Morals in Lolita?

The controversial movie Lolita (1997) is based off the novel written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1955. What made directors and producers decide to create a movie out of this novel is beyond me. Being adapted from the 1960s version of Lolita, this version sends your stomach into an upset. Director Adrian Lyne put on a sexual, forbidden-love spin to the tale. Instead of having Lolita act like an innocent and naive girl, Lyne’s version poses Lolita as a crafty tease towards Humbert.

The morality of this story is that there is no morals. An adult male insisting himself upon a tempting child makes for a disaster for both characters. From watching the movie, I saw no good in either characters. Each had their moments of being morally just, but as a whole, both were rotten in their motives. Humbert wanted a girl who reminded him of his first love as a preteen. However, he failed to realize that is culturally wrong and damaging to himself. Stated in class, Humbert could have stepped away from the whole mess at the hotel when he went outside. He could have just kept walking and left Lolita there. Of course that would be abandoning her without anyone to care for her, but he wouldn’t have become so engrossed with always having her around. Lolita was naive but not innocent; she was not pure. Lolita knew what she wanted and how to get it. Yet she too failed to realize this was damaging to herself. She could have run away, which she eventually does, but that puts her in a worse position of child-pornography.

Neither character wins in this story and audiences are left feeling disgusted. The morals are unclear/nonexistent in Lolita, looking at the book or movie versions. This story tells people what not to do and what should not be seen as an acceptable forbidden-love tale.

The 70s Outlook for The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides takes place in Michigan in 1974 surburbia. Knowing the time period the story is set in, it is easier to understand the shock of five sisters committing suicide. Though it would still be a shock to our society today, it was even more so back then because there were no suicide prevention or awareness functions going on. The major suicide/death scandal to occur that set the nation into motion of preventing it were the deaths in Jonestown under leadership of Jim Jones, 1978. Before then, suicide occurred but it wasn’t in mass numbers. To have siblings commit suicide is horrifying, especially without understanding why.

For the protective parents aspect, the generation to have children and teens in the 70s had grown up in the 40s/50s. This was a time where parents were very protective and religious over their children due to the nation being at war. That upbringing caused parents of the 70s to either be rebellious or practice those ways with their children. As seen in the home, the mother was protective of her children even before the youngest daughter committed suicide. The party the girls have only happens with the mother’s approval.

In the 70s, people were not aware on why suicide happens or had any way of preventing it. Crisis hotlines in the US, mainly directed towards suicide, were set up in the mid70s. Suicide is a horrible action that still happens today. Sadly, we still have not reached an age where suicide does not occur, but we are definitely making progress.

Director Sofia Coppola of The Virgin Suicides

In looking up the biography of Sofia Coppola, director of The Virgin Suicides (1999), I found some interesting things. For information about Coppola herself, she was an actress before becoming a director. Casting in The Godfather III as Mary Corleone (1990), The Outsiders as Little Girl (1983) and a few others, Coppola understood the dynamics of film making. To test the waters of directing, she made two shorts, Bed, Bath and Beyond (1996), and Lick the Star (1998). Finding security in making these shorts, she went on to direct The Virgin Suicides (1999). In creating the film, Coppola created the script herself. Stating in an interview, “…it’s part of making a film: dreaming up in your mind the movie you want to make”.

Looking at the biography IMDb.com gives, there is a section called “Trade Mark” which lists what each director is most known for. For Coppola in The Virgin Suicides, sun being filmed through leaves and introduction scene focusing on the main character during an unidentified point in time, shown to express their loneliness, are two marks that stick out. There are plenty of scenes where the sun is shining through leaves. For the introduction, the youngest sister, Cecilia, is shown being taken to the hospital and has a very dull expression on her face while at the hospital and being evaluated by the psychologist.

