Blog Draft 3: Fraylin Ventura

Fraylin Ventura

Intro to Film Studies

Blog Draft #3

Mr. Monahan

3.6.19

This honorable and compelling man had an intense moment in life. Malcolm X is the first film about an African American to be given a blockbuster budget by a Hollywood studio. That the film was made at all, much less as an epic, is primarily due to writer/director Spike Lee's history of producing controversial films that make money. Malcolm X was surrounded by racially-based tensions from the onset. Lee used racial considerations to wrest control of the project from white directors only to find himself maligned by some African American intellectuals who felt he was not qualified to take on so weighty a subject. Yet another racial nuance arose when Warner Brothers refused to approve completion funding after Lee went over budget. The slave mind- “the house negro” - other ministers with NOI are becoming envious of the attention that Malcolm X is getting. The white girl at Harvard University’s - exchange really happened and Malcolm X reportedly regretted his response according to the question they asked him during his speech.“That is over. I speak my own words and think my own thoughts” - Malcolm has separated from the teaching of Elijah Muhammad. “There can’t be white and black unity if there’s no black and white unity at all.”

He soon becomes part of Harlem's crime scene and is shown at bars handling gambling transactions but not pumping or selling drugs, other facets of his criminal years. After a fallout with West Indian Archie (Delroy Lindo, who also portrayed Woody Carmichael in Crooklyn), the mob boss, Malcolm and his sidekick Shorty flee to Boston where they become house robbers until caught and sent to prison. The housebreaking is mainly played for laughs as are Malcolm's repeated hair straightening shampoos, painful procedures used in his autobiography to symbolize hatred to Him. Malcolm is shown having a meteoric rise through the ranks of the Nation until he is second in importance only to Elijah Muhammad. Viewers unfamiliar with the movement are likely to get the impression that it was much larger than it was (a few thousand at most), but Malcolm's pivotal role in its growth and public image is on target.

His anti-white speeches and virulent attacks on civil rights leaders are mainly kept off screen while his equally strong views on personal and community self-help are spotlighted. His personal life, particularly his marriage, is projected as exemplary.“We had the best organization anyone in general has ever seen.  Niggers ruined it”, does he not connect to the “niggers” or the blacks who are not muslims. His house turned out on fire!

Beyond doubt, Malcolm suggest that the NOI has been infiltrated by the FBI and they are responsible for the threats of his fire - Sam Cooke makes me cry a lot. Aunt SONG - tells Malcolm Jesus will protect him; this is sarcastic because Malcolm is a Muslim. Malcolm is very tense of what is going on. Another example would be, the following Mohammad after Malcolm they found him after he told the location to somebody he trusted. Now him and his family are getting calls all night and being threatened. I’m Malcolm X.” (Nelson taught them to said that because he was one of the best leader that fought for our human rights).

Eventually, many people thought about that he wouldn’t accomplish any goal in his life. The reason that I say this is because many of his friendships were being extremely vicious and pitiless to him because they didn’t love his personality that transmits the following: nobility, serenity, and empathy. Additionally, he went to every schools and taught them a symbol of empowerment.

Overall, this majestic film-making had such inimitable similarity. For example, while we can be self-involved from time to time, human beings nowadays we’re not being so open handed to the community. On the other hand, many people would say that people sometimes we have to be extremely superb to them. Arguably, in real life that’s not the case because now our generations have different aptitude and perspectives that only them they can recognize it. The last two film  that we have watch had a splendid and tremendous leaders with a full potential to shows to the world that you voice matter a lot. Don’t let your voice to be denied in the most harmful way. To be more evident, these two leaders did a spectacular job. In particular, In my own opinion they eventually believed they could achieve anything. Nevertheless, I believe that these two protagonists people shouldn’t be treated in this type of way. Being tortured and verbally and maimed by them as well. For example, while we can be egocentric from time to time, human beings are intuitively greedy. But on the other hand, many people would disagree with my statement because they’d definitely say that everyone are extremely excellent person. We can notice that in this film half the of people were changing their personalities. The other way that  Starr Carter film connects to my evidence is because they went through a difficult moment. For example, she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend at the hands of a police officer. Facing pressure from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and decide to stand up for what's right.

