The Hangover: Gone with the Wind
14 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
I am hungover from watching Gone with the Wind. Last night, I was able to finally see it. It was simply superb. I didn’t even notice that the movie lasted for four hours. I didn’t exactly doubt why it would be listed as one of the top movies of all time, but all these years, I just didn’t know what the rave was all about. And honestly, before watching it, I was scared that I would be disappointed or that I wouldn’t last for four hours.
But it was an absolute delight. I’ve never heard wittier lines from anyone else in the big screen. It had all the complete elements in it. It has a tragic love story and a happy one; it has war; it has historical and political touches to it; and it has the most beautiful people I’ve seen in my life. Vivian Leigh was just breathtaking, Clark Gable undeniably debonair (although he’s not really my type).
And until last night, I also never understood why the words, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” is listed as the number one best movie line EVER. But after savoring the movie, and finally when Rhett Buttler says it in the end, you can just feel his emotion when he uttered those words to Scarlett O’Hara.
It really was a delicious feast—for the eyes, ears, and heart. But after enjoying the movie, it kind of made me sad to realize that movies today aren’t the same anymore—not even the good ones. Movies today seem to always have something about sex in it to sell.
Well, how about that? Holden was right after all. People in Hollywood today are like prostitutes. Okay so that’s not exactly what he said, but he called his brother D.B. a prostitute for writing for movies in Hollywood, and to me that’s pretty much the same thing.
Numbalikdiwa (review)
27 Jul 2007 Leave a Comment
in movie reviews, movies, random thoughts and crazy wonderings
“Ping is yummy!!” takes on a different meaning now—well at least for me. After watching Numbalikdiwa, a rather “old” (and by old I mean last year) digital film by Bobby Bonifacio in CCP earlier, we have come up with some new punch lines about my love for Ping (wahaha!). More
::::USING FEMINIST CRITICISM ON THE MOVIE: MONA LISA SMILE::::
18 Mar 2007 Leave a Comment
in feminist criticisms, movie reviews, random thoughts and crazy wonderings
One of the aims of Feminist Criticism is to expose patriarchal premises and resulting prejudices. It also aims to identify and oppose the various ways women are excluded, suppressed and exploited. Women have been stereotyped too many times, and the movie Mona Lisa Smile is a good example in recognizing those stereotypes.
The movie shows how women are labeled and boxed to a certain stereotype and are not allowed to do two things at the same time, like have a career and take care of a family. All the characters in the movie, students and faculty alike, are all stereotypes of a wife, or mother, which they accept. When Katherine Watson comes in to change the “roles they were born to fill”, she finds herself challenging generations of having traditional roles in the society.
The students, although very smart and could have successful careers, are confined to the thought that their sole role in society is to “bear children that will carry out traditions in the future”. It’s like they are educated just to be housewives and having a career at the same time is unimaginable. The movie depicts, through the character of Katherine Watson that giving in to conformity is not always a healthy habit, especially, like in the case of the Wellesley girls, when a possibility of a more successful calling other than being a housewife is at stake.
The way they don’t consider having a career and a family is the one that motivates Katherine Watson to “liberate” them from the very conservative traditions. Coming from supposedly highly intelligent girls, their reaction that having a career is unthinkable is unthinkable!
But although Katherine Watson’s character is supposed to be the one to liberate the girls from conformity and encourage them to think “out of the box”, she herself, whether unconsciously or not, has become a victim of her own conventions. She has withdrawn away too much from conformity that she has made her own conventions and forgets to think back “inside the box” and consider some of their points. It’s like if there’s a conformity cycle and she has run away from it, she has run away too far that she went back to the start already and hasn’t realized it.
Joan Brandwyn is the character in the movie that makes Katherine realize that maybe not every girl who marries only does it out of tradition. Joan Brandwyn points that getting married doesn’t make her less smart and that it’s her choice and doesn’t regret doing it. What Katherine Watson doesn’t realize, and what makes her a stereotype is that she thinks that marriage is not a personal choice in which someone could possibly be happy without any regret, but only a decision dictated by society and tradition.
Giselle Levy’s character is a stereotype of a woman without men. She sleeps around with different men, but doesn’t commit herself to a single one. She’s like Katherine Watson, who defies conformity, but less stuck up.
The title of the movie comes from a conversation between Betty Warren and her mother. She answers her mother by alluding to the Mona Lisa. She tells her mother, “She’s smiling. Is she happy? She looks happy. So, what does it matter?” Her point is that what other people see is only a façade. It doesn’t matter whether she and her husband are happy with their marriage or not, as long as other people think they’re happy.
Being a woman is not easy. When you try to be conventional, you are labeled. When you try to go against conventions, you are labeled as well. As said before, all the characters in the movie are all stereotypes; the students that of a wife, a mother, and a woman without men. And Katherine Watson a stereotype of someone she herself has made. But the movie encourages different kinds of reactions from those who choose to see it.
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