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.