Pleasantville...in technicolor

Pleasantville is a great movie. This is the first time I've watched it actually thinking about different elements and looking at it for content instead of just entertainment so it was a different experience. Now I think I appreciate the movie as well as find it enjoyable to watch.
One of my favorite scenes is in the courtroom when Bud tells the people of Pleasantville that life is better in color. I think this scene shows how important it is to not suppress emotions. Pleasantville would exist if everyone in the world decided that they are not going to be angry, sad, happy, etc. It is a town of no emotion, just pleasant all the time. When the mayor, Bob, finally turns color, the whole town changes color. I think Bob changes because for the first time in his life he feels an emotion, he is something other than pleasant.
Bob basically is Pleasantville. If someone would look up the definition of pleasant in the dictionary there would be a picture of Bob. The instant he becomes filled with rage toward Bud he changes color. He is the only thing we actually see change. Every other person is black and white one instant and color the next. It is important that he changes with his outburst. As Bob changes from pleasant to outraged so he changes from black and white to color. Also, because he represents Pleasantville, when Bob changes so does the town.
This movie is a great movie. People are always evolving and changing. To hinder that process would cause major problems, the shock and awe factor seen in Pleasantville. Instead of gradual change it comes very suddenly and this causes major chaos. If you let emotion out slowly and gradually the chaos might be less severe, hopefully.

Pleasentville...helped some concepts click

Pleasantville was actually an enjoyable movie for me to watch. As many know I do not watch movies or television for the most part, but I did enjoy this one.
Talking about all the different things that are incorporated in film production and all the thought that goes into the 'minor' details is really brought out in this film.
The issues that weren't talked about in 'proper society' were depicted through the utopia in this film, Pleasantville. This helped shaped the time period in which the movie was depicted and how 'naughty kids' really influenced society and changed the perspective of everyone during that time period. It is almost like the 'popular' girl sets the fashion trend, well the kids set the social trend in this movie and in history.
Foucault's writinig Of Other Spaces was highlighted after watching this movie- not saying I totally understood it, but the movie did help highlight some key points: Utopia- the mythical site (Pleasantville), Heterotopia- The difference between the brother and sisters prospective in this film.
Dr. Gournelos's writing also shines light on Pleasantville and Foucault. "The world is brought by the end to full color; the brother returns to the real world, but the sister chooses to remain in Pleasantville." This I believe is because the sister as created this to be her utopia.

How 'bout a little Bowling?

I don't really love the movie Pleasantville.  Before seeing it this most recent time, I have seen it many times before and I have never really been a huge fan, but one part I have always particularly enjoyed comes when the men of the town are in the bowling alley trying to figure out what happened to their wives and what they can do about it.

I thought it was interesting that the scene in the bowling alley was created by George coming home and saying "Honey, I'm home," and immediately checking the oven, the stove, and each individual pot and pan in the kitchen, assuming that if his wife was home she would be in the kitchen.  And if she wasn't home she would have cooked his dinner and left it in the oven.

Then once he got to the bowling alley, after the men were done picking up 7/10 splits, they started to discuss the problems they were having with their wives.  And one of the most serious problems one of the men came up with was his shirt having an iron mark on his shirt.  I thought it was interesting commentary that the two major things the movie references women doing were cooking and ironing, two household jobs, but also that the only place the men felt comfortable talking about was in a bowling alley.  Bowling alleys are dirty, smoky, and disgusting yet the film portrays the bowling alley as a heterotopia for the men.  I thought this was particularly interesting because I would never think of a bowling alley as a type of perfect place where I could find refuge.

Forrest Gump and Assassinations

I would just like to start this post by saying I absolutely love Forrest Gump. It is probably one of my top five movies of all-time. I have always appreciated how well the film was put together and also enjoyed the many historical allusions. Sadly, reading the article by Thomas Byers almost ruined it for me.


