What was the last movie you saw in a movie theatre?Analyze that film in the same manner that we analyzed Back to the Future and/or Die Hard. In other words, what do the onscreen representations suggest about global and domestic issues, gender, and/or current trends and movements in contemporary society?
As always, provide sufficient evidence from the film to support your answer.
(image: Russell Crowe and Helen Mirren in State of Play, 2009)
The last movie I saw in theatres was Fast and Furious; I might need to do some stretching here. The movie worries about the oil crisis, the opening scene sees the heroes stealing gas to fuel their illegal street races and ends up blowing up a few tankers. It’s like the old west all over again, instead its stealing gas tankers instead of money trains. Gas is becoming so scarce and expensive, that people are stealing it, and then turning around and selling it for a profit themselves. There is an anxiety about feminism, because there is a girl who is straight forward and steals and does what everyone else does, yet she is murdered, shot down while pinned under a car. She is killed after her boyfriend orders her to stay behind and be safe, but she goes against his order and is killed. The other women in the movie are not murdered or hurt because they are not threatening. They work for someone and are only following orders and needs to be rescued by the guys (literally with the one girl) in the end. The movie also comments on the border situation and how it is full of holes and easy to get around. The drivers have to go into Mexico to make a delivery and do it by going through a secret tunnel. The border control never sees what happens and their technology is lagging. The FBI knows nothing and they are only able to solve the case because of their renegade agent who defies authority, although he does work for the FBI. He hits a coworker, so he is trouble. But the movie shows that America is full of people of all nationalities. Each driver is from a different ethnicity and they all get along.
ReplyDeleteThe last movie I saw in a theater was the Gus Van Sant film MILK. This obviously relates to current gender and political situations, as it is about a man who was a gay rights activist and politician. Gay rights are an especially important issue at the moment, with more states allowing gay marriage (such as Iowa), and with California passing Proposition 8, eliminating gay marriage. The film MILK displays how Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, and how this impacted not just San Fransisco (where he lived and worked), but gay rights in general. This film in general reflects what is going on in the U.S. at the moment, especially as Harvey Milk was a California politician, and gay rights is a major issue in California. With the gay rights movement being a pretty major issue now, this seems to have been the ideal time to make MILK.
ReplyDeleteTAKEN!
ReplyDeleteThe last movie that I saw in the theater was the film Taken. It is easy here to the correlation between this story and recent news headlines. In this film a father (who is an ex-cia agent) has wiery feelings about his young teenage daughter going to europe for the summer. His suspicions are realized when his daughter is upducted by those in the sex-trade. We can see from the stories of Natalie Holloway and Carly Simon, that kidnapping in an international setting is quite a hot topic. Of course in the movie Liam Nissen triumphs over his international foes and is able to retrieve his daughter.
Unfortunately these real life cases aren't solved they still have loves ones, longing and hoping for answers. We can see also that by breaking down this film and the current event surrounding it that the attitude towards other countries is paranoia. Americans may view other countries with fear and loathing. those that fear often are afraid. Also the view of the ultra wealthy and how they play by thier own rules, secret sex-capades, financed by faceless billionares. If this is really going on then we are in a world of hurt.
The last movie I saw was I LOVE YOU MAN and I feel like I might need to dig a little too deep, similiar to the person who wrote about THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, to avoid making society look like we have a need for fart,sex, and Jamaican accent jokes. The first thing one can say is that it reflects HW trend to use similar actors and writers when they hit it big. This time around it features the Paul Rudd and Jason Segal, in their kind of Judd Apatow and other variances style of the summer comedy blockbuster. But I guess the ohter part that one can mention is the brotherhood style friendships which have become more accpetable in today's society. It was discussed in class briefly as the trend of the "bromance" film, which seems to comment more on this trend of movie. (And I really dislike saying bromance because Im am a "bro" and that just sounds really strange). But it does express a new attitude in society. This is the apprecitation and open accpetance of the heterosexual friendship. In strereotypical nature, one of the few double standards put to men was friendship. Women have always been able to have "girlfriends" without anyone questioning them on what they were talking about. But a man can not say his "boyfriends" without a few eyebrows and questions being raised. And though this is still not the case, this movie trend does reveal the ever evoling accpetance that the male friendship is receiving.