These movies develop in us a perspective of looking at life. For example, it helps us build opinions and have points of view on things in life. People debate over the subject of whether discrimination and fatal shooting is the best way to avenge. In reality, this is not the best of doing it because they're multiple methods to stop doing this nonsense. However, after Malcolm X he starting preaching and teaching everyone that no one in this world can stop preventing you to do what you love. Black viewers will not be impressed by Malcolm’s experiences and the racism he lived through, but they may be surprised to find that he was less one-criticism and also was developing his own ideas until he passed away. It looked and felt like issues were long gone. Which can always happen but life is too short with not enough time to spare. Sometimes we offer how hard reality hits us. We think we have it all but 9 times out of 10 we don’t have enough. We realize when it’s too late. We can lose it all at times. Realizing how much we have and to keep reaching for our goal, until we earn it. However, with determination and hunger to succeed, those obstacles will be worthwhile. Viewers can take this as a lesson that hard work may not pay off right away; but if you keep striving, you will get where you want to be.

Strong female Protagonists and Community Blog:

Fraylin Ventura
Intro to Film Studies
Blog Draft #2
Mr.Monahan
1.8.19

What is your thesis or controlling idea?

I believe that nowadays a strong female is the one that takes all the hardships that they were assigned. To be more evidently on my statement how you ever see that kind of film where the female is the protagonist from the film. That is why they have committed hundreds of jobs in order to make the best film with high-quality and all the tools that they use in order for the movie to get promote out. Additionally, the two films that I choose have incorporate elements of angereness and terrified.

Text evidence example number one:

Men seem hostile  - neighbor claims to the cousin of her father wants to show REE something  - takes her to the site of a lab fire - neighbor/cousin seems suspect - doesn’t want REE to inspect the site too closely or carefully.  Neighbor/cousin offers to take REE’s brother Sonny - doesn’t have much use for the younger sister - a healthy boy could be of use on a farm  - although REE is trapped she has a strong sense of family and responsibility - survival skills e.g. marksmanship - mark 12:11 - REE attributes her mother’s breakdown/mental status to her father’s involvement in the “game”  - WHO KILLED LAURA PALMER JK - pictures of veterans on the mantle - military service seems to be an escape/one of the few real opportunities available to people of the region - JESSUP strangely pretended to not know his ex-girlfriend recently in a bar  - skinning squirrels not for squeamish.

For example, Uncle got pulled over by a cop on the highway, cops tell him please get out and Ree says no. The cop asks him if there is any reason of how they killed your brother he said, THEY BOTH GOT GUNS! Ree went him some strangers people to the river. Ree and Thumb is getting a canoe another woman. (“Cows mooing.”). In addition, Thumb asks Ree to use the chainsaw cutting his dead arm and Ree begins crying hysterically. Another example would be, the women brought Ree’s dad arm to a detective to check and evaluate his arms to have evidence of what really caused the death. Eventually, Bondsman comes and her big amount of money. Uncle really knows who killed Ree's dad.

Text evidence example number two:

The second film also represents an impactful, virtually, and a petrified moment that marks our footprints in a meaningful way. Six-year-old Hush puppy and her single father, Wink, have a unique relationship and existence. They live in a small community coined The Bathtub located in the Mississippi River delta, The Bathtub which has been physically isolated from the rest of the world ever since the building of the levee upstream. Wink and the other adults in The Bathtub have a protective attitude toward their community. Everyone in The Bathtub knows that the community is under threat of being submerged in a big storm hits or with climate change melting the ice caps resulting in a rising sea level, but they refuse to leave regardless. Hush puppy and Wink live on a sprawling and seemingly disorganized, rundown and overgrown piece of property off of which they raise animals for food. Father and daughter live in separate raised structures on the property. Despite loving each other, Hush puppy and Wink have a relationship that is often punctuated by arguments and alterations, sometimes physical.


