Stranger Than Fiction

                             



                                                              Stranger Than Fiction


     The film Stranger Than Fiction staring Will Farrell hits on the concept of post modernism. You may ask well what is post modernism? Well, in a nutshell, post modernism is the idea that nothing now a days is original. Some examples of post modernism would be a comedy about a comedy or a western about a western. Post modernism can be humorous, scary, upsetting, dramatic, anything. The film Stranger Than Fiction contains a lot of mixed emotions, but really does hit on the idea of post moderism.

        In Stranger Than Fiction, A man named Harold Crek leads a life of consistency. From waking up in the morning, brushing his teeth, getting on the bus, going to work to the time he goes to bed at night, everything is the same, and Harold makes sure of it with his wrist watch. One day Harold's life takes an unusual turn something interferes with his everyday schedule... He begins to hear the narration of his actions by a British woman, who is unaware that Harold is a real person and is using him and his life as a character in her newest novel. As soon as Harold thinks things can't get any worse than this, the narrator mentions something about Harold's death. Obviously, he doesn't want to die, he seeks help in finding the narrator to save his life. Eventually, he does find his narrator and Harold's life is spared. 

         So how does Stranger Than Fiction hint on the idea of post modernism? Well, it basically tells its viewers a story about the story of Harold Crek. It is a story about a story. It hits on the fact that the idea of life is just a story told a million times is warn out, overplayed and unoriginal. That is give or take the main idea of post modernism, to prove that nothing is original anymore. That creativity is dead and those who work in the media are just feeding off of the ideas of another's work. Even with the post modernism ideas, overall, Stranger Than Fiction is an enjoyable film to have a good laugh and possibly shed a tear or two. The film contains both great actors/actresses as well as great ideas.

      


          

Do The Right Thing

   The film Do The Right Thing, created by Spike Lee was a very complex piece of work. The film contains characters you may see every day and maybe even be able to connect them to some of your friends such as Radio Raheem, your music lover, Buggin' Out, your drama bum, Vito, your bully, Smiley, your handicap and Mookie, your working class hero. Though these characters seem like your regular run of the mill type charters, Spike Less uses them in such a way to which these characters and their actions are used to create meaning or prove a central point. One of the biggest themes Lee stressed in this film is the idea of race and racism in America.

    As seen in the film, a large portion of community is African American with the exception of an Asian couple, a group of Hispanics and the proud owner of Sal's Famous Pizzeria and his two sons. For the most part, everyone gets along pretty well... until Buggin' Out comes in for a slice of pizza and makes an observation. He notices that on Sal's "Wall of Fame", everyone is Italian. He makes a scene about it, asking Sal to "put some brothers up on the wall" but Sal refuses and tells Mookie to take care of him "brother." His son Vito is 100% with his father in saying that Sal should have beat him with the bat behind the counter while his other son Pino doesn't agree with his father's actions or his brother's reaction which causes conflict between the two brothers. Though Buggin' Out could have presented himself in a better manner, his point was valid. There are many African American men and women that contributed to some of the biggest parts of American history... so why was it such a hassle to place their pictures on the wall? Sal makes a comment that " It's my wall and I"ll put what I want on it." Of that's the case, Sal obviously didn't want any African Americans on his wall and his son Vito agreed which points out that they are both racist and the community sees it as well, as we can see from Buggin' Out's boycott idea.

      Let's look at Radio Raheem. The man who barely spoke in the beginning, but didn't really have to, for his radio was his voice. Though he seemed big and tough and scary, Radio was a nice guy. As stated in Roger Ebert's article, "He wears steel knuckles that spell out "Love" and "Hate" ...although we know he is harmless." Raheem, hence his name, never went anywhere without his radio that blasted but one song, " Fight The Power" by Public Enemy. That entire song in of itself, if you look at some of the lyrics such as "Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me" and "Mother fuck him and John Wayne,Cause I'm Black and I'm proud" has messages of extreme racism that was being seen in the American population at the time it was written. Then we have the entire concept of Radio's radio.

    When Sal smashes Radio Raheem's radio, to me I found it symbolic. That radio was Raheem's voice. It breaking symbolized how Sal ( The white American man) took away the voice and freedom of Raheem ( the African American slave.) Another thing to look at is the police who killed Radio Raheem.  They were both white. So, Raheem died and Buggin' Out got sent to prison for standing up for themselves and not taking Sal's racism lightly. I find it sad because this entire situation could have been avoided if Sal just put a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. up on his Wall Of Fame and asked Raheem if he would please lower his music. Racism just went too far again.... but will it ever stop?       

Boyz N The Hood

    If you lived in a neighborhood where everyday, people died around you at the hands of the barrel of a gun, where to hear a gun shot while laying in bed at night was a normality, how would you react? Would you be frightened? If you were frightened, would you tell someone you were frightened at the risk of being called names or even looked down upon by others? The characters in the film Boyz N The Hood all put on a " tough guise " so they'd all be accepted by those around them.

     Let's take Doughboy. Even as a young boy we see him putting on a guise when he threatens to kill the guys who took his brother's football. You could tell he was scared by his facial expressions as the guys are kicking him on the ground, but instead of getting upset and crying, he gets up, dusts himself off and beings to walk away making a thousand threats against them under his breath. He continues this guise when he returns from prison as an adult. After the death of his brother Ricky, Doughboy didn't shed a single tear, but something about the way he picked up his brother's dead body showed me that he was indeed upset about what had happened. He didn't just throw his body in the car, he gently placed it in and once they returned home, Doughboy didn't ignore all the screaming and crying and leave, he volunteered to take Ricky's baby so he didn't have to see the tragedy. Through all this, Doughboy stayed calm with a straight face and no tears though it was somewhat apparent by his boy language such as clenched fists and biting at his lower lip told us that he wanted to but did not because he feared what his friends and family would thing if he started bawling like a baby infront of them.

