ONLINE READINGS
Reading the different testimonies was pretty interesting… It
was kind of scary that the United States government essentially had no problem
openly admitting that even though this is the United States and this country is
founded on the concept of free expression/right to your own personal beliefs, they
are out to find and punish Communists/supporters of Communism. They were just
so blunt, so shameless about Communism being a forbidden philosophy in America…
It’s clearly unconstitutional, but if there’s enough fear-mongering, it doesn’t
matter.
BOOK
I think that the journalist that exposed this poor guy who
was trying to live a private discreet life is a huge jerk, but I also believe
that you can’t always use the law to enforce kindness. In an ideal society,
readers of that article would not be shocked by the current living status of Sidis,
but more shocked by the cruelness of Thurber for publishing the piece. I want
to live in a world where Thurber wouldn’t have published the article in the
first place for fear of being ostracized by society.
The
rest of the reading was interesting as well, hearing about this poor family
that was not only was held captive by convicts, but also had their life
misrepresented in a Broadway play… some strange things have happened in
America! The book makes the excellent point that society needs a balance
between privacy and freedom of speech. The Press must accommodate a variety of
social interests. This parallels my media class I took last year, one of the
biggest takeaways was that the media are very powerful, particularly the
journalism aspect, and with that power comes responsibility.
CRADLE WILL ROCK
As this movie slowly began I was taking notes about the
setting and general state of things (because of the great depression, the
government is funding theater through the FTP). I looked up from my notes and
found that we were in a room with a playwright at his piano, and thought to
myself “wait a minute, has there been a single cut yet?” I started the movie
over and watched carefully, the entire opening sequence was one long continuous
take! Only a minute or two in and I was already impressed.
The rest of the film chronicled the
struggles of several characters. Even with a huge list of people to keep track
of the movie did a good job of keeping things manageable and follow-able,
confusion was kept to a minimum. I found that I was somehow able to feel
invested in more characters at once than I ever thought possible.
The
title is first dropped in a scene in the park where the playwright is observing
a soapbox speech where the speaker yells “the cradle of power is rocking.” Soon
the police arrive; we see the playwright’s perspective as he absorbs the
struggle between the police and unemployed people in the park. The playwright
has his eureka moment and gets arrested.
I found that the film had several
scenes featuring the long tracking shots, with tons of dialogue and animated
acting. There was plenty of rhythmic back-and-forth banter between characters,
usually featuring very witty discourse. This all added up to create the effect
of watching an actual live play, it was awesome! Other scenes feature conversations
that are incredibly real, characters talking over each other and people’s
comments going unnoticed made for a very relatable dinner table dynamic.
The
movie was a serious, true story, but it wasn’t without its funny moments. Bill
Murray dealing with his two unteachable pupils was great, as was watching him
struggle with romantic relations. Rockefeller first meeting Diego River was
pretty funny, but not nearly as funny as the scene where Diego Rivera explains
to Rockefeller that there are syphilis cells in his giant mural.
Speaking of the mural, I love the
climax where the destruction of the painting was juxtaposed with the peak of
the play. The intercutting between the two visuals with the continuous audio
from the play gave me flashbacks to The Godfather, specifically the scene where
Michael becomes the literal godfather of a child in the church while the
murders are carried out to make him the figurative godfather of the Corleone
family.
Overall the film was fairly complex
and had a lot going on, but this film treats you like an adult and relies on
your ability to read it. It reminds me of when I watched Easy Rider a couple weeks ago; nothing was really said outright,
the movie depends on the viewers ability to interpret it, and it’s been awhile
since I’ve seen a movie like that. It makes me feel good about myself, like I’m
smart or something.
