Wikipedia Information
IMDB
SMU Catalogue #: IDD 01762
Netflix: DVD only
Notes:
Showing posts with label films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label films. Show all posts
2011-04-25
2011-04-14
Films
I'm really tired of watching all these fucking horrible movies.
When I'm finished with this wretched degree, I'm going to watch nothing but comedy, family, and feel-good films for a year.
Notes from tonight's class will be posted soon. Email concerning the final study guide will also go out tomorrow.
/Aaron
When I'm finished with this wretched degree, I'm going to watch nothing but comedy, family, and feel-good films for a year.
Notes from tonight's class will be posted soon. Email concerning the final study guide will also go out tomorrow.
/Aaron
2011-04-11
Film [Bonus]: The Color of Friendship
Internet Movie Database
Watch it here
So after so many extremely depressing movies about death, the death penalty, injustices, etc, I thought I'd go for something a little more lighthearted tonight, and take a look at a film I first saw on Disney years ago, and long before I could really point out Africa on a map.
The Color of Friendship is based on a true story. It's about a white South African girl who comes to the United States in 1977 as an exchange student and ends up in the home of a black American Congressman Dellums who was fiercely and outspokenly critical of apartheid. And of course, she gets magically transformed from a racist into a sympathizer. It's very sweet.
Watch it here
So after so many extremely depressing movies about death, the death penalty, injustices, etc, I thought I'd go for something a little more lighthearted tonight, and take a look at a film I first saw on Disney years ago, and long before I could really point out Africa on a map.
The Color of Friendship is based on a true story. It's about a white South African girl who comes to the United States in 1977 as an exchange student and ends up in the home of a black American Congressman Dellums who was fiercely and outspokenly critical of apartheid. And of course, she gets magically transformed from a racist into a sympathizer. It's very sweet.
2011-04-02
Film: The Stoning of Soraya M.
Wikipedia Information
IMDB
SMU Catalogue #: ?
Netflix: DVD & InstantPlay
Notes:
French-Iranian journalist
marital strife
plot for the benefit of men
economic crippling
censorship
stoned by her sons
IMDB
SMU Catalogue #: ?
Netflix: DVD & InstantPlay
Notes:
French-Iranian journalist
marital strife
plot for the benefit of men
economic crippling
censorship
stoned by her sons
2011-03-19
Film: White Light/Black Rain
1931 Japan in Manchuria
"Make no mistake, we shall completely destroy Japan's ability to make war."
July 16 1945 first atomic bomb tested
Aug 6 & 9 Hiroshima and Nagasaki
pictures suppressed for 25 years
75% of the population were born after '45
reverence for the Emperor looked like worship
Japan considered 2000 years out of date
excitement at the beginning of war
sons began dying, people soon realized Japan couldn't win
"we had nothing, we needed everything"
water kills; too dehydrated
radioactive black rain
Biggest Christian (Catholic) church in Asia
It hurt so much people begged to be killed
"atomic bomb disease"
two kinds of courage
courage to live
courage to die
it was rumered that nothing would grow for 100 years, but plants soon returned
"pika don" name for the bomb
pika don people were untouchables
Catholics aren't allowed suicide
built an airstrip for the Americans
the bones were crushed into dust
1947 Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) to study 100,000 survivors
160,000 additionaly deaths from radiation exposure
examined but not treated
Since Japan started the war they should be responsible for the victims of the bombs.
"Hiroshima Maidens Project"
Television spots in America
Capt. Lewis, of the bombing mission
Many survivors look fine on the outside but suffer the effects of the bombing daily.
In Japan if people find out you're an atomic bomb survivor "nothing good will happen"
discrimination
can't get jobs, marriage leading to deformed children
one woman has had 6 miscarriages
another told she can't have children
another woman has had many turmors including colon cancer, pancreas, thyroid, back
their children will be discriminated against.
(Survivors now receive gov't medical treatment.)
"They're just waiting for us to die. Soon the Japanese gov't won't have to worry about us."
