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At the Intersection of Past and Future: Orientalist Aesthetics in The Wolverine

9/28/2020

by Landen Kennedy

In conversation with friends early this semester, I discussed reasons why I would choose Japan as a dream vacation. My decision was guided by my fascination with Japan’s historical landmarks and traditional cultural architecture as well as their increasingly futuristic modern society. These two seemingly incompatible aesthetics, the ancient and the futuristic, reside side-by-side. Take for example Zōjō-ji, a Buddhist temple in Tokyo. It was built in 1393 and if you were to visit today, you would see skyscrapers in the distance behind it. The ancient temple surrounded by modern day Tokyo serves as a setting for a sequence in the X-Men spin-off film, The Wolverine (James Mangold, 2013).
The film follows popular X-Men character, Logan, AKA “The Wolverine,” as he is invited to Japan to meet Yashida, a soldier he saved from the atomic bomb at Nagasaki. Yashida seeks to help Logan by offering him a way to die. Logan is gifted (cursed?) with the ability to regenerate at a rapid rate, allowing him to not only heal from fatal wounds in seconds, but to also live for hundreds of years without ageing. While Logan is young and healthy, Yashida is old and dying of cancer. He seeks to perform a sort of trade with Logan. If Logan is willing to give up his immortality to Yashida, Logan will finally be able to die and Yashida will be able to live.
While watching the film, I found myself immediately considering the state of Asian representation in film. Though the film contains many Asian characters and actors, we are still watching a white character fight his way through Japan. I’m not trying to say that The Wolverine is a problematic film, as I truly enjoy watching it and don’t feel like I am taking advantage of another culture by doing so, but it does tend to fit within the parameters of Orientalist cinema.

Logan (Hugh Jackman) inside of the Buddhist temple Zōjō-ji

Orientalism is a term coined by Edward Said. His idea was that the Western world viewed the Eastern world through a lens of mysticism and magic. Originally his writings were focused on the Middle East rather than East Asia, however, his idea still applies. Many Western made movies about the East fall into this mystical trap. Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter, 1986) is set in Chinatown, San Francisco and still manages to create a world where sorcerers and demons run amok. Take other films, such as The Great Wall (Yimou Zhang, 2016) in which a white main character leads a Chinese army in battle against an army of monsters, as an example of this trend. Today, while that fantasy-like orientalist view still exists, there seems to be another kind of orientalist view, one in which the East is a hyper-futuristic society.
The Wolverine constantly interweaves the ancient and the futuristic. Logan visits Zōjō-ji for a funeral, where the yakuza show up to cause trouble. Logan fights them off, but what is interesting about the scene is the usage of modern firearms within an old religious site. It’s a jarring and strange sight to see, made stranger by the fact that an archer picks off gang members from the rooftop. As the battle progresses and Logan escapes with Yashida’s granddaughter, the target of the yakuza, he finds himself on a bullet train. The train serves as a symbol of the future, and Logan even comments on the fame of the train saying, “This is one of those bullet trains, right? So what do they do, like, 300 miles an hour?” When the yakuza board the train, Logan fights them again, but this time they are armed with knives or short swords rather than guns. It’s a reversal of the modern within the ancient, so now the ancient is within the modern.
There are many other instances of this intermingling. In Yashida’s traditional style home, high-tech medical technology stands out like a sore thumb, yet because of the film’s aesthetic, we are not as jarred as Logan is. Towards the end of the film, Logan fights his way through an old village against ninja-like archers as he makes his way to a futuristic factory. In the factory he faces Yashida in a mech-suit designed to look like samurai armor. This is a sequence that truly captures the themes of old and young, as Yashida sits in a high-tech weapon made to look like ancient armor, and as he absorbs Logan’s regeneration power, Yashida’s old, withered face regenerates into the young face we know from the beginning of the film. The old becomes the new, and the new comes from the old. This is what the film is all about, as the characters, aesthetic, and even a subplot about Yashida’s inheritance all touch on this concept of continuity and growth.

Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) inside the futuristic Silver Samurai armor

The film not only deals with orientalism in terms of the aesthetic of the setting and the characters, but it also uses the device of putting a Western character in the East as a way of making them feel uncertain. I do not call The Wolverine orientalist to insinuate that the film is negative or in any way harmful. I simply refer to it as orientalist to draw attention to the way Japan is shown to us in the film. As with other orientalist films, the setting is used to serve the character. Logan is thrust into an unfamiliar environment and his powers are taken away from him for a brief amount of time. This film is trying to tell a character driven story about Logan dealing with mortality and the will to continue to live. Using a setting that Logan is unfamiliar with, modern day Japan, the character can be even more uncertain about things.
This device is used in films such as The Outsider (Martin Zandvliet, 2018), about an American G.I. who joins the yakuza after release from a Japanese prison, or Lost in Translation (Sophia Coppola, 2003), about two Americans who meet in a Japanese hotel and fall in love due to their shared feelings of estrangement and loneliness. The Wolverine falls somewhere between these two films. The Outsider was met with much controversy, similarly to The Great Wall, and Lost in Translation achieved critical acclaim including an Academy Award for Best Writing, as well as a Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture nomination. While The Wolverine isn’t a masterpiece, it isn’t a disaster either, and it actually shows us some deep themes through the use of the ancient and the futuristic.

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The‌ ‌Farewell‌ ‌Review‌

9/25/2020

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By Ravi Ahuja

The difficult tightrope walk of maintaining your cultural identity in a strange land is one that every immigrant is familiar with. Often, they are ostracized for being different in their new home, only to go back to their motherland and be viewed as a foreigner in their own country. Culture is more than the food we eat and the clothes we wear, it is even more pervasive than the language we speak, it is the very way we view the world and our place in it. This is the struggle that Chinese-American Billi (Awkwafina) finds herself in when she discovers that her dear grandmother Nai Nai (Zhao Shu-zhen) is dying of terminal cancer. Given a prognosis of only 3 months to live, Billi’s family in America returns to China to spend time with Nai Nai before she passes. In keeping with Chinese custom, however, Nai Nai has no idea that she is ill, as the rest of the family hides her test results and status from her.
Director Lulu Wang chooses to take what could have been a forgettable Adam Sandler-type goofball comedy in a more dramatic route, using dark comedy in unexpected and subtle ways. This story feels all the more emotional and real because it is; Wang wrote this story based on her own experience of having to lie to her grandmother about cancer. Although her grandmother eventually recovered, she never even knew about the seriousness of her illness or the secret kept from her until The Farewell came out.

This movie is more than just interested in the idea of cultural identity, it is all about it. Billi serves as the stand-in American, asking the questions and saying the things that most westerners would. Isn’t it wrong to not tell Nai Nai that she’s dying? What if she wants to say goodbye? How do we have the right to hide something so important from her? The movie never says that she’s right or wrong for thinking this way, but expresses the eastern perspective from the rest of her family, allowing the audience to choose for themselves what they think. As Billi’s uncle puts it, “in the east, a person’s life is a part of a whole”. Nai Nai herself chose to do the same as her family is now doing when her own mother had a terminal illness. In something of a meta moment Billi is interrogated about living in America compared to China and is repeatedly asked which is better, to which she can only answer “they’re just different”.

Actor Awkwafina shines in the main role of Billi, perfectly capturing the repressed emotionality that she cannot show, else Nai Nai will discover something’s wrong. Her on-screen chemistry with Zhao Shu-zhen is also terrific, with their relationship being full of joy and love. Nai Nai’s joy and zest for life draws a very sharp contrast with Billi’s near mourning, and it makes her secret illness all the sadder.
The film is also visually beautiful, with a palette of mostly earth tones and muted pastel colors, although there are also some scenes with much richer and more vibrant colors. Most scenes also try to play around a dual-color scheme, usually some form of blue and brown, which adds a sense of balance in a very aesthetically pleasing way. The camera is almost always static with relatively long takes, allowing the characters to have conversations and exist around each other without being edited together. The relationships all feel more real due to this choice, the positive emotions being drawn out as well as the negative, the awkward, the sad.
Although not Wang’s directorial debut, with her first film Posthumous coming out in 2014, this is easily the film that has skyrocketed her to the mainstream, and deservedly so. The intensely emotional and personal angle this movie takes is only bolstered by its dark and ironic comedy, and I can’t recommend it enough.
The Farewell is now streaming for free on Amazon Prime.

