Skinned Alive

These are my notes on Redskin

Haha Special effects. Yeah ladies I can take out a cigarette from 30 paces!

Quick! Hide the kids! It's the catholics! I couldn't imagine having to hide my children from a group of people who took over my land and were no demanding my offspring. History definetly repeats itself when we don't learn from it. If we keep fresh in our minds the devastation we've caused to other cultures in our attempts to conform them to "Western Standards" we find ourselves acting against our better judgement today in places like Iraq.

Heh political plug.. Excuse me.

The transition from color to shades of grey in a yellow hue must have been intentional. I didn't know that it was so popular.

This boarding school is such a soft reflection of what they were probably like. This seems more like baby boomer boarding school then an institution reflecting military standards. Are we trying to promote the idea that standardized de-culturization was ok here?

Oh good he grows up to be Mr. Smith goes to Washington. I just saw an american flag transition. He the Anglo-Indian success story. I really hope I'm just being built up on a high note before things start to turn downward.

Man aristocratic parties look like a blast though. Jesus right up until the all out mockery with the indian dance. Then feeling threatened all the white people oust him immediately. I talked about this yesterday, we're so primitive in groups.

One of the truest things I've seen in this movie is how unconscious the white people are of their racism. White characters today are either super conscious of race or cross lines for comedic value. I don't feel like we show the subversive racism of white people.

There's also an race lines between the Navajo and Pueblo indians. These characters seem, to my limited knowledge about the time and the people on both sides of the cultural divide, to be accurate. I guess it's because this movie was current when it was released and most everything else I've seen about the time period was loaded with anachronisms.

On a side note: I'm trying to get a belt I made from a collegiate trophy. That's money!

Ahh geeze our main character comes home and denounces the weight his white appearance and schooling on his sense of identity and then is asked to dress up for his father to show he is still Pueblo. That must have been one of the longest sighs in the movie thus far. The forced costume does add a layer of complexity to the scene where he rejects the position of medicine man though.

There's inaccuracy in the portrayal of the Pueblo people. They wouldn't have refused agricultural technique of white settlers so much. Many groups of Pueblo people had advanced forms of farming before white settlers arrived and many worked for whites on farms well before 1920. Do-Adtin proposal to teach them what he had learned from whites wouldn't have been out of place at all. In fact since the 1800's there had been a mass blending of indigenous and christian religion, comprised of native tradition and both books of the bible.

I suppose the scene wouldn't have been as dynamic as it was with all historical accuracy.

Overall this movie is dramatically captivating. Players say the kindest things before they say the most hurtful, or the worst thing happens to the characters before grace is revealed. It makes the impact great and it attaches the viewer to the characters. Seeing them at their best and worst, when they crack from stress, sink into self conflict or feel relief from burden develops the character for the audience and that keeps us interested.

I think a large amount of movies don't play to the broader range of human emotion that these films do. There's "Feel good" or "Pure Horror" or depressing pictures that drone on, usually on one tone throughout the whole movie. What I'm saying is that I'll often feel only one thing as I watch movies where as RedSkin actually does manipulate my feelings like that "Roller coaster ride" cliche that I see so often in the review.

On another hand, there are many movies that swing me right round, but it's in a forced way. Scenes in dramatic movies may be so strong that I'm either repulsed by the intensity or wrapped in a blanket crying for three days.

Snatched

These are my notes for January 26

I don't know why I didn't suspect that an American Film and Culture class would contain a section on American Indians.

Haha the main character got spam mail in the first few minutes! Just sign up for our magazine subscripting to receive 1 million dollars!!! It's a long tradition I guess.

Woah I was not ready for this! We got Shakespeare really quickly. This seems pretty tragic though, there's definitely irony here. No one besides the main character knows that it was suicide except for the main character and even he must not know that she's still alive.

The inaccuracies are startling. There are three chiefs in this village according to the eagle feather bonnets, but there wasn't a single discussion about the proper course of action. Bad Depiction...

Ok now kill your father on the count of three! We're indians we do this all the time. If you don't we're gunna have to dance! 100 years later there would have been a casino joke in this movie. I don't think that White Fawns honorable suicide makes up for how salience of the racism. If anything I find that the stereotype of the Noble Red Man shines a prettier light, but its tinder by prejudice nonetheless.

Oh god, I don't know what I would do if the girl I wanted belonged to a matador. Seems like it would be a hard angle to work. I'll give Alessandro one thing though, great timing and skill with a lute!

I don't really like when the text has to explain key elements in the movie. I feel that if you're film has to be without dialogue then you should rely on your pictures to tell the story. When they finally come together though it's pretty well told.

How did they shoot looking over the cliff towards the village? Was that a screen or an actual cliff?

It would be hard to describe the massacre of your people without words I feel like. I'm glad that our main character has the sense enough to keep the girl. Other characters I feel would have too much conflict and reject her after the trauma.

There's Catholic practice in many of the scenes of this movie. I wonder what a woman like ramona would think of christian religion after being deceived most of her life about her heritage only to be persecuted for a marriage to an indian man.

The idea of property is a main theme of this movie. It still staggers me that in any of the many circumstances in which foreigners came into a place already inhabited, they claimed ownership based on laws that should not have applied to a sovereign nation of people. My conclusion based on this practice is that in groups we are still very primitive. As individuals we can easily adapt to coexistence but as a group we seek to dominate any party that we perceive as a threat. When our actions as a collective are examined I find people to be more primitive than individuals.

