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American Film 
It was interesting to know that scandals in the film business started from a long time ago. Even before films were under the first amendment right, newspapers wrote a lot about celebrity scandals. The exaggeration of newspapers on what was happening made the film business worse. People felt that everyone in the film business were crazy and had a bad reputation. There were a lot of threats against the film makers so they decided to improve their image by setting some rules. One fact that surprised me is many of the films that are considered to be the start of classic american films, were not directed by American people. Karl mentioned in class many examples, but the most famous example he mentioned is Charlie Chaplin,which is actually from the UK. In today’s class Karl talked about “Gone with the wind”, “Citizen Kane”, “Casablanca”, “A place in the Sun”, and “The Sound of Music”. I found these movies really interesting and made me want to watch all of them as soon as possible. Karl discussed that most of the films were long-length films and comparing it to today films they are really slow. Although I’m not a fan of long movies, but i’ll try my best to watch them. “The Sound of Music” trailer we watched in class was really interesting, I liked how the film was shot, edited, and written. The background story of the movie Karl explained really surprised me. The image of Austrian people was not portrayed right according to Karl, since his descent are from there he found the film was not representing the true image of Austrian culture.
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Comment on “Gone with the Wind”
In the class, Karl showed us the five movies that many film teachers show in third film classes. And when we watched the trailer of “ Gone with the wind”, Karl mentioned that the kissing scene in the movie looked like a man is raping a woman. That made me think like “how do Japanese dramas or films depict a kissing scene between a man and a woman ?”.
And what I think is that many kissing scenes in Japanese dramas and films are men’s characters kiss women’s characters without asking or men aggressively kiss women. There are few kissing scenes in which women’s characters actively kiss men’s characters. Furthermore, there is a trend in Japanese young generation which is “Kabe-don ( A situation in which a man slams his hand against the wall, pinning a girl against it, and kisses the girl)”. The situation looks like a woman is threatened and forcibly trapped by a man, but young Japanese girls like the approach of men. I think culturally Japanese women think they are supposed to be passive and shouldn’t be aggressive against men, so many Japanese women think men who a little aggressively kiss women are not raping women. Therefore, kissing scenes in Japanese films and dramas often have men’s characters who make a move before women’s characters agree to do so.
It was a surprising discovering that I first didn’t question about the kissing scene in “Gone with the Wind” because I could realize that my judgment about kissing scenes are unconsciously controlled by my culture
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Here is where a discussion becomes interesting! You raise a good point! Probably American women until the mid of the sixties had similar feelings like Japanese women. They moved mostly in strictly confined gender roles which expected men to be dominant meanwhile women to be submissive (often against their nature).
Since end of the Sixties, American society has gradually freed these roles (at least legally), trying to give equal power to everyone. As a consequence, old film scenes are seen by young, educated people as “rapey”. Also, older movies often portray women tending to the extreme ideas of “Sunrise”, either supporting (wife) or destroying (sexy affair) a man.
I would like to hear many opinions from my students concerning this topic during the process of this course.
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My mother is a big fan of Gone with the Wind, and I watched it several times with her. When I saw the kissing scene, I didn’t think that she is almost raped because personally, both Scarlett and Rhett are characteristically aggressive, stubborn, and sometimes they cannot control themselves. Sometimes Rhett is twisted around Scarlett’s little finger, and at the same time, Scarlett seems to be a pushover. Therefore, when I watched the kissing scene, I could understand that Scarlett doesn’t reject the kiss, rather the kissing scene looks like little more romantic for me. In fact, they fall in love and get married on the second half of the story.
Considering the gender role around 1930th, the kissing scene in Gone with the Wind clearly shows how men deal with women as a sexual object. Men were more dominant than women, and women were always an object to be protected by men. I am not sure this stereotypical gender role completely applies to Scarlett (personally she looks like a stronger or much more aggressive woman compared to other women characters), but at least in this scene, Rhett is dominant on physically and psychologically.
I think since the 1960th, many films deal with women’s rights as one of the significant messages. For instance, I really remember the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967 dealing with this issue. Bonnie and Clyde were real existing persons around 1930th, and in the film, Bonnie was represented as a strong and independent woman. She fights with a gun to protect herself with her own and sometimes claims equality on an economical point. Her brave actions refer that women are not in men’s dominance anymore, or women should be treated as the same as men.