I've shown you my wounds because I want you to know this can't happen again.
US wrote Japanese constitution
No navy. No army. No air force. No weapons production.
"Die in" at the Peace park
Any country that wants to have nuclear weapons will have nuclear weapons.
The pain in our hearts and bodies must end with us.
Now enough nuclear weapons in the world to equal 400,000 Hiroshimas.
"Make no mistake, we shall completely destroy Japan's ability to make war."
July 16 1945 first atomic bomb tested
Aug 6 & 9 Hiroshima and Nagasaki
pictures suppressed for 25 years
75% of the population were born after '45
reverence for the Emperor looked like worship
Japan considered 2000 years out of date
excitement at the beginning of war
sons began dying, people soon realized Japan couldn't win
"we had nothing, we needed everything"
water kills; too dehydrated
radioactive black rain
Biggest Christian (Catholic) church in Asia
It hurt so much people begged to be killed
"atomic bomb disease"
two kinds of courage
courage to live
courage to die
it was rumered that nothing would grow for 100 years, but plants soon returned
"pika don" name for the bomb
pika don people were untouchables
Catholics aren't allowed suicide
built an airstrip for the Americans
the bones were crushed into dust
1947 Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) to study 100,000 survivors
160,000 additionaly deaths from radiation exposure
examined but not treated
Since Japan started the war they should be responsible for the victims of the bombs.
"Hiroshima Maidens Project"
Television spots in America
Capt. Lewis, of the bombing mission
Many survivors look fine on the outside but suffer the effects of the bombing daily.
In Japan if people find out you're an atomic bomb survivor "nothing good will happen"
discrimination
can't get jobs, marriage leading to deformed children
one woman has had 6 miscarriages
another told she can't have children
another woman has had many turmors including colon cancer, pancreas, thyroid, back
their children will be discriminated against.
(Survivors now receive gov't medical treatment.)
"They're just waiting for us to die. Soon the Japanese gov't won't have to worry about us."
I've shown you my wounds because I want you to know this can't happen again.
US wrote Japanese constitution
No navy. No army. No air force. No weapons production.
"Die in" at the Peace park
Any country that wants to have nuclear weapons will have nuclear weapons.
The pain in our hearts and bodies must end with us.
Now enough nuclear weapons in the world to equal 400,000 Hiroshimas.
2011-03-07
Film: Nazi Medicine - In The Shadow of the Reich
handicapped, incurables,a nd homosexuals, as well as jews and gypsies
genetic perfectability and german superiority
"eugenics - racial hygene"
Social Darwinism - the fittest would sruvive, the weakest would die away
Germans got their ideas for eugenic science from Americans (27 employed sterilization practices)
Americans admired the advancements of Germany in this field
Erbkranks - the genetically diseased
German-American connection in eugenics
1933 - Doctors & scientists were ready and willing to offer their expertise i
Germany - a "biocracy" a living body that had to be healed
Jews, Slavs, and Africans seen as inferior
Science, Law, and Politics worked against the Jews
Jewish doctors gradually barred from the medical system
all state institutions of public health
Basically what we have here is hundreds, thousands, millions of people in poverty.
And so we apply ruthless lifeboat ethics. The more people you throw off the lifeboat, the more space and comfort you have at the disposal of those left, and so you come up with a system of discriminating who to throw off the lifeboat and who to give the new space/resources to.
the involvement of doctors legitimized the implementation of racial theories
sterilization of the unfit was the first step on the road toward the Final Solution
hospitalization of undesirables was a major burden on the medical and social services
Oct. '39, backdated to Sept. 1 '39
law had to do with land allotment
Euthanasia began in fall of '39
Hadamar, harthein, sonnenshtein
6 euthanasia centers
"useless eaters"
death by starvation
lethal injection
reason for death given: "acute appendicitus' (but the appendix was removed years before!)