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Tower of God: Analysis

9/21/2020

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Tower of God (神之塔), directed by Takashi Sano in 2020, is an animated series that is considered a “breakthrough” in the genre of Japanese anime. But what exactly is so special about Tower of God? The plotline, soundtrack, characters, and art are definitely factors that contribute to Tower of God’s popularity, but is that all there is to it?

Tower of God is the first Japanese anime series adapted from Webtoon, a collection of digital comics originating from South Korea. Before this, most Japanese anime were adapted from Japanese Manga. Unlike Japanese manga creators, who are professional, Webtoon creators are mostly made up of amateur writers submitting their work online as a hobby. When amateur work has a chance of becoming popularized and turned into an official TV show, this gives everybody a chance to write their own story and create their own content. Most anime today are adapted from professional Japanese manga.

A characteristic of Webtoons that separates it from manga other than the language difference is the way it is presented. Generally, Japanese manga are printed and sold as a hard copy. On the other hand, comics from Webtoons are designed to be read on a mobile device, so each volume is presented in a continuous vertical strip. They are also more likely to contain color, which most manga lacks, and some Webtoon comics contain music and bits of animation.

Tower of God was created in collaboration with Crunchyroll. Many recent streaming sites such as Netflix have been releasing “originals”, which is content funded by the streaming service. Most Netflix originals, such as Stranger Things, are only available on the platform they were released on. Similar to Netflix, Crunchyroll is a streaming service containing mostly animated content. Tower of God is one of Crunchyroll’s first “originals”, a project that launched recently in the year of 2020.

As stated previously, another factor that contributes to Tower of God’s popularity is the main storyline. The plot revolves around a boy named Bam, who lives his entire life in a small cave under the tower. One day, a girl named Rachel finds Bam in the cave, and teaches him about the outside world. When she leaves Bam alone in the cave to enter the tower, Bam decides to do whatever it takes to meet her once again.

When Bam eventually enters the tower, it becomes clear that his motives are very different from all the other characters. All of the characters are climbing the tower because doing so will allow them to have a wish or desire granted. For instance, a humanoid crocodile named Rak Wraithraiser, aspires to reach the top of the tower in order to find something that “transcends all things”. In contrast, the protagonist Bam simply wants to be reunited with Rachel, the only person who was with him during his time of loneliness in a dark cave. Rachel herself entered the tower in order to see real stars, which were rumored to be visible at the top of the tower. Unlike the others, Bam does not wish to reach the top of the tower.

Each layer of the tower is filled with tests and danger. A powerful administrator who has reached the top manages the trials of each layer. There are many hopeful contestants who want to make it to the top, but only those who have the sheer willpower to do so will be able to make it.

Along with an alluring storyline, Tower of God also boasts a masterful soundtrack. The director of sound, Kevin Penkin, became well known after composing music for the award winning anime Made in Abyss (Masayuki Kojima, 2019).

Tower of God’s success has also been an influential aspect in the production of other anime adapting the Korean Digital Comics. More content similar to Tower of God, such as Noblesse (2020) or The God of Highschool (2021) will be released within the next couple seasons of anime.

Overall, the joined efforts of production companies collaborating with Crunchyroll have created a one of a kind series displaying its ability to compete with traditional Japanese anime. With a powerful plotline, an immersive soundtrack, a set of interesting characters, and a unique origin, the anime Tower of God has the ability to push the entire genre of anime to a new level.

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Road Rage Gone Deadly: Unhinged Review

9/18/2020

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by Samantha Shuma

With a lack of films being shown in theaters, the few that are released have a lot to live up to. Unhinged (Derrick Borte, 2020) does not disappoint. It is a simple story done right; the combination of characters and special effects make the film’s runtime fly by. Unhinged scares audiences with the contrast of relatability and dramatics. This serial killer flick draws on our fears of car crashes and the uncontrollability of deadly situations. Real life fears come onto the big screen and characters drive for their lives from a man who has mentally fallen off the deep end.

