No Comedy, No Confidence

This week Ithaca College president, Tom Rochon, called an all campus meeting to discuss the racial climate on campus. On his part it failed spectacularly, on the part of the students involved in POC at IC it was a energizing success. A few days before this meeting the comedy clubs on campus released a statement that read:

"Comedy is at its best when it is honest, contains complex ideas, and expresses diverse experiences. This cannot happen on a campus where the college administration does not support people of color and invalidates their experiences. The comedy community at Ithaca College representing IC Comedy Club, IC Stand Up, The Acahti Players, and IC Sketch would like to formally voice our support for POC at IC and express a vote of no confidence in President Tom Rochon and the Board of Trustees."

As president of IC Sketch I partly released and stand by this statement. Good comedy cannot exist in spaces where authority dictates which experiences get brought to light and in which light they are brought. This lack of confidence is mirrored in the greater entertainment community, although the problem of authority tends to be more insular. The reason we end up with racially insensitive (to say the least) comedies such as "Get Hard" and Adam Sandler's latest movie "Ridiculous Six" isn't because of an outsider force, it's because Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell are the authorities on how experiences are dictated. Adam Sandler has decided they would be dictated with jokes, that caused Native American actors to walk off set, such as these:

1) Sandler’s character, Tommy, aka Three Knives, a white man raised by Native Americans since childhood is married to a woman named Smoking Fox. A recurring joke refers to her "sweet zum-zum."

2) A female character named Beaver’s Breath, is propositioned by a male character, asking, "Hey Beaver’s Breath." To which she responds, "How did you know my name?"

3) A "sexy" female character named No Bra (originally named Sits-on-Face in the 2012 script), is depicted crudely squatting to urinate behind a teepee while stereotypically lighting up a peace pipe.

4) Will Patch (Will Forte) propositions Sits-on-Face by asking her, "How about after this, we go someplace and I put my peepee in your teepee?"

5) Cicero (Danny Trejo) interacts with Sits-on-Face by calling her "Strawberry Tits," to which she indignantly corrects him, saying "I am Sits-on-Face." Cicero responds, "Well, then I’m Stiff-in-Pants!"

6) There are numerous instances of crudely-punned pseudo Native American names like Five Hairy Moles, One Eyebrow, and Four Pickles.

Adam Sandler has declared himself the authority on how to portray the Native American identity leading Native American actors to unsurprisingly cast a vote of no confidence in Sandler and the industry he represents. We must recognize that this problem exists outside of IC and that the comedy battleground does not get more leveled upon graduation. We need to continue to evaluate our confidence in the institutions we have previously lauded, especially if those institutions starred in Jack and Jill.

Genna Davis at IC

Genna Davis an Academy Award Winning Actor and Founder of the Genna Davis Institute on Gender in the Media. She recently visited the beautiful Ithaca College on Tuesday, March 31, where she addressed Gender Equality in the Media.

Genna Davis Institute for Gender in Media is a non-profit program which engages film and television creators to dramatically increase the percentage of female characters---and reduce danger stereotyping --in the media made for children 11 and under.

In her speech she addressed that in almost all her roles she plays is a strong women.  This is true through her part of the first female President on ABCs hit show Commander in Chief.  Currently, Davis plays Dr.Nicole Herman on Grey's Anatomy.

Some of her other films included Toostsie, The Fly, Beetlejuice, Earth Girls Are Easy, Angie, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Stuart Little and A League of Their Own. <----- My TWO FAVS!

Some very interesting points that I feel were valid in her speech are:

• Males outnumber females 3 to 1 in family films. In contrast, females comprise just over 50% of the population in the United States. Even more staggering is the fact that this ratio, as seen in family films, is the same as it was in 1946.
• Females are almost four times as likely as males to be shown in sexy attire. Further, females are nearly twice as likely as males to be shown with a diminutive waistline. Generally unrealistic figures are more likely to be seen on females than males.
• Females are also underrepresented behind the camera. Across 1,565 content creators, only 7% of directors, 13% of writers, and 20% of producers are female. This translates to 4.8 males working behind-the-scenes to every one female.
• From 2006 to 2009, not one female character was depicted in G-rated family films in the field of medical science, as a business leader, in law, or politics. In these films, 80.5% of all working characters are male and 19.5% are female, which is a contrast to real world statistics, where women comprise 50% of the workforce.

