Thesis: How Oliver Stone Realistically dipicts New York City social, political, and economical life during the mid nineteen eighties.
1. Talk about the economic era of the mid eighties.
2. Talk about the political events like Reagan and Ed Koch policies at the time.
3. The social aspect of New York specifically Wall Street and the mentality of New York City.
4. Explain the plot of Wall Street.
5-8. Compare and prove my point about how Oliver Stone realistically depicts Wall Street with life living in NYC at the time.
9. Conclusion.
Wall Street. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Michael Douglas. 1987. 20th Century Fox, 2010.DVD
Feigenbaum, Eric. “The 1980s: Search for Identity” Oct. 24.2001.
http://vmsd.com/content/the-1980s-search-identity
SocialExplorer.com
“Wall Street crash:
What does it mean?. November 1987. Sam Marcy. 12 November 2010.
http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samwall/wallst/wallst.htm).
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Blog 11: Midterm
Steven Figueroa
Media Communication
Prof. Louis Lucca
10/21/10
Adult Eccentric Comic Creators: How Eastman and Laird change the comic industry
During the nineteen eighties Marvel and DC both dominated the entire comic book industry. Becoming a comic book writer or artist was difficult since Marvel/DC have total control of the character the creator is writing, also if one writer or artist comes up with a new character it is now corporate owned. Plus these writers are not compensated with royalties just being paid for drawing and writing iconic characters. Thus the black and white comic book boom was born. Allowing people who wish to pursue a career in the comic industry without working for the big two can promote their comics to readers easily at their local comic shops. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were one of the few who were successful marketing and publishing their own material. With their success of comic publishing they will go on and try to change the status quo that Marvel/DC put on the industry foe independent comic creators or at lease attempt to.
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book that first appeared in nineteen eighty four. Both creators were inspired comic artist and cartoonist that came up with a concept so ludicrous it just had to be made into a story, as Kevin pointed out “We liked these guys so much we didn't want to give them to anybody else, what are we going to do with them now? How do we explain them? What would they do?”(Douglas C. McGill, New York Times). Fueled by their inspiration and bizarre concept they borrowed money from their friends and loved ones to self publish their comic book idea. They both worked for several weeks on the story, concept, inking, lettering, ect. Both creators being enthusiastic and realistic at the same time since they question wither the comic would sell and appeal to readers who are consumed by the superhero genre that dominated at the time. This is why the first issue of the TMNT comic was forty pages and ended the story.
Eastman and Laird only printed three thousand copies and had limited marketing of their independent comic, until their local distributer out sold more of their entire lot which Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman never expect. The comic had sold a couple of hundred thousand copies nationwide. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were the lucky few that survived the black and white comic book boom of the eighties. They also challenged the comic book industry showing that readers are in fact interested in genres other than superheroes which was what Marvel and DC were mostly dishing out at the time, also showed that people can manage their own creative content. Plus they showed anyone can get a career in the comic industry without having to work with either Marvel or DC.
After the success of the TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) comic sales both Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman tried their best to aid independent comic book creators and companies to protect their creatively own material with ideas like the “Bills of Rights for Comic Creators”. Throughout a series of meetings in Northampton Kevin Eastman/ Peter Laird along with other independent comic owners created the Bill of Rights for Comic Creators which allowed independent comic publishers to create and fully owned their content. Comic creators are allowed to publish, market, and have creative control over their own content. They have the right to distribute, manufacture or distribute copies of their creatively owned comics, and gain royalties from their establish properties. In other words comic creator’s works are now protected and cannot be exploited by bigger companies who could buy them out and sweep their creations under the rug unless if the creator sign his rights away to the corporations.
Unfortunately many comic creators didn’t take it seriously and believe or thought to be a mandatory law that forces comic creators to abide by their rules which wasn’t said Kevin Eastman in an interview “What we fell is that there were so many up and coming people like us that, the bill of rights was attended as an informational document saying these are you’re rights. These are the things you should be aware of and if you go in to Marvel and DC, and decide to sign away all those rights. We just wanted you to be aware you’re signing away all those rights” (FanExpo: Kevin Eastman Interview, by Doug Groves).
Kevin Eastman was a strong supporter of the Bill of Rights for comic creators and wanted to put this into practice with his new publishing company. In the early nineties Kevin Eastman felt he should do something more in his career then writing and creative concoctive on TMNT stories, so Eastman manage to sell his rights and shares to Laird in order to open his own comic publishing company called Tundra Publishing. Tundra was an independent publisher that allowed comic writers and artist to be their own editors, creative consultant, and proprietors of their own content being distribute. Basically comic writers have the freedom of doing their projects in their own vision without any disagreements or creative changes done by Eastman or anyone else, but themselves. Tundra allowed their comic creators eighty percent of the profits of royalties from sales. All Eastman asked for was twenty percent for publishing rights and paying his employees, bills, rent etc.
Tundra publishing was famous for having award winning writers, artists, and high production value spent on art materials for artist to work on. Writers like Alan Moore, Dave McKean, and Neil Giaman jumped ship on the new publisher to create comics in their own artistic vision that Marvel and DC wouldn’t dare to accept. Tundra was the first friendly comic creator owned company at the time which eventually gains a lot of attention from other famous writers. Big comic companies were looking over their shoulders and forced their biggest stars into a contract deal to work for them exclusively. This was unfortunate since Tundra had won forty awards from their comics also showed promise, but never met the sales Eastman was hoping. Eastman spends thirteen million dollars with the money he earned from TMNT merchandising on his ideal project only to fail on two accounts and was asked in an interview if this was his greatest disappointment in his career.
Eastman replied “No, for doing the TMNT comic was like going to college and Tundra was like getting a Masters degree. So I learnt a lot with the Turtles and I learnt the rest of what I needed to know. We never stop learning. But I learnt the rest of what I needed to know when I did Tundra.”(Benjamin Kean, Talking to Kevin Eastman). The second reason why Tundra failed was distributers forcing a contract agreement working for them exclusively as mention before. Eastman said “We’ve got the raw end of the deal; In Tundra Alan Moore wasn’t writing the sequel to Watchmen or Dave McKean wasn’t writing Arkham Asylum 2. They were just writing stories for Tundra and other companies were scared that they’ll lose money with these writers working for us.”(Benjamin Kean, Talking to Kevin Eastman). Even with the failure of Tundra Eastman still held his chin up high and applied his lessons from Tundra on a bigger career change.
Peter Laird experimentation with his TMNT comic and self publishing he decided to create a nonprofit and charitable organization called the Xeric Foundation. The Xeric Foundation allowed what Peter Laird said to give something back to the comic community. The main purpose of this organization is to teach people how to self publish their own material into independent realm of comics and perhaps open doors for the individual in a career in comics. This organization is more of an “art for art sake” grant in fear if their comic idea is well it could be too commercialized by bigger companies and become the opposite of its artistic integrity. While the other is to promote a noble cause to donate the money they’ve earned to charity like Girls inc., Northampton music center, or Food Bank. Not everyone is eligible to inherit the money the Xeric grant offers.
The individual has to come up with a fantastic idea and the reason why the individual is doing this so they can be funded by the xeric foundation based on how much that individual need for making the comic. Then and only then it can be judge by professionals who work in self publishing comics. This foundation had paved open the careers of many literally cartoonist and comic writers/artists like Donna Barr and Jim Ottaviani. Who unfortunately are no longer work in the independent comics industry or are just graphic designers. This organization still exists today but Peter Laird isn’t a part of his Xeric Foundation anymore.
After the failure of Tundra Kevin Eastman still kept his chin up high and decided to roll the dice again and purchase a French comic book company called Heavy Metal. Heavy Metal is an adult sci-fi/fantasy genre comic company publishes in France and all of Europe. Kevin Eastman changed the mainstream comic demographic and targeted to adult males/ Females who are tired of reading superheroes or wanted something different from what the comic industry had to offer. Heavy Metal Magazine offers readers different short stories from different writers and artists who are allowed to express themselves freely though with Kevin Eastman supervision.
When people give independent creators credit they mostly give the five ‘fathers’ of Image comics the props. My grief is that these five guys had their fame from working with marvel comics. People like Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, and Erik Larsen are given credit for giving inspiration to the independent comic industry when they clearly almost run the entire comic industry to the ground. Rob Liefeld is a terrible artist who inspired a generation of young artist to draw distortion representation of the human anatomy and missing feet. He also cashed in on the spectator’s comic gimmick that devalues comics in an artistic and financial format. Plus he inspired a generation of poor storytelling and the generic looking superheroes from the nineties. Todd McFarlane also did the same thing marketing his character by reprinting the same issues of his works multiple times for money.
Sure Image was a lot like Tundra with writers and artist have creative control on their works. Problem is that most of these ‘writers’ were Marvels artists who jumped ship on a company and banked on their fame with their artistic talent. People liked Image comics but most of their works were essentially poorly written to downright rip-offs of previous characters they worked on from Marvel. Sure they were the most successful but eventually became the company they were against working. Image soon became corporate run and each of the five fathers were close to losing their rights of creations to the company. Artist like Jim Lee jumped ship from Image and sold his character rights to DC comics waving his independent roots for the corporate gain. Rob Liefeld sold his characters and went crawling back to Marvel continuously writing and drawing terrible comics that aren’t being sold today.
My point is that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are one of the pioneers of independent comics. They didn’t have fame or were well known people for their previous works with Marvel or DC since they never worked for the two. They have a strong passion for comics but didn’t want to worked on superheroes, so they came up with a bizarre concept by watching bad television and doodling.
Both Eastman and Laird proved that in a market dominated by two corporate conglomerates, if you have an idea and a pensionable talent you can be successful in an industry. They’ve tried to work with other independent comic creators to protect and make their rights self aware though many haven’t taken them seriously. Kevin Eastman tried his own dream by opening a creatively owned publishing company Tundra though successful to comic book creators failed with abysmal sales and giant comic companies taking Tundra writers for a better deal and an exclusive contract. Peter Laird created a nonprofit charity organization to promote new and upcoming independent comic artist called the Xeric foundation though successful is no longer a part of it.
No doubt these two comic creators of TMNT have more of an impact then anyone who worked at Image during the nineties.
Footnotes:
DOUGLAS C. McGILL, New York Times. DYNAMIC DUO: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird; Turning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Into a Monster.(http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/25/business/dynamic-duo-kevin-eastman-peter-laird-turning-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-into.html)
Benjamin Ong Pang Kean, Newsarama.com. TALKING TO KEVIN EASTMAN 1: TURTLE DAYS, TURTLE NIGHTS. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=127540)
Doug Groves http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=168
Media Communication
Prof. Louis Lucca
10/21/10
Adult Eccentric Comic Creators: How Eastman and Laird change the comic industry
During the nineteen eighties Marvel and DC both dominated the entire comic book industry. Becoming a comic book writer or artist was difficult since Marvel/DC have total control of the character the creator is writing, also if one writer or artist comes up with a new character it is now corporate owned. Plus these writers are not compensated with royalties just being paid for drawing and writing iconic characters. Thus the black and white comic book boom was born. Allowing people who wish to pursue a career in the comic industry without working for the big two can promote their comics to readers easily at their local comic shops. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were one of the few who were successful marketing and publishing their own material. With their success of comic publishing they will go on and try to change the status quo that Marvel/DC put on the industry foe independent comic creators or at lease attempt to.
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book that first appeared in nineteen eighty four. Both creators were inspired comic artist and cartoonist that came up with a concept so ludicrous it just had to be made into a story, as Kevin pointed out “We liked these guys so much we didn't want to give them to anybody else, what are we going to do with them now? How do we explain them? What would they do?”(Douglas C. McGill, New York Times). Fueled by their inspiration and bizarre concept they borrowed money from their friends and loved ones to self publish their comic book idea. They both worked for several weeks on the story, concept, inking, lettering, ect. Both creators being enthusiastic and realistic at the same time since they question wither the comic would sell and appeal to readers who are consumed by the superhero genre that dominated at the time. This is why the first issue of the TMNT comic was forty pages and ended the story.
Eastman and Laird only printed three thousand copies and had limited marketing of their independent comic, until their local distributer out sold more of their entire lot which Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman never expect. The comic had sold a couple of hundred thousand copies nationwide. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were the lucky few that survived the black and white comic book boom of the eighties. They also challenged the comic book industry showing that readers are in fact interested in genres other than superheroes which was what Marvel and DC were mostly dishing out at the time, also showed that people can manage their own creative content. Plus they showed anyone can get a career in the comic industry without having to work with either Marvel or DC.
