Blue velvet

Well i have to say that i had only seen this movie one other time, last year in the film criticism class. the entire class was about the movies director David lynch made throughout his career. And after i left that class i was convinced more then ever that i pretty much hated lynch and his incomprehensible movies. It was crazy to me that he would make these outlandish styled movies and then when people asked him why or what the meaning was he normally didn't give any real reason. I didn't get his ideas until i looked at it from the prospective of this relative history and societal noirmas that where common during the 1980's.
 I found the the idea that the Regen presidency the U.S. and the 80's mentality seemed to have becoming a move back to a 50's style and mentality. The Republican shift after the 60's and 70's caused people to look back at the 50's as a glory years for the U.S. But what was most ridiculous was that Regan amp'd up tensions with Russia for no real reason. The whole era just seems to be a little lost confused and cynical if i had to put it any way. The where more then likely a little tired of hearing about the cold war and all its politics. And so many people just start to take the whole situation as a joke. I get this feeling lynch had these feelings because how sarcastic his take on the white suburban neighborhood and how perfect they seemed. he clearly find this whole idea pretty funny.
 I really love lynch;s style when it comes to the use of color shadow and metaphors. he is clearly always thinking deeply about extra meaning. he with out question is an innovator in the word of experimental film. And as a film major its really inspiring to look at some of his work. His style is mesmerizing even though most of his story lines are cray as hell. And to study there are so many different ways to look at how he was influenced and why he chooses to do things certain ways. I was unable to get the reading to download on my computer but the title was about puritanism. Know i don't know much about that but they where the name of the people that broke away from the church of England. So i guess you could make a point that Lynch was a puritan at heart and truly believed in the ideas of morality. but i don't know i tend to want to think that Lynch was an artist he loved to push idea and concepts and make people really think about what they where looking at. I think he might go down as one of the most controversial film makers with people trying to describe what catigory he fits in or try and understand what his meaning is.

Rosemary's Baby

 I realize that at this time the concept of abortion was being heavily debated. in the 1960's woman's movements where trying to repeal an abortion law on the grounds that woman had the right to chose for them self. There where also many medical professionals that where in agreement. I thought about it for awhile because its something i really haven't put a lot of thought on. For me personally i feel it is a woman's chose. But behind that what happens if a women get raped or she die because of the pregnancy. How then can you tell someone that they shouldn't have an abortion. The major problem that i see is that the major  groups that where against abortion where conservative religious nuts that are moral against abortion for any reason weather it save another life or for any reason at all. After watching the film i think that the use of this major social issue was intentional.The use of God, Satan, and religious ties would grab the attention of the opponents and show them a little reason. The makers use horror to obscure the direct commentary their making. And this allows any person to watch the film and have empathy for the woman and wish she had a way to get rid of the devil baby.
So when i started watching this movie I was very skeptical of how it had anything to do with the overall concepts from our class. I mean a horror film is mean to scare people and really play with peoples primal fears. Like a mothers fear of losing a child witch was plainly clear in this film. I personally feel that when it comes to film criticism sometimes people go overboard trying to think of over the top subplots and hidden meaning within films. I will admit what ever is going on in society will often be mirrored in our media; but i strongly feel that sometime we go to far when the explanation might be a simple as trying to scare someone or to entertain. I felt after our in class discussion that the ideas where being pushed a little farther and abstract then the makers most likely intended.
I think the most interesting part of this discussion deals with the modernization of the the pregnancy. At this time technology was progressing and the medical profession was turning to drugs and modern medicins to help deal with the problems and complications of woman's pregnancy. Even in the early sixties infant and mother deaths where happening. I feel that the movie does a good job of making a commentary on the use drugs and new medicines in pregnancy's. Its scary to know that there where a lot of baby's being born with birth defects due to poor medical practices and doctors giving woman median that they them self's didn't know if they where any good. I can see that this idea would scare woman to know end. Think about it, you want to have a better change of having a healthy pregnancy so you take pills and medications and then your baby has defects because of the drugs. That's something no mother would want to deal with.
I guess its just crazy to think about someone trying to make a horror movie that's at its core deals with social issues that where such a big deal at this time. I wish at i could have been alive at this time in order to see if these ideas where really such a big topic on peoples mind. But i guess i never I'll so i have to say that for the most part people most likely saw this for a scary horror film and not much of a social commentary on woman's rights, abortion and pregnancy.

