SCHINDLER LIST

Schindler List is a movie that is more than just a story of a man and his heroic deed, but also to show today’s world on the dangers of hatred. It has been emphasizes in the movie as in how cruelly the Nazis treated the Jews. It has been also pin point on how one man can make a difference as is the case with Oskar Schindler. However, perhaps the main objective of Schindler List is that the world should never forget Oskar Schindler and what he did for the Jews as well as for mankind.  Schindler’s impact is so great that even the numerical facts are astonishing. In fact if one compares the number of direct descendants of the Schindlerjuden to the number of Jews alive in Poland after 1945, it is evident that there are more Schindlerjuden today than the total number of Jews in 1945 Poland.

One psychological event that took place in this movie had to go through dangerous ease of denial. The Jews in Schindler’s List, as they are forced into the ghetto and later into the labour camp, suffer from a denial of their true situation. The denial afflicted many European Jews who fell victim to the Holocaust. They leave their homes in the countryside and move to the ghetto because the Nazis force them to. Once in the ghetto, however, they believe the bad times will pass. Their denial of their situation continues in the labour camp, even as killing surrounds them.

Schindler’s List will definitely give everyone a personal effect, well mind in fact it does affect me personally. What seems to be interesting in Schindler’s List is the question of morality. It will make one to question himself, would I be as heroic as Oskar Schindler if I were in his shoes? This movie had given all the opportunity to look at ourselves and analyze what's inside. 

Oskar Schindler:  They won't soon forget the name "Oskar Schindler" around here. "Oskar Schindler," they'll say, "everybody remembers him. He did something extraordinary. He did what no one else did. He came with nothing, a suitcase, and built a bankrupt company into a major manufactory. And left with a steamer trunk, two steamer trunks, of money. All the riches of the world." 

GANDHI

“To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse than starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body,” this quote is an example of how Gandhi firmly believed in freedom and equality for people. Gandhi believed his main obstacle in life was to end discrimination towards every one.

South Africa was one stage in Gandhi’s life in which he tried to end racial persecution. Being thrown off a train when he sat in the first-class section was the first time that Gandhi experienced racial persecution here. After his realization that the Europeans in South Africa did not want Indians to be in a high status position, Gandhi tried to oppose them. he did this by burning his “pass” that was issued only to the non-Europeans. Other Indians immediately followed him even though it was against the law. This event was the first of many times that Gandhi used passive resistance to illustrate a point. He set up meetings for Indians to gather and protest non-violently. Even in his young years, Gandhi believed that all people should be treated the same and learn to love each other. “In nature there is fundamental unity running through all the diversity we see about us.”

Gandhi lived in South Africa for about twenty-two years, but when the oppressive laws were changed, he made his way back to his home country, India. It had been a long time since he had lived in India and upon arrival he dressed as a commoner and was greeted by thousands of people. Gandhi immediately became a part of Indian politics and his opinion had a great effect on most of the country. Gandhi tried to include the poverty-stricken people in classifying India. He realized their needs and made efforts to help them financially. Gandhi reached out to the inferior castes and began his fight to end discrimination and British control of India. Gandhi once said, “just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be.” Passive resistance is still Gandhi’s approach to gaining freedom from the British and stopping violence in India but discrimination keeps getting in the way. Judging people by their religion or colour of skin leads to violence and oppression which are problems in India. Gandhi gets put in prison many times in his lifetimes because of his push for Indian independence. Muslim-Hindu hostility was ended shortly when Gandhi tried to unite the two religious groups by fasting until they stopped the violence against each other and the British. He wanted the British to end their rule on India, and for the Muslims and Hindus to cooperate with each other in the independence of India. India was granted its independence on August 15, 1947.