nurses helped apply lethal injection
gassing with carbon monoxide; calculated the amount of gas needed for extermination chambers
after jan '42 doctors formally mobilized into total racial purification
"eliminating the Jewish disease"j
Jews segregated into ghettos
(many died of starvation, especially in the warsaw ghettos. documented suicide and cannibalism still haunt us)
about 100,000 Jews died of disease long before deportation to death camps
Jewish doctors performed heroically
clandestine medical school and study of starvation
Jewish doctors sometimes asked to decide among those in hospitals who (10/100) would die
doctors on hand at the camps to decide who had the "privilege" of being put to work for the 3rd reich
people sent to become pharmaceutical experimentation subjects
subjects of human experiments
Dachau
experiments performed on camp inmates to help teh war effort
high altitute tests especially torturous
pressure chambers, testing the limits of the human body
to determine how long a downed pilot could survive in the frigid north atlantic prisoners were packed in ice
neuengamma
20 Jewish children, 5-12 yr/old lymph glands removed
april 20 1945 surviving children killed
experiements not based on solid scientific foundation and contributed little to nothing to scientific knowledge
'42-'44
1500 pairs of twins at aushwitz
Barracks 10
sterilization experiments
many women died or were forevermaimed
eye experiments
genetic blindness
trying to convert brown eyes to blue by injecting methyline blue
experiment subjects gassed after they were no longer useful
doctors assisted in every step, including gassing
doctors had to be present at every "execution"
close to 50% of physicians were members of the Nazi party
out of the Nuremberg trials
10 point limits for acceptable permissable research
1st principle: no adult human subject could be subjected to research unless he or she consents to being involved
morals used to enable certain acts
root of racism and an ideology that says some lives are valuable and others useless and costly
racial superiority over the dignity of the individual
http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_lifeboat_ethics_case_against_helping_poor.html
genetic perfectability and german superiority
"eugenics - racial hygene"
Social Darwinism - the fittest would sruvive, the weakest would die away
Germans got their ideas for eugenic science from Americans (27 employed sterilization practices)
Americans admired the advancements of Germany in this field
Erbkranks - the genetically diseased
German-American connection in eugenics
1933 - Doctors & scientists were ready and willing to offer their expertise i
Germany - a "biocracy" a living body that had to be healed
Jews, Slavs, and Africans seen as inferior
Science, Law, and Politics worked against the Jews
Jewish doctors gradually barred from the medical system
all state institutions of public health
Basically what we have here is hundreds, thousands, millions of people in poverty.
And so we apply ruthless lifeboat ethics. The more people you throw off the lifeboat, the more space and comfort you have at the disposal of those left, and so you come up with a system of discriminating who to throw off the lifeboat and who to give the new space/resources to.
the involvement of doctors legitimized the implementation of racial theories
sterilization of the unfit was the first step on the road toward the Final Solution
hospitalization of undesirables was a major burden on the medical and social services
Oct. '39, backdated to Sept. 1 '39
law had to do with land allotment
Euthanasia began in fall of '39
Hadamar, harthein, sonnenshtein
6 euthanasia centers
"useless eaters"
death by starvation
lethal injection
reason for death given: "acute appendicitus' (but the appendix was removed years before!)