The rest of this review contains spoilers for Unhinged, reader’s discretion is advised.

Unhinged is a horror, thriller that hinges on the message of road rage. A mother (Rachel) and son (Kyle) in a mid-size car cut around a truck, who doesn’t drive away during a green light. The truck’s driver, Tom Cooper, confronts them, asking for an apology. When Rachel refuses to sincerely apologize, her worst nightmare was destined to become a reality. Cooper wants Rachel to really feel sorry, saying what he is doing is all her fault. He tracks down where she, her friends, and family are, killing them off one by one, planning to leave Rachel for last. The characters are constantly fearing for their lives, and that fear transfers onto the audience.
With few characters and the main setting being the inside of a car, the plot could have been bare. The concept of an extreme case of road rage is a simple one,

but there are other elements that make the film more interesting. The most influential visual elements are the car crashes. Most cars involved do not contain major characters, but they still influence the story. Tension builds with every crash, each becoming more destructive. The amount of collisions increase throughout the film, complementing the story as the killer, Tom Cooper, gets closer to his targets. As cars flip, collide, and combust on screen, we jump out of our seats imagining us as the passengers. The film uses the reality of car crashes to instill fear. The true nature of car crashes is scary enough, and the film lets each crash speak for itself. Each crash stands alone, not accompanied by overused jumpscare sound effects or exaggerated explosions. Audiences are forced to sit in horror as destruction and death unfold in a very realistic manner. It makes the film visually compelling while adding drama to the simple story.

As well as the crashes work in intensifying the story, there are other fear factors that pull audiences out of the experience. Rachel’s phone is stolen by Cooper, which reveals the fear of personal information falling into the wrong hands. It plays a big role in how Cooper terrorizes Rachel and her family, but it is shown in an unrealistic way. The point is to immerse audiences, and they are drawn away when they have to think about the film being unrealistic. The point is to immerse audiences, and they are drawn away when they have to think about the film being unrealistic. Some details can be dismissed by our suspension of disbelief. However, when films mess up something we experience everyday (i.e. phones), audiences start to disconnect. The film works against itself when Cooper goes through several apps on Rachel’s phone. Although her phone has no password (that detail being forced into the film since people normally have a phone password), Cooper accesses apps that would have their own form of security (ex. banking app). Audiences cannot be scared by this because it is shown in an unrealistic way.

Finally, the film wants us to be afraid of the idea that its events can happen to anyone. At any moment, you could find yourself driving for your life as a man comes to kill you, your family, and your friends. Although events like this unfortunately take place in real life, it is not terribly likely. Cooper attacking Rachel and her family is scary enough, the fact that a random person could come up to you and do the same thing becomes a bit ridiculous. The ‘this can happen to anyone’ message is over-emphasized in the film (and the marketing), it makes me laugh more than anything.
Most of the ways this film wants to scare audiences are a little silly, but the film is still an enjoyable watching experience. For someone that enjoys horror movies, there are some good scares that have been missing from modern horror movies. Instead of relying on cheap jumpscares and horror tropes, Unhinged takes a more realistic and destructive approach on an unconventional story. The story is not terribly complex, which lends itself to be visually interesting. Take a horror filled joy-ride down twisted streets and flying debris, it is certainly worth the price of admission.

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If You're Not With Me, Then You're My Enemy: How Revenge of the Sith Captures the Post-9/11 Paranoia

9/15/2020

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by Landen Kennedy

Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is confronted by his old master, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor)

