Fear in Discourse and Culture: Day 5

One thing we will probably get back to, but it might be useful to keep in mind now, is that the audience does not "see" the movie the way the point of view (POV) character does. We do not identify with any human character. Instead, we identify with the camera lens. We only see what it sees, and as you now have a better idea, everything that is fed through the lens is a calculated move that tells us how to judge what we are seeing because it is mimicking the way we naturally see our real world. This exempts Michael Bay movies though. His lens only follows explosions, breasts, and muscled men.

It does not have to be a movie you are familiar with. Sometimes an unfamiliar movie is better because you are seeing it with fresh eyes and can be on the look out for weird things. Your brain might not notice small details of a movie you've watched a hundred times because it has already stored them away as not important or similar.
Close Reading--a very English Lit thing from the New Critics that is exactly what it says: you read closely. Pick a detail that stands out to you and examine it. Why was it presented like this? Why did they use this color? Why do they keep inserting this image?

Armageddon examples: the names of the rockets, the quote "tools of war," blue collar workers, drilling, Americana images
The Air Up There Examples: the use of tribalism (costumes, beads, chanting), camera movement when we first enter the village, reaction of blacks to whites, reaction of whites to blacks, the fact the cheerleaders were called "Cowbells" vs. the nun vs. the chief's daughter, Nike shoes
For your blog post, try to stay limited to one or two very specific examples

For your blog post, pick a movie and find something you want to write about and then explain why that detail is significant. It isn't enough to just point out "Hey, it's weird that the rockets in Armageddon were named "Freedom" and "Independence"." You need to take it one step further: "Details like the names of the rockets in the movie Armageddon point to the main point of the movie not being an end of the world movie, but an expression of fear of the threat against America during the wars in the Middle East."

Or "While The Air Up There is undoubtedly racist, the use of relatively authentic tribal customs and costumes still expose the viewer to a side of African life in a positive way.
Or "The Air Up There is racist from conception, but it takes it even further by using semi-authentic African tribalism as a kind of freak show to further otherize people of color and to enforce negative stereotypes such as the mystical African.