Swades: We the People

Swades: We the People is a Bollywood film about a young Indian man named Mohan who lives and works for NASA in the United States. On the anniversary of the death of his parents, Mohan’s sadness invokes guilt for not taking care of the next closest person to him, his childhood caretaker Kaveriamma, who resides in India. Mohan decided to go to India and bring back Kaveriamma. His quest to bring back his other mother brought him to a village where the quality and ways of life changed the way he perceived his homeland and at the same time find love, which caused him to want to make a difference in the village.

Some of the cultures and customs in Swades are typical of not just India but many Asian countries. The young, independent minded Gita who Mohan fell in love with was being set up for marriage. Arrange marriage has been part of many Asian cultures such as China, and Swades shows that it still exists. Gita had turned down the marriage proposal, because her husband and his family expected her to stop teaching and be a house wife after marriage. Though many Asian cultures are starting to treat women as equal, it is still a common belief that the primary duties of women are in the home.

This film is not typical of Hollywood films. Besides the obvious that Swades has a lot of traditional music and musical, Swades’ theme is different. In many Hollywood films, the conflict is usually about a good guy who tries to stop the bad guys through physical might. In Swades, the hero was an educated man who engineered a small hydroelectric generator to bring power to the village. This shows that education in India is highly praised.

The film also has a subtle message that Indian living abroad should return to India and contribute to solve India’s social and economically problems. This is evident in the film ending as Mohan struggles to return to the US and stay in India. The final musical claims all who leave the motherland will eventually return.

Combination of an extreme close-up and panning shot to set up an intimate setting.
This was shot in a documentary type style.

In this shot, I experimented with using a dolly to move through a hallway up to a hat that has fallen on the floor. The dolly allows the camera to start at a position where the object is unidentifiable and move in until the hat is seen up close with focus on the cross icon. Also, a ghost trail effect was added to enhance the mystery and create the effect of mystery and suspense. Rollerblades were used as the dolly mechanism.

Over the Shoulder

Point of View

This clip creates a false point of view. The first shot is a close up of Hung's face. You can see that he is looking at something. Then the camera cuts to the window, and the audience assume Hung was looking out the window. Then the camera cuts back to Hung's stare but then tilt to the right, revealing that the whole time, Hung had his back to the window. (LAM DVD - Point of View, Ch. 4; Editing technique: Kuleshov Experiment, Ch. 6)

"Amores Perros" Review

"Amores Perros" is a Mexican film directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and set in Mexico City. Much like the British hit "Snatch" this film follows three seemingly unrelated plot lines that all intersect with an accident at the end of the film.
We first follow Octavio in his struggles to help support his brother’s wife. As he finds out that his dog has a talent for killing he decides to use him to win money dog fighting. We then switch to follow Valeria, a professional model. She falls on hard times when a sudden health problem causes her to leave modeling and stresses her relationship with her lover Daniel. Finally we also see the story of El Chivo. After he leaves his wife and daughter he is forced to live in a shack with his dogs. Like Octavio, El Chivo turns to vice in order to make his living, taking up a job as a hit man. These three stories are seemingly autonomous of each other until a car crash between them causes more problems for them all.
One commonality we see throughout the film however is the presence of dogs. Each character is very affectionate for their dogs, almost as if they were family. It seems as though Inarritu is trying to comment on society. As we see dogs compete in the dog fighting ring, fighting for their lives and honor it reminds us of humans in their constant class struggle to try and rise to the top. Feeling the loyalty to their masters the dogs in ring fight fiercely. Similarly we see humans as well struggling to support their loved ones, sometimes as seen in "Amores Perros" even in despicable ways such as robbing and killing.
"Amores Perros" is especially enjoyable because it contains many global themes. The mise en scene clearly helps describe both a poor, destitute Mexico as well as a decadent, luxurious one. This is a class struggle we are all familiar with in America. As mentioned before the savageness and violence of the dogs seems to comment on the reality of the cold world. Most important however is the theme of love and loss. We see Valeria's relationship disintegrate after a crash takes her leg and her career. Octavio participates in dog fighting to support eloping with his brother's wife but in the end is turned down. El Chico is probably the greatest story of woe. He is haunted because he had to abandon his daughter years earlier. He lives in a shack with a pack of stray dogs which he gives his love and affection to. After he saves Octavio's dog it kills El Chico's stray dog friends causing El Chico further loss. This theme can be traced back to Lord Tennyson who was quoted in the 19th Century saying "tis' better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." Even if you agree or not you can certainly appreciate how important the theme of lost love was to people back then, today and will be in the future.

