English versus Lakota~Dances With Wolves

            Today’s movie was “Dances with Wolves”, a movie about a White military officer gets to know and be a part of the Indians. For starters, I actually have little clue about the Whites versus the Indians. The only information I can get is from cartoon! (Yeah, I mean literally~) However, this movie clearly shows that how prejudices and discrimination can be started: through the lack of understanding.

            The story started with the main character John Dunbar, who was injured but wishes to die and sacrifice in honor instead of live amputated. However, his heroic action makes him a hero. I think that this shows the Need of Achievement theory by McClelland. Dunbar showed the desire to rather achieve an honorable status by risking to death than living without any contribution. The theory also was portrayed on Dunbar when he decided to go to the frontier rather than being in any other high and respectful position. This shows that he had the desire to challenge things that seems impossible.

            Above I’ve mentioned about how prejudices and discrimination can start from lack of understanding, and it is clearly shown in the movie. From the quote of Dunbar, “Nothing I have been told about these people is correct. They are not thieves or beggars. They are not the bogeymen they are made out to be. On the contrary, they are polite guest and I enjoy their humor.” The wagon driver Timmons also mentioned that he thinks that all Indians are thieves and beggars. Even myself cannot tell the difference when the Pawnees show up and kill Timmons. I thought they are the same. However, the movie also shows that when people willing to make the first step to understand each other, prejudice will be dissolved. Like Dunbar in the movie, at first he held prejudice towards Indians like all Whites, but as he try to put down the prejudice and try to understand them, friendship and trust started to bond. They genuinely care about each other as the story goes.

            Every action begins with a seed of thought, same goes to prejudice and discrimination. The lack of understanding leads to fear and causing the injustice. Perhaps sometimes it just take one step forward to make the world a little bit more harmony.

Cry Freedom, Cry

            The movie this week brought us to a new perspective on racial prejudice issue. “Cry Freedom”, a movie that set in the apartheid era of South Africa, was written based on the real-life event black activist Steve Biko.

            Compared to the movie “Mississippi Burning” last week, I found that “Cry Freedom” has less violently aggressive scene. Instead the director used a more settle and less “into your face” way to show the injustices on the land of South Africa. The movie showed the open injustices that the government did towards racial issue. However the main character Steve Biko was portrayed as a smart and visionary leader instead of an aggressive one. For example, he showed his charismatic side even when facing the triad,

 “Judge: Why do you people call yourselves black? You look more brown than black.

Steve Biko: Why do you call yourselves white? You look more pink than white.”

            Also, the documentary movie showed that how relationship and people’s perspectives influences each other. Donald Woods initially was critical in his point of view about Steve Biko’s perspective, thinking that he is a rebellion. But as Donald grew to know about the mission of Biko, friendship slowly develops. As the movie goes towards the death of Steve Biko, Donald picked up the responsibility and mission to unfold the injustices.

            I also found that the underlying scenario of the Whites giving education to some Blacks reflects the fear of the minority towards the majority race in South Africa. In the movie, when Steve Biko was arrested as he went outside his banished zone to give a speech, he asked the officer, “Come on, what are you so afraid of? Once you try you see there's nothing to fear. We're just as weak and human as you are.”

            Although this movie may be less violent than some movie regarding the racism issue, but it does not make the issue any less critical. It is up to us as the new generations on how to change the world into a better place.

Mississippi Burning

            “Mississippi Burning” is a movie during 1988 that portrayed the background story of Mississippi in 1964. It was an era and a place that prejudice and discrimination against African Americans are all over the place. But how does these prejudice formed? Like Mrs. Pell in the movie has said, “Hatred isn't something you're born with. It gets taught. At school, they said segregation what's said in the Bible... Genesis 9, Verse 27. At 7 years of age, you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred. You live it... you breathe it. You marry it.” This sounds kind of pathetic but yet so true. We would be thinking like, “Don’t they know?” nor “Can’t they be smart enough to know that what was being taught was not always right?” Sadly, people sometimes underestimate the power of conditioning. Everything becomes sort of “common”, even with discrimination. The power may not be strong at first, but the collective power influences people, and just like Mrs. Pell said, we grew to believe in the hate. From the movie when the Whites are being interviewed, majority of them have no idea about the discrimination and killing going around. This shows the diffusion of responsibility of people. Everyone only heard of rumors of discriminating and no one dare to stand out and voice out, always waiting for someone else to do it.

            The part of the movie where it touches my heart the most is when the Ku Klux Klan members waited to bash the Blacks that came out of the church. It hurts me the most when they starts to beat up everyone, including women and children. It hurts me as I wonder how can hatred that came out of nowhere can blinded people’s eyes to commit such actions. The scene heated as one of the members of the Ku Klux Klan kicked and bashed a Black kid who was praying.

            Of course the movie ended with the killers receives their punishments. Although all things seem justice, but the damage has been done. Some damages are unable to be undone. Thus let us look inside ourselves and hope that we are not the people that create this damage.

Eat Drink Man Woman

            “Eat Drink Man Woman”, if just by looking this movie title, I would have thought that this movie was a comedy, but instead, it’s a family drama that perfectly illustrate how sometimes things are not what it seems in the family.

            In my opinion, this movie is quite daring by the dynamic happening in the family especially in 1994. This is shown through two parts of the movie: when the second daughter remains a sexual relationship with her ex-boyfriend and when the old chef announced that he wished to marry his neighbor, his eldest daughter’s classmate. These are especially daring as it challenged the views and perspectives of people during that time when sex is ashamed to discuss in public and also the relationship of old man and young woman. It also tumbles the traditional view of a family as the father himself is the one that wishes to end this.

            The most memorable part to me in the movie is the scene when after the youngest daughter leaves the house, the eldest and second daughter do the dishes. The conversation between them leads to the eldest sister mad at the other one saying that how dare she meddles her life, and she still has a heart to be broken. The second sister then ask how well does her sister knows about her heart. The conversation leads to the confessing their misunderstanding about each other: where how the eldest thought that her younger sister had always hated her and never wished to share about herself whereas the second daughter saying that her older sister became the mother instead of being a sister. This particularly touched me as a lot of family often takes love for granted, and we always view (or assume) people the way we thought about them, even our own family members. Sometimes it just takes a breaking point until we realized how much have we missed.