Thoughts on Hooks from a Cracker

"Reprensentation of Whiteness in the Black Imagination," by Bell Hooks argues that the common conception of equality and sameness within our society today are sqewed towards the white power structure.  If a Black person was asked, according to Hooks, what their feelings on the issue of sameness according to skin color, they would say that there is a high difference.  Hooks brings it so far to say that, "to name whiteness in the black imagination is often a representation of terror" (pg.172).  Hooks also mentions that many Black folk will put on sortof a mask or amulet to hide their real feelings towards white people.  This is because white people have become so accustomed to this idea that we are all equal and the same that anything else would just be wrong.  It is so bad that most Black people have to put this mask on so as to not anger the "power" of the white people.  Again, it seems that many white people go through life without recognizing that many Black people have to act like this (yet again according to Hooks).  

Ok, so maybe it is just because I didn't get the whole article, but I think this was true in most aspects, yet was a little dated.  The first thing that came to mind was the whole idea that white people are lame.  This is something that I actually developed more just by watching Chappelle's Show.  That show pretty much says everything that Hooks said, but puts it into a satrical fashion, so maybe it goes below the radar.  This short clip is one in which a white family has the last name of a common slang against Black people.  Funny yes, but do we white people actually understand the messages around this?  Has anything really changed by making fun of the aukwakrd social interactions? 

clips taken from youtube

Qui est Film Noir?

So, after thinking about it for a long time, watching some of its variety, and talking about it in class, I think I may be able to come up with a list of certain things I think a noir film must have.
Here it is

1) Crime always seems to be the most important thing for film noir. By crime I mean any form or illegal activity. This by no means is just cop and robbers crime. In Double Indemnity it was killing and insurance fraud, and in The Set-Up it was the proposed act of throwing a fight aka rigging the game.
2) Low Lighting/Use of Darkness Pretty selfexplanatory. Most Noir films are dark in content, so most to nearly all of them are dark visually. I noticed how the shadow over the face seems to be very common.
3) C'est la vie. I think this is something that I started see in Blade Runner. I like to call it the "so it goes" idea (thank you Kurt Vonnegut). This could also be defined by the more commonly known French phrase, "C'est la vie." It is the idea that no matter what, at the end of the film, things go on. At the end of Touch of Evil, we see Tanya and Schwartz talking about the events. Just by the way they are talking, you can see a sense of "O, well." I imagine this as being a direct opposition of the beginning Depression era films were things work out in the end (like Casablanca) .

to be continued

The Set-Up review

For my individual film noir viewing I choose The Set-Up. Basically, the story is about Stroker, an older boxer (in boxing terms) who is one match away from retirement. The problem is that his wife wants him to quit, and his manager wants him to throw the fight.

Initially, I was unsure what to think about this movie. I really like boxing and thats why I choose to watch this film. However, this was more of a movie about a man's pride and the consequences that come with it. While I could appreciate the plot, the scene with the fight was just brutal and I don't mean violent. I wasn't sure if this was meant to be done either on purpose or for effect. Was the fight meant to be this way because of censorship, or because it was to show how the "Golden Age of Boxing" was done away with. Whatever the reason, it was still pretty boring. The audience reactions were actually more interesting/exciting (seeing their change from booing to rooting for Stroker).
What I really liked about The Set-Up was the scenes inside of the preparation room (the room where the boxers got ready for their fight). Stroker fights last that night, so he watches the emotions of every boxer. He watches the return of each victory and each loss. It was hard not to feel like you were in Stroker's position. He is old and starts to look over his life and possible future as a boxer through his fellow boxers. Gripping stuff
I think that this was a good film to watch when trying to define film noir. While the other noir films viewed in class were about murder and cops, The Set-Up was about life, pride, and aging. Not an amazing film, but a good change up.

Blade Runner review

So, nearly all of the movies that I have watched in Art of Film have been movies that I have heard about but never watched. Yet again, here is another one: Blade Runner, the neo noir, cyber punk sci-fi flick of the 1980's. It was weird watching this. It has always one of those films that I haven't necessarily been told that it is an amazing film, but that because of it being talked about so much I figured that it was. In a way I hyped myself up for this film. I was expecting something else. Instead of an action packed feature, it was an oddly realistic, psychological/philosophical journey (with some action).

