The Reality of The Graduate

Other than being quite creepy, The Graduate shows the most honest moment after ones actions. The clip below shows the final scene of the movie. Yes Ben runs to try and stop the marriage of Elaine and her fiance's wedding and misses his chance. Though she already said yes and sealed the deal with a kiss she still ran off with her mother's mistress. Then after the struggle and getting out of the church they hop on a bus and the affect of their actions hits them and shows the reality of what they had done. The movie then ends with the audience having to guess what will happen. Will she have to get a divorce, will she ever speak to her mother again. Will they be okay and end up together?

Symbols in Passion of the Christ

Sorry, this is a long Clip, but not as graphic as the others.

Signified Objects in The Passion of the Christ

In Mel Gibson’s 2004 widely controversial film, “The Passion of the Christ,” the last twelve hours of Jesus Christ’s life were recounted and violently presented for a culturally select audience. Though widely distributed and marketed before the Easter and Passover season, the film succeeded in earning a mass profit and a number one spot on the charts for a three week period. Through the ideas of cultural studies one can see that this film was created for a specific target audience. As defined by Chris Barker, culture is; “the actual grounded terrain of practices, representations, languages and customs of a specific society.” (pg.7) Through Gibson’s film, signs, images, and binary pairs are presented to signify culturally symbolic meanings to an audience familiar with Christianiac roots. With Gibson’s depiction of how Jesus Christ spent his final hours, one can see structualist ideas with relation to how we understand the Christian culture.
In the film, “The Passion of the Christ,” an ancient Aramaic language was used by the actors to represent a more culturally accurate portrayal of Jesus’ final hours. While the language has been considered near extinct the audience was able to fully understand what was happening through the subtitles and the use of symbols to represent what was happening. Barker states in his introduction that; “In order to understand culture we need to explore how meaning is produced symbolically in language as a ‘signifying system’.”(pg.7) With this idea the film presents a structualist idea of the battle between good and evil, and the idea of a group of people being saved by a chosen prophet to die for their sins. Ferdinand de Saussure structualist ideas are based on language being an arbitrary act that is, as he states” passively assimilated by the individual.” In Saussure’s work, “Course in General Linguistics,” he states; “Language is a system of signs that express ideas…” (pg.77) In the opening scene of the film Jesus is seen praying to his father, (God) while resisting the words and possible temptations of the devil. The darkly lit scene juxtaposes the powers of good versus evil, along with the angles of the camera. When the devil seems to lose the struggle the audience can see the prophet fighting back and willfully stands over the evil figure while he crushes the symbolic snake that represents evil. The snake is understood as being evil because it is a culturally symbolic sign created by Christian religion.
Another signifier of evil is the devil. It is portrayed with a woman’s face and man’s voice. Throughout the Christian culture the temptress woman or Eve is seen as evil because she fell victim to the devil’s allure. It is no surprise then that the image of the devil is presented by a deviant looking woman. In all scenes that present the devil the image of this androgynous figure is lit with dark lighting and in a creepy manner. The devil is presented to the Holly mother Mary in a mob of people watching her son carry his cross up the mountain. It is also seen standing over the son of God while he is being tortured by the soldiers lashing him to a bloody pulp.
Many binary pairs are also seen with the image of the androgynous devil. The devil seems to represent all that is darkness and is thus cast in the shadows of fear and hatred, while God is seen through images of clouds parting, light, freedom, and miracles. The two figures representing good and evil are constantly battling with each other, and are ever present with signs, such as birds. In the latter half of the movie while Jesus is on his cross, he sees a dove flying through the sky. The dove is not only white but represents the grace of goodness also known to Christians as God. In a few seconds latter when a murder on a cross next to Jesus laughs at him dying, a black Crow swoops down onto the man and pecks out his eye. The black crow represents the devil, darkness, hatred and sinfulness.
Another significant binary opposition is how the Holy mother is presented as opposed to the ever present Mary Magdalene. One can see that both figures are only seen with their faces showing. Both women are fully clothed, but the audience understands that the Holly Mother is seen as reverent and in agony to see her son being callously tortured. She is aged, quiet, but dignified. She represents the virtuous woman, where Mary Magdalene is seen in once scene being stoned by a crowd of men. She is the fallen prostitute, and is displayed with alluring earrings and colorful clothing. Her hair is wildly flowing to express her sexuality and therefore is seen in a negative light. Though she is also in agony over the torture of her protector the film focuses more on the holly mother for she is the goodness that delivered the son of God into the world. But because Christianity has expressed the constant idea of the fallen prostitute that Jesus protected, and the holly virtuous mother the audience is able to distinguish the two from the very beginning. Their identities are understood based on what they are not.
While the entire movie is based on culturally significant symbols, the audience is able to understand clearly what the director is trying to achieve through the radical use of signs, and unpleasant display of torture and agony. Though the film is directed to a specific audience, the symbols presents are so widely expressed through western civilization that many who are not familiar with the Christian religion are able to clearly see and understand the signified objects and how they represent the overall theme of the movie. With these signified objects the viewer is able to clearly understand what is happening without needing to read the subtitles, and also helps display the movies theme.

