident, but he still dwells on the incident. This is partly due to his wife because she has not let him forget about what he did to Danny. Not only does his wife not forgive him, Jack does not seem to have fully forgiven himself. This is revealed to the audience when Jack is talking to the ghost bartender. As he explains the events of the past to the bartender, he is trying to make an excuse for what he did to Danny and relates it as an accident. Regardless of whether or not it was an accident, Jack’s emphasis on the fact that it was an accident indicates that he is ashamed of himself for hurting his son. Jack’s inability to forgive himself stems from his selfish nature. This is made apparent to the audience by the disconnect between Jack and his son. Whenever Jack and Danny are filmed having a conversation, the dialogue sounds so dry and lacks the expected affection a father and son should have for each other. Jacks’ selfish nature is evident in his unwillingness to take his son to the hospital and his focus on himself and his “responsibilities” to the company. By this point in the story Jack has been completely overtaken by the demonic presence of the hotel. However, Jack is able to be possessed due to his lack of love, forgiveness, and selflessness towards himself and his family.

 

Family Matters

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather excels in all of the components of film. However, the character of Vito is very interesting.

The first time that the audience gets to see Vito is after a slow zoom out of a man asking Vito for help. However, Vito’s back is towards the camera. This informs the audience of Vito’s power and importance. Although Vito is not the focus of the shot, he is still in it. This occurs many times throughout the film while Vito is having conversations with people. Even though Vito is not speaking at these times, his mere presence is important enough that it must be represented.

As the film progresses Vito’s character is slowly revealed to the audience. This is usually achieved through dialogue coming from Vito himself to another character. The audience witnesses one of these scenes in the beginning of the film as well. When Robert is begging Vito for help with his acting career, Vito speaks plainly with him and asks him if he visits his family. This shows how much Vito values family. Another scene which reveals a piece to the Vito Corleone puzzle is the time he is speaking with Michael in the yard. Michael has gone to see Vito to check up on him and for advice. During their conversation, Vito tells Michael that men cannot be careless. Vito says this because they are speaking about Fredo, Michael’s older brother, and his lack of maturity. Vito also explains to Michael that he never wanted Michael to end up in the family business. Although Vito never wanted Michael to be in the family business, he tells Michael that he does not regret what he did. He equates getting a regular job to being a puppet and informs Michael that he was supposed to be a puppet master instead of a gangster.

Vito is unquestionably dangerous but by the end of the film Coppola has managed to show the audience that Vito is also honorably and very caring of his family. He isn’t perfect, he is just human just like we all are.

Almost Like Shakespeare

I have learned that tend to choose topics that deal with grief, trauma, or something sad.  Every time I chose an open topic for a paper, I ended up writing the paper about one of these ideas or themes.  I didn’t notice it until the semester came to a close.  I wondered why I kept picking these sad topics, and I realized that it could be for a number of reasons.  The top two reasons being that , I feel that there is more to talk about with these sad topics than with happy topics. You can analyze things much more and it causes you to think more because there are so many things that cause sadness.  There are also so many things that create happiness but these things could be very simple and just not as interesting in my opinion.  It is easy to get through life being happy, but it very hard to deal with sadness and overcome it.  By overcoming our sadness, we are able to eventually be happy.  The other reason i ended up writing about these things is most likely because of the bad things that have happened in my life.  I have had more contact with sadness than happiness so I feel like I can talk a lot more about sadness.  Also it feels very therapeutic to write about sad topics because I can get my ideas about a certain topic out of my head.
My favorite paper to write was the research paper because I got the chance to talk about movies and analyze them.  I really enjoy doing this but can never do it outside of my free time or do it with other people for fun.  I feel like my writing has gotten better grammatically as long as I proof read my papers. When I don’t proofread, it messes everything up.  I also feel like I have gotten better at analyzing passages and clips from films.  I still need work on not waiting till the last minute to write most of my papers.  I also need to proofread way more.  That is my main weakness.

Raising Victor Vargas

Raising Victor Vargas was a really good movie.  When I was watching it, I was thinking about how Victor reminded me a lot about of guys that I would see in the park and on the block in my old neighborhood.  They would always just try and go after any girl that they thought was attractive and really didn’t respect them.  They didn’t see beyond the physical appearance of the girls and it would just burn me up.  As the movie progressed, I started to see that my first impression of Victor was not completely accurate.  I mean he did only care about having a hot girlfriend, but he was actually faithful to her.  This was not something I would have expected because he was initially with her to cover up for the fact that he had been caught with fat Donna.  Then he found out that she was just using him to keep away other guys.  I think this was when Victor started to change from the typical teenage boy you would see in that type of environment.  The next dramatic event that caused Victor to start changing was when his grandmother attempted to throw him out.  He finally started to realize that he needed to get his act together because she was serious about not wanting him.  This reminded me a lot about incidents that have happened in my family.  The conflict between victor and his grandmother reminded me a lot of my mother and brother.  The thing with Victor is that he has the capacity to do good and be a good grandson.  He just needed his grandmother to be more understanding about how he is.  He may not be as determined and focused as his little brother, but he does love him.  He tried to just give him some advice on how to deal with girls, but their grandmother misunderstood this.  She instantly thought that victor was being a bad influence on his little brother.  This is a perfect example of when she needed to be more understanding.  By the end of the movie she starts to be more understanding and the family is seen as slowly getting closer together.  This is seen when victor unlocks the phone and then his sister starts to use it.  In the beginning of the movie, he did not get along with his sister at all.  By the end, he does her the favor of unlocking the phone.  Overall I feel like Raising Victor Vargas is a really good movie and has a lot to teach people about understanding each other.