For example, While life in the Bathtub is defined by both resilience and celebration, at the local elementary school(boat), Hush puppy's no-nonsense teacher, Miss Bathsheba(Gina Montana), educates her ragtag students about natural selection, global warming, and the huge ecological shifts that have pitted the Bathtub on the front line for extinction. "Learn to live with one another, and adapt!" she instructs. "Y'all better learn how to survive, now..." Nowadays this is monotonous because is something that people need to repeat in our lives to stop being so picky and eat whatever they have for that moment because you never know when one of your loved ones past out how do you think you going to survive? It’s time to change your pickiness.


The next morning, Hush puppy is awoken by Wink and company sneaking out with a giant garfish filled with explosives, the crackpot plan being to blow up the levee keeping all the water in, and drain out their homeland. Miss Bathsheba, the only one who understands the science of why this is a very bad idea, stops Wink, but not Hush puppy, from executing the kamikaze scheme. The results are disastrous: The drained Bathtub, now resembling, a mushy, scorched-earth land formerly bursting with plants and animals, is now dead. Though Wink refuses to accept it, Hush puppy can tell that the fabric of nature has unraveled around her, and that the "unending" bounty of the bayou is over.


According to the note that I have taken, they are taken to a sterile, gloomy refugee camp hospital, where everyone looks as bleak as "fish in a fish tank without water", according to Hush puppy. In the care of the state, she is immediately dressed in unnatural-feeling "acceptable" clothing with the other unruly Bathtub kids. Confronted with his diagnosis from the doctors, Wink tries to give Hush puppy away. Furious, Hush puppy refuses, and Wink must finally tell her the truth: He's dying.
      The third film really keeps my heart pounding every minute because this film contains emotional and sentimental parts which evolve with a lot of pressure in their lives. Her father, Woody (Delroy Lindo), is a musician who once made good money playing pop music but is now concentrating on more serious composition, with no income.

Her mother, Carolyn (Alfre Woodard), is a high school teacher whose struggles to make ends meet lead to family arguments. And her brothers are a rambunctious bunch who can turn the house upside down. The Carmichael's have five children, a bright and introspective daughter named Troy (Zelda Harris) and four sons with a habit of causing trouble, and they all share an apartment in a brownstone in Brooklyn. Crooklyn follows the Carmichael's as the kids learn the funny and painful lessons of growing up, Mom and Dad balance their love for each other against the financial and personal difficulties of the creative life, and they all try to get along with the often eccentric neighbors on their block.

The story of this film proved from the facts, Troy wasn’t able to determine conclusively that how her wife pass out. There's a night, for example, when the mother, exhausted and worried, tells the kids to clean up the kitchen before they go to bed. They do not, and in the middle of the night, in a rage, she awakens them and marches them downstairs. She has obviously reached some kind of a breaking point. The children are frightened and confused, and the movie doesn't process their feelings into some kind of neat package; when things like that happen, they hurt, and are remembered. Later in the film, we discover some of the things that might have been on Carolyn's mind.

Over the past years, this three film-making had such inimitable similarity. For example, while we can be self-involved from time to time, human beings nowadays we’re not being so generous to the society. On the other hand, many people would say that people sometimes we have to be great to other people. But in real life that’s not the case because now our generations have different similarities and aptitude that only them they can recognize. The last two film we had the best leaders ever that we could’ve. To be more evident, these two leaders did a fabulous job. In particular,  I am speechless by both main characters that did an incredible job by having impersonating these character. Nevertheless, I believe that these two protagonists people shouldn’t treat people an in a tormented way. For example, while we can be self-involved from time to time, human beings are intuitively selfish. But on the other hand, many people would disagree with my opinion because they’d definitely say that everyone is inherently good. We can observe that in this film half the of people were changing their personalities. 

The other way that Crooklyn film connects to my evidence is because that the family of painful lessons when all her sons were growing up because they were frightened and confused how people in life were being taught in their educational experience. Back then many people didn’t have the right education in their life. It was very difficult for those people because they found the idea that it wasn’t necessary to be the best education that you could deserve as a human being. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us build opinions and have points of view on things in life. People debate over the subject of whether education is the only thing that gives knowledge. Some say education is the process of gaining information about the surrounding world while knowledge is something very different.

