Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) by Zachary vanBuuren

     Beasts of the Southern Wild is the story of a post disaster shantytown lifestyle told through the lens of the young girl "Hushpuppy" learning how to survive and grip reality in a fringe culture society that is barely holding together. The post hurricane Katrina Louisiana coastline gives the film a survivalist feel, as the only things the characters own is salvaged trailers, houses, and boats. Hushpuppy's father is a terminally ill alcoholic that is halfway devoted to his daughter's upbringing and the rest is concerned with maintaing a drunken stupor. Hushpuppy stumbles through childhood, learning to communicate with animals better than humans and taking occasional survival instruction from her father. The tiny community is threatened by the flooding and the uneducated and uncivilized populace turn to misconduct to save their hovel. Hushpuppy's father destroys a protective dyke and the local city attempts to bring them into a rescue shelter. Unwilling to work with the confines of civilization, Hushpuppy and her clan break free and make their way back to the shantytown where they can live as they choose.


The film makers wanted Beasts of the Southern Wild to be a romantic view of childhood in a dystopian society. The style of filming employed to give the sense of vision through a young, impoverished girl in the wasted Louisiana bayou is a little jarring and distracting at times. One never questions what perspective we are supposed to see during the film, yet at times, one strains to actually see what is happening in a scene due to some overused cinematic 'technique'. Although this does impose the viewer to try to make sense of what is happening in the world, much like a child's view.

M*A*S*H TV Show - Benjamin Hilton - Option D

            Comedy and satire are tools that have been used to make people laugh at the truth for nearly all of recorded history. From the earliest example in ancient China, to the well known jesters of Shakespeare, the art of telling the truth with a well timed punch line has proven invaluable. In the world of film, this is no less true, especially, in terms of war. The subject of war brings about ideas of blood, bombs, dead bodies, and overall bad images. The art of turning was comical, while still delivering a meaningful message is an art. M*A*S*H was a ground breaking TV show that came at the tail end of the Vietnam War. About an army field hospital in the Korean War, it used comedy to be able to deliver powerful messages to their audience.

            M*A*S*H uses comedy and satire in a number of ways that tend to go overlooked by most viewers. An example M*A*S*H used often is the idiocy of the superior officers over the enlisted. In the first three seasons the clear example of this was Colonel Henry Blake, the leader of the M*A*S*H unit. Henry was a blubbering idiot, one who would make a regular person wonder why he was ever made in charge of anything more then a scalpel. The truth, and true use of satire, is when Col. Blake tells Hawkeye, the main protagonist, that he never signed up to be in charge; and that the Army put him here without the proper training. The Army in “all its wisdom and knowledge” placed in charge a man not fit to lead a soap box derby, let alone a M*A*S*H unit.

            The satire of commanders doesn’t merely end there. M*A*S*H uses several other instances to show that the superiors running the war aren’t all together. In an episode called “The Incubator” Hawkeye and Trapper go in search of an incubator to help diagnosis diseases in their patients. Along the way they are denied an incubator, offered an incubator (“at cost”), and in a final attempt they crash a generals news conference to ask why they can’t get one. This episode uses satire to show the overall incompetence of the military system and the people in it. Colonel Lambert, who is attempting to sell the incubator for a profit, tells the two “If I started doing my job, where would I end up?” This tongue and cheek humor is meant to show the overall lack of the American soldiers to want to be there.

            No truer is a sign of an officer not wanting to be in the army then Maxwell Q. Klinger. An enlisted man who dresses like a woman in an attempt to get discharged from the army with a section 8. The outfits that Klinger wears through out the series ranges from a white wedding dress, a cock tail waitress, to Scarlett O’Hara’s dress from Gone with the Wind. Completely absurd and crazy; a ploy that seems to comical to be true. The idea for an officer dressing as a woman to get out of the army was inspired by Lenny Bruce, a mid 20^th century American comedian, who attempted to dodge his military service by dressing as a WAVES member, the female equivalent of the NAVY. M*A*S*H also based many episodes off real life experiences recorded by doctors and nurses from the Korean and Vietnam War.

            Despite all the satire involved where satire isn’t is also something of importance. Never when doctors operating are on screen is there a laugh track present. This was done with the intent of showing that war is not funny. That even though these doctors “have to go crazy to keep from going crazy,” the OR scenes hold true meaning and solemness. M*A*S*H is a complex weave of satire and excellent writing. It is able to portray a powerful message without the audience truly realizing. It is an excellent series that still holds its worth, even today.


<Hunter, I. (2002, Nov 04). The best humour is satire, and there's a reason we
have so little of it today. The Report Newsmagazine, 29, 23-23. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/202959233?accountid=130772>
<Mayer, David R. "Fools are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World." Asian Folklore Studies 60.2 (2001): 352-4. Arts & Humanities Full Text; ProQuest Central. Web. 4 Sep. 2012.>
<Triano, Christine, writ. M*A*S*H: 30th Anniversary Reunion. Writ. Alan Alda. Twentieth Century Fox Television, Rocket Science Laboratories, 2002. Film. 3 Sep 2012.>

