The film “Loving” tells the real life story of how interracial marriage was against the law in Virginia, and many other states, due to legislation which had not been updated since the era of slavery. The law was clearly worded in such a way that there was no separation of church and state. In addition, the law cited strange beliefs about how the continents where separate so therefore the inhabitants of different continents shouldn’t be allowed to marry. Luckily the Supreme court overturned this law, but it is important that we as a society be vigilant for other laws which contain old-fashioned prejudices. Although times change, laws which were written by those in power stay the same. We are thus left with archaic rules which do not represent society’s morals or beliefs. It takes brave individuals, such as the Loving family, to expose these unfair and prejudiced laws. The film showed that it can be difficult when so many people are against you. The Lovings had to contend with racist police officers and judges, betrayal by neighbors, and even lawyers from the ACLU who had the best intentions but were not experienced in Constitutional law. The family overcame all the odds, and their case repealed an old law which was racist, providing future generations a better world to live in.
Author Archives: Michael Zelko
The Enigma Machine
In a series of vignettes, the film Citizen Kane tells the story of a man’s life in the most perfect way possible. A person’s life is so much more than the big achievements that he or she accomplishes. Kane’s greatest successes are largely over-looked, quickly passed over in a brief newsreel or completely left out of the narrative entirely such as Kane’s reaction to his wife and son’s deaths. Instead the director Orson Welles focuses in on brief almost mundane episodes in the fictional Mr. Kane’s life. Each short view into Kane’s life reveals a different aspect of his personality, both in terms of what he believes and how his beliefs change over time. He starts off as an idealistic young man and becomes a middle aged miser dedicated to making people love him. We learn so little about him, and yet so much. At times we can read Kane like a book and others he is as incomprehensible as a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces. The film was incredibly ahead of its time for this, most leading men of the 1930s and 1940s were, for lack of a better term, simple. Mr. Smith went to Washington to do good and succeeded, George Bailey became depressed until everyone told him he had a wonderful life, Dorothy was lost but then the Wizard brought her home. Movies from that time were cut and dry. The good guys win, the bad guys lose. Citizen Kane has no “bad guy”, rather we are watching a man trying to be the best he can be, reaching immense heights of power, but by the end of his life nothing is quite right. The audience feels pity for the elderly Kane who was so much and additionally so little. The film is a story which humanizes this fictional man into someone we care about. For decades we have wondered about Kane and his Rosebud.
I can’t help but wonder how much of Orson Welles inadvertently became a part of Charles Foster Kane (or perhaps how much of Kane became a part of Welles?). Reading about Welles’ life story there are unusual parallels, in particular a sense that Welles himself was never quite satisfied with his life. An interesting project could be a retelling of Citizen Kane but base the life story around Welles himself instead of Hearst. Films made by Welles are considered to the greatest ever made and yet he seems like such a mysterious figure, Citizen Kane really being his only well known work. In addition he achieved the status of a prodigy in the 1930s, but took on bit parts in movies later in his life to even stay relevant. Like Kane, Welles remains to an extent an enigma. He has multiple films which have never seen the light of day. Both Kane and Welles were the best in their fields of expertise but nevertheless seem incomplete, unfinished like Xanadu. And they will never be understood nor can we hope to make sense of their lives. The film Citizen Kane is so great because of what it leaves out, the incompleteness inherent to the story. It is impossible to put all the pieces together. That is the beauty of Citizen Kane, it is an insurmountable puzzle which we get to constantly put together.