The part I found most disturbing was Byers' discussion of assassinations. Throughout the movie, I have obviously always noticed Forrest bringing up assassinations, but I NEVER noticed that the movie included all of the major assassinations that occurred in his life other than the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Like Byers discusses I can understand Malcolm X's exclusion because he was a bit on the radical side, but I can't believe (now that I think about it) that they didn't even mention the assassination of MLK.

It is truly unbelievable that they left this out because it would obviously been an event that Forrest cared about.  He discussed multiple assassinations and he was supposedly the moral compass of the movie.  He seemingly cared about the moral  implications of racism in the rest of the movie, but in this one case he didn't.  I think not including the assassination of MLK was a huge statement of this movie.  I think excluding this assassination made a huge statement in which the director of the film believed that he could simply pick and choose what he would like to discuss.  He made everyone remember what he wanted them to remember and how he wanted them to remember history.

Though reading Byers article was somewhat disturbing for me, I still love Forrest Gump and I will undoubtedly watch it the next time it comes on whatever movie channel has its rights for that particular week.

Pleasant racism?

I liked the movie overall but I thought that the part where the town separated into coloreds and the black and white people was a kinda messed up. I understand that the movie made intentional allusions to the civil rights movement where in the south certain businesses did not allow coloreds into their shops. But I thought that the way the town wanted to integrate the town back together sent a bad message. The rules of conduct to ensure that everyone found the town and its inhabitants was pleasant would not work because the coloreds were not going to give up their new found pleasures of a less restrictive world. When the mayor tried David and Bill Johnson, the cafe owner, David decided that the only way for the town to accept colored people was to make everyone a colored person. On one level this says that in order for society to accept all races is for everyone to be the same race. Or a less negative interpreatation could be that in order to accept race everyone needs to be more open minded and realize that everyone feels the same things no matter their race.

Oh Golly Gee Whiz...I'm the Kennest Girl in School, that's Swell!

Pleasantville is the “perfect” place in the world, until two meddling kids from the future mess it up, way to go Jennifer and David! At first you believe that Pleasantville is perfect and then two kids show them how to have fun and mess up the perfectness of Pleasantville. Two things stick out, first the fact that parents slept in different beds and when the store started selling 1 bigger bed for couples, the town freaked! OMG! The second thing is that there are no toilets in the bathroom, mainly because that was taboo in the 1950’s. The town goes through changes and ultimately in the end the town in even more perfect (if it was ever so possible), because it not only has color but also is connected to the world, the t.v. now shows pictures of famous places around the world. The segregation of the town is responsive to the racial inequalities of the 1950’s, proof that the 1950’s and Pleasantville are/were not perfect. What I think is really crazy is that between David and Jennifer, David is the major geek who knows everything about the show yet is the most instrumental in turning their world upside down, Jennifer is not fully to blame. We all know the 1950’s were more crazy and unstable than the shows of the time like to believe. If only life was as awesome back then as they like to portray it, I would have loved to live then, but unfortunately it wasn’t.

Forrest Forrest Gump

On a side note Forrest Gump is my favorite movie ever ;)
I love how it ties in historical events and attempts to make comments about them while remaining funny and with more memorable scenes than any movie I have ever seen.
Anyway..

One o the main aspects that the movie retold was the 60's era. With feminism, Vietnam, tons of drugs, and racial oppressions boiling, it was a lot going on.

I thought the movie commented very early on feminism by Forrest's mother being a single mother and doing more than fine with out having a male figure.

Secondly Forrest Gump dealt with racism by what the articles talked about as "colorblind", and rather Gump was just stupid or not, I think his dealings with others from another race showed that all of us were equal. And intrestingly at the end of the film, Lt. Dan's wife was Asian, showing that even he had grown by merrying what was is "enemy".

And a large part of the movie showed the repercussions on what war had done to the soldiers and those directly effected by the war. But also gave a depiction of what it had done to our country, with a hint of negativity to those that stayed home and protested the war. While I have mixed feelings about this entire part of the movie, I do not agree with how the filmed framed the protesters as hippies and drug abusers.