(http://seejane.org/research-informs-empowers)

SHADES OF COOL AND LIVING FOR APPLAUSE: UN CHIEN ANDALOU AND THE HISTORY OF THE MODERN MUSIC VIDEO

I think we all either remember the first music video we saw or if we don't remember that we all love watching music videos. I mean who doesn't love getting lost in some non-narritive, episodic, film that helps to advance or give a deeper glimpse into the artistry of the performer. Oh, and if you are wondering the first music video that I ever watched was Hung Up by Madonna in 2005.

Anyways, while we consume these videos, I will bet good money that there is no one that stops to analyze the history, form, or structure of the music video. Well that isn't entirely true, I shouldn't say no one because a film scholar and historian named Kennet Dancyger, whose primary interests are in film editing and film production, purposed that a surrealist silent film from 1929 entitled Un Chien Andalou might be the birth of the film making style that is present in modern day music videos. His thesis states that, "[Un Chien Andalou] broadens the film makers options: to make sense, to move, to disturb, to rob of meaning, to undermine the security of knowing" (Ken Dancyger, The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice, 32). In lay man's terms this he argues that by subverting the continuity of a traditional narrative, Un Chien Andalou opens the door for the film maker to act in direct colloquy with the audience. In the same manner, music videos provide the same blank canvas in which narrative structure is abandoned in favor  In this weeks blog post, I want to further examine this claim as I compare Un Chien Andalou and its aesthetic to the aesthetics of two current music videos, Shades of Cool, by Lana Del Rey, and Applause, by Lady Gaga.

SHADES OF COOL VERSUS UN CHIEN ANDALOU

Un Chien Andalou is the height of the French Surrealist Avant-Garde film movement. We are all familiar with famous eye cutting scene (hopefully) and the disjunctive, non-narrative structure that this film employs as a means of subverting the audiences expectations that have been built by watching a diet of narrative films. Below are the two eye images....

The reason that I have included both the eye images is because they are vitally important to understanding the meaning of Un Chien Andalou. These images occur right at the beginning of the film and the image of cutting out an eyeball is representative of destroying your previous gaze and biases so that you can experience the film through a new lens, one that the film maker attempts to construct rather than one a producer or an industry have sought to establish through a long history of convention. After the eye is cut away, we as the audience are then at the mercy of the film maker's push and pull, which can be seen primarily in the extra-diagetic music and the lack of continuity of time. The music used in the film creates a dichotomy between establishing mood as well as destroying the mood of the film, thereby creating what I like to call an anti-mood, or a mood in the music that is at odds with the visual on screen. Also another element that is at odds with narrative structure that we are all used to is the use of title cards to establish a time that is at odds with time that the visuals show us.  

Above are some examples of the title cards used and there translations. The importance of these title cards comes when you observe that they create a duel narrative. The first narrative that they create is within themselves as the title cards serve to break the narrative structure and remove us from the narrative, which in and of itself is still narrative (Hopefully that wasn't to confusing for you and you can follow my logic here but if not think about it this way, even a lack of something or NOTHING still MEANS SOMETHING). The second narrative that is being created is in the image that  is being shown on the screen against these title cards, that do not match up with the title cards flashing across the screen and that push and pull is important to take note of. This style of disjunctive editing is important because the author of the film, Luis Bunuel, is attempting to poke fun at the Hollywood style of continuity editing by putting the time in the title cards and the time in the images at odds with each other. I would now like to move the discussion on to how Lana Del Rey's music video Shades of Cool can be compared to Un Chien Andalou.  

