Tuesday, December 7, 2010

del Valle, American History X


The movie American History X attracts groups of insecure young individuals, who feel alone, and have personally experienced the loss of someone by a minor, to Facism/Nazism. Like in the White Supremacy article, it attracts those who start to relate to the movie, and believe all the stereotypes they see. In this movie, Derek’s father was murdered by an African American, and afterwards, Derek felt upset and angry, and didn’t know what to do with that anger, so put it towards being racist. It wasn’t until he met Cameron, that he focused this anger, and began racist hate crimes. In the scene from the picture, it is tightly framed, bringing you closer and more personal with Derek, so you can see how he’s feeling. It shows you that he is almost happy and proud of what he did, but then, at some point, realizes that it might not have been worth the consequences.

del Valle, State of Play

Because corporations have many supporters to thrive, they also have a lot of money, and with the combination of those two, they have a lot of power. So, if a corporation chooses to act as an individual using the entire corporation’s power, it has more power in the democracy. This is a problem and undermines a democracy, because it then gives the power, opinion, voice, and vote of many people to only one person, which means that one person who leads a corporation can affect the government/democracy in a big way, by influencing and changing the opinions of the many followers. Similar to what PointCorp does in the film.

del Valle, Easy Rider


In Easy Rider, I think the primary political message is that America is afraid of people or things that are different, and that they do not accept “aliens”. In this scene from the movie, Jack Nicholson explains that aliens don’t come to America because they wouldn’t be accepted, but only because America sees people who feel free to be themselves as threats to the country. More importantly, this movie says that America isn’t truly “free”, because it doesn’t accept those who are different and using their “freedom” to be themselves and express themselves. In this scene, we are not in an intimate place, but we are personal, because we are learning about the character’s life and opinions, but we aren’t actually part of it. The two characters are also in personal not intimate in relation to each other, because they are close friends, and are learning a lot about each other, but they are not in any way intimate with each other.

del Valle, Traffic


I think the war on drugs is winnable on the political level only. If drugs were legalized and regulated, the government would thrive on the profits. However, even if it were legalized, the individual and social levels would still be negatively affected. Although drugs would be regulated through the government, people would still be selling them on the streets, therefore, street crimes would still happen, and individuals who’s loved ones are lost in this would still be affected, and, even if legalized, people would still run the risk of becoming addicting, which is another way it would affect the individual. Also, there would still be gangs involved in selling drugs on the streets, which would mean there would still be a push to join these gangs in certain societies.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Oria, Traffic

It is almost impossible to win a war on drugs on a political or social level. The only somewhat winnable war on drugs is on a personal level, but even then it is still hard. If you look at the movie, it is clear that even on a personal level it is hard to win. Once someone becomes addicted to drugs it is hard to get off of them, especially when you are addict to the drugs that the girl was using. Those were some seriously hard drugs that she was on. When she was put in rehab, she runs away the first time. She ends up sleeping with her dealer to get drugs. Her father tries to keep everything under control but it is next to impossible to control someone else’s actions. One only has control over their actions. If a person does not want to stop using drugs, then there are only two options: either put them in jail or put them in rehab. Then again you can just leave them be and allow themselves to ruin their own lives. In all honesty I think that the war on drugs is next to impossible to win. People are going to do whatever it is they want to do. You can try to retrain them and put them in rehab but if there is a will, there is a way. So if someone wants drugs they are going to find a way to get them. This mentality goes both ways though. If an addict is willing enough to quick drugs, then all hope is not lost, it can be done.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Train Spotting McLemore


The movie Trainspotting introduces us to a topic that has been touched on already this semester, drugs. This time we get to see the dark life that is the druggie. In traffic there was a brief look at how the Junkie lives, but in Trainspotting that is all we see. Even though the drugs play a major role in the film that is not entirely what this blog is about. What this film makes me wonder even more is the value of friends. At the core this is a movie about what a good friend is, and at the end it was hard to decide if Renton was a good or bad person.
This film ends with Renton stealing £16,000 from his friends. He gives this long speech about how this is last criminal act, and that he is going to change his act. This gives the audience the feeling that Renton is about to completely change his life and go the straight and narrow. This is the natural thought because you want Renton to succeed, but does he really deserve to? Renton has ruined everything that he has come into contact with, maybe with the exception of Dianne. He is the reason Tommy is dead, he introduced his friend to heroin so he could get money to pay for heroin. Throughout the movie Renton always seemed to take a step forward, but they would be followed be a thousand steps backward. This then makes me question his final actions. How are we to know that he will not blow all this money on heroin? Renton is a generally bad person, and it is difficult for me to believe that he will change.

Lucio Easy Rider




The movie Easy rider is a wonderful criticism on the superficial and hypocritical views of society in the 1960’s. My favorite scene in the movie is when they are all sitting by the fire and George smokes marijuana for the first and goes on a rant about UFOs and aliens. Though he is talking about a ridiculous idea, what he is saying about the government or “our leaders” actually makes sense. Especially during the 60’s, the government would keep us in the shadows and only reveal to us the polished “politically correct" truth. George states, “[Our] leaders have decided to repress this information because of the tremendous shock it would cause to our antiquated system.” The media was constantly showing us the “perfect” lifestyle and the “American dream.” They were flooding us with ideals and beliefs that were acceptable to modern society, all the time claiming that this was free America where you can do and be whatever you want The south is the perfect setting for a movie like this, because these ignorant people are some of the biggest hypocrites alive. They want to believe they are free, but they are just living for money, power, and respect from their peers. As a result, they are forced to live within the confines of the “antiquated system." The alien society that George was talking about was in a way his idea of the perfect or free system. It is the true free, community where there is no racism, no stereotypes, and no ideas forced upon people. As George stated, “They don’t have any leaders, because each man is a leader.”