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A3 Rocky "American Dream" Blog - Jimenez, Melanie

Melanie Jimenez

Film Studies

10-22-18

ROCKY AMERICAN DREAM BLOG

The American dream can be defined as the idea that everybody in America should have the opportunity to achieve prosperity and success through their own hard work and determination. The set ideal of the American dream is that regardless of your background socially and economically, you are able to pursue your own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for all. America is known for being the country of freedom and equality. Without these qualities that make this country so unique, individuals would not be provided with the opportunities to attain their idea of success. Through this principle, individuals can live their lives to the fullest as they define it. America has grown mostly as a nation of immigrants who turned nothing into something and passed it on for generations to come. Through this dream, people are given the hope that they can pursue their own ideas of happiness, as well as the freedom to accumulate wealth and lead a dignified life.

The film Rocky takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and focuses on the struggles and achievements that boxer Rocky Balboa (played by Sylvester Stallone) makes due to the grand and rare opportunity he was given. Balboa begins as a small time boxer trying to make a name of himself, and some cash along the way! As the film continues, Rocky “The Italian Stallion” Balboa was given the opportunity of a lifetime to fight big time boxer Apollo Creed (played by Carl Weathers) for the heavyweight champion title. Creed was searching for a new opponent to fight for the title after his prior opponent got injured. He comes across “The Italian Stallion” and takes liking to his name. Considering Rocky was unknown to the public and an easy target to defeat for the title, Apollo Creed insisted on giving him a chance to go against the best. When contacted, Rocky was unsure of what to do with himself. He was unsteady/doubtful of how things could go down and was uninterested at first. However, Rocky Balboa grew fond of the idea when coming to realization that this was his opportunity to make a name of himself and expand his boxing career.

Rocky worked hard, going through drastic training, in preparation to fight Apollo Creed for the heavyweight champion title. With support and his perseverance, Rocky was ready to fight and prove he could go the distance. When fighting, Apollo Creed was surprised of Rocky’s abilities and no longer thought “The Italian Stallion” was going to be an easy win. In the end of the fight, Apollo is just happy he did not completely lose to an unknown fighter- which would’ve been a negative hit to his reputation. Rocky Balboa is also satisfied with the match. He proved himself of capability to be great and did the best he could. Which was enough of a win for him, resulting in him sparing Creed a rematch and completely defeating him.

Rocky “The Italian Stallion” Balboa is a prime example of the American dream. His strength and determination brought him from nothing to something, rags to riches! The film focuses on his rise to potential, which is what the American dream is all about. He was given an opportunity of a lifetime. With his passion for boxing and his determination to make a name of himself, he took that opportunity and made the best out of it to achieve his wante success. Although Rocky has faced much adversity throughout the film, he still progressed into a better boxer and person overall. He went from being considered a bum to being well known in Philly for his skills.

I personally enjoyed the ending of Rocky. Instead of making it movie magic and giving it an ending that everyone would expect, it portrayed and focused on the struggle he went through. Although he did not win the heavyweight title to be exact, he can still look back and be proud of his success because of the hardship he experienced. Giving Balboa the heavyweight championship win would not have had the “American Dream” reality that it gave off in the film. I believe the movie was successful because others can relate to the struggle behind the success. Rocky portrayed a message that success does not come right away. You may have to face many obstacles, and you may not achieve goals a first time. However, with determination and hunger to succeed, those obstacles will be worth the fight. Balboa ending the fight with a tie shows that he was proud of how far he got because of his determination to prove himself as a good fighter. He may have not won his first fight, but he proved himself to many that he is capable to achieve greatness- which was important to him. He may not be winner of the boxing heavyweight championship, but he is a winner in his own eyes. Nobody can take away his pride over the success achieved. Viewers can take this as a lesson that hard work may not pay off right away; but if you keep striving, you will get where you want to be.

