Media Review #7 - Step Brothers

For this blog, I chose the film "Step Brothers" which I found absolutely hilarious. The film was produced by Columbia Pictures and directed by Adam McKay. Adam McKay has done many movies of this type such as "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby". Both of those films starred the humorous Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell stars in this movie as well, with John C. Reilly. Both do very well to make the film a laugh, and an enjoyable experience. The genre of the film is Comedy and it definitely lives up to it's brand.

"Step Brothers" is a story of two men, Brennan Huff and Dale Doback are unemployed and who live with their parents. The movie goes through their eventual climb to success, but not without major laughs at their expense. Brennan is thirty nine years old and Dale is forty. One day, by chance their parents meet and soon after get married. Thus, Brennan and Dale find themselves step-brothers. Of course, they immediately hate each other and play pranks on each other constantly. That is, until one day Brennan's younger, very successful jerk of a brother comes to visit and Dale punches him in the face. Soon after Brennan finds he has alot in common with Dale and they become best friends.

My favorite scene in the entire is the ending scene in which Dr. Doback urges his sons to follow their dreams and they get on stage. Brennan then breaks into a karaoke version of "Por Ti Volare" accompanied by Dale on the drums. The music is actually amazing, even though its used for comedic effect. The song fits the scene perfectly, as a montage of the plot line being resolved and falling into place is shown as Brennan sings. I personally liked how despite being funny, the scene still manages to be rather touching as the two "losers" become something and their dream is realized. Something the director could have worked on at the end of this scene would be to maybe allow John C. Riley to drag on the drum solo just a little bit longer. Other then that, I didn't see anything else with room for improvement in this scene.

"Step Brothers" is truly a hilarious film, although for older audiences definitely. It's obviously not for everyone, but most should find lots of laughs in this comedy.

Independent Reading #6 (Black History Month Edition) - Shake Hands With The Devil

In tribute to black history month, I read a powerful novel Shake Hands With The Devil : The Failure Of Humanity In Rwanda. The novel is a first hand account of the horrors and failure of mankind to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and the struggle of Romeo Dallaire to find hope, peace, and reconciliation within himself.

What worked well in the book I thought, was the fact that it did not focus entirely on just the helplessness of Dallaire and his men. It also went through their successes in helping people or the few happy moments they had. For example, when Dallaire and his men went to a bar and Romeo started dancing surprising the soldiers with their commander's casualness. Another of these moments was when Brent and Troute rescued a pregnant woman, her husband and her baby from a mob of hutus dead set on killing them.

The book is relative to Black History, because it involves the most famous (and perhaps most devastating) genocide in Africa to date. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda had an estimated eight hundred thousand to one million casualties. It also depicts issues like race because the UN was not helpless to stop the genocide, they just failed to. The french soldiers sent in to aid the victims, only actually evacuated all foreigners visiting the land. Dallaire thinks that this would be different if the world erased all of it's prejudice. To take a line from Hotel Rwanda, "You're black. Your not even a n*****. You're an African." - Colonel Oliver.

One of two truly outstanding passages from the book was:

"He was about three years old, dressed in a filthy, torn T-shirt, the ragged remnants of underwear, little more than a loincloth, drooping from under his distended belly. He was caked in dirt, his hair white and matted with dust, and he was enveloped in a cloud of flies, which were greedily attacking the open sores that covered him." P. 2

I liked this passage because it shows how vividly Dallaire remembers things. This happened a long time before the book. His capacity to describe things is incredible as well. The way it evokes an ache in one's heart to view the poverty of these children is a true "walk a mile in someone else's shoes" scenario. Passages like these are the kind that really make you wonder about poverty, hunger, and disease that are running rampant in Africa.

The other passage that was really good, also from the same page is:

"...but to me this child had the face of an angel and eyes of pure innocence. I had seen so many children hacked to pieces that this small, whole, bewildered boy was a vision of hope." P. 2

The excerpt made me think of the victims of the genocide. The Hutus gave no mercy and slaughtered man, woman, and child alike. The majority of the casualties were all innocent civilians. They were completely innocent, and yet the rage of the Hutus was directed upon them. In fact, Hutus who opposed the genocide were also killed. It is touching that a small boy instills hope in a hardened soldier who has been seeing many innocents much like the boy getting killed every day.

Shake Hand With The Devil  was a truly eye-opening and informative novel exploring the extremes of human nature.