Film making always reflects on social movements and public opinions, and it makes movies more interesting!
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I’m not sure if this is the place to comment on the UN film screening, but I’ll comment anyway. There were a number of aspects about the film that I enjoyed, but also those that I felt the film could have done better.
First, the pros. I enjoyed seeing the Somali migrants being portrayed in a positive light. I enjoyed their progression as individuals that the audience bears witness to. For example, they are first shown as timid and shy in a group situation. They later become a unit and a team that is able to obtain a skill as difficult as ice skating. I also thought the filmmakers did a good job by introducing the audience to the personal lives of some of the players, for instance the man who calls his mother and keeps her up-to-date on his progress and problems. This is relatable to individuals in the audience who have good relationships with their mothers. But it can also be applied to people who have good relationships with anyone and choose to be open about their lives.
There were, however, a number of issues that I would like to have seen addressed in the film. The film is terribly biased, no matter how one looks at it. This bias is apparent in the title of the film, “Nice People” and does not give the audience incite as to why a large number of Swedes do not approve of the growing numbers of migrants in their country; It simply labels them as racists or fear mongers. Yet, according to the Pew Research Center, a 2016 Global Attitudes Survey found that 57% of the Swedish population feel that the growing number of refugees will increase terrorism, with 40% saying it will not increase the likelihood of attacks. In another Global Attitudes Survey, when it came to the approval of the EU in regards to the refugee crisis, an astonishing 88% of Swedes polled disapproved, with only 10% approving. This was the second highest disapproval rating, only being surpassed by Greece with a 94% disapproval rating. On other issues such as Syrian refugees, it seemed like Swedish opinion differed and I wanted to understand these numbers and why people in Sweden felt this way. These are very important issues and I felt the film could have done much more to address them.
Here’s a link to the Pew Research Center statistics:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/16/european-opinions-of-the-refugee-crisis-in-5-charts/
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I also enjoyed the screening of Nice People. I do however, have to agree with you on the issue of how biased the movie really was. The Swedish were really underrepresented in the movie as a whole which I think is wrong considering the fact that the whole reason this team exists is due to migrant programs created by the government.
On another note I feel that the documentary was rather forced and felt fake at times. The managers of the team had distinct personalities that felt at times overblown and exaggerated. I think that a more impartial film on the subject would have brought a better light to the struggle of immigrants. This documentary is too short sighted and only serves as a sort of chest pounding pat on the back feel good flick more inline with Cool Running than that of a serious documentary.
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I had top reply with one more thing that I almost forgot about. That was that helps make my argument of a more “acted” then real documentary. That is of the Chinese business man it is so obvious that he is being facetious at times that it really detracts from the rest of the scenes. Also the whole bandy stick trading for the free goal where we see the pr manager throwing sticks over the fence looked really bad and faked.
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Our next subject in class is going to be exploitation films and there are a few I really wanted to talk about. The exploitation films were films that may have originated as something to stereotype African Americans but actually proved in many cases to be a source of empowerment to them. One of the most popular blaxploitation films is Black Dynamite, a movie about stereotypical exploitation tropes that was acted, directed, and written by intelligent black men and women. It is a modern spoof about these older films and is well worht seeing. It intentionally included poor production values to match the older films. There are scenes where you can see the boom mic including a scene where the boom mic hits the main character, Black Dynamite, in the head. Also, whenever a car crashes or suffers damage they use the same scene of a car driving off a cliff. It becomes obvious when you notice the car is a different color or the car was nowhere near a cliff. I don’t want to spoil the movie but the film includes every I would consider a typical story in such films. This includes gang drama and kung fu battles.
On another note, I wanted to ask a question. Do horror films that are filled with gore count as exploitation films? The main aspect of fear in these movies is the gross out effect. I forget the name of the movie but a few years ago I watched one of the first “gross out” films. It is hard to pick out its genre since it was not a horror film. It was a French film where wealthy men that wanted to commit suicide met together and just cooked good food and kept eating and eating until they died from over eating. With a movie like that, is it exploiting gore in order to increase the sales of the film? These films are almost never scary and rely on either peoples fear of the situation or peoples interest in seeing these situations.