Although Gandhi was a man of faith, he did not found a church, nor did he create and specific dogma for his followers. Gandhi believed in the unity of all mankind under one god, and preached Hindu, Muslim and Christian ethics. As a youth, he was neither a genius nor a child prodigy. Indeed, he suffered from extreme shyness. However, he approached life as a very long series of small steps towards his goals, which he pursued relentlessly. By the time he died, India had become an independent country, free of British rule, in fact, the largest democracy in the world, mostly Hindu with sizable Muslim minority. Today, Gandhi is remembered not only as a political leader, but as a moralist who appealed to the universal conscience of mankind. As such, he changed the world.

DEPARTURES

Departures is a movie with a personal touch that may evoke many sort of emotions among those who had the chance to watch it. Recently, the movie has won an Oscar for best foreign language film which makes it extra special. The movie is about Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), who is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved due to bankruptcy and now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for a new job and to start over. He answers a classified ad entitled “Departures” thinking the advertisement is about travel agency, only to discover that the job is actually for “Nokanshi” or “encoffineer”, a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his job and begins to perfect the art of “Nokanshi”, acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living.

Death is one of the greatest mysteries of life. Its inescapability has been a source of wonder, fear, hopefulness, and puzzlement throughout history. Humans, being the only species consciously aware of the inevitability of death, have sought from time immemorial to cope with this unique insight. In traditional context, death was conspicuously visible throughout society and people went to great lengths to remind themselves of how fragile life is. Reminders of mortality were everywhere, whether they are in literature, paintings, oral traditions or the cemeteries and churches where the physical remains of the deaths intersected with the daily activities of the community.

In the current modern century, the social and psychological landscape was transformed, redefining the culture, social and personal experiences of death. As individualism, secularism, materialism, and technology have become driving forces for the current modern generation, as the experience of dying and its meanings have been dramatically recast. Individualism replaces community in daily life, community presence and support is withdrawn from the dying and grieving processes. Secularism as a way of life offers many opportunities and great pleasures, but is ultimately unable to offer meaning and comfort at the end of life. Like secularism, materialism poorly equips individuals and societies to grapple with the mystery of death. In addition, technological achievement and dependence have enabled humanity to actively fight against death, thus forestalling death for countless numbers of individuals.

SYBIL

Sybil is a famous, Emmy award winning film starring Sally Field as Sybil, a real women possessed by 16 different personalities. This movie remains as a superbly acted, one-of-a-kind achievement that has yet to be surpassed as the definitive cinematic treatment on multiple personality disorder.

Sybil started life as a 1974 bestseller by Flora Rheta Schreiber, an absorbing account of the pseudonymous Sybil’s struggles with multiple personality disorder and the 11 years psychiatric treatment that helped to integrate her sixteen personalities into one. The book’s authenticity has been called into questions in recent years, but the real “Sybil”, the late Shirley Ardell Mason, insisted up to her death in 1998 that every word in the book was true.

In any event, I’d probably like the movie adaptation better if it were more faithful to Schreiber’s account. Primary among my whinge is the final integration of Sybil’s many selves, in the book a long setback filled process that the movie compress into a single afternoon in a park. This makes it difficult to elaborate the treatment considered in the movie as it was pretty brief and incomplete.

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to call this as the finest movie I’ve seen, and probably the best possible interpretation of this material. In some ways it even improves on the book, most notably in the performances of Joanne Woodward as Sybil’s committed shrink and Brad Davis as her confused boyfriend; in contrast to their literary counterparts, who came off as little more than personality-free ciphers orbiting around Sybil, both actors create fully-rounded, compelling characters.  And, that leaves Sally Field as Sybil. This is certainly one of the best works she has ever done; her frequent changes in character, from the mousy Sybil to the more refined Vicky, the assertive Mary Lou, or little girl Sybil Ann, are totally convincing. 