Independent Reading #5 - Obama's Inauguration Speech

Recently, Barack Obama has been inaugurated officially as the 44th President of the United States of America. As all the presidents have before him, he gave an inaugural address. Approximately 19 minutes long, it was short as most are. Although it was short Obama made it seem longer because of his power. He is an amazing and well established orator. Obama's words in my opinion, ensnare those who hear them and transfix them with fascination. This speech in particular was not as upbeat or lively as his previous ones, but each word was said with a steadfast determination. He makes a connection with the American people in his first few lines, and maintains that connection, while firing off his objectives. He is careful, however. Obama leaves his objectives to general things and does not clearly outline changes that will take place.

In his adress Obama promises many things, but the big ones are all there. He has promised to fix the waning economy of the USA, claiming it the fault of the greedy and careless. Obama promises to reshape America from it's economic slump with the help of the citizens. He promises to lower the cost of healthcare, while increasing the quality of its service. Promises about the roads and electronic  grids have been made. In addition he has promised to put science back in its right place and allow it to develop technology like it should. Another would be his promise to use forms of energy that would protect the environment (water power, solar power etc.) rather than hurting it with fossil fuels. He promises to re-vamp the expectations of schools and universities in the states, and make them "meet the demands of a new age".

In my opinion, Obama wants nothing but good for America. He wants to relight the now dwindling star of the shining superpower. It is important to understand that everything he might choose to do, is with America's best interests at heart. One of Obama's greatest wishes is to correct the American economy and pull it out of recession. This is not very easily achieved, but many said the same thing about America electing a black president.

Independent Reading #4 - The Retreat

The Retreat is a novel by David Bergen that deals with alot of the harshness that occurs to native americans. Examples would be alienation, or forced assimilation (like the Residential Schools). Another example, which is actually used in the first chapter of the book, is when policeman would take native americans and drop them in the middle of nowhere to find their way back home. Some of the natives would die from exposure in the colder parts of Canada. 

The novel shows alot of the injustice that occurs to the native people. That's something that I thought worked very well, in the sense that it really evokes pondering of whether the world is really as just as we once thought. For example, Hart who takes Raymond and drops him off on an Island because he doesn't like the fact that he is involved with his niece "Fishing for white girls is dangerous," (P. 21). Another was the death of Raymond. He really didn't do anything yet he was put in jail, taken to trial etc. Then, he probably though he was only going to get arrested when he saw Vernon. Shortly afterwards he got shot in the throat by Hart, while in the presence of Vernon and the Doctor. Hart was probably never charged for anything, and the whole ordeal definitely got covered up.

Two passages I really liked from the book were:

"The light on her hairs made them appear more golden than they actually were. Her feet were resting on the dash and her legs were bent and they were at the level of her eyes and the light that fell across her arm and partially across her chest also fell onto her legs. And so she was warmed by the light that came the sun." P. 250 - 251

The reason I liked the passage was because about a paragraph before, Raymond was really cold to Lizzy. She really just wanted to help, and in a sort of objective tone he flat out said he didn't need her help. In the passage, it's almost like the sun is consoling her by providing the warmth she seeks/lost from Raymond. Its symbolic in the sense that it shows that Lizzy and Raymond are getting distant from each other, and Lizzy later in the book says that she never actually knew Raymond.

The other passage I enjoyed was in the last paragraph of the novel:

"And he saw Raymond wearing his jeans, his shoes, his shirt. No animosity this time, just the consolation of becoming each other. The long summer day rose and fell and the light seeped from the sky and darkness came, and to keep back the darkness they built a fire, their shadows indistinct against the wall of night that looked down on them." P. 320

I liked it because throughout the book there was a struggle of the two brothers to find out their true identity. I thought the line "just the consolation of becoming each other" was especially significant because of Raymond's wish to become like Nelson. The darkness I believe represents the general population into which they are being assimilated into. The fire is their fight back against the "darkness" and an attempt to keep their roots. Their shadows being indistinct is what I think means that they have already been assimilated and the fire is the only thing they have left from their own culture.

A question I would like to ask David Bergen is what inspired him with the idea of writing a book about Native Americans. Another would be: Were any of the characters based off real life people, or yourself? My final question for him would be if the identity crisis was something him or one of his acquaintances experienced before.

All in all, The Retreat is an intriguing novel and I would most definitely recommend it to other readers.