Movie Reviewed Phenomenon Essays - English-language Films, Films

movie reviewed: phenomenon approach adopted: humanist/ slightly auteurist John Travolta. Those two words used to send millions of women (and men) all around the world into a dancing frenzy back in the seventies. He could claim credit for the modern equivalent of the estrogen brigades (for the net crazy "X-philes") of Fox Mudler and Assistant Director Skinner. But nowadays, equipped with a paunch and that same disarming smile, he is proving himself to be more than a passing fever. Together with the great cast of this latest offering from the Disney studios, Travolta lifts "Phenomenon" (tele-kinetically, no less) above the mass of mediocre summer releases. For doubting thomases who thought his brilliant gun-slinging portrayal in "Pulp Fiction" was just "luck of the draw", his portrayal of a simpleton with nothing but heart should re-categorise Travolta from "comeback kid" to "talented actor"; he did not allow "Phenomenon" to degenerate into "Forrest Gump Part 2". The similarities are obvious: a nice, simple fellow earns the favour of Lady Luck and does extraordinary things. Yet, that's all there is. "Phenomenon" packs a higher reality-density than "Gump". Countless scenes in "Gump" had me trying to pull wool over my eyes just to stop myself from laughing at the sheer ludicrousness. Despite the fact that going to the movies is about the suspension of disbelief, it should never be equated with treating the audiences as hoards after hoards of idiots. George Malley (Travolta), on the other hand, comes across very naturally (and believably) as a small town simpleton who doesn't know what to make of his very strange birthday "present". One flash of light and he flips through calculus books in a flash. It's not heavenly intervention, but unleashing the possibility of what the mind is truly capable of. Yet, George quickly learns that he isn't capable of something: affecting what other people think. Small-town insecurities and parochialism soon turn once friends into dumber-than-simpleton fools; with the exception of three very well casted characters. Kyra Sedgwick plays Lace, George's love interest. The agony of having gone through the loss of her perfect family show through her smiles. Despite being intent on keeping George at arms' length, head-strong Lace falls in love with George, with no small help from her two precocious kids. Gerard Dipego's choice of the two kids as parallels and inversions of the adults' relationship is simply brilliant. It is the little girl who extends herself to George when Lace plays the silent, "I want to keep my life simple" girl. Lace's little boy, however, displays a careful attitude towards George. Both kids externalise, through inversion, the tension between George and Lace. It is an extremely in-your-face thematic twist that utilises brilliant irony; made more awe-inspiring for the fact that it doesn't degenerate into black humour. Forest Whitaker plays Nathan Pope, George's frequency band/ FM/ AM-dabbling friend. Last seen behind the cameras as the director of "Waiting To Exhale", Whitaker's small but important role lets us in on the tiny world of the small town person. One hobby, one obsession is all their little brains can take. Constantly chanting Supreme's hits (which I unabashedly sang along to), he displays a fear of change and of learning new things. Despite these "shortcomings", his innate far-sightedness extends beyond the narrow-minded and cloistered Northern Californian townsfolk psyche. His unflinching friendship to George is sufficient testimony to it. And then there is Robert Duvall as Doc. His recognition of his own feelings and his courage in expressing them carves yet another facet into this movie about the human spirit. Though the emphasis on George did marginalise Duvall's character and waste his talent somewhat, the incredible resonance in his little speech justified the inclusion of Doc. Both Nate and Doc shares the same operative sentiment in "Phenomenon" : George did not change. How ironic then, that the theme song by Eric Clapton and Babyface is titled "Change The World". It is another skillful play at the plot and its characters. The chorus goes : "If I could change the world/ I would be the sunlight in your universe/ You would think my love was really something good/ Baby, if I could change the world." In a rather subtle and implicit way, George did change the world. But the "George", the core of his own human identity, never changed. Yet the George that Lace fell in love with wasn't the George that changed the world, but "George" whose love was really something good. The rest of the movie soundtrack is also worth a listen, especially Aaron Neville's rendition of the Van Morrison classic "Crazy Love".