North by Northwest
The film North by Northwest is a film which boldly asks the question, “What would a James Bond movie be like, if James Bond didn’t know what was going on around him?” And I ask this question in the most affectionate of ways. North by Northwest is a proto-spy thriller that was made before the age of Jason Bourne, Mission Impossible, and yes even James Bond (North by Northwest was released in 1959, a solid 4 years before the first Bond movie, Dr. No). North by Northwest is in no way the first spy film, it’s structure does hint at what the genre would become in the following decades of movie making. The quick-witted actions of the main character, his flirtatious dialogue with a mysterious woman, the exotic locales (OK, South Dakota isn’t exactly an exotic location, but Hitchcock was on a budget give him a break), and the exciting stunts with cars or planes or trains. All these things are present in North by Northwest, its just that these elements seem boring to the modern eye. Many people who watch the movie don’t believe that it is a thriller since all the parts of the spy thriller are so cliche and slow. But what is important to remember is that this was really one of the first movies to use the classic spy elements. The filmmakers were trying out new ways of engaging the audience. To us, who have already experienced plane stunts much more exciting than the one in North by Northwest, the protagonist running away from a plane and hiding in corn is very anticlimactic. During the 1950s that scene was a lot more interesting. For me North by Northwest is a fun old movie, the plot and characters are simple in their motivations. Basically, the movie is an easy film to watch, and is a good piece of history to see where the modern spy movie got its start.
Carelessness in Dead Poets Society
The ending of the film we saw this Friday was clearly meant to be an inspiring triumph of free thinking. Students rebelling against the establishment to should a wrongfully persecuted teacher that they still believed in what he showed them. Yet, I was left feeling somewhat troubled with this ending, and with the entire film for that matter. Robin Williams’ character intended to teach his students that making your own decisions is an important skill to have. However, it seems like all he taught these boys is to do whatever you want regardless about the situation around them. They begin to break both societal and personal rules in the name of freedom. One student kisses a girl who has passed out at a party, hardly the epitome of freedom. And another student commits suicide simply because he can’t be an actor for 2 years. The writers of the film clearly tried to address this when Williams’ character reminds his students that taking unnecessary risks and being impatient are not exceptional things to do. I think that his point is that you shouldn’t simply break things or make rash decisions, rather that you should consider all your options in life. So the victorious ending with students flaunting all cares in the world to make a statement lacks any virtue to me. I constantly think of the scene from the Great Gatsby when an incomprehensibly drunk man continues to drive his car after a wheel has fallen off. The students and that drunk man are no different, they make rash decisions because they don’t care about the consequences. There are no consequences for their actions that they can even think of. Therefore, to me this movie completely missed its mark, it reads like a celebration of all the loathsomely spoiled characters from every book in the world.
Pather Panchali: The Rocky Road
Watching Pather Panchali, the audience gets a feel for a family which never seems to catch a break. The film follows the lives of a poor family who are scrapping by in rural India. This is the first of a trilogy focusing on Apu, the young boy of the family. The film does not have a particularly happy look on life, as each of Apu’s family members eventually find their hope for a better life crushed in some way. Apu’s mother wanted to simple life without worry, but is stuck raising her children alone while he husband wanders the countryside as a priest. She must also deal with her frustratingly selfish elderly cousin, her judgmental neighbors, and she must deal with all of this while barely having enough money to feed her family. Apu’s sister dreams of various things all children dream of, such as seeing a train for the first time (which she succeeds in doing) and getting married. However, she dies from a lack of medical care, and is thus unable to fulfill her potential. And Apu’s father, the head of the house who is always full of optimism, finds work as a travelling priest. His true passion is to be become a writer of plays, but discovers that putting all his faith in fate has left him without a house, and without a daughter. Apu witnesses the crushing ambivalence of the universe to his family’s problems, and I believe that the message of the film is that trusting only in fate will leave you in an unfortunate place. Apu’s father embodies this the most, as at the end of the film he gives up hope to try and become a great writer and tells his friends that he has tried to live the way he wanted but it has only brought him misery. The only option is to try something new, to move away from the rural area that they are from, and find a better life. Perhaps it is not the life he had always wanted, but at least his family will not be faced with anymore pain and suffering. Sometimes it is necessary to know when to accept defeat. It is better to fail with dignity as a whole, than to be slowly broken down while desperately fighting back without hope. Dreams are good, and it is important to follow those dreams. But you must also be responsible, face facts and do not try to hold back a flood with one bucket.