After the success of the TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) comic sales both Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman tried their best to aid independent comic book creators and companies to protect their creatively own material with ideas like the “Bills of Rights for Comic Creators”. Throughout a series of meetings in Northampton Kevin Eastman/ Peter Laird along with other independent comic owners created the Bill of Rights for Comic Creators which allowed independent comic publishers to create and fully owned their content. Comic creators are allowed to publish, market, and have creative control over their own content. They have the right to distribute, manufacture or distribute copies of their creatively owned comics, and gain royalties from their establish properties. In other words comic creator’s works are now protected and cannot be exploited by bigger companies who could buy them out and sweep their creations under the rug unless if the creator sign his rights away to the corporations.
Unfortunately many comic creators didn’t take it seriously and believe or thought to be a mandatory law that forces comic creators to abide by their rules which wasn’t said Kevin Eastman in an interview “What we fell is that there were so many up and coming people like us that, the bill of rights was attended as an informational document saying these are you’re rights. These are the things you should be aware of and if you go in to Marvel and DC, and decide to sign away all those rights. We just wanted you to be aware you’re signing away all those rights” (FanExpo: Kevin Eastman Interview, by Doug Groves).
Kevin Eastman was a strong supporter of the Bill of Rights for comic creators and wanted to put this into practice with his new publishing company. In the early nineties Kevin Eastman felt he should do something more in his career then writing and creative concoctive on TMNT stories, so Eastman manage to sell his rights and shares to Laird in order to open his own comic publishing company called Tundra Publishing. Tundra was an independent publisher that allowed comic writers and artist to be their own editors, creative consultant, and proprietors of their own content being distribute. Basically comic writers have the freedom of doing their projects in their own vision without any disagreements or creative changes done by Eastman or anyone else, but themselves. Tundra allowed their comic creators eighty percent of the profits of royalties from sales. All Eastman asked for was twenty percent for publishing rights and paying his employees, bills, rent etc.
Tundra publishing was famous for having award winning writers, artists, and high production value spent on art materials for artist to work on. Writers like Alan Moore, Dave McKean, and Neil Giaman jumped ship on the new publisher to create comics in their own artistic vision that Marvel and DC wouldn’t dare to accept. Tundra was the first friendly comic creator owned company at the time which eventually gains a lot of attention from other famous writers. Big comic companies were looking over their shoulders and forced their biggest stars into a contract deal to work for them exclusively. This was unfortunate since Tundra had won forty awards from their comics also showed promise, but never met the sales Eastman was hoping. Eastman spends thirteen million dollars with the money he earned from TMNT merchandising on his ideal project only to fail on two accounts and was asked in an interview if this was his greatest disappointment in his career.
Eastman replied “No, for doing the TMNT comic was like going to college and Tundra was like getting a Masters degree. So I learnt a lot with the Turtles and I learnt the rest of what I needed to know. We never stop learning. But I learnt the rest of what I needed to know when I did Tundra.”(Benjamin Kean, Talking to Kevin Eastman). The second reason why Tundra failed was distributers forcing a contract agreement working for them exclusively as mention before. Eastman said “We’ve got the raw end of the deal; In Tundra Alan Moore wasn’t writing the sequel to Watchmen or Dave McKean wasn’t writing Arkham Asylum 2. They were just writing stories for Tundra and other companies were scared that they’ll lose money with these writers working for us.”(Benjamin Kean, Talking to Kevin Eastman). Even with the failure of Tundra Eastman still held his chin up high and applied his lessons from Tundra on a bigger career change.
Peter Laird experimentation with his TMNT comic and self publishing he decided to create a nonprofit and charitable organization called the Xeric Foundation. The Xeric Foundation allowed what Peter Laird said to give something back to the comic community. The main purpose of this organization is to teach people how to self publish their own material into independent realm of comics and perhaps open doors for the individual in a career in comics. This organization is more of an “art for art sake” grant in fear if their comic idea is well it could be too commercialized by bigger companies and become the opposite of its artistic integrity. While the other is to promote a noble cause to donate the money they’ve earned to charity like Girls inc., Northampton music center, or Food Bank. Not everyone is eligible to inherit the money the Xeric grant offers.
The individual has to come up with a fantastic idea and the reason why the individual is doing this so they can be funded by the xeric foundation based on how much that individual need for making the comic. Then and only then it can be judge by professionals who work in self publishing comics. This foundation had paved open the careers of many literally cartoonist and comic writers/artists like Donna Barr and Jim Ottaviani. Who unfortunately are no longer work in the independent comics industry or are just graphic designers. This organization still exists today but Peter Laird isn’t a part of his Xeric Foundation anymore.
After the failure of Tundra Kevin Eastman still kept his chin up high and decided to roll the dice again and purchase a French comic book company called Heavy Metal. Heavy Metal is an adult sci-fi/fantasy genre comic company publishes in France and all of Europe. Kevin Eastman changed the mainstream comic demographic and targeted to adult males/ Females who are tired of reading superheroes or wanted something different from what the comic industry had to offer. Heavy Metal Magazine offers readers different short stories from different writers and artists who are allowed to express themselves freely though with Kevin Eastman supervision.
When people give independent creators credit they mostly give the five ‘fathers’ of Image comics the props. My grief is that these five guys had their fame from working with marvel comics. People like Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, and Erik Larsen are given credit for giving inspiration to the independent comic industry when they clearly almost run the entire comic industry to the ground. Rob Liefeld is a terrible artist who inspired a generation of young artist to draw distortion representation of the human anatomy and missing feet. He also cashed in on the spectator’s comic gimmick that devalues comics in an artistic and financial format. Plus he inspired a generation of poor storytelling and the generic looking superheroes from the nineties. Todd McFarlane also did the same thing marketing his character by reprinting the same issues of his works multiple times for money.
Sure Image was a lot like Tundra with writers and artist have creative control on their works. Problem is that most of these ‘writers’ were Marvels artists who jumped ship on a company and banked on their fame with their artistic talent. People liked Image comics but most of their works were essentially poorly written to downright rip-offs of previous characters they worked on from Marvel. Sure they were the most successful but eventually became the company they were against working. Image soon became corporate run and each of the five fathers were close to losing their rights of creations to the company. Artist like Jim Lee jumped ship from Image and sold his character rights to DC comics waving his independent roots for the corporate gain. Rob Liefeld sold his characters and went crawling back to Marvel continuously writing and drawing terrible comics that aren’t being sold today.
My point is that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are one of the pioneers of independent comics. They didn’t have fame or were well known people for their previous works with Marvel or DC since they never worked for the two. They have a strong passion for comics but didn’t want to worked on superheroes, so they came up with a bizarre concept by watching bad television and doodling.
Both Eastman and Laird proved that in a market dominated by two corporate conglomerates, if you have an idea and a pensionable talent you can be successful in an industry. They’ve tried to work with other independent comic creators to protect and make their rights self aware though many haven’t taken them seriously. Kevin Eastman tried his own dream by opening a creatively owned publishing company Tundra though successful to comic book creators failed with abysmal sales and giant comic companies taking Tundra writers for a better deal and an exclusive contract. Peter Laird created a nonprofit charity organization to promote new and upcoming independent comic artist called the Xeric foundation though successful is no longer a part of it.
No doubt these two comic creators of TMNT have more of an impact then anyone who worked at Image during the nineties.
Footnotes:
DOUGLAS C. McGILL, New York Times. DYNAMIC DUO: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird; Turning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Into a Monster.(http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/25/business/dynamic-duo-kevin-eastman-peter-laird-turning-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-into.html)
Benjamin Ong Pang Kean, Newsarama.com. TALKING TO KEVIN EASTMAN 1: TURTLE DAYS, TURTLE NIGHTS. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=127540)
Doug Groves http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=168
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Blog15: Final
If I were to look at myself back from September nothing much has changed about me in terms of ideology, philosophy, and perception of the world. What has changed me entirely for the last three months were the philosophical discussions we’ve had in class after watching a movie. Before writing about our philosophical input in our blogs, the class would discuss the situations the main character had to go through in order to achieve their goal. Wither that be to save lives from a burning plane and allow someone to take the credit for it in order to pay for their son’s college fund, or trying to lie about his identity to accomplish their childhood dream of getting into space. I’ve learned to accept and listen to other classmate’s view points on their stand of the situation given. Some I may disagree with while others I’ve learned a new perspective on what I haven’t realized.
For example if I were on a boat with fifty people who survived from a sinking ship and only had room to save ten people. I pick children since they are the most fragile and innocent, while another classmate said he would mostly save men. Though may sound sexist still logical since men are stronger than children and have the capability of rowing the boat faster. In survival you’d normally forget about what’s close to you and start thinking in a way you’d normally wouldn’t even sacrificing women and children to get to safety. My point is that this class along with the philosophical discussions has changed my perception about LaGuardia and the classes we take. Back in September I thought taking English class would mainly about writing papers and refer to your syllabus. Having these discussions have changed my college experience as well as using the blogs.
When Professor Luke told us about our assignments being posted up as blogs this made me skeptical. At first I thought It was pointless and silly since it’s the use of the internet and nothing good ever came out of the internet it just seem weird to me. Eventually I got used to blogging my opinions and getting helpful feedback from my classmates. Not only do I focus on the writer in me but also focus on the reader and what they are interested in. Not much has changed with me as an individual but my perception and writing skills have. Though may sound cheesy I’ve now know how to be organized and express my ideas in a coherent paragraphs to express my opinions to the internet audience.
For example if I were on a boat with fifty people who survived from a sinking ship and only had room to save ten people. I pick children since they are the most fragile and innocent, while another classmate said he would mostly save men. Though may sound sexist still logical since men are stronger than children and have the capability of rowing the boat faster. In survival you’d normally forget about what’s close to you and start thinking in a way you’d normally wouldn’t even sacrificing women and children to get to safety. My point is that this class along with the philosophical discussions has changed my perception about LaGuardia and the classes we take. Back in September I thought taking English class would mainly about writing papers and refer to your syllabus. Having these discussions have changed my college experience as well as using the blogs.
When Professor Luke told us about our assignments being posted up as blogs this made me skeptical. At first I thought It was pointless and silly since it’s the use of the internet and nothing good ever came out of the internet it just seem weird to me. Eventually I got used to blogging my opinions and getting helpful feedback from my classmates. Not only do I focus on the writer in me but also focus on the reader and what they are interested in. Not much has changed with me as an individual but my perception and writing skills have. Though may sound cheesy I’ve now know how to be organized and express my ideas in a coherent paragraphs to express my opinions to the internet audience.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Final Draft.
Steven Figueroa
ENG 103
Dr. Luke Vasileiou
11/13/10
Wall Street: The Mentality of The 1980’s
After the success of Platoon director Oliver Stone wanted to write and direct a movie that was inspired by his father’s occupation. According to Oliver Stone in a CNN interview Oliver Stone not only wanted to dedicate his new film Wall Street to his father but also inform people about the business world. Oliver Stone along with his co-writer Stanley Weiser did their best to research and interview people who worked on Wall Street as tycoons, stock brokers, and business executives to base the movie characters on. People like Ace Greenberg and Ken Lipper helped supervise the script in order to be accurate of what Oliver and Stanley were trying to depict. The film’s characters like Gordon Gekko were inspired by Ivan Boesky and Asher Edelman respectively to display the mentality of a greedy tycoon of the corporate world.
Oliver Stone did his best to portray the political, economical, and social lifestyle of a young stockbroker of the nineteen eighties in a realistic light. To inform his audience of the corporate world and how it can destroy lives and alienates ordinary hard working people from what really matters in life. Not only greed from big business but also the ideals of the American dream and how far people would go to obtain it during the materialistic pro capitalism society known as the Reagan era. Oliver also used references Ivan Boesky and Dennis Levine scandal of insider trade into the storyline of Wall Street to make the movie a parallel to bring out its meaning to the viewing public. Wall Street realistically depicts on social, economical, and political of New York City during the films setting of nineteen eighty five.
During the mid eighties which the movie was set in the salary for the average stockbroker was eighty thousand dollars (according to the Dallasnews). Housing for a stockbroker who is fresh off of college in New York would be around six to eighty four thousand dollars living on the west side (socialexploer.com). Real estate prices of selling properties like lofts were about 74,111 and the fictional Blue Star company if were real would be around 118,373 and 29,414 on average at best during the nineteen eighties according to (Socialexplorer.com). The eighties also suffered from the inflation of the nineteen seventies that suffered the American economy.
Ronald Reagan invented an economical system called Reaganomics which only benefited the wealthy and reduce government regulations. Its main purpose was to trickle down and hope the wealthy to save their money and invest on stocks to bring the economy back up. However it made the inflation increased by 3.79 %( according to Global-rates.com) increasing the cost of essential needs. Also the financial crash or plunge of 1987 brought about a percentage of 100 points (http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samwall/wallst/wallst.htm). Eventually the economic revived it’s wages were lower than usual.