Regardless... love some forrest gumps.

War

I could definitely see how Orientalism was included in the scene where Forrest was in Vietnam with his platoon. It is clear that Hollywood recreated the Vietnam war and manipulated it to become Americanized. Imperial narcissism is shown by Forrest losing his innocence when he saw the carnage of war and his best friend, Bubba, fatally shot and die in his arms. Storey adds that in this subset of Orientalism there is nothing to explain but American survival. The film follows this idea, during the war scene nothing happened other than the troops marching until being attacked by the Vietnamese then we see the troops retreating until Forrest realizes he has to go back to save his friend from certain death. The movie only shows Americans being attacked and killed, never do we see Vietnamese being killed or even wounded, thus the audience views the American soldiers as victims and thus causing the viewers to forget about the politics and realities of the war. Immediately after we see the Vietnamese fire bombed by planes (only to stop their attack on Americans) the audience is distracted by seeing a heartfelt moment between Forrest and Bubba.

Forrest Gump...Life is not neutral

The articles say that Forrest Gump is color blind, that he doesn’t recognize race. I think he understands that Bubba’s and his skin color are different, however I think that when it comes to race, he does not recognize race. When Lieutenant Dan asked them if they were twins they looked at each other as if he was stupid, they knew they were not twins, and not just because of the skin color. But Forrest also knows the difference between right and wrong, such as it was wrong to stop the students from entering into the school and it is wrong to kill people. When he meets the Black Panthers he realizes their anger but doesn’t pay much attention to them, more attention is paid to Jenny and her lame ass boyfriend. However the producers do recognize race and therefore the majority of blacks in the film are in inferior roles except for two people, the drill sergeant and Bubba’s momma after she receives Bubba’s share of the Shrimp money. Bubba becomes Forrest’s equal because they are best friends, but in Forrest’s eyes no one is worse off than he is, in terms of class, the only people who are worse than Forrest are the people who make bad choices and do bad things. The only person he doesn’t seem to think this of is Jenny, but that’s because she has past issues with a father and they are soul mates. If life was as neutral as Forrest saw it then life would be easier, however it isn’t and you must live with what you got (much like a box of chocolates).

Is Life Really Like a Box of Chocolate?

Forrest Gump is one of my all time favorite movies. It is long, but enjoyable. I do believe in Forrest Gump's famous line, "my momma always said, life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what your gonna get." It is also illustrated vividly in the analysis of this movie by Thomas Byers. Even when you think Forrest Gump is just a family favorite, there is so much more packed into it.
I presonally have never looked at a movie in quiet to much depth, but it makes since about changing the past by remembering and constructing certain events to fit you means. It is like taken something someone said out of context to make it something totally new and different then their original point. I mean forest gump had racism, feminism, change in masculinity, Sadism and violence, etc. This movie is like a box a chocolate, you never know what your gonna get.

Forest

Forest is the most lovable movie character of all time. Watching this again, as I am a few years older than I was the first ten times around I was able to pick up on subtleties that I missed earlier and have garnered a new appreciation for the film. To me, Forest is the ultimate representation of the American spirit, he's simple to understand and just wants to be happy.

When watching the movie I couldn't help but take a look at our culture as a whole. First, while Forest is in his leg braces he is seen as a complete outcast and a freak. At this point Jenny enters and shows him the kindness we all deserve. Our society is unforgiving to anybody who could be seen as weak or different.

I love how Forest goes off to fight in Vietnam and the movie shows how much turmoil the country was in back in the states. Even though the US preaches democracy and peace, we ourselves cannot unite over issues both at home or over seas. Other countries must think of us as huge ass holes.

