Reaction Paper on the Film “A Beautiful Mind”
A Beautiful Mind is a movie about John Forbes Nash Jr. who is notable for his contributions in Economics and Mathematics. It was evident in the film that he has an outstanding talent and showed it by performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment. With a superior intelligence, I can say that Nash is truly a brilliant man.
Despite the fact he is a genius, everything still wasn’t perfect — he’s suffering from a mental illness called schizophrenia without his awareness. While he has a beyond average aptitude in logical and mathematical aspects, he had problems with his interpersonal relationships. This affliction slowly eats up his mind, destroying his bond with the people around him. With this illness, he wasn’t able to separate the imaginary world from the real world he is living in, with all the hallucinations and nonexistent friends he has.
I strongly believe that these delusions are from the feelings and memories he repressed in his subconscious that liberates in the form of imaginary friends and such. Lucky for him that he has understanding wife, because if it wasn’t for her love and support, he wouldn’t be able to get through one of the hardest trials in his life. Although she nearly lost her faith, Alicia didn’t give up the hope that Nash will someday overcome his disease. This quality of Alicia is something I admired: standing by and staying committed to the person she loves the most.
Granted all the struggles, Nash didn’t give up the passion to learn and share his learnings as well. He came out on top of this illness by declining therapy, living a normal life with Alicia and his child, and also by persisting in educating eager young minds.
After watching this film, I am in stack of awe with the way Nash conquered everything that stood in the way for achieving his dreams. I guess, the learning we can take from his story is that we should see our disabilities not as hindrances rather, as challenges to make us strive for more. There may be times that we trip a little, we may even fall, but we must stand up and continue walking towards fulfilling our goals.
Rosewood Movie Review
Rosewood A great story based on real example, which happened in small town of Florida. This movie was directed by John Singleton, and based from real incident, that took place in 1923 in Florida. It is a story about how middle class African-Americans were living and enjoying life, until an incident happens in town. A white female is accusing colored person in raping her. From this point main goal of three main characters is to save people from mob attack, and lynching of colored people.
This is a great example that we can relate to what he have learned in the class. As we know the main problem of this story is that a white female who had sexual intercourse with her lover, provoked him and he got in a fight with her. Leaving marks on her body and a clear mark on her face, witness of this event were colored people who were working outside and heard everything that was going on. Women was accusing that African-American men raped and beat her. She went outside screaming, and making a tragedy, hiding the truth.
This is a great example of what was happening in 19 century, where lynching escalated to a new whole level. According to Jessie Ames, lynching was happening 29% in the North and 71% in the South. And what is the worst that all this killing was happening because of the women that excuse what made in South. Even though that we are knowing according to Jessie Ames that 71% lynching in the South that was happening, this event was instigated against white male, not against female. That said that lynching were happening for no reason, and excuse for it was white women.
This move have related and showed us that no one was protected at that time. Living in this small town in Florida, having colored people everyone in middle class, leaving peacefully a knowing everyone. It still didn’t help to solve the problem. In the movie was one important scheme when sheriff of the town asked women, if she is sure that it was African-American person or not. It gives us a hint that sheriff does not belief what she is saying. Knowing that she is capable of not telling truth.
White people are getting mad and are crushing and killing African Americans, they re mad and are following each other, while sheriff was trying to make everything fair and find the one who is guilty. But everything collapsed and they started killing and hanging African Americans. The only person who tried to stop and save their lives was owner of the shop. He didn’t believed that someone couldn’t done this to her. And he was certainly sure that colored people couldn’t do that. He tried to save them from their death.
He and a new guy, who came in town, team up in order to save kids and women, which ended up being a successful plan. This movie is a great example of what and how was going during mob attacks and racist killings. It showed up that there was a fear of white people to have and realized that colored people are getting educated and are having a better life style. That they are gaining power little bit by little bit. And we could see how white people were scared when “Major” came in to town, and knowing that he is wealthy. This is a story how white folks were scared of colored people, and were doing everything they could
The Patriot Film Analysis
The Patriot is an American historical film starring Mel Gibson and directed by Roland Emmerich. It is set in South Carolina, one of the thirteen British colonies set in America. The film follows the story of a “Patriot” named Benjamin Martin. This character is a portrayal of American Revolution War hero Francis Marion. In the film Benjamin, is recognized as a war hero from the French and Indian War. However he has retired from a life of battle and is attempting to follow the virtues of pacifism, until his family becomes the target of war.
