Coming to America, Scarface, and Borat Essay Example for Free

Coming to America, Scarface, and Borat Essay Motion pictures due to its nature, creates somehow a subliminal effect on its viewers. Certain dialogue and inherent acting can leave an impression to anyone who may watch it. These impressions have a large probability that what people see on screen could actually be real. Filmmakers on the other hand, know this effect on its viewers and create movies based on their own intention. For some filmmakers the purpose could be is to simply entertain, for others to educate. But even with this purpose in mind, some films made even though most likely unintentional, can cause a variety of reactions depending on the viewers perspective and comprehension of a specific film. A lot of these kinds of reactions may come from a twisting plot or a thought provoking characterization of its actors. The latter proves to have more reactions generated due to its social relevance, the characterization in films by the minorities of society. Since the inception of including minorities in film, a lot of criticisms were raised due to what others may deem offensive for the part of how the minorities are at times being falsely stereotyped and while others will consider it socially acceptable when analyzing it in a larger context (Sienkiewicz Marx, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze three films namely Scarface, Coming to America, and Borat. The study will discuss the roles portrayed by the lead actors in which they are also considered as part of the social minorities. This paper will break down the stereotypes or negative images in which the film may convey and how does these films contribute to oppression of one group or another. Data Analysis Coming to America In this film, Eddie Murphy plays the role of Prince Akeem a soon to be King of his wealthy country Zamunda. The plot revolves around Prince Akeem’s motivation to find his bride, since the type of wives being offered to him by the current king his Father, seems to be like Prince Akeem’s soon to be slaves, due to their nature to obey and please whatever the Prince will desire. That part alone shows the characters of women, (in this movie majority of the women are black) especially growing out from poverty will do anything just to get married to a Prince. Although women here is not considered minority but the negative image conveyed by the film of their characters, except for the main lady Lisa McDowell (in which Prince Akeem soon married due to her distinct quality), are basically like Gold diggers and will do absolutely anything just to get rich. Another incident, in which the film portrays and intentionally to be funny, was when Akeem and his cousin went to America to find the bride of his dreams, they encountered deceit and theft mainly from black people living in the impoverished area of Queens New York. Criticisms here depends on the type of viewer perception, some may react that not all Black people are like that, and they might even add that they just did those crimes due to poverty, but others will just look at it as unintentional and as a way to create a joke, but based on a study social and political themes the proportion of blacks who resort to violence has risen substantially over the last decade (Powers, Rothman Rothman, 1996, p. 179). Also a scene worth noting, was when it showed the future Father in-law of Akeem, Cleo McDowell (played by John Amos) running his business, which have almost the perfect resemblance of McDonalds due to its signature usage of the Golden Arches, in which he calls the McDowell’s. This scene portrays another character of the black people engaged in playful deceit for the purpose of comedy, although ugh the scene naturally funny but again may create a message that in general black people are simply like that. Even on the way Cleo treats his daughter on finding the right man, he always preferred a wealthy young man to be his future son in law, thus Akeem here for his purpose to be loved by the way he is and not for money he assumed the role of a poor man, in which his Cleo totally disliked and preferred the more well off son of a rich family Daryl. Deceit lies and the motivation for money seems to be the underlying themes of this movie, although created as a comedy to somehow cover these types of elements, it was really shown clearly when the stereotyping ended on the scene when Akeem’s father the King went to New York to find his son and stop the potential marriage of him and Lisa, offered a significant amount of money to Cleo for his troubles, Cleo then stood up for his hidden principles and reacted as if it was an insult to treat her daughter like that. This could a positive affirmation and probably the filmmakers created this scene for viewers not to generalize and jump into conclusions on the nature of the black people in this film. Scarface On the movie Scarface, Al Pacino plays the role of a Cuban refugee named Tony Montana. As an immigrant Tony was depicted as a very strong character incapable of fear especially driven by his goal of making it big on a different country like America. This characterization of Al Pacino explains the