PARENTHOOD

Ron Howard's bittersweet comedy genre movie "Parenthood", lays out an entire catalogue of psychological stresses that involves family life in America, and asks if being a parent is all worth the while. It definitely have to be! All children are not  the same and not all parents adapt the same feature of parenting style. It's all depends on the respective individuals personality and attitude. The movie "Parenthood" revolves around five types of parents, which involves Gil Buckman (Steve Martin), the lead character, who apparently portrays an authoritative parenting style who deals with his free-will children as a "non-strict" parent. Helen, a divorcee with two teen children, adapts an indulgent way of parenting, tries to deal with her children who seems to have their own way of teenage problems. Her daughter Julie,who is only 16 years old, sleeps with her drag-racer boyfriend under the family roof and her 13 years old son Gary, a skateboard fanatic who carries around pornographic videotapes in a crumpled paper bag. Having this problems, Helen tries to be supportive but at the same time doesnt have a base control towards her children.

Gil's other sister, Susan, is a school teacher with an obnoxious husband, Nathan (Rick Moranis), who is pretty much obsessed with raising his 3 year old daughter to perfection by using flash cards showing chemical symbols. His way of parenting code portrays more or less like an authoritarian parenting style. A further complication for the Buckman clan is the unexpected arrival of a family member, Gil's younger brother, Larry (Tom Hulce), with his illegitimate son, Cool. Larry as a compulsive gambler, forgets about his son Cool, and dumps his son under his parents supervision. His character of not being responsible in terms of lack of attention and care-taking portrays him as a uninvolved type of parent.

This movie had shown us different types of parenting styles in various family roof, and not all seems to portray it clearly but the basic aspects of the styles were present in the movie. Some manage to cope well with it and others learned a lesson through their activities. This movie has also shown recognition in no matter how grown-up and self aware we may be, we inevitably bring the emotional wound of childhood into the family dynamic. Even being the most sensitive parent, the film reminds us that limit will always be there. No matter how hard you try, you can't live your children's lives for them.

Women have choices, and men have responsibilities. ~ Gil Buckman

THE FISHER KING

Consistent with one of Terry Gilliam’s work, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Brazil, The Fisher King once again deals with grand themes against the backdrop of an alienating and dehumanizing social environment. The movie begins with Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), the sardonic and biting radio DJ, berating his caller and listeners from a studio in New York. While speaking to one of his fan named Alan, Jack launches into a lengthy tirade in which he mock down the “yuppies”, declaring they deserve to die. However, on the same day the 11 o’clock news reports a violence scene where Alan (Jack’s caller) went on a shooting rampage earlier in the day, killing several people at a trendy New York nightspot frequented by “yuppies” types.

That awful scene had made Jack to feel extremely guilty for the deaths of those in the clubs. Three years later, Jack’s guilt is exacerbated further when Parry (Robin William), the husband of the murder victim, saves him from a suicidal plunge into the Hudson. Throughout the rest of the movie, the fateful relationship between both of them unfolds, providing the springboard for Gilliam’s brilliant exploration of such fundamental human problems as sin, repentance, and redemption as well as the search for personal fulfilment.

The focus on the search for personal fulfilment in an increasingly bureaucratized and alienating world is played through the more basic debate surrounding human motivation. The character Jack Lucas gives us a portrait of egoism incarnate, a covetous and self interested radio DJ who is perpetually anguished despite his material success. On the other hand, parry, the homeless mad man (the fool) who finds satisfaction through apparently selfless and noble acts. The Egoism-Altruism dichotomy is made even more explicit as Parry relates the story of “The Fisher King” to Jack. The story concerns a king with visions of glory and fortune who spends a lifetime searching for the sacred Holy Grail, only to find himself emotionally scarred and cynical as he nears the end of his life.

At this point, a fool comes along. Finding the king thirsty, the fool offers the king a drink of water. As the king drinks the water from the fool’s cup, he finds himself not only emotionally healed but also in possession of that which he had chased for so long, the Holy Grail. The point of “The Fisher King” story is clear, where the single minded pursuit of personal satisfaction, such as egoism, is doomed to failure. Only through other pursuits can true happiness be realized.

