This forum is for students in the U.C. class that were unable to complete the peer review because of partner absence.
Use *any* monster movie. Offer an interpretation of the major cultural critique you are interested in the film, and support your interpretation using examples.
In 2006 the remake of Wes Craves The Hills Have Eyes there are several cultural critiques that come to mind over the course of the film. A major one that sticks out to me is the critique of human innovation and technological advancement. The monsters in this movie were once human and are the products of sever exposures to nuclear radiation from the testing of nuclear weapons, and are bent on terrorizing any person they can who lacks their distinct deformations. This not only gives a literal meaning to Timothy K. Beal’s idea that we cerate our own monsters but also critiques societies’ evolution in technology and the subsequent disregard for the environment. Many of our greatest advancements have come at the price of our ecosystem from the combustible engine that releases carbon dioxide to the advent of plastics that harm the wildlife. However these negative consequents don’t really seem to directly affect our human race, until we go too far. This film gives a worst-case scenario for technology to harm humans. By causing physical mutations to once regular people and causing them to turn on the race that deformed them and brutally hunt, harass and eventually murder. In essence our thirst for technological advancement without total consideration of side effects not only created the monster, but could also be viewed at the monster. Technology is not a bad thing, it allows us to be more productive and usually more cost effective, but without proper guidelines and regulations at a certain point it can do much greater harm then good.
ReplyDeleteHaving no previous knowledge of "Interview with the Vampire", I was pleased with the way vampires are portrayed in the film. Louis strives to be more human than Lestat when he is turned, choosing to feed on animals’ blood as opposed to the typical vampire choice of blood: humans’ blood. Louis choice to primarily not feed from humans is questioning the humanity of the vampire. The vampires had the physical appearance of a real man, unlike some former vampire films like Nosferatu and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with the sexual charm that could attract any female. Lestat, unlike a mortal in so many ways, tells Louis that he sometimes even feeds on 3 women in a night. Lestat’s desires to feed on so many women, very often prostitutes, and is critiquing sexual diseases. Most of the women he feeds on, besides Claudia, die soon after being fed from, just as the most feared sexually transmitted disease, HIV/AIDS, will do to the human. Claudia was turned to a vampire by Louis when she was eleven years old and physically maintains the same appearance no matter how many years pass. Claudia is known for doing many guilty acts of harm to many people and attempting to kill Lestat; however, she makes herself seem so innocent to the audience it’s hard to be disgusted by her actions. I believe this is critiquing societies easiness to not pass judgment on young children which is often the cause of bad kids that grow up to be bad adults.
ReplyDeleteDawn of the Dead
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the film Dawn of the Dead, I thought that the doctor is the hero or one of the main characters because he seems passionate; I did not think there is any role for the nurse “Ana”, but surprisingly, it was the opposite, Ana was one of the main characters. Ana’s shift was finished an hour ago, but she still working at the hospital; from this scene it can be seen that a nurse job is hard and needs to be admired and paid fairly. The director also highlights the issue of paramedics that they don’t pay attention to the importance of their jobs because at the film they pictured as careless when the paramedic was sleeping in the ambulance. The director appeals to viewers’ logic to convey his messages. Another message the author is trying to convey to viewers is when Ana’s daughter bit her father; her husband tries to bit her. This portrays that when children make troubles to their parents; fathers usually transfer children’s troubles to their mothers. In this scene, the director points out the fact that a working wife and mother takes all the hard on her shoulders; she needs to be helped and admired as well. The director appeals to viewers’ emotions by introducing some tension scenes such as Iran. The director is simply declaring that who seeks for distraction is turning into zombies. The director perfectly choses characters with different characteristics to points out the different types of people in the world. For example, there are two black characters in the film; each one is opposite of the other, one is good person “police officer” and the other is bad person “thief”. The author wants viewers to see that as there are bad people, there are also good people. The director persuades viewers to not judge on an entire race because of a few who lost their way. In the security guards’ room when they were watching the news on the television, the police were shooting and killing zombies “others!” with no mercy; one of the security guards said, “America always sorts this shit out.”, the director is arguing that America solve problems by killing; of course it is sarcastic. He states that killing the not the key in solving problems. In scene when Andre said to Michael, “What the fuck do you do?” and Michael said that he sells TVs at Best Buy store, the director is arguing that people judge on people by their jobs, Andre misestimated and disrespected Michael, however, Michael is the hero who is wise and knowledgeable. The director pulls viewers’ fearful emotions when the black guy in the television was talking about the judgment day and its reasons, the director states that the bad things happen to people are because of their sins such as inappropriate sex, same sex marriages and killing unborn children.
This film is different from any zombie movies I have ever seen till now because that zombies are slow and do not think, however, in this film they are fast and kind of think.
For one of my essays I watched the film I,Robot, directed by Alex Proyas. It is set at a time in the future where humanity relies on developed AI robotics to provide several services for personal and public use in order to make life easier and safer. The cultural critique introduced in this film is the fact of our inclining reliance on technology and new products. Everyone (besides our protagonist) has a definate trust in the robots that help them with tasks, and are very proficient in doing so. The robots are designed to be perfect, and they seem this way at first. Humanity accepts this technology without any question and becomes very reliant. Following the plot of the movie, a few significant characters begin to realize the "evoluton" to some of these robots. They begin to become more human-like, and the unexpected results of the created technology is presented. The robots begin to turn against their "owners" and take control of society in our setting. This shows the reliance we have on our technology and constant need to develop even more without the realization of how it is affecting life as we know it. Today most resources can be accessed at the click of a button, from devices that fit in your pocket. We have become reliant on these products of technology to run our daily lives. A basic message that can be taken from this movie is to be careful what you create, and think about the technology incline. For things that are created are difficult to un-create.
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