Sicko

I was told earlier in the day that I had watched this movie in one of my classes. I came to find out that I had not seen this one specifically. We did watch a documentary, but not Sicko. Sicko, in my opinion, was very interesting in many different ways. One thing that bothered me the most is that it only shows one side. That is one thing that documentaries tend to do. This one was worse than some. Sicko focused on the health care in America. In the article 'Sicko': Heavily Doctored, By Kurt Loder talks about the other side of Michael Moore's documentary. It was a great article because it does talk about the other side, which is more agreeable now, looking back at the movie and then looking at the article. I thought it was very interesting what Loder had mentioned about the Cubans and the foreigners and how they are treated. The foreigners are treated better than the Cubans and that is in their own country. Another thing that stuck in the back of my mind was the Canadians and how they have special transportation for them so they do not have to wait at the border. This transportation can just go straight through and get them to where they are needed to be. The comments at the end of the article are very interesting and some are very touching. There are always going to be some people that believe Moore and some that believe Loder. That is with anything and everything that comes about in this world. The article Out of Focus: How Indie Dogma Undercuts the Documentary by Michael Massing, talks about how “in too many cases, documentaries seem to not include critical information. Or fail to provide important context. Or neglect to follow up interesting leads. Or leave impressions that are never backed up. All in all, something seems to be missing. And, based on my spate of viewing, I think I know what it is: a narrator.” I would have to disagree with this because I feel the filmmaker should stay behind the scenes, and let the subject matter present the facts. The article by Guillermo Perez talks about a young director of documentary films specifically about boys in ballet. This goes to show that it isn't too difficult to make a documentary; you just have to convince your target audience to think about and believe what you want them to, and see exactly what you want them to see. This movie was interesting and gets you thinking. I would like to watch it again so then I can actually see the difference now that I have read the articles and know what is going on more. I simply just watched the movie and did not know what to expect right off the bat. There were some things that got into my head, but now I know not everything is true and that is what Michael Moore is doing is trying to get this into people's heads so they portray it as the truth to others. In the book, it talks about two different types of documentaries. The first one is a thesis documentary and the other is the antithetical type of documentary. I would have to categorize Michael Moore's Sicko into the thesis documentary. I would recommend people watching this movie, but they would have to get everything out of their mind and just watch it and not think that everything is true. I do plan on watching it again and thinking more into the movie and seeing what Michael Moore is actually stating and trying to get to us.

The Matrix

That was the first time I had watched the Matrix. I had seen bits and pieces before from others watching it and really enjoying it. I am not a huge fan of science-fiction movies, but I would have to admit that The Matrix had some pretty interesting scenes that I did not mind. I am not going to say that I really liked the movie, but it was way better than what I had expected. I went in to class thinking that this was going to be one of the not so good movies and I should have just stayed at home. Well I enjoyed the movie; some scenes sticked out more than others, but that happens in most, if not all, movies. After I had previewed the article, it really got me thinking about the religious aspects that were invloved in the movie and how they compared the actors to what they would be like now. I really thought that was interesting how they paralleled the characters like Neo being like Jesus, Morpheus as in John the Baptist, Trinity was compared to Mary Magdalene, and Cypher parallels Judas. That is what really got me thinking about the movie because I would have never thought of it like that. I had religion in the back of my head when we watched the movie but never would have come up with parallels with the characters and people that we think and know of from our religious backgrounds. The article also discusses a litte about the Buddhism and of course the Christianity parallels. In the article, it has a variety of different questions that were asked. I really think they made a lot of sense. It gets you thinking, even though you may know the answer, but you still let your mind wander and think about "how are WE programmed?" In the reading, it mentions that it is very important to go into a movie thinking about certain things. The basic approach is watching the movie, then analyzing it and then evaluating the film. There are questions that you should ask yourself while watching a film. It is very hard to concentrate on the movie and then think about what the sound is like and how this is happening or why it's happening about everything we see and hear. It says that "we must make an effort to become immersed in the reality of the film;" I think that this is why I do not get into science-fiction films. I really have not liked them from the beginning, so I do not take the time to put myself into the film. I go and think that I am not going to like it and ask myself why am I going to watch this. This also connects with the subjective evaluation that the book also talks about briefly. I just have not watched a lot of sci-fi movies. Some people have grown up watching them and liking them. I was never that someone! Going back to the subjective evidence, I have the reaction right off the bat that it was only an okay movie that im glad I watched it, but never will I watch it again. Then I give reasons why. I think too much about why I did not like the film. It should just come to me, but sci-fi movies are sometimes ridiculous and make no sense. That is all in my opinion. So therefore, I would say that it was an alright movie, but I really do not plan to watch it again.