Some of these shots have a magnificent background. The landscapes are allowed to occupy a lot of the shot. It seems like there's always something towering over the couple. This movie ended as the relationship ended after Alessandro is killed. In both of these movies the viewer is left with a morbid sort of hope. We are reminded that nothing really ended, tomorrow will come and we will have to work with what we've got.

From the Watchtower

Here are my notes on Within our Gates.

Of the first things I noticed was how light skinned the two women were in comparison to the artists in black face that we saw in birth of a nation. I wonder if even in this film if the stereotype of good skim (lighter complexion) is present.

This director takes time and switches camera shots to show expressiveness in the characters. There is greater care taken here then in previous films.

I love early 20's underworld characters. There's something so wholesome about their grimy doings. Plus I like everything they do in saloons, thats where I would have spend my time.

The pianist has a real sense of soul. This scene in the saloon is an awesome combination of ragtime and classic opera.

Ah I love that they show how he was cheating. Movies that don't show the method are soft and bother me. Too bad about Red though. "It's strange but every time I pass this pawnshop I remember red"!!! Awesome! Long live Red!

In the first shot of Dr. Vivian they shoot him sitting at a distance then fade into a closer shot. Did they not have focus? How did they do that fade? I don't recall seeing another one like it. I thought all the transitions were just cuts.

Saved your purse from a burglar! Classic move. He's getting the girl for sure.

Seeing a group of men rush into to pick up a woman who has fallen on the ground is something that you just don't see anymore. Then again the ad in the paper said that allowing black people to vote is unconscionable. What a strange time, on one end people are so polite, on the other, Americans of a darker complexion aren't considered deserving of basic human rights and are occasionally lynched. This movie reminds me that people can and sometimes must ignore critical analyzation of their core beliefs to construct their idea of reality.

I didn't predict that Rev Ned was going to have an introspective side. He knows he's sold his soul and regrets it on some level. These characters are deeper then on the other films. I felt that previous portrayals were of symbolic characters, like virgin daughter or bank robber. These characters seem more like their own individuals as they muse to themselves and dream.

How much was 50,000 dollars worth in 1920!!!! Woah.

All the players still have their hair done to look like white people. It's part of that same "good skin" stereotype I think. It's like they learned from an early age not to value their natural appearance, as if it were ugly compared to whites. I don't think it's just a style of the time considering that it's still very much popular style. That is to have straight hair and a lighter skin tone.

I need to make up an official story of my life so that I can have flashbacks. I also hope that sometime people give me a title like:

"Nick Tasche, scholar, aristocrat and owner of the neighboring lands." I'll wear the title better.

There is another fade cut of Efrim (sp?) when a slide of himself being hanged appears at about half opacity as if he was envisioning his own demise. There's artistry here. Gruesome and tragic scenes are represented indirectly by focused shots on the elements involved in the act. The plot twist at the end of Sylvia's story was well constructed and conveyed. Cutting back to Sylvia's friend Alma after the quick cuts between the struggle and the fire brought the story back to its original setting in an exciting way.

Births and Blossoms.

These are my notes from yesterday. I'll probably do a more organized post later.

We started Broken Blossoms with 20 mins left of an 88 minute film. The context was that a young white girl, who had been the victim of domestic abuse, has been saved by a chinese man. So wow, through me into a boiling pot of early 20th century culture soup.

She wakes up and they begin to interact. Their relationship moves fast, and is accompanied by an ever evolving score.

There's a full symphony at work behind the piece, it features sweeping piano movements and segments dominated by simple woodwind melodies. A few times the music reminds me of a wind up ballerina. I think this film could be compared to that little metal roller that creates the tunes. Every element of the film is simple in itself. There's no grand shots or even effects, but it all comes together sweetly.

Every so often there is a text slide that explains things in an poetic style that separates it from synopsis. I don't feel that the messages are needed as much as they're used. The action in each shot seems more than expressive enough. The story isn't hard to follow at all even though it's silent.

They really build the chinese shop owner's character as a kind and wonderful person, but because of the lecture I keep thinking about people getting Shanghai'd so i expect her to be eating a heroin cooky or something.

What was the quote? Battling hates nothing more than people who weren't born in his country? Tyson would be proud of a quote like that. Boxing used to be pretty awesome though. I also like how the hue changes from lavender to yellow between the two scenes, and the antagonist music is more than up to par. If I ever need to make a bad guy plot montage I know where to steal the tunes from.

I heard that the leader of the KKK is called the Grand Imperial Wizard. I won't be able to get that out of my head throughout the whole viewing of Birth of a Nation. Again the hue in the picture is changed for different scenes. This time there's red though...sweet.

This film reminds me that you can use triumphant marching music for any occasion. At times it doesn't match the shot at all.

Did they really paint that many extras faces or did they use at least a few actual black people?

Did the white girls father get stabbed in the heart by the poorly paint black man? This action is much harder to follow. I got it all figured out by the 1812 overture though. It's a white supremacists dream. Black people rise up to terrorize whites because of their primitive nature and the Klan shows up just in time for a fully justified massacre.

The irony here is, while I don't recall a situation where black Union soldiers terrorized southern whites, I can think of at least one or two situations in which innocent black people were terrorized and murdered in the south.