Movie+Responses

=Weekly movie Responses=

Directions:Please Read the movie responses carefully. Then answer the question fully and completly. Your responses should be between 1 and 2 pages double spaced and typed in MLA format. These responses will be due the MONDAY after you watch the movie...You may e-mail me your responses if you are having printer issues.

I am not going to have you write a formal response to Winter's Bone; HOWEVER, I still want you to write. For this last response you have to write me a letter telling me what you got out of the class. Strengths? Weaknesses? How did you like movie night? The movies? How about the books? What should I improve on for next year? More discussions? Was this class challenging? Too easy? Etc... This needs to be a full page and a half to get the full 20 points for this response.
 * Winter's Bone **


 * Blade Runner**

Blade Runner” is a very good movie and raises many interesting questions concerning human questions of personhood. The movie follows the rough police officer Deckard, who is a blade runner, his main mission is to hunt down and eliminate the replicates who had hijacked an earth-bound ship. The movie raises five particular philosophical questions. First it asks us “What does it mean to be human?” Does this mean we have actual flesh and blood or is it more to do with our awareness of our environments? This question leads us to the second question the movie raises which is, “what is reality?” Which corallites with Descartes philosophy of our mind/body relationship and how can we really know the replicates are thinking creatures. The third question the movie raises is the “Difference between real memories and artificial memories?” How can we tell these two apart, and according to philosophers how can we know that these are not injected into us by some other entity like with Descartes “evil genius theory. The fourth question the movie asks an important question concerting human relationship with their environment, such as being raised in a society where people accept the mistreatment of a particular minority group. The finial, although there are many others one could raise, is the question of the moral issues concerning the creation of artificial peoples. Should we be able to create a person for the purpose of exploitation and a “means to an ends?” This question appeals to the first question what does it mean to be a person, and not a man-made tool to use? — A.V.

**Comment on the above review...what strikes you the most? Comment on ONE of the philosophical questions posted. Make sure this is 2 pages and you give details from the film and connect it to the philosophical question posed.**


 * Holy Grail**

I am going to be so nice to all of you, think of it like my Christmas present to all of you. You do not have a written movie response for The Holy Grail. If you still have movie responses that you need to do, get those finished!!! Also what I need you to do is start reading //Siddhartha// and be on page 100 (that is about 10 pages a day!) by the time the new year rolls around...don't make me give you a pop quiz when you get back! Merry Christmas and have a great holiday!

Ms, T

Quote: " Tibetan people believe if they walk long distances to holy places it purifies the bad deeds they commit. They believe the more difficult the journey, the greater the depth of purification. A journey typifies travel, the movement from one destination to another. Yet a journey offers much more as the Tibetans suggest, a [|physical journey] is often aligned with an emotional and intellectual journey. Physical journeys alone will not carry one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within."
 * 7 Years in Tibet **

How does this quote fit the main character Heinrich? How does this fit your life? Where do you find yourself on your journey?

Sorry everyone for the late posting of this movie response...due Wednesday!


 * Slumdog Millionaire Response…. **

In one exchange of dialogue in the film during the interrogation of Jamal, the police inspectors discuss the impossibility of what Jamal knows…

Police inspector: Doctors…Lawyers…never get past 60 thousand rupee. He’s on 6 million [pause] Police inspector: What can our slumdog possibly know?

Jamal Malik: [quietly] The answers.

In a well written, well thought out answer discuss the irony in the film that Jamal “knows too much” and is suspected of cheating. Discuss the irony that in the end, his poverty may make him rich. What point is the film making? What is real wealth?



Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Movie Review… I have read several of the movie reviews in The New Yorker, Time, and in the New York Times to come up with the following guidelines. Obviously, they are a suggestion rather than a fixed format. Do what you think works well. But I think these will be generally helpful. Just take the project seriously. By the way, you do not have to like the movie! The reviewers in the mentioned publication often do not!

Read: []
 * 1) I. Begin with something interesting and analogous that will segue into the movie. Or begin with a great scene and retell it. Or maybe something about the director/actor/writer that intrigues. You can pick one moment in the movie that delighted you or maybe one that you found quite out of place, unfortunate, etc. The point of this paragraph is to intrigue the reader.
 * 2) II. If this is any history behind the movie, now is a good place to bring it in. It might be regular old history, or it might be a life or a novel the movie is taken from, or the making of the film because you know something about that or would like to look it up and find something out about it.
 * 3) III. Do spend a little time on the plot; how it is set in motion, something about the direction it takes etc. But do not give away the ending!
 * 4) IV. How about the acting and the actors? Compare to other works you have seen. Mention both movie names and actor names. Put the latter in.
 * 5) V. What do you think the theme (or moral) is? What is this movie’s “take” on the human condition? This should certainly be somewhere in your review.
 * 6) VI. What of language, music, sets, scenery? How well does each fit the author’s idea, message, and theme? How do they contribute to the overall production? At some point in your review/critique, tie in the movie into our current theme of “walking to independence.” Do not talk about the class per se. Write this as if you expect the review to be published, from such a POV, but here is away to discuss the general topic of the independent individual and the movie’s place in the field of such studies.
 * 7) VII. A final smashing positive or negative comment. Could be a comment on a particularly great moment (or a particularly horrid moment) in the movie. Leave the reader with a strong desire to see the movie or a strong reason to avoid it all cost!!
 * Pulp Fiction: **

Quentin Terantino once said, " To me, ultra-realism is absurd,real life is absurd, like conversations you hear at Denny's in the next booth. My characters define themselves and talk to others through pop culture because they all understand it."

Quentin Terantino is considered a 20th century "Absurd Theater" mastermind. Read the article in the above link, especially the part about the definition of absurd theater. How is this true (or not if you disagree) for Pulp Fiction especially the different characters?