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I agree with Sancha’s opinion. In Japanese dramas, even though the woman is upset with the man, if the man kisses her passionately, nice music comes up and most of the time she forgives him. Also, if the man’s status is higher than the heroine’s, often, he has an aggressive personality. Sometimes this type of aggressive man is called “Doesu” in Japan. This word comes from “extremely sadistic”, but I think the word is milder in Japan. Usually, this “Doesu” man becomes the heroine’s boyfriend. Also, this male character uses trendy gestures such as “Kabe-don”, and these gestures change every year. I think the last trendy gesture was “Ago-kui” which means lifting a woman’s chin by a man’s hand. These gestures are more apparent in the dramas and movies which target young audiences. Only trendy actors use those gestures. Comedians sometimes use trendy gestures, but it is just to make audiences laugh, so audience’s reaction is different from when they see the trendy actor do it. I think Japanese women do not find value in those aggressive gestures, and the important things for them is who uses the gesture. I read an article, and it says these trendy gestures are very catchy, and it is easy for advertising. Also, if the word is popular like “Doesu”, it is easy for audiences to understand the characters even though they do not know the origin. Sales is important for directors and companies, and those catchy gestures have a value to get attention from audiences, so I think people continually use these things.
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UN film
I joined this event to get extra points, but after watching this film, I was a glad to have a chance to watch it. Before I watched the film, I was nervous because I thought the film would have contents of tragic images. I got information about refugees from the media when the topic was spotted, and the media showed how those people are suffering there. Also, I don’t have much interest in knowing what is the refugees life like after they immigrated to some countries. Therefore, I have only a little information about refugees and I think I misunderstood them. In the film, it shows how people feel about immigrants who were refugees. Some people showed positive feelings, but some other people showed negative feelings. One person started a program to improve relationships between immigrants and people. His idea is to create a chance for immigrants to show their contribution toward the country to people. His idea was interesting and I expected this movie would be a heartwarming story. For example, I expected that immigrants would work hard and even though they would be bullied by others, they would achieve success and people would praise them. However, when the project started, they faced money difficulties, and it was realistic that he had to contacted people for their support. I was a member of the audience, so I can know he works hard to manage this project, but in the film, some people cannot appreciate what he doing. Therefore, outside of the story about immigrants, this film shows the difficulty of being a project manager. His project is to make a hockey team which is consisted of immigrants who are refugees. If this film is just about a heartwarming story, I think they do not have to show the negative side of immigrants, but they showed it in the film. After the projects started, players needed to practice hard almost every day to reach a high enough level to take on other official teams. In addition, they are not recognized by the official organization, so to be official, they need to focus more on hockey. Actually, they worked hard, but some players did not come to the practice several times. Some of those players reasons of excuse are related to their religious things such as praying. I think in this scene, it showed the thought gap between them and other people. The manager knows this project is kind of a last chance to do something and he wants to prioritize the work, but some players think their religious things are more of a priority. I think this is a cultural difference, and like this, some people feel negatively about them. This project contains those problems, but it is a success. The team did not have brilliant wins, but in a limited time, they passed the official organization’s test and became an official team. TV broadcasted how the team plays in the official games, and it affects people’s minds. Some people who at first did not willingly support them supported the team in the last part. This film shows difficulty, but people overcome the problems and have a happy ending. I have watched only the problems refugees face, so this film has given me a new impression because it shows solution. Also, I watched some Japanese films based on the fact, but most of them show difficulty very seriously and characters do not say humorous things unlike the project leader did in the UN film. Also, the UN film shows refugees as more ordinary people which does not overly exaggerate people’s personality to enhance the ending. Therefore, even using serious problem, the UN film’s story is easy to follow. I think this film event’s purpose is to shared information about the difficulty of refugees and how supporters are needed. In the film, it shows how money is used to support them. The project leader did not just give money to them, he used money to encourage them to create the team. Usually, when I heard about support for refugees, I learnt people do it for free, like a fund. However, in this film, people give their money to support the team, but they are general people, so they say they want to have a guarantee. I thought the way to support people by money should be a non-guarantee and a kind of opacity. Thus, I was surprised that not only rich people, but also general people could be supporters. After I watched this film, even though people were refugees, they did not look like what I had thought. They have different cultural backgrounds, but they are general people. I hope more people have a chance to watch this film.