Blade Runner felt like a movie that was set in futuristic setting just so there could be the idea of the replicates. What I am trying to develop here is that besides the replicants, this movie was pretty universal. I could actually see this being a supernatural noir film. Not only that, but I could see this movie as being set in any time period (if there was a way to explain the replicants). That is one thing I can really appreciate and like about Blade Runner. This is a timeless film (in the future!).

Touch of Evil, Fist of Death!

I must say, when we found out that we were watching film noir for our genre, I wasn't sure what to expect. Double Indemnity was good, but it didn't really leave a lasting "amazing" feeling on me. Touch of Evil however, is definitely one of those films that is amazing.
Personally, I like gritty, lifelike films like this that don't have a typical Hollywood ending. So, Touch of Evil was actually enjoyable to me. Besides that, there was plenty of depth in this film. Every time we watch another of these (older) films for class I start to see a how their creation has evolved film styles. Specifically with Touch of Evil, I can see how the many interconnected story line type of film came into fruition. Touch of Evil (for some reason) felt like Magnolia.

Besides that, there are many plot developments that seem to have originated (maybe, maybe not) from this movie. I like the whole "good cop turned bad" theme on both sides. It is obvious that Quinlan has turned bad, but I also noticed that even Vargas had to do some "evil" to get the job done (opening the file on Quinlan wasn't very legal was it (?)). Thinking about it some more, the movie title is actually quite symbolic. The way I think about it is like water with a little bit of oil in it. That all it takes is a little bit of oil to contaminate the water. The only thing is when will the "oil" be included? ("You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Thank you Dark Knight)

"Advertising Whiteness" by Entman & Rojecki focuses on television commercials and the level of inclusion of exclusion of minorities, specifically Black Americans. It is pointed out that typically today there is a level of "status quo" you could say for the amount of Black people allowed in commercials. According to the article, there are also levels of closeness or familiarity (hugging, caressing, kissing, etc) that are not allowed to most advertisements that include Black people. The article summed up Black representation in advertising by saying that, "Blacks seemed neither fully rejected nor wholly accepted, neither categorized identically with Whites in a color-blind American community nor universally linked to a rigidly demarcated domain of pollution and danger" (pg.163). They are there but not completely there.

This clip from Family Guy shows this idea of diversity within Abercrombie & Fitch. It is so bad that the Black male is basically Waldo from Where's Waldo. At the same time, he is not included in selling the product. There but not there.

One other case in point I have is from Maddox at thebestpageintheuniverse.net . The blog that he writes is entitled 9 things I learned about the world from anonymous stock photo models. In it he literally does what his title says. He took several cliches from advertisings usually found on the internet and comments on them. One specific one entitled "At least 1 in 3 people chosen at random will necessarily be "African American," even though only 13% of the US population is black," is definitely worth a read. I can only imagine what advertising for other minorities is.

Gotta love that General Tso's

Chapters 9-11 of Media & Minorities focuses on the views of African, Hispanic, and Asian Mass Publics in the News. I focused on the Asian chapter (11) since I was not sure about their involvement in the news what-so-ever. According to the chapter, I was justified in this lack of knowledge since Asian Americans are very excluded from the news. When they were mentioned in the news, very much like other minorities, they were labeled with their Asian text, not by their name ("Korean Grocer Receives Probation"). The chapter goes on and discusses the various "model minority" images that the mass news can attribute to Asian Americans. One of the biggest stereotypical images and ideas about Asian Americans were that they were foreigners and thats it. There was a great deal of emphasis on the racial hierarchy saying that Asians could never assimilate into American society. This is ironic because the chapter also mentions how another big aspect of the Model Minority is that Asians are high achievers. Hmmm, in America the strong survive.....yet, if they achieve too much they are deemed as cold and emotionless. This is definitely a Catch 22 for Asian Americans.
Recently, there was an episode of South Park (yeah I know, but I love it) in which the overtly racist Cartman joins in a crusade to eliminate the threat of Chinese in America (because of the Olympics). To do this, he and another character Butters, dress up like stereotypical Chinese and take over a P.F. Changs. To his dismay, all the people working for P.F. Changs are American. I thought that this was hilarious. As the chapter talked about how many Asians were most of the time viewed as foreigners, their conceptual ethnicity is a part of our food consumption. At the same time, I am reminded of a quote from Family Guy, "What do you want to have for dinner tonight? I dunno, maybe Caucasian?" While there has been assimilation with the food industry, Asian food is still stamped with their ethnicity.
all this talk of Chinese food is making me hungry.