“Loving” is a powerful take on the famous Supreme Court case that ended the prohibition of interracial marriage. Richard, a white man, and Mildred, a black woman, leave Virginia to get married, and they come back to a racist justice system that does not support their harmless act of marriage. In fact, the justice system forbids it. From the local sheriff to Richard’s own mother, time and time again people shake their head at Richard and mutter that he “should have known better”. Should have known better? Is it a crime to love someone else for who they are? Sadly, in this case the predominately racist general public says it is. So Richard and Mildred roll with the punches, leave the state, and raise a family. But as the Civil Rights Movement progresses, Mildred begins to realize that rolling with the punches isn’t right, and it isn’t fair. She writes a letter to Robert Kennedy and explains her situation. Though he doesn’t directly get back to her, a young lawyer reaches out to her. He wants to relieve Richard, Mildred, and their family of the injustice they’ve suffered, and he believes that together they can manipulate the justice system. He formulates a plan: bring it to their hometown, lose, then bring it to the state, lose, then bring it to federal court, lose, and then the case reaches the Supreme Court. But again, he’s a young lawyer, and he doesn’t have much experience. So he finds a prominent civil rights lawyer who, once he learns about Richard and Mildred’s situation, believes that Richard and Mildred have the chance to gain freedom not only for themselves but for all interracial couples. Well, their plan works. They do reach the Supreme Court. But as if Richard and Mildred’s entire struggle weren’t enough, the state of Virginia plots a heartbreaking, truly evil defense: use Richard and Mildred’s own children as witnesses testifying against their own parents. That is nothing but cruel. Fortunately, the Supreme Court answers with justice not only for Richard and Mildred but for all interracial couples. Interestingly, it didn’t take a march. It didn’t take a protest. It didn’t take an army. It took one couple to make a change for everyone.
Author Archives: mjc473
Money and power does not imply happiness
“Citizen Kane” investigates an irony that has existed since the beginning of economy: to be happy is not necessarily to have a bunch of money and power. At heart, Charles Foster Kane is a small-town country boy whose world consists of Mom, Dad, and his sled Rosebud. But his parents send him off to the city with a rich man in order to live a different life. From education to business advisors, everything is provided for Kane in this new life. He runs a newspaper, runs for public office, and pretty much everyone across the globe knows and loves the man. Kane seems to draw a massive circle of happy-go-luckiness wherever he goes. However, Kane himself always seems out of place. It’s as if no matter how much attention he gets, it’s not enough. The rich man who gives him this new life tries to advise him, but Kane shoos him away every time. Instead, Kane begins a materialistic search for happiness. The man of the people who wanted his newspaper to tell the undivided truth for all becomes a confused dictator who lusts for control. Kane starts to collect statues, builds an opera house in which he forces his wife to sing, neglects his old friends and advisors, and where does he end up? A giant palace with a butler, an expensive suit, and a wife who spends her days building puzzles in front of the fireplace, longing for the old Kane and perhaps a different life. Here is where the irony is most interesting. With nothing but a sled, a small house, and two parents, Kane is a happy child. But with all the riches imaginable he is nothing but happy.
Walking in unfamiliar shoes
Most Alfred Hitchcock films are nail-biters, full of tosses and turns that are all too unpredictable. And “North by Northwest” is no different. Roger, just an ordinary man, finds himself lost in a secret battle between government agents and a crime organization. He has nothing to do with it. A few thieves misinterpret him for someone else, and he soon becomes a pawn in their game. I could go on and on about the rest of the plot, but that’s not what makes this movie interesting. It’s that even though Roger is still ordinary Roger, he becomes the figure for which he is mistaken at the beginning of the film. He becomes this adventurous agent who roams around in no particular direction, him versus the bad guys, him trying to win the girl. Not only the audience but also Roger himself forgets who Roger even is. It’s as if he’s this unrealistic agent/spy/hero all along. At first he just wants to be Roger. He doesn’t want to meddle with these crooked people or be a pawn in their game. But then he settles into his new life. This is something that often happens to us on campus. We all go through something unfamiliar or uncomfortable, classes, experiences, decisions alike. We may not be happy with something required, but it’s required. We have to accept it, deal with it, and keep moving. Of course, Roger is wrongfully wanted all over the country, so his situation is much more dramatic. But like many of us he accepts the challenge and plays the game until the end.
