This article by Drew Winchur argues that Inception is, intentionally or unintentionally, a form of capitalist propaganda. In the article he proposes that the film focuses on Cobb’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) personal struggle to distract the audience from the horrible acts the characters commit in the name of corporate espionage. He goes in depth on the topic of Ellen Page’s character, Ariadne, and how she acts as both the audience surrogate and pseudo-therapist for Cobb. He criticizes her character for failing to call Cobb out for any wrongdoing as he keeps using the excuse that it is all to be with his family again. He also brings up how after she joins the team she never questions the morality of their mission to sabotage Fischer’s (Cillian Murphy) mind.
Winchur is not arguing for or against the quality of Inception, but he is arguing against the nature of the characters’ mission. He basically says that Cobb’s personal journey throughout the film is to distract him and the audience from their immoral mission. His main point is that “The twists and turns of [the characters’] labyrinthine mission supposedly represent[s] one man’s exorcism of personal demons; in reality, they are just a fanciful dramatization of a corporate takeover
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He doesn’t argue for or against the film’s quality as a piece of cinema, but he does argue that it falls apart when it comes to its use of neuroscience. Comparatively, he thinks that another of Christopher Nolan’s films, Memento, holds a greater portrayal of neuroscience in its protagonist’s amnesia and how it holds him back from being able to mourn his wife and have a future where he can move on past it. Similar to the first article I chose, he argues that the characters’ journeys in Inception distract the characters and the audience from the immoral acts they committed to reach the film’s
The film Clueless praises the white rich feminine voice. The film begins with high school students from Beverly Hills shopping, partying, and spending money as the kids in America. This economic capital is unrealistically flaunted as the normal life of a teenage girl. Cher’s father, as a lawyer, earns $500 per hour. His occupation allows Cher to have a jeep, designer clothes. Her economic status puts her at the top of the academic social hierarchy. Her persuasiveness and popularit...
I realized that sometimes it is fine for things to just be, and I don’t know why. Much of the film has to do with how we think, and what we do in private. Collectively, through these moral and ethical acts (or lack thereof) we can impact the public. Also, by sharing these thoughts and concepts with the public in the documentary, it can affect our thoughts and actions in our private lives; I know it has, at least for myself. One of the earliest topics in the film that I took note of was the ethics of certain matters, in a way that I had never considered before.
Social division within the society is conveyed in the opening scene through a montage, displaying a satirical depiction of the commercial American youth culture: teenagers driving, swimming, partying, implying that it’s normal behaviour for adolescents in America. The use of music further enhances this image as “Kids of America” plays in the background, however it does not define the life of the majority, but only the wealthy children. Through voiceover Cher says ironically “Actually I have a way normal life for a teenager” contrasting the montage of her partying and using a computer program to determine her clothing. Social division, particularly within the school, is demonstrated through costume. The men’s fashion during the 90’s is described by Cher to appear as if “They just fell out of bed”. This is juxtaposed to when Christian is introduced through the use of slow motion and full body camera shots in the exaggerated scene portraying his perfect persona from his well groomed physical appearance contrasting him from other men. The notion of social division in Clueless is present through the cliques of modern society, defined by wealth, popularity and physical appearance which both reaffirms and introduces new insights due to the change of
In this article Winckelmann states that the good taste in art that is present in contemporary works stems from the work of the ancient Greeks. The beauty in the modern works of artists like Raphael (especially his Madonna and child with St Sixtus and St Barbara) hold such beauty, complexity of emotion, and good taste because he draws on the ideas set up by the great ancient sculptures and society in which they lived and drew inspiration from. Winckelmann categorizes the ancients greatness into two main ideas that are necessary for contemporaries to draw from in order to reach greatness: Natural beauty and noble simplicity and quiet grandeur.
Bor starts his article with the sentence “it is easy to view consciousness as a kind of magic.” That sparks an interest in you immediately by his choice of diction and comparison of it to something so beautiful and enchanting as magic. That sentence alone makes you curious on what he could possibly state to make the comparison so captivating. Strate starts off his article immediately on the other side of the chart. “If you do not like what I have to say, it is my sincere hope that you hold Allen Flagg personally responsible for whatever defects you happen to identify.” (Strate PP 63)By including this in his introductory paragraph it gives off the atmosphere of him not even supporting his own article nor what he is talking about. By doing this, Strate immediately loses interest accreditation because no one would feel desire to read about something that even the author didn’t want credit with writing. Strate then goes into so much depth and detail that he doesn’t even reach his actual viewpoint until roughly page fifteen of his eighteen page article. He structures his article off based and data filled which makes you not even realize until page fifteen what the actual viewpoint he’s arguing truly is. While Strate guides you off track, Bor builds you up in an invested viewpoint and continuously lures you into his opinion scientifically, emotionally,
The 2006 film V for Vendetta, a cinematic remake of the classic graphic novel series by the same name, is the epitome of a Marxist fairy tale. The film is complete with a bourgeoisie government who spreads their ideology, via mass media, to a citizenry composed entirely of proletariats, and a hero who sets out to break said citizenry from the prison of false consciousness. If one examines the setting and environment of the film, and follows the main characters as they fight against, or break free from, false consciousness, evidence of Marxist themes are present throughout the film.