In Lana Del Rey's music video for her single Shades of Cool, which is influenced by Un Chien Andalou, we see many elements of an experimental, avant-garde cinema. While not probative off any deep connection or influence it is interesting to note that the establishing shot of Shades of Cool is of a man's eyes. Additionally, Shades of Cool does not follow a narrative structure or maintain any semblance of special continuum as it employs an episodic structure. Also of note is the way that the video uses super imposition of images, and heightened color to convey a very specific mood through her corpus of work. For those who don't know Lana Del Rey has said in interviews that she tries to create music that remembers a time when she abused substances (she abused alcohol as a teen) and that she tries to sound like she is under in the influence when she sings. If the videos are viewed through this lens we can then see the super-imposition of images and heightened colors can be seen as the means of chasing a time when she was under the influence of alcohol. Next, I want to examine Lady Gaga's music video for Applause and how it compares to Un Chien Andalou.

APPLAUSE VERSUS UN CHIEN ANDALOU

In a similar manner to Lana Del Rey's Shades of Cool, Lady Gaga's Applause is very much rooted in a surreal, non-narrative world. Also, Lady Gaga's video is also rooted in the pop art traditions of Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons. Much like Lana Del Rey's video, Lady Gaga utilized bright, stylized colors, and super imposition of semi-creepy, very pop art influenced, images like her with her head on the body of goose. None the less, Lady Gaga's video is very experimental in its nature as it eschews traditional narrative structure, never locates in a specific time and place, and, most importantly is influenced by artistic movements which derive from the surreal artist tradition of the 1920's. The album which the song Applause is featured on is called ART POP which Gaga describes as a reverse Warholian experience where by art is put into pop and the viewer can assess meaning from that. So when viewed thought this very pretentious lens, Gaga attempts to use a manipulate the image that she presents to the audience for the effect of making some grand statement about the nature of art and how that influences music. 

As can be seen in all of these stills, the gaze of the camera and the viewers eye are immediately focused on the eyes or the eyeball. This creates a proximity to the audience because it roots them in the perspective of the artists gaze. This allows a direct colloquy with the audience that allows them to feel as thought they are gaining a personal experience of their favorite artists. So actually it isn't the Illuminati that is responsible for all the eye symbolism in music videos, it is Un Chien Andalou's fault. 

CONCLUSION

While this is just an interesting theory that has been purposed by a film scholar and further explored by me in this blog post, I think that it is important for everyone who is interested in film in any capacity to expose themselves experimental films. As I have learned from my Film Aesthetics and Analysis class at Ithaca College, experimental film and its practice of subverting genre and conventional expectations, can often times teach us more about the practices of film making then narrative films can. I want to close with that by no means can I say with 100% certainty that Un Chien Andalou is the reason and the cause for the style of modern music video but I thought that it was an interesting idea that Mr. Dancyger proposed that I wanted to explore further.

"Wind reel and print"

Well, it has come to that time of the semester here at Ithaca College when things start to get a little hectic with finals, finding a ride home, re-shoots, laundry, Kendall day, figuring out textbook rental return dates etc. Living in the college world, these stressors are supposed to be taking over my life, However, while working on my Fiction Field Production class short movie assignment, I quickly found out that "Manage Your Time 101" should be offered and be a requirement for all Parkies, if not every student in college.My experience working with my crew was one I will never forget. It was my first time writing for this type of assignment, and also taking on the job of Script Supervisor, never did I ever think that I would be in the local supermarket passed midnight on a school night. I wasn't expecting the amount of time I was about to spend with my classmates outside of out normal classroom setting. I wasn't sure how well we would all get along, if our ideas would even work well together, or if I even felt comfortable sharing my ideas aloud.

 I quickly had a reality check at our first shoot when it was 2:30am on a Monday night, cigarette smoke clouded the living room from our countless takes of cigarette puffs, and I realized that at that moment, this was what I came to college for. This is what I am meant to be doing. I then didn't even want to imagine where else I would be if i weren't in that clogged up smoky living room.