"Life is like a box of chocolates, sometimes you know what you're gonna get"

Forest Gump is a great movie, definitely one of my favorites, but after reading the Byers article, it's a little screwed up. I never thought a movie could rewrite history in order to make it seem like America was never a place of conflict and there was always a clear right and wrong. Watching the movie you can tell that they are showing that if you are a good kid and do everything the "right" way, you will be happy in the end. Vice versa, if you make poor choices and attempt to cause conflict, you will have to pay the price.

This movie has so much content in it, but I think the scene that best illustrates the idea of the good vs. bad choices is the end of the movie when Jenny dies. She has payed the ultimate price for poor decisions and Forest, although losing the woman he has loved almost his entire life, is left to raise his son, to do better than his own father did. Forest, after choosing the "right" path is left with a wonderful son and a potentially great, happy life.

I think this idea of good things happen to those who make the right decisions is a little contradictory in the movie. "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." Is that really true? If you're good, you know to some extent that something good will happen to you. Vice versa if you're bad. Also now, many boxes of chocolate have a type of map provided to tell you exactly what it is that you're getting. Yes bad things happened to Forest, but they were always followed by something that was good, that almost made it better. He always knew, what he was going to get.

Do the Right Thing.....could've been 1/3 the length it was!!

Do the Right Thing...well, let me start off by saying the beginning made my expectations for the movie relatively high. I was finally watching a movie with some substenance; a movie that was actually worth watching. I don't know the racial prejudice and the 'hard-knock life' is the kind of an inspiring movie...well, usually.
Anyway, this movie had a great beginning and a realistic story-line;however, seriously a curse word after every intelligent word? Think about it, if you cut out every curse word the movie could have been like 35 minutes long and the plot would have been close to the same. The sexual inuendos by the 3 'old guys' was a bit over the top as well. Were they needed for the plot? Maybe a little bit to show the 'old guys' attitude in life, but did we have to keep flashing back to them?
Okay, so the movie didn't end as it should...in my opinion. The Asian shopkeepers go unbothered, for the most part, the 'good guys' get kicked out. What is the matter with this picture? Aren't the good guys supposed to win?
I thought that at the end the African Americans and the Italians would learn to love each other and still hate the whites. I mean all the cops were white, setting them up as racial creeps. So I didn't expect us to all get along and live happily ever after, but I did have some expectations for the Italians and African Americans, I mean they lived in peace for decades, according to the Italian restaurant owner.
I didn't realize that the African Americans would follow the futile attempt of getting African American pictures on the wall of an Italian Restaurant when the restaurant owner is ITALIAN!!
Well, I guessed wrong, and the movies kinda went down the tubes for me....no real ending, I mean what happens to the boys kid? Does the boy and his girlfriend stay together? The last thing she says was not to come back, but he says almost at the very end he has a baby to feed; so what happens?

Do the Right Thing

I want to start this post by saying I thought the movie was great.  It really did a good job of discussing race relations in the late 1980s/early 1990s. 

The part of the movie I would really like to focus on is the role of the Korean shop owner.  I thought it was very interesting throughout the movie how all of the characters treated the store owner and the store itself.  I thought one of the most telling parts of the movie came when one of the three old men that sit outside and just talk about all the things going wrong in the world brought up the store.  One of the men said it was good that the Korean man had managed to become successful and find a business that he could operate, but immediately one of the other old men became angry because it was a Korean who owned the store and not a black man.  I thought it was particularly interesting that even though the Korean was not white and was likely just as oppressed as those three black men, he was still upset simply because it wasn't a black man who had started a successful business.  Though the neighborhood complains of the racism that Sal commits, they themselves are just as racist and do many of the same things that Sal does.

I also thought it was very interesting in the end of the movie that after destroying Sal's they go to the store owned by the Korean man and start to think about destroying, but after thinking about it for a little bit they decide that it would be wrong of them to do.  They have no problems with him because he is being oppressed, but who is he being oppressed by.  Not any Italian-Americans or white people, but instead they are the ones doing the oppressing and they have no problems with it.