In the social aspect of the nineteen eighties it was the belief in philosophy of Laissez fair capitalism for big business. The belief of ethical egoism meaning only the strong and the smartest will survive. Failure to achieve the goals of your employer would get you fired since you are not economically viable on their percentages. Being a stockbroker during the nineteen eighties you have to be persuasive and willing to adapt to the environment around you in order to live the next day. Also during the nineteen eighties society especially in New York started to lose their moral values to materialistic desires. The belief of looking out for yourself and everyone else is second was the dominate idea of living in New York City during the eighties.
The purpose of money was to spend it on things that never really made anyone happy but gives them the illusion of the necessity and purpose of having more property. It can be best summarized by this saying “The "Me" generation was reaching its earnings peak and trading beads and flowers for power ties and dress-for-success outfits” ( Eric Feigenbaum, VMSD.com).
An example of capitalistic greed during the eighties in would be the Ivan Boesky scandal of being a part of an inside trade corporate conspiracy. Ivan a leading stock speculator along with Dennis Levine in New York City were manipulating trading information and brokages for their own gain on stock bonds that were outside the trade floor. Eventually both men were arrested for committing a white collar crime and getting sued by the companies they’ve caused damaged too like FMC and group investors who worked with the two. When jailed both were willing to sell information at each other in order to get shorted sentences in prison. Ivan went to prison for only one year and Levine under IRS investigation lost all his funds from the scandal and was left with nothing.
In politics during the nineteen eighties Ronald Reagan was elected in office with his promise to end the inflation that was brought over from the seventies. As mention before it was Reaganomics and its idea was to trickle down its spending to the wealthy in order to increase savings and investments. He also restricted government’s regulations on free market trade and gave tax cuts to the wealthy or the Tax Reform act. The tax reform act caused the S&L crisis of nineteen eighty six. Reagan forces the government to allow banks to choose whom can they lend money to either state or federal. This caused inflation and taking advantage of the real estate boom of the eighties.
Ed Koch who was the Mayor of NYC during the nineteen eighties tried to embraced and convinced New Yorkers to accept the financial policies Regan put out. Ed Koch strongly believed in Reaganomics and how it will get NYC out of the financial crisis that was brought over from the seventies. Whoever disagreed with NYC policies Koch would go the distance to insult them; though childish he wanted New Yorkers to accept the economic policies. Little did he know that Reaganomics will put New York deeper into debt during his third term in 1985.
The movie Wall Street is about a young fresh out of NYU stock broker named Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) who wants to make it big and follow the American dream in New York City. Being unsatisfied with his clientele and living with piles of bills to pay. Bud tires to make an offer with his idol and inspiration Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas). Being very persistent Gordon gives Bud a chance to make him an offer on stock bonds. Bud gives his first two and Gordon turns them down. Being desperate Bud tells Gordon on his father’s stock worth of the company he works for. Gordon being interested takes him up on the offer and purchases the stocks of Blue Star. With the success of Gordon’s investment he takes a liking to Bud Fox and would like to work for him. Unfortunately Bud’s second offer didn’t turn out well for Gordon since he lost millions.
Gordon despite being angry for the huge loss, still sees potential with him gives Bud one last chance but wants him to trade his morals with greed. Gordon tells Bud that he knew his father told him about the increase of stocks of Blue Star and that information was his business. He wants Bud to be an inside trade information broker and follow his rival Sir Lawrence Wildman in order to outwit him on his next bid of stock shares. Bud knows this is illegal but was persuade by Gordon philosophy and his materialistic desires so he agreed. Bud became successful in obtaining the information of the next shares Sir Lawrence was planning to buy. Successful by this action Bud became Gordon’s protégé on Wall Street along with the perks Gordon can buy.
Eventually Bud tries to sell the company Blue Star to Gordon to keep it alive and running successfully then the state it is now. Bud tries to convince his father Carl Fox (Played by Martin Sheen) who owns the union to give his share to Gordon. Carl disagrees for he knows who Gordon is and knows he’s only interested in profit. Carl leaves since he does not want the guilt of firing his employees for a quick buck. Bud feeling embarrassed tries to reason with his father but helps Bud realized he has sold his soul to materialism. Eventually Gordon sells his shares and the company to be demolish. Bud fueled by rage he finally sees the truth and tries to renegotiate with Blue Star in order to sell the company to Gordon’s nemesis Sir Lawrence. Bud eventually gets the last laugh on Gordon causing him to lose millions. But Bud’s actions will get him in trouble with the feds who ran background checks with the accounts he’s been putting Gordon’s money on. Bud gets arrested and is put on trial.
This movie realistically depicts New York City during the nineteen eighties Reagan/ Ed Koch era. Bud Fox as I mention before is a Stock broker who graduated from NYU and gains about forty thousand dollars. He lives in a studio apartment on the west side of Manhattan with his rent costing fifth teen grand a month. Mention before housing cost on average around six to eighty four thousand dollars according to (Social Exploer.com). Even when Bud moved to the east side of Manhattan he was willing to pay a loft apartment for nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Gordon was also in real estate and claimed to have sold a loft for $800, 000 dollar profit which exceeded the amount that I found from “$74,414” (Socialexplorer.com). The movie also talks about the market crash during nineteen eighty five involving real estate prices being stale in a brief scene thought doesn’t get too detailed with it.
Wall Street also realistically portrays New York on a social level of class in terms of how the wealthy views the poor. Example the scene with Bud’s landlady made a remark about the market crashing and even the rich are complaining about it. “The only things that are moving in this city are cockroaches and the Puerto Ricans in this city” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street 1987). Gordon Gekko is the epitome of the egoistic philosophy and the big business tycoon who lost his humanity in which he states in several parts throughout the film the importance of making it big in America. Gordon says to Bud when he lost Gordon’s money “When you feel, you lose a few, but you keep on fighting. And if you need a friend get a dog. It’s trench warfare out there” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street. 1987).
Another instance was when Gordon Gekko gives Blue Star an offer to sell him their company. Carl Fox sees through his lies and wants no plan a part of it since he knows Gordon will sell the company anyway. Carl says “I know what this guy is about, Greed. He doesn’t give a damn about Blue Star or the unions. He’s in it and out for the buck, and he don’t take prisoners” and Gordon replies “Sure, whats worth doing is doing for money.” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987). Gordon is trying to fill his empty vase with material desires of having what the world best has to offer. Gordon like the wealthy tycoon on Wall Street justifies his actions with his infamous “Greed is good” speech during the auction of stocks.
Bud Fox also represents the average guy who wants to be rich during the Reagan era. Most people like Bud who have jobs in the corporate world would have done the same thing and sold their souls down the river for promotions. Bud represents the social aspect of Dennis Levine during the inside trade scandal that this movie was based on. Since Oliver Stone dedicated this film to his father a character named Lou Mannheim who showed that not everyone at Wall Street was corrupted and showed that investing on stocks can do good for people on an economical scale like create jobs. Also there was a scene in the movie where a stock broker who worked for the company for over sixty years was fired for not getting the numbers he needed to stay Hence, the egoism mentality that most eighty businessmen had on making a quick buck.
The movie also realistically portrays citizens of New York City to be very anti social and alienate themselves from one another when walking on the street. Specifically Wall Street how stockbrokers and business men/women are very busy and don’t have enough time to stop or even care about anything else around them except for making money. When Bud fox was walking outside of Gordon’s company not one person made eye contact with one another. This scene showed people in Wall Street believe in the philosophy “time is money” and wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to obtain it.
Oliver Stone did a fantastic portrayal of how society in New York City was during the Go-go Reagan era of the trickle down eighties. Ordinary people consumed by greed separated by the haves and have not’s, people willing to sell their souls to obtain money to survive the rise of income of New York City. People who once had family changed once they’ve become business tycoons and information brokers who have holes to feed. With that whole their appetite never satisfied with what they have, constantly wanting more and more. Selling the lives of employees or companies like live stock and cattle in order to make a quick buck, while Reagan taxes the middle to poor of the caste system.
Wall Street is more a reflection of how far we as a society will go to obtain a dream that never existed. The dream of living well off with more then what we expect and give in our selfish desires and not the needs of others. Especially in New York City how we constantly treat each other as wild savages from the concrete jungle wanting our scraps. Oliver was trying to inform us that “Greed, for the lack of a better term is”(Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987) not good. Sure we can be selfish all we want and yet look how it affects our economy on a global scale. We as people of New York should abandon our instinct of greed and focus on aiding other like Oliver’s father believes Wall Street can do.
Footnotes:
Wall Street. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Michael Douglas. 1987. 20th Century Fox, 2010.DVD
Feigenbaum, Eric. “The 1980s: Search for Identity” Oct. 24.2001.
http://vmsd.com/content/the-1980s-search-identity
SocialExplorer.com
“Wall Street crash:
What does it mean?. November 1987. Sam Marcy. 12 November 2010.
http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samwall/wallst/wallst.htm).
ENG 103
Dr. Luke Vasileiou
11/13/10
Wall Street: The Mentality of The 1980’s
After the success of Platoon director Oliver Stone wanted to write and direct a movie that was inspired by his father’s occupation. According to Oliver Stone in a CNN interview Oliver Stone not only wanted to dedicate his new film Wall Street to his father but also inform people about the business world. Oliver Stone along with his co-writer Stanley Weiser did their best to research and interview people who worked on Wall Street as tycoons, stock brokers, and business executives to base the movie characters on. People like Ace Greenberg and Ken Lipper helped supervise the script in order to be accurate of what Oliver and Stanley were trying to depict. The film’s characters like Gordon Gekko were inspired by Ivan Boesky and Asher Edelman respectively to display the mentality of a greedy tycoon of the corporate world.
Oliver Stone did his best to portray the political, economical, and social lifestyle of a young stockbroker of the nineteen eighties in a realistic light. To inform his audience of the corporate world and how it can destroy lives and alienates ordinary hard working people from what really matters in life. Not only greed from big business but also the ideals of the American dream and how far people would go to obtain it during the materialistic pro capitalism society known as the Reagan era. Oliver also used references Ivan Boesky and Dennis Levine scandal of insider trade into the storyline of Wall Street to make the movie a parallel to bring out its meaning to the viewing public. Wall Street realistically depicts on social, economical, and political of New York City during the films setting of nineteen eighty five.
During the mid eighties which the movie was set in the salary for the average stockbroker was eighty thousand dollars (according to the Dallasnews). Housing for a stockbroker who is fresh off of college in New York would be around six to eighty four thousand dollars living on the west side (socialexploer.com). Real estate prices of selling properties like lofts were about 74,111 and the fictional Blue Star company if were real would be around 118,373 and 29,414 on average at best during the nineteen eighties according to (Socialexplorer.com). The eighties also suffered from the inflation of the nineteen seventies that suffered the American economy.
Ronald Reagan invented an economical system called Reaganomics which only benefited the wealthy and reduce government regulations. Its main purpose was to trickle down and hope the wealthy to save their money and invest on stocks to bring the economy back up. However it made the inflation increased by 3.79 %( according to Global-rates.com) increasing the cost of essential needs. Also the financial crash or plunge of 1987 brought about a percentage of 100 points (http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samwall/wallst/wallst.htm). Eventually the economic revived it’s wages were lower than usual.
In the social aspect of the nineteen eighties it was the belief in philosophy of Laissez fair capitalism for big business. The belief of ethical egoism meaning only the strong and the smartest will survive. Failure to achieve the goals of your employer would get you fired since you are not economically viable on their percentages. Being a stockbroker during the nineteen eighties you have to be persuasive and willing to adapt to the environment around you in order to live the next day. Also during the nineteen eighties society especially in New York started to lose their moral values to materialistic desires. The belief of looking out for yourself and everyone else is second was the dominate idea of living in New York City during the eighties.
The purpose of money was to spend it on things that never really made anyone happy but gives them the illusion of the necessity and purpose of having more property. It can be best summarized by this saying “The "Me" generation was reaching its earnings peak and trading beads and flowers for power ties and dress-for-success outfits” ( Eric Feigenbaum, VMSD.com).
An example of capitalistic greed during the eighties in would be the Ivan Boesky scandal of being a part of an inside trade corporate conspiracy. Ivan a leading stock speculator along with Dennis Levine in New York City were manipulating trading information and brokages for their own gain on stock bonds that were outside the trade floor. Eventually both men were arrested for committing a white collar crime and getting sued by the companies they’ve caused damaged too like FMC and group investors who worked with the two. When jailed both were willing to sell information at each other in order to get shorted sentences in prison. Ivan went to prison for only one year and Levine under IRS investigation lost all his funds from the scandal and was left with nothing.