Daniel Harold Rolling, the Gainesville Ripper

Daniel Harold Rolling, the Gainesville Ripper Daniel Harold Rolling, also known as the Gainesville Ripper, murdered five University of Florida students in the summer of 1990. The killings terrified residents of the otherwise sleepy Southern college town and became front-page news for days on end.  After being apprehended, Rolling would be linked to three more deaths in Louisiana and would remain a figure of media curiosity until he was executed in 2006. Early Life Rolling was born on May 26, 1954, in Shreveport, La., to James and Claudia Rolling. It was an unhappy home life, Rolling would later say. His father, a Shreveport police officer, abused him from an early age, both verbally and physically. As a teen, Rolling was a poor student and worked only sporadically. He was also arrested several times for burglary. Apart from these details, little is known of Rollings early life before the murders. One incident, however, stands out. During a heated argument with his father in May of 1990, Rolling brandished a gun and shot the older man. Rolling fled. His father lost an eye and an ear but survived. Death in Gainesville The first murder took place on Aug. 24, 1990. Rolling broke into the apartment of college students Sonja Larson, 18, and  Christina Powell, 17. Both girls were asleep. He attacked Sonja first, who was asleep in her upstairs bedroom. First, he stabbed her chest, then taped her mouth, then as she struggled for her life, he stabbed her to death. He then went back downstairs and taped Christinas mouth and bound her wrists behind her back. He then cut off her clothing, raped her and stabbed her multiple times in the back, causing her death. Deciding that he wanted to leave some kind signature, he then mutilated the bodies and posed them in sexually suggestive positions and left. The next night Rolling broke into the apartment of Christa Hoyt, 18, but she was not at home. He decided to wait for her and made himself at home. When she arrived mid-morning, he crept up behind her, startling her, then attacked her, placing her in a choke-hold. After that, he taped her mouth, bound her wrists and forced her into her bedroom, where he removed her clothing, raped her, then stabbed her in the back multiple times causing her death. Then, as a way to make the scene more horrific, he sliced open her body, cut off her head and removed her nipples. When authorities arrived, they found Christas head on a bookshelf, her torso bent at the waist, on the bed and the nipples placed next to the torso. On Aug. 27, Rolling broke into the apartment of Tracy Paules and Manny Taboada, both 23. Powerfully built, Taboada was asleep in his bedroom when Rolling attacked and killed him. Hearing a struggle, Paules hurried to her roommates room. Seeing Rolling, she bolted back to her room, but he pursued her. Like his other victims, Rolling bound Paules, removed her clothing, raped her, then stabbed her in the back multiple times. Sometime later, the apartment complexs maintenance man showed up for an appointment. When no one answered at Paules and Taboadas unit, he let himself in. The sight that greeted him was so horrible that he turned and left immediately, then rushed to call the police. He later described to the police that he saw Tracys bloodied body on a towel in the hallway, with a black bag placed near the body. When police arrived five minutes later, the door was found unlocked and the bag was gone. The news media was quick to cover the murders, dubbing the killer The Gainesville Ripper. It was the beginning of the semester and thousands of students left Gainseville out fear. By Sept. 7, when Rolling was arrested in nearby Ocala on an unrelated supermarket robbery charge, the Ripper was on the front page of every newspaper. Rollings whereabouts between the time of the last murders and his arrest are only partially known. During a subsequent search of a wooded Gainesville encampment where Rolling had been living, police found evidence tying him to a recent bank robbery. They also found evidence that later would be linked to the Gainesville killings.   TheWrong Suspect The investigation into murders of the five college students led to one of seven main suspects. Edward Humphrey was 18 years old and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. During the same time that the students were murdered, Humphrey was suffering from a bipolar flareup after skipping his medication which resulted in aggressive behavior and violent outbursts. Humphrey had been living in the same apartment complex as Tracy and Manny, but he was asked to leave by the apartment manager after fighting with his roommates. He also harassed people living in the apartment complex across the street. Other similar incidents of Humphreys combative nature surfaced and investigators decided to put a surveillance team on him. On Oct. 30, 1990, he had an argument with his grandmother that grew into a physical altercation with him striking her one time. This was a gift to the police. They arrested Humphrey and had his  bail set at $1 million, even though his grandmother had dropped all charges the same day and it was his first offense. At trial, Humphrey was found guilty of assault and was sentenced to 22 months in Chattahoochee State Hospital, where he would remain until Sept. 18, 1991, when he was released. There was never any evidence found that Humphrey had anything to do with the murder. The investigation was back to square one. Confession, Trial, and Execution Rolling stood trial in early 1991 for the Ocala robbery and was convicted. He was later convicted of three burglaries committed in Tampa shortly after the Gainesville killings had occurred. Facing life in prison, Rolling confessed to the string of murders, later corroborated by DNA evidence. In June of 1992, he was officially charged.   While awaiting trial, Rolling began exhibiting odd behavior that would eventually lead to a diagnosis of mental illness. Using a fellow inmate as an intermediary, Rolling told authorities that he had multiple personalities, which he blamed for the Gainesville killings. Rolling also alluded to the unsolved 1989 murders in Shreveport of William Grissom, 55, his daughter Julie, 24, and his 8-year-old grandson Sean.   On Feb. 15, 1994, just weeks before Rollings trial for the Gainesville murders was set to begin, he  told his lawyer that he wanted to plead guilty. His lawyer warned against it, but Rolling was determined, saying he did not want to sit there while the pictures of the crime scene were shown to the jury. Rolling was sentenced to death in March and executed on Oct. 25, 2006.   Sources Cochrane, Emily, and McPherson, Jordan. All is Well: Gainesville Murder Victims Remembered After 25 Years. Alligator.org. 28 August 2015.Dean, Michelle. The True Story Behind the Horrific Murder Spree That Inspired Scream. Complex.com. 20 December 2016.Goodnough, Abby. Killer of 5 Florida Students Is Executed. NYTimes.com. 26 October 2006.Schweers, Jeff. Gainesville Student Murders: 25 Years Later. Gainesville.com. 24 August 2017.

