Susan Watkins -- In Class Film 4

During the first part of Watchmen, I felt pretty good about the movie on a whole. One thing I loved about it was the cinematography and how it communicated such a specific perspective on the world without having to spell it out with explicit words. I noticed this from the very first moments of the film: so much of the landscapes, especially when The Comedian is present, is gritty and full of dirt and disarray. I think this communicates to the viewer on a deep level that he sees the world as broken, full of grime, and irrevocably corrupt.

The moment that really got me, though, was The Comedian's funeral. The scene opens up dreary and grey, but finally clean. The well-manicured graveyard lawns are perfectly green and the clothes and individuals attending are clean and put-together. Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" opens the scene, full of lament and ominous overtones. Our glmipse of The Comedian's inner self, which we see more of later in the movie, is reflected in their sorrowful singing. Finally we feel like we understand him in a more dynamic way, his fatalism and despair that was hidden so deeply beneath his arrogance. This was the scene that made me stop and say, "This is genius."

This is just another example of Lewis' "myth" in movies... how film can allow us to connect with characters in stories as a Buber "Thou" even though we have never actually met them in real life.

Susan Watkins -- In Class Film 3

I thought the film The Decalogue was really fascinating although I found it a little hard to decode all the different symbols and things in it. I was really glad to discuss it after class because I feel like it helped me understand what was going on, but it was funny to see how different my original interpretation was from the ones other classmates offered.

For example, one of the biggest misinterpretations on my part was that of the contortionist in the park that meets the main character while she's running. In my mind, the whole movie had been using a very bleached color scheme which seemed to suggest that the world the characters inhabited was dull and somewhat lifeless, which probably goes along with the director's point because he's living in a time of social oppression and the characters in his story have some of that attitude too. The thing is, though, that when I saw the contortionist in his bright-colored suit I thought he was supposed to be a positive symbol, because in movies bright color is so often used as a positive contrast to blander tones. I thought maybe he represented the flexibility and freshness of the new generation rising up in that society, able to adapt to strange situations and still remain full of energy.

I guess though that the two interpretations can be melded, because when we try to adapt to new and difficult situations we might think we're doing something good but find ourselves ending up as unrecognizeable because we've changed so drastically. Maybe the director felt that the flashiness and youth of the new social movements around him were covering up a deeper wrongness...

Watchmen Lindsay Rawley

Watchmen was an action/graphic novel turned movie about second generation superheroes that had lost their place and respect in the publics' eyes. Some of them were trying to live normal lives and the others still embraced their powers. The characters that did still use their powers were either trying to save the world or trying to take it over. Each of them thought they had the capacity to be god or have total control. Dr. Manhattan had the power of being able to see people's past and future, so he used that to help people. But Adrian Veidt used his powers, as being the "smartest superhero", to try to save humanity. He exploited his powers a little bit by telling everyone that he was one of the superheroes, which none of the others did. Because of that, we are lead to believe that he is bad in one ending scenes. However, after he unveils his entire plan, we actually see that his plan will work to save the world, making him the closes to god out of all of them. This movie was a typical man-wanting-to-be-god superhero movie. Superheroes mimic god with their powers and their intentions. Just like Batman, Superman, and Spiderman all want to rid the world of all the evil. It is unrealisitic that that could ever happen though. It seems that people like to think that it could and see it happen in movies since they are still being made.

Eric Morgan--outside class #1

The field trip was a great idea. I wish I could have been there for a more lengthy discussion but either way I loved the movie Watchmen. It was so intriguing because it was a depiction of a superhuman struggling to find the significance of life. He became a god like being, able to see all time past present and future at once and could control all matter, but something that he could not control is the will of the people. At first i thought this movie was showing how god interacts with people but instead i feel like it was a depiction of a man gaining god like powers and trying to make the world a better place but failing. I think this was because God is a being that is the fullness of love and men cannot understand that or have that so when a man tries to do things to help the world, like this superhuman, he does not understand why he is doing this and loses his motivation. It is a depiction of how men can try their best to save the world but what it comes down to is that even the most powerful man in the world will fail.