Invasion of the body snatchers.

Invasion of the body snatchers was a really interesting movie that i had never watched before. Beside hearing of it I had no knowledge about cultural implications that go along with this film. There is no question that Invasion of the body snatchers has parallels with the "communist paranoia" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. During this time their was mass histareia over the fact that Russian spy's where infiltrating the U.S. government and all other levels of society in order to steal our secrets and influence us to fallow communist ideas. People all over the country where incuraged to look out for people that had communist ideas or anyone that might be linked to Russia and the communist ideals. The case of the two Soviet spy's the Rosenberg's that where tried and executed of treason  happened during this time. You can see the parallels in the movie in the way that the towns folk slowly turned into the "pod people". The people that where normal realized that there family members where not right and tried to say something about it. I feel like the biggest parallel is in the way the whole town turns into aliens in order to take over the town; just as if a town was to have slowly infiltrated by communist. Being so removed from the cold war and the communist scares its hard to understand how people could have been so scared of Soviet spy's. But I feel like their was enough anti communist propaganda scaring people at this time, even beyond the Hollywood movies making their social comments.

The reading brings in the question of racial issuses and tensions that where appeant at the time. "Indeed, the function of whiteness in the racial formation gives the meaning of race and the power of racism sociocultural and historical currency",. The fact is that the movie involves an all white cast and in that since I understand that the fact that there is no colored people in the movie only goes to further the racial divide and helps reinforce the viewers thoughts about race. People as this time where becoming more racist as the idea of witness spread about. Even though the reading brings it up I don't feel that races was as big an issue as the fear of communism was at this time. But its also possible that we didn't realize that as we tried to push back against communist we where inadvertently made the racial divide larger.

The reading says that "the film expresses broad historical anxieties about male potency and female reproductive processes" This is one this that I never in a million year would have thought of. This seemed like a stretch to me because i didnt realize that the parctices of vitro fertilization began in the post war years. The most popular of these practices was spermdonor fertilization. In my mind i envisioned these techniques starting in the mid 80's at least. But know I realize that the movie could be making a social comment on peoples fears of the way people where making baby's. Their where a lot of morale issues being figured out at this time. People where finding new ways of creating life and many people where frankly freaked out. This is mirrored in the move in the way the the aliens reproduce through this fantastical seed pod method that is frankly a freaky concept even today. If this was a comment on peoples fears about these methods I personally believe that this idea was lost, at least to me. This theme is not something that i think most people would pick up on unless maybe this was a larger issue back in this Cold war era.

Ignorance is bliss

I feel after watching the movies in class and reading and watching the materials outside of class that ignorance on both the part of the government and the people where to blame for most of the confusion came from. When the U.S. government was building the atomic bomb they really didn’t know what was going to happen. Some sientists said that is would disrtoy the earth. Others said that it would vaporize the atmosphere. Otheres still contned that nothing bad would happen and their would be know lasting effects efter words. You can see this when they told people that white houses could withstand the effects of the bomb. OR when they where selling fallout shelters that we now know would never know. Even wonce they had built the bomb and tested it, they didn’t know the full extent of the long term damage. So when you look at the films in class you could say that the government was trying to explain something to the public that they didn’t fully grasp themselves. Looking at this time and places coming out of the great dipression and WWII the U.s. people were used to looking to their government for help and all the answer. The fact is our government haddent had large corruption charges yet so there was no reason not to beilve them. Looking back on it all we can see the government proably did know more then they where telling the American people. But the fact is that you really cant tell people the real truth or their would have been a mass panic. So buy keeping people somewhat in the dark they could go on whith their lives and keep the country moving. The fact is ignorance is bliss; the less you know the less you fear. And during this era people already had enough to fear. Finally while I was watching the films in class I kept asking myself could peoele really belive these films. When we look back on this films today they seem so simple, with bad acting. The filmming to our eyes is preeety bad. But if you think about it film at this point in time is fairly young and filming and dialogue writing technices have not yet been fully achevied. But to a viewer from the same era its perfectly conceivable that these film would be beliveable. People where still getting used to the TV medium as a whole and had no idea at this time that TV can be used to manipulate a population to belive what ever concept is shown to them the most. Like was stated in class it was almost fashionable at a certain point to be nuclear ready. The concepts where shown to people all the time. On TV, radio, befor moves, bilboards. With these ideas everywhere its was igrained into everyone mind.