kids.......SMH

 Dear Diary,

 Today was a hard day. Christopher ran into some big problems. I had to go to the police station and bail Christopher out of jail for punching a policeman. Having a son with autism is so much harder than I thought. I’m scared he’s going to get into more trouble. I feel frustrated that Christopher doesn’t understand right and wrong sometimes. Others don’t know how to talk to him. I understand the policeman was just doing his job but I think he took it too far by grabbing my son. I really try my best to be patient with Christopher but sometimes it’s hard. I guess I’m writing in this stupid diary because I have no one to talk to. I know Christopher is a good kid with a kind heart but he really needs to let the dead dog lie. I told him “Just try and keep your nose out of other people’s business.”  I just don’t understand why he can’t just let it go. Christopher walk in while I was upset having a drink on the couch. I really wish his mother was here to help me out with him. Christopher won’t stop asking me if I’m upset about the stupid dead dog. I wish he would have never found it. It’s a dog today but what will it be tomorrow. Because of the way Christopher is he can’t let anything go and he’s all up in other people’s business. I wish I had another parent that has this problem so I could talk to them. Christopher is a very smart kid but sometimes he makes me crazy. He needs to learn to listen to me because I know what is good for him. Christopher is a unique kid and a big pain in my ass. But he’s my son and I love him.

  The movie Shawshank Redemption is a redemption tale. I think this is movie lives up to its name because most everybody in there makes up for their mistakes. For example Reds mistake was murder and he made up for it by serving 40 years in prison. Red ended up leaving prison thoughtful and very wise.

 This movie has two main characters that are redeemed. The main character that I will talk about first is Andy.  Andy got put into prison for killing his wife and her lover. Andy made the best out of prison by helping a lot of people out. He helped Tommy a lot by tutoring him to finally get him to get his GED. When Andy first got to prison he didn’t talk to anyone for a while until one day he need something from his Red. Andy asks Red for a rock hammer because he always loved rocks. When Tommy came into the picture he was telling Andy how his old cell mate said he kill a girl and her lover but make it look like it was Andy. After that Andy tried to go back to court to try and get out of prison. The warden didn’t want Tommy to testify for Andy so he took him out back and had Tommy killed. Andy didn’t loss hope when his plan got killed he stayed positive and change his plan. Andy’s plan then was to dig a hole to get out of prison. His best friend red never even knew about his plan. His plan was to dig a hole through the wall using a rock hammer. After the hole he made it to the sewer pipe that he crawled through till he was finally out free. Andy stuck to his plan for 19 years which took some passion and hope.

   The next main character was Red he was in prison for 40 years because of murder.  Red said that he did something really stupid as a child and now he has to regret it and pay for it every day. He was always a kind helpful man. If you meant him you would never understand why he was in there or why he would kill someone.  When Red finely gets out of prison he does the one thing that Andy ask him to do. Andy gave Red all the money he will need to come find him in Mexico. The story ended with Red meeting Andy on the beach and them hugging it out. The story ended showing that bad men can come out to be good people.

This movie was like a very touching story showing that just because you make one little mistake when you where young doesn’t make you a horrible person.

extra ccredit

The film I watched and am going to discuss is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which came out in 1939.  Smith was a very gullible man that was asked to fill a spot in the US senate. In the movie, Mr. Smith was manipulated so they could get the bill to pass. When he first goes to Washington, most of the people like him there and he meets a girl. When this movie came out, the United States congress did not like it and talked bad about it. They did not like it because it made the senators look really bad and gave them a bad name. The film made the American government seem pro-communist and anti-American. The movie represented the corruption of the United States government. Alben W. Barkley was a democrat and the Senate Majority Leader in 1939. He called the film “silly and stupid”. He felt as if it made the Senate look like crooks. This movie was such an outrage that a journalist attempted and suggested that senate should pass a bill basically giving movie theaters the option to not show the film at the theater because it does not represent the government in a positive light. This film was banned in Spain, Germany, Italy, and the USSR. This movie is called a “whistleblower” because they were telling on the government. By definition, a whistleblower is a person who exposes misconduct, alleged dishonest or illegal activity occurring in an organization. Obviously, the storyline fits the definition perfectly.

The governor has to choose someone to take Sam Foley’s spot and after flipping a coin and it landing on the edge, he chooses Smith because he thinks it will make the people happy and Smith is easy to manipulate. Because Smith is so naïve, the press easily took advantage of him and made him look like a fool through headlines. Smith comes up with a bill aimed to allow a loan by the federal government to buy some land for a camp. However, Paine already has the same land as part of a graft scheme framed by the Taylor “political machine’. Paine is in support of this scheme. Then, Paine makes Smith look bad by trying to say that he already owns the land in question. Smith was shocked and ran away from the situation. Just before the vote to remove Smith, he talks for twenty-four hours straight. He was trying to convince the Senate of the true motives of the whole scheme. However, none of the Senators were convinced. Smith is determined to convince them of his innocence, and he then faints. Pain then feels very guilty and tries to kill himself. The other senators stopped him, and then Paine finally burst in and admitted everything he did wrong, said he should be expelled, and told everyone that Smith was innocent. The main themes of the film are high ideals, patriotism, having the courage to fight for what's right and the little guy making good against impossible odds.

