Slumdog Millionaire

            For the last week of class since we did not view a film in the classroom, I chose to watch Slumdog Millionaire. I had actually always wanted to see this movie, because when it first came out in 2008 I remember loving the previews and hearing that it was such a great movie. Although I felt the movie was not what I had originally expected, it ultimately was a great movie that did a terrific job of portraying a very true style of what the culture is like in India. It gave the audience of the film a very real sense of the poverty and starvation that is all too common in India, the power that the wealthy had over the poor and the danger that came from it, all while telling the remarkable story of Jamal, the main character of the film.

Personally, I felt the first few scenes of Slumdog Millionaire were very gruesome and a little difficult to watch. After the first initial few minutes, however, it became obvious that the scenes were necessary to set the tone for the audience. Looking back, I ended up feeling that being able to see the true struggles of poverty in India made the movie better, and it also added to the excitement when Jamal succeeded in winning the money at the end of the film, because the underdog was able to come out on top.

Although I have always known and even heard the saying “money is a dangerous thing,” and it has been the topics of movies before that I have seen, I was not aware before seeing Slumdog Millionaire that it was a theme in this particular film. However, it makes sense being that the culture overall in the film was so extremely poor and poverty-stricken, that those with the money would be able to gain the power and it would eventually become “a dangerous thing.” The struggle that Jamal went through while competing on India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? was simply because the people in charge of the show, those with the money in India, were afraid that he may actually have the capability to win, in which he did, and they did not want to lose only the money, but the power that came along with it. They ultimately went to extreme troubles to stop Jamal from being victorious in the popular game show, threatening and harming not only him along the way, but in the end he still was able to come out on top.

            The entire movie is obviously based upon the story of Jamal, a boy who grew up in the slums of India. The story in the film is told in present-day time, but it flashes back on the life and troubles Jamal went through in his past, which helps the audience be able to understand how he is able to come so far in playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. Also built into the film is the love story of Jamal and a girl whom he knew when he was younger, who he eventually declared his love for and she was the one who helped him when the game show in the end.

The Royal Tenenbaum Reflection

After watching the film The Royal Tenenbaums the week we did not have class on November 16^th, the subject that kept crossing my mind was the three children. This was actually my second time watching the movie; I watched it two years ago in another English class during my first year of college at Northern Kentucky University. Being that I don’t have too specific of memories from watching it the first time, and I don’t remember my reactions or thoughts about the film, I watched the movie this time with basically clean slate; although, obviously certain parts and details became familiar as the film went on.  When I completed the movie this time, I was the most interested in the separate characters and personalities of each of the three Tenenbaum children: Chas, Margot, and Richie.

The first son of Royal and Etheline Tenenbaum that is introduced is Chas Tenenbaum, played by actor Ben Stiller. His character was the sophisticated one; he was both very mature and intelligent at a young age. He created a job for himself in some type of finances as an early teenager, and eventually had so much money to himself that it became an issue with his father. His issues came into play when we found out that he was in a tragic car accident with his two sons, his wife, and their dog; everyone but his wife survived, and from there on out he was overprotective of his boys and kept them on a strict agenda.

 The second child that is introduced is Margot Tenenbaum, played by actress Gwenyth Paltrow. She was adopted at age two by Royal and Etheline, and from the beginning she was always considered “the adopted one,” Royal even introduced her to strangers as his adopted daughter. Margot was also very smart at a young age, writing and producing plays in her early years of high school. She grew up to marry an older man, although it was questionable whether she was happy and loved him. It was basically clear that she was a very unhappy woman, spending the majority of her time locked in her bathroom smoking cigarettes in the bathtub.

Richie Tenenbaum was the third child to be introduced of the Tenenbaum’s. He was pretty adventurous as a younger child, and he grew up to be a successful, professional tennis player. He spent quite a significant time with Margot when they were children, running away together and hiding out in public parks and venues, and it became clear that he was, indeed, in love with her when he choked at one of his important tennis matches the day after Margot was married and she was in the stands with her new husband.

