Gabe Addess: Gangster Movie Marathon

            Originally, I was going to write about my 10 favorite films of the year. However, I haven’t seen a lot of the more interesting movies that were released because a) I didn’t have time, money, permission, etc. and b) I live in Memphis, TN, where most movies aren’t released until a month and a half after their initial release date. So instead, I’m going to report about something special I did over winter break. I’ve been planning this for a month, and was immensely satisfied when I finished. Have you guessed it yet? That’s right. I had a gangster movie marathon! 16 hours and 47 minutes of pure, cinema glory! (Well, not really. But the majority of it was.)

          

  I started off with the gangster film to define all gangster films: The Godfather. Released in 1972, Francis Ford Coppola’s highly influential masterpiece tells the tale of the mafia much different than told before. Initially, gangster films were about dudes in trench coats and top hats driving old-fashioned cars and shooting Tommy guns at each other. Then Coppola released this movie, 

which focused less on the guns (although there is a lot of violence in the movie) and more on the family aspect of mafia life. Great performances from Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and James Caan, and Coppola’s skills at perfect pacing keep you so engrossed, you have no idea that 2 hours and 55 minutes of your life have passed by the film’s end.

           

        Immediately after finishing The Godfather, I popped in The Godfather Part II. Released 2 years after the first one, this is less of a sequel and more of a companion piece. You need to see the first one before this one, but it doesn’t feel like a sequel. It feels like an entirely different movie altogether. This one has a more interesting plot and the best line in the whole series: “I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart.” How heartbreaking.

I then saw The Godfather Part III…eh. It was good up until Vinnie, played by Andy Garcia, kills Joey Zasa, but after that, Pacino’s Michael Corleone goes all wimpy on the audience and Sofia Coppola, playing Michael’s daughter Mary, is so bad, you’re laughing at her in the end instead of crying (if you watch it, you’ll see why).

Next, I saw Scarface. 

Also starring Al Pacino, this movie is considered a cult classic. And honestly, I have no idea why. I saw somebody write somewhere that this movie is “a piece of art.” I disagree. Brian De Palma’s directing is pretty slick, but overall this film tries too hard to embrace its 80s atmosphere. In other words, this movie was very cheesy. Also, it’s very excessive. In fact, it’s so over-the-top, you will either find yourself immensely disturbed or unintentionally laughing at its violence and drug content. At least it was better than The Godfather Part III.

 

I then saw Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese’s crime tale that spawns three decades from the 50s to the 80s.  I love Scorsese and think he’s the second best director of all time, right behind Alfred Hitchcock. But this is not my favorite movie made by him. Don’t get me wrong; this movie is amazing. But compared to other classics like  Taxi Driver and the recently released Hugo, Goodfellas fell kind of short of my expectations. Not too short, but slightly short nonetheless.

I ended my marathon with Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Probably the most influential film of the 90s, this movie told three interwoven stories of loyalty, betrayal, and crime in a way only Tarantino can pull off. Both shocking and hysterical at the same time, this is probably the only movie on this list I could watch over and over and over again (I can only watch The Godfather so many times). Anyway, this is the only movie I had seen before the marathon, and it gets better every time I watch it.

Well, that’s that. My rankings of the films I saw from best to worst are:

1.     The Godfather (2 hours and 55 minutes; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

2.     Pulp Fiction (2 hours and 34 minutes; dir. Quentin Tarantino)

3.     The Godfather Part II (3 hours and 20 minutes; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

4.     Goodfellas (2 hours and 26 minutes; dir. Martin Scorsese)

5.     Scarface (2 hours and 50 minutes; dir. Brian De Palma)

6.     The Godfather Part III (2 hours and 42 minutes; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

Of course, those weren’t the only movies I saw this break. I also saw the French modern-day classic Amelie, the new Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Coppola’s other classic Apocalypse Now, and Beginners, a new indie-film that was the only movie I saw under 2 hours. I also re-watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy because those movies are freaking awesome.

Parallel Universe

Rewrite this sentence correcting any errors in parallel structure.

