Pleasantville

Pleasantville was one of my favorite movies of the year, I won't lie. The transformation of the town through Bud is both enlightening and dark. The movie addresses many social issues as the people are changing and becoming more aware of the outside world. The reference to people as colored and the discrimination against them brings us back to the civil rights movement and the advancements made for entire cultures. We also see a book burning like something hitler (I didn't capitalize hitler or purpose, he is a deutsche) would do with the third reich. Basically the film tells us to open our eyes and see the world in a new light, much like this whole semester of classes.

Outfoxed

This was amazing and quite possibly one of the best things I've ever taken the time to sit down and watch...now only if I could convince my parents to do the same, not likely. Anyways, I had no idea before this that FOX was this subversive with their broadcasting practices. The worst part is that I was actually duped by them during the 2004 election between Bush and Kerry with their propaganda of Kerry being indecisive and unreliable. I had no idea about the game they were playing then.

If anything the movie/documentary was as eye opening as it was educational. I'll never look at news the same way again because of the crazy stuff I was shown and it should definitely be used in Ted's future classes as well since I never would've watched this on my own.

Pleasantville

After seeing this movie I'm reminded of why I didn't want to see it in the first place, besides having Tobey Maguire being in it. It's incredibly boring! I get the ideas and significance behind using color as a means of showing a shift in society from the utopia of the past to the utopia of the future, abrupt as that may be.

Something about it just seems...off. Maybe it's the way it trivialized racism by having people who had color being segregated from those that were black and white. It was a very recent change and the kind of hatred that brought about real segregation was absent. Instead we just got people who were afraid of change (kinda like the old Bush administration).

Sicko

This movie was horrible on several levels. It didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, the fat-ass narrator was obnoxious and he didn't really offer any ideas as to how we might improve the health-care system in America. I have no health-care, my job offers it but because I'm only part time it would eat most of my weekly pay check, all for coverage that full-time employees (i.e; managers) get for free and then some.

Only problem is that I'd have to work 50+ hours to become full time in order to get coverage I might need. Yes it's fucked up and unfair, yet all sicko does is rub it in my face that places like Canada and the UK have free, universal health care. What's his solution? I'd love to hear it instead of him asking random people how much they pay for health care when the last 5 people he asked in the same place said they paid nothing.

What an aggravating blowhard.

Three Kings

I find myself conflicted with this movie. On one hand I have vivid memories of being in grade school, 4th or 5th grade to be exact, during Desert Storm. Most of those memories were thinking "yea, we Americans are bad-ass!" I don't think I even understood what Muslims were back then, except that they were terrorists and we needed to kill them (I kid you not) in order to be safe.

Now that I'm 28 and my little brother is a combat medic in Iraq I'm acutely aware of the situation in the Middle East. Because of that I found the first half hour to be irritating for no real reason, and the village scene was like a (welcome) reality check for the movie, despite the comical sound effects in the slow-motion gun battle. From there on out I was pleasantly surprised with the direction the plot went.

Really makes me wonder what kind of movies will be made about the Iraq War 10 a decade from now.

OUTFOXED

One of my new favorite movies. It also makes me sick to my stomach. I made my family watch it with me this time around, and they conceded since I had been bugging them to watch it for about a year. To know that millions of people watch these news programs and news broadcasters(actors) and believe everything they hear is scary. However the same could be said for the far left. It reinforces the need for personal research, and unbiased media. Working with the public it amazes me on a regular basis to hear what individuals in my area believe to be fact. It only reasserts this need for true "fair and balanced" journalism. Unfortunately journalism is a lost art. Any idiot with a computer can start a blog, gain followers and reproduce crap that people with take as fact. I often have to play dumb when talking politics to not offend my clients and it is difficult. So i change the subject and talk about school, and tell them about this great movie they should watch..OutFoxed!

Pleasantville

This is one of my favorite movies. The first time I saw it my father and I where going to have a daddy-daughter night. Little did I know this movie had a lot to do with sex, as i sat crouched down in my chair hoping my father wasn't as embarrassed as I. Although after re-examining this movie, it has more to do with dissent and acknowledging your feelings than i had once noticed. The fact that they change color, after having an orgasm, or getting angry, or creating beautiful art is like someone turning a light of enlightenment on inside them. The fact that the town slut(in real life) stayed in this altered world in order to be a "better person" however is ridiculous. To want to change is not, but to want to stay in a fantasy is. Most individuals, when receiving what they have always wanted, whether thats respect usually want more, or are unhappy with what they have been left with. This idea that staying in the "happy land" is what will make her happy is hard to accept.