ROBIN HOOD

What is parody? Do you know what parody is? I bet all of you already know what it is. But do you know what the meaning of parody? 

A parody imitates a work of art, literature, or music for the purpose of making playful fun or a joke of the original work. A parody may take an ironic or cynical approach to the work it is imitating or may just be for comedic relief. Most times, a parody involves a serious work that has been changed to make it seem absurd by mocking or pointing out shortcomings in the original work. 

My lecturer, Mr Mark had taught us about parody and shows some video as the example of parody which is The Producers and Robin Hood- Men in Tights. 

Today I would like to share about Robin Hood – Men in Tights. Robin Hood – Men in Tights (1993) is the parody film Mel Brooks made and is his last good film to date. Like its predecessor, the film is a direct parody and luckily it adheres as close to the Robin Hood myth.

The standard story of Robin Hood is oppressing the people while good King Richard is away on the Crusades. Robin steals from the tax collectors, wins an archery contest, defeats the Sheriff, and rescues Maid Marian. In this version, however, Mel Brooks adds his own personal touch, parodying traditional adventure films, romance films, and the whole idea of men running around the woods in tights. 

Mel Brooks

Parodies are hard to do well, as is shown by the mediocrity of so many recent attempts. No matter how ripe a genre is for satirizing, unless you know how to do it, there are no guarantees. Fortunately for Robin Hood - Men in Tights, Mel Brooks has been doing this kind of thing for decades.

According to Mr Mark, the title Men in Tights shows that Robin Hood is exactly like a girl because he like to wearing tight and not a trousers.
 

BUNGEE JUMPING

This is crazy. Is it a reality or just a dream? 

Yes, it is the reality and Naghol is one of the cultures for Vanuatu.

The people on the island of Pentecost Island, Vanuatu have a 1500 year old tradition called Naghol which is basically the ancient bungee jumping. 

Bungee jumping may seem a modern adventure sport, but it originated on Pentecost, where it has been practised for many centuries. The story of Naghol, or primitive land diving, had its origins in a love story gone wrong.

The story tells of a young woman, who was unhappy in her marriage, and tried to escape from her husband, Tamale. He found her hiding in a tall tree. When she refused to come down, he went up to fetch her. As he approached her, she leapt from the tree. Tamale jumped after her, not knowing she’d tied a vine to her ankles. He died and she lived.

The ritual evolved over the years, to stripping a tall tree of its surrounding branches and building a tower of sticks to support the trunk. The platform is made of wood and covered with leaves purposely to protect the platform from the sun drying it out before the ceremony. The leaves are removed by the jumpers before the jump. The liana vines which are tied to the ankle and slightly elastic following the wet season, are shredded and the other end tied to the tower. 

In April each year, when the yam crop is nearing harvest, the men in the south build towers about 20 to 30m in height. Each man is responsible for choosing his own vine. The length and suppleness of these is important, as if it is too long, death is likely.

In April and May, the jumping takes place. Each man makes many jumps during that time. With the vine tied around their ankles, men throw themselves off the tower. As they near the ground, they curl their heads in and hit the ground with their shoulders. This supposedly is to make the ground fertile for the following year. Boys of seven and eight start jumping from a low tower once they have been circumcised.

Death ?

In all the years this primitive fertilisation rite has been performed, there has only ever been one death. In 1974 Queen Elizabeth visited the island. As a demonstration for the Queen, the jump was performed in the dry season when the vines were less elastic. A vine snapped and a man plunged to his death.

While examining the history of bungee jumping, it is intriguing to see how these ancient people practice this religious ceremony. Prior to the jump day, a wooden tower is built that is some seventy feet in height. Latched together with vines and no modern construction methods, it appears to be far from stable. 

There is no safety equipment provided but for them, men and boys, some as young as seven years, climb the tower and leap from the platforms in a show of strength, and a statement to women that they can never be tricked again like the old story.

NEITHER MAN NOR WOMAN

Do you know what HIJRA is?

 Of course not right.  

In the West, it is generally believed that there are only two sexes, male and female, and that each sex has its own particular role in society. But in the culture of South Asia, they have third sex which is known as Hijras in India, chakkakhusra in Punjabi and kojja in Telugu. These kinds of transgenders are physiological males who have feminine gender identity.

They are usually rejected for what they are and the way they live. Still, they are tolerated when they show up uninvited at special ceremonies such as births and weddings where they cash in for performing dances and blessings.

Avoiding confrontation and the curse of the hijras seems to be the priority for Indians in such circumstances. In any case, they are marginalized and largely left to their own devices to sustain themselves, which include prostitution, dancing, singing and sexual embarrassments of various kinds. 

Some people pays respect to Hijras as they believe that Hijras are "the messengers of Gods who bring fertility to newly-married couples" and "the prayers wishing the long life of new born children and the prosperity of his family".

Read the following facts:

• Hijras are usually born anatomically male.
• Most then experience some degree of body-gender incongruence, wherein they feel themselves to be female.
• As part of their efforts to come to terms with this incongruence, hijras often seek out and live with other hijras. Many hijra households contain a hierarchy based on age.
• Due to openly living with other hijras, some hijras are disowned by their biological families. For countless others, family relationships are extremely strained.

