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.