Question: With your knowledge of Existentialism and a bit about the absurd (below)...what can you pick up from the movie Memento. Do not focus on the way the movie was made but look at the main character Leonard and what he is like.
 * Memento: **

The Absurd:

The idea of the ** absurd ** is a common theme in many existentialist works, particularly in [|Camus]. Absurdity is the notion of contrast between two things. As Camus explains it in // The Myth of Sisyphus //: This view, which is shared by [|Sartre], is that humanity must live in a world that is and will forever be hostile or indifferent towards them. The universe will never truly care for humanity the way we seem to want it to. The aethist view of this statement is that people create stories, or gods, which in their minds transcend reality to fill this void and attempt to satisfy their need. The philosophy that encompasses the absurd is referred to as // absurdism //. While absurdism may be considered a branch of existentialism, it is a specific idea that is not necessary to an existentialist view. It's easy to highlight the absurdity of the human quest for purpose. It's common to assume that everything must have a purpose, a higher reason for existence. However, if one thing has a higher purpose, what is the reason for that purpose? Each new height must then be validated by a higher one. This evokes the common theological question: if humankind was created by God, who or what created God? (And, if God answers to a higher power, to what power does that answer?) [|Søren Kierkegaard], although religious himself, declared faith in God to be absurd, since it is impossible to know God, or to understand His purpose. In // The Myth of Sisyphus //, Camus described suicide as the most appropriate and rational reaction to the absurd — but admitted that this is not a very rewarding or worthwhile reaction. Critics of absurdism tend to focus on two areas of the philosophy. The first is the proposition, as Camus described, that life's absence of meaning seems to remove any reason for living. Camus answers this with methods of living with the absurd: through coping or through revolt — and by pointing out that this lack of purpose presents humankind with true freedom. Others consider the theory itself to be arrogant, stating that although the purpose of life may not be apparent, that does not confirm that it does not exist.
 * The absurd is born out of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.

Explanations of the movie if you are confused: []

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 * Harold and Maude ** : Read the quote by Maude...then read the excerpt on Existentialism...Give examples from the movie on how this quote applies to Existentialism and to the main characters of the movie.


 * [|Maude] ** : A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they are not dead, really. They're just backing away from life. *Reach* out. Take a *chance*. Get *hurt* even. But play as well as you can. Go team, go! Give me an L. Give me an I. Give me a V. Give me an E. L-I-V-E. LIVE! Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room.


 * // Existentialism //** is a **// philosophical //** movement that views human existence as having a set of underlying themes and characteristics, such as anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death, and consciousness of existing, that are primary and that cannot be reduced to or explained by a natural-scientific approach or any approach that attempts to detach itself from or rise above these underlying themes. It conceives of **// Being //** itself as something that can only be understood through and in relation to these basic characteristics of human existence. For existentialism, human beings can be understood only from the inside, in terms of their lived and experienced reality and dilemmas, not from the outside, in terms of a biological, psychological, or other scientific theory of human nature. It emphasizes action, freedom, and decision as fundamental to human existence and is fundamentally opposed to the **// rationalist //** tradition and to **// positivism //** . That is, it argues against definitions of human beings either as primarily rational, knowing beings who relate to reality primarily as an object of **// knowledge //** or whose action can or ought to be regulated by rational principles, or as beings who can be defined in terms of their behavior as it looks to or is studied by others. More generally it rejects all of the Western **// rationalist //** definitions of **// Being //** in terms of a rational principle or essence or as the most general feature that all existing things share in common. Existentialism tends to view human beings as subjects in an indifferent, often ambiguous, and "absurd" universe in which meaning is not provided by either the natural order or God but rather can be created, however provisionally and unstably, by human beings' actions and interpretations.

Existentialism was inspired by the works of **// Arthur Schopenhauer //**, **// Søren Kierkegaard //** , **// Fyodor Dostoyevsky //** and the **// German //** philosophers **// Friedrich Nietzsche //** , **// Edmund Husserl //** , and **// Martin Heidegger //**. It became popular in the mid- **// 20th century //** through the works of the French writer-philosophers **// Jean-Paul Sartre //** and **// Simone de Beauvoir //**. whose version of existentialism are set out in a popular form in Sartre's **// 1946 //** // L'Existentialisme est un humanisme, translated as // **// Existentialism is a Humanism //**.

Although many, if not most, existentialist were **// atheists //**, Søren Kierkegaard, **// Karl Jaspers //** , and **// Gabriel Marcel //** pursued more theological versions of existentialism. Moreover, one-time **// Marxist //** **// Nikolai Berdyaev //** developed a philosophy of **// Christian existentialism //** in his native **// Russia //**, and later in **// France //** , in the decades preceding **// World War II //**.

THIS RESPONSE WILL BE DUE WEDNESDAY...AS WE HAVE NOT GONE OVER ALL THE NOTES ON MARXISM!!!
 * Delicatessen: **
 * What would a Marxist theorist have to say about the film Delicatessen? Is there any sign of hope in the ending? Why or why not... Think back to our in-class notes and discussion! Give at least three different examples from the movie using different parts of our notes and discussion.

Wild Strawberries
Does Prof. Borg fear his death because he has not understood his life, or does he not understand his life because he fears death? Give at least two symbols that can back up your answer. This is due Monday when you come to class.




 * 1. Persepolis Reader Response—contemporary literature**

With your knowledge of semiotics, what are the different signs/symbols (at least 4) that define Marjane (look at her childhood, time in Vienna, and her time back in Iran) why are these signs/symbols so important to her and how do they help her grow and become the woman she is at the end of the movie?