Showing posts with label Philosophies. Show all posts

Animals  

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I have been kind of busy the last few days. So I'm just not sure what subject to cover on my blog. Then I thought, how about another essay from the vault? The essay below is titled, 'Animals' based on the movie, 'The Island of Dr. Moreau'. Directed by John Frankenheimer and released in 1996. The movie was based on the book of the same title penned by H.G. Wells, the author of 'The War of the Worlds' and 'The Time Machine'. This was an essay I wrote for the Film Philosophy class that I took back in college. Please keep in mind that these are copyrighted works of mine, if you wish to reprint or republish this somewhere else, please ask for my permission before doing so.

Animals

In this essay, I will discuss the topic of animals. What is an animal? What are we? Who are we? Why are we this way and not something else? What is the difference between human beings and animals? And more questions to be explored. Examples will be taken from the movie that we watched earlier this week, “The Island of Dr. Moreau”.

From the directory of American Heritage, it is an animal organism other than the human beings, especially a mammal. From a different source, an animal is a creature that thrives on instinct and is unable to reason. Now, that would give off some vibes on why we, human beings, share the same traits in some ways, and more about it will be said later in the essay.

Animals, they are living things, and we can see that in the movie. Some of the animals, especially the Hyena-Man and Dog-man that were genetically mutilated human beings, displayed some brutal manners. All of the animals that live on the island are human beings, but they have animals inside them too as well. But you can see the animals inside real human beings too, but this movie was just to show you that human beings are still animals, no matter what they are because we all thrives on instinct and unable to reason at times in our lives. The movie clearly shows that human beings show the behaviour of being superior to the mutilated human beings/animals, because we are the ones who dominates the world. The animals felt intimidated by us, therefore making them nervous whenever they see the “Father” coming. Simply because Dr. Moreau harms them with a special equipment that makes painful sound waves that stops the animals from acting out in a violent act. But since the animals were also human beings in a way, they had the intelligence to beat the human beings at their game by removing the implant making them unafraid of the so-called superior species. Dr. Moreau tried to play the God and died for it simply because he was an animal too as well. Montgomery tried to step into his shoes and the results were the same as Dr. Moreau’s. They both tried to not be animals and played the superior role of being the God. Animals, they are all the same, only they’re different in a lot of ways. The animals tried to take over the island, which was the same thing we did thousands of years ago, only the difference is that we took over the world. They merely took over an island, but somehow, the movie demonstrated that we aren’t really that different. Nobody is superior; the only difference is that we dominated the world, which made us think we are actually superior to the other animals.

Some people would try to say that we are superior to the animals, but I don’t agree with that. Of course, we may be civilized and have made so many advances in technologies over the years. But the movie clearly showed that animals were able to dominate the island in a very short period while it took us thousands of years to take over a merely few areas in the world. Now, we dominate the world, but we are also destroying it because we basically believe that the world doesn’t belong to anything else but us. Human Beings are very capable of acting out in such a bestial manner. We kill our own people. Animals may do that, but they don’t do it for nothing. In the animal kingdom, they have their own laws. We do, but the animals are better off because they are not corrupted like we are. Human Beings, in my honest opinion are the most imperfect species on the face of Earth in comparison to most of the other animal species. We feed off everything in our paths. Human Beings may be superior in domination, but we aren’t even on the top of the food chain. If you took away our tools and sophisticated weapons and left us in the wild, we would not survive long; other animals, higher up on the food chain would quickly reduce our numbers. The movie showed the animals killing human beings while none of the human beings ever killed any animals, except for one man.

Animals are Animals, and we are not completely capable of keeping our animal instincts inside ourselves. It is a natural instinct and we’re not always able to control it. People can be murderers, rapists, crooks, greedy, lustful, and many more nasty words that the society frowns upon. The movie proved it all; we are not superior to animals and we can never play god because it would be violating the laws of nature even if there is no God. That, however, would require another essay.

Written by Paul Moreau

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the original author's permission.

