Race in The Bucket List

Race in The Bucket List

The Bucket List has been one of my favorite movies, since the first time I had seen it. Just like most movies we watch, it is a movie that we can relate to. The Bucket List helps audiences realize how short life is. While recently watching this film, along with our discussions in class I have been able to relate concepts from the movie to our discussions. In this post, I am going to talk about how the film fits the “buddy movie” genre, the “whiteness” in the film, and how some of the stereotypical roles are portrayed.

We have come along way in film, since the first films came out. Not necessarily, kids now, but our grandparents and maybe even parents did not get to see an African American in a leading role. Today we see African Americans not only being the lead actor but also winning Academy Awards, Grammys, Oscars, etc.

In our book, “America on Film: Representing race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies” it states, “And although Hollywood’s use of the black and white buddy formula (or black and Asian formula) may be abating somewhat it is still exemplified by films” (pg. 97). We see the “buddy” formula in The Bucket List. Morgan Freeman, an African American, and Jack Nicholson, a Caucasian, are the two actors that play the characters and both are leading parts in the film. The clip below is the trailer for The Bucket List, while watching; we see that both of these actors are equally show in the film. They both make up a huge part of the movie.




While our society continues to become more diverse, whiteness still exists in films. In the movie, Jack Nicholson plays a successful man who runs hospitals. He is the exact definition of a privileged person. He is a man, white, upper class, educated, and well traveled, all the things that classic Hollywood used to depict in their films. While Morgan Freeman only went to a semester of college and dropped out because he got his girlfriend pregnant, was a mechanic, and had a harder life. The way the producer portrayed Jack Nicholson’s character and Morgan Freeman’s shows that whiteness does still exist. In the clip below it shows the first time, the two men meet. Jack Nicholson’s character being as successful as he is expects to get his own room because it is his hospital.




Another idea that portrayed whiteness was tokenism, putting in a non-white character to discourage any ideas of racism (pg. 52). “More and more films each year now feature non-white leads” (pg. 52). While the movie might not have been the same with a white man playing Freeman’s role, it could have been played by a white man. I think part of the reason they put Freeman in this role was because he is African American, and more people could relate to him having a hard life.



While Morgan Freeman is not Jack Nicholson’s servant in The Bucket List, he comes across as an Uncle Tom figure. He is laid back, happy go lucky, hard working, all the things Uncle Tom’s were. He teaches Nicholson’s character some valuable life lessons. Freeman is the responsible adult, with the family and dreams. Nicholson starts out as a jerk to everyone, only cares about himself. As the movie develops, Morgan starts to wear off on him and he turns into a good person. He gets back in touch with his daughter and makes changes in his life for the better. In the clip below, Freeman writes Nicholson a letter and shows Nicholson making things better, and “finding the joy in his life.”




We never know when our last day will be, so why not live it to the fullest like Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson did in The Bucket List. Race will always be an issue in our society, but it is slowly becoming smaller. While America has come a long way since the classic Hollywood period, there is still a long way to go.

Journal Entry #2

Twilight




In class we have been discussing the different aspects that make up a film. I decided to use the film Twilight and discuss the literary design, visual design, and sound design.

Like most people that read the Twilight series I could not wait for the movie to come out. While the movie was a little disappointing, the literary design was closely related to the book. Both the movie and the book take place in present day time in Forks, Washington. The movie shows Forks as being a dark, rainy, small town. The movie and book are both told from Bella Swans point of view. Bella Swan is a high school girl who has just moved to Forks to live with her dad Charlie, a police officer. Bella uses the modern day speech, along with the majority of characters in the movie. Edward Cullen, a vampire, is also a high school student. Edward’s speech is more outdated than the other characters in the film, since he has been around since the 20th century. The other vampires in his family also use outdated speech. In our book America on Film the authors state “ Film is capable of many devices: metaphor, irony, satire, allegory, and so forth” (pg 4). In Twilight there are many different metaphors they use; one is when Edward makes a comment about how the lion fell in love with the lamb. The clip below is a clip from the movie where Edward uses that metaphor.



