The Sixth Sense -- I See Them all the Time

 

Homework Questions: The Sixth Sense

1. What is the twist of fate at the end of The Sixth Sense? Discuss. 

2. Why does the child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe continually go down to the basement?

3. Are Dr. Malcolm Crowe and his wife having marital problems? Explain.

4. Why does Dr. Crowe normally wear a blue shirt? 

5. In your opinion, is the little boy (Cole Sear) in The Sixth Sense a freak? Elaborate. 

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I have already sent you the information for the midterm exam. That is two weeks from now.

I need to fly to Canada tonight. I have a substitute teacher next week. That is why I am talking about the test now.

He says “do you think I’m a freak?” At the start of the movie, the man in the bathroom who killed himself also said he was a freak.

Twist of fate: surprising ending to a book or movie

He says he helped the little boy, but the little boy helped him to see he is a ghost. People see you can talk to ghosts when you are tired or near sleep. Ghosts make everything cold. The blue shirt is the one he died in.

I think the director made a mistake in the one scene where he is wearing a gray sweatshirt.

Why is the door to the basement blocked?

I think he goes down there because it represents hell and he feels guilty.

I think God put that table there because he doesn’t want him suffer or feel guilty.

 

The little boy also had scratches on his back. They both call themselves “freak.”

Is he the little boy’s father? Did God send the ghost back to help the little boy because he failed the father?  

This movie takes place in Oregon in the 1950s.

The movie is based on a book by Stephen King, who is a famous horror novelist. He may have sold more books than any other American.

The director wasn’t even a big fan of King and was wondering why he agreed to make the movie. Then he was driving and had an epiphany. He said the movie should be about friendship.

The director is Jewish American from New York. Last year, he and his wife were murdered by their son.

 

Kiefer Sutherland. His Grandpa was the leader when Canada introduced health insurance. That was the first country in the world to have health insurance.

Still camera and the actors move across the shot: master shot (cut).

The movies in the 1980s and 1970s had much longer cuts. Do you see how long the camera is on these actors without cutting to another scene?

The reason the shots or scenes have gotten a lot shorter recently, maybe the last 20 years, is blamed on Internet and social media (Tik Tok or YouTube) which have very short scenes. Now, people have problems concentrating or paying attention for more than a few minutes

That music is Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash at 22.

 

 

 

Mid Term Information for Film and Culture

 

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.

Disillusioned, random, bird’s eye view, cameo, paragraph, conformity, pun, genre, twist of fate, nihilistic, explain, existential, protagonist, freak, plot, socio-economic reality, picaresque, comedy, horror, character, society, first generation director, camera angle, represent, basement, symbolize, coin flip, bothering, details, take place, happen

 

 

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

 

Questions: 

1. At times, the future seems hopeless for Gilbert Grape. Explain.

2. What is eating Gilbert? Explain.

3. Why does Arnie Grape love to climb the water tower?

4. The film is set in Iowa. How is this important to the development of the plot?

5. How does the youngest daughter, Ellen Grape, feel about the family?

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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 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.