Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Finding Forrester

In Finding Forrester it was shown that he is a boy who has an extreme talent in writing. Jamal lives in a poor part of town and is a typical kid. He plays a lot of basketball and doesn't try hard in school. Even though he doesn't try hard his English teacher realizes his potential and knows he reads a lot of books. The reason he doesn't try hard is because he doesn't want to stand out as weird and unusual to all the other kids. He felt forced to conform with all his other class mates. When a private school offers him the chance to come to their school he takes it and is than more open about his passion in literature. His teacher doesn't want him to talk out and correct him in class so he tries to get him to be quite. Even in his fancy private school he is still forced to conform to what others want. Besides his teacher the private school does give more room for him to improve his writing. The true key to his blossoming talent was William Forrester, the talented writer. He helped him develop and become a better writer. Throughout the movie the different environments Jamal is placed in have varying degrees of conformity and individuality. The public school in the poor area is much more based around conforming to sports and not anything scholarly. When he transfers to the private school everything is around advanced education and more formal teachers. He doesn't feel as if he has to conform and is actually limited by how smart and educated he is.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Rocky IV

http://ksr.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Ivandrago.jpgRocky IV was an extreme case of bias. This movie revolves around Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), an American boxing legend. After his mentor Apollo (Carl Weathers) was challenged to a fight by the new Russian boxer, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). Throughout this movie it seems like there is a lot of American propaganda. Rocky's family is very wealthy and they have lots of luxuries. When he travels to Russia it is snowing and bleak. The house he stays in has no common amenities like a television. Considering this movie seemed to be a big statement about the Cold War, it was implying how poor Russia is. To even train Rocky had to use techniques like running or doing cart lifts. The whole movie tries to show Russia as this poor, dangerous, and desolate country. Surrounded by mountains and snow in a tiny house. Even in the fight there was a lot of bias. It was obvious Rocky was going to win, he had taken several monster hits without getting much in return, but it had nearly no affect on him. After ten rounds of having his face pummeled Rocky finally decided to start fighting back. With inhuman endurance he managed to somehow beat Ivan Drogo. One of the more ridiculous parts was when the Russians started cheering for Rocky. They would never cheer against there own fighter. Imagine the Americans cheering for Ivan when he was killing Apollo. The whole point of this movie was to portray America as much better than Russia.