In an era fraught with division and constant political bickering, many fans would prefer to think of Star Wars in apolitical terms, choosing to use the films as escapism from daily life rather than a reminder of them. This is a fine way to view the films, however, when viewed through a political lens, it is not hard to see parallels between the rise of The Empire in Revenge of the Sith (George Lucas, 2005) and the paranoia that gripped American politics in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Viewing this film through the lens of Post-9/11 cinema lends much more thematic weight to it, resulting in not only a better film experience, but also an opportunity to better understand the real world.
Revenge of the Sith tells the final chapter of Anakin Skywalker’s fall from the Light Side of the Jedi Order, and his descent into the Dark Side of the Sith. The transition from hopeful keeper of peace and justice to the deadly warrior of anger and hate is the core of Anakin’s story arc during Episodes I-III of George Lucas’ “Prequel Trilogy.” Anakin does not simply decide one day that he will join Palpatine, the corrupt Chancellor of the Republic and future Emperor, but makes this switch over lengthy periods of paranoia and hopelessness. To understand his transition to evil more fully, viewing the first two films in the Prequel Trilogy can add a lot, however, the third installment is where most of this transition occurs. The events of the previous two films weigh heavily on Anakin and directly influence his actions within part three.
At the start of the film, Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi are on a mission to rescue the Chancellor from Count Dooku, a Sith Lord and leader of the military enemy of the Republic, and General Grievous, Dooku’s droid army General. During a lightsaber fight between Anakin and Dooku, the Chancellor convinces Anakin to murder the Count in cold blood, an act no Jedi should ever perform. Palpatine pushes Anakin to leave behind his moral ideology because, “It’s only natural. He cut off your arm, you wanted revenge.” This is the first instance we see Anakin’s emotions used as a tool to turn him into an evil opressor. In fact, as time has gone on, films have become increasingly interested in exploring character psychology, both in the realm of genre films, such as Star Wars or the popular superhero films, as well as in more realistic dramas. This tendency to dive into the head of a character to find the root of their emotional and mental state is one of the staples of Post-9/11 Cinema.
A film such as Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012) is a great example of this. We see Maya, a CIA agent deal with the stress of finding Osama Bin Laden. In American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014) we watch Chris Kyle deal with the PTSD of being a sniper in the Middle East, having to make tough moral decisions without time to process or think them through, often leading to the deaths of people he does not necessarily want to kill. Though not a real-world example, Revenge of the Sith explores Anakin’s emotions as he exists within an Order that has very strict rules and has lost its way, being generals in a war when they claim to be peacekeepers. It leads to a loss of identity for Anakin, as someone who wants to express love and seek justice for his past pains. He has defied the rules of the Jedi Order by secretly marrying a Senator and the pair finds themselves expecting a child.

Anakin Skywalker and his secret wife Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman)

Anakin has gone through a tragic event in the past film in this trilogy. His mother was stolen and killed by Tusken Raiders, a species of desert-dwelling warriors. After his mother’s death, Anakin, in his anger, murders every Tusken Raider in the camp. After 9/11, Islamophobic hate crimes spiked. According to FBI statistics, these hate crimes increased from 28 to 481 occurrences (Kuek Ser). Anakin’s retaliation against those who wronged him is similar to the pain many American’s felt after 9/11. Though the majority of American’s did not stoop so low as to commit hate crimes, the statistics clearly show an increase at some level. The death of Anakin’s mother is kind of his own personal 9/11. Because of his failure to save his mother, and the pain of losing her, when he begins to have premonitions that his wife will die in childbirth, Anakin is vulnerable to the temptations of Palpatine. The Chancellor reveals to Anakin that he is a Sith Lord, an enemy of the Jedi, but also claims to have the power to save Anakin’s wife from death.
Because of Anakin’s uncertainty in the safety of his loved ones, he is susceptible to allowing Palpatine to sway him to the Dark Side and turn the Republic into the Empire. This paranoia reflects that of the American people after 9/11. Because the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was so unexpected, sudden, and devastating, the American people were immediately angry. In this anger, we went to war in Afghanistan and are still involved to this day. I am not going to choose a side as to whether or not war in the Middle East is a good idea or a bad idea, but there are certainly groups of people who fall on both sides of that line. After nearly two decades, that immediate anger has dissipated to an extent, and those who at one point may have yearned for war and revenge, might now think that the war is unnecessary and that we should not be involved.
Either way, many Americans felt this fear and paranoia that they were no longer safe after such an unprecedented attack on American soil. Because of this, many freedoms were willingly given up. Just look at what General John D. Ashcroft was implying when he stated that preventing terrorist attacks was more important than solving crimes after they had been committed (Liptak). Examine how the US Government used the paranoia of another terrorist attack to justify The Patriot Act as a way of increasing the government's abilities of surveillance of the American people. It would seem Lucas is onto this new facet of American life, one in which the government seeks safety and freedom at the expense of morality and personal freedoms.

Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) manipulates Anakin's fear, swaying him to the Dark Side

In one of the film’s most profound sequences, Palpatine declares himself Emperor, much to the joy of many in the Galactic Senate. Anakin’s wife, Padmé, says to herself, “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.” She sees the Senate choosing security over liberty and disagrees fundamentally. We can even see the effects of this today, in heightened security measures, reliance on police to solve every issue, and violent anger at the police when they fail or when they overstep their bounds. I won’t try to start a conversation on police in modern America, however, I do not find it controversial to point out that both sides view the police in different ways. They’re either too aggressive in pursuit of safety or they’re nothing but heroes. There seems to be no middle ground, and the issue has become a battleground of division among the American people. This paranoia that started at 9/11 has turned Americans into each others’ enemies, the same way that Anakin’s paranoia turned him against his friends.
Another line drives this comparison between the Dark Side and the paranoia that engulfed America during the Bush presidency after 9/11. When Obi-Wan confronts Anakin in a last-ditch effort to turn Anakin back to the light side, Ankin exchanges dialogue with his old master. “I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire.” A few lines later he says, “If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.” This line is nearly impossible to hear and not connect to the famous line by President Bush days after 9/11, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists” (eMedia Mill Works) This line fully shows the government’s response to uncertainty. In essence, if you do not support every action of the government in combatting terrorism, even if it means giving up some of your liberties, you are supporting the enemy. Anakin fully believes this, and the citizens of the galaxy accept Palpatine’s declaration of forming an Empire because it means that they will be safe.
In order to create an Empire that could be used to oppress the masses, Palpatine uses the fear, anger, and paranoia of those beneath him to convince them that their liberties must be given up to make their safety certain. Many in the age of COVID-19 are seeing this same situation play out again. Should citizens follow every single rule set out by the government out of the uncertainty that COVID will affect them or their loved ones? It’s a difficult conversation to have, and one that I do not seek to answer here, however, the fact that these questions that popped up after 9/11 are returning because of the ongoing pandemic has made Revenge of the Sith as relevant now as it was in the years following September 11th.

Works Cited:

Kuek Ser, Kuang Keng. "Data: Hate Crimes against Muslims Increased after 9/11." The World. 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 12 Sept. 2020.

EMedia Mill Works. "Text: President Bush Addresses the Nation." 20 Sept. 2001. Web. 12 Sept. 2020.

Liptak, Adam. "Civil Liberties Today." The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Sept. 2011. Web. 12 Sept. 2020.

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Da 5 Bloods: Spike Lee's Vietnam Joint

9/11/2020

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by Landen Kennedy

With productions shutting down, theaters closing their doors, and movies already set for a release being delayed, 2020 has been a difficult year for film lovers. Fortunately for us, a multitude of technological advancements have allowed the film industry to survive in at least some way through streaming services like Netflix. In recent years, Netflix has become a louder voice in the film industry than ever before. Many films find funding from streaming services and are released on these platforms, either in addition to a theatrical release, or sometimes instead of one. These films are sometimes cheaper films that couldn’t get through the Hollywood system, as a studio isn’t interested in pursuing them, or the streaming platform seeks out a well known filmmaker in hopes of boosting their streaming numbers and subscriptions by offering high quality films from high quality directors. Last year, two films nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards were Netflix Originals: The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019) and Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019). 2020 saw that trend continuing as Netflix released the latest feature film from Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, 1989; BlacKkKlansman, 2018), Da 5 Bloods.

Spike Lee is known for his social commentary, especially dealing with the issues of racial inequality and racism towards black people. This film is no exception, yet it targets these issues through a lens that is not often considered when discussing them. Lee creates a film about the struggle of black Americans by telling us a war story about black veterans of the Vietnam War. The film opens with a montage of real footage from the tumultuous time in which America found itself in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. We see clips of black civil rights leaders and members, as well as war footage, and lots of images of violence and death. Lee chooses to show violence perpetrated towards both black Americans and Vietnamese people, highlighting immediately the connection between the two groups. Throughout the rest of the movie, these two groups view each other as their enemies, despite this first connection the audience is shown.

