American Strike- A Quest for Truth.
Written Assignment
Rationale
Option: My choice of text is linked to the topics chosen in class: media and global issues.
Title: "American Strike- A Quest for Truth"
Category number and task: Category number one, film review.
Objectives: To analyse the aspects of the film that relate to the topics discussed in class in a manner that suits the text's context and audience.
Context: Art magazine dealing with books, plays, films, and art in general.
Audience: The target audience of the text will be the span of people that buy and read the magazine in which it is published, this means that it would be a somewhat reduced and specific group of people.
Link to what we have studied: The production is linked to the topics discussed in class: media and global issues. Although the latter may not appear at first glance, the text does indeed deal with human nature, and this is deeply connected with global issues.
AMERICAN STRIKE
A Quest for Truth
Michael Moore's documentary "Bowling for Columbine" questions the core of the American society in an ingenious and original way. The movie manages to combine the right amount of humour and seriousness, creating a special balance that makes the audience burst into laughter and at times collapse in tears... But most important of all: it makes the viewer think.
It contains a refreshingly moving substance that ignites the, lets say, occidental citizen's seemingly dormant critical judgment. Truth, or the search for it has become somewhat lenient in our western society. Amongst other things, it suffers daily blows from the picky and exaggerated media. The chosen topics to publish may be in fact real, or truthful; but the media chooses what to publish and what not to, choice in which the news that sells outbalances in a significant way the news that doesn't. In other words, blood, violence, sex and any type of news that arouses the general ...
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It contains a refreshingly moving substance that ignites the, lets say, occidental citizen's seemingly dormant critical judgment. Truth, or the search for it has become somewhat lenient in our western society. Amongst other things, it suffers daily blows from the picky and exaggerated media. The chosen topics to publish may be in fact real, or truthful; but the media chooses what to publish and what not to, choice in which the news that sells outbalances in a significant way the news that doesn't. In other words, blood, violence, sex and any type of news that arouses the general public's emotions appear daily in the newspapers, TV shows, radio broadcasts, magazines, etc... This is, in its essence, lying by omission.
This issue, although quite disturbing as it is, is commonly known and merely awakens some displeasure, or at the most annoyance, but we seem to accept it, with a tinge of reluctance, as something that can not be altered. So now it's established that we live in a world that makes it difficult not to fall in this abyss of naivness, but hey, who knew that the government actually encouraged it?
Michael Moore depicts how the government (one would say that the invisible people manoeuvring it are the actual authors of the government's actions) bends the truth for its own purpose. Why would they want this? It's quite awkward and impractical to handle (not even mention leading) a group of people that cannot think nor see for themselves, in view of the fact that the leaders hold responsibility for everyone. But they would have in their hands the utmost control of everything; they would have power. If everyone could see, act and think for themselves, they would start to threaten the leaders' unlimited power and control, thus becoming quite dangerous. Even Shakespeare was conscious of this and denoted it in Julius Caesar when Caesar says to : "He thinks too much, such men are dangerous" (referring to Brutus).
The government seems to obtain an endless list of benefits through the lack of critical judgement that enfolds the American society. For example, if they want to go to war with another country due to their obscure and secret motives, they need to convince the people that that's the right way to go. They need to convince them that they are fighting for their own good, to preserve the American dreams, to ensure freedom and liberty. If the government wants to do this they must convince the people of two things: one, that the American dream actually exists, that liberty and justice flow in abundance in the American land of the free and two, that this synonym of good is constantly threatened. In other words: they must thrust continuous threats that motivate their deep rooted fear in order to make them live in a constant stage of alarm; ultimately creating a relationship in which the government acts as the protective father and the people as the scared, dim-witted children seeking for protection.
But, the government is not the only one responsible for this. The deformation of truth cannot be solely blamed on the 'deformers' for, as mentioned before, the ones that blindly accept them are as guilty as they are. This will bring us to our dormant critical judgement. Our incapability of filtering the facts and thinking for ourselves is our own fault. It seems as though we want to accept these truths that appear daily in the media, which surround us all the time; we even crave for them. We prefer to construct a wall around us and deny what we don't want to see. The government may be covering our eyes, but we are not complaining.
There are some, though, who are opening their eyes and making others open theirs to. Michael Moore is one of those people. No one can deny the fact that Bowling for Columbine is quite the eye-opener.
ANALISIS
It is possible to say that I have achieved most of my objectives. The text does analyse the aspects of the documentary "Bowling for Columbine" that relate to the topics discussed in class. Perhaps it' s not very clear how the analysis relates to global issues, for to see this connection the reader must realise that the American society's predisposed attitude to support their government's violent actions affects countless global issues, especially war and peace.
The language may at times become too informal, but in general it fits with the magazine's casual and relaxed style. The target audience would embrace this use of language for it creates a sort of connection with them, re-enacting an informal conversation on the thoughts of the author about the latest good movie he/she went to see.
Paula Eleod