What is Really Eating Gilbert Grape?

 

Genre: drama, romance, tragedy

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? is the title. That is a pun. A pun is a line that has two meanings. We often use puns for titles. Shakespeare loved puns. 

1.      What is eating you? It means “What is bothering you?”

2.    His last name is Grape. Grape is a food that we eat.

3.    Alliteration. Repeat the first letter. We often do this for a title.

The movie is set in Iowa. That is in the middle of America. The writer is Peter Hedges. All of his books are about Iowa.

America has 50 states. I have been to 45 states. I have never been to Iowa.

 

We have two different Americas. Middle America and Coastal America.
Middle America is more conservative and poor.

Coastal America is more liberal, better educated and richer.

The Director is from Denmark. So we have an outsider’s view of American society.

Johnny Depp is doing the narration at the start.

This is DiCaprio’s second movie. He was nominated for an Oscar for his acting.

1993.

The reason the mother became so upset is the father committed suicide (killed himself). It is not so clear in the movie. But it is important in the book, because he couldn’t escape the sad, boring life in the small town. Now, Gilbert feels the same.

One other thing. Arnie is afraid to go in the basement. The reason is because his dad killed himself in the basement.

What’s eating Gilbert Grape? Means what is bothering him. There are many annoying things.

1.      Fat mother

2.    Simple (retarded) brother

3.    Obnoxious little sister

4.    Boring life in a small town that he cannot escape

5.    Dead father leaving him all the responsibility of a family he did not make or create

6.    Jealous older lover that is getting weirder and weirder

Another common theme in literature and film is called socio-economic reality.

We are controlled a lot by our job, education and how much money we make. Poor people may have less freedom because they can’t pay for the lives and things easily

 

Film Class: Random

 

Homework: Answer the five questions.

1. Why has the old sherriff grown disillusioned? Explain.

2. Why might the coin tosses in No Country for Old Men be connected to the idea that life is random or meaningless? Explain.

3. What happens to Carla Jean Moss, the wife of the film's protagonist, at the end of the film? Explain.

4. What happens to the psychotic killer, Anton Chigurh, at the end of No Country for Old Men? Imagine.

5. How are we surprised by the protagonist Llewelyn Moss? Explain.

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Grades:

40%: Final

30%: Midterm

20%: Homework. Must give me two. I will send the questions after a movie finishes.

10%: Come to class. Every hour you don’t come to class, I will deduct 1% from your grade.

Different genres: science fiction, hor

ror, comedy, Western

 

There is an important idea in film and literature, art:

Existentialism: the meaning of life

This movie is nihilistic. No meaning or god. There is no reason for things, which is called random.

Coin flip. He kills and makes decisions based on the coin.

Life is meaningless. What happens to you is random.

I won’t take breaks in this class. I want to end around 4:45 to 4:50.

Unlikely hero. This man is poor and uneducated, so we don’t expect him to do much or be great.

Protagonist: main person

Marine

Picaresque: this is a story where someone has to go on a trip. They didn’t actually want to go on the trip. Usually, they go to escape. Usually, they are poor. But they have lots of adventure, and this forms the plot / story.

Meriachi Band

Were you in ‘Nam. Vietnam. War in the 1960s.

Disillusioned: when you get old and hate the society because you have seen so many bad and crazy things; he does not believe people are good now

 

 

Notes: No Country for Old Men

 

Attendance. Just come to every class

And I will give you ten percent. If you miss an

Hour, I will deduct 1 percent. If you miss ten hours, you

Get 0%.

Homework: we will watch 6 or 7 movies. Do homework

For two movies. 20%

I want to watch different genres of movies with

Different directors. Genre: science fiction, comedy,

Horror, western (cowboy movie) cartoon, etc.

The first movie I want watch is No Country for

Old Men. It was set in 1980, but filmed in 2006. The

Director is Coen; he is Jewish / American man.

The genre is western. It is set in Texas. Notice

There is no soundtrack.

Soundtrack is the music for the movie. Why?

It is a novel. The author, Cormac McCarthy, liked to

Describe the environment a lot. The trees, the rocks,

The clouds. So I think the director wants you to

Hear the sounds of nature, so you will think about

Land.

Narration or voice 0ver. That is when someone is

Talking, but you don’t see them. You just hear a

Voice to explain what is going on.