It always amazes me when its the end of the semester and in some of my classes, I maybe know the persons name who is is sitting next to me, the professors name, and thats about it. In others, I know everyone, everyone knows me, I am invested, and overall enjoy my time spent in the classroom. In this class, on the first day I knew about half of everyones names solely from being in classes with them in a previous semester. Once our "teams" were made for our movies, I had two ways of approaching the situation. One, I let my position be assigned to me, don't put too much opinion, and just flow. Or two, speak my mind, let my personality make its way out, and genuinely enjoy my time working with these 7 other people until the semesters over. Im happy that I chose the second route, because what came out of working with those 7 other people, was so freaking cool. I had no idea the amount of talent I was surrounded by, and if I was just open to it, I could learn a lot from these kids. Not only were we able to work together, share our ideas, and produce an amazing short film. We were able to have fun, and work as friends We created awesome memories together, and some pretty amazing friendships that I will forever be grateful for.

Cortaca Broadcast

It is Cortaca weekend, which means a great game, great friends, and great times. For ICTV this means the most watched, and most important show of the year. Gridiron Report, Bombers Live, and all other sports shows are going to be covering the game in the studio and on the field. There are going to be hundreds of views online and hundreds of yards of XLRs will be laid out. Tensions are going to be high. The game will be broadcasted on channel 16, ictv.org, and on Time Warner channel 325 all over New York! This is going to be the last Cortaca I will be attending in person, however next fall when I am in LA, I will be attending in spirit. For a division three game, this event draws a lot of people out for a weekend of celebration, and school spirit. To everyone planning to go to the game tomorrow afternoon, have a good safe time! To everyone not able to attend the game, be sure to tune in to channel 16, or Time Warner 325!

Wish Tree

"Make a wish

Write it down on a piece of paper

Fold it and tie it around a branch of a Wish Tree

Ask your friends to do the same

Keep wishing

Until the branches are covered with wishes"

                                        -Wish Piece by Yoko Ono

From a distance, its branches seem to have experienced an early winter. The leaves are buried in a cloak of white, and from far away it's almost surreal. Standing amongst its colorful brethren, this lone tree bares the weight of worlds upon its shoulders. Secrets that have come from closed lips and locked jaws: where the keys had been buried away eons ago. No names, only titles synonymous to the people behind the words. This is a wish tree. 

Taken from Japanese artist, Yoko Ono, and her sculpture Wish Tree, the idea goes back through many generations. As per Japanese culture, prayers are often tied to the branches of trees as an offering to its source. Ono created this as part of her international peace project IMAGINE PEACE, as a way to bring people together that allowed them to connect with both themselves and others.

Do It has brought this idea to life in our own backyard with the help of IC Junior, Leah Galant. Her short documentation of this project brings forth a sort of empathy and awareness between its almost ethereal footage. Countless people stand under the branches: old to young, male to female, race to race. It pulls at something we often forget amidst the stress and bustle of our lives. That we are all living in the same world and that we are all affecting the same space, subconsciously or not.

Every single note is a story, a plot, and a wish.

And who are we to say wishing is futile? Wishes are a language all on their own. They are joyous, loving, hateful, bitter, curious, and alive. They are the pieces of ourselves we're too afraid to show one another.

I think Galant did a wonderful job of displaying both the highs and lows of such a thing. She starts with a person and she cuts to a wish. She's in their face, close-up. Their voices are low yet we never lose them between the music. It forces us to hear these people talk as if we ourselves were standing next to them. It makes us watch and it makes us listen. No script could hold the intensity and the earnest thoughts of what is said and printed out.

As mentioned in the video, the anonymity of the wishes acts as a net to catch us. When we're so close to falling it allows us to jump and know we won't disappear. It allows us to be honest and open. It's freeing.

Where we often walk with our heads down or with our vision narrowed, this tree yells at us to notice it. To see it, to come to it, to read what it has to say. It demands us to pay attention to the things that are around us, and to the people that laugh and cry just as we do.