While reading the book I figured out the literary design pretty easily, but the movie really helped with the visual design. In the movie the characters are dressed in contemporary clothing styles. Even the vampires are dressed to fit the present day clothing styles. The Cullen’s have money, so there clothes are more designer looking clothes, and more in fashion. The kids also dress more like high school kids, and the adults dress in more professional clothes. Make up is another way they helped to differentiate the Cullen’s from the rest of the people. The actors that played the vampires all had to get their skin bleached, so they could be extremely pale, compared to the rest of the population. They also had to dye Jacob Black’s characters skin to make him darker to play a Native American. The way they styled the characters hair was also a way to get the actors into character. Emmet Cullen’s actor is naturally blonde, for the movie they dyed his hair dark brown, Rosalie Cullen is naturally a brunette and for the movie they dyed her hair blonde. Another thing the movie did well was make the vampires look perfect and beautiful at all times, while the other characters look like every day people. The vampires in the book are described by Bella as the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. In the movies the vampires are all good looking. The vehicles the Cullen family drives are newer vehicles which are extremely nice. Bella and the majority of the high school kids in Forks, drive older cars that have gotten their use. Below I have two pictures. One is of the Rosalie Cullen’s vehicle which is a Mercedes Benz. The other picture is of Bella’s 1986 Volkswagen Rabbit. You can see that Bella’s vehicle is not quite as nice as Rosalie’s car.






The sound design of the movie definitely adds to the movie. At different times in the movie they use different sounds and songs to portray the actor’s emotions or how the audience should be feeling. “Most films have a musical score that the audience can hear but which the characters cannot” (pg 5). In different parts of the movie they have scenes in which there is music on in the background that the audience hears and helps the audience understand how the characters are feeling at that given time. In the clip below the Cullen’s and Bella are outside playing baseball, the music is faster and gives the audience a feeling of fun. At the same time the audience is getting a feeling of anticipation, as if something is going to happen.





After having seen the Twilight movie, and looking at the literary design, visual design, and sound design it gives me a better understanding of what all have to go into making a movie. In the clip below is the Twilight trailer. While watching it notice the literary, visual and sound designs the film represents.

The Movie Enough and Popular Culture



Popular media influences us on a day to day basis, whether it is what we wear, what we drive, where we shop, etc. Media is always with us, but do we realize how much it affects us and how often it does?

During all of our class discussions I am always brought back to one movie in particular because I feel it meets a lot of the different topics we have talked about. The movie Enough starring Jennifer Lopez illustrates different masculine and feminine gender norms in families, social constructionism, and girl power.

Gender Roles

The movie Enough portrays the masculine and feminine gender norms of our society. When they first meet, Mitch is the passive male saving Slim from a rude customer at the diner where she is is working at. Having Mitch come to the rescue shows himself as the hero and automatically the audience likes him. Later on after they get married Slim becomes a stay at home mom, who cooks, cleans, and takes care of her daughter while, Mitch is a successful businessman who works outside of the home. It is the typical wife staying at home and taking care of her family, while the husband provides for the family. After awhile Mitch becomes abusive to Slim, since she found out he was having an affair. Since Slim, is a woman Mitch thinks that he should have all the power and say in the relationship and be able to abusive his wife if he wants, because she cannot do anything about it. “Men like the identities to fit within masculinity” (pg. 12) Mitch wants to be seen as masculine so beating his wife, and being the successful one in his relationship makes up his identity and is seen as masculine.

Social Constructionism

“People’s personality and behaviors are not predetermined by biology, but are shaped by society and culture” (pg. 18). I feel that people’s behaviors and personalities can be biological but I also feel that our cultures and our society play a huge role in shaping our personalities. We learn things from our friends, teachers, and media. In the movie Enough, after her husband abuses her she puts up with it for awhile because that is what she thinks she has to do. Eventually Slim realizes that she needs to do something about it and leaves him. Her behavior starts changing, because the advice she is getting from her family and friends, along with being chased by her abusive husband. Once her behavior starts changing, her personality becomes different. She becomes a fighter; she gets motivated to do something about Mitch. Slim begins taking fighting lessons from a teacher and he changes her personality. Slim becomes independent, confident, and a fighter.

Girl Power

Enough starts out as a movie, the audience thinks is about an abused wife, but in the end it shows girls to stand up for themselves and have power. Slim takes these lessons on fighting and trains herself to fight her abusive husband. When she goes to fight Mitch, he says “Man against woman, is that really fair?” Mitch makes it seem as if a woman cannot fight a man and win. As Slim is beating her husband, she has girl power. She is the total definition of femininity “Now just a swishy kind of glamour—and ideally just a masquerade, utilized by a confident woman who knows exactly what she’s doing” (pg 13). Slim is confident, and knows what she is doing as she is beating her husband. I think that this shows women that they do not have to be abused, but should not kill their husband either. It was empowering for me just seeing her go to the police, and leaving Mitch after being abused. Most women who are abused and have children do not leave their abusive relationships. Seeing Slim leave him and get even was empowering to me.