ReplyDeleteThe last film I saw in theatres was The Haunting in Connecticut. This movie was based off of a true story that I once watched on a ghost hunter television show. As everyone knows these based on true stories films are morphed to more apply to their target audience's needs and less focused on presenting the truth. In the film the main character is a teenage boy struggling with cancer. It seems like nearly everyone in this time is struggling with their own or someone else's battle with cancer. This can hit more at home now than it did a month ago because in just this last week my great grandmother and my girlfriend's grandfather were both diagnosed with multiple types of cancer and given s short time to live. The Haunting in Connecticut also targets religion. It seems as though the filmmakers are not in support of religion because of how the family refuses to accept the Reverend Popescu's knowledge of situation he himself is currently going through with cancer. This approach also reveals that we, as Americans, do not reach out to God or faith for help until we are put in horrible situations. At some points it feels as though the authors place a lot of importance on the moving scenes and the difficulty of selling a home. The Campbell family has dificulty paying for their new home and it forces the father to sell his classic truck because they were hurting for money through all of the problems of today. This part of the film is very easy to relate to current affairs because it seems there isn't one family that has been affected by financial problems. Upon review of this movie I realized that nearly any film can be viewed as a snapshot of contemporary problems.
ReplyDeleteThe last movie I saw in theaters was WATCHMEN. The movie is based off of a comic book by Alan Moore and serves as somewhat of a deconstruction of the superhero archetype. Unlike other superhero movies (and comic books), these heroes major personality flaws. While many of their actions are considered noble, many of the heroes have dark pasts. The book centers around the murder of one of these heroes, and the attempt to discover the killer. This entire story is told over the backdrop of the height of the cold war in the late 80's and Soviet/US relations are openly hostile.
ReplyDeleteWhile this COULD be considered just another superhero film, in the spirit of the comic book, it tries to distance itself from the genre. It is a much less happy, less formulaic superhero tale. All of the main characters are at least in their thirties, there are no typical adolescent growth storylines. The characters are all somewhat crazy, some of them are rapists, and most of them are very lonely and depressed. Combine that with the ever constant threat of nuclear warfare, what results is a rather depressing, violent story.
While most superhero movies are flights of escapist fantasy, WATCHMEN examines the superhero in a much more realistic fashion. Most of the superheroes in the film don't have superpowers, they are just human beings. Alan Moore's original comic came out at the height of Ronald Reagan's administration, and the film was released soon after the end of George Bush's term, two major periods of conservatism and strong nationalism. In many ways, the film and comic book express disillusionment with the "American Way".
The last movie I saw in theaters was Gran Torino. One of the major representations that the film brings up is cultural clashes that in certain neighborhoods across the United States. The film setting is in an old Detroit neighborhood as Walt (Clint Eastwood) is one of the few remaining white residents in a more dominating Hmong populated neighborhood and he has trouble adjusting to the new customs around him.
ReplyDeleteThe two main conflicts in the film is Walt coping with the loss of his beloved wife & is distant relationship with his self-absorbed family. The second conflict is the crime as his neighborhood is terrorize by a Hmong gang. This address the current theme for what is going on in America as the economy continues to grow more weak and criminal activity is on the rise to do the loss of jobs.
This also adds the theme of escalation between Walt, the Hmong gang, and the further divide between his family. An example between Walt and the gang is how he has help Thao (Bee Vang) from being further intimidated to joining their gang and this soon becomes a war between Walt and the gang as they continue to harass Thao and his family.
As for Walt and his family, his sons continue to care less about Walt mental and physical condition after his wife died and continue to be even more self absorbed and unaware of Walt desires and feelings. A phone conversation between his eldest son calling to check up on him soon shows that he is only buttering him up to get seasonal Lion tickets and a birthday visit to get Walt to check into a retirement home can illustrate that their is a gap between elderly parents and their children is communication and time spent with family members and how their is a continuing to grow as we become more and more embroiled with modern day activities.
Finally the friendship that Walt and Thao builds throughout the film symbolizes that not all of today's teenagers who didn't have the riches of electronics, the internet, and video games, can still find a mentor who can steer them in the right path when they need guidance.
SPOILER ALERT
ReplyDeleteThe most recent movie, which I saw in the movie theaters, was DUPLICITY. It stars Clive Owens and Julia Roberts and contains drama, romance, and espionage. The plot is based on competition between companies. The main characters start out as CIA and MI6 agents, but decide to create a genius plan to steal from two highly competitive multinational corporations. This movie is emphasizing the economic crisis at hand, which is going to raise levels of crime. When the economy drops and people become frantic, they turn to desperate measures of survival. This also brings up espionage and the part the government is playing with corporate issues. Julia Roberts’ character, Claire, is working for the CIA undercover at one company and reporting back to the competing company. This suggests that governmental agencies have a hand in what occurs in this capitalistic country. While this entire plot is unfolding, there are trust and romantic issues, which take place between the main characters. Claire represents the women in the work force as a high level and valuable asset to the CIA. In society today, it comes as no surprise for women to achieve great success with careers. When Clive Owens’ character, Ray, quits his MI6 job in hopes to team up with Claire at a frozen pizza company, Claire falls through and does not terminate her position at the CIA. The CIA was pleading for her to stay, and she managed to come up with another plan to bring in more money. Women have become more powerful and in society today, it is completely realistic for the female to become the mastermind behind a multi-million dollar heist. Ray gets upset with Claire and they display a marital argument about their plan to bring in the money. In reality there are plenty of “stay at home dads”, while the women bring in most of the income. This correlation is a stretch, but Claire takes control and does the heavy lifting. If she gets caught, the CIA will be on her instead of Ray. The dynamics of their relationship parallel many new social aspects of today’s relationships.