'Cause after all, women can have babies, which is kind of like creating. And which also accounts for the fact that women are so attracted to men... 'cause let's face it... the Devil is a hell of a lot more interesting! Believe me, I've slept with some saints in my day, I know what I'm talking about. So the whole point in life is for men and women to get married... so that God and the Devil can get together and work it out. Not that we have to get married. God forbid.' ~ Anne Napolitano

The Castle

Filmed in 11 days on a budget of a half-million, The Castle is one of the greatest example when it comes to good story line translated to film without big stars and special effects. the movie is basically about this family (the Kerrigans) who seem to be the worst off in the country and they own a house in a suburb of Melbourne, which apparently next to the airport runway. They are all uneducated, except for their daughter who went to TAFE and the oldest son is in the prison. The beauty of this family and the entire movie about them is that this may be the best family in the world. Despite their social standing and their limitations, the Kerrigans are absolutely content in their lives and are totally a solid loving family. 

The comedy is definitely one of the plus point of the movie as it was brilliantly written. and as the story moves along, the Kerrigans' showed their reaction to how wonderful life is and how to cherish every moment of it without concentrating on the negative side and just the positive side. In this movie Darryl (lead role) has shown us the true message of appreciating ones house as his own castle no matter where its located or how it looks like. When the city planners decided to buy the Kerrigans' place, Darryl fights for his house via the law, although he offered a great sum of compensation. That shows how one man appreciates his house and how he values his home as a priceless castle. 

The movie walks a fine line with its depiction of the Kerrigans' blissful life. In the film, we can feel the genuine sense of attraction for these characters on the part of the filmmakers; their decency and uncomplicated sense of family unity is celebrated rather than derided. They also succeed because they draw pitch-perfect performances from their cast, with the actors bringing a wonderful sense of enthusiasm to their roles. It surely a must watch film, true entertainment with plenty of good messages.

"It's not just a house, it's a home. A man's home is his castle." ~ Darryl Kerrigan

The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense is a psychological thriller movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan. In this chilling psychological thriller, eight year old Cole Sear, is haunted by a dark secret, where he constantly receive visitors from the supernatural world.  A helpless and reluctant channel, Cole is terrified by threatening visitations from those with unresolved problems who appear from the shadows. Confused by his paranormal powers, Cole is too young to understand his purpose and too terrified to tell anyone about his torment, except child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe. As Dr. Crowe tries to uncover the ominous truth about Cole’s supernatural abilities, the consequence for client and therapist is a jolt that awakens them both to something harrowing and unexplainable.

As quoted by the director regarding the movie, “Ultimately, it’s about learning how to communicate those fears, whether it’s communication between a doctor and a patient, a husband and a wife, a mother and a son or between ourselves and loved ones who have passed on. As well all have seen, not communicating with, or keeping secrets from people we love can destroy marriages, careers, families, and even lives. That itself is horrifying.” This movie could have the typical scary input as any other horror movie, but the director has creatively scripted the movie with good messages.

It is interesting in the psychology field when we examine on how emotional responses such as fear has been evoked when we watch horror movies. Good screenwriters know that fear generates a core emotional response that actually changes the body’s chemical response for a small period in time. This shift inside an audience, in turn, creates thrilling moments in which their participation actually engages them physically with the stories on the screen. This is because horror films are emotion-based experience (Williams, 2007). Virtually everyone knows what it feels likes to be really scared, for example, pounding heartbeat, faster breathing, nervous perspiration, and butterflies in the stomach.  But whether that fright is caused by watching a nail-biting horror movie, listening to a spine-chilling story or prowling through a dark-as-night haunted house, some people actually revel in feeling frightened.

There is an interesting study done on the effects of gender roles and what each gender is “supposed” to do when watching a horror film. “There’s a great set of studies done here at Indiana where they had a male and a female to watch horror films together, and when the female was part of the experiment the male would watch it if the female appeared uncomfortable, squeamish, unhappy with the content, then the male enjoyed the movie more and rated the female more attractive” (Weaver, 2009).  And, if the man appeared frightened, the woman would enjoy the movie less, and find her companion less attractive.  Well, looks like man has to build up his guts to be a fearless prince in order to capture his lady’s heart.