The Jacket- Buddy Powers

I can’t believe I had never heard of the movie The Jacket. That was a great film. I thought it was a very interesting aspect to the film was how the main character Jack Starks, played by Adrian Brody, traveled back in time. It was very un-Hollywood with no flux-compassiter or shocks of lightening sending him back in time, but a “medical” procedure that was essentially a torture technique sent him through time. I also appreciated how his mental state effected whether or not he would travel. He had to be relaxed in an extremely uncomfortable context (clothed in a straight jacket and locked in a morgue drawer). There is certainly important symbology to this context. The jacket symbolizes the limitation of his time in the future, he ends up being able to control his time there to some extent but this is mostly him just becoming aware of exactly how long he was allowed there. The morgue drawer was interesting because it obviously takes on the connotation of death. Jack entering the drawer as a living being goes against the purpose of the morgue, which is to house dead bodies. His entrance into the drawer each night and then out again symbolizes his journey from the world of linear time to a world outside of time that maybe only the dead are supposed to see. Maybe the dead are to be taunted by what will happen in their absence, but Jack has the chance to leave the drawer each morning alive and do something about what he sees

Thin Red Line- Buddy Powers

The landscape in Thin Red Line played such an important role in the movie. The short opening scene with the alligator slowly coming into view and then fading away provided a wonderful symbol of the films prevailing theme of lurking doom. The quote from the Japanese after Pearl Harbor comes to mind, “we have awakened a sleeping giant.” In this case it was shown through a stealthy and deadly crocodile. At the same time the film is more directly about the fear or death looming over every person. The main character, Private Witt, begins hiding from the war amongst natives on a tropical south pacific island, fearing death. Once he is captured and forced to return to battle, he embraces death and plays a key role in the battle of Guantanamo. “What's this war in the heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself? The land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature? Not one power, but two?” This quote was made by Private Witt towards the end of the movie and another good one is, “This great evil. Where does it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who's doin' this? Who's killin' us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin' us with the sight of what we might've known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed to this night?” Witt is exploring in the depths of himself, within a beautiful tropical landscape this is marred by gruesome war, is there purpose? What he is getting at is whether or not he should fear death. At the end of the movie Witt on a mission upstream to locate the enemy, sacrifices himself for the men with him because he has conquered his fear of death. The closing scene is of Witt swimming in beautiful south Pacific waters with native children, symbolizing that he had attained immortality.

Apocalypse Now- Buddy Powers

Apocalypse Now is a brilliant commentary on the depravity of man kind. As the main character Captain Willard, played by Martin Sheen, heads deeper into the jungle he watches organized humanity erode away into animalism. Willard’s boat and crew get air lifted to a beach inhabited by Viet Kong so they can begin that journey up river, but also because the surf there is supposed to be phenomenal. One of Willard’s crew is a pro surfer from California whom Lieutenant Colonel, played by Robert Duvall, forces to surf the beach while the helicopters take siege on it. This was a perfect example of the deterioration of humanity. Chaos propels the scene. As the Lieutenant Colonel commands the surprise attack on the Vietnamese destroying their camp, he also joyfully barks out orders to his men surfing the waves amongst exploding shells the send pillars of water up around them. Later in the film the men come upon this USO theater right on the edge of the river and decide to restock their boat and stick around for the show. The appearance of the structure, blaring bright metal amidst a great unending darkness of forest and river, symbolizes the battle between humanity and animalism. The show that evening is full of half naked dancing girls that pour out of an Army helicopter, in front of bleachers packed with male soldiers. Not after too long the men loose their composure and start rushing the stage. As the playmates escape to the helicopter, men grab onto the land gear and onto each other in a string of hopeless soldiers who miss their beloved humanity.