Here are the words / phrases for the Mid-term Exam. You will
also be asked to answer some comprehension questions. If you have watched the
movies I showed in class, it will be easy.
Lots of scary or horror movies have religious ideas. I think
it’s psychological. We were scared of church sometimes as kids. Also, we saw
how normal people looked a little crazy when they talked about their religion.
Pay attention to how they keep going in the basement. I
believe it represents hell.
Why was he wearing a blue shirt. He’s a psychiatrist.
Conformity:
a feeling that you don’t want other people to see you as different. You want to
be just the same as those around you. You do not want to be seen or laughed at.
Asia:
conformity is valued. We call this a collective society. People want to be part
of a group. The value is important in small town middle America as well.
John Stuart
Mill wrote a famous book in 1859 called On Liberty. He has the idea of “mob
rule.” You are controlled by the society you are in and not allowed to be out
of it.
“Man is born
free but everywhere in chains.”
The director
is from Denmark, so he is brainwashed in a different way than Americans.
Americans will naturally tell you they are free and they believe it,
The irony is
they thought Arnie couldn’t live until 18. But the mother was actually the one
holding.
They used to
film 21 Jump Street, the TV show that made Johnny Depp famous, at my university
when I was student.
The workers
used to love when he would go into restaurant in Vancouver because he left big
tips.
He came from
a poor, single mom family. His mother was a waitress in real life.
We have five
senses.
See, hear,
smell, taste and touch.
The sixth
sense is intuition, a weird feeling we get sometimes.
The movie is
from horror genre. It is scary.
The director
is a first generation American. His parents are from India. Taiwan has four
great directors. They are all first generation Taiwanese people. Why is this
important? First generation people have to think about identity more. They
always know they are a little strange from their classmates. Their parents are
different, often don’t speak the language well, etc.
The movie is
filmed in Philadelphia. The director grew up there. He said his parents
immigrated to this city because it is the most historical in the US
Also, it has
Christian themes. One of the opening shots is a bird’s eye view. I think he
does that because God is looking down.
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
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.
************************************
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
"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
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.
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.