After the death of Benjamin’s son and capture of another, he is thrown back into the life he thought he has left behind. The rest of the film portrays the drama and action that leads up to the climactic battle depiction of Battle of Cowpens and the victory of South Carolina in the Siege of Yorktown. Although the story of Benjamin is compelling and inspirational, it is based off of inaccurate historical assumptions. The American Revolution portrayed in The Patriot was more about the war America wanted it be rather than what it was.
The film glorifies American victories as well as American war heroes, while portraying “the redcoats” as sadistic, brutal, and abominable creatures. A perfect example of such bias is the film’s antagonist, Colonel William Tavington, who is a fictional representation of General Sir Banastre Tarleton. The film uses misconception and inaccuracy to portray the victory of America over the British, as a representation of a sanctified glory of angels over demons.
The film starts with simple inaccuracies that can be excused, however these simple inaccuracies domino into great blunders that cannot be ignored: Some minor mistakes made by the film involve errors such as the materials used during the time period, do not actually belong to that time. For example in several action sequences of the film, weapons such as exploding projectiles or bombs are presented. Although canons were invented in this time period, none of the projectiles ever exploded (Canon link).
Another flaw involves a major societal misunderstanding, when Benjamin goes to war, he sends his children to a slave colony for shelter, for which the slaves are honoured. In the Colonial Era, slave colonies, like the ones portrayed in the film, were secluded and protective from the “White colonists”. Therefore it was highly unlikely that a character such as Benjamin would send his children to a slave colony, let alone being treated kindly for doing so. One of the major inaccuracies is the slave and owner relationship portrayed by the film.
For example during the colonists’ stand against the British Army the Continental Congress states an order. For any slave that serves “12 months” in the Colonial Army, will gain freedom and “5 schillings” per month served. When comparing this claim with other sources, it was discovered that no such claims were extended by the Continental Congress. Infact, The Patriot ignores slavery in total. Director Spike Lee was one of the many critics that were disappointed with the films inaccuracies. “For three hours The Patriot dodged around, skirted about or completely ignored slavery,” he wrote in a letter to The Hollywood Reporter. The Patriot is pure, blatant American Hollywood propaganda. A complete whitewashing of history. ” The director of the film, Roland Emmerich, misguides his audience into thinking that the British troops are monsters sent from hell. The film portrays the character of William Tavington as a merciless villain who commits intolerable atrocities. For example, a scene in the film depicts the redcoats gathering the entire village including women, children and unarmed men.
They force all of them into a church for an interrogation about Benjamin, after which they lock the church from the outside and set the building on fire. Looking back into the American Revolution, such atrocities were never committed. Although the Sir Banastre Tarleton, portrayed by, William Tavington, is no saint, he wasn’t as evil as the film potrays him. A film critic and a historian, Stephen Hunter, told the Telegraph (magazine) that “Any image of the American Revolution which represents you Brits as Nazis and us as gentle folk is almost certainly wrong” (Cite this).
The German director relates the actions committed by the Nazis in World War II, to those of British in the film. Another major flaw of the film is the protagonist, Benjamin Martin. The movie depicts Benjamin as symbol of goodness, a beacon of hope and a human vessel for an angel. However the character Benjamin Martin tries to portray Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion, a militia leader during the Revolution, from South Carolina. According to The Guardian, there were records of Marion persecuting and killing many Cherokee Indians.
He hunted them as a source of entertainment and he raped many of his female slaves. However the movie simply depicts Benjamin Martin as the untainted hero. Finally the movie’s greatest flaw lies in its climatic battle, Battle of Cowpens. Where the tactics used by the militia were similar to that of the movie, however the results were nowhere in comparison of reality. During the Battle of Cowpens, militia was asked to play decoy. Although the film portrays General Nathanael Greene giving the orders, he was never present at this battle.
The militia charged the battle, and after firing two shots retreated back to the hill, where the British troops were overwhelmed by the American Army. However the film portrays the militia firing more than two rounds before retrieval. Lieutenant-General Charles, Lord Cornwallis, commands his men to fire at the crowd of both British and American soldiers as a last resort to defeat America. However in reality Cornwallis never took such actions against his soldiers.