Copyright 2003 Paul Moreau. All rights reserved.

Mothers  

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Originally posted on May 7, 2006

Here's one of the last two essays that I wrote for the film philosophy class back in 2003. It's one of the most controversial subjects to write on. It heavily focuses on the woman rights when it comes to abortions. I just want to give all of you a warning, this was written three years ago. It is a subject that I still feel strongly about, and I often don't wish to make a heated debate out of it. My thoughts on the subject have changed to a certain degree in some areas. I do believe that having an abortion done should be used as the last resort, no matter what. Although I don't believe it should be made a federal offense. I continue to have a lot of mixed feelings toward the concept of abortion. That's something I'll rather not get into at the moment. Though I do want to share my essay with all of you, and if you want to share your opinion with me, feel free to. Again, the essay featured below offers some opinionated pieces that I may beg to differ with today.

By the way, the essay was based on Ridley Scott's 'Alien'. Betcha that one raised an eyebrow of yours or both of them.

Mothers

What is a Mother? Have we seen them all? Do we know what a mother really is? What does it take to be a mother? To approach the questions with some theories and opinions, I will be exploring the core of Motherhood. Most of the examples to be displayed on the papers will be taken from Ridley Scott’s Alien, which we viewed back on Monday.

The meaning of Mother is to give birth to, create, and produce. Also to watch over, nourish, and protect. A woman/person has the position of authority and hold the responsibility similar to a mother. The Latin word for mother is matter, which is material and care. Who is the mother? It could be a computer, instead of a matter (flesh and body). Or anything you think of, it could be a mother in some certain ways.

Mothers, they have a lot of roles in our world. In this movie, there are a lot of things that suggest the idea of motherhood being involved with the plot. This is a movie, which, for most people, would not bring the word “mother” to their minds. For many, it is simply a horror movie, but if we watch carefully, we can see the concepts of motherhood underlying in the story. For example, they live in a huge spaceship which could also be called a mother ship. It’s full of vessels, which a human body is also filled with. It has people, functioning as cells because they are operating the ship. Resisting the entry of invaders can be seen as a sign of motherhood; but getting raped instead because the robot let the infected person inside against the mother’s authority. An infected person is like a virus to the mother ship, especially when he somehow gives birth to the alien who popped out of his chest. The alien is seen as a virus spreading fast in a small place, which could be seen as the uterus because it hides in places where the human beings aren’t. people; they are similar to sperms because they are in fear and all racing to the same place and only one will survive, like a real pregnancy. Weaver, playing the main character and seen as the mother survives the danger, thanks to the emergency space pod while everybody else dies. She took the cat and protected it, which is a sign of motherhood. After destroying the mother ship which is like destroying the uterus and leaving only the survivor’s spacecraft still infected with the virus, just like a mother with AIDS would give birth to an infected child. The cure comes which is Weaver, acting as the immune system kicking the infection out of her place.

People who disagree should take another look at the movie. In the 70’s the word, abortion was a huge issue. It is a terrifying issue, but this movie shows that women have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies. The robot in the movie went against her authority and let the infected person inside, which is like getting raped. The infection spreads through the mother ship, like an infection inside the uterus. A lot of damages were done, and everybody acted like sperm cells trying to survive by racing to the escape pod. All of this wouldn’t have happened if the robot stood by her authority instead. The movie clearly shows you that women have the rights to abortion. But it is not to be used as a birth control method. Because if the mother let the infected one inside the mother ship. It is her fault and she has to suffer the consequences for letting herself getting infected. Just like a woman would have a sexual intercourse with a man with infections which she is aware of. People should be pro-choice, not anti-abortion because not everybody is capable of being a mother. A lot of women get pregnant against their authority making it a necessary for the abortion.

Aliens, as long they are a threat to us, they are the virus. Men going against Women’s authorities are signs of motherhood rape. Pro-Choice will do, not Anti-Abortion and after watching this movie. Women truly have the rights to their bodies, not the men or anybody else. Equality is a different topic, and I am all for equality. But when it comes to motherhood, it’s an entirely different one. Motherhood is to be cherished, not forced. Unfortunately, a lot of women throughout history have been forced into motherhood; it continues to this day.