If nothing else, it lends us a shoulder as if to say, "you're not alone." It's almost ironic. Individually, some are dark and brooding while others are cheerful and caring. But put them together and they all make a solitary image. One that sticks out and reminds us that we're alive.

The video puts a lot of things into perspective. If anything, we can see a lot of our own wishes written out. Ones that we can sympathize with and others that makes us wonder. It allows us to step out of time for a bit and experience (in a small and fragile moment) somebody else's life.

Some wish for good health, others for a better relationship, and some even wish for the impossible. No matter what the content, the wish tree has become a friend and a willing listener. It will take your wish if you want it to, and it will keep your secrets if it must.

Unexpected Problems, Improvising, and the Many Joys of Filming

There is always something that goes wrong when filming, and sometimes it's something you didn't see coming. What do you do when there is no clear solution? You improvise. Sometimes this is easier said than done. During the filming I was doing for Life and Death Saturday we ran into a problem with lighting. There was a huge glare coming from the highest windows in our circle apartment, where we were about to film a fight sequence. For some reason, there are no curtains on those windows, and they are too high to reach. We decided we would make the adventure to the top of the window with a tapestry to diffuse the harsh light from the sun.

We ended up taking a milk crate, stacked it onto a chair, which was stacked onto our end table, which was stacked on top of our coffee table, which was stacked on our kitchen table, all to fix our lighting issue. With the help of our crew, I was able to successfully put up the make shift scrim, solve our lighting issue and get us back on track to film our fight sequence.

Sometimes you have to work with what you have when you're on set and trying to get things done. When there is no time to waste, you have to improvise, learn from your experiences and keep moving forward. Now we just have to remember to get that tape down off the windows before our next apartment safety checks.

The Golden Doorknob Awards

The Skip Landen Golden Doorknob Awards is an annual tradition in Park, and this year's event was celebrated during alumni weekend for the 40th anniversary of the School of Communications. The ceremony was entertaining as always, hosted by Peter Johanns, who made the entire auditorium laugh out loud with his stone-cold jokes about giving his kid away. The night started with some of the classic doorknob films from students in the past, there was a tribute to Skip Landen, the name behind the Golden Doorknob Awards, some previous award winners, and some other gags throughout the night before the montage of this year's official entries.

The winning mini-knob film, Death Door 3000, starred Canon Brownell and was the story of a young adult who becomes aware that he is currently in a doorknob film and must try to stay alive, and away from doorknobs. He eventually gets shot to death by a malicious door, in a hilarious ending. The entries for this year were creative, with some notable entries such as the The Man With The Golden Knob, a James Bond parody with amazing intro and ending credits sequences just like in the Bond movies. Second place went to Gerbert The Pervert, a wildly sexual and gory short film about two characters who attempt to murder a pervert, but the murder attempt goes horribly wrong. The gore effects were done very well, and they used swish pans effectively. The winning film was Happy Birthday, which I was a part of. It is the story of a young adult on the day of his deceased father's birthday going to pay him respects and give his father a message. He writes a letter to his father and leaves it at the base of Ground Zero, where his father was killed in the 9/11 attacks. There is a flashback to the day his dad left for work, and to the last words his father said to him. My roommate James Majeau came up with the story last year, he edited it and also starred in it. The film was shot over fall break in 2012. Rebecca Hersey was our colorist, Breanna Espina was our director of photography, Brian Felsenthal was our audio editor, and I was the special effects editor. When James was taking Fiction Field I, he used this for his news story project in this class, like we are now. I am so glad that I was a part of the production, it was a great experience and I enjoyed watching James' excitement when all of his hard work finally paid off. At the end of the ceremony our group met with one of the professors who was here when production classes were just getting started. He gave us a great piece of advice, and the one lesson he has learned throughout his 80 plus years of life. He told us there is no such thing as a boss, there are only teams and captains. Everyone is in it together, and has something to contribute to the team. If you help your peers out, they will help you out, we all learn from each other.