nurses helped apply lethal injection
gassing with carbon monoxide; calculated the amount of gas needed for extermination chambers
after jan '42 doctors formally mobilized into total racial purification
"eliminating the Jewish disease"j
Jews segregated into ghettos
(many died of starvation, especially in the warsaw ghettos. documented suicide and cannibalism still haunt us)
about 100,000 Jews died of disease long before deportation to death camps
Jewish doctors performed heroically
clandestine medical school and study of starvation
Jewish doctors sometimes asked to decide among those in hospitals who (10/100) would die
doctors on hand at the camps to decide who had the "privilege" of being put to work for the 3rd reich
people sent to become pharmaceutical experimentation subjects
subjects of human experiments
Dachau
experiments performed on camp inmates to help teh war effort
high altitute tests especially torturous
pressure chambers, testing the limits of the human body
to determine how long a downed pilot could survive in the frigid north atlantic prisoners were packed in ice
neuengamma
20 Jewish children, 5-12 yr/old lymph glands removed
april 20 1945 surviving children killed
experiements not based on solid scientific foundation and contributed little to nothing to scientific knowledge
'42-'44
1500 pairs of twins at aushwitz
Barracks 10
sterilization experiments
many women died or were forevermaimed
eye experiments
genetic blindness
trying to convert brown eyes to blue by injecting methyline blue
experiment subjects gassed after they were no longer useful
doctors assisted in every step, including gassing
doctors had to be present at every "execution"
close to 50% of physicians were members of the Nazi party
out of the Nuremberg trials
10 point limits for acceptable permissable research
1st principle: no adult human subject could be subjected to research unless he or she consents to being involved
morals used to enable certain acts
root of racism and an ideology that says some lives are valuable and others useless and costly
racial superiority over the dignity of the individual
http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_lifeboat_ethics_case_against_helping_poor.html
2011-03-06
Film: Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Wikipedia Information
IMDB
SMU Catalogue #: IDD 04445 // IVS 05745-05746
Netflix: DVD only
Notes:
how do you judge a judge?
whose house is it?
German servants
"not all Germans are monsters"
"Col. Lawson's favorite pictures"
how is it technically possible to kill millions of people
"We have to forget if we are to go on living"
--implications
IMDB
SMU Catalogue #: IDD 04445 // IVS 05745-05746
Netflix: DVD only
Notes:
how do you judge a judge?
whose house is it?
German servants
"not all Germans are monsters"
"Col. Lawson's favorite pictures"
how is it technically possible to kill millions of people
"We have to forget if we are to go on living"
--implications
Film: Schindler's List
Girl in the red coat
streets of tombstones
candles
teeth - people reduced to objectes
There is no set of rules you can live by
"If I follow these rules I will be safe."
Children
to hide in shit
whoever saves one life saves the world entire
streets of tombstones
candles
teeth - people reduced to objectes
There is no set of rules you can live by
"If I follow these rules I will be safe."
Children
to hide in shit
whoever saves one life saves the world entire
2011-03-05
Film: Gray Matter
IMDB info
NOTES:
want to see where the pathologists work, instead we are going to see the church
"what do you call that? er... sidetracking!"
"the children were only a material" a tool to enhance one's medical/scientific career
misdirecting interview
will he talk to a fellow neurologist?
"anti-social behavior" categorized as genetically passed
"Austrians always present themselves as the victims of Naziism" but the majority of Austrians enthusiastically accepted Hitler and embraced him
Austrians not sincere - speak with mouth but don't do what they promise to do
did his research result in anything positive?
scientific value of experiments
Even if there are "positive" results from the deaths of these children, the overall message that is sent in cases such as this is that if there is enough benefit derived from their horrible deaths, then we can sanction their murder. It's okay to committ horrible atrocities if some good can come of it?
Gross wrote about 37 papers while head of Spiegulgrund, (50:59)
NOTES:
want to see where the pathologists work, instead we are going to see the church
"what do you call that? er... sidetracking!"
"the children were only a material" a tool to enhance one's medical/scientific career
misdirecting interview
will he talk to a fellow neurologist?
"anti-social behavior" categorized as genetically passed
"Austrians always present themselves as the victims of Naziism" but the majority of Austrians enthusiastically accepted Hitler and embraced him
Austrians not sincere - speak with mouth but don't do what they promise to do
did his research result in anything positive?
scientific value of experiments
Even if there are "positive" results from the deaths of these children, the overall message that is sent in cases such as this is that if there is enough benefit derived from their horrible deaths, then we can sanction their murder. It's okay to committ horrible atrocities if some good can come of it?
Gross wrote about 37 papers while head of Spiegulgrund, (50:59)
2011-02-08
2011-02-07
Film: Beneath the Veil
Afghanistan, Taliban
RAWA
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
highly political, left wing, Afghan feminists
fight for Human Rights where women are "forced under the veil"
Note: many of the women are wearing veils - is this out of necessity - if they do not they will incite violence or legal action against them, or because they choose to, out of retained modesty, Islamic pride even?