Barker, Chris, “Cultural Studies, Theory and Practice." Sage Publications, Los Angles. 3rd
E.D. 2008
De Saussure, Ferdinand. “Course in General Linguistics,” In class article.
Gibson, Mel. “The Passion of the Christ.” 2004.

Subbing for High School Students

Each and every day I stand in front of Middle and High School Students,

and watch them. Yes it seems like an easy job; after all you mostly hand

out papers take roll and make sure none of them stab each other. My job

is to maintain the safety of students, and if they happen to get any

work done, then I did an ok job.  Some days if they aren’t asking you a

billion times if they can go to the bathroom, or go to their lockers so

they can roam the campus in efforts to pass the time, it can be.

Depending on the teacher and the overall class mood the day can go one

of two ways, wonderfully quiet and smooth, or disastrously chaotic. Most

days their teachers assign busy work because they know their students

won’t really attempt to do much when a sub is there. They sit around and

chatter and try to impress each other, they throw notes, and giggle,

they flirt, eat,  tag and well usually do anything but their work. The

rowdy classes can fry your nerves with the ever common outlandish

overdramatic behavior. Tempers flaring and cuss words spewing out of

these temperamental beasts can be enough to make one have a nervous

breakdown. It is any wonder why teachers choose their profession because

after all it isn’t for the money. And as stressful as high school

students can be, middle school is worse. These poor kids don’t know how

to sit in a chair for over 6 minute intervals and they constantly roam

the room like lost sheep.  Your voice is lost after telling them to sit

down 500 million times throughout each period. 

The typical student usually gets to school just barely on time, early in

the mornings they sit quietly as they are still awake, and for this

reason most teachers enjoy the first period of the day. As they wake up,

they begin to gossip, and talk about everything from their mean teachers

and loads of homework to how to get pregnant. When a substitute walks to

one of their rooms a whisper is always heard as a sigh of relief, or

most commonly “free-day.” Teenagers are very social beings and when they

aren’t making out with each other they are thinking about their crushes

or relationships. Mostly they sit and talk hoping to feel apart of a

group. This can mostly be seen at lunch. The jocks sit on the yellow

benches, next to the cheer girls. The guitar kids sit under the tree,

and everyone else sits with their little groups in order to feel like

they belong.

The Manipulation of Signs

In Baudrillard’s long article “The System of Objects,” he states that we
as a people and a culture consume products not because we are a passive
species hoping to absorb and assimilate into one giant uniform mass
audience; but we actively consume objects because they are a
manipulations of signs that our culture finds meaningful. If this is
true then the Romantic Comedy is just one manipulation that our culture
finds to be meaningful as applied to how our society should mate with
the opposite sex. Through McDonald's reasoning the romantic comedy genre
has been classified as a lighthearted expression of a couple falling in
love with each other, while battling or competing with one another in
order to successfully find their perfect mate. The Sex comedy like the
romantic comedy does place emphasis on competition for specific mates
but also expresses the former attitudes of society and how women were to
be the celestial virgins while men were allowed to be promiscuous with
their sexuality. One thing I found disturbing was the blatant shock
towards the Doctors studies of Women’s sexuality. How is it that in the
1950’s it was acceptable for men to sleep around, while all the women
were to be seen as virgins. They must have known that if the men were
loosing their virginity it was not amongst themselves, but with the
opposite sex. So why was it so shocking to them to find out that 50% of
women were not virgins. How else did they think men were getting
experienced? Another thing I found interesting is that if we as a mass
audience consumes the romcoms and the sex comedies are we actively
hoping our relationships are going to mirror what is seen on the screen?
If this is to be true we must wake up and realize life and relationships
are not meant to be lighthearted. I believe that the mass consumption of
romcoms is an escape from actually having to talk to one another while
in the courting phase of a relationship and is passive way to use the
romcom as a device or means to defer the situation at hand. We as a mass
audience watch these movies to feel better about our own relationships
or find comfort in the message the movie is trying to give us

Brick's Sexual Ambiguity in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

"

William’s use of ambiguity is seen through every aspect in this play. It is most notably seen in the big question looming over Brick’s sexuality. It is stated through arguments between Brick and Maggie, that the reason why they are married and living together is because of a previous arrangement. The story behind the arrangement is never told, nor why Brick refused to sleep in the same bed with her. While he states he can not stand her, the truth of about he and his friend/possible lover Skipper remains a mystery to all throughout the play, especially in their final conversation. Another element of ambiguity is why Brick has started to drink, is it because he can’t stand living with Maggie, because he is sad over Big Daddy’s looming disease, or because everyone thinks he may have had relations with his “best friend” Skipper. Will he actually have sex with his wife and get her pregnant.