World history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

World history - Essay Example By the time of the Revolution, they numbered about 10000 in number but regardless of this, they were the largest landowners in the country. Most of the land that the clergy held was done in the name of the Church and given that, this institution was recognized to be supreme in the state, all its members were exempted from payment of tax. The nobility, whose titles were hereditary and, passed down from generation to generation, formed the Second Estate and they too were exempt from taxes, despite their large number. The Third Estate consisted of those people who were from the lower classes of the society and at the top of this group were the bourgeoisie. These tended to find ways of escaping the burden of taxation in various ways and this left the burden on the poorest elements of French society. Moreover, these elements were for a large part responsible for the development of the Revolution because of the oppression they felt from the other Estates. This body was formed during the transitional period of the Revolution after the collapse of the Estates General. The members of the Third Estate, who after growing dissatisfied by the ineffectiveness of the Estates General chose to take matters into their own hands, mainly dominated it. As a result, by means of this dominance came political power and this made some members of the First and Second Estates to join them eventually for their own survival. The formation of this assembly met with stiff resistance from the king, who felt that his power was being eroded. On the other hand, despite this resistance, the assembly continued to meet until it finally came to be officially recognized. This assembly declared the right of man and citizen in France, stating that all men born within its territory was free and equal. This body was later on reconstituted and in its place, the National Constituent Assembly was formed. This idea is a legacy of the Revolution that was inherited from the ideas of the

Michelangelo on the Divine, Universal truth and Beauty Research Paper

Michelangelo on the Divine, Universal truth and Beauty - Research Paper Example elangelo, a renowned artist whose works of early thirteenth century are popular, is a proper example of artists whose works illustrates philosophy behind it. This paper seeks to examine Michelangelo’s works of art on Divine, universal truth and beauty. Michelangelo’s creative work of sculpture in Rome brings about the issue of divine and beauty. We view him presenting the images of the characters in the bible and their actions. We see Adam’s image eating the apple, and besides him there is Eve (Michelangelo 56). Everything that happened in the Garden of Eden is captured by his work. He even goes to the extent of imagining the image of the angel who gave the orders in the Garden of Eden. He further decorates the chapel with beautiful images of Cain and Abel offering their sacrifices and their reactions after the sacrifice. Daniel, Zachariah and Haman are among the characters Michelangelo sculpts in the chapel thus decorating it (Condivi 24). I can imagine the scenery in the chapel accompanied by its divine significance to the ones who see them. The fact that Michelangelo chose to use the characters of the holy bible to do his work signifies some kind of divine connection. The writer of Michelangelo’s biography describes the situation under which Eve sculpted by Michelangelo acts. How she is guilty and fearful of justice and hope for divine mercy. The fact that Michelangelo’s paintings are more beautiful is not something easy. When asked, Michelangelo argue that all the work of paintings is done by his brains and not the hands (Molyneux 78). This implies that Michelangelo frequently prefer to link the philosophical art with his brain. Moreover, he lends himself fully to the source of divine things in his art; the beautiful nature. Each and every thing that is in nature should be looked at with appropriate keenness (Kool 15). It is by observing this nature keenly that Michelangelo came up with such beautiful paint ings. As the saying goes that

Interview of Business Professional Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Interview of Business Professional - Essay Example Although he had a chance of executing the employment alone, he sought to follow the right procedures. The position was eventually filled with the most appropriate person by following employment procedures thus issues of ethical concern were avoided. I would have done the same. The dilemma would have been a violation of the company policy since the company requires that there be at least three possible suitors from which the best is picked. Although I could have had prior experience with the potential employee, following protocols were the right ethical thing to do. In addition, following right procedure would have safeguarded the company and me (Mathis and Jackson 2010). The ethical dilemma did not violate any law or company policy. It is advisable that personal judgment be followed and further official consultations made to avoid ethical conflicts. Choosing between personal conscience and company policies is difficult but it is more appropriate to follow the conscience. Under the same circumstances, I would have acted the same way as my interviewee to avoid ethical

