Post here a link (and a wee comment thereon) to any early 60's/70'ish film or artwork about an 'identity' group you belong or relate to.
Also, we didn't get to follow up on the "Do Something Bold (when you're sober) and Buck Convention or Social Norms - Just to See If You Can and How It Feels" double-dog dare.
Give it a try and share a tale here??
Enjoy your holiday all.
You're a great class and I'm thankful for you!
Yours humbly,
LH
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
I don't know if this film would really explain who I am or anyone that is a white male, but it did come out in the late sixties and I believe it had a great impact on films today. The 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead. Yes to this day it doesn't stand the test of time as far as horror films go but it still influences many creature feature horror movie types like Resident Evil, and the other Zombie flicks that never seem to end. It also seems like it set the standard for what people expect in a zombie flick. Zombies haven't changed in 40 years of films, maybe there are some films where they run but there is never a dramatic change in the style of zombies. I believe Night of the Living Dead was a very influential film and it deserves some recognition. -Justin Dailey
I also would like to add to my earlier post and say that "Night of the Living Dead" shows what kind of people we are as a whole. When you mix people from different backgrounds and ethnicities in a crisis situation no one comes out on top except the people that try not to run whats going on. This film definatley shows how people don't work together very well. Expression of ideas, especially in a crisis situation becomes something to hate on another about, for example: Night of the Living Dead, The war in Iraq, who should be preisdent, and I could probably go on all day about this. I believe that this film somewhat explains my heritage in a way, but it explains more about how the different people try to work together but there is always a conflict between ideas.
this assignment was a bit difficult for me but the film that i found that relates to my identity group is blood in blood out. this film portrays the lives of 3 gang menbers in LA, and eventhough my group was not "gangmembers" it does show the struggle of hispanics trying to survive in LA during the 70s. it was very difficult for hispanics to succeed and the only really way to survive was to join a gang and establish yourself that way. it just shows how hispanics have been able to come a long way from this. although there still is gangs and violence, hispanics have been able to become successful and an educational goup.
If I have to pick a "Movie" that would best describe me or that explain who I am that would be Sergio Leone's "Man with No Name" spaghetti western trilogy - starring Clint Eastwood (aka Fistful of Dollars, For A Few More Dollars, and The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly) for 60'/'70's genres. I'd also like to toss in The Magnificient Seven trilogy to the mix.
As of "Present Time", the movie that best describe me is a "Definite " give me ....(I'll let y'all take a guess & let me know next class meeting).
OLIVER YOUNG:
well in my opinion I would say if I identified with an art period it would probably have to be the Jazz period in the United States because I like that period becuase it was brand new and swept through the country like a tidal wave and that's how I hope to do the same in the Film industry.
Jazz players whether they played the Saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, guitar or what ever it is, no instrument is more important when it comes to good jazz music its a collective effort, in which everyone must be on their game, or the music piece won't work or sound good.
The piece of art from time period of the 60's and 70's that I chose to represent myself and that reflects the culture and the cultural experience I have been exposed to is a short film called "I am Joaquin", a poem written by Corky Gonzales. This poem was written and then put to a compilation of powerful images. The whole film is about 15 to 20 minutes, I feel it represents the struggle my parents have gone through and the ideas they installed in me. It can be viewed on You Tube under "I am Joaquin" www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6M6qOG2O-o
The movie that I think that my group would mostly relate with is "Do the Right Thing" by Spike Lee. Its about a black guy living in a East Coast city neighborhood and the struggles he has to o through living there. The differences between his neighbors and him but what they do have in common is that they all live and deal with the same negative things. This movie displays the different stereotypes of different cultures.
http://www.throughtheflower.org/page.php?p=10&n=2
This was a mass project called the Dinner Table created in the 70's as part of a women's movement.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-143967787365412968
This is painful to admit, but since I was born in the 60's and grew up in the 70's, I relate to things now so much differently than I did say, 20 yrs ago. I have to say the 70's was a really awkward time and people were looking to be cool by evolving with the times. There were discos everywhere, and they were the coolest thing since sliced bread. Saturday Night Fever was the hottest thing in town and John Travolta was able to break from his mold as Vinnie Barbarino on Welcome Back Kotter into this "amazing" dancer. Those moves crack me up today, but I'm pretty sure they were the sexiest moves of all time back then. The drugs were everywhere and people were experimenting with different forms of entertainment. I was a wild child through those years, and actually that movie is pretty tame in comparison, but it was all about the fun back then.
I am pretty tame now I have gotten a lot of oats out of my system and I have a daugher, but now and then I will do something to challenge my own phsyche. We walked on Thanksgiving day on the Run to Feed the Hungry and at the 2 mile marker I blurted out something about "2 miles!!" and started dancing and singing in the middle of the crowd. It got everyone fired up and laughing and cheering, it was pretty cool.