Starship Troopers by Christiane Butler

Title/Year: Starship Troopers/1997

Director/Birth Year/Year Born: Paul Verhoeven/Dutch/1938
Budget: $105 Million
Gross: $121,214,377
Synopsis: We follow Rico as he graduates high school and joins the military in a futuristic space-exploring world. A hostile alien species of giant bugs is attacking earth & Rico with some of his high school buddies as they work to defeat the bugs & Rico moves up the ranks in the military.
Narrative and Visual Keywords: Citizenship, giant insects, infantry, telepathy, sensationalized news, smart bugs.
Characterization/Dialogue: Most of the characters are over-exadurated in this film, it works because it’s done all around and the film is meant to be a satire.
Camera/lighting/editing technique: We have some camera that’s smooth and just helping to tell the story without distraction, some of the time it is shaking as if being filmed by a soldier running with the troop.
Political/Social Commentary: The movie is based on a novel of the same title, but it received, many say, better criticism because the novel is thought to be too fascist and pro-military rule.
Notable Collaboration: Many of the people working on the film had previously worked together on the film RoboCop. The film had aid in more accurately portraying military from former US Marine, Dale Dye, who served in combat during the Vietnam War.
Random fact: The director has said that the first scene of the film was a direct reproduction of a scene in Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will.

Verhoeven flat out states in the film’s commentary that the message he is portraying is “War makes fascists of us all.” There is mixed review though, some see the film as just an over-the top action film, some as a satire, and some have even compared the film to the George W. Bush administration and it’s war on terrorism through extreme patriotism. Throughout the film we see what appears to be a futuristic and interactive propaganda message about the war, something a few commenters on a review say they wouldn’t have put past Bush. Other connects to a fascist idea can be made through the various Nazi-like elements. If you look at the smaller details of the film, specifically the wardrobe, the commanding officers have uniforms that are said to resemble that of the Nazi Gestapo uniform. *Show photo examples*

The biggest and most obvious though is that  Verhoeven admits to making the opening scene after a scene in the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will. We watched some of this film in class, and I believe that the portion Verhoeven imitated is actually one that we saw. It is a scene where the Nazi soldiers are all gathered in a field to listen to Hitler’s speech, they all sound off about what they’re doing to help in the effort. *Play opening scene*

The main subject of the film follows the choices of one boy, Rico, through the military and his heroic actions, which lead to his becoming a man’s man, someone that others should strive to be like. The film starts with him as a kid who is completely full of himself, and he gets into some serious trouble when his over-confidence gets a fellow soldier killed and he almost backs out of the military all togehter. But then, by a twist in the plot, he has to grow up fast because as he is taking his walk down “washout lane” a meteor, that the bugs had launched into space, comes crashing down and completely destroys his home town along with his only family.  At this point he has no where to go so he sticks it out & through various battles and missions he begins to prove himself in the face of danger, to be a great leader that makes smart choices for the better of the group. Eventually through promotions by his superiors and deaths causing him to assume higher roles during battles, he makes it to the rank of Captain. The film closes out with another similar to the opening scene. Only this time he and his classmates from high school are the brave soldiers that the military advertisement is saying you should aspire to become. *Play closing scene*

Sources:

The Examiner, on a remake of the film http://www.examiner.com/article/hollywood-to-remake-starship-troopers

Entertainment Weekly, movie review http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,290338,00.html

The best humour is satire, and there's a reason we have so little of it today by Ian Hunter

Beasts of the Southern Wild by, Aaron Charny

Beasts of the Southern Wild is the story of survival. Six year old, Hushpuppy lives with her dad in “The Bathtub” the southern wetlands of Louisiana. As a storm floods “The Bathtub” and her father gets sick, Hushpuppy needs to learn how to survive on her own.

Director, Benh Zeitlin uses shaky camera and rack focus to bring the viewer into the environment of The Bathtub. The visuals, from the flooded homes of south Louisiana, along with the acting from Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), makes this film extraordinary.

Beasts of the Southern Wild by Christiane Butler

The way the film was made, specifically the shaking/un-steady camera and narration by Hushpuppy, at first made me think that we were watching a documentary. Then the story became too fantastical and I realized it was a fiction work. I think this made me feel more connected to the characters, as if they were real.
The movie was very quick, it started with a great introduction to build up the characters. Once I had a good understanding of the main characters the movie whisked us away on an adventure, I couldn't look away and I was rooting for Hushpuppy and her father. The characters had enough good in them to make you root for them, but enough faults to make them believable. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would happily recommend it to anyone!

Beasts of the Southern Wild- Carol Ostling

Beast of the southern wild was a touching independent film. The main character was Hushpuppy who is a little girl of about six. The story is told through the eyes of the little girl about Bathtub and how the community survives even through hurricane Katrina.A lot of the elements that we have been discussing were in this such as memory and P.O.V. However, with this being a slightly experimental film it did have other elements that I  myself am not acquainted with, this being the mysticism of the south. Especially the area that Hushpuppy grew up in. Even though I could not fully understand, I still enjoyed this element of the movie. It helped show Hushpuppies bravery even more. 

Beasts of the Southern Wild - Benjamin Hilton

Beasts of the Southern Wild is the heart touching tale of six year old Hushpuppy who lives with her hot-blodded father, Wink, on a small island called the bathtub. Wink contracts a mysterious disease as a hurricane fast approaches and most of the residents flee the tiny island directly in it's way. Hushpuppy and Wink choose to stay. As Wink's condition gets worse, Hushpuppy searches for an answer to keep her father with her.

Overall, I found this to be a very good movie. The acting from Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) was excellent. For her being as young as she is the acting was quite stellar. The story was also a well written. I didn't find much in the movie as a whole that took me out of viewing it. Even for an experimental piece I believe that this movie has a wide audience.
3/4 stars