Essentially, Our teacher let us watch a Movie today about racial segregation in South America.
Plot Summary:
In 1964, three civil rights workers from the North disappear in a small Mississippi town and the FBI are sent to investigate. Agent in charge Alan Ward does everything by the book. Agent Rupert Anderson however was a Sheriff in Mississippi before joining the FBI and understands the local culture. He's also prepared to bend the rules a bit if it will help in the investigation. They focus on the Sheriff's office and Deputy Clinton Pell in particular as they think he may be the weakest link in the conspiracy. As the investigation intensifies however, the KKK launch a series of attacks against the local African-American population. With no one on either side prepared to talk, Ward agrees to Anderson using his own unorthodox methods to learn what happened that night and who killed the three men.
Taken from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095647/plotsummary
How did I find it?
On the overall, I must admit that I enjoyed the film, although there are times when the horrors in the film get to me. I feel that the most importantly emphasised point would be the huge racial segregation between the blacks and the whites. However, even good films has its own cons. Let us take a closer look at this.
Pros:
The movie is very vividly described. For example, the way people lived there was portrayed so well I could imagine myself being there and witnessing the whole thing myself! The camera showed us through parts of the house, showing old wooden blocks of wood that supports a weary roof. In stark contrast, the white's house was shown as large, grand structures where the wood was well furnished and painted. The vivid description is also seen from other parts as to how the blacks were tortured and how whites themselves were not spared. The details in which this movie captures is amazing and therefore I think this would make one of the key selling points of the film.
To make the movie contain a certain level of authenticity, the movie is actually based on a real life account. In 1964, FBI agents were indeed sent to Mississippi to investigate a crime involving the disappearance of three civil rights agent. It does not strain or exaggerate facts. This can be seen from the reactions from the two FBI agents and how the county police behaved. This makes the film very logical and believable.
Cons:
I find it much too violent. The reason for this was actually supposed to be a good thing - vivid description. What was most uncomfortable, I found, was listening to the vividly described ways of torturing the blacks and whites. An example would be the part where the wife of the police officer was beaten up so badly. Another scene would be the black man being tied around the neck and left to hang on a tree beside a house on fire. These scenes were just unbearable, but maybe this is just because I despise violence of any sort.
A slightly smaller issue would be the slow pace of the movie. This was because the scenes took a long transition period as there were many similar points that were being repeated, making the development of the story slow. Nevertheless, I feel that these scenes had already been well made up for through vivid description.
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Dear Nicholas,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree with you on many of the points which you have pointed out in your blog post, I feel that the slow pace of the movie has a reason apart from repeating similar points of the story. I feel that the pace is to make a contrast with the violence in the movie to show us the two sidedness of human minds. When I saw the action in the scenes of violence which are immediately followed by the slow pace of the FBI investigation, I was struck by the contrast between the two. It seemed to make the actions of the Klu Klux Klan more terrible because they were committed behind the scenes of a normal suburb in America.
Dear Nicholas,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with your points but I would like to clarify that it was an old woman that was hung onto a tree outside the burning house (unless there was another scene similar to this). There is a significance to the hanging of an old women. It makes us empathise with the Blacks in the story. For me, when I saw how the Ku Klux Klan beat up the old women and hung her as well as how miserable her grandchildren were, I felt really grieved and had a tinge of hatred towards the KKK.
Apart from racial segregation, I felt that there was also the theme of social segregation. Women were supposed to stay at home to do housework and look after the children while men were supposed to go out into society and earn money for their family. This theme is also interwoven into the movie along with racial segregation.
Regards,
Ivan
Your perceived slow pace of the movie (actually, I didn't find it slow at all) is in part due to the pacing of movies back in the 1980s. You're probably used to much faster editing and action found in movies of the 21st century. I thought the slowness was good in allowing you to picture Maycomb as a slow, sleepy town. Refer to Chapter 1 of the novel and the description of Maycomb. What similarities do you see between Maycomb and the Mississippian town depicted in the film?
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