Class and Virtue

This essay by Michael Parenti talks about the way Hollywood shows class distinctions in the movies and promotes the lifestyles of the upper class. I can’t really relate to any of the movies that Parenti is talking about because I haven’t seen any of them. However, I think I’ve heard enough things about the movie Pretty Woman to understand what he is talking about in the essay. He talks about how the character played by Julia Roberts, works as a prostitute and is hired to by a rich businessman to be his girlfriend for a month. The job is a dream come true for her, but she doesn’t really know how to act the part of a rich girlfriend because she comes from a lower class background. She learns how to talk, dress and act in a way more suitable to the upper class and suddenly the rich man finds himself actually falling in love with her. This shows that Hollywood movies do typically promote the values of the upper class. Because as soon as Julia Roberts character transformed into an upper class citizen she got everything she wanted and lived happily ever after. I don’t think that all movies follow this same pattern, but a lot of them do tend to favor the lifestyle of the upper class.

Grey's Anatomy

Finally, Grey’s Anatomy was all new this week!! The episode was about the history from our lives coming back and what we have to do to deal with it in the present. We find out that Izzy had a daughter eleven years ago that she gave up for adoption, and her daughter was now in the hospital for cancer. She needed a bone marrow transplant and the parents wanted Izzy to donate her bone marrow because she would be a match. It was really hard for Izzy to deal with all the information at once and she didn’t know what to do. The worst part was that her daughter didn’t want to meet her. Izzy quickly changed her mind and decided to donate the bone marrow because she knew her daughter’s life was more important than meeting her right then. She knew she would eventually be able to meet her when she was ready, as long she was still alive. Although George and Izzy were fighting, George was right by her side throughout the whole procedure. He even forgot about his own wife, Callie, to take care of Izzy. I think that George and Izzy will eventually end up together because they obviously love each other. A past boyfriend who happened to also be a famous surgeon, showed up in Christina’s life in this episode. He did everything that he could to win her back, including trying to outshine Burke (Christina’s fiancée), during surgery. But she made it clear to him that she wanted to be with Burke, and he finally left. I think that our past will always come back to haunt us, but the only thing we can do is try in deal with it in the present one step at a time.

Batman

I have to say that I have never thought about Batman and queerness before reading this article. Growing up with many older boy cousins and a brother, I have been watching superhero stuff since I can remember. I don’t think that Batman and Robin have a relationship that is queer at all but I think that’s because I have been watching them for a long time without that thought ever crossing my mind. The points that the author of this article brings up are valid. For example, the fact that the only time Batman shows his body his when he is around Robin does seem a little queer. But I only think that people will make the queer connections after reading an article like this one. If someone were to watch the movie, like me, and then read the article, I don’t think they would believe that Batman is queer at all. However, if someone were to read the article first and see all the points that the author brings up, I think that their perception of the movie and Batman’s relationship with Robin might be a little swayed towards the article. I still don’t believe that Batman is queer in anyway, and the prime audience that watches these superhero films will probably agree with me. I don’t think the author is saying that batman is queer, but just stating her opinion by pointing out different things she noticed in the movie, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead

Over the past couple of days, instead of studying for my chemistry and biology exams, I decided to watch Dawn of the Dead (the new version) and Shaun of the Dead to get ideas for my research paper. Dawn of the Dead wasn’t that exciting; I definitely liked Land of the Dead better. In the movie the zombie outbreak was just happening and the people didn’t know what to do. All the main characters end up trapping themselves in the mall to hide from the zombies. I didn’t like how the zombies in this film could run! I thought zombies always walked around really slowly making loud noises, but not in this movie. Shaun of the Dead was the funny version of a zombie movie that made a lot of reference to Dawn of the Dead. Just like in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, the zombie outbreak was just beginning in this movie and the people had no idea what they were. The movie turned out better than I thought it would be. It had a love story, and it developed all of the characters really well, unlike in Land of the Dead. I’m glad I watched it because it helped me develop a lot more ideas for my paper. After watching it, I decided I wanted to write about the differences in special effects of Shaun of the Dead and Land of the Dead. Hopefully, by writing about both of these movies, I’ll have a lot to say and I won’t have to worry about the paper being too short.

October Road

Sadly, this week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy was a rerun again, so I watched October Road. This episode of October Road revealed a lot of secrets of many of the characters. Nick finds out that his dad his dating the dean of his school, who is also his boss. He also finds out that the dean had rearranged for him to come back to his hometown in the first place so he could reunite with his dad. I thought that was interesting because if it weren’t for the dean inviting him to come back and speak at the school, he would never have come back home. Another main character, Eddie, who used to be Nick’s best friend, has developed a relationship with the local bartender, Janet. Eddie has the reputation in town for dating all the “hot” girls, and Janet doesn’t really fill that hot girl term because she is a little heavier. They both have strong feelings for each other, but Eddie is scared to go out in public with Janet because he is scared of what other people say. I think that’s so sad, because Eddie is letting a good thing pass by just because of what his friends might say. Janet is a great girl, with a wonderful personality and Eddie knows that, but all he cares about is ruining his reputation of consistently dating the hot girl. I think that many people pass up great things in life like Eddie just to keep up their so-called good reputation. However, I believe that we should care less about what other people think and make our own decisions in life based on what makes up happy.

Paper Ideas

After discussing Land of the Dead in class this week, I’m still a little undecided on what I’m going to write about. The topic about the special effects sounded really interesting to write about and it also seemed like it would be easier to find information backing up the topic. I was thinking of maybe focusing on the lighting and the costumes/makeup. We discussed in class that the director used lots of darker colors to make up the background. He used colors like dark blue, grey and black in the set to create a darker mood. The only lighting or source of electricity came from the building where the rich people lived. The low lighting helped bring out the features in the zombie costumes. I never thought about how lowering the lighting would help emphasize the different parts of the costumes. I think this topic would have a lot of information and sources to help me get a good start on the paper. I can look up what goes into creating the scary looks of the zombies and how the lighting plays a major part on how they are portrayed to the audience. The other topic I am still thinking about is how gender played a role in the movie. Specifically, with the girls and how they played the stereotypical roles, like the “tomboy”. However, I think this topic is going to be harder to write about and have less sources on it. So at this point, I’m leaning towards writing about the lighting and makeup of the movie.