FILMS CITED

Rocky. Dir. John G. Avildsen

Feat Sylvester Stallone (Rocky)

      Talia Shire (Adrian)

      Burgess Meredith (Micky)

      Burt Young (Paulie) and

      Carl Weathers

MGM/VA 1976

A3 The Shining Suspense Blog - Jimenez, Melanie

Melanie Jimenez

Film Studies

11/15/2018

The Shining Blog

The Shining (1980) is a horror suspense film that takes place at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) was hired as the winter caretaker of the hotel while it is closed for the season. He took it as an opportunity to cure his writer’s block and brought his wife Wendy (played by Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (played by Danny LLoyd) to live in the hotel for the winter. The movie takes a turn of events when Danny began to experience disturbing paranormal psychic visions, and Jack learns the dark secrets of a previous murder from the last winter caretaker. This causes Jack to unravel into a homicidal maniac who hunts against his own family! Danny having these visions causes him to know ahead of time. The film proceeds to follow Danny and Wendy as they escape their maniac of a father/husband and the effects of suspense throughout the film causes audience to be on edge on what will happen next!

The film shows different elements that help build the suspense of the film. The use of non-diegetic sounds is popular in horror films for having viewers at the edge of their seats waiting to see what’s going to happen. Non-diegetic sounds are known as outside sounds in the film that the characters wouldn’t necessarily hear- their main purpose is to have the audience wonder what the plot is and when is it going to come. Director Stanley Kubrick was big on using sound as an element of building suspense throughout The Shining. For example, viewers can relate to the suspense they felt when Danny was running away from Jack in the maze outside of the hotel. It’s as if I felt my heart come out of my chest from being so scared that Jack would find Danny, and the film would end in the family dying. I can honestly say that the dramatic emphasis created by music playing in the background made my anticipation rise as this scene played out. Every corner Danny took threw me off edge, wondering if Jack will the there ready to murder him. The horrific music in the background puts viewers at the edge of their seats in anticipation as to what will happen next.

    Another way suspense is shown could be the psychic visions that the family has throughout the film. As mentioned before, as the film progresses we notice that Danny experiences these “supernatural”, crazy visions. Viewers may come to conclusion that he had schizophrenia, the mental disorder of having hallucinations that control a person’s ability to think clearly. These hallucinations that Danny had also gave off suspense to people watching. These visions were weird and seemed to have nothing to do with the plot of the film as it progressed. Nothing made sense through Danny’s visions; until Jack goes through his psychotic phases.

Jack begins to go crazy due to the isolation of the hotel and gets similar visions to Danny. Things began to connect when I found out that the previous caretaker of the hotel, a man referred to as Grady, had killed his family, his wife and twin daughters. It clicked for me that the twin girls that Danny kept envisioning throughout the film were the daughters of the previous caretaker. I believe that this was a smart way of building suspense because it made me question, “What does this mean? What does this have to do with anything?”

These visions are a cause of confusion and lead to questions which add to the suspense of what these things do to connect to the big plot twists. Jack’s vision also bring the same questions when he was “talking to” a butler of the Overlook Hotel in the bright red bathroom. Who is this he’s talking to? Is he real or just all in Jack’s head? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?.. It turns out that this man that he was “conversating with” was a figment of Jack’s imagination. He envisioned the previous caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. This “conversation” could be looked at as Jack’s motive to go on a psychotic downfall and attempt to kill his family.

Although these visions or hallucinations were very confusing and led to many questions both answered and left unanswered throughout the entire film, they all had some sort of connection as to what will happen next. These scenes, along with others that were similar, helped build suspense throughout the film. Even though I am not a big fan horror movies, I really enjoyed this movie because it wasn’t “scary” in a conventional sense, and it always kept me on the edge of my seat, not knowing what to expect. I believe director Kubrick did a great job on displaying suspense throughout the film to help lead up to the plot.

REFERENCES

The Shining. Dir Stanley Kubrick

Feat: Jack Nicholson (Jack Torrance)

        Shelley Duvall (Wendy Torrance)

        Danny Lloyd (Danny)

        Scatman Crothers (Dick Holloran)

Warner Brothers, 1980