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I agree with Sancha and Ken’ opinions about way of depiction of men and women. Such gestures like Kabe-don are pretty trendy in Japanese drama and films, especially those targeting young viewers. New gestures still keep being created. I found that “sode-kuru” that men roll women’s sleeves up while hugging from behind is the newest gesture what is trendy among young people. I do not know why those gestures get attention a lot, but I think that traditional idea of Japanese people, male dominance, still remain in some ways. While ago, it was said that women should walk 3 steps behind men when they walk together. Also, it was a common attitude that women should be protected, and men should take a lead. Like that idea, male dominance was thought as a preferable attitude in the past. Even though we do not that situation in streets recently, I thought that Japanese people do not feel uncomfortable about male dominance from considering the fact that gestures reminding idea of male dominance are popular in Japan today.
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With all the talk of Japanese trends to portray the woman as submissive and the man as in control is an age old idea (not that it is correct), but that it is ingrained in almost every culture as they all started the same basic way. Before modern times, the aspects that are very genetic as in men are generally bigger and stronger was key to survival, while surviving i.e. gathering food or working the farms (note that I am talking about very old times) someone would need to child rear. Thinking of these things, it was less about gender and more about the best chances of survival. With the advent of more technology the need for this dynamic lessened more and more, but people are slow to change as a society. This sounds different as people change more frequently in current years, but think of even 100 years ago. People have not change so much since then, the societal changes are rather minimal. There has been growth and understanding as a whole, but still we have large quantities of people still following old racism and bigotry standards.
A long time is still needed to get to the place that we all want to see, in the mean time movies will reflect the society and generally what is accepted at that time. Japan still struggles more than other countries in combating the male/female dynamic. If you watch older movies to newer ones in Japan, they have made some progress and if society is reflected like it normally is, then given time and trend changes a better representation and treatment will emerge.
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After we went through all the contents of this class, I started wondering why there wasn’t an animation movie? I know there are big two animation companies in the states which are Pixar and Disney, but are/were there any other animation companies in America? If not, what kinds of movies do kids (under 9 or 10) watch?
I am a Japanese and when I was a little kid, I often went to a movie theater with my parents to watch an animation movie such as Pokemon movie, Doraemon（ドラえもん） movie, Kureyon shinchan（クレヨンしんちゃん） movie, Disney movie, One Piece movie, and so on. So, I don’t remember that I watched movies where real humans act when I was a little kid. So, I got the question about what movies American kids grow up watching? Do they already start watching movies which adults also watch? I just don’t have any idea about it, so please let me know.
After thinking about it, I decided to assume that American kids grow up watching superhero movies, Harry Potter, or the Lord of the Rind, which I feel little-advanced stories for Japanese kids ages under 9 or 8. When I think those are the movies which American kids watch, I feel American kids become mature quicker than Japanese kids do. I always think that American kids can talk better than Japanese kids can when I watch an interview on News. And, now it makes sense why. Maybe because American kids watch movies which adult also can enjoy, their mentality grow up faster than Japanese kids’ mentality does. That’s what I think.
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As an American who grew up in the US, I can tell you that American kids watch pretty similar movies to Japanese kids. in fact, my mother wounds allow me to watch Harry Potter because if it’s mature content and magic, which wasn’t seen as exceptable among many religious families. The films I grew up watching where, Pixar films like Toy Story, Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid… American kids don’t become more mature then Japanese kids but they do tend to want to watch and play more mature games once they reach puberty. I grew up watching princess movies and having tea parties so don’t be confused, we still grow up with the same fantasies Japanese kids do. I do wish that this class had some animated films because there are some classics. In fact, Snow White and the Sevem Dwarfs was one of the first fully technicolor, fully animated films in the 1930’s and I think it is very important to American film. Although animation isn’t face acting, it involves a large process and voice actors that have to use their inflexes to play the role which I find very impressive. Since anime is very informant to Japanese culture, it’s important to see that animation also played a large part in the start of Disney which would become the mega motion picture power it is today. In fact, universal started as a animation company as well. Knowing the background of these large companies puts a larger perspective into how they were able to expand and grow. Now Disney own not only major animation films, but also a majority of film produced and the television market. Disney even owns ESPN! It’s crazy how all of that power can come from one little mouse, Miley mouse that is!