In politics during the nineteen eighties Ronald Reagan was elected in office with his promise to end the inflation that was brought over from the seventies. As mention before it was Reaganomics and its idea was to trickle down its spending to the wealthy in order to increase savings and investments. He also restricted government’s regulations on free market trade and gave tax cuts to the wealthy or the Tax Reform act. The tax reform act caused the S&L crisis of nineteen eighty six. Reagan forces the government to allow banks to choose whom can they lend money to either state or federal. This caused inflation and taking advantage of the real estate boom of the eighties.
Ed Koch who was the Mayor of NYC during the nineteen eighties tried to embraced and convinced New Yorkers to accept the financial policies Regan put out. Ed Koch strongly believed in Reaganomics and how it will get NYC out of the financial crisis that was brought over from the seventies. Whoever disagreed with NYC policies Koch would go the distance to insult them; though childish he wanted New Yorkers to accept the economic policies. Little did he know that Reaganomics will put New York deeper into debt during his third term in 1985.
The movie Wall Street is about a young fresh out of NYU stock broker named Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) who wants to make it big and follow the American dream in New York City. Being unsatisfied with his clientele and living with piles of bills to pay. Bud tires to make an offer with his idol and inspiration Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas). Being very persistent Gordon gives Bud a chance to make him an offer on stock bonds. Bud gives his first two and Gordon turns them down. Being desperate Bud tells Gordon on his father’s stock worth of the company he works for. Gordon being interested takes him up on the offer and purchases the stocks of Blue Star. With the success of Gordon’s investment he takes a liking to Bud Fox and would like to work for him. Unfortunately Bud’s second offer didn’t turn out well for Gordon since he lost millions.
Gordon despite being angry for the huge loss, still sees potential with him gives Bud one last chance but wants him to trade his morals with greed. Gordon tells Bud that he knew his father told him about the increase of stocks of Blue Star and that information was his business. He wants Bud to be an inside trade information broker and follow his rival Sir Lawrence Wildman in order to outwit him on his next bid of stock shares. Bud knows this is illegal but was persuade by Gordon philosophy and his materialistic desires so he agreed. Bud became successful in obtaining the information of the next shares Sir Lawrence was planning to buy. Successful by this action Bud became Gordon’s protégé on Wall Street along with the perks Gordon can buy.
Eventually Bud tries to sell the company Blue Star to Gordon to keep it alive and running successfully then the state it is now. Bud tries to convince his father Carl Fox (Played by Martin Sheen) who owns the union to give his share to Gordon. Carl disagrees for he knows who Gordon is and knows he’s only interested in profit. Carl leaves since he does not want the guilt of firing his employees for a quick buck. Bud feeling embarrassed tries to reason with his father but helps Bud realized he has sold his soul to materialism. Eventually Gordon sells his shares and the company to be demolish. Bud fueled by rage he finally sees the truth and tries to renegotiate with Blue Star in order to sell the company to Gordon’s nemesis Sir Lawrence. Bud eventually gets the last laugh on Gordon causing him to lose millions. But Bud’s actions will get him in trouble with the feds who ran background checks with the accounts he’s been putting Gordon’s money on. Bud gets arrested and is put on trial.
This movie realistically depicts New York City during the nineteen eighties Reagan/ Ed Koch era. Bud Fox as I mention before is a Stock broker who graduated from NYU and gains about forty thousand dollars. He lives in a studio apartment on the west side of Manhattan with his rent costing fifth teen grand a month. Mention before housing cost on average around six to eighty four thousand dollars according to (Social Exploer.com). Even when Bud moved to the east side of Manhattan he was willing to pay a loft apartment for nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Gordon was also in real estate and claimed to have sold a loft for $800, 000 dollar profit which exceeded the amount that I found from “$74,414” (Socialexplorer.com). The movie also talks about the market crash during nineteen eighty five involving real estate prices being stale in a brief scene thought doesn’t get too detailed with it.
Wall Street also realistically portrays New York on a social level of class in terms of how the wealthy views the poor. Example the scene with Bud’s landlady made a remark about the market crashing and even the rich are complaining about it. “The only things that are moving in this city are cockroaches and the Puerto Ricans in this city” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street 1987). Gordon Gekko is the epitome of the egoistic philosophy and the big business tycoon who lost his humanity in which he states in several parts throughout the film the importance of making it big in America. Gordon says to Bud when he lost Gordon’s money “When you feel, you lose a few, but you keep on fighting. And if you need a friend get a dog. It’s trench warfare out there” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street. 1987).
Another instance was when Gordon Gekko gives Blue Star an offer to sell him their company. Carl Fox sees through his lies and wants no plan a part of it since he knows Gordon will sell the company anyway. Carl says “I know what this guy is about, Greed. He doesn’t give a damn about Blue Star or the unions. He’s in it and out for the buck, and he don’t take prisoners” and Gordon replies “Sure, whats worth doing is doing for money.” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987). Gordon is trying to fill his empty vase with material desires of having what the world best has to offer. Gordon like the wealthy tycoon on Wall Street justifies his actions with his infamous “Greed is good” speech during the auction of stocks.
Bud Fox also represents the average guy who wants to be rich during the Reagan era. Most people like Bud who have jobs in the corporate world would have done the same thing and sold their souls down the river for promotions. Bud represents the social aspect of Dennis Levine during the inside trade scandal that this movie was based on. Since Oliver Stone dedicated this film to his father a character named Lou Mannheim who showed that not everyone at Wall Street was corrupted and showed that investing on stocks can do good for people on an economical scale like create jobs. Also there was a scene in the movie where a stock broker who worked for the company for over sixty years was fired for not getting the numbers he needed to stay Hence, the egoism mentality that most eighty businessmen had on making a quick buck.
The movie also realistically portrays citizens of New York City to be very anti social and alienate themselves from one another when walking on the street. Specifically Wall Street how stockbrokers and business men/women are very busy and don’t have enough time to stop or even care about anything else around them except for making money. When Bud fox was walking outside of Gordon’s company not one person made eye contact with one another. This scene showed people in Wall Street believe in the philosophy “time is money” and wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to obtain it.
Oliver Stone did a fantastic portrayal of how society in New York City was during the Go-go Reagan era of the trickle down eighties. Ordinary people consumed by greed separated by the haves and have not’s, people willing to sell their souls to obtain money to survive the rise of income of New York City. People who once had family changed once they’ve become business tycoons and information brokers who have holes to feed. With that whole their appetite never satisfied with what they have, constantly wanting more and more. Selling the lives of employees or companies like live stock and cattle in order to make a quick buck, while Reagan taxes the middle to poor of the caste system.
Wall Street is more a reflection of how far we as a society will go to obtain a dream that never existed. The dream of living well off with more then what we expect and give in our selfish desires and not the needs of others. Especially in New York City how we constantly treat each other as wild savages from the concrete jungle wanting our scraps. Oliver was trying to inform us that “Greed, for the lack of a better term is”(Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987) not good. Sure we can be selfish all we want and yet look how it affects our economy on a global scale. We as people of New York should abandon our instinct of greed and focus on aiding other like Oliver’s father believes Wall Street can do.
Footnotes:
Wall Street. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Michael Douglas. 1987. 20th Century Fox, 2010.DVD
Feigenbaum, Eric. “The 1980s: Search for Identity” Oct. 24.2001.
http://vmsd.com/content/the-1980s-search-identity
SocialExplorer.com
“Wall Street crash:
What does it mean?. November 1987. Sam Marcy. 12 November 2010.
http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samwall/wallst/wallst.htm).
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Blog 10: Gattaca Response
In the movie Gattaca humanity has now come one step closer to living in a utopian society. With the advancement of genetics every child whose parents can afford the procedure can become vastly intelligent, healthy, and superiorly perfect in every way. Those who don’t have superior genes are considered to be the others in their eyes. Without having a child going through the eugenics process not only will they be considered inferior to everyone else in society, but also eliminates their opportunities of living a regular life in this utopia. In Gattaca’s world there is no racism or prejudice that we normally face in today’s society, just prejudice about genetic material one person is made up of. In the movie the main character Vincent Freeman was born naturally without liberal eugenics altering his genes making him like every ‘normal’ kid. Both his parents are ashamed of having Vincent around considering he is their failed off spring with only thirty years to live. To cope living with this other Vincent parents decided to conceive another child with the genetic advancements.
Vincent always had dreams about flying in space but is constantly reminded by his parents, older brother, and society in general about his lack of DNA make up his dream will never be accomplish. Though this society is advance it’s still dystopian future since scientist and parents are trying to fix their children into becoming a vastly superior GQ/Vouge adults. If done opposite these children will be considered to be as the other according to George J. Annas. I can relate this movie with the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island. Without genetic engineering parents were put into the same place where Vincent parents where in, how do we deal with our inferior child? Whenever a child is born mentally handicap the hospital offers these others into a special place called Willowbrook State School in order to be separated from regular society. Yet because of how different these children where Willowbrook did whatever they wanted with these children from dissecting to torturing them. These children with mental disabilities were being mistreated because of their defaults. Since they are not like regular society we can do whatever we want to them since they are the other and that is not fair.
Every parent wants their child to be special and will do anything to make them get that lime light. Especially today with parents having option of changing the sex of their child pre-birth and determined their features. There is a common good that science can aid humanity with modern medicine and technology being examples. Yet there is a line we should not cross and that is playing God, for we have no right to change or alter their genetics. If everyone is perfect the way we wished for them to be we’ll still make mistakes like Eugene who is considered to be humanities best to offer. He’s won so many gold medals from swimming competition yet won second place in one, only to have him scar for life over one defeat. Vincent like most parents of today will do anything to accomplished their goals and make it possible. Vincent wishes to go to space and be an astronaut, knowing that his genes are inferior he goes to a black market salesman who aids him with someone who is willing to harvest themselves to Vincent. Eugene being depressed about winning second place is willing to give up his identity to Vincent to accomplish his dream.
We should accept our faults and understand that no matter how much we try to reinvent ourselves we are still not perfect. Even with the advancements of genetics and Eugene’s level of superiority does not guarantee us to solve all of our character flaws.
Vincent always had dreams about flying in space but is constantly reminded by his parents, older brother, and society in general about his lack of DNA make up his dream will never be accomplish. Though this society is advance it’s still dystopian future since scientist and parents are trying to fix their children into becoming a vastly superior GQ/Vouge adults. If done opposite these children will be considered to be as the other according to George J. Annas. I can relate this movie with the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island. Without genetic engineering parents were put into the same place where Vincent parents where in, how do we deal with our inferior child? Whenever a child is born mentally handicap the hospital offers these others into a special place called Willowbrook State School in order to be separated from regular society. Yet because of how different these children where Willowbrook did whatever they wanted with these children from dissecting to torturing them. These children with mental disabilities were being mistreated because of their defaults. Since they are not like regular society we can do whatever we want to them since they are the other and that is not fair.
Every parent wants their child to be special and will do anything to make them get that lime light. Especially today with parents having option of changing the sex of their child pre-birth and determined their features. There is a common good that science can aid humanity with modern medicine and technology being examples. Yet there is a line we should not cross and that is playing God, for we have no right to change or alter their genetics. If everyone is perfect the way we wished for them to be we’ll still make mistakes like Eugene who is considered to be humanities best to offer. He’s won so many gold medals from swimming competition yet won second place in one, only to have him scar for life over one defeat. Vincent like most parents of today will do anything to accomplished their goals and make it possible. Vincent wishes to go to space and be an astronaut, knowing that his genes are inferior he goes to a black market salesman who aids him with someone who is willing to harvest themselves to Vincent. Eugene being depressed about winning second place is willing to give up his identity to Vincent to accomplish his dream.
We should accept our faults and understand that no matter how much we try to reinvent ourselves we are still not perfect. Even with the advancements of genetics and Eugene’s level of superiority does not guarantee us to solve all of our character flaws.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Blog 14:
Steven Figueroa
ENG 101
Dr. Luke Vasileiou
11/13/10
Wall Street: The Mentality of The 1980’s
After the success of Platoon director Oliver Stone wanted to write and direct a movie that was inspired by his father’s occupation. According to Oliver Stone in a CNN interview Oliver Stone not only wanted to dedicate his new film Wall Street to his father but also inform people about the business world. Oliver Stone along with his co-writer Stanley Weiser did their best to research and interview people who worked on Wall Street as tycoons, stock brokers, and business executives to base the movie characters on. People like Ace Greenberg and Ken Lipper helped supervise the script in order to be accurate of what Oliver and Stanley were trying to depict. The film’s characters like Gordon Gekko were inspired by Ivan Boesky and Asher Edelman respectively to display the mentality of a greedy tycoon of the corporate world.
Oliver Stone did his best to portray the political, economical, and social lifestyle of a young stockbroker of the nineteen eighties in a realistic light. To inform his audience of the corporate world and how it can destroy lives and alienates ordinary hard working people from what really matters in life. Not only greed from big business but also the ideals of the American dream and how far people would go to obtain it during the materialistic pro capitalism society known as the Reagan era. Oliver also used references Ivan Boesky and Dennis Levine scandal of insider trade into the storyline of Wall Street to make the movie a parallel to bring out its meaning to the viewing public. Wall Street realistically depicts on the social, economical, and political of New York City during the films setting of nineteen eighty five.