Disillusionment. When you get old and see

A lot of bad things in your life, you start to think

Everything is no good, so try to do something good?

You give up.

I don’t take a break in this class, because I have to get

Going at 4:45 or so.

Old time: before

Sherriff: policeman in the west of America, cowboy

Policeman

We should think about the different camera shots.

Bird’s eye view camera shot

Right after he murders the police.

Who is up the sky?

Taking a Nosedive

"Under the Bridge," by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, was directed by Gus van Sant. Living under a bridge represents hitting rock bottom. The location is standard for homeless people.

Know these words and phrases for the Final Exam, which is next Tuesday: master cut, existentialism, what's eating you?, go to pot, spaghetti Western, plot, characters, climax, pun, adultery, basement, protagonist, revenge, vengeance, couple of, fear, culturally, set in, personality, explain, silly, shallow, paragraph, sentences, mentally disabled, twist of fate, epiphany, in a nosedive / in a tailspin, disparity, dystopia, traitor, annoying

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The test is next week. I will send the vocabulary tonight.

It’s the same format as the midterm. I will do Inglourious Basterds, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, American Beauty and Nosedive.

Nosedive is today’s movie. The genre is science fiction.

Nosedive is literally when the airplane is crashing nose or head first. As a metaphor, it means our life is suddenly having a lot of problems.

We also say “in a tailspin” using the airplane as a metaphor for the same meaning.

This movie is about the negative influence social media has on our lives. First, it is making us really superficial or shallow, because it is based on how we look and saying silly things.

Because it has hurt or influenced people’s ability to focus for a long time, nobody can read books anymore.

The sad thing is people really care about getting “likes” or approval from other people on social media. But we cannot control how others feel about us We can only control how we feel about ourselves. People feel safe to say mean, cruel, unfriendly things on social media.

 

Pay attention to the clothes and homes. They are almost always pastel and of a solid/plain pattern. This represents the shallow or superficial personality we gain from using social media all the time.

That is what they call “famous” people on social media: “influencers.”

 

The Court Jester: the King’s personal clown

Everyone must kiss the King’s butt and tell him how great he is or get killed.

The only person that can tell the King the truth and much B.S. (bulls*&^) he is would be the Court Jester

Psychological problem: in denial (when you don’t want to see or think about the trut

h)

Lie and be fake to be successful.

Tell the truth to be a loser.

 

I’m still looking for “that.”

What is “that?”

Searching for meaning in life: existentialism.

 

No schlep is Yiddish, the old Jewish language, for b.s. or nonsense.

What does under the bridge represent? Absolute low point in existence in terms of comfort.

Under the Bridge. Two famous songs about this: Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

 

Why did she take her clothes off? Metaphor. She’s naked. She’s not hiding.

 

The genre is science fiction. Whenever the story is set in the future, it is science fiction. What the writers of science fiction often do is show us how the world is going to be a terrible place later: This is called a dystopia. It is a common theme in this genre.

 

 

Go to Pot

 

Musicians have this idea called catch and release. It is from fishing. We catch the fish for sport but let it go instead of killing and eating it.

In music, it is when music is terrible on purpose so that the later, sublime, great music will even sound more beautiful.

Master cut / shot: Camera does not move. Things come in and out of the shot.

Idiom: “going to pot”    You try to be handsome/beautiful, charming, fit and healthy, dress well, etc. so you can find a husband/wife. After you get married, you don’t have to worry about this anymore. You can be fat, lazy, a slob dresser.

 

 

If you go to small towns in America, the downtown part is deserted. Not many people go there. Every small town has a street called Main Street. The reason is the big stores like Walmart (that sell cheap garbage that we don’t need anyway – materialism) or Costco, etc. buy up the cheap land out of town to build stores. The people go there because it is easy to park, cheap, they can buy everything in the same place, etc.

Irony: we think something is going to happen while something else is really happening; there is another meaning we missed

The Phoenix is reborn from a fire to a better, second life. Is this a tragedy. They are free now. The mother was a burden.

Trapped in a Small Town

 

Homework:

1.              How is Inglourious Basterds a movie about revenge?

2.              How has the director changed history in Inglorious Basterds?

 

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I didn’t put up a homework assignment last week. I will do that tonight.

I did say everyone can have 20%/20% on the homework part.