Written by Paul Moreau This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the original author's permission.

Copyright 2003 Paul Moreau. All rights reserved.

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What is Enlightenment, What is Wrong With Desire?  

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Here's another essay I wrote for my film philosophy class. The movie "Snatch", which was released back in 2000. It's an exploration of enlightenment and desires. This movie had a sort of powerful message when it came to this. It's quite amazing how some people can see the messages while most people can't because they don't look beyond the screen. If you want to get a deeper understanding of a movie like Snatch, you have to look through the screen as one would read between the lines in a book to get a deeper understanding of the message. Here, hope you enjoy reading the essay.

What is Enlightenment, What is Wrong With Desire?

What is enlightenment? Are we really aware of our surroundings? Are we just a bunch of dreamers thinking about being surrounded by happiness? Is a desire for something that you don’t have a good thing or not? Most of my examples will be taken from a film of Guy Ritchie’s. The title is “Snatch”, which is a movie about a bunch of underground gangsters, mobsters, and criminals all mixed up in awkward situations over a diamond.

The meaning of enlightenment is to be fully aware of our surroundings and what’s going on around the world. But according to a dictionary where I looked up the word; it mentioned that it is when we give spiritual or intellectual insight to people. Desire, it is when you wish for something that you don’t have.

Guy Ritchie delivers us a film with interesting concepts and a lot of comedic efforts built into it. Snatch is packed with a large cast including Brad Pitt, Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Farina and many more. This movie clearly does not involve a lot of human intelligence, I would even compare them to primates since they fouled everything up miserably. This movie is what I call one of the “stylish” films because of the unique editing, transitions, and certain effects used to keep up with the trends. But this movie succeeds in having a funny storyline involving people in the crime world and stay stylish throughout. Everybody wants to get their hands on an 86-carat diamond. There is gambling, robbery, and other mayhem involved as well. Everybody has a desire for something that they are lacking. Clearly, most of the cast are not enlightened because they desire for something that they will never get, especially because of the stupidity that they are plagued with. Franky Four Fingers is a gambling addict, and he goes to London to make a bet on a boxing match. Aki goes to London in order to stop Franky from gambling. The problem with Franky is that he lusts for happiness, which leads him to gambling addiction. He isn’t enlightened on the dangers of desiring a certain thing. It’s like he never stops being thirsty from drinking all the glasses of water, no matter how much he drinks. But desires can be much worse than people can imagine. They can result in death, addiction, unhappiness, and various other misfortunes. It is said that the pig symbolizes desire since there is not much of a distinction between pigs and greed. Pigs are greedy by nature, which is why they are fat; they never stop wanting. The only one that didn’t have a real desire was the dog, he just grabbed anything in his sight, such as the diamond he swallowed. He had no real desire for it but, rather, acted on impulse. In the end, the Jewish jeweler, who wasn’t really Jewish but liked to pretend so, got the diamond that he desired for. Judging by the way things were going, it is likely that he will face more trouble later after the movie ends. It’s as though Mother Nature made desire a dangerous element in our lives. Nobody in the movie is really enlightened at all; they all have a desire for something. Life just doesn’t work that way, but they clearly don’t realize that.

From my own point of view, it is better to be enlightened every day of our lives. It will keep us fully aware our the circumstances, and help us understand not to wish for things that we don’t have because it is more likely that we won’t get the wish at all. Wishing comes natural to everybody, people desire for many different things as if it were their daily routines only they are not aware of the habit. A lot of people say things like, “I wish I was rich, I wish to be in Cuba right now, I wish I could kick that guy’s ass because he bugs the crap out of me!”; and the list goes on and on. We always desire for something, but sometimes it can turn deadly because we let it possess us. That’s something a lot of people wouldn’t agree with at first since they are not enlightened on it until they start noticing the thoughts that get into their heads after reading what I just said.