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Also, I apologize for the spelling errors on this one. I’m writing from my phone and I accident pressed submit before proof reading! Yikes!
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Thought we didn’t cover it much in class, the use of blackface was a very common method in the early periods of film. In the beginning of film, black face, a method of covering the actors face in black makeup, was used often to portray an African character. In the 1900’s, black face became a growing way to use popular white actors in parts they wouldn’t normally be realistic to play in. Of course in that time, painting your face black to play a different character wasn’t considered racist because African Americans still didn’t have the opportunity to have rights like the white population did. Although it may but be as obvious as blackface technics in the past, the idea of blackface has continued into modern culture. Comedy has been used as a cover up to make the use of changing races somehow expectable. There are three very popular movies that use makeup and the use of accents to create the illusion that a popular white actor is a different race or to illuminate the idea of another nationality, Zohan, Nacho Libre, and Tropic Thunder. Is it okay to use change your appearance and voice to play another race if it’s just a joke or has the joke gone to far?
The first use of black face to the mainstream public was in a film called Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1903, where all the main characters used black face to cover up their white skin. Later versions of the film had a leading black actor but the supporting roles where still played by men in blackface makeup. After the film, The Birth of a Nation, blackface was seen in a negative light as the film was not only done in poor taste but the content in the film is extremely racist in matter. By the late 1930’s the use of blackface was seen as inappropriate and films using blackface were all but gone. With the in reading civil rights movements and the black sufferage, by the 1970’s, black face films were banned in many places and some racially charged films were banned from schools and libraries.(Blackface)
Although blackface is currently seen as a deeply racist film technic, some current comedies have used a less forward form of blackface to alter an actors appearance. In the film Zohan, the Jewish comedian Adam Sandler, plays the role of a Israeli man who longs to be a hairdresser in America. Although having a Jewish guy from Brooklyn play the part of an Israeli may not be too far fetched, the strong use of stereotypes and the change to his appearance to play the part, may cause some to think this is a less direct form of the blackface technic. Along with many racial stereotypes such as all of his friends working at a used electronics store and playing hackie sac with a cat in one of the scenes, the actor has to wear dark tan makeup and a goofy looking hairdo to play the part. The film pokes fun at the stereotypes that Middle eastern people might encounter which makes it more excepted among the general audience although at the expense of the population being portrayed. Comedy plays a big role in allowing the audience to poke fun at the racially tinged remarks of the actors rather then become victimized by them although some may feel that it’s not expectable to be the bud of the jokes.
Another Jewish actor by the name of Jack Black, changed his accent and appearance to play the part of a Mexican, who works as a cook in a Catholic monastery in the film Nacho Libre. In this film, the whole cast is Mexican other then the main character. This film is based on a real life story of a Mexican catholic priest that worked as a masked lunchador for 23 years to raise money for the orphanage he directed (Nacho). Although the film uses comic relief to keep the audience smiling, the story isn’t something that should be laughed at but more honored. By having a popular white comedian play the main role, the story becomes a spoof and makes the Mexican culture laughable rather then the plot of the story.