Unspoken Expression (Formalistic Analysis of The Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

The Piano (1993), a co-production film from New Zealand, Australia, and France directed by Jane Campion and French film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) directed by Julian Schnabel both take focus on the lives of the main character after an event that has left them unable to speak. However the main characters’ inabilities to speak are presented in a way that does not interfere with their strong ability to communicate. This essay will focus on a few tools the directors use to communicate to an audience the thoughts and feelings of the main characters who are unable to communicate through speech. The main ways the directors accomplish this feat are through the use of establishing a point of view through camera angles, changes in lighting and coloration that correspond to changes in mood, the use of narration to present unspoken thoughts. All of these aspects work in synthesis with one another to deliver a film that expressively communicates the thoughts and emotions of the main character to the audience. The Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly may at first appear to have nothing in common; however after assessing how the directors implement filming techniques in both of the movies, similarities and differences emerge in how the directors present the communication boundary between the main character, other characters, and the audience.

Both The Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly center on instances that occur in the main characters life and how the character’s inability to speak along with their unique ways of speaking effect the situations the character is facing. Because this is the focus of the films, both directors rely on some narration to present inner thoughts to the audience. This type of narration is evident in the beginning of The Piano as a gentle woman’s voice describes her story. The audience is introduced to Ada McGrath, a mute who has willed herself not to speak after the death of her husband after a lightning strike. Ada’s voice tells the audience, “The voice you hear is not my speaking voice, but my minds voice… The strange thing is, I don’t think of myself as silent. That is because of my piano.” This short narration clip familiarizes the audience with Ada and gives vital information to the viewer such as the relationship between Ada’s inability to speak and her communication through her beloved piano. Narration in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is quite different, however. Instead of being presented with the basis of the story directly through Ada speaking to the audience, the audience is brought into the film as Jean-Dominique Bauby, a French fashion magazine editor who suffers a stroke and suffers from a full body paralysis apart from his left-eyelid, questions where he is, unsure of what is happening and what has happened. Narration is used initially to acquaint the main character with the audience, but as the films progress, narration supplements the storyline by allowing the character to clarify parts of the story and aids in moving the film along. With the help of a speech therapist, Jean-Dominique learns to communicate through blinking his left eye to choose a letter from a list that is being read out, and eventually decides to write a book that he had a contract for before the accident. Jean Dominique voice reads to the viewer the first part of the book, saying, “Through the frayed curtains, a warm glow announces the presence of day…a sort of diving bell holds my body prisoner. My main task now is to compose this sort of bed ridden notes from a cast away on the shores of loneliness…” In both cases, narration is used to supplement the telling of the story, acquainting the audience with background information in the case of The Piano and helping to bring the audience into the shoes of Jean-Dominique in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The second way the films express the feelings of Ada and Jean-Dominique is by establishing a point of view through camera angles. The point of view in The Piano is as if the audience is next to the characters of the film. First we see the character looking through a hole, and next we find ourselves looking through the same hole and seeing what they have seen. Paul Brenner film reviewer of the NY times describes this technique, saying, “Campion directs with discreet detachment, observing one character through the glances and squints of another as they peer through wooden slats, airy curtains, and spaces between a character’s fingers. She makes the film immediate and urgent by implicating the audience in character’s gazes”. The camera seems to move around the action throughout the film. At one point the viewer is beneath the arriving canoe of Ada and Flora (her daughter who communicates with her mom through sign language) and next he or she is on the shore watching as they are carried by Maori tribes men from the canoe to the beach. The point of view in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is as if you are Jean-Dominique himself. Most of the film is shot in Dutch angles that correspond to Jean-Dominique’s viewpoint (whose head is slouched to one side due to his paralysis). Another NY Times film critique, A. O. Scott, describes the camera directing of Schnabel saying, “And yet he also shows astonishing formal control. The movie begins claustrophobically, as we see the blurry bustle of the hospital room from Jean-Dominique’s hazy, panicked perspective. Faces loom suddenly and awkwardly into view, while his captive consciousness writhes in its cage, trying to make contact with the world outside.” By successfully creating a point of view, the directors engage the audience with the character, helping them experience the troubles and relate themselves to Ada or Jean-Dominique.

