Forrest Gump

For my chosen film, I have selected Forrest Gump. This is an extremely influential film, and while the main character and story line are fictitious, the national events that take place during this time are very important to American history. Such memorable events as the Vietnam War, assassination of Bill Clinton, the Watergate scandal, and the success of Elvis in world media easily illustrates the importance of icons and values at this time.

The simplicity of the Gump has become innovation in the way American’s are viewed. While Gump is treated as slow and generally ‘stupid’ character, he displays a sense intellect adopted from his mother, which helps him to gain success and popularity within American society. In this way, Gump becomes a national celebrity becoming the essence of the American character to the rest of the world. The need for icons and success is just one of the film’s themes or motifs.

The film also exhibits debates about racism in America, mentioning the first time Africans attempting to get into an all white school, and mentions the Black Panthers fighting against the conscription of working-class ‘blacks’, the first time they were able to properly fight with their white counterparts. It shows the progression of the civil rights movements and Americas hostility to such changes in the South specifically. It is also interesting to mention that the first character introduced after Gump is a ‘black’ women in a nurses outfit. Her first words are- ‘My feet hurt,’ displaying many of the signs of hard work exhibited in Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed. Gump immediately goes n to talk about the origins of his name as a relation to General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. This irony of prejudices and innocence together comes together for a very interesting outlook on life from Gump’s perspectives.

It was difficult to find a review which didn’t look at the film as merely a piece of fictional drama. This http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdsMqRaz2WY shows the movie trailer that shows the fictional character in so many well known and important events in American history. I chose this review http://www.reelviews.net/movies/f/forrest.html because it illustrated exactly what was felt by so many audiences- ‘the naiveté that comes through a limited understanding of the world around him gives Forrest a uniquely positive perspective of life,’ one which many people would languish over.

I feel that this film has not only mastered the technology that allows the character to be imbedding in some of America’s most significant footage, but it also gives an important message to us all. Gump continues through his life, never really questioning anything or anyone. Maybe this is why he is continually is innocently unaware of racism and the point of war, never questioning it. Gump has captured everyone and shown what we should perhaps aspire to rather than frown upon.

Overall feel this is a masterpiece in film making, and in the retelling of America’s modern history.

Glory

I thought it might be a good idea to discuss Glory as we have all seen this film hopefully in class on Wednesday just gone. I personally felt that if you got past the bad acting and cheesy scenes that it was a great film that dipics the "black man's struggle to fight for his own freedom"

There are reasons that it is not factually accurate and so this must be taken into account, i thought a very interesting scene was when the black soldiers from mass 54 refused pay. This would have drastic measures on the soldiers family as they also more then likely would be struggling to make money wherever they might be. It shows the commitment of all the soldiers to want to fight for there own freedom but also pay tribute to the white men who where truly also fighting to free the blacks.

In the last two weeks we have looked at a film to see if we can learn something about American history.. it might be idea to put forward the question by Richard Bernstian " can movies teach history?"

Final Blog

Hello all.

I'm not sure who is doing the blog this final week, but however it is, could they post either today or in the early afternoon tomorrow, please.

I don't want to have to do it Tuesday morning, especially because this is such an important one.

Thank you, and sorry for complaining.

Howdy folks.

How exciting! This is your final opportunity to wow me with your magnificient blogposts....and of course this will contribute to 20% of your overall grade for this module, so make sure to put a good effort into this.

Task for the week:

Lead poster/s: select any other movie depicting an event in American History and find a website/s or a review which engages with the accuracy of its representation. Comment on the issues raised yourself.

Others – join in the discussion and comment on the film selected.

Best wishes and I'll see you folks on Tuesday,

Devon

Accuracy in Representation of United 93

This was a film a wathched a while ago and it's telling the story of United Flight 93. This was the other aircraft in the 9/11 attack that crashed in Pennsylvania after tha passengers stormed the plane.
The cast where actually given studies of their real-life counterparts in order to make the film more realistic.
http://paloaltoonline.com/movies/moviescreener.php?id=002353&type=long
http://www.reel.com/movie.asp?MID=141935&buy=open&Tab=reviews&CID=13#tabs
I looked at two reviews that seemed to be the most prolific in glorifying the film because I strongly agree with them. The film was so well done that at no point did I forget that I was watching almost a documentary rather than a hollywood style movie. I remember exactly where I was when it happened and a saw the second plane hit on the news as it happened ind for about 2 mins everyone in the room thought we were watching a movie as we wearn't paying attention to start with. This film almost re-created the feelings I had then and it's so well done that no-one can argue that it's just a soulless attempt to make money from a tragedy.
Jeanne Aufmuth's description is perfect - Harder to express is the sense of rage the film generates, a bitter pill of bile that forms at the sight of terrorists who murder innocent victims in the name of their god. Their humanitarian abyss left me a mess of tears, shaking hands and hollow heart. This is a violently expressive view of a film that deserves nothing else and Goldstein's conclusion summerises just how hard it was to make the film right, no emphasis on blame or opinion, just facts.
The two reviews, though agreeing in the excellence of the film a written in different ways, hence why I'm using both. One was a portrayel of fact and style, the other, a story of emotion and personal conflict.