 

Forest Gump

In the film Forest Gump there are a lot of different meanings and hidden messages. The theme I got out of this movie is that it doesn’t matter if you’re slower than most you can still do way more than others. The key is having the motivation to try new things. For example Forest got into a number of different things like fishing, ping pong, the army, and running across the USA. He would never have known that he could have done any of these things if he didn’t try. The movie Forest Gump lingers with you because it’s a feel good movie that gives people hope. It made me feel good to see a person with challenges be successful in life. To some older people it’s like a memory of their childhood and how they grew up.

Jennie played a very important character in this film. She was his first and only childhood friend. Forest didn’t have a lot of people he was close to even though there were a lot of people in and out of his house. It all started when she gave him a seat on the bus. He was pretty upset when she went away. It was hard for him to let her go and he followed her around for a while. She comes back in his life when they are in their mid adult hood. Forest was so thrilled to see her but their relationship was complicated. Jennie left him only to return a couple years later. Shortly after she came back the last time she decided to tell him that she was very sick and dying. Forest stayed by her and raised “their child.” Jennie plays a huge role throughout his whole life.

The quote "Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're gonna get" is very perceptive. It explains Forest’s approach to life in many ways. Forest wasn’t afraid of trying new things and had a life full of variety.

family movies

 

The movies It’s a Wonderful Life and Family Man have similar themes. They share the message that its belonging to a family and the love that you share that makes you happy and not stuff. In both movies the main character starts off successful and they both didn’t know the true meaning of Christmas. George Bailey was a respected business man and Jack Campbell was the president of a company. In both movies there is super natural intervention. Both George Bailey and Jack Campbell were shown a different life by an angel. George Bailey got visited because he tried killing himself thinking life would be better if he was gone. Jack Campbell got his visit by the angle because he thought he already had everything he needed in life. Both men were happiest with their families.

Even though these movies have similar themes they are presented in opposite ways. George Bailey’s lesson was learned by showing him what would happen if he never existed and Jack Campbell’s angel showed him a life he could have had if he had gotten married. In the life Jack could have had he had a family, friends, and a life but he was poor. In the end of It’s a Wonderful Life George Bailey ends up happy and thankful for his family. Jack Campbell is kind of sad about everything he saw that he missed out on.

Both of these movies are similar to Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Both movies have a heavenly being that showed a future of what could have been just like the ghost of Christmas future in Charles Dickens play. Also the importance of family is stressed! Scrooge is happy when he is able to celebrate Christmas with his family and help the Crachets. There also similar because they all took places on Christmas time and deal with family.

9/11

If the lost generation were those individuals trying to make sense of WW I then we could term the generation trying to make sense of 9/11 as the generation of discovery. Even though both films are about how people cope with the tragedy of losing someone they love it’s also about finding out who they are. In both films personal discoveries led to acceptance. In both cases acceptance of what happened and that they had to move on.

 

Out of both films the one that resonates more strongly to me was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close because it was really heartwarming by showing how much the kid was hurt and how it really effected him. When Oskar played the messages form his dad to his grandpa you could really feel the emotion and hurt he was feeling. He found a key and went on a quest to find out why his dad had the key and what it unlocked. Oskar went and searched the whole city for clues to what it could lead to. During the quest Oskar opened up little by little to some people and even to his grandpa. This helped him discover who he was and learn to accept what happened. In keeping with the theme of discovery he finds out the key wasn’t meant for him and that his dad wasn’t the only one that could think like him.

In the movie Reign Over Me Charlie has really bad PTST because of the loss of three daughters and his wife. His friend Allen tries to be there for him and get him to cope with talking about it. Charlie’s friend Allen tries to help him cope with everything by getting him to talk to a therapist. When Charlie goes to the therapist he gets some words out but never really talked to much. Except of the last time Charlie goes she tells him that he needs to tell someone what happened and it doesn’t have to be her. Charlie finely opened up to Allen and told him everything that happened. At the end of the movie Charlie gets his own place and Allen and his wife’s relationship gets better.     

world war ll

In the last set of movies we watched, we were learning how film could treat the same events in different ways. We watched two Steven Spielberg films. One was a drama and the other one was a comedy. Even though World War ll was the back drop for both movies, Spielberg conveyed very different points in each one.

I believe the point in Saving Private Ryan can be stated in two words, loyalty and sacrifice. Throughout the movie all of the characters displayed both of the traits listed above. Private Ryan’s mother sacrificed losing two sons. Obviously, the Ryan family was loyal to the country because they raised sons who strongly believed in military duty. The two brothers that died in battle sacrificed there life for their country. They were loyal patriots. The eight men that were sent to bring Private Ryan back sacrificed their lives to save Private Ryan. They were loyal soldiers that followed commands. Upon reaching Private Ryan to bring him home, they discover he wants to remain with his platoon. He also is loyal to his fellow soldiers and is willing to sacrifice what his mother wants. Out of the two films I believe that saving Private Ryan has the more poignant message because it is found in almost every major character.

 

The message in the movie 1941 was to show the range of feelings faced by the people in California following the Pearl Harbor bombing. Spielberg showed the emotions of fear, loyalty, and hysteria. Because Spielberg chooses to illustrate this through comedy, his message was less poignant. For example loyalty was shown by Mr. Ward because he lets the military put a rocket launcher in his front yard.  Jon Belushi’s character, “wild Bill”, spent the movie hysterically chasing down a plan he thought was Japanese. He did a lot of damage and as it turns out the plane he was chasing was American. An example of fear in the movie would be Zoot Suit Riots.