Color and Lighting are used in both films to enhance the camera angles. Not only are we shown a scene in a particular viewpoint, but coloration and lighting techniques are employed to enhance our experience. In the Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly color and lighting are used to depict the moods of the main character. Upon arriving to the new land at which her arranged husband lives, Ada and her daughter Flora must spend the night on the beach with her daughter in a makeshift tent. The tent is lit with an orange glow implying warmth which corresponds to the joy Ada and her daughter share together. Later in the film, Ada is seduced and eventually falls in love with another man named Baines. In the scenes dealing with their adultery, backlit lighting penetrates the walls of Baines’ shack and catches the outline of Ada’s hair. Both of these warm environments are contrasted by a chilly blue tint present in the forest scenes (also the place where her husband chops one of her fingers when he finds out she is having relations with Baines). “Stuart Dryburgh’s fine camerawork”, says David Stratton, film critique working with Variety.com, “draws maximum pictorial splendor from the chilly, rain swept settlement in which the reluctant bride finds herself, as well as from bleakly beautiful beach sequences.” The same color patterns are present in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Jean-Dominique’s mood controls the lighting as the audience is presented with a warm orange screen that captures the curtains flowing in the wind, when Jean-Dominique reads the beginning of his book. Colors are natural and bright when he imagines traveling the world or when he relives situations in his past. And the lighting is dim with cold blue colors when he has a dream of a bloody hospital bed which makes him realize he is about to die.

The Piano and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly successfully use film techniques to communicate the thoughts and feelings of a mute main character to the audience. By incorporating narration to help tell the story and relay inner thought, using camera angles to establish a point of view, and manipulating lighting conditions to reflect mood, the audience is pulled into the story of Ada McGrath and Jean-Dominique Bauby as they deal with the struggles of life in respects to their struggle with communication.

Gender Studies in Movies; Movies versus Poetry

Gender Studies is the examination of gender, not as a way of biologically differentiating male from female, but as a social force. In literary, drama, and film theories, gender can be examined in a way to reveal feminine, masculine, and queer undercurrents in works to further develop understanding and general reception (Spector). The study owes its roots to Freudian psychoanalysis and its criticizers, particularly Jacques Lacan and Carl Jung. Lacan interpreted femininity and masculinity based on the structure of the unconscious, and also claimed that femininity was supplementary and not complementary to masculinity, thereby giving gender a common root (Grosz). Jung worked with gender archetypes, which made gender studies more applicable to literature, drama, and film. Closely related to Gender Studies are of course Women’s Studies, such as Feminism, and Men’s Studies. A more recent emergence in Gender Studies is the Queer Theory. An amount of time was all it took for Feminism to become a player on the world stage; it took a little more for the Queer Theory. Unlike bra-burning women, LGBTs could not take early media by storm as books were not published if their themes were too flamboyant. It took a combination of the internet and uncensored film for the Queer Theory and culture to “come out of the closet.” For this reason, when assessing a film and applying Gender Studies Queer theory is impossible to ignore.

The two films I plan to compare and contrast are Il Postino, 1993, directed by Michael Radford, and The Quiet American, 2002, directed by Philip Noyce. I will apply Gender Studies to determine the dominant gender in each movie and examine how that affects the portrayal of the focal relationship. I will pay special attention to both Feminist and Queer Theory elements in the movies to bring to light the importance of film media to the visible culture of these two theories. The films’ nationality and age will serve to show the progression that both theories have made to global acceptance.

