Lincoln: A Brief Screening Report

One of the most important scenes in the movie Lincoln occurred in the very beginning.  It began at about 06:15 into the movie and was the scene where Mary Lincoln figures out that Abraham wants to create a 13th amendment, to free the slaves.  The scene begins with a dream that Abraham has, then goes into him laying down and Mary sitting by a mirror, and they are conversing.  Throughout the course of the scene Mary guesses what Abraham’s dream was about (freeing the slaves), and suggests that he should not try to get something as big as that passed.  Not someone with as much public approval as he has.  “The people love you.  No one is loved as much as you.  No one has been loved as much as you.  Don’t waste that power on an amendment bill that is sure of defeat” Mary tells him.  Throughout the scene he looks distraught by his thoughts but we all know that he goes through with it and succeeds.  This scene is important because it is the first time that someone finds out about Abraham’s intent on abolishing slavery.  This is what sets up one of the biggest parts of the movie.  If it weren’t for the thirteenth amendment, Lincoln would not be known as well as he is.  

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Qualities Of A Good Movie

It is very difficult for me to think about my favorite movie, since I don’t have any one movie that I can call “my favorite”.  There are some that are better than others, and there are many different factors that play into that.  More than just genre and actors.  Mark Wohlberg is an example of an actor that can play in many different genres and all of his movies are golds.  For instance, Mark has played in action flicks such as Lone Survivor, Pain and Gain, and Planet of the Apes.  He has played dramas like The Fighter, The Lovely Bones, and Invincible.  He also played very well in comedies in movies like Date Night, The Other Guys, and one of my personal top movies, Ted.  So if the genre doesn’t determine the quality of the movie, what does? I believe it may be the lead actors that make or break a movie.  Movies like Shawshank Redemption, and Lord of the Rings are very different movies, however both are some of the all time greatest.  Script and directing also play a huge role.  There is a reason why the Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the best.  I am going to say that a good movie is determined by a combination of the actors, screen writers, and directors, but you need all three.  It is difficult to have a good movie with two and not the third.

Crazy Brave Post 2

     Joy Harjo, author of Crazy Brave, seems to be very attached to her music and her arts.  Partially through the influence of escaping her abusive step father, Joy requested to move to a different school and actually went to a school in Santa Fe known for it's art classes for the indians. Albeit forced, she often stayed up until three or four in the morning "creating" using the materials the school provided.  This whole scenerio of moving to Santa Fe for the new school seems as if it was an escape from her step father, but she was happy at first to finally pursue her inner artist.  I feel as if she under plays her drug and alcohol abuse while at the school.  She kept bringing up how the other students were using, and sometimes that influenced a break out of fights, but I find it hard to believe that she was the only one that didn't use.  I think she may have used minutely, but did not mention it during this section of the book.
     Secondly Joy talks about how much she loves her child. When the baby was born there was no one around to acknowledge the birth of her son. Her and her husband had no car, so she had to walk herself to the hospital, alone.  The rest of her family was busy or lived far away.  I feel as if she did really well talking about the birth of her son.  She explains how she was there alone, she had a military doctor who birthed her son, the drugs they injected to her made her want to sit up so they threatened to use restraints on her, the stare that her and her son shared after his birth, and her feelings of holding him after she was less doped up.  She then goes on to explain that giving birth in a hospital was an alienation and got out of there as soon as possible.

Picture courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Joy_Harjo.jpg

Crazy Brave Blog Post

Joy Harjo expresses her struggles throughout her indian education.  She tried using her education as a way to escape her step dad but was surprised by the quality of schooling that she received.   Joy Harjo mentions her church school where she had to deal with her step-father on a regular basis.  She wanted to get away from him and told her mom that she wanted to move to a different school, secretly her reasoning was to avoid him.  When she arrived at the campus in 1967, Joy Harjo felt emotionally free for finally being able to get away from her step-father and the boring church school.  Unfortunately for her, she quickly found a lack of camaraderie within the institution.  Everyone was indian, but they formed their own ‘gangs’ with alike tribe members. She was hardly able to make a variety of indian friends like her original intent was.  To top it off, Joy was unable to pursue music, one of her favorite past times.  She did have the opportunity to take various painting, pottery, and dramatic arts classes.  The quality of core classes were sub par though.  The teachers had a lack of resources for their use, and some of the teachers didn’t even want to teach, they were forced to.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs ran their schools and ran them as if they were on a military installation.  They usually stayed up until three or four in the morning “creating” and then awoke again at five thirty, less than two hours later.  The dorm staff would wake them up and then they had to conduct details around the area, such as cooking, and cleaning various rooms.  After those details were complete the students could conduct their education within their classrooms.  

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