Hidden cameras are the most powerful weapon against
Deliberate destitution of women.
sport stadiums turned into execution grounds
adultery, murder, prostitution, homosexuality
RAWA risk their lives to bring back these images
nail painting, kite flying, going to the cinema, all forbidden women in Afghanistan and part of the system which keep them invisible
Ministry of Vice and Virtue; black and white turbans
can condemn anything they consider "un-Islamic"
can condemn anything they consider "un-Islamic"
terror/terrifying
One must remember while watching that this film made it home and is being watched via DVD, so the journalists DO make it home safe!
Kabul is a wasteland. A city without buildings or joy. "Other priorities"
even music is banned
anyone who speaks against the Taliban is suspect
what does it mean to "escape the hospitality"?
The Football Stadium - a symbol of oppression
women shot in the "penalty area" and men hung from the goalpost
public execution ground
ironically, as a foreigner she has protection, as an "Afghani woman" she has none
a woman feds moldy bread, "animal feed" to seven children
women not only deprived of work, but basic things like medical care
a larger percentage of women die in childbirth in Afghanistan than anywhere else in the world
1/4 children die before their fifth birthday
when half of society is shut down, more than half of the people die
no women doctors means inferior care, for women and everyone
Taxi drivers = Taliban spies
a class for girls is the riskiest activity
secret beauty parlour - painted faces that will never be seen could get women arrested
makeup as a form of resistance?!?!?
hospital devastated
--
multi-ethnic resistance
unreported atrocities
"veiled in sorrow"
crying for weeks
what does it mean to be bound with one's own turban?
"blood is very strong"
white flags mark the graves of Taliban victims
killed not because of political opposition, unarmed, but because of ethnic identity
Taliban claim to be bringing peace and uniting the country
When merely surviving is a great achievement.
2011-02-02
Film: Romero
WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
[post is unfinished]
"The Church is a whore. She spreads her legs to the highest bidder."
The power and corruption of faith.
"We're human beings."
"let my blood be a seed fo freedom"
the Church of God is the people
what is eucharist on the ground?
flashing photos of victims
1980-89 - 60,000 Salvadorians killed
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098219/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romero_%28film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero
Economic injustice is the root of our problems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu
[Prayer for Social Justice, by Sister Helen Prejean]
[post is unfinished]
"The Church is a whore. She spreads her legs to the highest bidder."
The power and corruption of faith.
"We're human beings."
"let my blood be a seed fo freedom"
the Church of God is the people
what is eucharist on the ground?
flashing photos of victims
1980-89 - 60,000 Salvadorians killed
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098219/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romero_%28film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero
Economic injustice is the root of our problems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu
[Prayer for Social Justice, by Sister Helen Prejean]
God of Compassion
You let your rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Expand and deepen our hearts
so that we may love as You love,
even those among us
who have caused the greatest pain by taking life.
For there is in our land a great cry for vengeance
as we fill up death row and kill the killers
in the name of justice, in the name of peace.
Jesus, our brother,
you suffered execution at the hands of the state
but you did not let hatred overcome you
Help us to reach out to victims of violence
so that our enduring love may help them heal.
Holy Spirit of God,
You strengthen us in the struggle for justice,
Help us to work tirelessly
for the abolition of state-sanctioned death
and to renew our society in its very heart
so that violence will be no more.
Amen.
Film: In the Name of the Father
WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
[post is unfinished]
Those of you who know me have probably become familiar with my tendency to personalize things I see/hear/read about/etc. I like to put myself in as many different shoes as I can to get a more complete story. It's actually part of my introverted personality - I take in and absorb information first, process it internally, and then evaluate or act.