During the mid eighties which the movie was set in the salary for the average stockbroker was eighty thousand dollars (according to the Dallasnews). Housing for a stockbroker who is fresh off of college in New York would be around six to eighty four thousand dollars living on the west side (socialexploer.com). Real estate prices of selling properties like lofts were about 74,111 and the fictional Blue Star company if were real would be around 118,373 and 29,414 on average at best during the nineteen eighties according to (Socialexplorer.com). The eighties also suffered from the inflation of the nineteen seventies that suffered the American economy.
Ronald Reagan invented an economical system called Reaganomics which only benefited the wealthy and reduce government regulations. Its main purpose was to trickle down and hope the wealthy to save their money and invest on stocks to bring the economy back up. However it made the inflation increased by 3.79 %( according to Global-rates.com) increasing the cost of essential needs. Also the financial crash or plunge of 1987 brought about a percentage of 100 points (http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samwall/wallst/wallst.htm). Eventually the economic revived it’s wages were lower than usual.
In the social aspect of the nineteen eighties it was the belief Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Laissez fair capitalism for big business. The belief of ethical egoism meaning only the strong and the smartest will survive. Failure to achieve the goals of your employer would get you fired since you are not economically viable on their percentages. Being a stockbroker during the nineteen eighties you have to be persuasive and willing to adapt to the environment around you in order to live the next day. Also during the nineteen eighties society especially in New York started to lose their moral values to materialistic desires. The belief of looking out for yourself and everyone else is second was the dominate idea of living in New York City during the eighties.
The purpose of money was to spend it on things that never really made anyone happy but gives them the illusion of the necessity and purpose of having more property. It can be best summarized by this saying “The "Me" generation was reaching its earnings peak and trading beads and flowers for power ties and dress-for-success outfits” ( Eric Feigenbaum, VMSD.com).
An example of capitalistic greed during the eighties in would be the Ivan Boesky scandal of being a part of an inside trade corporate conspiracy. Ivan a leading stock speculator along with Dennis Levine in New York City were manipulating trading information and brokages for their own gain on stock bonds that were outside the trade floor. Eventually both men were arrested for committing a white collar crime and getting sued by the companies they’ve caused damaged too like FMC and group investors who worked with the two. When jailed both were willing to sell information at each other in order to get shorted sentences in prison. Ivan went to prison for only one year and Levine under IRS investigation lost all his funds from the scandal and was left with nothing.
In politics during the nineteen eighties Ronald Reagan was elected in office with his promise to end the inflation that was brought over from the seventies. As mention before it was Reaganomics and its idea was to trickle down its spending to the wealthy in order to increase savings and investments. He also restricted government’s regulations on free market trade and gave tax cuts to the wealthy or the Tax Reform act. The tax reform act caused the S&L crisis of nineteen eighty six. The Save and Loan crisis due to the Tax Refomed and limited regulation Reagan allowed the government to get involved banks can choose to lend money to state or federal. This caused inflation and taking advantage of the real estate boom of the eighties.
The movie Wall Street is about a young fresh out of NYU stock broker named Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) who wants to make it big and follow the American dream in New York City. Being unsatisfied with his clientele and living with piles of bills to pay. Bud tires to make an offer with his idol and inspiration Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas). Being very persistent Gordon gives Bud a chance to make him an offer on stock bonds. Bud gives his first two and Gordon turns them down and being desperate Bud tells Gordon on his father’s stock worth of the company he works for. Gordon being interested takes him up on the offer and purchases the stocks of Blue Star. With the success of Gordon’s investment he takes a liking to Bud Fox and would like to work for him. Unfortunately for fox his second swing didn’t turn out well for him since it cost Gordon a sum lost of money.
Gordon seeing potential with him gives Bud one last chance but wants him to trade his morals with greed. Gordon tells Bud that He knew his father told him about the increase of stocks of Blue Star and that information was his business. He wants Bud to be an inside trade information broker and follow his rival Sir Lawrence Wildman in order to outwit him on his next bid of stock shares. Bud knows this is illegal but was persuade by Gordon philosophy and his materialistic desires so he agreed. Bud became successful in obtaining the information of the next shares Sir Lawrence was planning to buy. Successful by this action Bud became Gordon’s protégé on Wall Street along with the perks Gordon can buy.
Eventually Bud tries to sell the company Blue Star to Gordon to keep it alive and running successfully then the state it is now. Bud tries to convince his father Carl Fox (Played by Martin Sheen) who owns the union to give his share to Gordon. Carl disagrees for he knows who Gordon is and knows he’s only interested in profit. Carl leaves since he does not want the guilt of firing his employees for a quick buck. Bud feeling embarrassed tries to reason with his father but helps Bud realized he has sold his soul to materialism. Realizing his greed has taken over his personality and it was wrong. Eventually Gordon sells his shares and the company to demolish the remains. Bud fueled by rage tries to renegotiate with Blue Star and tries to sell the company to Gordon’s nemesis Sir Lawrence. Bud eventually gets the last laugh on Gordon causing him to lose millions. But Bud’s actions will get him in trouble with the feds who ran background checks with the accounts he’s been putting Gordon’s money on. Bud gets arrested and is put on trial.
This movie realistically depicts New York City during the nineteen eighties Reagan era. Bud Fox as I mention before is a Stock broker who graduated from NYU and gains about forty thousand dollars. He lives in a studio apartment on the west side of Manhattan with his rent costing fifth teen grand a month. Mention before housing cost on average around six to eighty four thousand dollars according to (Social Exploer.com). Even when Bud moved to the east side of Manhattan he was willing to pay a loft apartment for nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Gordon was also in real estate and claimed to have sold a loft for $800, 000 dollar profit which exceeded the amount that I found from “$74,414” (Socialexplorer.com). The movie also talks about the market crash during nineteen eighty five in a brief scene thought doesn’t get too detailed with it.
Wall Street also realistically portrays New York on a social level of class in terms of how the wealthy views the poor. Example the scene with Bud’s landlady made a remark about the market crashing and even the rich are complaining about it. “The only things that are moving in this city are cockroaches and the Puerto Ricans in this city” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street 1987). Gordon Gekko is the epitome of the egoistic philosophy and the big business tycoon who lost his humanity in which he states in several parts throughout the film the importance of making it big in America. Gordon says to Bud when he lost Gordon’s money “Give me guys who are poor, smart, and hungry, with no feelings. When you feel, you lose a few, but you keep on fighting. And if you need a friend get a dog. It’s trench warfare out there” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street. 1987)
Another instance was when Gordon Gekko gives Blue Star an offer to sell him their company. Carl Fox sees through his lies and wants no plan a part of it since he knows Gordon will sell the company anyway. Carl says “I know what this guy is about, Greed. He doesn’t give a damn about Blue Star or the unions. He’s in it and out for the buck, and he don’t take prisoners” and Gordon replies “Sure, whats worth doing is doing for money.” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987). Gordon is trying to fill his empty vase with material desires of having what the world best has to offer. Gordon like the wealthy tycoon on Wall Street justifies his actions with his infamous “Greed is good” speech during the auction of stocks. Gordon Gekko represents the darkest side of humanity constantly giving into the lowest common moral greed. Gordon has no feelings towards anything but himself and treats everything around him like possessions that can be lost or gain.
Bud Fox also represents the average guy who wants to be rich during the Reagan era. Most people like Bud who have jobs in the corporate world would have done the same thing and sold their souls down the river for promotions. Bud represents the social aspect of Dennis Levine during the inside trade scandal that this movie was based on. Since Oliver Stone dedicated this film to his father a character named Lou Mannheim who showed that not everyone at Wall Street was corrupted and showed that investing on stocks can do good for people on an economical scale like create jobs. Also there was a scene in the movie where a stock broker who worked for the company for over sixty years was fired for not getting the numbers he needed to stay. Hence, the egoism mentality that most eighty businessmen had on making a quick buck.
The movie also makes references to Reaganomics and its policy of government restrictions on the wealthy. Gordon Gekko even ask Fox when he scolds him about his greed “You’re not naïve enough to think that we are in a democracy, right buddy? ”(Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987). Gordon references how his position of power controls everything that surrounds everyday life and the beauty of the free market trade system that Reagan allowed for his policy.
Oliver Stone did a fantastic portrayal of how society in New York City was during the Go-go Reagan era of the trickle down eighties. Ordinary people consumed by greed separated by the haves and have not’s, people willing to sell their souls to obtain money to survive the rise of income of New York City. People who once had family changed once they’ve become business tycoons and information brokers who have holes to feed. With that whole their appetite never satisfied with what they have, constantly wanting more and more. Selling the lives of employees or companies like live stock and cattle in order to make a quick buck, while Reagan taxes the middle to poor of the caste system.
Wall Street is more a reflection of how far we as a society will go to obtain a dream that never existed. The dream of living well off with more then what we expect and give in our selfish desires and not the needs of others. Especially in New York City how we constantly treat each other as wild savages from the concrete jungle wanting our scraps. Oliver was trying to inform us that “Greed, for the lack of a better term is”(Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987) not good. Sure we can be selfish all we want and yet look how it affects our economy on a global scale. We as people of New York should abandon our instinct of greed and focus on aiding other like Oliver’s father believes Wall Street can do.
Footnotes:
Wall Street. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Michael Douglas. 1987. 20th Century Fox, 2010.DVD
Feigenbaum, Eric. “The 1980s: Search for Identity” Oct. 24.2001.
http://vmsd.com/content/the-1980s-search-identity
SocialExplorer.com
“Wall Street crash:
What does it mean?. November 1987. Sam Marcy. 12 November 2010.
http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samwall/wallst/wallst.htm).
ENG 101
Dr. Luke Vasileiou
11/13/10
Wall Street: The Mentality of The 1980’s
After the success of Platoon director Oliver Stone wanted to write and direct a movie that was inspired by his father’s occupation. According to Oliver Stone in a CNN interview Oliver Stone not only wanted to dedicate his new film Wall Street to his father but also inform people about the business world. Oliver Stone along with his co-writer Stanley Weiser did their best to research and interview people who worked on Wall Street as tycoons, stock brokers, and business executives to base the movie characters on. People like Ace Greenberg and Ken Lipper helped supervise the script in order to be accurate of what Oliver and Stanley were trying to depict. The film’s characters like Gordon Gekko were inspired by Ivan Boesky and Asher Edelman respectively to display the mentality of a greedy tycoon of the corporate world.
Oliver Stone did his best to portray the political, economical, and social lifestyle of a young stockbroker of the nineteen eighties in a realistic light. To inform his audience of the corporate world and how it can destroy lives and alienates ordinary hard working people from what really matters in life. Not only greed from big business but also the ideals of the American dream and how far people would go to obtain it during the materialistic pro capitalism society known as the Reagan era. Oliver also used references Ivan Boesky and Dennis Levine scandal of insider trade into the storyline of Wall Street to make the movie a parallel to bring out its meaning to the viewing public. Wall Street realistically depicts on the social, economical, and political of New York City during the films setting of nineteen eighty five.
During the mid eighties which the movie was set in the salary for the average stockbroker was eighty thousand dollars (according to the Dallasnews). Housing for a stockbroker who is fresh off of college in New York would be around six to eighty four thousand dollars living on the west side (socialexploer.com). Real estate prices of selling properties like lofts were about 74,111 and the fictional Blue Star company if were real would be around 118,373 and 29,414 on average at best during the nineteen eighties according to (Socialexplorer.com). The eighties also suffered from the inflation of the nineteen seventies that suffered the American economy.
Ronald Reagan invented an economical system called Reaganomics which only benefited the wealthy and reduce government regulations. Its main purpose was to trickle down and hope the wealthy to save their money and invest on stocks to bring the economy back up. However it made the inflation increased by 3.79 %( according to Global-rates.com) increasing the cost of essential needs. Also the financial crash or plunge of 1987 brought about a percentage of 100 points (http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samwall/wallst/wallst.htm). Eventually the economic revived it’s wages were lower than usual.
In the social aspect of the nineteen eighties it was the belief Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Laissez fair capitalism for big business. The belief of ethical egoism meaning only the strong and the smartest will survive. Failure to achieve the goals of your employer would get you fired since you are not economically viable on their percentages. Being a stockbroker during the nineteen eighties you have to be persuasive and willing to adapt to the environment around you in order to live the next day. Also during the nineteen eighties society especially in New York started to lose their moral values to materialistic desires. The belief of looking out for yourself and everyone else is second was the dominate idea of living in New York City during the eighties.