American immigrant experience suggesting that crime which is the centerpiece of which is drugs cannot be disconnected from the American Dream (Sharret, 2001). After him and his best friend Manolo (played by Steven Bauer) went out the refugee camp after a tumultuous rebellion, they found themselves on having a job as dishwashers. This shows that in America most of the jobs for immigrants with little education end up as blue collared workers doing hard work and long hours. This kind of work only made Tony feels that it was nothing different from back home in which he tried anything possible to get away of the communism grip. He decided to results into what he feels he can do best. Violence and drug dealing, this has made the movie somehow more dangerous in respect to all immigrants trying to live an honest hardworking life in America, as viewers may perceive that this is the way immigrants are, due to their background on either poverty or a tough government from their own countries. Thus stereotyping again may exists, however this film offered much more than just the immigrant experience, from that foundation it went to describe the both the horrific image of drugs in the contemporary world and the violence and corruption attached to it (same as Sharret, 2001). It was not long when Tony Montana thought he had achieved the American Dream, he killed his former boss, took away his business and his wife and even his own bodyguard to work for him. This happened as portrayed, that tension occurs when minorities (like Tony the immigrant from Cuba) and his White boss tried; but failed to resolve issues and misunderstandings (Powers, Rothman Rothman, 1996, p. 180). Tony knows he cannot do it alone without the help of corrupt bureaucrats who actually assist drug traffic as part of the realpolitik of post-war foreign policy (same as Sharret, 2001). Those scenes have a tremendous negative effect on not only to the violence by an immigrant but on his ability to utilize the system of the society in America that seems to support the idea of competition and acquisition as hallmarks of success and accomplishment (same as Sharret, 2001). There was what it seems as turning point in the film, in which Tony, His Wife Elvira (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) and Manolo went to a fine dining restaurant. In this particular scene Tony now considered rich and powerful, went beyond as he insulted his wife for being a drug addict, and made a scene with the whole considered to be the elite class of the society. The film conveys the message that this kind of society only knows where to point fingers when it comes to trouble and it a lot of times it goes to the immigrants whom they perceived are the bad guys and specializes on dealing drugs and partaking in violence. This explains that those other diners may have no idea what an immigrant experience could be and possibly do not care except if it affects them directly, in this particular scene it did. A lot of people considered Scarface as an epic gangster film, due to its themes of the capitalist lifestyle (in contrast to communism) violence and effects of drugs. Borat Borat is a film, that is supposed to comedic in nature, turned out as a heavy racist context, full of offensive themes for both the Kazakhstan people and the Americans as well according to its critics. But is it really? again depending on the type of viewers’ point of view. The film portrayed the country of Kazakhstan as a medieval society in which rape and incest are cheerfully accepted, and sometimes combined, some audiences knows that this kind of joke is not on the country itself, but on the western perception that foreign cultures are backward (Ryan, 2006). The ploy is centered on the character Borat Sagdiyev, (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) Kazakhstans second-best reporter, going to America to analyze the attitude and nature of the American people. In his travel accompanied by his producer Azamat Bagatov (played by Ken Davitian), Borat tries to learn the American sense of humor by interviewing an American coach, this scene conveys that the joke in which adding the word and exclamation Not! At the end of every sentence is proudly of American Origin ( same as Ryan, 2006). The other particular scene in which Borat interviewed the Veteran Feminists of America, can be considered nothing more sophisticated than a prank at the expense of those who dont know what the joke is, or even that there is a joke (same as Ryan, 2006). But this scene in particular portrayed the seriousness of the Veteran Feminists which either way doesn’t want to be stereotyped as Borat would prefer. This somewhat immigrant experience of Borat has also led him to his infatuation to television personality Pamela Anderson. Borat then meet with a group of drunken friends ( which this scene is not scripted) and these guy showed Borat a videotape of Pamela Anderson having sex with his then boyfriend Tommy Lee, having seen this Borat feels very depressed, since in his country the belief of virginity is very important, and before he have seen the video he thought that Pamela is still a virgin, this again portrays that Kazakhstan people