An old newsreel plays for us and an Italian audience in the 1950’s. On the screen a man gets off the train and into the arms of an adoring and emphatic crowd, particularly into the arms of a pretty blonde girl. The announcer says “Women go crazy for his poetry…maybe because Neruda writes love poems…a topic which appeals to the female sensibility.” An Italian postman watches the black and white newsreel as Pablo Neruda, famous Chilean Poet descends a train with his wife into the crowd of rustic Italians. From our view point, we watch a legendary man descend from a cinema screen and into the life of Mario the Postman. From 1950s to real time, a newsreel takes time, and puts it away for us viewers to share Mario’s experience.

In Michael Radford’s Il Postino, Mario and Pablo Neruda form a relationship based on love poetry, which Mario wishes to learn in order to woo his lovely waitress, Beatrice. What the announcer in the newsreel says about love poetry, the silent narration of the movie says about poetics in general – it is feminine. Poetry owes its womanly allegiance to the medieval troubadours. In the Middle Ages poetry was a medium for chivalrous men to express the natural power and beauty of women. Therefore, Jung’s archetypes and those that followed classified poetics as feminine (Gender Stereotypes). In Il Postino, poetry has a starring role. It is the reason that Mario and Neruda begin their very interesting relationship; I say interesting because it does not fit easily into any predefined category. It is not entirely paternal because Mario has a father, and a stock and stereotypical one at that. Though Neruda causes Mario to fall in love, it is not a romantic relationship because both men are very clearly interested in women. It is not a simple friendship, because although Mario gets his girl, his love for her wanes as his devotion to Neruda grows. It is somewhere between the two, deviating from the normal, which calls to mind Queer Theory.

By definition, any relationship that does not remain between the established lines of the norm can be defined as queer. This movie was released at the beginning of the movement into a medium that would become one of the most prominent stages for the queer culture. However, as a pioneer, we can see that it resists and compensates. For example, the women are prominent and beautiful in such a way that they seem to be forcing themselves onto the movie. This compensates for the intricate discourse between the men and makes the movie seem as much of a typical love story as it can be.

Phillip Noyce’s The Quiet American, 2002, is based off the novel by Graham Greene. It is set in French Vietnam during the 1950’s and follows the life of Thomas Fowler, an English journalist, Alden Pyle, and American idealist, and Phuong, a Vietnamese girl and the two men’s shared love interest. Though essentially a political allegory, the film is also a complicated love triangle that challenges the social constructs of the male relationship. It begins with the death of Pyle, followed by an extended flashback, and ends with the enlightened death of Pyle. During the flashback we learn that Fowler lives in Vietnam with his mistress Phuong, reporting on the war to a newspaper in London. Pyle comes to Vietnam with “a face with no history, and no problems.” Pyle begins raw and ends tainted, and yet withholds his naivety; his face gains problems as he acts without knowledge of the real history of Vietnam. He quotes fictional author York Harding, and Fowler returns A. H. Clough. This sums up their relationship quite nicely: two men of differing ideologies who fight friendship as well as war with each other, projecting their battles on a country/woman that yields scars of their hostilities. War is the catalyst, glue, and outcome of this relationship and the movie in total. War, power struggles, opium pipes, and missiles dominate the movie in such a way that the feminine veins all but disappear, despite the archetypal role of “prize” that Phuong plays.