Commensality Defines As Fellowship At Table Sociology Essay

Commensality Defines As Fellowship At Table Sociology Essay Commensality is eating with other people, and commensal eating patterns reflect the social relationships of individuals (1). According to Mennell et al., (1992), the relationship between food, eating, and society will be discussed in a range of ways that include commensality. Until recently, sociologists expressed relatively little interest in what we eat, how we prepare and consume food, how we feel about it and why. Paradoxically, when the relationship between food, eating and society is discussed, this is often in functionalist terms of commensality, that is, the social significance of living and eating together that is thought to lie at the heart of our sociality. Yet, from time to time, changes take place in the way our structures and interactions are perceived and prioritised. In addition, when children opened their lunch boxes, they displayed some of the opportunities and constraints of familial food choices. In effect, home was made visible. The data also illustrated that womens position in the domestic division of labour was intimately linked to the distribution of food, including that consumed at school. In interviews, parents explained that their influence over what went into the box was mediated by several factors which, together, were described in terms of eating compromises or bargains. The combination of (predominantly) mothers ideas about what was nutritionally balanced with their positioning of a snack meal as a stop-gap to the main meal event in the evening, was mediated not only by childrens food preferences but also by what was affordable and practically stored in a lunch box. Most people get married or spend time living with a partner at some stage in their lives. But what effect does this change have, if any, on their eating habits? The transition from bachelor or spinster to young couple represents a major lifecourse change and this paper looks at the role that eating together plays in the lives of a group of young Scottish couples recently married or cohabiting with their partner. The key question here is what role do meals play in all of this and how are eating activities arranged in these households. In an attempt to move the debate on meals beyond the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“traditional family unità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  it considers what eating à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“properlyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  meant for these couples. The paper looks at the importance of the evening meal as a site for sociability in married and cohabiting couples and examines the process of social interaction, focusing on temporal and spatial aspects of eating together as a couple. It reports on what men an d women said in individual interviews and recorded in personal food diaries, contrasting this with their behaviour when they were living separately from their partners (1) A study explained usual meal partners in commensal units and frequency of eating with others in commensal circles among 663 adults responding to a mailed questionnaire in one community. Meal partner data revealed that most respondents ate alone at breakfast, alone or with co-workers at lunch, and with family members at dinner. Commensal frequency data revealed some eating at the homes of other family members, little eating at friends homes, and almost no eating at neighbors homes. Few demographic variations existed in commensal eating, except that unmarried individuals more often ate breakfast and dinner alone and more often ate with friends. These finding suggest that contemporary work-oriented society may lead people to eat alone during the day but share evening meals with family, and that people maintain commensal relationships primarily with family members rather than friends or neighbors. Peoples social worlds appear to be focused on the nuclear family, and family members are al so the people they usually eat with (2). According to findings from a qualitative study of views and understandings of dietary practices in middle class families. Thirty five parents/main food providers of boys and girls aged 13/14 years, living in Eastern Scotland, were interviewed about their and their teenagers everyday lives, food, health and family practices. One of our aims was to understand more about the social and cultural conditions which might be promoting more positive dietary health and physical well-being amongst middle class families. Most parents accounts appeared rooted in a taken-for-grantedness that family members enjoyed good health, lived in relatively secure and unthreatening environments regarding health and resources, and were able to lead active lives, which they valued. Although controlling teenagers eating practices was presented as an ongoing challenge, active supervision and surveillance of their diets was described, as was guiding tastes in the right direction. Parents described attempts to ach ieve family eating practices such as commensality, cooking from scratch, and encouraging a varied and nutritional adult diet and cosmopolitan tastes, though work and activities could compromise these. These middle class families might be characterized as having future oriented hierarchies of luxury and choice, in which controlling and moulding teenagers food practices and tastes was assigned a high priority (3). As well as, Murcott (1988) has pointed out, public and fictional allegiance to the importance of shared meals persists, along with anxiety about their supposed decline. Together, anxiety about what, how, and with whom we eat has surfaced in relation to the health and physical well-being of adults and children and in cultural concerns about the disintegration of family life and values(4). The above mentioned studies illustrate that commensality in school can and does show a variety of formations. This applies also to understandings about parental choice and influence. At Fieldgate School, family influences were revealed more directly because children brought to school visible aspects of their home life, albeit contained in a school lunch box. Such influences were reinforced and thwarted by a variety of other factors, including peer group influence, but overall, parental choice was considered paramount. It should be the responsibility of both home and school, both really. I mean we need food to grow so that should be an educational thing and also put into practice at home via the parents. Food needs to be taught properly. As well as, the experience of becoming the provider of their own food changes the students food behaviors and representations. Diet quality, patterns of commensality and social representations of food provide input for developing healthy diet care and health promotion (5). According to ALLEN et al., (1970) the strongest relations occurred among the nutrition factors and family commensality was the most influential. The degree of family commensality was related not only to increase in food likes and dietary adequacy but also to health and academic performance. Food likes and diet adequacy were both correlated with academic skills, work rating, expectation of success and college preparation. Conclusion: Sharing meals together, both in terms of common understandings about their construction and the social rules which govern behaviour, is thought to be the very essence of sociality. The individualisation of our eating habits, it is claimed, means that both meals, and by implication, critical aspects of our sociality are disappearing (Burnett, 1989). In response, education has been advocated as a mechanism to halt a trend which is thought to threaten our health, our family life, and our sense of social cohesion. Set at the interface between home and school, the above mentioned papers have explored commensality at home and school, and has considered the overlap between the two, using data which prioritise the views of parents and, to a lesser extent children, rather than the perspectives of educationalists, nutritionists, or teachers. Advocates of nutritional improvement in childrens diets have stressed the importance of a school meals service. The discussion of eating provision in scho ol highlights the complex issues underpinning this assertion, not only in terms of nutritional impact but also in relation to the sociality of eating and the cross-cutting effects of institutional practice, socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage (discussed also by Dobson et al., 1994), and cultural preference. As we discussed in the above sections, the strongest relations occurred among the nutrition factors and family commensality was the most influential. The degree of family commensality was related not only to increase in food likes and dietary adequacy but also to health and academic performance. Food likes and diet adequacy were both correlated with academic skills, work rating, expectation of success and college preparation. 1. Marshall DW, Anderson AS. Proper meals in transition: young married couples on the nature of eating together. Appetite2002 Dec;39(3):193-206. 2. Sobal J, Nelson MK. Commensal eating patterns: a community study. Appetite2003 Oct;41(2):181-90. 3. Backett-Milburn KC, Wills WJ, Roberts ML, Lawton J. Food, eating and taste: parents perspectives on the making of the middle class teenager. Soc Sci Med Oct;71(7):1316-23. 4. Murcott A. Sociological and social anthropological approaches to food and eating. World Rev Nutr Diet1988;55:1-40. 5. Alves HJ, Boog MC. [Food behavior in student residence halls: a setting for health promotion]. Rev Saude Publica2007 Apr;41(2):197-204.