Some ideas about What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

It takes place in Iowa in a small town. Iowa only has one city: Des Moines 212,000 population.

1.              Xenophobia: fear of outsiders or strangers. Arnie gets excited though when he sees the campers.

2.              Socio-economic disparity. People in big cities have more money than people in small towns. Most people in small towns never get the chance to go to university. They will feel bitter because they feel they can’t get away or escape.

3.              Mentally disabled brother.

4.              The director is a foreigner. Swedish. Foreigners or first generation (your parents are foreigners) tend to make the greatest directors. Why? Because they grow up knowing they are different and constantly thinking identity. This is called existentialism, or the meaning of life.

5.              Their father killed himself in the basement. That is why Arnie is afraid of it.

6.              This was a theme in American Beauty. Adultery. Sleeping with someone besides your husband or wife. Why do they do it? Does it has something to do with the hopelessness and boredom of life in that small town? Existentialism. Why are we here and what is the meaning of life? It is a common idea in literature, film and art.

7.              He was trapped in the small town. He can’t escape. Is she trapped in the marriage? Is that what she feels?

Twist of fate is a surprise ending – a conclusion to a novel or movie we did not expect. Why do we care? We are watching a movie about history. So, if we know our history, we already know what is going to happen in the end. The director Polanski said music should not match the scene or guide the viewers emotions because then the viewer does NOT have to think. He/she can space out.

 

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

Pun: when the title of a book or movie / play has two meanings. Shakespeare loved puns

Gilbert’s surname is Grape or food. We eat grapes. What’s eating you? Means what is bothering you.

Red in literature symbolizes blood and foreshadows death. What is that genre?

Tragedy.

Jealousy is a green eyed monster.

Green symbolizes jealousy.

What fairy tale is going on here?

Foot fetish.

He is afraid he will go on trial after the war and go to jail. Usually, the top guys committed suicide (killed themselves). Some escaped but were later caught by Jewish special agents. This guy is worried this will happen to him.

Catch and release is more of an idea in writing music. The music goes from very loud and even annoying to beautiful and relaxing. John Coltrane’s These Are some of my Favorite Things or Nirvana’s Aneurysm.

Spaghetti Westerns

 Questions for American Beauty Homework:

1. Why do you think the neighbor is so homophobic? Explain.

2. Why does the mother commit adultery?

3. Why is the movie called "American Beauty?"

1.            I forgot to put up the questions from last week. I will do that tonight.

2.            I used to punish students who used AI to write. But I realize I didn’t say I would do this before class started. I also realize that it the way writing will be now. So, in the future, I need to change how I give scores. I can’t do that in the middle of a semester. The homework is 20 percent of the final grade. I will give everyone a full score on this (20 percent).

It was dangerous for French women to date German soldiers, because the French people saw them as traitors. In Holland, they shot the traitors (the men). The women had their heads shaved so everyone would know they were traitors. The narrator is Samuel L. Jackson. 

I wanted to show The Shining, but my external DVD player is not responding. I will get a new one and we can watch it later.

1.        Why is the father so homophobic? Violently homophobic?

Inglorious Basterds are a special unit in the American army during World War II. For America, WWII is 1941 to 1945.

For Europe, WWII is 1939 to 1945.

For Asia, WWII is 1937 to 1945. Actually, 230,000 Taiwanese people died. They fought in the Japanese army.

My wife’s grandpa fought for Japan. My grandpa was a pilot. He bombed the airport in Kaohsiang on July 7, 1945.

Germany murdered 7,000,000 Jewish people. This unit is ten Jewish soldiers; they are specialists. Even though it is WWII, this is still like a cowboy movie.

Spaghetti westerns. Cowboy movies made in Italy.

There is an idea in story telling called the allegory. If you show a famous image, you don’t need to explain. Everyone will know the meaning.

 

Technicolor is an old style of filming, when we first had color movies and not black and white movies. It started around the 1950s. A lot of famous directors still preferred black and white film then as there is more depth.

Jim Bridger was an Indian fighter.

1756 to 1763, England and France were at war in Europe. But both countries had colonies in North America. So there were fighting in North America too. Some Indian tribes fought for France and some for England there. They told the Indians they would pay them for killing French/English.

Tarantino is paying homage to the Italian/spaghetti westerns.

Anachronism: something is wrong based on time and the years

“He went yard.” Home run

The actor was adlibbing.