Big Daddy also seems to be even more ambiguous than his son. His accrued amount of fortune is never quite revealed, along with his choice over who will take over the estate. The truth of his disease is on and off again, as with his feelings about life and death. His relations with his sons is also never fully disclosed, does he love Brick more than Gooper, and why? And at the end of the play no one is quite sure what will become of Big Daddy, is he going to die, and if so, when will it happen. Will he create a will, or will the brothers need to go to court.

Culturally, it seems extremely important to try and move up in society as shown by Mae and Maggie. Though both women are virtually the same, their plight with trying not to remain in the poor house seems ridiculous. They’re efforts to have children and show big daddy who has more affection towards him seems hypocritical, especially since their husbands will inherit the money and not them. Overall the entire play never gives true answers to any of the questions posed, and leaves the audience/reader wondering what the characters might do.

Fatal Attraction

Being that I have not seen Fatal Attraction in its

entirety, I can only go on what I saw. I thought that the clips

expressed a powerful commentary on the struggle for power within the

husband and wife’s marriage. In the first clip when he is apologizing

for the affair, he is shown standing over his sobbing wife as to show

that he had the power to not only ruin the marriage, but also to try and

decide to make things work. Though it seems like the man has the most

power in the beginning through the few clips shown it seems like the

women are more in control of the man than anything else. While Anne

Archer’s character emphasizes the role of the victim and the wrongfully

betrayed wife, she is still able to manipulate how the entire situation

will go. His wife after all throws him out, and later decides to let him

come back.  As seen, her quiet demeanor not only makes her husband feel

guilty for the entire situation, but also on edge. With one scream she

is able to throw her husband into an extreme panic, enabling him to come

to the rescue, while she goes off to find a means to Glen Close’s demise. 

Glen Close’s character also seems to be in the struggle for control due

to the fact that she is unwilling to let her one time affair go. She

becomes pregnant and with that believes that removing Archer’s character

is the only way she and Douglas’s character will have a chance. By

breaking into the house and attacking the wife she not only displays

clear signs on insanity, but also signs of control through intimidation.

She not only appears to be insane, but goes a step further to cut her

own leg to show that she is willing to mutilate herself and destroy his

wife to get what she wants.  As for her attacking Archer’s character,

and being diverted into fighting her former lover, she is as the cliché

goes “in it to win it.” She fights back against Douglas’s character

until he has no other option that to strangle the life out of her, or

until he thinks he has saved the day. Once Douglas’s character thinks he

is in the clear and has successfully saved his wife, Close shoots up

with one last breath of air to maim her former lover, only to terrify

him and to be shot dead by her nemesis and lovers wife.

For the second Movie Anchor Man, I thought it was such a hilarious

commentary on how men and women reacted and sometimes still do when

trying to mate with each other. The “power of the flute” scene shows him

almost performing solely for his anchor associate as she calls herself.

 Burgundy expresses himself as a peacock trying to gain the attention of

his mate, while making a mockery of the entire first date situation. She

on the other hand tries not to be wooed by her male counterpart, but is

unsuccessful due to the fact that he is liked by the entire club. Her

demeanor shows that while she is trying to resist his charm she is

falling victim to the crowds reaction and doubts her first intentions. 

Holly and Fred Final Kiss

Hollywood Ending for Holly and Fred

Breakfast at Tiffany's and the Hollywood Romantic Comedy

The Hollywood Romantic Comedy is notoriously known for the boy and girl coming together and having a happily ever after ending. In Capote's book "Breakfast at Tiffany's," the main character, Holy Golightly does not have the happy ending that is portrayed at the end of the movie. Rather she is flown half way around the world and decides that in order for her to continue her lifestyle she must find the richest men in a country and use them to further her lifestyle. While this brings up issues of poor judgment and states of mind, she travels ever so casually as she would say in order to avoid the serious trouble she carelessly threw herself into. Though she leaves behind the one man who loved her flaws and all, Holly was unable to face the consequences of her past and decided to deflect her troubles until another time. In the Hollywood version, Holly and Fred end up having the traditional happy ending after finding her fluffy cat, that she never named. The rain pours down as they lean in for the box office money making final kiss. That very kiss that Fred and Holly share, completely goes against the character portrayals in the book. Fred is said to have loved Holly not in a physical way, but a way that one loves and wants to take care of someone. In the movie the final kiss changed the entire theme of the movie in order for it to make a selling at the box office. Had Holly left Fred for her plane, then the American audience would have revolted in her careless actions. By playing it safe and creating the ending into a Romantic Comendy, the movie executives were able to salvage the movie and still make a profit.