Nights of Cabiria - Mary Walker

Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria depicts the story of a streetwalker named Cabiria living in Rome. The film illustrates the idea of the cliché golden-hearted prostitute, but Cabiria exceeds this idea in her own way. She has an innocent soul, but on the outside she is callous and ill tempered. Despite this, the events of the movie prevent her from having the typical happy ending we see in these movies.

A typical golden-hearted prostitute in a film is a good person with a rough past who often becomes a love interest for another main character. Cabiria fits this role in that she is sweet and believes in love. This is shown during the magic show scene when Cabiria is hypnotized and thinks she is talking to a man named Oscar. She talks about her youth when she was eighteen and how she wishes he had met her then before she became a prostitute. She obviously believes in love and wishes she could find true love, but back in reality when she is not hypnotized she would never share these feelings. Cabiria has developed a tough exterior to avoid those feeling and getting hurt.

Even though Cabiria fits the idea of the golden-hearted prostitute, she meets men who are not like the typical love interests. At the beginning of the film we see Cabiria and Giorgio. It’s easy to assume they are a normal couple in love. When he steals her purse, pushes her in the river, and runs off we realize that this is not a typical love story. Cabiria realizes what happened after she is revived, and from then on she is very cautious with the men she encounters.

She meets the famous actor named Alberto Lazzari who picks her up and takes her out to a nightclub, but ends up treating her poorly. He hides her in the bathroom when his girlfriend comes back and then has to sneak her out in the morning. Cabiria is cautious with him, and doesn’t know what to expect that night. She doesn’t seem to be too upset about the events of the night because of this.

Cabiria also meets Oscar. At first, he seems like the typical love interest that she’s been waiting for. She is also cautious with him and keeps wondering what he wants from her. He is loving and affectionate and convinces her that he loves her. He doesn’t want to know about her past or how she earns her living. He fools everyone, however, and turns out just like Giorgio. Once she realizes it has happened again, she decides to change her own life, instead of waiting for a miracle or for the Madonna to do it for her.

In the end, the golden-hearted prostitute exceeds the cliché and walks away without a man. She is still the tough, callous woman from before, but now she is able to decide her own fate. It is not the typical happy ending love story that is expected, but it shows that things doesn’t always end up perfect, and we have the power to decide our own lives.

The Searchers

            The movie The Searchers was an American vision of how the Native Americans were viewed by settlers who were moving across the country claiming land from the Natives.  The movie is shaped by racism toward the Native Americans.  From the opening scene of the movie to the end one can see how racism shapes the main character, John Wayne, and the other characters around him.

            From the opening scene of the movie, when the whole family is reunited with uncle Edwards return, the whole family is eating dinner and then Martin comes in late to dinner.  At this point the first thing Edwards says to him is, “I could mistake you for a half breed.”  This starts the movie off and shows how the main character, Ethan Edwards, views Native American people as the scum of the earth.  Later in the opening scene we find out that Edwards actually rescues Martin, the one eighth Indian, from under a wagon while the rest of his tribe was being massacred.  After finding this out Edwards says, “it just happened to be me no more to make more of it.”  This shows his resentment toward Martin even though he was the one that rescued him from under the wagon. 

            Another way the movie displays racism toward the Native American people is whenever the shot is about to show a Native American their shadow is shown first then the camera pans up to show their face.  This is seen in the scene where the Native American Tribe captures little Debbie.  Right after the scene where she is captured we see Ethan riding back to the ranch and Martin is running with his saddle to find Ethan.  When he calls to Ethan he just rides by without stopping or saying anything the Martin leaving him to run back to the ranch while Ethan is on horse back. 

            The movie displays many different forms of racism, as shown above, such as when they show the Native Americans as shadows first.  However, the most noticeable way the movie dehumanizes Native Americans is when you see them they never talk in the movie.  This is shown when they Native Americans are surrounding the rescue group and they are just following them waiting for the rescue group to take off in fear.  This shows how the Native Americans hunting style mimics a group of lions stalking its pray waiting for their pray to make its first move.  The Native Americans also a few scenes later after the rescue party has been chased across the river.  The Native Americans stay on the other side of the river making war cry sounds rather than talking normal.

            The final way the movies dehumanized the Native Americans is by having the Native American chief, Scar, played as a white American.  This just goes to show that even in the movie Native Americans still weren’t respected enough to play the lead role as chief.  This could also, show that throughout the Wild West that Native Americans were never in charge, and that white Americans were always in charge because they had the better weapons and basically took advantage of the trust Native Americans had in other people.

Eric Shacklette

Singin' in the Rain- Lauren Trame

In the movie Singin’ in the Rain, a new way of making movies is shown. The lives of black and white, silent movie actors such as Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are changed due to this advance in technology. The movie shows a lot of behind the scenes information about actors and the movie business. A lot of things that were happening behind the scenes back in 1952 in this movie are things that are still going on today.  Even though Singin’ in the Rain is an older movie it is still relevant to this day. Actors don’t always tell the truth, people in charge are always looking to make money for themselves and keep their company ahead of the game, and movies use special effects to make their movie better.

In Singin’ in the Rain we see that the actors aren’t always telling the truth. They make up things in order to keep fans coming in and to make their image look the best in can. In the very beginning of the movie when Don and Lina are walking the red carpet we see how Don doesn’t tell the truth about how he and Lina met and their lives together. Don says that they hit it off instantly and leads the fans to believe that they are a couple in real life when really we see that this is not true. In the flashback of how Don and Lina really met we see how the two stories are very different. Today in Hollywood the same thing happens. Actors have publicists that make sure their image is always positive and upright. They tell the public enhanced stories of themselves to look better than they really are.

In today’s world, the people in charge of production are always looking for ways to make money. They have big premiers and release dates trying to make their project as successful as possible and this is what R.F. Simpson in Singin’ in the Rain does also. He is always worried about doing new and different things because he doesn’t want the fans to react the wrong way. When Lina Lamont tells R.F. Simpson that she will sue if he doesn’t oblige by her he does what it takes to keep her happy so he doesn’t lose any money.  R.F. Simpson is very concerned with his company’s image and how people will react to his movies.

In Singin’ in the Rain we see the use of different special effects and behind the scenes work that they used in their movies to make them the best. They realized that they could record Kathy’s voice to play over Lina’s voice in the actual movie. This is a very big deal because it takes a lot of work to make the voice and the movement of the mouth match up perfectly in the theater. We see special effects like this all the time in movies today. In 1952 when this movie was made these effects were a big deal and they still are today.

Even though the movie Singin’ in the Rain was made in 1952, we see how it has a lot of similarities with Hollywood today. It shows the different things that actors, producers, and special effects workers do to make movies great and present the best image possible to the fans.