I personally think it is harmless to desire for something. But I do not take it too far; I just make simple wishes, nothing big. I’ve been doing that my whole life and I have not formed an addiction, unless I’m not aware of it. Most people are not aware of their addictions until other people tell them. Gambling is clearly a way to display your desires since so many people believe the myth that money buys happiness. But some people may argue that money does bring happiness. I will agree with them to the extent that as long it keeps you out of poverty, it is all right. It is much easier to enjoy our lives as long we live stably. Being enlightened to our surroundings is knowing the truth. If we don’t stop our foolish desires then we will keep on avoiding the truth.

Written by Paul Moreau

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the original author's permission.

Copyright 2003 Paul Moreau. All rights reserved.

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Must We Conform To The Law?  

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Originally posted on May 5, 2005

When I was in college, I took a course on philosophies in movies. This essay is based on the famous movie with Paul Newman in it called "Cool Hand Luke", released back in 1967. This movie gave me a new perceptive on an aspect of life that I never had thought of. The movie was directed by Stuart Rosenberg. I don't know if you are aware of this, but Stuart Rosenberg also directed a lame horror flick back in the late 70s called The Amityville Horror. Both by the same person, who would had thought? He must had been pretty desperate for a directing gig or something!

Just to remind you, if you want to publish this essay on your website or for something else, please ask for my permission first. Go ahead and read the essay!

Must We Conform To The Law?

Must we conform to the law? Do we have to be a bunch of do-gooders in order to stay out of the slammers? Is it really possible to break laws and not pay the consequences? What would people say about it? We are free to make choices, but should we think twice before we commit an act for which we’ll suffer the consequences? I will be taking examples from the film, Cool Hand Luke starring Paul Newman in the role of Lucas ‘Cool Hand” Jackson.

The meaning of conform is to be obedient or to be in agreement with a certain thing such as rules, laws, opinions, anything that can be disagreed with. But the topic here is to argue with if we should be obedient to the laws or not. The concepts of conforming to the laws are when you obey them to prevent yourself from doing the so-called wrong things and pay the consequences for it.

In the film, Cool Hand Luke , Luke (Lucas Jackson) clearly does not take conforming to the law too well. He took a turn for the worse after the death of his mother and being put into the box for a week. But more will be discussed on the topic. The tagline of the movie states, “The man… and the motion picture that simply do not conform.” I certainly can see it since this movie does it so well. In the beginning, you see Luke chopping off the parking meters’ heads and that led to being sent off to jail or a correctional facility. The movie has a very southern theme to it especially when you see the jail, which looked more like a farmyard to me. At first, Luke is managing to conform to the rules in the jail; He was still a troublemaker in some ways but nothing serious to be concerned about. One very noticeable element of the movie is that it’s heavy with biblical symbolism. The other prisoners see him (Luke) as Jesus Christ in a way, and the audience easily feels it. For some reason, Jesus was clearly against the old testaments, and Luke demonstrated it very well. George Kennedy who played Dragline, a friend of Luke’s in the jail, stands out in the movie, and adds more to Paul Newman’s character through their friendship. He was Luke’s chum, and Luke’s character is so powerful that it influenced the other prisoners to actually have hope for themselves in their lives. Like I said, there is a touch of Jesus to Luke and I can’t imagine how they could had topped this one. Not everybody can turn out to be what God intended. Later in the film, Luke had received the news that his mother had passed away. He turned away from the table and went to his bed. He picked up the banjo and sung for the first time. The role of the warden was played by Martin Strother. Most people would view him as the anti-hero like he was intended to be. The captain found Luke’s free-spirited characteristics a threat to everybody at the jail since he believed that it could encouraged the prisoners to commit more crimes such as escaping from the prison. But the warden and other guards cannot be outwitted because in the end they still get Luke back to where he belongs. The captain was right about the punishment because it was what he wanted. The guards were hard on Luke, but since they were at a correctional facility, the punishment had to be harsh. This may be the reason why our crime rates are increasing because people are not being punished harshly enough, like the way they were before. Luke did a total of three attempted escapes, and they were all failed attempts since he got caught. At the end of second escape, he was warned that if he tried a third attempt. He may not see the any more daylight in his life since they would execute him. All this for a sentence of couple years of serving time and he could not wait to finish the time? In the end, he came to meet his death since he failed to conform to the law. All of these began with chopping off the parking meters’ heads, resulting in a punishment for destroying city property. Once you commit the crime, you suffer the consequences is what they’re trying to tell you. Paul Newman’s character is memorable and doesn’t fail to suck you into his free-spirited life keeping a smile on your face the whole time. Luke may have partially won because he was a free-spirited person and changed the lives of the prisoners because hope was revived in them. But the officers won in the end since he failed to conform to the law and death was the result.

