Film Essay

As a person that understands topics better by visual presentations, it is more productive for me to watch a movie than read a book. having watched a two great movies with slavery, i have gotten a better understanding of how violent and scary the past was. In Glory and 12 Years a Slave, there were multiple scenes of violent crimes now a days that were considered okay back then. Hearing and reading about it would not get the right type of violence that was actually portrayed. I believe that watching something instead of reading would help with a better understanding.

Many movies are true stories and the true stories are the ones that mean the most to someone, it is a movie with purpose. 12 Years a Slave and Glory were both true stories about slavery, yet neither of them were that alike. The filming of Glory (1989) was about the black regiments in civil war, many of which were considered free. But not all movies about history have to portray the bad parts. This movie showed not only the horror but the beauty, a commander caring for his troops, the troops working together, and happiness. This movie was awarded outstanding motion picture, that was a huge accomplishment, in meaning this movie was awarded one of the best movies to be shown, with the greatest pictures and settings. Elizabeth from IMDB reviewed the movie and described it to be, “Easily best civil war movie produced. filled with memorable and moving scenes. history is brought to life more vividly in this film than in any budget all-star cast. Brings issue of the time slavery freedom and sacrifice- down to human scale.” The director Ed Zwick did not want to out do the book that had been republished into a movie yet he wanted to re-examine history, to show people that what had happened was awful but it had to be showed. In the movie 12 Years a Slave it was about a free black man that had been taken and sold into a slavery. It was a usual occurrence, to take free black men and make the property. We the  people in the future did not know of our own how badly this was. Mens names were changed, owners were cruel, and relationships between the owner and workers did indeed happen, but in a completely different view that we want to look at it. This is not what people wanted to hear but  unfortunately they had to because that was history and the history of the world is full of a lot of frightening things. Steve Mcqueen, the director of 12 Years a slave went on to say in an interview that he understood that many people were not okay with the gruesome scenes that were shown but that “people want to close their eyes on some subject. they want to keep on going, they don't want to look behind them, but sometimes they have to.” 12 Years a slave was awarded Best motion picture, Best adapted screenplay, Best feature, and many more. The harshest movie can and might win and represent the scariest part of history but the more inspiring.

The directors of both these movies spoke out about the this time of history that it was awful and people need to know about it. that's why people should be allowed to watch movies, it is a video of the past, a video that holds historical content that nobody would want to happen again, these videos that could be shown and should be shown prove that our world nowadays is much better than what it used to be. These videos that are shown can be related to in an empathetic way, feeling bad for someone even if it is just in a movie is a personally great thing to do. It shows that you are human and not some robot!

12 years a slave

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/12_years_a_slave/

http://www.ew.com/article/2014/03/02/2014-oscars-winners-nominees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Years_a_Slave_(film)

http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/12-years-a-slave.php

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/08/12-years-a-slave-steve-mcqueen

glory

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097441/reviews

http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/reel_new/films/list/0_10_5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(1989_film)

http://ashbrook.org/publications/oped-owens-00-patriot/

http://communitytable.parade.com/54012/brianpalmer/the-true-story-behind-the-movie-glory/

http://tech.mit.edu/V109/N60/zwick.60a.html

Practicing Incorporating a Quotation

According to an article of Reel america history, "Zwick used many willing and able civilian re-enactors. These extras took their roles very seriously and were consistently adamant in offering advice for the bettering of the film's details." this quote describes the dedication of many of the soldiers and the type of encouragement they had towards each other involving advice. It is kinda cool that with all of the help and dedication during this movie, many of the actors were not payed.

This is what Mrs.Lawson wanted me to learn today:

• Only use quote when it adds power and style to my writing
• Always make it clear, from context, that i understand the full meaning of the quote
• Whether i quote or paraphrase, always be transparent about the source and how im using it
• If i usse another author's exact words or phrases, to any extent, i have to use quotation marks and give credit
• If i use another author's presentation of facts or ideas, but put their ideas in my own words, i better have a good reason for doing that, and i MUST give credit
• Hyperlinking is so easy, there is no excuse for not being transparent about my sources

I feel like i have the hang of paraphrasing but i would like some extra help with it because it still gets confusing at some parts when it comes to difficult quotes

Paraphrase Practice

In this article i found a quote by actor Morgan Freedman and i will paraphrase below:

"I don't have a problem with that. You cannot reasonably ask a white writer to do it differently. Now, if we're going to start citing some unfortunates, it might be unfortunate that a black writer didn't write it, but if a black writer had written it, there's a good chance he wouldn't have found a producer. So there you are. This is a movie that did get made, and a story did get told, and that's what is important."

This is my paraphrase:
         There is not a problem about this but there is nothing to be said when a white writer writes his way because there is no way to correct him. Yet if a black writer wants to write their own way they might have a lot of difficutly figuring out who to tell their story.It is sad that a black writer wasnt able to write this but im just glad that the story was told. A movie was made, and a incredible story got told and that is all that matters.

Empathy vs. Sympathy

In our generation we have 2 very distinct nouns that are shwn throughout someones lifetime, Empathy and Sympathy.Empathy the ability to understand and share the feelings of another "putting yourself in someone else's shoes" . Sympathy the feeling of caring about someone else's grief or misfortune, it is mutually known as support. although these 2 nouns sound the same they do have a slight difference. Between these two nouns is the one difference, which is having a helpful hand. an example would be helping out in a soup kitchen, you have many choices as to what you could "help" out with,you could "help" out in the back with the cooking, you could "help" serve to the families, or you could "help" with socialization towards the people. A person who is empathetic would decide to socialize and try to put theirselves in the other persons shoes, even though it might be difficult. yet a person who would be sympathetic would pass out the food or help cook in the back, because they do feel sorry but they know they cant do anything about it. there is a reason why i quoted the word help in one of my sentences, i did this because that word is thrown around, you can use the term constantly but not many people live up to the standards of what the word actually means. Throughout the world and troughout the many generations, we have had wars and battles and more wars. Everyone that had fought in these wars were known as brave and never weak. I could not agree onto how these soldiers went into war and what they had fought about, but i could sincerely empathize. i could figure out why they are fighting and what they believe in if i were to empathize and act as if i were there just about to go into war. i have no clue as to what i would be thinking but i would know that what i am doing is right. Empathizing is what makes you different towards the literature, you can personally feel for what was happening during that time period. the past was a difficult time so if you empathize you might have a clearer image as to why many of the major wars and battles happened, not just what is in textbooks and books. Empathizing and Sympathizing is one of the main things that make us human.