I am McLovin

As I am sure all of you know, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and the Funny or Die crew came to teach a class here this Friday. This was part of a seven day tour around the country, sponsored by LG, where Chris and Dave go on a quest to accomplish things they have always wanted to do. They are going to prove "It's all possible." They have been sky diving, broken world records, and have now taught a college class here in Ithaca. Check out the intro here.

The news that they were going to be coming, and less than 200 students were going to be able to attend the event, caused some stress. The administration sent an email to the 2,000 Park Students explaining that the event would be first come first serve in the Park Auditorium. How did they think that was even remotely a good idea? That would have turned out to be nothing but disorder and a free for all. There would have been hundreds of students lining up in park early in the morning, crowding the lobby, all while the normal class schedule is taking place. Thank god they realized what a mess that would have been before this Friday, and changed the admission to a ticketing system. The tickets went fast, and some students started to line up at 5:30 in the morning on Thursday.

Chris and Dave talked to the audience about how they got into the industry, and how important it is to work collaboratively with other people. They both love making their own material and encouraged everyone to do just that: get out and make content, don't worry about if people see it or not. They were very funny, and answered everyone's questions. At the end of the event Dave and Chris came into the middle of the audience and took a picture with all the students around them. The event was filmed and is going to be used in the Funny or Die video of the tour. 

Boys of 213

I will be taking a break from writing about the usual juicy drama's that catch my eye on television and focus on a show that's a little more close to home.  Over the past semester I have been hard at work producing my very own ICTV show: Boys of 213.  Even though filming only began January 29th 2013 the show has been in the works since over a year ago.  (March 2012 to be specific) and has literally been my baby over the past year.

My co-producer and I were driving back from Connecticut to Ithaca, when we started discussing ICTV and what kind of show we would want to produce if we could.  I had already been thinking about this and came up with an idea to write about our lives.  I'm always told to "write what you know" so I figured it was only the smart way to go.  After discussing a few characters, more interesting plot lines, and a central theme....we had a show.  The next day we sat down and wrote 10 pages of episode 1.  The creative juices started flowing and before we knew it we were casting.

The show is about 3 very unique boys who, due to a housing mixup, end up living together in a 2 person dorm room their freshman year of college.  The boys are: sarcastic and playful Noah, snobby and dim-witted Wesley, and quirky socially awkward Liam.  The three boys get into trouble and find themselves among a crazy cast of characters.  The show is a single camera sitcom, which we use a Cannon 5D Mark 2 to shoot.  A unique feature of our show is that it's shot in a mocumentary style similar to The Office and Modern Family.  We thought this popular format would work well to create the realistic, and intimate comedic feeling you will get with our characters.

Another feature of our show is the dorm room set.  My co-producer lives very close to Ithaca and was able to pull together his resources over the winter break to construct our very own set that we put together each week in studio A of Park.  Luckily we have a dedicated and hardworking cast and crew to help us every week not only construct the set but decorate it as well.  We shoot it very similarly to a multi-camera sitcom because we don't include the 4th wall of the set - so it's like we're really peering into the dorm room of the three boys.

This semester has been a most difficult one but will prove most rewarding.  After many issues with scheduling and actor's outside conflicts, lighting corrections, music recordings, etc. I have learned to love producing. I think audiences will really enjoy the characters and stories we tell, and can really relate to the situations.

Boys of 213 will premiere in the Park School Auditorium on April 26th at 8:00PM an then every day on ICTV of that week at 10PM.

Yer a wizard...Cody

I don't think I mentioned this before, but in my other class with Arturo, Motion Graphics & Animation, we're working on our final projects: green screening ourselves into a film.

For my final project, I decided to use Harry Potter as my film. In this scene, Professor Umbridge's evil reign of Hogwarts is about to come to an end. Fred and George Weasley use their newest products from their company, Weasley Wizard Wheezes to cause some mayhem. 