Vision and lines of sight in literary texts not only serve as a guide for the journey the reader is going to take but also as a barrier in which directs the lives of the characters in the story. In this essay I will be discussing two novels ‘’the turning Tim Winton’’ and ‘’Carpentaria Alexis Wright’’ and the vision theme that is involved within them. Vision as a theme in novels gives the reader an opportunity to create their own image giving a deeper understanding of what the scenery is like and how the people act and do. The vision in the two novels were to me considered important parts of them. They gave me the opportunity to think deeper and use my wider imagination when reading them. The signs of vision are important when reading the novel
...ll, the accuracy and fairness of the arguments presented within suffer from the financial interest of those professionals within the movie. The argument stilts itself on the ethos attributed to the perceived authority figures, attributing correlation as causation, in order to drive home a marketable lifestyle that focuses more on pathos-laden reasoning than on a logical foundation. Based on the potential demographic, it could very well be effective to achieving the goal of those involved with the film.
In Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, he is telling the story of a Dominican family but mainly about the son, Oscar de Leon. The book opens with the story of Oscar as a child and him having two girlfriends at the same time. The older people in town see him as a ladies man and encourage him. The boy and the two girls all break up and his life seemed to be on a steady decline since then. He grows up to become a nerdy, fat, and awkward adolescence with few friends and even less interest from girls. This phase persists throughout his life and he never develops out of the nerdy boy he was as a child. The Dominican Republic was a hostile and poor place during the time of the novel. The dictator Trujillo controls the lives of the people in the country. This influenced the de Leon family’s present and future. Diaz develops the story by using the superstition, the cane field, and male dominance of the Dominican men
The entire movie is bursting with counter narratives, when the audience believes they hold an accurate grasp on what is truly happening, there is a misguiding event, as the storyline is continually challenged. The viewer’s beginning formations about what is going on are learned to be always questionable because what is repeatedly steered to trust and is revealed not be the truth in the conclusion of the film. This neo-noir film had multiple scenarios that make the previous actions untrustworthy to the actual message. This proves that all the observations and thoughts the viewer possesses are only relevant to what they are exposed to and shown and not to what is, in fact, happening.
Perry, Bruce, 1999. ECT Interview: Bruce Perry Discusses the Effects of Technology on the Brain.
The movie starts off with Philip Henslowe, patron of the arts, “pinioned in a chair, with his feet stuck out over the hot coals of a fire burning.” Henslowe owes Fennyman “forty three pounds five shillings and nine pence” in order to appease the loan shark; he deceives him by saying he has a wonderful play written by Shakespeare, which would cover the debt. By saying this he tricks Fennyman into supporting him and ending his torment. This shows how tricky people can be when their lives are in danger. This is still present in modern business or any field in general people learn how trick others in order to save their hides.
A Beautiful Mind may have been developed to be a crowd-pleaser as well as a tear-jerker, because you know this is a man’s life without falsities. It is blatant and true, that’s all. This film proves that there are still instances when Hollywood-produced, big budget movies are worth a viewer's investment of time and money.
...n (Director) mistakenly seems to believe can carry the whole film. On the strength "based on a true story", he has rejected attention-grabbing characters, an imaginative plot, and unforgettable villains.
The mind-body problem entails two theories, dualism and physicalism. Dualism contends that distinct mental and physical realms exist and they both must be taken into account. Its counterpart (weak) physicalism views the human as being completely bodily and physical, encompassing no non-physical, or spiritual, substances. It recognizes that there are “higher level” properties that cannot be explained in physical terms, but they are caused by a physical event. Within dualism and physicalism lie sub-theories that make specific the philosophies behind these fundamental beliefs. Spielberg’s film expresses the ideas of emergent physicalism through David, his journey to becoming a “real” boy, and his remaining eternally hopeful that he will receive the love of the one whom not only created his ability to love, but also the one whom he loves the most.