I feel that the diverse personalities of the three Tenenbaum children are what make the movie so interesting and entertaining. Although these three characters aren’t the complete center of the film, or even the exact topic of the plot, I feel they add a great deal of depth and diversity to the film, making it that much more enjoyable and relatable to the common viewers.

Reflection on Hunger

                The film Hunger was by far the most mind-disturbing movie I think that I have possibly ever seen. It is an Irish/ United Kingdom film directed by performance video artist/ director Steven McQueen in 2008. While the plot, alone, of Hunger was disturbing enough to affect probably any type of person that would ever see it, there are several other aspects of the film that enhanced its effects and made the film more drastic. The film was created in with a tripartite structure, meaning that it is divided into three parts. Speaking for myself, the dramatic themes and elements of each of these parts are what made the movie the so disturbing as I watched.

                The first part of the film, which was approximately forty minutes, definitely set the serious, and perhaps even unsettling, tone of the film. The beginning scene was loud bangs, which was one of the only sounds heard throughout the entire part of the film.  Once the loud banging ended and the first few minutes of the movie were underway, the silence was evident; there is a powerful lack of dialogue within the first forty minutes, which more than anything aurally assaults the viewers’ senses. Sound is literally only heard a few times in this part of Hunger, which I find mesmerizing that Steven McQueen was able to so successfully pull this off with only telling the story with only great imagery. However, I believe it is the substantial silence that mainly aids to the intensity of the story coming through along with the powerful images in this part of the film.

                Roughly the next twenty-eight or so minutes make up the next part of the tripartite structure of Hunger, and about the first twenty of those minutes were once scene, with only two characters. I found this part of the film to be the most difficult to follow, I feel mainly because it was such a strong opposite of what we are used to seeing in typical Hollywood films, where the scenes of the movies are comprised of takes lasting sometimes only a few seconds. Aside from this part of the film being a single scene, it was also a little difficult to become adjusted to following the Irish dialect of Bobby and the priest as they are talking to, and even challenging, one another.

                The final part of the movie was the most visually and possibly overall disturbing. This is when Bobby’s hunger strike was displayed. The visually assaulting imagery came into play once he had gone so long without food that his ribs and other protrusions out of his body became visible, including his eyeballs at times. He also eventually began to suffer from hallucinations, mostly of himself has a younger boy around the age of twelve running through the woods. I feel the imagery became the most important in this part of the film, because without being able to see the effects of the hunger strike on Bobby’s body, it would not have produced the same effect for the viewers.

                The tripartite structure of Hunger is what I feel was the success of the effectiveness of the film. I think since each of the factors of each part were focused on individually, they were more dramatic for the viewers  of the films, and ultimately brought through the horror of the reality of the time period and the hunger strikes that were taking place.

Reflection on Shortbus

Last week in our International Film Studies class, we watched a film by the title of Shortbus, which was directed by John Cameron Mitchell in 2006. The film was interesting to say the least, and without a doubt unlike any other type of film I had ever seen before. Although it was hard for me to realize during the initial viewing of the film, I really came to enjoy the fact about how deeply the film was focusing on the feelings of the characters. Other than that opinion, I was more intrigued by the making of the film, especially the long process and the non-traditional actors that were cast.

                The first scenes of Shortbus, and several scenes thereafter throughout the film, are sexually explicit scenes; it was evident from the beginning that the film would not be handling sexual scenes the same way as a “typical Hollywood film.” Because of this, in the beginning I started to believe that maybe the only thing Shortbus was about, and the only thing it was going to focus on at all, was the sex;  and there undoubtedly was not much to make me believe otherwise at several points in the film. However, a turning point struck for me when Sophia, the highly sexual couple’s counselor in the movie, admitted to Severitt that she was pre-orgasmic and decided to face her “issues” head on and try to denote the real problem. It was when Sophia made this admittance, and throughout the rest of the film as other characters faced their troubles as well, that I began to switch opinions and ultimately realized that perhaps Shortbus was actually more about the feelings rather than “just the sex.”