Looking Under the Surface
The film this week was a NOVA documentary about the ethics and future of DNA testing. This documentary pairs nicely with a class I’m currently taking, Ethical Issues in Medicine and Science. As my professor in that class has said, technology isn’t automatically ethical. People are required to decide the morally acceptable ways in which to use technology. And often scientists are not the ones best qualified to make those ethical decisions. Lawyers, politicians, representatives of science, and common people must come together to search for the answers. Specifically for genetics the stakes are higher than any other science. As we learn more about how genes control our bodies, it becomes tempting to want to make small modifications to fix genetic diseases before they start. However, once that becomes a reality parents will want to use the power of genetics to modify their babies to have blue eyes or to be tall or to be incredibly intelligent. Genetic engineering is dangerous tool for which the ethics need to be dealt with quickly. Curing diseases is obviously a good thing, and I think genetic engineering is a good way to provide treatment. But that is where genetic modifications must stop. Using genetics to “treat” unfavorable traits like bad eyesight will probably be possible but can lead to unintended consequences. The elephant in the room when talking about this subject is eugenics and the scary things people will do to make a “perfect” human. Therefore, genetic modifications should be used to treat life threatening diseases, and stop there. Trying to mess with traits people consider unfavorable is far too dangerous to be unregulated.
A Speech Like No Other
The film “The King’s Speech” tells the story of how a man with a stutter learns to manage his disability from his doctor and friend. I must admit that this film was more interesting then I expected it to be. Somehow the filmmakers made speech therapy into an exciting topic. As a shy person I understand the frustration and the fear of public speaking that the King felt in the film. Often, the emotional reaction when you realize that you are unable to do basic things everyone else can do is the most debilitating. You are left frustrated and angry at yourself and the whole world for putting you in this situation. In the film the King had the luxury of a loving family to give him support. That is why having good relationships with family and friends is vital to remaining confident. The movie also did a good job of highlighting this fact during a scene in which the future king is struggling to control his stutter while his father demanded that he speak correctly. His father wanted him to do well, however due to the pressure his stutter only increased. Being confident in yourself can go a long way to being healthy. I appreciated the positive approach that the speech therapist character took to show the King that he was capable of clear speech. Positive family and friends is the best anyone can hope for.
Loneliness in The Martian
A central theme to the movie The Martian is the fear of being alone. In the movie Matt Damon’s character has been left to fend for himself on the planet Mars for months until a rescue mission can be sent to save him. He copes by recording himself on his space station computer and planning out what his next step should be to save himself. I have heard that just after three continuous days of a lack of mental input (i.e. no one to talk to, no tasks to complete to keep your mind busy) a person will begin to get mental damage due to the extreme boredom. So in reality an astronaut left alone on a planet would need entertainment the same way he or she would need food and water. This is very surprising to me, as I normally try to keep to myself as much as possible. I suppose there is a spectrum of people and how much interaction with others they require before loneliness begins to take its toll. Having other people to talk to and seek advice from is vital to maintaining a healthy mental state however. I notice even in myself that I can wildly swing from being happy to discouraged without someone to confide in. The film The Martian gets its psychological horror from this, as you see Matt Damon’s character constantly struggle mostly on his own without help. He keeps a positive attitude basically through sheer willpower and determination. One thing that I disagree about in the movie is how effective perseverance against loneliness is as Matt Damon sort of chooses to ignore the hardships and constantly move forward. But I guess that’s why it is a movie and not a true story.
Privacy in Black Mirror
Privacy on the internet is a question that has hit society’s collective moral consciousness recently, but the episode of Black Mirror delved deeper into what is privacy in an age with constant recordings. In the episode, an implant has been invented which records everything that you see, hear, and do. These “memories” can then be replayed whenever you want. The episode begins with a job interview which goes poorly. Afterwards, the main character is asked by his friends to replay what happened in the interview on a screen for everyone to see. Normally, we are able to keep private embarrassing experiences, but if we are able to replay these experiences should we be obligated to? Later in the episode a character reveals that he uses his “memories” of previous one night stands as pornography. This raises the question if recordings are constant, how are people able to consent to being recorded. It seems like the characters in the episode have come to accept it as a fact of life that everything can be seen again. That would be an unfortunate state of affairs if that is what happens in the future. Privacy needs to be protected and treated as a right for everyone. As technology advances the complexities of privacy increase, but this doesn’t change its importance to people. Privacy will never be the same since Facebook and other social media websites have altered they way we live our lives, nevertheless it is important to protect what we have and find ways to responsibly move into the future.