Sal

I thought the part of the movie when Sal and Pino had a heart to heart inside the restaurant when Pino expressed his feelings about relocating the business to somewhere in their own community. The father bluntly said moving a pizza place to an Italian area would be a bad idea economically. But other than that the father seems to have a bond with the black people of this neighborhood showing he was proud of the fact that everyone grew up and loved his pizza. On the other hand the son Pino dispised the fact that he was around all the"monkeys" and his Italian friends making fun of him. I thought it was interesting that the younger generation would be shown as being more tolerant than the older one since that is typically the case. I think the Sal is more tollerant because he realizes that he needs other people besides Italians he lives with to want and like his food in order to survive. In an economical way Sal is tolerant but he still has his racist thoughts and is not completely tolerant but more tolerant than most.

Do the Right Thing...really????

I just want to start by saying I'm not sure that anyone in this entire movie really seems to, in my eyes anyway, ever "do the right thing." All they ever do is fight and complain and fight some more. There is a lot of yelling followed by more yelling and occasional fighting, which eventually leads to the death of one of the characters, Radio. It's insane that this movie is called Do the Right Thing because the only person who ever seems to do the right thing is Da Mayor who is the resident town drunk.

Before the big fight scene begins there is a lot of arguing. You have Buggin' Out, Radio, and Smiley all fighting with Sal over different things. All 4 are willing to battle it out in violent ways. Then you have Mookie over there yelling at Buggin' Out to stop and at Sal to put the bat down. He seems to be the voice of reasoning, wanting everyone to coexist somewhat without violence. He seems to be the Martin Luther King, Jr. of the situation while Buggin' Out is more of the Malcolm X and Sal would be seen as the white oppressor. These characters all represent 3 completely different factions of a time where racial inequality was a major problem. You see the "peacemaker", the violent man fighting for his rights, and the "dictator" type figure wanting to control those he believes are beneath him.

The strange thing about this movie is that all of the major characters are minorities. While most of them are African American you see many Hispanic, Asian American, and Italian American characters. However, because some are white, they assume they are better in a sense. They "blend in" more with the majority than do the African Americans. It seems that to make Sal's Pizzeria into Joe's Diner would've been to obvious a representation of white supremacy.

To me, the title of this movie led me to believe that there would be one character who would always try and do the right thing. At first, I somewhat thought that it would be Mookie in the end who tried to keep the peace. I never thought that the town drunk would end up being the one person throughout the whole movie who ending up trying to do the right thing.

Do the Right Thing.

The stereotypical black man is a mooch with anger issues. There is one black character that seems to have major anger issues and that is Buggin Out . His anger issues start as he is standing up for himself, but he gets angrier than is necessary. The truly racist are the Italians. There is a good and logical explanation for the way in which everyone lives their life and the way they are. The Mayor is a drunk who lost his wife and this is the way in which he deals. Blacks react to criticism; that is how the violence starts, as a reaction towards all of the racial issues that begin as small quibbles between two people. I almost don’t know what to say. In the end the major players in the violence, especially in the burning down of Sal’s restaurant are the blacks of the neighborhood, and throughout the movie the blacks are in scuffles with other ethnicities in the neighborhood, the Italians, the Latinos, the Police, and each other. The title of the movie is Do the Right Thing, what is the right thing? Should the black community stand up for themselves, resorting to violence if necessary? NO! But the right thing is to stand up and to end racial issues in the U.S. But that is near impossible, especially since we are such a diverse nation packed so closely together, the reason why Spike Lee chose Brooklyn for the setting. What is the best way to “fight the power?” Is it to burn down businesses and to cause violence that result in the death of a man? It’s the best way to gain the attention needed, that’s what MLK did in the Civil Rights Movement. In the movie we have the firefighters attacking the population with fire hoses (allusive), which is the responsive to the Civil Rights Movement. The fact that the movement is not over with because the black man is still not equal and does not get the respect as most other people, or so the belief is, is Spike Lee’s purpose in the movie.