Downfall

Hello all,

In class, our study of Nazi Germany protrayed Adolf Hitler as a monster. The movie shows the human side of Hitler and many critics did not like the film for this. Some who watched this film actually said that they felt sympathy for Hitler in his bunker during his final days. This has disgusted people because sympathy is not an emotion that one should feel for Hitler. Please post your comments, thoughts, emotions, etc. that you thought of when you watched this film. Did this have an impact on you? What did you learn? Did you have feelings of sympathy? How did you feel about Magda Goebbels? Thanks for coming and staying after school.

Yosh

The Rape of Nanking: City of Life and Death

Hello all,

Thanks for taking the time to come out and watch some truly uncomfortable history. Feel free to now express your opinions, emotions, observations, etc. regarding this movie on a very understudied topic, the Asian Holocaust. Some ideas: the parallels to Schindler's List, the black and white presentation, the dehumanizing of the Chinese comfort women, the feelings of superiority among some of the Japanese soldiers, putting a human face on this event, etc. I know that this is not easy material to discuss and write about but we can't ignore what has happened because of ultra-nationalism in the past.

Yosh

The Hurt Locker

Hello all,

Thanks for coming out and watching the 2009 Academy Award Best Picture, the Hurt Locker. Some things that you might want to comment on in your paragraph:

A. Chris Hedges who wrote the book, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, has a quote at the beginning of the movie that talks about war being a drug. What is your belief about this idea of Hedges?

B. What examples demonstrate how frustrating the Iraq war is on the average soldier?

C. How did this film make you feel? Did this film create any empathy for the young men and women that are fighting in Iraq?

Anything else that you think is relevant bring up in your post!

Yosh

Letters from Iwo Jima

Hello all,

Thanks for attending the after school showing of Letters from Iwo Jima. I hope that it gave you a sense of the mindset/psyche of the Japanese during World War II especially since you had the background to this mindset beforehand. The ideas of State Shinto, Bushido, Kokutai, etc. all were demonstrated beautifully in this film.

Some ideas that you could reflect on might be:

A. We generalized in class about the "Japanese" as a collective unit. Not as individuals. What did you see when the soldiers in Saigo's unit were told to commit suicide in the cave after Suribachi had fallen? Did all the individuals embrace death? Was it "light as a feather"?
B. What parallels did you observe between this film and Freedom Writers and Joyeux Noel? Were there similar messages in all three films?
C. What did you observe regarding specific examples of ultra-nationalism?
D. Was the idea or way of life regarding honor embedded thoughout this film?

This is just some help in starting your reflection. Feel free to write beyond my small list of ideas.

Yosh