Corporal punishment is long gone since it’s outlawed by many places. The prisoners are overprotected today; they are treated like the kings. Same goes for the schools, children used to suffer the consequences for disobeying the rules in the classrooms. Students used to fear the teachers, but today it’s the opposite. Teachers are defenseless against the students because words mean nothing to the students, at least to many. Basically, I see the same thing happening at prisons. The criminals keep committing the same crime over and over because nothing is hard enough on them. Perhaps it is the time we bring back corporal punishment into the prisons to make them suffer the consequences because doing time isn’t changing them at all. A lot of people are opposed to corporal punishment since it is inhumane in their eyes, but they have to realize that the crimes these people commit are inhumane because of what it does to the victims. Even destroying propertiy can be viewed as inhumane because people own these properties and if something happen to these properties; they will suffer the pain from the damages or losses.

Conforming the law is the way to keep your life in order. If you do the crime, you suffer the consequences. The message cannot be made any simpler than this. People have to think twice before doing something that could result in a punishment to suffer the consequences. If somebody can’t conform to the law, they’re bound to become a jailbird their whole life without learning anything at all. Is it really worth conforming to the law, maybe it isn’t to you. But to me, it is worth my life since I don’t want to make an enclosed cell my home. I’d rather have a home where I can see the sun, the grass, the birds, and children playing outside and a big comfy bed. Remember this, people are free to make choices, but they will suffer the consequences.

Written by Paul Moreau

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the original author's permission.

Copyright 2003 Paul Moreau. All rights reserved.

Civilizations, Wars and Desires  

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In 1981, a sequel to Mad Max was released called Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. It did well at the box office, it made around 24 million dollars in North America which was decent back in the early 80s. Today inflation rates affect the film industry tremendously. Anything under 30 million dollars is considered a box office failure, even 50 million. Mad Max 2 was a low-budgeted film, produced at around 3 million in American money.

I wrote an essay on this movie for a class that focuses on the philosophies in films back in college. George Miller and Mel Gibson teamed up for all 3 Mad Max movies, they were even going to make a fourth Mad Max movie and release it back in 2004. But it's now either on hold or cancelled due to the Iraq war. I know you may find what I'm about to say to be quite repetitious and annoying, but I am quite serious about protecting my original works and more. So if you wish to publish or use this on some other websites, ask for my permission first. I'll always say this every time I post an essay or something of mine. Especially the portfolio that is displayed on my site, these are not to be republished or redistributed in any forms.

Anyway, have fun reading the essay.

Civilizations, Wars and Desires

In our world, we have always had wars all through the history of humankind. We always are fighting to accomplish our goals by having wars. Why must we have wars? What do we achieve in wars? Do we have wars to become more civilized? Why is it so important to be civilized? Is it really necessary for us to kill the others to get what we want? Do we start wars to get what we desire? Does it make any sense or is it completely illogical? Examples will be taken from George Miller’s The Road Warrior, the sequel to Mad Max starring Mel Gibson reprising the role of Mad Max.