are primitive as well as naive. The guys who showed Borat the video claimed (since this was an actual shot) that they are unfairly represented in the film as sexist louts because of their drunken state, but during that scene their celebratory screening of the tape reveals their sexism indisputably (Metz, 2007). There a lot of scenes in the film in which can be easily concluded as racist tags or false stereotyping, but as some of the scenes which are shot are not scripted like, the scene discussed earlier, explains some of the actual nature of the Americans on how they sometimes treat an immigrant especially if they don’t have any background of a specific immigrant. The immigrant experience here shows that people in whom he interacts can be well perceived as if they are trying to understand the minority, but at the same time holding their ground if they see something is not just normal by their standards. Conclusion The influence of film on audience perception can really be significant. Especially when dealing with the social order of the society. In this study we analyzed three films on which the corresponding focal point is the immigrant experience by the main characters. They all seemed reacting on what the new society already has in place for them. For us viewers, we see these types of minorities and a lot of times we simply cannot enjoy a film as it is, due to the disturbance of the negative messages of violence, offensive jokes, racism, drugs, sexism and lot of subliminal messages the film itself conveys to us. The problem with this is clear from this study, that it indeed has an effect that can possibly create oppression for a particular group, and in this case the immigrant minorities of our society. Reference List Charles, L. (2006). Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. United States:Four by Two. De Palma, B. (1983). Scarface. United States:Universal Pictures Landis, J. (1988). Coming to America. United States:Eddie Murphy Productions Metz, W. (2007) Shark Porn: Film Genre, Reception Studies, and Chris Kentis Open Water. Film Criticism 31. 1 Powers, S. , Rothman, D. , and Rothman, S. (1996). Hollywoods America: Social and Political Themes in Motion Pictures. Boulder. CO: Westview Press. Sharrett, C. (2001). Cinematic Drug Wars. USA Today, Society for the Advancement of Education. Sienkiewicz, M. Marx, N. (2009). Beyond a Cutout World: Ethnic Humor and Discursive Integration in South Park. Journal of film and video 61. 2 Ryan, G (2006). Thongs of Freedom: The Kazakh Ace Reporter Uncovers Uncomfortable Truths about the US. New Statesman

What has the Internet done to Radio Listenership? :: Essays Papers

What has the Internet done to Radio Listenership? Annie McBride (name changed to protect the internationally famous) is a junior at Syracuse University who hails from the land of Guinness across the Atlantic. She has regularly kept in contact with her native land by listening to and calling the premier student run radio station in the Ireland, LSRfm at the Leeds University. She was an American correspondent who informed the listeners of LSM about the latest fads, movies, and television shows in the United States. The radio station is broadcast over the internet, and will be returning to the FM dial in Ireland in 2006. (lsmfm.com) LSMfm is part of a trend that has been growing since the late 1990s: internet radio broadcasting. Many radio stations, like LSM in Leeds, Ireland and z89 in Syracuse, New York, have live audio streams of their broadcasts in real time. This allows anyone on the planet to listen to their favorite local station, no matter how far away from home they may be. The internet also allows for access to an extraordinary range of music. All of this is contributing to radio losing its foothold in society to the internet. One of the main reasons that the internet has become such a popular source for music is its diversity. Kim Vasey (2005) says â€Å"†¦Internet radio (has) brought alternative music choices that mostly cannot be found on the 'dial,'†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Newswire Association, 2005). These days, terrestrial radio stations have to take into account a wide diversity in their listeners’ musical tastes. In order to satisfy everyone’s palette, â€Å"the best a station can hope to do is program it's content so it hits "the middle" which, inevitably leads to little risk taking and bland programming.† (Deitz, http://radio.about.com/) This bland programming is of course what the turnoff for most radio listeners is in the first place, driving them to other annals of consumption, mostly the internet. A study done by a consumer research company called NPD reveals online radio listening is on the rise. â€Å"The research from NPD centers around people listening to music on thei r computers. It points to 77.2% of users having moved in this direction, and 55.3 million now listening to radio online.†(Music Online http://www.audiographics.com/) The internet is the one of the leading alternatives to terrestrial radio because it is so ready to use. The software is extremely accessible, and it is rare, in this day and age, that a computer is not hooked up to the internet.