The last film I saw in theaters was FRIDAY THE 13th. Stalker films have a very obvious take on gender. The women always seem to be the helpless victims and/or sexual puppets. What I mean is that if they aren't off attempting to take a shower, despite the fact that the power is off and the radio has been talking about a madman on the loose who cuts off your power then breaks in through the window to the basement, they are getting it on with the quarterback of the football team, which seems to be the case more times than the aforementioned situation. This is not to say that horror films don't contain Heroines, just that, for the most part, women fall into the "sexual play thing" category. A good example of this is, in the beginning of the film, kids are searching for marijuana that was growing in this forest. They camp out. One of the guys goes off while the other two get it on. All of them die, but the woman doesn't even put up a fight. It was kind of sad really.
ReplyDeleteThe men in these movies often attempt to be macho by standing up to the killer, but they just end up slaughtered in the long run. It happens all the time.
The last film I saw in theaters was HOTEL FOR DOGS. The movie is strictly for children and young teens and displays a major theme of democracy/liberalism. The children of the film are orphans and must hide the fact that they have a pet dog. Near the end of the film, the children must work together as well as against authorities and guardians for the safety of their dogs. This instills the idea of working together to do what is right, even if it is against authorities. The film also shows the children triumphing over the adults, a common child fantasy. Aside from political and social themes, the film has an interesting approach to race. The social worker for the children is black (played by Don Cheadle), whom is the man that the children fear finding out about their dogs, but at the end of the film, helps the children to save the dogs from Animal Control. There is also a young boy (white) who has a crush on a young girl (black) in the film. The girl is not interested in the boy. I think that there is almost a disregard to race in the film (as it should no doubt be!) and I feel that as a society, America is becoming more and more like this (as shown by the recent presidential election.)
ReplyDeleteThe last movie I honestly saw in theatres was "I Love You Man". Though I wasn’t really impressed by it I felt it tried to tackle the male midlife crisis of today in Hollywood’s new trend of recent movies, recently referred to as Bromance movies. You’ve got this guy in his late 20’s to early 30’s about to get married and realizes he’s got no true male friends outside of his family. He then freaks out in fear of becoming a lame clingy husband and goes on a series of man dates to try and find a male companion to fill a void of comradery only to become quickly disappointed and sometimes thrown into very awkward situations .
ReplyDeleteTo me it felt like this film kind of flipped the whole love story of guy trying to fall in love with the girl of his dreams and being supported by his best friend, to guy already having the girl and trying to find that right BFF.
The last movie i saw in the theatre was ROLE MODELS and if i was to take a serious look at this film with a remote hint of seriousness, i would say that the onscreen representations of Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott are examples of the aimless, slacker generation that currently exists. Sean William Scott is content with his modest lifestyle and in typical Paul Rudd fashion, he is indignent with his and seemingly is out of reach of happiness. A serious of poor decisions puts them at the mercy of a court and subsequently are put in charge of mentoring a pair of youths and hilarity ensues. After some shenanigans both men realize what is important in life and they change their ways leading to a sappy err happy ending. The movie for the most part is a farce but includes elements of truth when portraying slack ass, smart ass twenty or thirty somethings with serious character flaws, much like exists with todays people in that age bracket.
ReplyDeleteHow come?
ReplyDeleteThe last movie I saw in theaters was TWILIGHT, yeah, I know it's been awhile. This movie is based off the book which has the same name by Stephanie Meyer. This movie is a fictional romance movie. It shows a teenager that lives with her mom and her stepdad, but then she moves to Forks,WA to live with here dad. That part of the movie obviously shows how divorce affects the kids's lives and how they have to make descicions that sometimes are hard to make.
But, the main point of the movie is the love story betweeen Bella, the girl that moved to Forks, with a vampire named Edward. This part of this story shows a romance is pretty much impossible in real life because Edwward is pretty much the perfect guy, and no one could ever be like him. This shows how teenagers are always lloking for the perfect relationship, but of course this only happens in fiction stories and/or Hollywood.
The last movie I saw in the theatre was THE GREAT DEBATERS. This movie was based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship (IMDB). The movie showed the issues of race, and how the group from Wiley College was the first to challenge Harvard while being the minority.
ReplyDeleteThe last movie I saw in a theater was THE WATCHMEN. Clearly the movie communicates a fear of nuclear war from the ongoing Cold War as did the original comic books. Not only does the film reflect the 1980's populations fears of possible nuclear war, but the state humanity was in and were it was going as far as crime and morality were concerned.
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