Sexual Media: A Lucrative Industry

If one thing is for sure, it’s that sex sells. As much as you might not want to believe it, it’s true. Sexually oriented print, video, broadcast and Internet materials are part of a highly profitable industry; which might cause some reason for concern. This is due to the fact that lucrative industries have a large tendency to have a continued presence in society. But with an industry that is growing in size and constantly upping its sexual content to rake in more dollars, are there any externalities resulting from this practice?

The film Kids is directed by Larry Clark and initially caused a considerable amount of controversy in its public debut. It mainly follows Telly, a New York teenager infected with the HIV virus, who prides himself in his ability to deflower young women. What a great story line. I bet Harmony Korine, the writer gave himself a pat on the back. My guess is that he probably did.

The budget for the film was $1.5 million and it raked in $20.4 million worldwide. That’s 1260% return on investment. The managers at Miramax probably didn’t spend a dime on advertising. The graphic scenes of young adolescences engaged in sexual activities were enough to spark a worldwide uproar; a great strategy to avoid costs and increase margins.

Production Budget Domestic Gross Worldwide Gross
$1,500,000 $7,412,216 $20,412,216

“Movie Budgets.” The Numbers – Movie Budgets. Nash Information Services, LLC, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

A Film that Hollywood dared not do

Leslie Harris is the writer; producer and director of the independent film Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. In this film, Chantel Mitchell is a young black female who resides and attends high school in Brooklyn, New York. She is smart-mouthed and equally as book smart, where she earns mostly A’s and B’s and plans on pursuing future education. Harris told the Washington Post that she saw the film “as a chance to undo stereotypes about the inner city and African American Teenage girls. It was a chance to give young women identity.”

Harris was raised with two older brothers in the inner city, and was the first person in her family to graduate from college, in result of both of her brothers dropping out after one year. Her perseverance to overcome the racial challenges and sexist stereotypes that faced her were unquestionably the motivation for the development of the main character, Chantel. This is exemplified throughout the entire film, where Chantel is determined, focused and striving to reach her goal to become a doctor, despite the odds. The unexpected plot twist in the end actually comes in result of Chantel becoming a statistic or Just Another girl on the I.R.T. when she discovers she is pregnant. In contrast to Harris’s life, a black woman who beat the odds, graduated college and became successful, Chantel on the other hand is doomed to remain in the inner city, raising a child while her hopes and dreams are positively set back a couple years.

New York Times 21 Feb. 1993: 17. New York Times. New York Times. Print
Washington Post 2 Apr. 1993: G-1-D-1. Print

Edward Scissorhands: Close Reading

In this post, I’d like to focus on the scene in Edward Scissorhands where Peg(Dianne West) first decides to drive up to Edward’s house and attempt to sell him the Avon beauty product.  Director/Writer Tim Burton does a fantastic job in showing the contrast between Edward and the rest of the people of the town.  Once Peg first see’s Edward’s house in her rear-view mirror, there is a wide shot view of the houses in the neighborhood.  All the houses, car’s, and clothes of the people in the town are all very similar pastel colors.  As Peg drives up to Edward’s house, his house is black and is perched upon a hill.  The difference of color between Edward’s house and the rest of the town, depicts the difference between Edward’s character and that of the rest of the town.

Once we finally see Edward, he has pale skin and dark black clothes on.  I think that color play’s a huge role in the depiction of Edward’s character.  Not only does Edward’s dark house and clothing make him different from the rest of the town, but it also gives in to Edward’s threatening persona.  I think that Edward’s different characteristics make it difficult for his character to become accepted within the town.  Surprisingly, Edward was accepted rather quick within the town, but it did not take long for his acceptance to take a spiral.  I personally think that director Tim Burton did an excellent job in using color to show the differentiation between Edward’s character and the rest of the town.

1970 songs used in The Virgin Suicides

In The Virgin Suicides there is a scene towards the end where the boys find a note about the Lisbon sisters asking for help. The boys go searching for their number in the yellow pages; when they called the girls they didn’t talk to them instead they played a songs. Each song represented what each group was feeling, the first is Hello It’s Me which the boys played to the sisters, its about a man thinking about a girl too long and wanting to be with the girl even though he can’t but the girl should still think of him. I think this song made me understand that at that point in the movie when the girls are locked in there house the boys wanted to be with the girl even more now and be able to see them again just like before. They also wanted the Lisbon sisters to know that they haven’t forgotten about them like everyone has. The Lisbon sisters responds with Alone Again and this song isn’t as a upbeat song as the boys, but the line that is played in the film:

“To think that only yesterday 
I was cheerful, bright and gay 
Looking forward to who wouldn’t do 
The role I was about to play 
But as if to knock me down 
Reality came around 
And without so much as a mere touch 
Cut me into little pieces 
Leaving me to doubt 
Talk about, God in His mercy 
Oh, if he really does exist 
Why did he desert me 
In my hour of need 
I truly am indeed 
Alone again, naturally” 

This part of the song really plays a great deal to the story and the isolation the girls are now facing, Prom being their cheerful night only to end with everything falling apart that leads all of them to being alone again. Next the boys played the Bee Gees song Run To Me another song that kind of makes you think are the boys trying to cheer up the girls and give them hope that they are not alone. There’s a part in the song that goes:

“Run to me whenever you’re lonely (to love me)
Run to me if you need a shoulder
Now and then, you need someone older,
So darling, you run to me.”