                Although it was mentioned before we began viewing the film in class, I didn’t realize until after watching Shortbus the extent of work the director, John Cameron Mitchell, and the rest of the crew underwent to prepare to begin filming. As discussed in the extras of the film’s DVD, the initial process began in 2003, meaning they worked for 3 years before the film was released in 2006. They also didn’t write the story or put together the actual plot until the cast was set, which I found very interesting being that a typical film would be the reversed process, the story and the characters in it usual comes before the actors are cast.

                Going along with the unusual making and creative style of Shortbus, I was also very intrigued by the fact that the film’s cast was compiled of non-professional actors. While many of them were various types of performance artists, or other personas in pop culture, their acting resumes weren’t very hefty. I think it was a bold move, and it ultimately worked out very well because even if I hadn’t been told prior to watching the film I don’t think it was a great detail that I would have picked up on. As mentioned earlier, once the untraditional cast for Shortbus was cast, it was then that the cast and crew got together and put the storyline into place.

                While the film may not be something that I will go back and view often in the years to come, it will for sure be something that I will be able to compare other films to in the future. I am happy to have had the opportunity to study a film of this type and with such details because I feel that it has broadened my opinions when it comes to the intensity of feelings within movies.

Reflection on Moolade

Although it has been close to two weeks now since I saw the film Mooladé for the first time in class, it took me a matter of only a few minutes to refresh my mind on the subject by looking over some notes taken during class. The movie was, in my opinion, one of the most emotional films we have watched this far in the semester. However, while it was an incredibly dramatic and emotional movie, I feel like the cultural and political topics handled in the movie had the greatest impact. From arranged marriages, to the men having multiple wives, to the extreme demands for obedience, Mooladé showed just how strong the African people believed in their culture.

                One of the first, and perhaps most obvious, cultural differences in the movie was the practice of arranged marriages. Being that this was an African film it made sense right from the beginning that arranged marriages would be an important factor in their culture and family lives, but considering modern American and even the Western part of the world’s practices on the matter it took a while to be able to grasp just how important the arrangements were.

                Another difference between American and African cultures that I noticed was extremely important to practice in the African lifestyle of Mooladé was all the men in the community had multiple wives. Also, not only did they have multiple wives, but they were all different ages; there was an “elder wife” and then there were also other wives that seemed to be a significant amount of years younger than the man of the house/family and the other wives. The wives all lived together and seemed to treat each other more like what seemed to be a sister-sister relationship, which I found to be hard to comprehend being that they were all married to the same man, and I would assume that would bring a lot of tension and even competition. This was not the case to say the least, and I found it very respectable and it made it sink in that much more how much the women of the community and in the African culture really valued each other.

                The aspect of the African culture that by far stood out the most to me while watching Mooladé was the extreme belief and practices that pertained to and went along with making sure that all the men, especially the elder men in the community, were strictly obeyed by the younger men and the women. While there were several instances throughout the film in which various punishments were depicted, the one that was the most dramatic and evident would be when Collé was beaten by her husband for not enforcing the younger girls to be Purified. This was such a strong scene in the movie, perhaps the most intense, because it wasn’t just a few whips. He whipped her excessively, all while doing it in front of the entire community, which I felt made it emotional beyond the intensity.

                Mooladé, overall, I felt was an extremely powerful movie and was an excellent look into the idea of the African culture and their practices. The few differences discussed previously were not even close to the only differences between American and African culture, and I feel more could even be picked up after the initial viewing of the film. However, I feel these differences were some of the strongest, and therefore would be interested in learning more on the subject.

               

Children of Men

                The movie Children of Men was most probably the toughest one for me to get a good idea of my opinion on the movie thus far in the semester. While I do not think that the plot was that difficult to follow or understand, I even feel as though I got a little swept away following the dramatic story, I had a hard time being able to locate one big event, or more importantly central theme, in the movie that would be a good topic for discussion for this response. Had it not been for the storyline, the sound, and the dramatic settings/ surroundings of the characters in Children of Men, I feel as though I would have had a much greater deal of difficulty following than I originally did.