To look and to wear is also to present
Getting ready for the day is something that just, well, happens. It’s subconscious. We have a routine, we have a look, so we stick to them and move on with everything else in life. As students, it takes time to change routines. And time is something we don’t often have. But Nicholas Carbonaro put all this into the context of a world where how we present ourselves sends a message. He talked about a sort of sixth sense that we all have. Whenever we see or meet someone, we often get a sense of who someone is based on the way they present themselves. Sure, an interviewer may see that someone has the skills, which is great. But that person’s hair may still be wet from the shower he or she frantically took a half-hour before the interview started, or it seems like that person is trying to make this style work when it’s really not working. Subtleties like that factor into decisions like, do we want this person at our company? Is this person professional? Is this person put together? This kind of discussion is in sync with what’s coming up in our lives. Carbonaro stressed that he makes these insights about humanity all the time because he encounters all sorts of people every day in the salon. But whether it’s about how we present ourselves or how others present themselves, these insights matter. They can help us to figure out how to best communicate who we are to the world. And they can help us to be comfortable with who we are whenever we go out into the world.
Different lifestyles, same neighborhood
The Bengali film juxtaposed a debilitating, poor family with a fairly well-off family. One family struggled to properly feed and clothe the children. The other family decorated the children with necklaces and fed them candy. One family relied on the dreams of an aspiring priest and scholar. The other owned an orchard full of guavas and mangos. And yet they coexisted. The film captured the true struggle of living in the shadow of something desired but unattainable. For the scholar’s family that something was not worrying about the next meal. The other family didn’t have to do that. Or a steady income to be able to occasionally get the kids candy, to send them to school wearing something other than rags, to live in the present without constantly worrying about what the future holds. The other family had all of that too. This gap between the two families was brutally clear when Durga and Abu watched the candyman walk over to the other family’s house after telling him that they couldn’t afford the sweets. It was clear every time Durga’s mother told her to return the guavas or mangos she had stolen from the other family. It was clear when the father left for almost half of a year to pursue scholastic dreams that never even came true. It was clear in every interaction the scholar’s family had with the other family. And yet they were only a street apart.
RubyFrost > SnapDragon
I didn’t go to Apple Fest last year because I’d thought it wouldn’t be worth it. I thought, I could get some apple cider, which I could easily get in a dining hall, or I could finish my work. And of course, I chose my work. But this year I chose to go. And I didn’t just see apple cider. I witnessed the apple’s essential contribution to the local economy. From apple pizza to funnel cake, people came from all over to show off what they could do with an apple. There were plates and plates of slices of many different kinds of apples to try. It was interesting to see how much effort goes into innovating something that is so often ignored, something that you only think about for a few seconds when you plop it in a paper-bag lunch. I also got to hear about the incentives behind RubyFrost and SnapDragon. I learned not only why they were named but also how their names relate to their function. Take RubyFrost, for example. The goal of making RubyFrost was to create an apple that wouldn’t brown when you cut it into slices. No one wants to open their paper-bag lunch to see some brown apple slices. It seems like a simple fix, but it targets a problem that spans a large audience. That’s what makes it technologically innovative. So yes, turns out there’s a lot more to Apple Fest than just apple cider. I can’t wait to go back.
We’ve all been stuck on Mars
Life as a Cornell student is constant problem-solving. Problems on paper, when there are instructions that guide us. And problems off paper, when there are no instructions, no guide, just us. Those problems are often pretty scary. We have to be independent, and we have to use whatever resources are within our grasp. The Martian investigates this same dilemma. Of course, Mark Watney’s dilemma is much more intense than those we often face. But just like us at some point, he finds himself alone. He has to apply his scientific knowledge, make use of the resources in the HAB, and somehow remain mentally stable to survive. It’s a powerful film because it challenges us to imagine ourselves in Mark’s position. In the end, after enduring so many catastrophic problems, Mark sees a light at the end of the tunnel and survives. That’s enlightening for us to see because we often don’t see that light until the end either.