The last song that is played is a Carole King song So Far Away, the song is pretty much telling the boys how they wish they could come right to their door by they are so far away, even though they live right in front of the girls. When you piece together all the songs and listen carefully it makes complete sense now how the ending connects with songs being played. The songs being played are almost what someone would listen when they are sad or depress, the girls are using their songs to tell the boys that they are depress and want to get out. I don’t think it change much of how I think of the movie, I still believe the boys are more interested in the mystery and their needs. What I got from watching that scene the girls want to be helped but the boys are playing music of wanting the girls to love them but to also not think they’re forgotten.

Good Will Hunting: How it all started

Good Will Hunting was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The two of them grew up together in Chambride, Ma  and took drama classes with one another. Once college came around they went their separate ways. Matt Damon went to Harvard University, and Ben Affleck attended Occidental College in Califorina. The film first started to be written in Matt Damon’s fifth year at Harvard. Damon was in a play writing class and one project was to write a one act play but Damon decided to write and turn in a movie that was 40 pages long instead . Damon showed Ben the script he had wrote for his class and asked if he would help write it.  The was the two came up with a some scenes is pretty interesting. Allfleck states ” We would improvise and drink like six or twelve beers or whatever and record it with a tape recorder.”  The duo wrote a fantastic script that was finished in 1994. They hand over the script to an agent Patrick Whitesell who reluctantly took it because “Usually when you get a script from actors you don’t have high expectations”. Whitesell read the script and was blow away by it. The film was then picked up by director Gus Van Stant and producer Chris Moore. Good Will Hunting made its premiere in 1997 and the film has gotten nothing but fantastic reviews. After almost two decades Affleck’s and Damon’s story will continue to entertain audiences everywhere.

 

Here’s an interview with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck explaining how the movie came together.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2013/01/good-will-hunting-oral-history/3/

Societal pressures shown in Edward Scissorhands

The film Edward Scissorhands, directed by Tim Burton, is a depiction of a man simply trying to fit in; however no matter how valiant his efforts he continues to be an outcast in society. This film made me think critically about the role of fitting into society and the underlying pressures to conform to life as it is.  Edward was obviously very different from the average person, however the feelings of loneliness and despair that he felt can be related to by any person who has felt alienated during a part of their life. This movie made me question the social constructs that are in place in society, and the idea that we should all live the same mundane lifestyle that others have lived before us.  Edward is an outcast based on his looks, demeanor, and situation in life. However, in real life  the pressures  to conform are not only focused on looks and behavior: you must also conform to the way society is set up politically and financially  in order to fit in with the crowd. It is due to this flawed set-up that most people can find some reason to feel alienated at times, in much the same way Edward was during the movie. Even though he had some social interaction and had his moments of use, the scenes that I paid attention to the most were moments when he did not fit in with the crowd.

To understand how much of a factor societal and cultural norms are; just think of the way you view someone who tries to be different in the way they live their lives, the clothes you wear, or the music they listen to. Do you really view a teen with piercings dressed in all black clothes walking down the street the same way you view a business man in a suit? The answer is obviously a no. Preconceived notions of people who are different are formed because of the idea that there is a right way to live, and a right way to look. These notions are formed by culture: through advertisements, television shows, language, and music. Overall, I found this movie to be interesting in that it reminded me of how much of an influence society has on all of us, and how we long to fit in to it.

Drug Use and STDs in the 90s

The film Kids by Larry Clark was released in 1995 and focused on drug use and the spread of HIV between teens and preteens. This film highlights the drug culture that began to diminish in the late 90s. At the time this film took place, drugs such as marijuana were less in demand than other drugs like, crystal meth, which were fairly new to teens. According to an article written by Jennifer Robinson she talks about how “the dangers of these drugs are new to these kids. Many kids thought Ecstasy, which wasn’t outlawed until 1985, was harmless. In the future, the challenge for drug educators will be to inform kids about the very real dangers of drugs that most adults have never heard of”. I think that Jennifer makes a great point when she talks about how children are misinformed about these drugs and that their parents don’t know much about them either. This was apparent in the film because no one was supervising the children to see what they were doing. Also throughout the movie you never really see any of the kids concerned about the consequences of their actions. This could be because they don’t really know what the consequences are. Another point that Robinson made was that in the 90s, most of these parents weren’t aware of what their children were getting into and a lot of them didn’t know about these drugs. Some of the popular drugs in the 90s were fairly new and were past the time of the parents.