The gender associated with war, based on Jungian archetypes, is masculine. This idea developed simultaneously with civilization as men fought battles and women stayed home. It grew Classical roots in Mars and Ares, the Gods of War. From these roots, it grew in literature and from there, to film. War not only appeals to masculinity, but projects it as well. In “The Quiet American” it even manages to take over the love story. Thomas Fowler says “I should have realized how saving a country and saving a woman could be the same thing to someone like Pyle.” This generalization of women to war is an example of the strong masculine underpinnings in the movie. In the first voice over during the opening sequence of the flashback, Thomas Fowler narrates, “You could be forgiven for thinking there was no war…that only pleasure matters,” as we as audiences are so likely to do; we always seek comedic or romantic relief in war movies and in war reality to protect our sensibilities. He continues by describing those things that matter as “A pipe of opium or the touch of a girl who might tell you she loves you;” the traditional phallic symbol is altered in the context of the movie because only Phuong makes pipes for Fowler. He uses feminine imagery as an escape from the masculinity of war. Then, as he continues, the envelope is pushed: “And then something happens, as you knew it would, and nothing can ever be the same again.” Fowler’s “something” is war in general, and as it happens, war can erase the comfort he finds in feminine sensibilities. More interestingly however, the arrival of Alden Pyle can be considered the “something” that comes along to shake up Fowlers life, along with our preconceptions of love in the typical war story.

After sufficient time had passed since the beginning of the Queer movement, and in a liberal western industry, we would expect the envelope to have been pushed and the compensation found in “Il Postino” removed; however, “The Quiet American” takes the opposite route, injecting masculine themes and symbols to compensate for the irrelevance of the female influence. In “Il Postino” there is more feminine than masculine, in “The Quiet American’ there is barely any feminine influence. Does this deviation in gender show the progression from the simple Feminist movement to a Queer movement? Has masculinity undermined and overthrown feminism completely? Hardly. More likely, a movement has started in its own supplementary route towards an arena where gender does not simply mean masculine or feminine, but something in between. These movies show how even archetypes of something as static as gender can be changed when new mediums and arenas are opened. Film has become the new soap box.

Here at the end of my essay, I have one thing to say. These theories we apply to literature, plays, and films should never yield labels. When we use them as titles and price tags, we are doing both things injustice. To apply theory is simply a way for us to apply deeper understanding. These movies in mind, I hope that I have not here labeled. All I had tried to do was better comprehend the intricate eddies and currents that lend their delicacies to the waves and torrents of the greater point. To better convey my sentiments, I quote the ending of Il Postino. Mario has written a poem for Neruda, of which he says, “I also want to tell you that I’ve written a poem…but you can’t hear it because I’m embarrassed. It’s called ‘Song for Pablo Neruda.’ Even if it’s about the sea…it’s dedicated to you..."

The Ideals of Two Worlds: America and Vietnam

It is difficult to see beyond our field of vision. It is difficult to empathize with people we do not know exist. It is impossible to truly understand someone else’s pain, for we are not them. Those who live in developed nations can never truly know the hardship of those who live in third world countries; and by the same token, those who live in third world countries can only dream of a life where every day is not a struggle for survival. Through the comparison of The Notebook and Journey from the Fall, I will attempt to provide a never-before-seen perspective into the lives of American and Vietnamese. My essay will be an ideological analysis of the two films, with the intention of examining the cultural differences and maybe similarities in the United State and Vietnam.

To start, ideology stems from ideas, but it is more than just ideas. Ideas can be so powerful that, according to Terry Eagleton, “ideas are what men and women live by, and will occasionally die for” (13). According to Looking at Movies, a film can express ideological meaning; such meaning is the product of social, political, economic, religious, philosophical, psychological, and sexual forces that influence the filmmakers’ perspectives and decisions in making the film. It could be intentional or unconscious, but either way, it is a reflection of the ideology of the time and place in which the film was made. Another definition of ideology is that
“ideology signifies ideas and beliefs which help to legitimate the interests of a ruling group or class specifically by distortion and dissimulation” (Eagleton 30). Therefore, according to Eagleton, ideology can be a dangerous instrument, used in suppressing the interest of a certain group. To watch films passively is to watch it without discerning these ideas, to allow these ideas to continue to distort and dissimulate our sense of reality as being absolutely true. With ideology defined, we can move on to the analysis of the two films.