Dark flat wilderness Essay

In order to find out how Dickens created tension in chapter 1 of Great Expectation, it is necessary to know why he had to keep the tension present through out the chapter in the first place. Like most of his other stories, Great Expectations was published in serials. It was important for Dickens to leave some anticipation in the end of each chapter so that the reader would buy the next edition of the magazine. Born in 1812; Dickens family was constantly in financial trouble. In fact, Dickens’s father spent time in a Debtor’s prison when Charles was twelve years old. During that time, he had to work in a Blacking warehouse. It was a traumatic experience he had truly hated. It was clear that his unhappy childhood affected his writing, many of Dickens’s work dealt with the injustice children experienced. In Victorian Britain, children of the poor were treated badly. Orphans were very common and the streets of London were filled with them. A few got jobs like chimney sweeping, the work was dirty and dangerous. their employers were also constatly abusing and exploiting them. This was if they were lucky. And what happened to the unlucky ones? Well, they lived on the streets and resorted to crime just to keep themselves alive. These children were exposed to all forms of danger. Along with criminals, orphans were in the bottem of society. With no one to care for them, these children very very vulnerable. The fact that Pip had no parents is revealed early on. This captured the especially Victorian reader’s sympathy immediately because they knew what happened to orphans. The readers were particularly worried that a little boy like Pip was all alone in a graveyard. â€Å"a bleak place overgrown with nettles†. Obviously nobody cared for the sad, lonely graveyard, just like the fact that no one cared for Pip. Death surrounds him; Pip’s dead brothers were buried beside their parents. The readers are now starting to guess what’s going to happen. Because Many children died early in Victorian times, it was entirely possible that Pip would be joining his brothers very soon. Surrounded by the â€Å"dark flat wilderness† there was no one to help Pip in this isolated place. Pip was suddenly â€Å"growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry† as â€Å"the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing† The wind may have served as a personification of a creepy voice. Something was definitely wrong. This setting creates tension for the reader because they expect something bad to happen, tension is created through suspense. Although very young, Pip had plenty of experiences with death but he had a limited ability to cope with what had happened. The evidence for this was when he had cried for no apparent reason. The odds were piled against him. Even the weather is bad, with the wind rushing. When Magwitch was first introduced, we were not given a warning. He just â€Å"started up from among the graves† and threatened to cut Pip’s throat. The fact that Magwitch was a convict was made clear by the â€Å"great iron† on his leg. The reader now has a very good reason to be afraid. The tension is growing because we are now scared for Pip. Dickens described events in a broad ways to begin with. The first three paragraphs were descriptions, nothing really happened in these first few paragraphs. Gradually as we learn more about a character and his capabilities, we begin to expect an event, or guess what might happen. In Magwitch’s case, when he said â€Å"keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat† we now know that Magwitch will scare Pip into obedience. They were in a graveyard, which was a symbol of death. Magwitch’s fearfulness is inflated because he is seen through Pip’s eyes. Because the reader sees all of this through the eyes of a child, the descriptions of Magwitch is exaggerated since Pip had a limited of the world in general. Because a child sees things differently as they have known fewer people, each person they meet is scrutinized according to their short pasts. A child’s world is much smaller. Because Pip was used to doing what he was told, He had agreed to help Magwitch because he was unaware of the dangers. This may mean that Pip could get himself tangled up in a criminal activity and be punished for it even if his intentions were good. The readers will feel that is very unfair, and naturally be worried and then wonder what’s going to happen next. Dickens secured the reader’s interest by playing on their sympathy. The readers can’t feel completely at ease knowing it was entirely possible for Pip to get into at awkward position in any time since children are less cautious. Innocence and trust is a hazard of childhood. Pip was both innocent and trusting. The