This film was so awesome to me. I really enjoyed it overall. I loved the over the top material girl attitude and ridiculous lifestyle that they live. The movie as mentioned in class was definitely mean girls meets Jaw breaker. I really loved how it was done and how it kept you guessing as to how it was going to end up until the very last scene. I was literally on the edge of my seat when the bomb was ticking and had thoughts of how they were gonna stop or start the bomb in my head. I really wanted her just to run in the auditorium and like yell bomb or something or tell them to get out..but in the world that Veronica lives in nobody would most likely believe her or listen and many people would think that she was crazy. The psycho peace loving teacher probably would calm her down through nonsense talk and ask her how she felt about not killing herself or something annoying. I loved the character of J.D it was like we really, scary as it is got the taste of a crazy, troublesome teen that was in fact dangerous. We as much as we were scared of him and disgusted by the murders wanted him to somehow be justified as a hero similar to harry lime. I didn't see him as a hero though, he just was screwed up and needed some obvious help. Veronica was spineless and as much as she thought she was standing up to the enemy leader, heather and taking a stand of her own, she just falls in to the same trap by being J.D's bitch and doing what ever he says but in a much more tragic way, not embarrassing others but killing them.
In the reading it talks about all of the references that are made in this movie and others of it's time and how they are important to this type of film. To me the film was great with them but also could have been great with out them. The reading talks about the two main songs in the film. One que sera sera, what ever will be will be. I LOVED that song and how it opened and closed the film in to different tones. It was so perfect. I just thought it fit so well. The other song, teen suicide don't do it, just added to the satire of the whole thing and made the film a lot more ironic.
Off topics I really enjoyed watching J.D's finger being blown off my the gun it really was the cherry on top of post modernism, whether it meant it or not it took a gesture and took away the meaning.
This movie to me was very entertaining. It was really funny the way it was done, I especially loved the character of Shaft and his super masculine mannerisms. The whole thing really worked everything from his pun on words name to the stereotypical characters that really tie the whole thing together. For me the film was definitely a way of introducing a strong black male character for one of the first times in the history of hollywood. Shaft's character is very confident and is sure of himself in a way that many "manly" characters today lack. He's not all muscle, he says what he means and he means what he says. He stands up to the biggest and the baddest of people and won't take any shit from anyone. He's a ladies man that can have any woman he wants basically and similar to many other movies with a strong male character he lacks the emotion that is usually in a relationship. The language, calling everyone baby and cool cat was very funny and definitely 70's the theme song was perfect too.
In class we talked about how the film was possibly a political statement and that he represented the leader that gets things done that may have been missing in the other political groups of this time period. He represents the guy that has a mixture of influences and power and has an understanding of more than one point of view.
In the readings it discusses how in the 2000 Shaft the "gangster" factor is kind of over done and that there is a lot of over the top music, violence and other things that make the film less impressionable. The original Shaft doesn't need these over the top things to make a statement and honestly the film itself is enough on it's on. It's funny, and refreshing and definitely portrays the 70's in a light that isn't always shown in the cinema. The music in this film is very cliche and very funny every time a new track comes on. It was really interesting when we discussed in class the influence this film has had on culture, style and music. Movies really can create a way of life that affects an audience more deeply than it is predicted too. Film has a great ability to shape a way of life and to introduce a character that the audience would like to aspire to be like or to be that powerful, cool, or attractive. This film was about the man that everyone could depend on, wanted to work with or to date. It was very funny to see the way the other characters interacted with him. I really enjoyed this film
While viewing this film in class I was really surprised by how different it was from the other films that we have watched so far. In class we learned about exploitation in films of this time period and para cinema films. This film to me didn't feel like it was exploiting the audience but rather the audience of Kowalski in the film.
I really enjoyed the film in that it was fun to watch and guess what would happen next to him and where he would end up in the final part of his race to California. There were a few things in the film that "Super soul" was saying to try to insinuate that what Kowalski was doing was getting his freedom, and was the last cowboy or hero of his time, to me I don't think he was a hero at all. In fact a lot of his life was quite the opposite of heroic. Whenever he tried to be heroic, for example saving the girl in the cop car from getting raped, he failed tremendously. I think that when he heard the radio and "Super soul" telling him all of these positive things and making him feel like he was a star he started to believe it himself. The crowd in town starts to question if he is also, we the audience almost believe for a mil sec that he is heroic. Then we stop and think, for what? What could he possibly be called heroic for right now, in this situation driving this car so fast.
I think that the naked rider, could represent freedom and being a member of society that doesn't belong, so could the snake tamer, the man with the drugs that lives with the naked girl, and "Super Soul" They all are a little different from the vast majority. They represent the group that Kowalski almost desperately wants to be a part of, but really doesn't have that "thing" to put him in that category. I think that is why he drives so very fast. He wants to, its something he knows how to do and has trained for, he is against the police for their injustice BUT most of all because he wants to do the best at something and to stick out as different.
In the reading they talk about the open road and how the american west has wide open spaces, cowboys. These wide open roads are regulated and run by the government for the government with our permission to use them while abiding to their rules. How can one be completely free, on a regulated place? If that's what he's looking for he may be chasing an impossible freedom and should look for it in a different way or place.
Overall I really enjoyed this film, everyone loves a good car chase and whether we know why or not we're routing for Kowalski to get there on time. We want him to succeed. I really don't think he's the last hero, he just wanted something a little more exciting and I guess he got it. I think the ending had to happen the way that it did. It was the only way he could truly be remembered and the only way he could "win" I suppose. He didn't have to stop or surrender as gruesome as it is to say.