The Notebook is an American film made with all the formula of a Hollywood’s romance movie. The movie begins with a man named Duke who reads a story from a notebook to a female fellow patient. The story that Duke reads is an epic love story between a poor country boy, Noah, and a well off young women, Allie. The two had fallen in love, but due to the objection of Allie’s parents, they ended their relationship. As the years move on, the two also moved on with their lives. Allie had found herself a new man and fiancé. Due to a turn of event, Allie saw Noah in a newspaper standing beside the house they once loved each other in. It is this moment that Allie went back to Noah, not quite physically yet, but emotionally. The story ends with Noah and Allie living side by side until the day they passed away.

The Notebook may come off as just any other romantic movie, and the director might be offended if an implicit, ideological meaning was to be derived from it; however, ideological meanings do exist within The Notebook; it might not be an intentional decision on the writers and director part, but nonetheless, the ideologies exist. The American way of life and the American dream are portrayed in The Notebook. What was the problem with Noah being with Allie? Noah is a poor country boy, who just is not fit for Allie. Their social status is not the same, so Allie’s parents disapprove of Noah. Would this matter in a third world country where wealth is not the primary concern? In a capitalistic, “material world”, only the best will do (Dargis). Allie, with the pressure of “a disapproving mother”, she eventually “fell in love” with a “more socioeconomically appropriate fiancé in the wings” (Schwarzbaum). Even though the film did not hint at Noah’s own motive, it is not unreasonable to wonder why of all the females in the county, Noah had chosen to court Allie, initially with several failed attempts, but he continue to pursue her. It could be that Noah experiences love at first sight, but Allie’s grand inheritance could also be his motive.

Another ideological meaning portrayed in the film is women’s inequality to men. Women have for a long time, been in the shadow of men, and some may even say this inequality still exists today. The saying goes that behind every great man, there is a great woman. It is ironic how the same saying is not commutative - and behind every great woman, a great man exists. In the case of The Notebook, Allie was pressured into choosing the wealthier man by both of her parents but most strongly by her mother. The irony stems from the fact that Allie’s mother once too had loved a poor lumber worker, but had given that love up for Allie’s father, because he is wealthy. Instead of Allie’s mother siding with Allie on the issue of love, she insists that Allie marry rich. Allie’s mother had also been the victim of a society where decisions are implicitly handed down to women. It may seem that the ultimate decision to make is decided by women, but with a demanding society, it may not be a choice by them at all.


Journey from the Fall is a Vietnamese movie, directed by Ham Tran, depicting the harsh life after the Vietnam War for those who stayed and those who left Vietnam as refugees. After North Vietnam defeated South Vietnam in 1975, Long Nguyen, a former South Vietnamese officer, refuses to leave Vietnam and was sent to Reeducation Camp, while his wife, mother, and son fled by sea. After some time, Long thought that his family had died, and he gave up hope. However, when he realized that they were still alive; he tried to escape and rejoin his family. The story continues with Long’s attempted escape at home and his family’s attempted escape at sea in which they all met grave obstacles. The film ended with Long’s death while escaping from the imprisonment and his family arriving in California, “where they are confronted with diluted versions of the same problems they faced in Vietnam: deprivation, discrimination and a hostile dominant culture that pushes them to assimilate” (Seitz).

An ideology in Journey from the Fall, similar to that in The Notebook, also concerns women’s inequality. In third world countries, women tend to have even less rights than women do in western countries. Long Nguyen, while refusing to leave the country, “orders his wife, Mai, his mother and small son, Lai, to flee by boat” (Thomas). Mai did not want to leave her husband behind, but his order is the final decision, because he is the “man of the house.” Fast forward to when Mai arrived in America, she now faces the pressure to assimilate into American culture. Matt Seitz describes Mai as “a newly arrived Vietnamese-American woman repudiating her ethnic identity.” The patterns seem to repeat that society often forces women to adhere to its ways.

The next ideology in Journey from the Fall might be more obvious. The ideal of loyalty was prevalent in Vietnam during the civil war between North and South Vietnam. Long Nguyen “stubbornly, even nobly but certainly foolishly, refuses to leave Vietnam, out of his loyalty to the fallen South Vietnamese government and a desire to continue in some undefined way to fight for his country” (Kevin Thomas). The film portrays Nguyen as being patriotic and as someone who truly loves his country. However, this love cannot be for his country, because both sides are his country. He is a victim of ideology, in which society pressures him to be loyal to his region and his region’s ways.