 " Some magic's real " ~ Cole Sear

MISSISSIPPI BURNING

In 1964, two white New Yorkers, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, journeyed to Neshoba County, Mississippi, to participate in Freedom Summer, a civil rights and voter registration effort, where they met James Chaney, a local African-American activist. On 21 June, they were detained in the Neshoba County Jail on a trumped-up speeding charge. About seven hours later, the three were released, only to be stopped again by the local deputy sheriff, who then turned the young men over to a group of Klan members. Chaney, Goodman, and Schwener were executed and their bodies buried in a dam under construction in a remote part of the county.

The 1988 film Mississippi Burning was based on this incident and the FBI investigation that followed. The film was directed by Alan Parker and starred Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents sent to fictional Jessup County to solve the case of the three missing civil rights workers. A disclaimer shown at the end of the movie announces that it was inspired by actual events which took place in the South during the 1960s. The characters however are sort of fictitious and do not depict the real people, either living or dead.

The bystander effect, a controversial name given to a social psychological phenomenon in cases where individuals do not offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present, is present in the movie Mississippi Burning. The killing of the civil rights workers doesn’t create public outcry of any kind in the South region. Very few black people, especially in Mississippi, had anything to say about the crime, as they didn’t dare to incur the wrath of the white authorities. But the truly astonishing aspect is the absence of the outcry by many white people, if any, as they either agreed with the crime, or just didn’t care about the plight of Blacks (and the Jews) in South.

One of the manners we are affected by groups is to consider crowd behaviour. Studies have shown that those in uniform behave differently. This is called being deindividuated. In this state you might do bad things ‘out of character’. Mississippi Burning is a film about the scapegoating of Black people in the southern USA. Those who were lynching and torturing the Blacks were disguised in uniforms and during the day the torturers had normal jobs, and behaved normally. This film is not very pleasant but well worth watching. One of the causes of prejudice is scapegoating in times of economic hardship, and the failure of cotton crops was just such a time (Hovland & Sears, 1940). So films like this can be of great relevance when studying psychology.  

FORGET PARIS

Billy Crystal's Forget Paris is a wonderful film filled with romantic moments that ring trues and with great big laughs. The story revolves about Mickey and Ellen relationship, which apparently narrated by Mickey's friends in a get together dinner. Mickey, a popular NBA basketball referee, known as the skillful and fearless one. When his father dies, Mickey accompanies the body to France, as the father's last wish was to buried with his Army friends that he met after the Second World War. Eventually, he lost his father's body in the airport and Ellen came about to take in charge of the whole situation. From various meetings both became friends and after an one day outing, both of them felt in love with each other. After a short period of separation, as Mickey lives in States and Ellen in France, both of them met again and decided to get married. Their honeymoon time doesn't last long as they had trouble with personal space as their profession tend to be a barrier in their love life.   After several conflicts, both of them agree to respect on each other personal interest and space and that leads to the success of their relationship in the end.

This movie has thought us about how one should respect their partner's personal interest and at the same time not letting go of ones interest. Having said that, spending time independently of each other is a healthy way to make your relationship grow. Everyone needs a little personal space, and it's a huge sign of respect towards your partner when you encourage and support their time alone. Sometimes we might have tons of work and eventually we might bring it back home and end up spending to much time on it. In that case, agree to set certain amount of time on the workloads each week. In exchange, we should offer our partner the same amount of time to do either something on their own or together.