     Though many of the characters showed us a " tough guise ", Trey was a whole different story. Trey was the only character out of the boys that we actually witnessed breaking down and crying in front of his girlfriend and friends. After crying in front of his girlfriend, Trey says " I never thought I'd cry in front of you in a million years." To this his girlfriend says " You can cry in front of me whenever you want." Later in the film, Trey breaks down in tears again after Ricky's shooting unlike the rest of his friends, yet after things were settled, his friends did not make fun of him or reject him or think any lower of him. They acted normally. Doughboy even came to comfort him. So what dies this say about men who put on a " tough guise "?

   I think this film shows us that a " tough guise " should never be needed. The one person of all the boys in this film that can truly be called a man is Trey for showing us how he felt about the events going on in his life. What good would our society or any form of society be if we all acted the same, dressed the same and spoke the same just to " fit in? " If we were not meant to show emotions, we would not have any. It's easy to fake a smile, but it takes a real man to show his frown an shed a tear. Trey shows us that showing your emotions, even when those around you do not, is okay. He shows us that not everyone will but you down for it. He breaks that cycle amongst his friends and comes out on top successful and still alive and that's what makes him a real man.     

           

  

 

                                            Feminism In Film~ Thelma and Louise

     
      Okie dokie!Before we venture into this blog, we've got to know.... What is feminism? Feminism 
is the ideologies of the way a woman should behave based on the viewpoint of a society. In the 1990's, Feminism played a huge role in people's everyday lives. The married women were to wake up early in the morning, get all dolled up and run their pretty little butts downstairs and cook breakfast for their husbands and those who weren't had to get jobs and work twice as hard as a married woman. Women were not aloud to go against the word of their husbands even if he was being unreasonable. The film Thelma and Louise is a great example of what feminism was in the 1990's.

      Thelma is a stay at home wife. She lives with her husband Darrel and no children because Darrel doesn't want them. She takes the verbal abuse from him and does nothing about it. Louise on the other hand is a free spirit who even though she has a boyfriend, Jimmy, works for herself and doesn't take crap from anyone. When Louise invites Thelma to go away with her for the weekend, she doesn't even bother asking her husband's permission to go and just leaves for she knows he'd never allow it. At a trip to a bar, Louise shoots a man for almost raping Thelma and they drive off as fast as they can. The two girls plan to go to Mexico so they will not get caught. Their weekend getaway turned into a life long crime spree.

       Throughout the film, Thelma becomes tougher and feels more alive. She goes from the innocent clean house wife who would never even touch a gun, to a rouge and dangerous wild woman who doesn't go anywhere with her pistol. Louise becomes a little less self confident but also feels more alive than ever before. They are on the run and they like it, until one day, the cops catch up to them and their refugee road trip comes to an end.  

     Thelma and Louise go against the idea of feminism because they ran away, shot a man, robed stores, slept with men they weren't married too and went against the words and warnings of the male population. They didn't let the fact that they were women stop them from doing the thing people thought only a man could do. This film shows women to never let society determine what you can and can't do just because of your gender. You are your own person and you make your own path.     

Tootsie~Gender Roles!

                                                           Tootsie and Gender Roles  


          Ever hear someone say to a girl "Haha cool story babe! Now go make me a sandwich?" Have you ever heard someone say "Oh the sink is broken, I'll get my husband to do it cause this is a man"s job?" Well these little statements are part of a much larger idea called gender roles. What is a gender role you may ask? Well, it's a the way a man or woman should act, look or behave based upon the outlook of a society. The film Tootsie is a perfect portrayal of both male and female gender roles in society.

          The main character in the movie, Michael is a very stubborn man. Due to this, he has a great great deal of difficulty getting roles in plays' movies or TV shows and for this he blames his manager when in reality, it is him that gets in his own way. Mike has a female friend named Sandy who is interested in acting positions as well and knowing Mike's theatrical background, she asks him for assistance to practice. Mike treats Sandy as if she is a toy as oppose to a human being by toying with her emotions and yelling when she made a mistake instead of talking it out with her to fix it. Even at his birthday party, he treated the women there like objects instead of people and he saw nothing wrong with that. When Mike discovers that a role in a play he was signed up for was given to someone else, he becomes determined to get a new role in something all on his own. Mike finds a role in a TV show as a female nurse.... One problem..... Mike is a dude. How does he fix this? he did what any reasonable man would do! He put on a wig, some make up, a dress and his favorite pair of high heals and became Dorothy Michales to audition for that role!

         Once Mike, or Dorothy becomes a part of the cast, he meets a cute blonde named Julie who he instantly falls for. At that time, he could not even introduce himself to her for that would blow his cover and his TV role would be a short lived history. As the film progresses, Mike learns more than how difficult it is to keep his hair looking good and making sure his eyeliner isn't running. From dealing with  the director of the show, Dr. Bruster, Julies's father and Julie's ex boyfriend, Mike learns that women are not just toys, they have feelings and potential to do great things, not just cooking and cleaning, and in some cases, a woman can be stronger than a man. PLaying the part of a woman even for just a little while showed him the error of his ways in so many fields and gave him reason to change them.

        I think that this film challenges the idea of gender roles. I say this because because as a woman, Mike went against a lot of the typical female gender role characteristics such as always catering to the man, doing what people say with no if, ands or buts and many more. Even though Mike is not physically a woman, it show women that they can be their own person ans stand up for themeselves and they don't need to check crap from men or be phycically or mentally abused by them.