                      

My friend Cody and I ended up being set in the background of this shot, and after a lot (and I mean A LOT) of color corrections and filters, I think the shot came out pretty good. It still needs a little work, but I think it worked out pretty well! 

Have a good weekend everyone!

Breaking Away

 Breaking Away tells the story of Dave Stoller and his three best friends while they find their way out of adolescence into adulthood. Without the guarantee of a college degree or a steady job, these young men feel lost in a new world that they increasingly see as being divided between the haves and the have nots. Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher were all raised by working class families in a small town in Indiana, also home to the state university. Abandoned limestone quarries once worked by the town’s residents – known as “cutters” – surround the town, serving as a reminder of lost industry and tragic irony. Dave and his friends reflect a sentiment shared by the people of the town that the university’s students, who are generally wealthier, are in effect cultural trespassers. This sentiment provides a societal conflict between the cutters and the university students that culminates in the ending bicycle race showing that four lost young men can achieve the seemingly impossible. This film ultimately explores some fundamental human ideas such as overcoming near impossible odds, class struggle, and the relationship between father and son.

            Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher are all “in eminent danger of turning 20” and growing up after graduating high school. These friends share a common concern that they will become screw-ups and will waste away their lives. Mike, the former star quarterback resents the university students for having the opportunity to make it to the pros. Without a scholarship, Cyril can’t afford college. Moocher debates whether or not he should marry his girlfriend at such a young age. Dave on the other hand has a dream of becoming a world-class cyclist and has a romantic interest, however he hides behind an Italian mask to escape reality. Each young man in this group of friends has an equally important and deep internal conflict that allows the film to explore realms of thought that often go forgotten.

            Dave, an ardent bicyclist, who shows quite a bit of talent, idolizes the Italian cycling team so much so that he wholeheartedly embraces Italian culture, much to the annoyance of his friends and family. Dave escapes the reality of his life by playing out an Italian fantasy. He embraces Italian culture so entirely that it edges on obsession at points. Feeling ashamed of his working class background, he pretends to be an Italian foreign exchange student to win the love of a girl attending the university. Dave’s escapist approach to life comes crashing down when his idols come to town for a racing event in which they force him to crash after being annoyed that he could keep up with them. This stark realization that his idols are not in fact as perfect as he imagined left Dave disillusioned and depressed, forcing him to finally evaluate his actual life. With the help of his parents and friends, Dave pushed through and regained his drive much like any other developing adult who relies on a support network.

With the presence of the wealthier university students, it causes Dave, his friends, and the entire town, who come from lower classes, to question their self-worth. The very limestone quarries worked by prior generations like Dave’s dad led to the construction of the university’s campus. So in effect, the university was built by the hands of cutters. This is a tragic irony; with the miners feeling as if the university they built is too good for them and intended only for the rich. Dave and his friends reflect the sentiment held by the miners, as they feel a certain level of resentment towards the students who will seemingly have it all.

Dave, once again with the help of his friends triumphed over the university students in the final race, coming in a near and exciting first, proving that class and material wealth are not as strong as one’s all intense burning desire to prove their worth. The outcome of the race not only proved the self-worth of Dave and his friends but also proved to the townspeople that previously lived in the shadow of the university that they too were worth something.
[Borrow this movie from the Ithaca College Library.]

I think that we, as human beings, can all find a fundamental message in the film that allows us to delve into deep introspective thought about our own lives. Throughout my own life and much more recently, I too have questioned my own self-worth. I feel a deep connection to Dave’s character who, during his moment of doubt and pain after the accident, lost sight of what is truly important in life. I know that I have experienced the same moments of doubt and pain where things that were once important to me suddenly weren’t. Dave’s father, for the most part, hides his true emotions towards his son, but as a loving father who cares deeply for his son, he is ultimately there to support him. This kind of paternal bond is not always shown in many families and I believe I can firmly relate my relationship to my father to Dave’s. It is for the above stated reasons that this movie is universal and appeals to a level of emotion that is deeply complicated and sometimes perplexing.