In our civilization, there is an advanced state of intellectual, cultural, and material development in the society of mankind. It is marked by the progress we have achieved in the arts and sciences and our extensive use of record keeping, which includes writing. Complex political and social institutions have strong influences in our civilization. A lot of different nations have different forms of government including democracy, communism, socialism, and more. We live in a country that is mixed with socialism and democracy, but it has been said that taking a page out of communism is how we formed our health care system. So we may have a touch of communism in the way we run our country. We are, no doubt, a mixture of democracy and socialism. War is when we are in a period of conflict, it usually take place between nations. Wars are being fought everyday for all different reasons. Our desires are the deep-seated wishes for what we don’t have. In many wars, the underlying goal is to achieve our desires.

George Miller has directed all of the Mad Max movies, the newest of which is the fourth Mad Max, slated for release in 2004, with Mel Gibson reprising his role. Apparently, the Mad Max series is has somewhat of A cult following; each film has lot of car chases and has a lot of noisy action. I did, however, find the Road Warrior a very interesting film because it displayed several fascinating concepts about civilization and war. People in the movie acted out in such a beastly manner that I actually thought they were real animals, not human beings. By contrast, they had enough intelligence to drive a car; this was bizarre thing to see since they were really a bunch of dimwitted fools. It was easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys, but the good guys were still displaying manners that could be compared to an animal. The people were very uncivilized because they have survived by killing or fighting the other people to get food and/or other necessities. In this movie, it is all about oil, nothing more. This is purely a war over oil, and this is simply history repeating itself. At the end of the movie, it was all sand, not oil. The people’s desires were unfulfilled because they wanted the oil but they got sand instead. Mad Max’s primary goal in the movie was to get the oil to get his car running, but he got into all kinds of awkward situations where he had to fight off all the thugs in order to get what he wanted and help the good guys out. But Mad Max was really a selfish person himself because he was ungrateful when he asked for the oil. He really only wanted it for his own benefit, but he ends up having to help the people get what they want. The other thugs wanted to have a war in order to get the oil too. So that led him into the war between the more civilized people and the bad seeds. In the end, he did come close to achieving his primary goal, but it wasn’t what he expected and would be useless since it is not what he needed. One thing I noticed about the Mad Max films is that they don’t really end, they just keep going on and on. That is probably why we are getting another sequel added to the series. This movie is one of the best films to make people feel very grateful for living in a highly civilized society. This movie showed a very realistic side to how people really are and that nuclear wars are the surest way to end our civilized society and force us to start all over again by starting a very primitive civilized society. The bad guys instigated the wars because they had a desire to conquer. Just like Adolf Hitler had the desire of dominating the world.

If people disliked this film, I can understand why. The general population will think it’s just a no-brainer action flick with cheesy one-liners. But myself, I think this is one of the best films yet to touch the silver screen that has many messages hidden in the no-brainer action scenes. It is disguised so well that you cannot think of it because it is not trying to get you thinking, you have to discover the messages yourself. The scenery in this movie is a bleak looking world, suffering from the after effects of previous wars using weapons of mass destruction. The underlying messages in this movie are not easy to see and so many people will see it as a no-brainer action flick for many years to come.

There is a fair amount of provocation in this film and I always like to see provocation in movies because it can send people messages, some of which can be quite important. What we see on the screen may be just a moving image made from waves of lights, but we also can fill it with messages that actually make an influence on our society. Civilization and war are simply a standard in our society and have always been throughout the history of mankind. It’s in our blood, regardless of what the peace activists say. They still have it in their blood. We achieve goals by having wars; there have been many wars that had a lot of illogical reasons behind them, mainly because they were usually started by evil monsters such as Adolf Hitler. We get involved in wars for very logical reasons such as stopping monsters like Adolf Hitler. We do this so that we can keep our society highly civilized. The Road Warrior sends us a powerful message on civilizations, wars, and desires. The world is not the problem, it’s us.

Written by Paul Moreau

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the original author's permission.

Copyright 2003 Paul Moreau. All rights reserved.

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