In the film Tropic Thunder, blackface is used fully and directly but in a way that doesn’t make the culture laughable but pushes fun at the stupidity of blackface. Due to the fact that Robert Downy Juniors use of blackface in the film was set up as satire of an actors narcissistic ways, it is different from the traditional uses of blackface. This may be the reason why, upon its release in 2008, there was vertically no backlash from the public. Najee Ali, president of the Los Angeles-based civil rights group Project Islamic HOPE, said that after watching the film, he felt that it was done tastefully but could lead to more offensive portrayals.(Robert)
Although the use of full blackface makeup isn’t used in mainstream Hollywood films during this time period, white actors are still being used to play roles that aren’t their race. Comedy is being used as a method to allow the audience to forget the inconsistencies and racial stereotypes being used to make the character more realistic. The use of comedy to make stereotypes of certain cultures the main subject of a movie brings up the question of how much is to much? At what point is the film no longer laughing at stereotypes but creating them? Although the actors are not painting their faces black so it’s isn’t as apparent, are accents and appearance alterations to make the actor appear a different race any different? What do you think about this and do you think comedy has covered up for potentially racist and insensitive subjects?
Work Cited:
“Blackface in Early Film.” CineWiki, cinewiki.wikispaces.com/Blackface+in+Early+Film?responseToken=638078143705a22211f7bf43fba8a58f.
“Nacho Libre (2006).” IMDb, IMDb.com, m.imdb.com/title/tt0457510/.
“Robert Downey Jr.’s Risky Role in ‘Tropic Thunder.’” Google, Google, http://www.google.com/amp/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSN1138604020080811.
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One of the clips we saw in class was the trailer for Bone Tomahawk. This trailer got me really excited to watch it so that weekend I watched the movie which is apparently now on Netflix. Has anyone else seen this movie and what do you think? If you have not then possible spoilers ahead, so please do not read ahead until you have seen this worthwhile movie. It is a B movie in name only. It contained the star power of a major motion picture with really talented actors and actresses supporting these stars. Also, the way they used natural lighting made it to where it did not actually look like its budget affected the visual quality of the film. Often we see a sort of cheap looking aesthetic in B movies but this was not the case in Bone Tomahawk. Instead they used a mix of expert camera work, natural lighting, and beautiful landscapes. Even the many scenes in the dark or in the caves did not feel any different then big budget films. Also the story was very simple with mountain cannibals being kidnappers and the few good men in the town going out to rescue their people. What made the film stand out to me was the complicated characters, the suspenseful drama, and eventually the shock value of the cannibals. The sheriff seems like the traditional white knight style character that is duty bound to protect the town but it becomes complicated due to the relationship with his wife and knowing that he likely will not see her again when going to rescue the missing towns people. I thought it was extremely interesting that they chose to have one of the main characters, whose wife is kidnapped, a broken leg at the start of the film. This means that despite having the biggest reason to go on this mission, he is the weakest member of the group and eventually becomes a detriment to the main party. This weakness actually is what makes him become the hero of the film because he has a personal battle between his desire to save his wife and the crippling pain in his leg that is slowly killing him. Whether it is believable that he was able to defeat so many of the cannibal tribe is questionable but that fact that it is almost believable means they did an amazing job at up keeping suspension of disbelief.
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I mentioned Bone Tomahawk in another post but that was not the only film Karl’s class inspired em to watch. He got me in a frenzy to watch a lot of westerns. He does not mention it in class but the Netflix original Godless released sometime during the semester and I binged the entire season in one night. There will be no spoilers here but I wanted to discuss certain parts of how they framed the story. I will not spoil it but it is a western that had a lot of the the key elements of a western that we discussed in class. There is a character in the film that felt like a more honorable or sympathetic version of Jesse James which was interesting but the really unique part is the female characters. The series takes place in a town that recently had all their men die in a mining accident which has left the town in the care of all their widowed wives. All these women are forced to adapt in their own way and eventually become extremely strong characters in their own way. These women are extremely diverse characters from the southern belle type character, the reformed whore, the butch woman, and a gunslinger girl just to name a few. The series even goes as far to add a lesbian romance element.
Also since I have seen a lot of the modern remakes of the films we discussed in the western section of class I decided to go back and re watch the modern version and then watch the older version for the first time so I can compare the too. The original True Grit was really good but honestly I loved the modern version way more. It may be because the star power of the modern version appeals to me more than the star power of the older version. The Magnificent Seven has two films with very similar stories but wildly different feeling to the film. The original felt like a very emotional film where as the new version seemed like a high action and entertaining popcorn flick. Both had very strong acting with really famous and relevant actors but one major bonus as far as casting goes for the new one is the diverse ethnicity of the characters.
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