Peckinpah really grabbed ahold of my imagination ever since I saw the Wild Bunch, and since, I went on a quest to watch as many of his movies as I could find. And in this quest, I found one of the most gritty, profane, obscene, and violent movies ever made. BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is one of the least known movies today, but that's mostly because of it's title, it's plot, and a lack of any discerning morals.
What I love about this movie most of is Warren Oates' performance as Benny, a down on his luck vetern slumming around as a bartender in Mexico. When he has the chance to make some quick cash by bringing in the titular head, Oates turns to the Garcia's former lover, who is now Oates' hooker girlfriend. She certainily doesn't have a heart of gold, but she does have a line against defiling the dead, which Oates makes her do if she wants any of the money. She's in love with Oates, and truly wants more for herself, so she willingly goes along and leads him to Garcia's grave. After finding the body and digging up the grave, Oates and his girl are ambushed by the agents that hired him. They kill the girl and leave him for dead by burying him in Garcia's grave. Oates digs himself out of the shallow grave, only to find his one true love dead. His mind snaps out of anger and guilt, and what unfolds afterward is a bloody quest for vengence as Oates continues to medicate himself with alcohol and bullets.
I left the link to Roger Ebert's review from his Great Films Archive. He's much better at praising this film than I.
I identify with this film because it's so raw in it's conviction, so masterful in it's storytelling, that it surpasses genre and the expectations that accompany it. This film is unapologitically dismal, and I admire anyone who can pour their soul onto screen the way Peckinpah did, and still make sense of the demons within.
I can only hope to one day channel my insanity so productively before my nervous breakdown.
"rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011028/REVIEWS08/110280301/1023"
"Why?...Because it feels so goddamn good."
Samantha:
As a white female, there aren't very many pieces of art that relate particularly to me in the 60's/70's. At that time it was more just 'Women' in general, so I went with a feminist artwork (which I mention in class 2 weeks ago, I am). The photo is here:
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/files2008/ThreeWeeksInMay.jpg
It's simple, yet it speaks volumes, at least to me. These women are trying to demonstrate the way society has treated them and how it shouldn't be done anymore. These women are showing (through art) that society has blinded them to the dangers of rape. Society has lied and covered up the truth of this very real danger. I think it's a very effective way to get their point across, and feel strongly about the subject as well.
Last post cut off the link. It's:
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/
files2008/ThreeWeeksInMay.jpg
I was unable to obtain a piece of art that really expressed my "identity" group, but I chose a film that I can certainly relate to emotionally. The film is a popular one, "Easy Rider" which was filmed in 1969. Although I am not a drug dealing biker like the characters in this movie, I am a passionate motorcycle rider who feels a significant amount of freedom that can only be achieved when I'm on my motorcycle. The characters in this film travel across the country to discover America in a way most people never will, on a motorcycle. I can certainly understand that level of freedom and independence these two characters were striving for. And even though I have never ridden that great a distance, I have in fact discovered California in a new light while riding on my motorcycle. These characters also meet interesting people on their journey and I have done so as well while on my many voyages. On the outside, these two characters may not resemble my "identity" group at all. Sure, they dress different than I do and speak different than I do, but it's the passion, excitement and the unpredictable outcomes that are especially reserved for people who dare to ride the "iron horse".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064276/
My work is a poem, "The Heart of a Woman" by Georgia Douglas Johnson.
The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn,
As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on,
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam
In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home.
The heart of a woman falls back with the night,
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars
While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars
For a 70'ish film about an 'identity' group you belong or relate to, I watched The Wanderers, made in 1979. The movie takes place in the 60s, it is about a group of Italian boys in high school, located in New York City’s gangland slums. The main character is a member of a young Italian gang, The Wanderers. It tells a story of the struggle and pressure of being in a gang of your own race, the struggles of being raised in poverty, family values, abusive parents, violence in the streets, and getting in trouble with girls. The main character at the end flees, with his friend, from his abusive Dad and the pressures of joining the mafia when he gets older. The main characters other best friend, it not so fortunate, after cheating on his girlfriend with the main character’s love interest, he find out that his girlfriend is pregnant. His girlfriend happens to be the Italian Mafia Boss’ daughter, so at the end he is forced to join the mafia to support his new unwanted family. Several gangs, who had beef throughout the movie, are cool with each other at the end after realizing they all face the same problems in life and could help each other rather than break each other apart.
I relate to this movie only in small areas: I grew up not so fortunate; my dad was abusive to my mom when I was younger (not abusive anymore, he’s sober); My Dad is ½ Italian (My father did not know his biological father and my grandma would only tell us that he was a Italian hairdresser, who was an abusive alcoholic when she lived in North Carolina. So my Dad always jokes how we are apart of an Italian mafia family…); I knew and still know people who are in gangs (of which did or couldn’t get out of); I was wild teenager like they were causing trouble and experiencing as much as I could.
Post a Comment