Archive for November, 2009

The old 1959 comedy

November 27, 2009

I personally liked the comedy movie i watched a lot. It depicted irony in different ways. The biggest irony i must say was probably the ending line that stated ‘not everyone’s perfect’ when the man had revealed that he is not a woman but a man. This movie is a black and white movie during the late 1950s which is before the AIDs epidemic during the early 1980s which means that gays and lesbians movements were probably not as big nor widely accepted. So this was definitely big irony for the time and is still for our time. It is probably considered an irony at this day not because gays are not widely accepted but because we assume that the man who makes this last statement is a straight man throughout the entire movie after having been revealed of his past of several marriages with the opposite sex (female). Another irony was Marilyn Monroe still being in love with the main character after that man had deceived her throughout the whole movie.
Another interesting point was the difference between the so called ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters of this movie. The main characters run away from a mob because they had witnessed a murder that they should not have witnessed. Therefore the mob members are automatically notified to the audience as the ‘bad guys’ and the main characters are noted to be the ‘good guys’. The irony in this was that throughout the movie the ‘good guys’ constantly deceive the people that love them. This reminded me of the play ‘All My Sons’ when Joe Keller is found as the ‘bad guy’ but the audience fails to realize the deceiving furtive characteristic of another ‘bad guy’ who’s been helping Joe Keller, his wife Kate Keller. This portrayed that audience usually likes to point the guilt at just one guy, or group. That brings me back to this movie, the audience fails to portray the guilt of the deceiving main characters as they do for the mob members and therefore concludes this movie with a happy ending where both main characters’ wrong doings go unpunished.

Toy from childhood

November 17, 2009

I dont exactly have a particular toy from childhood that i favored more than the other. I liked what most other girls liked; fake babies and white barbie dolls. i had a decent amount of those and strangely i accepted the fact that i don’t need toys like hot wheelz and water guns. I never doubted my distaste for them even before i had knowledge of gender difference ‘rules’. However i didnt favor any of my girly toys either when the time came to throw them out there was no sentimental goodbyes to my dolls and toys they were simply thrown out or given away.
I’m not sure if i played with typical girly toys because my parents preferred to buy those for me or because i simply preferred to play with them. I think boys and girls should be allowed to play with barbie or hot wheels and it shouldn’t necessarily be taken away if it ‘wrongs’ the gender difference ‘rules’. However there can also be an innate preference that girls will prefer different toys from those of boys.

i had a Camera

November 17, 2009

There aren’t so many times when i wished i had a camera however there were many times i did regret not having taken a picture. I remember most events thoroughly however i always regret that i don’t have many pictures to show others and share with others the events that i have had throughout my lifetime. I usually dont like taking pictures and i dont like being taken in a picture shot. However it is sad that i have nothing to look back upon as physical evidence than the fragile memory that i have.
My friend Nancy and her sister Diana have many pictures of them and their boyfriends sharing different events and i get to look back at so many things that i have been able to do but have not been able to capture to look back upon as physical evidence.
So there aren’t many times i wished i had a camera but there are many many times when i do wish i had documented it so i have something to look back upon.

Raising the Flag

November 17, 2009

Joe Rosenthal’s “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” is a photograph of six soldiers raising the American flag after winning the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. This photograph was taken to capture a feeling of pride and bring about nationalism. This iconic picture has been played and reused over and over in different nations and different fields. It has been used differently to portray different pride different from nationalism in political cartoons, paintings, magazines and media everywhere.
This picture shows soldiers in the process of pulling a flag up in difficulty. This picture portrays diligence. This picture is used as a ritual to unite Americans and allow them to feel a certain common identity as Americans; to show that we share the same sense of pride.
This particular picture is shown again and again in different use and is mostly reused during American tragedies such as the 911 tragedy. It is used to uproar a sense of nationalism amongst all Americans and by doing this it allows all Americans to feel the same sense of hate, love and pride. This picture certainly accomplished to bring many Americans together and have united many empathetic Americans.

Memorable Movie Scene

November 17, 2009

My memorable movie scene was a scene from Gone with the Wind. There is a scene in the middle of the entire movie. This scene was the climax of the movie that moved the audience into a different aura from the first half of the film making the audience wanting to know what is coming next. It is played right before the intermission break of this movie. It is a scene when the main character/actress scarlett (played by Vivian Leigh) holds a fist in her hand after digging through the dirt for food after having reached her home during the civil war and exclaims ‘For God be my whiteness…’ The camera zooms out and shows her standing next to a tree in a field during a sunset thats very beautiful. The camera zooms out from her fierce and vengeful face to her whole body standing firm and strong to the entire scene where she stands next to a tree looking out into the wilderness thats been left by the war. This is definitely a great scene because it does an amazing job to move the audience so much. It gives an ambivalent feeling; one in which you are sad because she has lost so much and two in that you are happy that the main character is alive and she is still as strong as ever and you can tell that throughout the next half of the movie you can expect better things to happen. Not only did it create this ambivalent feeling to the audience in terms of story but this scene also allowed the audience to greatly relate to the character in a sense of being vengeful and a certain hate towards the world to survive. I believe that this was a great scene that was made so perfectly for this movie.

photojournalism

November 17, 2009

I see photojournalism as a story begin told in a encapsulated frame. The photographer must create a moment in which there is a collision between biased deception and reality and then the photographer must capture this corrected moment into his camera. Only then will the photographer be able to express his or her story into this picture without the use of words. In order to put this perfect piece into a picture the photographer must hunt a perfect angle, adjust lighting and tone and find a perfect moment where all of this is possible. Joel Sternfeld’s photograph of Haford Reservation, Haford Washington taking on August 1994, clearly and deliberately tells us a certain message. The angle that Joel Sternfeld captured in the picture was meant so that it allows the viewers to receive a full view of the environment. The focal point that Joel Sternfeld wants the viewers eyes to hit first, however is the billboard directly in the center of this environement that reads “It’s the Nature of Our Business”. The bill board is the focal point so the viewer cannot miss this and being right at the center the viewer also cannot help but juxtapose the difference between the environment and the billboard. On the billboard it shows the Serene view of a golden field with the naive laughter of children. Unlike this naive view on the billboard, the outer surrounding of the REAL business world depicts a dead and lost environment of dirt and dead lifeforms. There are no plants growing and nor are there any life playing around the area. It is instead a deserted area that gives a great aura of loneliness and abandonment. To capture this moment and to arouse the viewer into such irony, i believe that Joel Sternfeld did a great job using photojournalism to portray this message to his viewers.


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.