Inspector Goole in J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls :: English Literature

What is the function of Inspector Goole in J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls? An Inspector Calls was written in 1945 by John Boynton Priestley. The play was set in 1912 two years before the first world war so from this their would have been irony as the audience would know. The play is set in a dining room in the Birling’s residence in Brumley, North Midlands which was a fictional industrial city. At the time the play was set the world was a very class conscience place with higher and lower class depending on one thing: money. The country was set up in two categories with the socialists which consists of the Political System in which ways of community and sharing are promoted and capitalists which is the political system which values private ownership and the individual. The country really was involved around capitalist values. For example there was no welfare state. In this essay I will be focusing on the main functions of the inspector. The inspectors role is a key to the plot and conclusion and delivers morals and principles and how the functions of the inspector get used in specific places throughout the play. The play opens with the Birling family and Gerald celebrating the engagement of Gerald and Sheila. It is dramatically effective because you get to see all the characters in one room therefore seeing their personalities, instead of them being introduced one-by-one. They are celebrating and at ease which means they are a little bit drunk. The mood is very relaxed and everyone having a nice time. From the stage directions it says the mood is â€Å"pink and intimate†. We learn from Mr.Birling that he is selfish and a capitalist from his speech. He sums himself up within the opening of the play saying â€Å"that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own-and-†(act one page 11) this indicates that he is a selfish man and cares for his family only (Mr.Birling is a capitalist). The mood is soon to change from relaxed and chilled to harsh when the inspector arrives. At the last word of Mr. Birlings speech the door bell rings at the right time to create tension, the doorbell ring was purposely put their to create tension and to stop Birling preaching about capitalist views. Its clever even how one word â€Å"and† can be such a tensional word as the door bell rings. In the stage directions â€Å"the lighting should be pink and intimate until the inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder† it changes to as if all the characters were being