During the British rule, this community was listed under the Criminal Tribes List and considered a “criminal community”. To this day people consider hijras as inappropriate humans and unequal.  Violence against hijras, especially hijra sex workers, is often brutal, and occurs in public spaces, police stations, prisons, and their homes.

In my opinion, I found that Hijra is really not good and negative but I should use left and right brain and evaluate that Hijra is really exist and happen in nowadays. 

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

What is SOCIAL NETWORKING ?

Social networking...It is an online service, platform or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people. For example, users can share interest, activities and background with people who have similar interest and make their own communities. It's the way that 21st century communicates today.

We already know the meaning of social networking. So let move to the main topic which is The Social Network. The Social Network known to many as "The Facebook Movie". The film about Facebook and its founder is well written by Aaron Sorkin, well directed by David Fincher and well acted by Jesse Eisenberg. The Social Network is not about the creation of one of the internet’s most successful websites. It’s not about becoming the world’s youngest billionaire. It’s not about greed and it’s not about power. The Social Network is a film about the inescapable need for acceptance inside each one of us.

What makes Mark Zuckerberg run? In “The Social Network,” David Fincher’s fleet, weirdly funny, exhilarating, alarming and fictionalized look at the man behind the social-media phenomenon Facebook.

"The Social Network" begins by positing that it was a very specific social resentment that got Mark Zuckerberg started on his road to billions. The film opens at an undergraduate bar near the Harvard campus in the fall of 2003 with Zuckerberg getting dumped by his girlfriend Erica. 

Furious at this rejection, Zuckerberg stomps back to his dorm and, with the help of roommate and best friend Eduardo Saverin, he started to take revenge by doing some hacking and coming up with Facemash, a site that enables students to vote on which Harvard women are the hottest. It gets 22,000 hits in two hours and crashes the university's system.

That action attracts the attention of two of the school's elite, rowers and identical twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The twins and their friend, Divya Narendra hires him to work on a university dating service they have in mind called Harvard Connection. After that, his Harvard classmates, the twins asserted that Zuckerberg stole their idea and then sued him for ownership of it.

Later, Zuckerberg, funded by best friend Saverin and starts "thefacebook," which eventually morphs into you know. 

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

Here are many stories of single mothers struggling to raise their kids against incredible odds, and with little help. But rarely do you hear of single fathers going through the same struggle. Chris Gardner is one of those fathers.

The Pursuit of Happyness is a very moving film about a man and his quest for a better life. It is an inspiring case study of how many of the elements of happiness work together from relationships, to poverty, to positive mental attitude and determination.

The story, The Pursuit of Happyness is a touching and inspiring film about Chris Gardner, a sales man of bone density scanners determined to become a stockbroker but first he has to go through an internship which means no pay. Chris decides to do it but when his wife leaves and he is evicted, he has to take care of his son on his own. So they find themselves sometimes living on the street and struggling to get by. The story follows him and his son as he chases his dream often sleeping in homeless shelters and even a public bathroom but never giving up for the sake of his son. 

The Pursuit of Happyness teaches us a lot about the importance of virtues and strength in our happy lives. One of the famous and inspiring dialogue that I would like to mention here is the one Christopher said to his son and here it goes.

"Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. Not even me."

This is really a beautiful line for motivation. No matter what others think about you but you should be firm in your own determination and should keep on going things that you want to do in life.

Besides, the movie shows how people without money are often victimized and bullied by those who do have money and power. Yet Chris Gardener repeatedly demonstrates the importance of good relationships even with people who treat him badly. 

Is it based on the true story ?

Yes, The Pursuit of Happyness was based on the memoir of the same name by the real-life Chris Gardener.

 

Its a very inspiring movie with Will Smith and his real life son playing the lead characters and at times I couldn't help looking at my own life where I could at times relate. For his performance, Will Smith was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

THE PIANIST

The Pianist is a serious movie brought out in a tabloid-besotted time, a prestige picture that invigorates a study of character and history that knows irony to be a part of life and not the purpose of art. It is a film that rivals every one of the greatest Holocaust films ever made. Old-fashioned in both visual and narrative style and in its overall restraint, the film clearly benefits from the director's first-hand knowledge of the territory.

Roman Polanski is probably the strongest film about the persecution of the Jews during World War II. The story follows a brilliant pianist, a Polish Jew Wladyslaw Szpilman witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital, from restricted access to the building of the Warsaw ghetto. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off to the Nazi labor camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw. Szpilman is left to fend for himself and he spends the next several years dashing from one abandoned home to another, desperate to avoid capture by German occupation troops.

The Pianist garnered best acting award (Adrien Brody), best direction (Roman Polanski), and best adapted screenplay at the 2003 Academy Awards. 

Is The Pianist is based on the true story?

Yes, it is a true story based on the book and was first published in 1946 as Death of a City, but was banned by Polish Communist officials and went out of print until 1998, when a new edition was issued as The Pianist. Wladyslaw Szpilman, somehow, despite the brutal atrocities that he sees and experiences, the artist not only survives but retains the ability to create beauty through music. 

Besides, I get the feeling that Polanski is expressing through this movie how he deals with such painful scars, haunting memories, and lasting grief. I got some information that Roman Polanski a survivor of the Holocaust who lost many family members and had an experience been a prisoner of the Polish ghetto during World War II.