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March 11, 2019 at 1:21 pm #1349Jonathan KalmanParticipant
“Throughout the film, Luke maintains a strong sense of character.” This line really stuck with me after reading your post. Luke knows who he is and no one is going to tell him otherwise. Maybe he has some kind of death wish or PTSD (being a war veteran and all), but regardless of his reasons for being so impulsive, Luke lives his life to the fullest. I know it is ironic to say that given he is a prisoner throughout the movie, but I think the idea rings true. He does what he wants, but doesn’t really seek out harming others in doing so. The one time he does is what lands him in jail (even if that person wasn’t a person and was in fact a gumball machine). I agree that Luke sees his end with peace in his soul, but I’d like to discuss why he does. Having a death wish might make sense, but I see this as something entirely different. This discussion I will leave up to class discussion as I want to hear the thoughts of everyone who won’t be reading this reply.
February 25, 2019 at 1:31 pm #1314Jonathan KalmanParticipantFirstly, I want to say that you present a great description for the story as a whole, primarily on your analysis of the “stories” element of the film in that it was used to “make reality a bit better”. I would like to ask however, when you say, “By the end of the movie, Will realizes that there was more truth to his father’s tales than he thought. Because of his own beliefs in the truth, he was blinded by what his father had appeared to be”, do you believe that the son is wrong for having misjudging his father, or simply for the way he handles his father (Ex: treating him like a lying old man)? Personally, I believe that there is a time in everyone’s life when telling your kids fantastical stories in place of reality becomes somewhat inappropriate. I’m not saying that it is inappropriate to stop telling your kids stories; however, maybe using them to retell the past can be seen as a breach in trust and/or respect as the father is unable to admit that his kid is old enough to hear the cold, hard truth.
February 18, 2019 at 1:37 pm #1308Jonathan KalmanParticipantI must agree that Rick does act selfless on many occasions, most notably sending Ilsa and Victor out of Morocco to escape the Germans; however, I must agree with Gabrielle in that he does act fairly jaded towards most other characters in that he does not give many the time of day. He even acts petty towards Ilsa, and although he is reasonable for feeling so, I would not agree that acting out those feelings towards Ilsa would be considered selfless. Neither of the characters are perfect and even force Sam to play a pawn in their squabbles. Ilsa definitely appears to egg Rick on by initially playing “As Time Goes By”, but Rick makes matters worse by doing the same in some sort of pitiable retort, “if Ilsa “can stand it, so can I”. On the other hand, I must also agree with Jessica in that Rick is selfless on many occasions; however I feel that some of them are more attributable towards his feelings for Ilsa and some unspoken set of principles. A few characters in the film do state that Rick is a man of his rules or something of that regard and in breaking said rules, namely by drinking and interacting with Ilsa and Victor, we see that Rick has some never before seen motives for doing so. That motive being his fealings for Ilsa. Therefore, I believe that it is aptly put to say that Rick is more of Lazlo’s “supernatural aid” as the reason that he made it out of Morocco was because Rick, a man of specific values could not rid his feelings for a woman who had used him. Though regardless of whether or not we can call Rick the hero of the film, I do believe that we can say that he is sometimes selfless, sometimes extremely jaded human being.
February 4, 2019 at 4:14 pm #1254Jonathan KalmanParticipantWhen we first watched this film last week, I did not even think about how the technical aspects of the film and how they affected our perception of each scene. Something as simple as the right camera angle or lighting can greatly affect how we interpret moods and anticipate what events are right around the corner. As for your interpretation on the directors use of portraying the film from the side of the Confederacy, I too was a tad surprised as to why such a choice was made. I see it as a show of great writing and directing abilities to show a countries past enemies as being in a heroic light. Your post was very well worded and gave me a great deal to think on regarding our next film and what to write about in my own upcoming post.
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