Another aspect of the movie was how unaware these kids were about sexually transmitted diseases. The kids went on without a care in the world and seemed to be completely unaware of the consequences of STDs. After the AIDS epidemic began in the 80s, many people were aware of how the disease works and how to protect themselves by the 90s. In the movie it seemed like the kids didn’t know any of this. The lack of knowledge could also be from how much the parents aren’t informing their children. If the parents aren’t acknowledging the dangers of STDs the children may not know about them. In an article written by Susan Wesley she talked about how our medicine today is way more advanced than it was in the 90s. If a person contracted HIV in the 90s they would experience confusion, depression and extreme fatigue. Nowadays we are more prepared to help treat the symptoms and make the disease easier to deal with.

http://www.uic.edu/orgs/convening/hivaids.htm
http://www.gallup.com/poll/6352/decades-drug-use-80s-90s.aspx

Just Another Girl on the I.R.T – Personal Reflection

Chantel Mitchell was determined to not be like every other girl on the I.R.T. But it turns out that she is. I think that the people you surround yourself with is a reflection of who you are as well. One of her friends already had a child to take care of and the other one was just wild. They would go out to parties looking for “love.” Chantel’s mother did not want her going out because she knows what it’s like but Chantel would lie to stay out all night. Chantel was smart and could have turned things around for herself, but her bad attitude would not get her very far. Watching the film made me angry at the fact that she had school going for her and she ruined it with her poor attitude and behavior. Teen pregnancy is common and I am not against it, but the fact that she pretended throughout the whole film like she was not pregnant and nothing was wrong, proved that she was not fit to be a mother. Her boyfriend gave her options and tried to be there for her. He gave her $600 that she could decide to get an abortion or not with. Instead of returning the money, she took her and her friend on a shopping spree. She was immature about the situation when now was the time she needed to step up and figure out her life. But she was too determined to be like every other girl on the i.r.t. The scene that enraged me the most was towards the end when she was ready to have the baby. She refused to get help and go to the hospital. Then, she tells Ty to just throw the baby away. Her not caring for an innocent child that is her own was outrageous. Although in the end she ends up going to college and taking care of her baby responsible, I was still angry with her character.

The Virgin Suicides – Scene Significance

For being the youngest, Cecilia seems to have felt for things a lot more than the other girls do. For example when she first tries to commit suicide and the doctor asks “What are you doing here hunny? You’re not even old enough to know how bad life gets”, and she simply replies with “Obviously doctor, you’ve never been a 13 year old girl.” Living in a strict household, to her live seems to be tough. In the scene where the neighborhood boys are reading through Cecilia’s diary, they learn about how she thinks and what her and sisters lives are like. They discover that Mary has a cap tooth, Cecilia’s obsession with elm trees, and how she thinks Dominic was stupid for jumping out of a window to express his love just for Diana Porter. Which was obviously because she liked him.

During this scene I have posted below, the dream-like vision is of what the boys imagine the girls are like and that’s why it’s so significant.  You can tell this is a dream because of the coloring, the unicorn, and how all of the girls look like they are day dreaming. The boys never get to actually understand the girls, except of what they read in the diary. In the scene, the man narrating says, “we knew that the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love and even death” and goes on to say “we knew that they knew everything about us and that we couldn’t fathom them at all.” The only chance when they are about to get to know the girls because they were going to save them and drive away together, they all commit suicide. The only memory the boys have left are of what they thought the girls were like.

Cultural impact of Boyz n the Hood

When I watched this movie, I thought it was interesting that they included statistics as part of the opening scene. Obviously violence and homicide were major issues Los Angeles, otherwise this tactic wouldn’t have been effective in the movie. I looked up the significance of this movie, and found something surprising. When Boyz n the Hood first came out, it actually sparked an increase in gang violence at first. This made many of the theaters to pull the movie shortly after its release. I also found that this movie was released at the height of L.As gang wars, and only nine months before the police officers would be acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. This movie has a lot of historical significance in this time period, some of it unintentional.

This movie was a wake up call to the public, addressing an issue that had been going on for far too long. I believe that the release time of this film had some impact on the riots that followed the acquittal of the police officers. There was a great quote an article from the LA Times, stating “Instead of being represented, you have a case of people trying to represent themselves.”(Swanson).  This was spoken by Christine Acham, professor at UC Davis. This quote is especially true for this period in time, not only for the movie, but for the events that occurred after the movie. 

 

Swanson, Tim. “‘Hood,’ Revisited.” LA TImes [Los Angeles] 26 July 2011: n. pag. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/26/entertainment/la-et-boyz-anniv-20110726&gt;.