story was set 20 miles away from the sea in the marsh county, this indicates that Magwitch had escaped from the hulks. The hulks were old ships that were literally falling apart. They were used to relieve the overcrowded prisons. But even that was not enough. Between 1787 and 1868 around 160,000 were transported to Australia, the conditions were so appalling that victims of the crimes appealed for the robbers. It was a time when the rich were very rich while the poor led a life near slavery. In fact many people had to steal just to keep themselves alive. The punishments were harsh poor petty crimes. People were hung for crimes that would only get them a fine today. The fact that Magwitch was cunning enough to escape show us that he was no ordinary criminal. Magwitch had everything to gain and nothing to lose and he would do anything necessary not to be recaptured. Pip was already scared for no reason, Magwitch had the upper hand. Magwitch intimidates Pip over and over again with threats. Now he had not only physically overwhelmed Pip, he had also controlled Pip emotionally. He invented a horrible young man and makes Pip think that he’s helping him. â€Å"I find it wery hard to hold that young man off of your inside† Now Pip also has the young man to be scared of.  Structurally, writers often use simple short sentences when building up to a climax, often with one or two word sentences, although this is not the case here. In the first physical description of Magwitch Dickens divided a sentence into little bits. â€Å"A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head †¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã‚  This has a similar effect as to using very short sentences to create tension. The word â€Å"and† was used nine times in this sentence. The reason Dickens didn’t use any other conjunction as it would make the sentence more flowing and therefore losing the intended effect. Tension is also felt in the detail. It’s the small things that would not normally be noticed or commented on that the reader is forced to notice. In the quote above, we are flooded with descriptions of Magwitch. The tension created in the first chapter of Dickens’s Great expectations relies on the reader’s sympathy for Pip and the frightfulness of Magwitch. The chapter’s gloomy setting also obviously creates apprehension. Although there are times when the readers are almost comfortable, Dickens always leaves seeds of anxiety lingering. Overall, Dickens maintains the tension by never letting the readers feel completely sure on what’s happening next.

The Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy - 1112 Words

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is one of the most memorable days in American history. The Making of Modern America states â€Å"Americans would compare the personal impact of the assassination to Pearl Harbor, and later to the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York† (123). Kennedy’s assassination brought about many conspiracy theories and ultimately begs the question, what if Kennedy had lived? President John F. Kennedy was sworn into office on January 20, 1961. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, and their children, Caroline and John Jr., were one of the youngest families to move into the White House as well. Kennedy was energetic and charismatic, while Jackie was beautiful and fashionable. Kennedy’s family played a huge†¦show more content†¦Although The New Frontier was largely unsuccessful, Kennedy had an abundance of success in other areas of his presidency. One of Kennedy’s primary focuses was space exploration. During Eisenhower’s presidency, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, and then at the beginning of Kennedy’s presidency, the Soviet Union launched the first man to orbit the earth. Kennedy took space exploration on as a challenge and urged Americans to support him by funding the Apollo missions. Kennedy challenged Americans to commit themselves to landing a man on the moon before 1970. â€Å"In February 1962 the United States caught up with the Soviets by sending John Glenn into orbit† (107). Kennedy also committed himself to civil rights. The Making of Modern America argues, â€Å"the sit-ins marked the beginning of Kennedy’s commitment to civil rights. The sit-ins began in the middle of the 1960 presidential campaign, and Kennedy, who was nearly unknown in the black community, saw the Republican Party’s lack of sympathy for black issues as a vulnerability to be exploited. He openly supported the sit-ins...in the election, Kennedy took a solid 68 percent of the black vote† (108). The sit-ins began as a form of peaceful protest when African American students sat at a whites-only counter and refused to leave