Reflection #1
Movie – March 4, 2003
Amy Ward
When told that this movie might be offensive and that I could leave if I
thought I might
be offended, I thought, “How am I going
to know that I will be offended until after it happens?”
So I stayed, and I was offended.
Maybe it is good that I stayed, maybe being offended has a
place. I personally was not in
the mood for that kind of character building at that time, and
would have left had I not been on the
far side of the door. I also have a bit of personal
challenge to see things through to
the end, hoping they get better or that I will find something
good about the whole experience. I have seen
two horrible really bad, bad, bad movies that
I actually paid for because I was hoping they would
get better by the end, and they just got
worse.
Obviously the author/screenwriter intended to leave a bad taste in the viewer’s
mouth
from this movie. And he succeeded.
There is nothing like a good kick in the pants to get people
talking. They may not think, but they will
talk, and maybe eventually someone will think. So,
since there is no doubt about the intentions
for the movie there are left two things that can be
discussed: the meaning and the perception.
Why should we think and what are we going to think?
Not only is this film is about racial issues, but it is also about gender
issues. It is about
expectations, norms and values in society.
It is about what people say and what they actually
do; what people know, and what they
admit.
I do not remember the names of the characters in the film; I have misplaced
my notes.
But I am going to call them Adam and
Eve. Just because it seems like a good reason for having
her eat so many apples and throw them
away. Would that not be a great symbolism for this film,
the woman seducing the man with her
apple of knowledge and then causing his death? So what
is the snake? Is society the
snake? Maybe I am the snake, the person watching is the purpose for
the film, is the reason she gets the
apples. Maybe we should tell the author about this great idea.
See if he thought of it.
So why did Adam, I have just remembered his name was Clay. Wasn’t Adam
formed
from clay? Hmm… So why
did Clay put up with all that nonsense from this girl? I think it had
to do a lot with the fact that there
were no other people around to witness what was going on
and pass judgment on him. He
did not have to worry about what anyone else thought about him
except this girl. And she was
just one person, so if he felt threatened by her, he could just tell her
off or dismiss her or somehow pass the blame off
on her so that, in his mind at least, she was the
one left holding the bag. Maybe
he was like me, maybe he had to stay until the end, just incase
things got better.
It was not until they looked around and realized that other people had come
along into the
subway car with them that her trip
into insanity was not calmed down again and his patience and
curiosity were not smoothed out.
Now he has all these other perceived opinions crowding in on
him from the white passengers, and
he decides there are things that may be done in private company
that should not be done in the midst
of others. The problem is that she doesn’t really care. They
both realize that no one else is going
to do anything, but I think they realize it on different levels.
He knows that as long as he is a threat
to the other passengers that they will try to save themselves
by ignoring him. She knows that
as soon as he is no longer a threat, they will do what they can to
forget he was ever there.
This actress did a great job of changing her appearance from sexy to ordinary
to downright
hideous. I cannot imagine why,
when she stabbed Clay, he could not “escape” from her by either
backing away, or who knows what. I know there
had been some foreshadowing about her strength.
But why should she be so much stronger
than expected, almost stronger than he was. It is almost
like the message is, “Even the weaker
sex of the white race is better and stronger than the stronger
of your black race”. But it’s
not like she arm-wrestled him or “fought fair” either. She was sneaky.
Not a very honorable way of going about
killing a person, if there is such a thing. So maybe the
message is, “Even though the whites
say they want good for the blacks, they will still hunt them
down, one by one, and get rid of them
by whatever way they can, each person with their own way,
without law or honor.”
So now I wonder. Why, in the last scene, was the subway conductor
a black man? There
is a purpose for every casting call
and I wonder if this is another way of saying that even the black
people are allowing these things to happen to them,
right under their noses. Maybe they know the
truth, maybe they do not, but they
should have the power to do something about it. And what
about the white passengers, they certainly
had some power to stop what was happening, or at
least dispense some form of justice
to this woman and aid to this man. But they chose to keep
themselves out of it as far as they
could reasonably do. They also had their own personas they
had to keep up. Let no one think
of them in ways unbefitting their character and place. To speak
up would be to change the assumed personality
they had taken from the others around them,
automatically given and expected.
So I got mad. And I talked. And eventually I thought. Who
among those on the subway
is most like me? If I were one
of them, what would I have done differently? Is there any way to
really know until that time comes?
If, by having this situation presented to me in a safe and non-
threatening environment, I have been
given the time to think about what happened and my own
response, will I ever be faced with
a similar situation and then be prepared because of this? I really
hope not. Only because I would
prefer to think this kind of thing does not happen in “the real world.”
But of course, that is another reason
why no one said anything. So I have to be prepared for what
might maybe perhaps possibly happen,
even if I do not like it.