The preview of my movie review

The movie I will be reviewing for my column will be "Downfall," a German film about the end of World War 2 that claims to be the most accurate depiction of what actually happened during the Soviet invasion of Berlin. So far, I have a couple of paragraphs of the review already written.


Are you sick of war movies, but always end up watching them because someone else wants to? If so, Downfall would be a good compromise for your next movie night. The authenticity of the last moments of the eastern front of World War 2 from the perspective of Hitler's secretary are enough to satisfy action and drama fans alike.

Despite being an accurate recreation of real events, Downfall keeps from getting boring. Every now and then, it will show action scenes, arguments, and little shocks from the horrors of war while maintaining its high level of accuracy to testimony of the people who were actually there. The main downside to this strict realism? Everyone speaks their native language, and there is no English dialogue track. The subtitles will be the only way for those not fluent in German to understand the story, and the Russians don't have any translation whatsoever during their brief appearance.

Average Joes smoke Marlboro

Does this man seem normal? Does he seem like somebody in your neighborhood? Does he seem like you?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, this ad might already have your attention. The main point of the ad is, simply, to show you that smoking is (or was, rather) totally socially acceptable. Average Joe the auto enthusiast at the end of the street in Levittown was doing it, and there certainly wasn't anything wrong with that.

Culturally, this ad exploits the conformity craze of the 50s and early 60s to sell its product.

While we're still on the topic of this ad, good luck getting this tune out of your head. The MP3 and below video can be found in better quality here.




*Update*

Apparently the commercial was taken off of Youtube for copyright reasons. You can still watch the commercial in this link if you go to 3:10 in the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAfL9i2afBc&feature=related

The group project

So far, I think we've gotten the project more or less finished. I can't help but feel like I've been "that guy" who's done the least work.

In terms of design, I feel like I had a lot of the ideas, such as using animation to form the email or business letter as we discussed it, but we ended up not using most of them. Either they were too much work or we just did something else instead.

We need to rehearse the presentation, but I'm not sure how that will work out over the weekend. Hopefully I can make up for being the least contributing member of the group by leading the presentation.

What I thought about the literacy projects

First off, let me say that my project (The posterboard about how videogames changed how I thought) could have been better. I threw it together on Monday night because I had been in a bad mood all weekend, and I don't work well when I'm not in a good mood. The posterboard that I did it on was just something we had laying around in the house, and the paper that explained my design decisions wasn't done until the morning after I finished the posterboard itself. I think it came out *okay,* but I don't like to settle for mediocre. All or nothing, but preferably all.

The other projects were very good. I liked the flash animation about programming. The "so what?" was very strong, and if I remember correctly it was the only interactive project. The three poster art exhibit definitely had a lot of work put into it as well, but I have to ask, did you keep your kindergarten drawings for just such an occasion? I've lost mine under my bed or behind the refrigerator YEARS AGO!

Literacy moment project

I liked the project of the architect who was inspired during his childhood. It was easy to follow his message of how his childhood inspiration brought him to where he is today.

I think what I'm going to do will probably be a posterboard or powerpoint. I like to work visually if I'm not really planning an essay or other written piece because it allows me to be more spontaneous.

Malcolm Xcerpt

Having read the excerpt of Malcolm X's autobiography, and many books myself, I agree with his overall message of learning through literacy. I had a similar experience when I was in third grade, reading from the white hardcover "Dorling-Kindersly visual dictionaries" on various subjects and educating myself on subjects I wasn't studying for school. It sometimes got to the point that I was sometimes telling the teachers things they didn't know.

Going back to Malcolm, however, his message of literacy being fundamentally important is one that I believe applies to everyone. It makes sense that he specifically mentions blacks because of his role in the Civil Rights movement, but now, in the internet age, being literate and being able to educate oneself is almost as essential to communication and knowledge as the computer itself...

I wonder if Malcolm would have liked Wikipedia?

Also, this is a good movie, even if you're unfamiliar with who Malcolm X is. I definitely recommend it.