                The biggest thing that I believe kept me intrigued throughout the film was the storyline. It was obviously not a true story considering Children of Men took place in the year 2027, but I found the thought of something such as human reproduction to no longer be possible to be an extremely dramatic/ depressing thought, and therefore found myself swept up in the story to find out what happened. I also think another reason that I found the storyline interesting was because being that it does take place in the future, I thought it gave the film an unknown suspense of what could possibly, although not likely, take place in the years to come.

                One of the biggest things during and after watching Children of Men that really seemed to grab my attention was the sound and sound effects in the film. Obviously, one of the main reasons for this was probably because of the intense and at times seeming almost constant, sound of battle, war, and weapons. This is an obvious point being that the movie took place during a time of war and literally in the middle of a war zone for a major part of the film. That point aside, I still feel as though the extreme details of sound throughout the film were a major aid in helping me be able to feel engaged in the movie, and even be able to further connect with the characters in the film.

                The final aspect of Children of Men that I believe was a reason for me being able to become connected to the film was the dramatic settings of the characters and overall story. To some extent I guess this point directly goes along with the sound in the film, but I feel that they were both such detailed and extreme accessories to the movie that they deserve to be acknowledged separately. The majority of the settings in Children of Men were simply depressing. When watching the film I was constantly reminded of the trouble and fears that the characters were living in at the time, and I feel that made the movie much more relatable, especially considering it took place some almost 20 years in the future from when it was made.

                While I may have had many difficulties with the film Children of Men I feel the details of the storyline, sound, and settings did a remarkable job in aiding for me, and perhaps even other viewers of the movie to be able to follow it a little bit easier and perhaps even to understand and/ or enjoy its dramatic story.

Lady Vengeance and Revenge

                The film Lady Vengeance that viewed in film class was probably the one I have had the hardest time grasping thus far in the course. I think the obvious reason for this is that the film is told in a non-linear form, and being that this particular type of literature is not popular in the western culture of the world, especially America, I simply am just not very familiar with it. Aside from the manner in which the film was presented, I feel that I was able to somewhat understand one of the main themes coming through in Lady Vengeance, that being one of revenge. I feel that the color in the movie, the struggle for the characters to decide the killer’s fate, and the fact of the daughter being the narrator of the film all added to the strength of the theme of revenge.

                The use of the color in the Lady Vengeance was probably the most evident way that I was able to tell that Lee Guem-Ja was looking to seek revenge once she was released from prison in 2004. That color was red. One of the earlier scenes in the film, after she was released from prison, specifically showed her up close with the eye red make-up. This was the first sign to me that some type of drastic or even evil action was about to take place in the film, and that became more obvious as the movie progressed.

                Speaking for myself, the scenes when Lee Guem-Ja was speaking to the parents/families of the children who were murdered and explaining the situation to them was when the story line finally clicked and I realized the circumstances of what was taking place. This was also a major scene for portraying the importance of revenge in Lady Vengeance. They went through each parent/ family member and showed the struggle they had with deciding how to act out on the teacher who was responsible for the deaths of all the children. Not that I have any personal experience with the matter, but I had sympathy for all the characters, no matter what the choice they made or how they felt, because I feel that it would be an impossible situation to be in. Revenge is a dangerous thing, and these scenes did an excellent job of making that clear to the audience.

                While the fact that the daughter was the narrator of the film may not directly relate to the theme of revenge within Lady Vengeance, I feel that it had an important role. We didn’t see a huge amount of interaction between Lee Guem-Ja and her daughter, the narrator, in the film, but one of the main things we did see was that the daughter was present throughout/around the killing of the teacher. I feel that her presence at this time in Lee Guem-Ja’s life gave her a deeper look at the person and struggles her mother was experiencing, and ultimately led for her to sympathize with her even though she may not be worthy of it.