The purpose of money was to spend it on things that never really made anyone happy but gives them the illusion of the necessity and purpose of having more property. It can be best summarized by this saying “The "Me" generation was reaching its earnings peak and trading beads and flowers for power ties and dress-for-success outfits” ( Eric Feigenbaum, VMSD.com).
An example of capitalistic greed during the eighties in would be the Ivan Boesky scandal of being a part of an inside trade corporate conspiracy. Ivan a leading stock speculator along with Dennis Levine in New York City were manipulating trading information and brokages for their own gain on stock bonds that were outside the trade floor. Eventually both men were arrested for committing a white collar crime and getting sued by the companies they’ve caused damaged too like FMC and group investors who worked with the two. When jailed both were willing to sell information at each other in order to get shorted sentences in prison. Ivan went to prison for only one year and Levine under IRS investigation lost all his funds from the scandal and was left with nothing.
In politics during the nineteen eighties Ronald Reagan was elected in office with his promise to end the inflation that was brought over from the seventies. As mention before it was Reaganomics and its idea was to trickle down its spending to the wealthy in order to increase savings and investments. He also restricted government’s regulations on free market trade and gave tax cuts to the wealthy or the Tax Reform act. The tax reform act caused the S&L crisis of nineteen eighty six. The Save and Loan crisis due to the Tax Refomed and limited regulation Reagan allowed the government to get involved banks can choose to lend money to state or federal. This caused inflation and taking advantage of the real estate boom of the eighties.
The movie Wall Street is about a young fresh out of NYU stock broker named Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) who wants to make it big and follow the American dream in New York City. Being unsatisfied with his clientele and living with piles of bills to pay. Bud tires to make an offer with his idol and inspiration Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas). Being very persistent Gordon gives Bud a chance to make him an offer on stock bonds. Bud gives his first two and Gordon turns them down and being desperate Bud tells Gordon on his father’s stock worth of the company he works for. Gordon being interested takes him up on the offer and purchases the stocks of Blue Star. With the success of Gordon’s investment he takes a liking to Bud Fox and would like to work for him. Unfortunately for fox his second swing didn’t turn out well for him since it cost Gordon a sum lost of money.
Gordon seeing potential with him gives Bud one last chance but wants him to trade his morals with greed. Gordon tells Bud that He knew his father told him about the increase of stocks of Blue Star and that information was his business. He wants Bud to be an inside trade information broker and follow his rival Sir Lawrence Wildman in order to outwit him on his next bid of stock shares. Bud knows this is illegal but was persuade by Gordon philosophy and his materialistic desires so he agreed. Bud became successful in obtaining the information of the next shares Sir Lawrence was planning to buy. Successful by this action Bud became Gordon’s protégé on Wall Street along with the perks Gordon can buy.
Eventually Bud tries to sell the company Blue Star to Gordon to keep it alive and running successfully then the state it is now. Bud tries to convince his father Carl Fox (Played by Martin Sheen) who owns the union to give his share to Gordon. Carl disagrees for he knows who Gordon is and knows he’s only interested in profit. Carl leaves since he does not want the guilt of firing his employees for a quick buck. Bud feeling embarrassed tries to reason with his father but helps Bud realized he has sold his soul to materialism. Realizing his greed has taken over his personality and it was wrong. Eventually Gordon sells his shares and the company to demolish the remains. Bud fueled by rage tries to renegotiate with Blue Star and tries to sell the company to Gordon’s nemesis Sir Lawrence. Bud eventually gets the last laugh on Gordon causing him to lose millions. But Bud’s actions will get him in trouble with the feds who ran background checks with the accounts he’s been putting Gordon’s money on. Bud gets arrested and is put on trial.
This movie realistically depicts New York City during the nineteen eighties Reagan era. Bud Fox as I mention before is a Stock broker who graduated from NYU and gains about forty thousand dollars. He lives in a studio apartment on the west side of Manhattan with his rent costing fifth teen grand a month. Mention before housing cost on average around six to eighty four thousand dollars according to (Social Exploer.com). Even when Bud moved to the east side of Manhattan he was willing to pay a loft apartment for nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Gordon was also in real estate and claimed to have sold a loft for $800, 000 dollar profit which exceeded the amount that I found from “$74,414” (Socialexplorer.com). The movie also talks about the market crash during nineteen eighty five in a brief scene thought doesn’t get too detailed with it.
Wall Street also realistically portrays New York on a social level of class in terms of how the wealthy views the poor. Example the scene with Bud’s landlady made a remark about the market crashing and even the rich are complaining about it. “The only things that are moving in this city are cockroaches and the Puerto Ricans in this city” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street 1987). Gordon Gekko is the epitome of the egoistic philosophy and the big business tycoon who lost his humanity in which he states in several parts throughout the film the importance of making it big in America. Gordon says to Bud when he lost Gordon’s money “Give me guys who are poor, smart, and hungry, with no feelings. When you feel, you lose a few, but you keep on fighting. And if you need a friend get a dog. It’s trench warfare out there” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street. 1987)
Another instance was when Gordon Gekko gives Blue Star an offer to sell him their company. Carl Fox sees through his lies and wants no plan a part of it since he knows Gordon will sell the company anyway. Carl says “I know what this guy is about, Greed. He doesn’t give a damn about Blue Star or the unions. He’s in it and out for the buck, and he don’t take prisoners” and Gordon replies “Sure, whats worth doing is doing for money.” (Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987). Gordon is trying to fill his empty vase with material desires of having what the world best has to offer. Gordon like the wealthy tycoon on Wall Street justifies his actions with his infamous “Greed is good” speech during the auction of stocks. Gordon Gekko represents the darkest side of humanity constantly giving into the lowest common moral greed. Gordon has no feelings towards anything but himself and treats everything around him like possessions that can be lost or gain.
Bud Fox also represents the average guy who wants to be rich during the Reagan era. Most people like Bud who have jobs in the corporate world would have done the same thing and sold their souls down the river for promotions. Bud represents the social aspect of Dennis Levine during the inside trade scandal that this movie was based on. Since Oliver Stone dedicated this film to his father a character named Lou Mannheim who showed that not everyone at Wall Street was corrupted and showed that investing on stocks can do good for people on an economical scale like create jobs. Also there was a scene in the movie where a stock broker who worked for the company for over sixty years was fired for not getting the numbers he needed to stay. Hence, the egoism mentality that most eighty businessmen had on making a quick buck.
The movie also makes references to Reaganomics and its policy of government restrictions on the wealthy. Gordon Gekko even ask Fox when he scolds him about his greed “You’re not naïve enough to think that we are in a democracy, right buddy? ”(Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987). Gordon references how his position of power controls everything that surrounds everyday life and the beauty of the free market trade system that Reagan allowed for his policy.
Oliver Stone did a fantastic portrayal of how society in New York City was during the Go-go Reagan era of the trickle down eighties. Ordinary people consumed by greed separated by the haves and have not’s, people willing to sell their souls to obtain money to survive the rise of income of New York City. People who once had family changed once they’ve become business tycoons and information brokers who have holes to feed. With that whole their appetite never satisfied with what they have, constantly wanting more and more. Selling the lives of employees or companies like live stock and cattle in order to make a quick buck, while Reagan taxes the middle to poor of the caste system.
Wall Street is more a reflection of how far we as a society will go to obtain a dream that never existed. The dream of living well off with more then what we expect and give in our selfish desires and not the needs of others. Especially in New York City how we constantly treat each other as wild savages from the concrete jungle wanting our scraps. Oliver was trying to inform us that “Greed, for the lack of a better term is”(Oliver Stone, Wall Street.1987) not good. Sure we can be selfish all we want and yet look how it affects our economy on a global scale. We as people of New York should abandon our instinct of greed and focus on aiding other like Oliver’s father believes Wall Street can do.
Footnotes:
Wall Street. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Michael Douglas. 1987. 20th Century Fox, 2010.DVD
Feigenbaum, Eric. “The 1980s: Search for Identity” Oct. 24.2001.
http://vmsd.com/content/the-1980s-search-identity
SocialExplorer.com
“Wall Street crash:
What does it mean?. November 1987. Sam Marcy. 12 November 2010.
http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samwall/wallst/wallst.htm).
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Blog 13: Minority Report response
The movie Minority Report is the perfect allegory of the society we live in today. The movie depicts a society in a not to far future where murder is reaching in all time epidemic proportions and people living in this world would trade their independent freedoms for security. In this post 9/11 world we’ve done the something similar except without the word murder being on everyone’s lips its terrorism. In Minority Report the only way to deal with the epidemic rise of murder is to start the precrime program. Precrime is a division unit that has the technology and capabilities of predicting murder cases that haven’t even happen yet. The technology and the entire division though experimental gain the public’s trust by showing results of murders being committed entering an all time low. This raises many philosophical debates of free will and determined fate that these characters are playing with.
Precrime in its self is immoral and should not exist in a utilitarianistic way of fixing the murder epidemic situation. It promises to neutralize the problem but it involves changing destiny and playing with the fate these people have. In the movie precrime employs three beings with the ability of precognition murders being committed. The main character John Anderton believes the good precrime can do for humanity up until he saw himself committing a murder. John starts to question if Precrime is as accurate in its predictions as his boss Lamar said it was. Later John soon realizes that there is an alternative prediction called the ‘minority report’ in which the murder being committed by the person could have never happen. Only few people had a minority report though they were still ignored and put in prison in a vegetated state. It’s immoral in a sense that those innocent people who didn’t commit murder and have the minority report are still being prosecuted for the greater good. Idealistically it feels right but at the same time those people who are for precrime failed to realize that they might commit murder and might have an alternative future where the action never took place. Many may argue its better to be safe than sorry, yet if one does not commit the crime why should that individual be punish? This system plays with the lives of ordinary people and is too powerful toy with it, especially for those who are innocent or have a possible future like John Anderton who was set up by Lamar to begin with. Precrime predictions are a lot like the Oracle of Greek mythology in a way where you ask a prediction of the future and it only states what is going to happen. Not how, when, why, just states this situation or event will take place in your life. Like in Oedipus, Oedipus fate was to kill his father and marry his mother according to the prophecy. The Oracle never said what time, date, nor reason just stated this event will happen.
The movie also displays the sacrifice of independent freedom for security. In the movie society in which John Anderton lives is heavily anti privacy. Each subway station has an eye scanner to see if you’re a law abiding citizen or not. When entering a shopping mall it’s like going to a place where advertisers know your name. Also the police no longer need a warrant to search your apartment or daily activity, if need be they’ll scan your eyes with their drones of miniature spiders. All this security to hunt down a murder based on a prophecy from the precogs. While many would argue ‘If you have nothing to hide then why be afraid’ and accept this police state security I oppose it. What people don’t realized is that they are waving their rights away for protection of a threat. People can be persuaded by fear and intimidation to the point of willing to give up their privacy hoping for the threat to be over. The problem is that once the threat is over their privacy will still be monitored by big brother. People forget those who are monitoring our lives are just regular people that can become nosey neighbor. The individual may have nothing to hide in the closet yet his/her private life is entertainment. Without even realizing it we’ve become reality stars to big brother. By waving our rights for security big brother now has a show to watch for twenty-four hours and seven days a week. Multiple genres you can imagine and only big brother has access to those channels. It’s also hard to imagine a world where the police can interrupt your private life with random searches. For security individuals are now forced to get comfortable or use to it. In the book 1984 its main purpose was to ask its readers this question and that is how we as a society should avoid entering a totalitarian civilization?
Minority Report reflects on society willing to give up their individual rights for safety and security while playing with the concept of fate vs. free will. People need to start realizing that we live in a dangerous world and we might eventually come to an end because of that. It’s within our instinct to be violent and solve our needs and wants with that primal instinct. It’s only up to our morals and beliefs for we are complex to rationalize the situation. Only we can control the small portions of our existence but in the end the appointers will cut our thread.
Precrime in its self is immoral and should not exist in a utilitarianistic way of fixing the murder epidemic situation. It promises to neutralize the problem but it involves changing destiny and playing with the fate these people have. In the movie precrime employs three beings with the ability of precognition murders being committed. The main character John Anderton believes the good precrime can do for humanity up until he saw himself committing a murder. John starts to question if Precrime is as accurate in its predictions as his boss Lamar said it was. Later John soon realizes that there is an alternative prediction called the ‘minority report’ in which the murder being committed by the person could have never happen. Only few people had a minority report though they were still ignored and put in prison in a vegetated state. It’s immoral in a sense that those innocent people who didn’t commit murder and have the minority report are still being prosecuted for the greater good. Idealistically it feels right but at the same time those people who are for precrime failed to realize that they might commit murder and might have an alternative future where the action never took place. Many may argue its better to be safe than sorry, yet if one does not commit the crime why should that individual be punish? This system plays with the lives of ordinary people and is too powerful toy with it, especially for those who are innocent or have a possible future like John Anderton who was set up by Lamar to begin with. Precrime predictions are a lot like the Oracle of Greek mythology in a way where you ask a prediction of the future and it only states what is going to happen. Not how, when, why, just states this situation or event will take place in your life. Like in Oedipus, Oedipus fate was to kill his father and marry his mother according to the prophecy. The Oracle never said what time, date, nor reason just stated this event will happen.