Coppola put time and effort into making this film. As The Virgin Suicides depicts the life of five girls, Coppola makes that known and creates a world where the audience also cares for the girls and what happens to them.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/q-a-sofia-coppola-on-the-virgin-suicides

Father/Son Relationship in Boyz n the Hood

For the movie Boyz n the Hood I analyzed the relationship between Tre and his father. When Tre goes to live with his father, at first their relationship doesn’t have much of a connection. Furious has to provoke Tre to greet him. However, their father-son relationship blooms in every scene later on. Furious understands he needs to be Tre’s father figure, the one to teach him “how to be a man”. A scene in the beginning of the movie I want to point out is when they’re by the bay with Tre skipping stones. Furious tries to get little Tre to understand the world: advising him to not join the military and what sex is. Though Furious is a single father and the neighborhood isn’t the greatest, he cares for his son. This scene demonstrates Furious setting Tre up to have high moral values.
In the middle of the movie, Furious takes Tre and Ricky out to a different neighborhood. Tre and Ricky are hesitant in following Furious up to the sign but they do trust him. He teaches them both about some facts of real life. When he’s teaching the boys, he is also teaching the neighborhood about whats really going on in life for black communities. Furious isn’t only a father figure to Tre but also to Ricky, and in this scene, to complete strangers. His advice and talk is valid to them, giving him credibility and securing his thoughts into the minds of others.
Towards the end of the movie, when Ricky is killed, Furious tries to stop Tre. He doesn’t want him to go down that path. He taught Tre to live a life outside of the ghetto murders. Though revenge is usually sweet, Furious steps in front of the door, challenging Tre to shoot him instead. This scene demonstrates the connection between Furious and Tre amazingly. In a way, Furious mocks Tre stating, “Oh  you bad now huh? You gonna shoot somebody. Well here I am. Shoot me”. He goes on to say that Tre is his responsibility, that its not right to do. As we see, Tre runs out to Doughboy’s car anyway. But Furious’s words got to Tre. He repeats to Doughboy to let him out of the car. This is where we see how Tre and Furious’s relationship really blossom. Though Tre wants to avenge Ricky’s death, he respects his father’s words and does the morally good thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lle4ilOHrXg -early relationship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BadSZDpvq-s -Tre and Ricky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1fv8bPOwGk -Furious’s words on revenge

Tuesday’s Gone in Dazed and Confused

For Dazed and Confused I couldn’t help but notice the song playing in the background as the party under the Moon Towers started to wind down was “Tuesday’s Gone” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I feel this song was perfect for this scene to end. The instruments playing before Skynyrd starts singing is slow and laid back. There is a summer feel to the tone of the song. Stating that Tuesday’s gone gives great meaning to the characters, even though they don’t realize it yet. It’s the end of the school year, some are going off to college, others are about to start high school, and everyone by the end of the day is different.
During the day, Mitch was just a junior high kid who could only look forward to getting paddled by the upper classmen. By the end of the night, he has been accepted and has lost his childhood behind. Randy couldn’t choose between playing football or smoking weed. He found his voice and decided to stick it to the man by continuing to smoke. By just looking at these two characters, their pasts are gone. A verse in the song that stuck out was “Tuesday, you see, she had to be free”. Though the song has to do with leaving a man’s love, I view it as the character’s leaving their pasts behind and starting a new. This can be seen especially through Mitch and Randy. Both needed that freedom from their past to move forward and onto their future paths. This was an excellent song to show that character development.

Reflection of Lolita

When we talked about the story of Lolita in class, I was interested in how the movie would be watchable. It was interesting in how subtle and not subtle the director portrayed Humbert and Lolita’s sexual scenes. It was disturbing. I wasn’t too set on finishing the movie but I kept going. For an older man to take away a young girl’s innocence is immoral. For someone to truly love another, there should be a form of respect, which I didn’t see from either character. Humbert was controlling Lolita and Lolita was using him as a play toy.

After watching the movie and discussing it in class, I didn’t feel the same sympathy towards Humbert at the end as others did. I realized he had a tragic past of losing the love of his life at age 14, but I didn’t feel it was justified to fall for Lolita. In the end, he was sent to jail because of murdering someone, not because of his relationship with Lolita. However, I can’t fault Humbert fully. Lolita did play a major hand in allowing Humbert’s advances. She used him as her play toy during the summer while her mother was still alive. This I was equally disgusted at. To treat someone with that disrespect, of slapping or hitting him, putting gum on his paper, is just plain rude. It showed how poorly her mother raised her.

When I posed the question to the class, about whether or not people would accept this story later in the future, I was ready with my own answer. If Lolita were older, in her twenties, then I’d think the relationship would be acceptable. When people are in his or her twenties, there is a sense of maturity. Though no one is fully mature then, individuals are creating and finding who she is and what she wants. There are relationships in our world where one is dating another half their age, but they had met at a later time in life. Of course the story of Lolita is about a man falling for a young girl because of his tragic past, but I still don’t view that as a justification to acting upon her innocence.