Stan the Man

           Killer of Sheep, directed by Charles Burnett, provides a picture of African Americans living in Los Angeles post Watts Riots. The beginning of the movie establishes the code of manhood that is carried throughout the film. During the scene that starts at 1:00:30 and ends at 1:03:30, the concept of manhood that was instilled in him is questioned.

            The scene starts with Stan entering his home and pushing down the boys outside standing on their heads. The pushing of the children emphasizes how Stan does not have time for childhood or other childish things like simple games. Stan figuratively pushes his childhood away as he enters his house as a man coming home from a hard day’s work. Also when Stan’s eldest son slams his chair as he leaves the table, all Stan does is gaze after him. The violent domination of Stan’s parents is absent in the way that Stan approaches his own son. His son is allowed to leisurely stretch, slam the chair into the table, and not even clear his plate without any word from Stan. This lack of strict parenting may be seen as a refusal to maintain the code of violence displayed to Stan by his own parents.

            Stan is so disengaged from his family that he barely looks at his wife through their conversation. The wife, however, keeps her eyes locked and pleading on Stan’s face. Stan mentions his want of another job and she responds with “let’s go to bed.” Stan’s desire for a new line of work and his resistance to his wife’s offer illustrates how he wants something more than a life rife with poverty for the children that he has already and someday may bring into this world. Stan does not want his children to become like the sheep, being corralled and forced through a chute to their deaths by a society that does little to help.

            In a previous scene in the movie Stan’s wife asks him why he will not smile. But in the scene from 1:00:30 to 1:03:30, Stan does get a chance to smile. The small, delicate nature of Stan’s daughter as she stands before him and then proceeds to rub his shoulders offers Stan comfort that his wife is unable to give. His wife sees his rejection of her as something possibly related to her age as she watches her young daughter rub his shoulders. The wife and the daughter make eye contact frequently while the daughter massages her father’s shoulders. This connection highlights the wife’s desire for her lost youth as well as a possible attempt by the wife to imagine that she is in her daughter’s place gaining affection from her husband who has long since seemed to have lost interest.

            This scene shows how Stan has been broken by the standard of a violent and rigid manhood that leaves no room for delicate men. While his wife may assume that Stan rejects her because she is no longer youthful, he is really trying to protect his children and possible future children from a dangerous society. Stan’s call for help to be saved from the oppressive force of the preconceived notions of manhood place upon him by society comes in the form of saying that he needs another job. The violence he endures at the slaughterhouse tears away at his spirit until there is nothing left but a man who cannot sleep or make love to his wife. While Stan does not fit in the typical version of manhood, he can still find comfort in the delicate disposition of his daughter providing him a chance to truly be happy and smile. 

                                                             

While this image is not directly from the scene I chose, it does illustrate Stan's disconnected nature and his wife's pleading. 

Becoming One With The Road

                Two-Lane Blacktop, directed by Monte Hellman, does not tell a story of character transformation brought about by the road as other movies we have studied this semester have. Even though the Driver is affected by feelings for the female hitchhiker, he still maintains his need to continue his journey and get parts. The portrait of the road that Hellman presents in his film is centered more on the actual journey and less on the destination. The viewers get thrown in with no warning to the character's life on the road and are just as abruptly thrust out of it.

            Seen as a possible precursor to Hellman’s piece, the film Easy Rider presented a new form of road movie that took the main characters from west to east instead of incorporating the traditional westward trend. With a loss of direction displayed through the non-conventional pattern of travel, Easy Rider sets up the spliced and disconnected format of Hellman’s road film by offering a new way to regard interactions with the road.

            The movie, Two-Lane Blacktop, starts in the middle of a race and also ends in the middle of a race with barely any context for either situation. In the scene 1:39:00 to 1:41:15, the final race of the movie is shown and then disintegrates as the film reel seems to combust. The burning of the film during the race illustrates how the focus is not on whether the Driver wins or loses, but instead it is on the journey as an act. This clear shift of attention from character to journey is again highlighted in the scene starting at 1:39:00 with the camera hanging low and focusing on the white strip in the middle of the pavement, but then slowly panning up to the two poised cars.

                                  

            The direct shot of the pavement and the use of the Chevy’s sounds in place of music calls attention to the how the movie as a road film has nothing in it to distract it from its goal of portraying road life just as the Chevy has nothing in it to slow it down during races. Now that the west is conquered which is seen through Easy Rider’s movement eastward, the American road journey is not as based on direction as it once was. Instead, the new road movie now focuses on an individual’s interaction with the road itself.

            With the closing of the car window at 1:40:20, the Driver becomes one with the road. In a country that has been dominated, this union of driver and road illustrates the new way of thinking of the road as not simply a way to get somewhere but as an experience in itself. The first road films had characters going west and discovering riches as well as themselves. The next generation of road movies is epitomized in Easy Rider with the more circular motion of travel along the now country-encompassing highways and the still present desire of self-enlightenment illustrated through Captain America. But Two-Lane Blacktop brings a new shift to the genre of road film by placing the road in the role of the main important experience as well as the all-encompassing mind set. Monte Hellman allows viewers to engage the road and become one with it just as the Driver did. 