James, a young teenager from the ghetto, experienced an exhilarating, soul-searching encounter with God, which he thought was something to cling to, protecting him from the immoral clutches of the Avenue and that would relieve his feelings of despair.


Please post by 7:30 am on Friday morning, March 2.

Controversy in Interpretation

Paths in the woods and lanes on highways are not the only things that can diverge. Two individuals' perceptions of the same poem can also differ substantially.

We can allow for such difference if the differing interpretations are reasonably supported by evidence in the poem itself and perhaps also in the historical context of the poem and our knowledge of its author.

You have already offered your own interpretations of Frost's "The Road Not Taken," and you have also just read an explication of the poem that differs from what most of you have written (google.doc Explication: Road Not Taken). In a paragraph or two, briefly summarize the reading of the poem in this explication and explain why you agree or disagree with it. For full credit post promptly by 7:30 am on Thursday, February 9.

ROAD NOT TAKEN

We have produced collaborative paraphrases of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" in class on google.docs to which you all have access. Now, before we discuss this poem further as a group, I would like each of you to write a carefully composed and punctuated paragraph expressing your understand of what the poem is about and is expressing. Do not be afraid to hypothesize or venture a guess ... I will not be grading for correctness of interpretation. Just communicate to me your thoughts on the subject. Submit your paragraph here as a comment by 7:15 am Monday morning, February 6th. Comments will not appear on the blog until later Monday.

Seeing Red

Imagine your English teacher's delight when in 2008 the stock market took a terrible tumble. Though much of her personal fortune evaporated overnight, she was more than compensated for her financial woes by a cartoon appearing on the cover of one of the last issues of the New Yorker she was able to afford. Literary references are hard to come by, and here was a reference to a story she taught year after year after year after year...

Explicate the reference. Why is there only one color in this otherwise black-and-white graphic, and why is that color apt in more than one way? Why is this story a perfect reference for the 2008 stock market crash? Small, pitiful prize (never did recover that fortune) for the most shrewd and knowing comment. Comments should be entered by Tuesday morning at 7:30 am, Oct. 25th.

Inflated Langage in "Rip Van Winkle"

Illustration for Washingtion Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle.” The caption reads: “A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed.” This illustration by N. C. Wyeth, from a 1921 edition of Irving's story, shows Rip Van Winkle being harrassed by his wife.


One of the signature elements of Irving's style is his use of comically inflated (exaggerated and pompous) language to describe the commonplace. For example, rather than plainly saying Rip is "lazy" or that he "hates work," Irving states that Rip has "an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor."

Assignment: 1. First copy out your assigned passage from this story. 2. Next, translate, as close to word-by-word as possible, this passage into plain, clear, modern English. This technique is called paraphrasing. 3. Try to explain in your own words in one to three sentences why inflated language is comic in effect or what is humorous in the passage you've worked with. Post all this as a comment. Due at 7:30 am on Monday morning, October 3rd. Meanwhile, Shana Tovah!

Passage 1:
"...he was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient, henpecked husband. Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be owning that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal popularity, for those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home" (126).

Passage 2:
"...Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation; and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects be considered a blessing, and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed" (126).

Passage 3:
"...everything he did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all lectures of this kind, and that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This however, always provoked a fresh volley from his wife; so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and take to the outside of the house -- the only side which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband" (128).

Passage 4:
"Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much henpecked as his master; for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as companions in idleness, and even looked upon Wolf with an evil eye, as the cause of his master's going so often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit, befitting an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods; but what courage can withstand the terrors of a woman's tongue" (128).


Passage 5:
"Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that happy age when a man can be idle with impunity, he took his place once more on the bench at the inn door, and was reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the village and a chronicle of the old times "before the war." It was some time before he could get into the regular track of gossip or be made to comprehend the strange events that had taken place during his torpor" (135).

Theme Bank: Of Mice and Men

Write two theme statements for Of Mice and Men. Each theme statement should consist of a clear statement of the theme in complete sentence form (one or two sentences) and a brief explanation of how the theme specifically connects to action or characters in the book (a third sentence). Your first theme should be the one you consider primary in importance; your second theme will be a sub-theme. Make sure you aren't repeating the same theme twice in slightly different language.