The main portion of the film follows a group of black veterans, who return to Vietnam as old men, in order to search for the location of their fallen leader, Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman), and a chest of gold that had been left behind. Often interrupting this main narrative is a sub-narrative following the unfortunate events that led to Stormin’ Norman’s death, the catalyst for these main events. Along the way, these veterans deal with personal issues and cultural issues.

One fascinating recurring motif throughout the film is a “Make America Great Again” hat. It is a running joke that Paul (Delroy Lindo) is a Trump supporter, which causes some tension within the group of veterans. In an interview with The Atlantic, Lee and the writers of the film discuss the process of making the film. Lee comments on the MAGA hat, saying, “black people are not one monolithic group; we don’t all think alike, look alike” (Sims). He then talks about the bonds that soldiers form during war are solid, but once the war is over, the soldiers go their own way.

Kevin Wilmott, Lee’s writing partner, noted that the MAGA hat, “is almost like a horror-movie motif; it’s the transference of evil.” Wilmott discusses the original draft of the script, which was not always a film about the experience of black veterans. The “Paul” character was always written similarly to a Trump supporter, with an attitude that he had been ripped off. Lee and Wilmott kept that attitude when they went through rewrites of the script and the MAGA hat stayed as that symbol. It’s an unexpected connection to make, comparing a black veteran who feels as if the world hasn’t been fair to him, and a Trump supporter who feels the same. Making one character share these qualities helps to show how similar opposing sides can be.

Chadwick Boseman as Stormin' Norman

What I was not expecting from this film is the level of action and violence that shows up. There is a scene in the film where the veterans discuss the popular Rambo series, in which the titular character returns to Vietnam and other foreign countries to fight against the enemy and save the day. The soldiers describe the films as a way for America to try and go back and win the Vietnam War. It’s noteworthy that these films are mentioned because they always focus on white soldiers getting their victory, but the black military hero is non-existent. The group makes their own black hero in their memorialization, and near idolization of Stormin’ Norman.

In my favorite scene of the film (spoilers to follow), Paul confronts an angelic vision of his old commander, Stormin’ Norman. At this point in the film, Paul has lost his mind. The trauma of his past experiences in the war have affected his current wellbeing, and he has become manic, obsessed, and crazed. His confrontation with Stormin’ Norman reveals to us that he is responsible for Norman’s death, as a result of accidental friendly fire. Paul has taken this knowledge and let it build up inside him until it breaks him. The angelic vision of Norman pulls Paul into an embrace and forgives him.

The emotion of this scene is heightened by the unfortunate recent passing of Chadwick Boseman. In the interview with The Atlantic, Lee talks about the casting of Boseman. “This character is heroic; he’s a superhero. Who do we cast? We cast Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Thurgood Marshall, and we cast T’Challa. Chad is a superhero! That character is Christlike!” Lee is referencing many of Boseman’s most famous roles, notably black historical icons, as well as the most popular black superhero of all time. Chadwick Boseman passed away at the age of 43 on August 28, 2020. Though Boseman does have one other unreleased project on the way, Da 5 Bloods seems like a fitting close to his filmography. As an actor who gained fame playing black icons, a role in which he plays a Christlike black icon to this group of veterans, in a film made by one of the icons of black cinema, it seems to be a perfect capstone on his short, yet marvelous career.

Works Cited:
Sims, David. "The Long, Strange Journey Of 'Da 5 Bloods' ." 17 June 2020. Web. 08 Sept. 2020.