                                 

Growth through Death

                Morvern Callar, directed by Lynne Ramsay, is sometimes seen as a questionable example of growth within the main character, Morvern, for most audiences. But first shown as dependent on a dead boyfriend, Morvern gradually faces her life and grows from it. In the scene from 1:31:15 to 1:33:19 Morvern allows herself to finally embrace the change and growth that she has been experiencing.

             Arguably not the most sympathetic character, Morvern still portrays her growth through the action of leaving her whole life behind and facing it head on in the ensuing club scene.  Morvern leaves Lana in the bar with only the excuse that she is going to the bathroom. Morvern’s dependency on others seen through her relationship with her boyfriend and her friend Lana ends abruptly with her unceremonious departure from the bar.

            Sitting at the bus station, the early morning sounds of birds can be heard suggesting that dawn is approaching. This idea of a new dawn or rebirth is also carried over into the club scene with the song “Dedicated to the One I Love” by the Mamas and Papas with the lyrics saying that “the darkest hour is just before dawn.” Morvern’s new life is birthed through her refusal to be trapped by her old life.

            The club scene that follows Morvern’s run to the train station is the main evidence for her growth. The scene in the night club that appears earlier in the film shows her being lost in the darkness and the white noise of the music. But when Morvern is back in the same club in the final scene of the movie her face is much more visible, she has her own soundtrack, and she is looking confidently straight ahead. This change represents how Morvern’s life is her own and she has taken control. Although her boyfriend may linger in the dedication to her new life, she is only living for herself with money as no object.

            The song “Dedicated to the One I Love” goes on to sing about how the vocalist wishes to have his or her lover say a prayer when they are apart. The notion of praying and the repeated lyric, “this is dedicated to the one I love,” hint at how Morvern sees her rebirth as never losing the reason for the forward movement but still being able to move on.

            Many may see Morvern Callar as a simple thief who took the advantage of ownership that a suicidal boyfriend gave her, but the woman who dominates the screen head on and hair back is far more than the small act of thievery she performs. Morvern’s dead boyfriend does not only give her ownership over his novel, it also allows her to take ownership over her own life. Morvern Callar, someone without any chance of forward movement being stuck in a dead-end job, must grow to accommodate her new independent life. It is not only her life that is transformed by the death of her boyfriend, but herself as well. 

                                           

Billy the Kid: Drugged and Dying

             In the Movie Easy Rider, directed by Dennis Hopper, Captain America and Billy the Kid are the two main figures throughout the film. Both characters represent the hippie movement but on two extremely different ends of the spectrum.

            Captain America embodies the version of the hippie that lives off the land, maintains a high level of ethics, and has a relationship to a higher power. But Billy the Kid represents the side of the hippie that is causing the movement to die.

            Billy the Kid uses substances in order to be inebriated and not to reach a higher state of being. He lacks a sense of ethics that maintains a heavy focus on politeness to others. He also chooses to see his ultimate goal in life as retirement in Florida and not as finding a place in which he can be whatever he wishes. This dichotomy can be viewed in the scene from 00:35:00 to 00:39:00.

            Captain America fits seamlessly into the society of the hippie commune by bonding with a few of the members. He is even invited to stay at the camp. While Captain America feels included and welcome, Billy the Kid’s experience at the commune is quite the opposite.

            When Billy tries to follow one of the members into an area where a small gathering is taking place, a member of the commune blocks his entrance and the man they had picked up on the highway asks Billy who sent him in an unwelcoming tone. Billy is then accosted by the group performing on stage who is singing about long hair as they grab at his. The unfriendly and dominant tone of the commune suggests that Billy the Kid’s version of the hippie has no place within the back to nature, peace, and love image of the hippie that the commune has prescribed too.

            When Billy tells Captain America that he needs to leave, Captain America brushes Billy’s needs off while accepting a request from two women in the group at the commune. This rejection is then followed by Captain America trying to educate Billy as to why Captain America had agreed to the girls’ request. The unreceptive attitude of the commune as well as Captain America’s rejection and then education of Billy presents a non-homogeneous view of the hippie movement.

            The separation of the hippie subculture shown in the scene from 00:35:00 to 00:39:00 is also visible in the last scene of the movie. Billy the Kid’s demise is the starting point for the end of the hippie era. To cover up the death of Billy, the two men in the truck go back to kill Captain America. This double homicide represents how the whole hippie movement died because of individuals like Billy who instead of choosing a more humble and nature oriented perspective turned to heavier drugs and focused less on the idea of living from the earth. This negative image of the hippie that Billy presents permeates the consciousness of the country at the time.  

            Billy the Kid and Captain America seem so different throughout the movie and this difference is especially evident in their final outlooks. While Billy thinks they made it, Captain America thinks they blew it. Easy Rider attempts to bring these two different sides to the hippie subculture together to see how they interact with one another. The scene discussed above suggests a division within the group that is not so easily mended and bridged. Just as the easy riders died, so did the hippie movement.