So the first effect of having watched this film was to wonder how I would respond under pressure of torture myself. It's a very real question, since I definitely foresee myself potentially entering high-profile high-stakes human rights situations, where I definitely could become a political target. I realized I need to have a conversation with my friends and family members about this scenario too, since it's too easy to bring one's family
Links to the background of British/Irish conflict
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_%28Ireland%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisations_known_as_the_Irish_Republican_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_pub_bombings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_Four_and_Maguire_Seven
[post is unfinished]
Those of you who know me have probably become familiar with my tendency to personalize things I see/hear/read about/etc. I like to put myself in as many different shoes as I can to get a more complete story. It's actually part of my introverted personality - I take in and absorb information first, process it internally, and then evaluate or act.
So the first effect of having watched this film was to wonder how I would respond under pressure of torture myself. It's a very real question, since I definitely foresee myself potentially entering high-profile high-stakes human rights situations, where I definitely could become a political target. I realized I need to have a conversation with my friends and family members about this scenario too, since it's too easy to bring one's family
Links to the background of British/Irish conflict
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_%28Ireland%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisations_known_as_the_Irish_Republican_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_pub_bombings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_Four_and_Maguire_Seven
2011-01-27
Film: Closet Land
WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
I picked up this film simply because it was the first one the library aid pulled off the shelf.
My first response is just to say that I really hate indie films and seeing this one has done nothing to change that view. Call me old fashioned and narrow minded but I like my films to have a plot of some kind, and generally end in sort of resolution or conclusion. I get it, I just don't like it.
I also found the film to be incredibly predictable. I don't know, somehow I just knew that Alan Rickman's character was going to do this good cop-bad cop thing the whole time. Somehow I knew there was going to be a "medical torture" style scene. And it was glaringly obvious that, even though the core of the film (arguably) was about torture and coersion, there would be an element of repressed trauma from sexual abuse. The second the "Close Land" was animated, I knew, ah, the little girl is the author, the closet has to do with sexuality, and since this is clearly a film about abuses she was obviously sexually abused, probably raped, almost certainly as a child. The only thing I wasn't certain of was whether the closet was a literal or figurative place - turned out to be both.
Granted the ending was surprising, I didn't think she would make it out (I suppose we could debate whether or not she really did).
Also, Rickman's character is deliberately left inconclusive. I would like to extrapolate on the symbolism there, because there are a number of positions you can put him in. Does he represent government? Is he really a single person pretending to be in different roles, or is Rickman actually meant to be portraying different characters? Was he her assailant when she was a child, or is he just preying on that memory as part of her torture? What is his goal/are his goals?
I think that Rickman's "character" is a single entity with all the conflicting facets he portrays carried within; as such, I think he represents not simply government, but entire nations. The fact that he is both his own torturer and victim, that he both takes sadistic enjoyment in torturing his victim and is harrowed about what he does, all go to show how complicated the relationship between the dominated and the dominating is. If, for example, a government turns to exploitation, torture and intimidation, the governing body itself suffers from the paranoia of surveillance and the guilt of the perpetrator. When people allow their governing bodies power over their very selves, they become complicit in their own suffering.
sex, drugs, nakedness, faking it, frigid whore, psychological torture, interrogation, unwarranted arrest, propoganda, children, sexual abuse
When you abuse people enough they won't scream anymore.
When you subject a person to too much pain they become unable to see the pain of others.
Children are powerless. The powerless become children. Easy victims.
What power do lies have? What power is there to be found in lieing or misrepresentation? In refusing to lie? Can we lie to ourselves about what's happening to us? Can we lie to ourselves about what we are doign to others?
What is your closet? What are you escaping from? Who is the friendly rooster? Who is Mother? Who is the cat with green wings? What is your lie?
I picked up this film simply because it was the first one the library aid pulled off the shelf.
My first response is just to say that I really hate indie films and seeing this one has done nothing to change that view. Call me old fashioned and narrow minded but I like my films to have a plot of some kind, and generally end in sort of resolution or conclusion. I get it, I just don't like it.