The movie also displays the sacrifice of independent freedom for security. In the movie society in which John Anderton lives is heavily anti privacy. Each subway station has an eye scanner to see if you’re a law abiding citizen or not. When entering a shopping mall it’s like going to a place where advertisers know your name. Also the police no longer need a warrant to search your apartment or daily activity, if need be they’ll scan your eyes with their drones of miniature spiders. All this security to hunt down a murder based on a prophecy from the precogs. While many would argue ‘If you have nothing to hide then why be afraid’ and accept this police state security I oppose it. What people don’t realized is that they are waving their rights away for protection of a threat. People can be persuaded by fear and intimidation to the point of willing to give up their privacy hoping for the threat to be over. The problem is that once the threat is over their privacy will still be monitored by big brother. People forget those who are monitoring our lives are just regular people that can become nosey neighbor. The individual may have nothing to hide in the closet yet his/her private life is entertainment. Without even realizing it we’ve become reality stars to big brother. By waving our rights for security big brother now has a show to watch for twenty-four hours and seven days a week. Multiple genres you can imagine and only big brother has access to those channels. It’s also hard to imagine a world where the police can interrupt your private life with random searches. For security individuals are now forced to get comfortable or use to it. In the book 1984 its main purpose was to ask its readers this question and that is how we as a society should avoid entering a totalitarian civilization?
Minority Report reflects on society willing to give up their individual rights for safety and security while playing with the concept of fate vs. free will. People need to start realizing that we live in a dangerous world and we might eventually come to an end because of that. It’s within our instinct to be violent and solve our needs and wants with that primal instinct. It’s only up to our morals and beliefs for we are complex to rationalize the situation. Only we can control the small portions of our existence but in the end the appointers will cut our thread.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
MOMI: Blog
Inside of the Museum of Moving Image on the third floor there were tons of old movie memorabilia that show cased the origins of film. The way our tour was set up was to narrate the beginning of film, how it has grown out through history, and the big impact it has today. Our group started off in the beginning where the tour guide showed us a bunch of contraptions with names I’ve forgotten. She told us the history on how someone came up with the idea of combining consistent pictures and putting them together with speed in order to fool the eye into making it move. Example being the running man, in order to see the moving picture of the man running you have to pull the crank to see the pictures come together and fools the eye. Making the viewer to believe that there is movement taking place. From there on we went to a replica of the Penny Arcades that were popular in the earliest of the nineteen hundreds. Our tour guide and Dr. Rheuban explained how cameras were used to make movies by pictures and not film at the time. It’s interesting since when you look through a peep hole of a nickelodeon it’s like watching a flipbook with well drawn characters that are brought to life. Sure there was no sound, dialogue, or anything for that matter. I got to see “A Trip to The Moon” which is consider to be the first science fiction movie ever made and I enjoyed it. I tried my best setting my mentality and mind of the average viewer of the early nineteen hundreds. Like I’ve mention before there were no sound, but that didn’t stop me from making up the dialogue on how the astronauts planed on getting to the moon. It’s amazing, even with something so primitive can hold a lot of value of the viewer with an open mind.
After the penny arcades we went through the hall of film cameras and how they have a major impact in movie making. Thanks to Edison along with European inventors created projectors and cameras with film. Now allowing film makers to bring their images to life by recording the action that’s being taken place. It was interesting to see how these cameras change through time from big cameras like the ones that were displayed made by Edison. To the small ones that were used by documenters and journalists during WW2. After that we went through the recording booth and discuss the transition of sound in movies. Sound has always existed in film during the golden age of movies just wasn’t able to synchronized it yet. We went from adding sound FX to Brandon dubbing “Babe” we’ve learned how modern movies use sound to convey what is going on in the film. Also we’ve get to see the huge microphone filmmakers use to put sound in movies. Unlike before where the microphone had to be close or the actors had to be in a small room saying their dialogues. Now there is a portable microphone that can travel where the actors are going and can record their lines on a safe yet reachable distance. After that we went through the editing room and see how editors do their magic and our tour guide explains why they’re always someone in production yelling take two. It’s to give the editor which take to use in the final project.
After that we went through a memorabilia of horror movies that were actually prompts used during filming. Like Freddy’s sweater, the prompt of the excursus, etc. With the existence of editing and special effects filmmaker’s imagination are beyond the sky’s limit. After that we traveled to the second floor where we saw a collection of old Star Wars/Star Trek figures behind the glass case. Our tour guide asks us as to why these big franchises hold a special meaning to us. To me they represent of an ongoing achievement of human agriculture and creativity.
After the penny arcades we went through the hall of film cameras and how they have a major impact in movie making. Thanks to Edison along with European inventors created projectors and cameras with film. Now allowing film makers to bring their images to life by recording the action that’s being taken place. It was interesting to see how these cameras change through time from big cameras like the ones that were displayed made by Edison. To the small ones that were used by documenters and journalists during WW2. After that we went through the recording booth and discuss the transition of sound in movies. Sound has always existed in film during the golden age of movies just wasn’t able to synchronized it yet. We went from adding sound FX to Brandon dubbing “Babe” we’ve learned how modern movies use sound to convey what is going on in the film. Also we’ve get to see the huge microphone filmmakers use to put sound in movies. Unlike before where the microphone had to be close or the actors had to be in a small room saying their dialogues. Now there is a portable microphone that can travel where the actors are going and can record their lines on a safe yet reachable distance. After that we went through the editing room and see how editors do their magic and our tour guide explains why they’re always someone in production yelling take two. It’s to give the editor which take to use in the final project.
After that we went through a memorabilia of horror movies that were actually prompts used during filming. Like Freddy’s sweater, the prompt of the excursus, etc. With the existence of editing and special effects filmmaker’s imagination are beyond the sky’s limit. After that we traveled to the second floor where we saw a collection of old Star Wars/Star Trek figures behind the glass case. Our tour guide asks us as to why these big franchises hold a special meaning to us. To me they represent of an ongoing achievement of human agriculture and creativity.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Blog 9 Revise
We define a hero as someone who does a selfless act in aid of someone else without expecting a reward or personal gain. Our image of a hero in this country is someone who is flawless and has high moral standards to follow. He/she has to be physically photogenic, strong, and charismatic in order to believe the lie we’ve created. This illusion was made by us in order to inspire us to do the right thing and make the world a better place to live. The truth is in any developed country we live in a dog eat dog world consumed by our needs and wants. When people who have the characteristics of a hero like MLK Jr. or mother Teresa who rise up to the plate and try to benefit humanity are only to being taken for granted. When we hear about the heroic deeds of soldiers who are fighting the war in Iraq or a police officer who takes a bullet for a little girl we tend to pat them on the back and tell them they did a good job. Yet if it were to be anyone who went to the extreme like saved innocent lives from a car bombing and the person was just some normal guy he would be ignored by the media in favor for someone more interesting.
In the movie “Hero” John Bubber who has the characteristics of being a hero takes credit for the heroic deed that he did not do. He did because he wanted a place to stay and has nowhere else to go since he’s homeless. Gail the news reporter who couldn’t remember who really saved her immediately accepted him for his smile and his good nature. What’s worse is that the TV station she works for channel 4 heavily marketed his image and turned him into a nation’s hero over night. He was even a Vietnam vet who managed to save his fellow comrades from being killed. Whenever someone does a heroic deed we tend to focus on that person particular past to see if that person has done other credible things to awe and inspire us. If a former police officer or a former war vet helped a ‘white’ girl from a well she fell into they are considered to be the nation’s hero. After all they have a resume of service that the media can exploit their life story for ratings. If it were an average Joe like a hotdog vendor down on his luck and about to be homeless soon the credit will be given to the rescuers who showed up after the hotdog vendor saved the ‘white’ little girl. Since the hotdog vendor doesn’t have a laundry list of heroic deeds nor follow the characteristics of the hero this country made up. Like Bernie Laplante, he is purposely the opposite of what we idealistically think of a hero. Bernie is a crook and like us only looks out for himself, yet whenever there is a crisis he will rise to the challenge. Bernie saved the passengers from the burning plane out of guilt for the little boy who thinks his father is still trapped inside.
Bernie tries to tell everyone the heroic deed he did and no one believed him. Even when Gail finds out the truth she still refuses to accept that she owes her life to Bernie and thinks he’s trying to frame John Bubber for the credit cards he stole from her. There is another scene in the movie where John Bubber is taken out on a date with Gail to a fancy restaurant. The people there constantly congratulated him for the heroic deed they thought to believe he did. Even one person thanked him and said that if they were in a situation the same as him, he wouldn’t have done it. This couldn’t be sadder then the truth since we live in a society that mostly cater to its needs and wants. What we failed to realized is that there is a Superman/woman within us all we just choose to ignore it when the time calls for it. We fill ourselves with self doubt and excuses to the point where we refuse to give the damsel in distress help. Hoping for someone like John Bubber would be there to fix their problem for us. The key scene of the movie is where Bernie asks the bartender if he would believe that Bernie was the one who saved those passengers. The bartender replied no and he wouldn’t either for it’s not in their nature to do so furthering my point that people filled themselves with self doubt and excuses we come up with to worry our own businesses and not the needs of others.
Anyone can be a hero just not what our media’s definition to exploit and milk for ratings. The TV station milked John Bubber for the fame he had with the public. Sure John Bubber lied so he can have a place to sleep for the night, while others would argue he inspired people to do the right thing. Sure he inspired people to do the right thing, but eventually what’s keeping people to lose that motivation and go back to their natural behavior? Of course Bernie convinces John to continue the lie and continue to inspire people since he’s photogenic. Yet the truth will eventually come out. When it does people won’t take it lightly while others would say I knew that guy was a phony. Until then he’ll just use his fame to convince people to do the right thing and some would follow him. While others would just say “well he told them to do it so someone out there is taking care of that issue for me”. There is a hero with in all of us we just choose to ignore it and rely on someone else to answer the call for us. When someone tries to do a heroic deed like ending the oppression of a war torn nation or find a cure for aids. The media will shower them with attention until they find something else that will distract us from what they did. Eventually their contributions to humanity would be taken for granted and forgotten in a few short generations.
In the movie “Hero” John Bubber who has the characteristics of being a hero takes credit for the heroic deed that he did not do. He did because he wanted a place to stay and has nowhere else to go since he’s homeless. Gail the news reporter who couldn’t remember who really saved her immediately accepted him for his smile and his good nature. What’s worse is that the TV station she works for channel 4 heavily marketed his image and turned him into a nation’s hero over night. He was even a Vietnam vet who managed to save his fellow comrades from being killed. Whenever someone does a heroic deed we tend to focus on that person particular past to see if that person has done other credible things to awe and inspire us. If a former police officer or a former war vet helped a ‘white’ girl from a well she fell into they are considered to be the nation’s hero. After all they have a resume of service that the media can exploit their life story for ratings. If it were an average Joe like a hotdog vendor down on his luck and about to be homeless soon the credit will be given to the rescuers who showed up after the hotdog vendor saved the ‘white’ little girl. Since the hotdog vendor doesn’t have a laundry list of heroic deeds nor follow the characteristics of the hero this country made up. Like Bernie Laplante, he is purposely the opposite of what we idealistically think of a hero. Bernie is a crook and like us only looks out for himself, yet whenever there is a crisis he will rise to the challenge. Bernie saved the passengers from the burning plane out of guilt for the little boy who thinks his father is still trapped inside.
Bernie tries to tell everyone the heroic deed he did and no one believed him. Even when Gail finds out the truth she still refuses to accept that she owes her life to Bernie and thinks he’s trying to frame John Bubber for the credit cards he stole from her. There is another scene in the movie where John Bubber is taken out on a date with Gail to a fancy restaurant. The people there constantly congratulated him for the heroic deed they thought to believe he did. Even one person thanked him and said that if they were in a situation the same as him, he wouldn’t have done it. This couldn’t be sadder then the truth since we live in a society that mostly cater to its needs and wants. What we failed to realized is that there is a Superman/woman within us all we just choose to ignore it when the time calls for it. We fill ourselves with self doubt and excuses to the point where we refuse to give the damsel in distress help. Hoping for someone like John Bubber would be there to fix their problem for us. The key scene of the movie is where Bernie asks the bartender if he would believe that Bernie was the one who saved those passengers. The bartender replied no and he wouldn’t either for it’s not in their nature to do so furthering my point that people filled themselves with self doubt and excuses we come up with to worry our own businesses and not the needs of others.