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Exploring Parallel Story Structures in Seberg

9/7/2020

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By Zoe Leininger

Among this year’s impressive line up of female driven narratives is director Benedict Andrews’ latest film Seberg. This political thriller about Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) star Jean Seberg explores themes of civil unrest and distrust of government that link closely with issues of concern today. A parallel structure of two opposing storylines is instrumental in illustrating the fear and anxiety of the time in Seberg’s life when she was being spied on by the government. Through these elements and some amazing acting, this film is able to paint a vivid picture of a celebrity trying to make a difference and ending up being used for a political agenda.
The narrative of the film alternates between the lives of Jean Seberg and Jack Solomon, the fictional FBI agent assigned to watch her for signs of involvement in the Black Panther Movement. While the focus on Solomon’s story at times seemed to overshadow Seberg’s storyline, the life Kristen Stewart brings to the character keeps her the central focus of the dramatic events of the film. The addition of a male character who shares the spotlight with Seberg is a choice that could have undermined the impact of her story. However, instead of shifting the focus from Seberg the parallel storylines highlight the disparity between the way that female and male characters are portrayed.

Opening sequence showing Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart) as Joan of Arc

Jack Solomon (Jack O'Connell) watching the scene from Saint Joan

The film opens with a re-creation of a scene from Seberg’s first film Saint Joan (Otto Preminger, 1957). Seberg plays Joan of Arc who was burned at the stake because the Bishop was scared by the idea of a woman wearing armor and leading an army. Seberg was actually burned during the filming of this scene, foreshadowing the way her own crusade would end up making her a martyr like the woman she portrayed on screen. When she speaks out on the controversial topic of Civil Rights, aspects of her gender are used against her in rumors of illegitimate pregnancy.
Solomon watches a wider, high angle part of this scene later in the film right before he pins her picture up on a wall of other people the FBI is watching. This places him in the position of the one sentencing her and watching while she burns.
The way the parallel stories are crosscut together makes their personal and professional lives to be directly compared to each other. We see a lot of Solomon’s home life with his expectant wife. Their solid relationship is sometimes strained by the secrecy of his work, but she supports him when she sees he is struggling with the moral dilemmas of his job. This contrasts with Seberg who is shown to have a loving husband and son, and then not long after starts an affair with Black Panther leader Hakim Jamal. This affair ends up drastically affecting the lives of her, Jamal, and their spouses.
While she uses her professional life to promote equality and civil rights, he uses his professional life to bring her to a state of paranoia and depression. It is her personal life that gives the government the means to undermine Jamal and what he stands for by spreading rumors about the affair. This opens up an interesting idea of double standards for morality.
Can someone stand for a good cause while also making wrong personal choices? While Seberg’s public acts to support the civil rights movement are shown as positive, it is the negative personal decisions that are scrutinized and used to sabotage the Black Panthers. When the news of the affair is leaked by the government agents who were spying on her, the spouses were unable to see past the affair to the good she was doing for the movement.
Conversely to this was the wholesome nature of Solomon’s relationship with his wife. They are supportive and in love. But he performs his job of invading Seberg’s privacy to the extent that she is unable to function properly because she is terrified that someone is always watching or listening. This juxtaposition of two very different lives that are entwined in such a twisted way makes a comparison that finds both of the characters wanting and leaves the audience with the question of which crimes will they excuse.

Jack Solomon (Jack O'Connell) gives Jean (Kristen Stewart) the information the FBI has gathered on her.

At the end of the film Seberg and Solomon meet and he explains who he is and what he did. She gets angry but then asks him about his family. When he explains that his wife is expecting their first child she tells him to go home to them. She separated from her husband and miscarried her second child during this time as a result of the vicious rumors spread about her. But she is putting aside the harm his work did to her to tell him to preserve his personal life in the way she couldn’t with her own. This ending gives something of an answer to the question stated earlier but it is up to the audience to decide if it is good enough.
The film ends with Seberg in a relatively stable place after calling out the rumors of the illegitimate pregnancy as false and the reason she miscarried. She takes control of her life back by seeing the information they had on her and letting Solomon walk away from her. The title cards that come up after the film is over tell us that even though the government surveillance program was disbanded and Seberg kept supporting the Black Panther movement, in 1979 she was found dead in her car after having gone missing for ten days. Her death was ruled a suicide. The control that she lost during the whole episode was never fully regained.
Seberg’s story isn’t an inspirational one with a neat Hollywood ending. It is an illustration of what people can do out of fear when a strong woman stands up for what she believes in.

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