I also found the film to be incredibly predictable. I don't know, somehow I just knew that Alan Rickman's character was going to do this good cop-bad cop thing the whole time. Somehow I knew there was going to be a "medical torture" style scene. And it was glaringly obvious that, even though the core of the film (arguably) was about torture and coersion, there would be an element of repressed trauma from sexual abuse. The second the "Close Land" was animated, I knew, ah, the little girl is the author, the closet has to do with sexuality, and since this is clearly a film about abuses she was obviously sexually abused, probably raped, almost certainly as a child. The only thing I wasn't certain of was whether the closet was a literal or figurative place - turned out to be both.
Granted the ending was surprising, I didn't think she would make it out (I suppose we could debate whether or not she really did).
Also, Rickman's character is deliberately left inconclusive. I would like to extrapolate on the symbolism there, because there are a number of positions you can put him in. Does he represent government? Is he really a single person pretending to be in different roles, or is Rickman actually meant to be portraying different characters? Was he her assailant when she was a child, or is he just preying on that memory as part of her torture? What is his goal/are his goals?
I think that Rickman's "character" is a single entity with all the conflicting facets he portrays carried within; as such, I think he represents not simply government, but entire nations. The fact that he is both his own torturer and victim, that he both takes sadistic enjoyment in torturing his victim and is harrowed about what he does, all go to show how complicated the relationship between the dominated and the dominating is. If, for example, a government turns to exploitation, torture and intimidation, the governing body itself suffers from the paranoia of surveillance and the guilt of the perpetrator. When people allow their governing bodies power over their very selves, they become complicit in their own suffering.
sex, drugs, nakedness, faking it, frigid whore, psychological torture, interrogation, unwarranted arrest, propoganda, children, sexual abuse
When you abuse people enough they won't scream anymore.
When you subject a person to too much pain they become unable to see the pain of others.
Children are powerless. The powerless become children. Easy victims.
What power do lies have? What power is there to be found in lieing or misrepresentation? In refusing to lie? Can we lie to ourselves about what's happening to us? Can we lie to ourselves about what we are doign to others?
What is your closet? What are you escaping from? Who is the friendly rooster? Who is Mother? Who is the cat with green wings? What is your lie?
2011-01-23
Film: Why We Fight
Reflections and Notes:
No one can talk about "9/11" or "the war in Iraq" without touting some agenda; the emotions surrounding these and similar issues run too deep for anyone to speak of them without some bias. This is what I am thinking as the film begins to play, and I'm actually forced to stop watching and consider for a second what message I'm likely about to receive, from what source or sources, and what their angle might be.
This actually led me to a long consideration (which is still ongoing) as to what the "agenda" of the Human Rights program is. I'm sort of faced with a question: is there a way to "fail" the Human Rights minor from a personal developmental standpoint? ie. If one does all the work, jumps through all the hoops, watches all the films, does all the readings, writes papers and fulfills assignments and gets all the right grades, and say, still comes out adhering to the opinion that the death penalty is a good delivery of justice, or that women's suffrage is a bad idea (probably two very radical examples, but there you are...) has that student "failed" I wonder?
Or, for a more personal take, I am pro-military. I can't be anything but, really. I grew up in a military household; my father is an officer, and many of my ancestors have been in the military, not to mention a huge portion of the most influential people in my life and many of my current friends are veterans or currently serving. Consequently, I will not tolerate people who arbitrarily blast the military, who cut down and devalue soldiers and who criticize military decisions without any sort of understanding of how that culture works. (I hate the Westborough Baptist Church as much for their anti-soldier rhetoric as for their homophobic shit.) Furthermore, on some levels, I support "war." That's a broad statement that requires a lot of unpacking, but I guess what I'm really saying is I cannot just be across the board "anti-war." Yet it seems to me that in some ways that's kind of the goal of this program - to get you so familiar with the horrors of war you could never live with yourself if you so much as indicated a bit of approval for a militaristic action.
[will finish this post later, the original notes are a bit disjointed]
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