Inside Job

While watching the film, I had already heard to a small extent what had caused the financial crisis (and plenty about the corruption of Wall Street), and the information presented in the film had matched up with that pretty well, so it seemed trustworthy. On the other hand, I have little to no experience or knowledge of economics, so most of the stuff presented was entirely new to me. Not to mention, the film was pretty obviously biased (granted, it's nearly impossible not to get outraged when one finds evidence for that level of corruption, and I'd already heard a few of these stories before) to the point of being just plain comical at times, mainly with the numerous times they mentioned that "X declined being interviewed" (after the fifth time, I just started wondering how different the scenes would've been had at least half of the people that declined actually decided to be interviewed). All joking aside though, the movie is very effective and clear in getting its message across that we need to do something to change the corrupt practices of the financial industry.

On a side note, I actually remember when I was in the seventh grade (or sixth, my memory's a bit fuzzy on when it happened) around 2007 or so, somebody from Merrill Lynch had come to talk to our class on stocks and bonds or something along those lines (again, fuzzy memory). Looking back on it and realizing that it happened about 2 years before they went out of business, I find it kind of amusing.

Koyaanisquatsi

For a film with no words, Koyaanisqatsi sure does manage to get its views on humanity's relationship with nature across well. I'd say that it's even a slight bit over the top at a time or two (the translations of the prophecies and the title that were shown before the end credits and the scenes of the desolate, abandoned city come to mind, as well as the truck covered in its own exhaust fumes.). That said, I'll admit that it managed to keep my interest throughout most of the movie (the biggest exception being the scene with the planes on the runways which ran a bit too long), and many of the shots and especially the music were quite beautiful, with my favorites being the views on the lake and the overhead shots of the city at night. I also like that the Mr. Reggio, the director, supports the ability to interpret the film as you like rather than forcing one down our throats (no matter how much it seems like the film is at times).

Paragraph Revision

Before:

Over the course of the film, Herzog makes it quite clear that he disagreed with Treadwell’s view on the natural world and Treadwell’s actions towards the bears in general, and that he thought Treadwell was also very misguided in his actions. Herzog does this by clearly stating his own views on nature as having this “invisible borderline” that Treadwell ended up crossing during his work. His clips also showed that almost everybody he interviewed that was not already a close friend of Treadwell’s (and even some that were, such as Mr. Queeny), disagreed with Treadwell’s actions. Dr. Haakanson even noted that not only did Timothy probably do more harm to the bears than he helped them by decreasing the bear’s fear of humans, but that he thought that Timothy had performed “the ultimate of disrespecting the bears and what the bear represents” and he too thought that Treadwell crossed an invisible boundary. Herzog also frequently contrasts what he perceived Treadwell’s view on nature to be with his own views on the subject (“I discover no kinship, no understanding …I see only the cold indifference of nature…But for Timothy Treadwell, this bear was a friend, a savior.”). He also tended to portray Treadwell as very naïve and unable to comprehend Herzog’s view on nature (“He seemed to ignore the fact that in nature there are predators”). He also contrasts Treadwell’s views on how in danger he thought the bears were with the statements in the interviews that poaching was not really a large problem in the area, especially compared to the poaching in other places around the world.

After some Revision:

Over the course of the film, Herzog criticizes Treadwell’s view on the natural world and his actions towards bears in general. He does this by stating his own view on nature having an “invisible borderline” that Treadwell ends up crossing during his work. His clips show that almost everybody he interviewed that was not already a close friend of Treadwell’s (and even some that were, such as Mr. Queeny), disagreed with Treadwell’s actions. Dr. Haakanson even notes that not only had Timothy probably harmed the bears by dampening their fear of humans, but that he had performed “the ultimate of disrespecting the bears and what the bear represents”. Haakanson too thinks that Treadwell overstepped an invisible boundary. Also, Herzog frequently contrasts what he perceives as Treadwell’s view on nature with his own views on the subject (“I discover no kinship, no understanding …I see only the cold indifference of nature…But for Timothy Treadwell, this bear was a friend, a savior.”). He portrays Treadwell as very naïve and unable to comprehend Herzog’s view on nature (“He seemed to ignore the fact that in nature there are predators”). He also differs with Treadwell on how threatened the bears were, with statements in the interviews revealing that poaching was not really a large problem in the area, especially compared to poaching in other places around the world.

An Inconvenient Truth

After watching this movie, I think that it really was made more for the purpose of attempting to reduce pollution and to try to reduce the effects of global warming rather than the advancement of Al Gore's political career. However, I can at least see where those people are coming from, and I do agree that there was a bit of an attempt to do so. The movie takes long looks into his past, which tie into the main message by acting as motivational events for Gore, but said flashbacks tend to look like a lot like those political ads one would see on TV (the ones where a candidate talks about how they grew up, usually on a farm, or tragic events in their life, in an attempt to relate to the rest of the US).

On an almost unrelated side note, I've noticed that both Waiting for Superman and An Inconvenient Truth end with messages telling us to do something on a black screen. It must be a favorite style of Guggenheim's or something.