In conclusion, life in America and in Vietnam is very different. The American dream influences Americans to make decisions based on capitalistic motives, including when it comes to love. In Vietnam, the ideal of loyalty causes the death of Long Nguyen; ideal, even though it is an abstract concept, causes men and women to die for it. In both films, it seems to convey the ideological meaning that women often are controlled by society, or at least society attempts to. Journey from the Fall and the Notebook showcase how ideology can be used to suppress the interest of women and the poor. Ideology is not just an idea, it’s “the way” of life.

Once Were Warriors

Once Were Warriors, (1994) directed by Lee Tamahori, is based on a book of the same name by Alan Huff. It is an interpretation of the modern Maori family, portrayed in all the violence, drama, and sadness that can be dredged from the reality of the situation. The Hekes family deals with the common issues of the lower class Maori, namely alcohol, domestic violence, and history. The patriarch, Jake, is the prominent source of violence in the movie. Jake is laid off early on and thereafter spends most of his time in a pub with his friends drinking and/or fighting, or in his house drinking and/or fighting, mentally, and physically, his wife and kids. The wife, Beth, is a more interesting, yet still frustratingly flat and un-dimensional, character who receives most of the screen time. Of their children we see Nig, who leaves his family to join a gang that partakes in the Maori traditions of tattoos; Grace, the misplaced intellectual who endures the bulk of the pain her family inflicts in the most brutal part of the film; and Boogie, the son who finds himself in social welfare due to his parents’ inability to keep him off the streets.
As a movie, it is as brutal as the situations it depicts and is summed up in the first shot. The camera shows a beautiful New Zealand landscape that, as the camera pans out towards a busy highway and dirty neighborhood, we find out is only a billboard. The movie does just that – it immediately turns away from anything remotely picturesque and focuses instead on life that subsists on the other side of the road. It is a hard movie to watch, but well worth seeing for what is says about the issues that the Maori culture faces in today’s world. Its main themes of misplaced history, domestic violence, and gender relations can pass beyond the Maori culture and into any other culture that has a class of people living by the highway. In this sense it transcends national lines, but has no need to transcend social ones.

No Man's Land (2001)

Set in 1993, during the Bosnian war, the thick fog of night leads a Bosnian reinforcement squad directly into enemy Serbian territory. After a few altercations, three surviving soldiers are left in a trench between enemy lines at the mercy of a good-for-nothing United Nations team. Bosnian troop Ciki and Serbian troop Nino quarrel with tidbits of working together all while the second Bosnian troop awakes to realize that one wrong move could detonate the deadly bouncing mine, placed beneath his body while unconscious, and destroy them all.

Director Denis Tanovic skillfully manipulates all aspects of the film in order to hit the audience with agonizing contradictions. The beautiful Bosnian Landscape is highlighted many times throughout the film creating a sense of stillness and calmness. Gentle Wind-blown plains come right to the tip of the trench which is filled with frequent skirmishes including gunfire, stabbings, and yelling. Serenity and intensity, beauty of landscape and the ugliness of war, reason of Sergeant Marchand and Cera and impracticality of the United Nations and Ciki and Nino are all mixed into the tension created in the film. However, Tanovic is not limited to expressing the conflicting views through the great acting in the film, camera shots enormously aid in presenting the harsh realities expressed. Omniscient viewpoint allows for alternating close up shots of Ciki and Nino during arguments and conflicts give the viewer an up-close unbiased account of the struggles as they begin to feel and experience the “on-edge” atmosphere. The audience sees the reality of the conditions through the expressions of the soldiers: disgust, hate, hope, anguish, uncertainty to name a few.

While the main theme of the film is the absurdity of war, other supplementary themes such as the impossibility of neutrality, the inefficiency of chains of command, heartlessness of news reporting, and many others help to create what is No Man’s Land- a place where nothing can be solved, and stillness and mania meet and coexist.