Anyone can be a hero just not what our media’s definition to exploit and milk for ratings. The TV station milked John Bubber for the fame he had with the public. Sure John Bubber lied so he can have a place to sleep for the night, while others would argue he inspired people to do the right thing. Sure he inspired people to do the right thing, but eventually what’s keeping people to lose that motivation and go back to their natural behavior? Of course Bernie convinces John to continue the lie and continue to inspire people since he’s photogenic. Yet the truth will eventually come out. When it does people won’t take it lightly while others would say I knew that guy was a phony. Until then he’ll just use his fame to convince people to do the right thing and some would follow him. While others would just say “well he told them to do it so someone out there is taking care of that issue for me”. There is a hero with in all of us we just choose to ignore it and rely on someone else to answer the call for us. When someone tries to do a heroic deed like ending the oppression of a war torn nation or find a cure for aids. The media will shower them with attention until they find something else that will distract us from what they did. Eventually their contributions to humanity would be taken for granted and forgotten in a few short generations.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
"follow up to blog 8."
As I mention before I have a curse residing in my right brain called critical cynicism. Sometimes I enjoy having it around my head constantly nip picking every little detail as if I were Siskel and Ebert themselves. Other times I really wish I knew how to control it or sell it to the nearest pawnshop to drop myself to everyone's level of delusion. People have called me killjoy, as if I'm the Grimm Reaper of great moments coming to the end. That really hurts me a lot since sometimes I wish I could join them in their moment.Being the other can be fun at times, but not always when the star attraction is always on sight. When debunking arguments with facts or in my case facts and standards people wouldn't accept what I have to say. Just case me aside with their measuring stick of mediocrity and accept what big business clogs into their mouths.
When people view me its not in a positive light but instead a force to be reckon with like Orson Wells after his pea commercial. People view me as the other no pun intended and rather associate with me they fear my ability to ruin their moment with my criticism. As mention before I don't know how to stop and people believe its a play I'm doing.
When people view me its not in a positive light but instead a force to be reckon with like Orson Wells after his pea commercial. People view me as the other no pun intended and rather associate with me they fear my ability to ruin their moment with my criticism. As mention before I don't know how to stop and people believe its a play I'm doing.
Blog 8: Criticism is a Habit.
Ever since I was a teenager I developed a critical mind that bothers most people. Most of my friends and family would want to alienate themselves whenever I put my analysis on their favorite movies, games, television shows, etc. I have no clue why but when ever I view something my brain analysis what I'm looking at. Breaks it down into essence and judge the material on its merits. Example my cousin loves the Dukes of Hazard, I respect his opinions on the show but from the critical standpoint it doesn't mean its a good show in any way. Though may sound silly and to the reader my obviously say to himself it's something called an opinion, but from my standpoint if something is done horrible does this qualify to be good? What I'm trying to say is what if a student writes a really bad paper. Didn't follow what the criteria asks him or her to do. This paper didn't answer the question, mostly uses filler, and its an incoherent ramble for twenty pages long. A really bad paper and yet the professor enjoys it. It's still a failing paper from all critical and even writing standards.
I can understand preference and why people would enjoy guilty pleasures in fact I do too, since after all I am a typical homosapian with faults going back to my primitive cave baby years. But my point is how can someone enjoy something so terrible, so vile of the stench of something so bad and yet people accept it. I know I have standards and expectancy but if something like The Room is considered to be the best movie of all time then I have a problem with that judgment. It's a habit putting my level of standards on people based on anything on what they're talking about. In my eyes I wish to enlighten them that their precious beloved rock they found on the beach was nothing more then dried up dog droppings. It's a force of habit that I can't control fully of I'm afraid and now you know my curse. The mind that can't stop being judgmental. I sometime wish I could grab my wrench or tire iron and beat my head silly to bring myself down to the level of the others. Sound silly but to me it hurts sometimes when having a conversation on our current cesspool of pop culture and not like the cesspool of yester decade about trends and shows people enjoy. Nothing bothers me more then being an outcast of freaks from the local carnival in town.
I've now become the oddity, the star attraction and to me that is a bad thing. I want to be with the other freaks like the mermaid with the terrible tan and an ugly accent, or the spoiled gorilla in a suit talking about his future goals in Yale with a promise of a broken marriage and drinking problems. I am an analysis though I may not crunch numbers or sell bounds on Wall Street, I like to look at things for what they really are. Eyes of a God some may call it, to me it's a blessing and to others an annoyance. With my eyes may sound good to some in actuality it's a curse with a forecast of alienation and a dark cloud of loneliness.
I can understand preference and why people would enjoy guilty pleasures in fact I do too, since after all I am a typical homosapian with faults going back to my primitive cave baby years. But my point is how can someone enjoy something so terrible, so vile of the stench of something so bad and yet people accept it. I know I have standards and expectancy but if something like The Room is considered to be the best movie of all time then I have a problem with that judgment. It's a habit putting my level of standards on people based on anything on what they're talking about. In my eyes I wish to enlighten them that their precious beloved rock they found on the beach was nothing more then dried up dog droppings. It's a force of habit that I can't control fully of I'm afraid and now you know my curse. The mind that can't stop being judgmental. I sometime wish I could grab my wrench or tire iron and beat my head silly to bring myself down to the level of the others. Sound silly but to me it hurts sometimes when having a conversation on our current cesspool of pop culture and not like the cesspool of yester decade about trends and shows people enjoy. Nothing bothers me more then being an outcast of freaks from the local carnival in town.
I've now become the oddity, the star attraction and to me that is a bad thing. I want to be with the other freaks like the mermaid with the terrible tan and an ugly accent, or the spoiled gorilla in a suit talking about his future goals in Yale with a promise of a broken marriage and drinking problems. I am an analysis though I may not crunch numbers or sell bounds on Wall Street, I like to look at things for what they really are. Eyes of a God some may call it, to me it's a blessing and to others an annoyance. With my eyes may sound good to some in actuality it's a curse with a forecast of alienation and a dark cloud of loneliness.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Blog 7
During the rise of comic book stores in the nineteen eighties people who wish to pursue their passion were able to distribute their works and work in the comic industry. Since DC and Marvel owned the entire comic book industry it made it nearly impossible for creators to freely express themselves. Both companies also made it impossible for creators to be compensated with their own creation or characters being used in their company brand names. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are one of the few who were successful in challenging the established status qua and trying to change the comic book industry for independent creators or at least attempted.
1. Talk about their creation TMNT and how it was an unexpected success.
2. How the sales showed that people were willing to try something different than what Marvel and DC were dishing out at the time. Especially being a self published book.
3. How both Eastman and Laird try to create the "Bill of comic Creators" helping comic book independent creators to control, publish, and inherit their royalties from their own creation.
4. Laird created the Xeric foundation a nonprofit organization that will give back to the industry as a whole and teach new up comers about self publishing.
5. Eastman left TMNT to create his own publishing company called Tundra to give comic writers a chance to diversify themselves from what Marvel and DC allows them to do.
Both Eastman and Laird tried their best to change the comic book industry for those who wished to do their own thing. Unfortunately their attempts were somewhat successful while others failed. To me these two people are pioneers of independent creators who tried to change the industry. What makes me cringe is that people give most of the credit to five artists who worked at Marvel comics and left to form their own company called Image. Sure they were most successful in the industry but they had fame and recognition from their fans. Plus they relied on gimmicks like reprinting multiple versions of issues of their first issues and devalued comics artistically as a whole with bad stories and lackluster art work. What Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird did was important in the comic industry since they did it all from scratch and didn't have any fame from their previous work. They spend countless weeks drawing, inking, and writing their stories in Laird's living room. That in my book is a huge change in mass communication.
McGill, g. Douglas “DYNAMIC DUO: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird; Turning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Into a Monster” New York Times. 25 December 1988. 21 October 2010.
Kean, Benjamin. “Turtles Days, Turtles Night”. Talking to Kevin Eastman. 31 August 2007. Newsarama. 21 october 2010 < http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=127540>
1. Talk about their creation TMNT and how it was an unexpected success.
2. How the sales showed that people were willing to try something different than what Marvel and DC were dishing out at the time. Especially being a self published book.
3. How both Eastman and Laird try to create the "Bill of comic Creators" helping comic book independent creators to control, publish, and inherit their royalties from their own creation.
4. Laird created the Xeric foundation a nonprofit organization that will give back to the industry as a whole and teach new up comers about self publishing.
5. Eastman left TMNT to create his own publishing company called Tundra to give comic writers a chance to diversify themselves from what Marvel and DC allows them to do.
Both Eastman and Laird tried their best to change the comic book industry for those who wished to do their own thing. Unfortunately their attempts were somewhat successful while others failed. To me these two people are pioneers of independent creators who tried to change the industry. What makes me cringe is that people give most of the credit to five artists who worked at Marvel comics and left to form their own company called Image. Sure they were most successful in the industry but they had fame and recognition from their fans. Plus they relied on gimmicks like reprinting multiple versions of issues of their first issues and devalued comics artistically as a whole with bad stories and lackluster art work. What Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird did was important in the comic industry since they did it all from scratch and didn't have any fame from their previous work. They spend countless weeks drawing, inking, and writing their stories in Laird's living room. That in my book is a huge change in mass communication.
McGill, g. Douglas “DYNAMIC DUO: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird; Turning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Into a Monster” New York Times. 25 December 1988. 21 October 2010.
Kean, Benjamin. “Turtles Days, Turtles Night”. Talking to Kevin Eastman. 31 August 2007. Newsarama. 21 october 2010 < http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=127540>
Monday, October 11, 2010
Blog #6
Hero is a word that has been thrown around to the point where people confuses it’s meaning like people who fight in war or someone who manages to save a cat from Ms. Danvers’ tree. A hero is someone who does a selfless act in aid only to get nothing in return. In this movie the main protagonist Bernie Laplante is portrayed as a scumbag, societies lowest of the low if you will. He drinks, steals anything that can give him money or gratification, takes advantage of those who aid him, etc. Until one night while driving through the rain his car breaks down and he becomes involved in a plane accident that crashes though the Brooklyn bridge. Bernie does the opposite of what his character has been depicted from the first 25 minutes of the movie and decides to help the passengers who are trapped inside the burning plane. Eventually he saves all the passengers only for the wrong/right motivation in which he wanted to save the boy’s father who he thought was trapped on the plane. Bernie went through all the trails of a hero yet he has never received the credit for one since the homeless man John Bubber who Bernie hitched a ride from when he left the scene took the credit from him. John Bubber becomes a national hero and a positive symbol of human greatness.
What I like about this movie is how it incorporates humanity illusion that the world is a friendly place with realism where people are out for themselves. Like what Bernie said to his son “You have to look out for number one, you”. Whenever a problem exist in the world especially within our country we like to think there are people out there like Bubber that will fix it for us. Like in the scene in the movie where Gail takes John out to a fancy restaurant, random strangers congratulating him for helping the passengers and said they would never do something like that. The TV station kept constantly whoring out his publicity and reported John’s achievements like saving soldiers during Vietnam. What’s sad is that the TV station only showed a couple of good things he did in the war and the public eat it all. Same can be said with what’s going on with the war in Iraq. The news stations will only report the good things that our soldiers over seas are doing and not the terrible incidents or innocent lives killed by the crossfire. Whenever Bernie tries to prove he actually saved the lives on that plane people ignore him or don’t believe him. What is another play on reality where if you have a record of good deeds and look photogenic the media wants to know everything about you like John Bubber. Like what happen to the bombing in Time Square, if it were a stock broker or someone that came home after their service. They would be heroes, but instead it was a hotdog vendor that notices the smoke coming out of the van. The vendor was homeless and never had a resume that made him heroic in order for the media to mass market on.
In America we love our heroes to be flawless and to have high moral standards. John Bubber lied to Gail and the television station only to have a place to sleep for the night. Feeling guilty that he has taken the credit for something he never did. He uses his new found fame to encourage people to help the homeless and sick kids when he visited the hospital. Until he couldn’t take the guilt anymore and attempts suicide until Bernie convinces Bubber to continue the false publicity since he inspires people to do good or a nominal fee of Bubber’s half of his million dollars. If the public knew the truth they will automatically hate John for being a fraud and go back living where everyone is looking out for themselves. Plus the public won’t take the insult of their intelligence very well since the television station that heavily marketed John Bubber duped them for ratings. I’m in the middle since this whole philosophical motive and ideas are so grey. Sure John Bubber lied but look at the people he inspired to help. If no one claimed to save the reporter Bernie wouldn’t be out on bail, even if he went and claim his reward no one would believe him since he’s not heroic material.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)