Research

For the topic that I have chosen, I don’t think that gathering research will be that hard.  I feel like the hardest part of writing my research paper will be having a good thesis statement.  It will be hard to make an arguable thesis statement on the theme of loss in film.  Analyzing the films that I will use as evidence will not be hard because I feel that analyzing films and stories is one of my strengths.  Incorporating the films as evidence won’t be too hard either because I have had experience with research papers before.  I am just primarily concerned with the thesis statement.  I am not concerned about how much information I will be able to find on the theme of loss because I am pretty sure that there is plenty of information on the theme of loss.  As long as I ask the right questions, I will be able to find plenty of information.  I am just going to have to do a lot of work on my thesis statement.  Making it arguable will definitely be the hardest part. I feel like I may end up making a thesis that will just state something that is generally known about the theme of loss.  Most of my time in the beginning of my research paper is going to be used in the development of a good strong thesis.  Once I have a good strong thesis, proving my opinion will be easy to do.  Besides the thesis statement the only other roadblock that I can foresee is picking a quality third movie to incorporate into my paper.  I have already thought of two great movies, but I am a little stuck on picking a third one that will be able to help my argument.  This probably won’t be too hard though once I get my thesis statement  done.

Rear Windows

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Windows was an interesting movie.  It reminded me of two movies that were made after it.  The two movies that it reminded me about were The Bone Collector and Disturbia.  It resembled The Bone Collector because the main character was stuck in a wheelchair and trying to solve a murder.  In The Bone Collector the main character was stuck in a hospital bed in his apartment and assisted the police in finding a murderer.  Then at the end of the movie, the murderer went to his apartment and attempted to kill him.  This was exactly like the end of Rear Windows.  It resembled Disturbia because the main character was stuck in his home and watched his neighbors to pass the time.  Then he discovered that one of his neighbors was a murderer and had to prove it.  This was similar to Rear Windows but the main character in Disturbia  was not handicapped or in any way.  He had just been under house arrest.
It was a nice experience to watch Rear Windows  with the residents of Serviam  Gardens.  The resident that my group ended up speaking to stated that she enjoyed the movie.  She felt that it kept her on the edge of her seat and that it had a lot of different aspects to it which is what made it such a good movie.  She felt that it had aspects of a love story because of the fact that the main character’s girlfriend kept trying to be with him even when he felt that she was too good for him.  I did not like the way he had been treating his girlfriend in the beginning of the movie.  He kept trying to push her away because he felt that she was too good for him, but it seemed like he was being too mean in the process.  Also I just feel that it is stupid to push away someone that you think is too good for you rather then keep them and be grateful.  She also felt that it had aspects of a detective story because he had kept investigating on his neighbor. She told my group that she hopes we will go back with more movies similar to Rear Windows.

First Formal Paper Revisited

My thesis for my paper is about how Foer’s novel demonstrates the way that trauma affects people and the way that they cope with it.  I supported this thesis by taking quotes that demonstrated the emotional and psychological effects that trauma had on the characters in the novel.  I also used evidence from the novel that explained how the characters coped with their problems.  After I used evidence from the novel to back up my thesis and the main ideas of my paragraphs, I did my best to explain the evidence that I used.  I felt that the explanations I provided for the evidence I used were clear and concise.  The explanations in my body paragraphs are definitely strengths in my essay.  They flow well and offer good, detailed interpretations of the quotations that I used to back up my point of view.

My peer review partner felt that I had a good strong thesis.  It was pretty clear, but he advised that I should try to make it more specific.  I cannot really think of a way of making my thesis more specific without giving away the topic sentences of my body paragraphs. Although my thesis seems strong and clear,  I feel that it is most likely one of the weak points of my paper.

I plan to attempt to revise my thesis statement, but I cannot really think of a good way how to yet. My main revisions for my paper are mostly just going to be changing up some words.  I plan on changing words where ever possible to improve transitions which will create a better flow for my overall paper. I do not feel that I need to make any drastic changes to my paper. The only drastic change that would have been necessary would have been to my thesis statement, but I fixed that in my first draft.