People are happiest in relationships where the give and take are about equal. If one person is getting too little from the relationship, then not only are they going to be unhappy with this but also the person who is getting the lion's share may also feel rather guilty about this imbalance. In that case, looking into the Equity theory of relationships, it proposes that partners in a relationship who feel that they are putting in more efforts to keep it going will experience emotional distress and anger. This theory also proposes that partners who feel they are getting more than their share of rewards in a relationship will also experience emotional distress in the form of guilt. Having said that, equity is calculated by evaluating the contribution made by each partner to the relationship and the benefits received within the said relation. The theory also states that partners do not have to make equal contribution or receive equal benefits as long as the ratio between the contributions and benefits is similar. this love and relationship theory is one of the best ways to understand how to make a relationship work.

Marriages don't work when one partner is happy and the other is miserable. Marriages is about both people being equally miserable. (Andy)

WHALE RIDER

Based on the novel by Witi Ihimaera, Whale Rider is the critically-accalimed independent film by Niki Caro. It’s a quiet story, slow in its movement and old-fashioned in its rendering. Yet. It’s also a modern film with a strong underlying feminist theme that patriarchal thinking should be a thing of the past. Apart from that, this film showcases people and style of living not normally depicted in most films we have seen, and an unbelievable performance by first-time Keisha Castle-Hughes that keeps the film from falling apart during key emotional scenes.

This film is set in New Zealand, where the legend has it that the native people came there following their leader, a boy who heroically rode on the back of a whale. From that day forward, tradition has been to give leadership to direct descendants of that leader of old, but tragedy occurs when opposite-sexed twins are born, having the boy baby and the mother not making through the delivery but the survival of the baby girl. The chain is broken, as tradition has it that only first-born male descendant may be the leader. The girl, Pai, grows into an adventurous and talented person of her own, but her grandfather Koro has no need for spirited girls to try to be the leader. Koro starts a school to teach the olden traditions, and hope he can find a boy among the village to rise to the occasion and show leadership for the people who now have none. All signs point to Pai, but traditions are meant to be upheld.

Outside of the impressive performances by the fine cast, Whale Rider benefits from the fact that It is about a people and traditions mostly unknown to those not in the area. The depiction of their customs and lifestyles are authentically recreated within the story, showing the power of music (incredible Haka performances), poetry (Maori chanting), and ancient fighting techniques that the people of that region hold very dear.

The feminist leanings are a bit obvious, especially when we have had many such stories of our own comings, but it must be remembered that there are places where such a thing as a girl leader are completely unheard of, perhaps the vast majority of the world still falls under adamant patriarchal values set forth from their very beginnings. It is in those places that the message might actually be groundbreaking, and strides might be made to change attitudes from a system that has been going on for hundreds of years. In that case, this film is a well-made film, a coming-of-age tale sort s, not only for young girl, but also for people struggling to maintain an identity and cohesion. 

"My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the whale rider. I'm not a prophet, but I know that our people will keep going forward, all together, with all of their strength. "

STRICTLY BALLROOM

Before writer-director Baz Luhrman made the frenetic Moulin Rouge (2001), he deftly captured the magic and power of old fashioned Hollywood musicals with Strictly Ballroom. He did so by intertwining two classic themes: the rebel who eventually triumphs over adversity and naysayers, and the ugly duckling who blossoms into a beautiful swan (and of course gets the prince in the end).

When promising dancer Scott Hastings (a devastatingly sexy Paul Mercurio) defies the ballroom dancing community and its rules, his shrieking stage mother (Pat Thomson) nearly disowns him and resorts to all manner of trickery to rein him back. Simultaneously, one of the mother's beginner dance student Fran (Tara Morice), develops a crush on Scott, a man seemingly far out of her league in every way. Defying odds and doubters, the two become a couple, both on and off the dance floor. Fast moving, romantic, funny, and full of wit, Strictly Ballroom is sterling escapist fare.

 This movie has highlighted an important aspect and that will be the battle of individuality and conformity. The movie has shown both aspects clearly in the character Scott. Conformity presents when Scott has to obey all the rules and regulation of the dance which eventually acts as a blockage for freedom of expression. Individuality came about when Scott resist the rules and decides to express his own way of various dance moves without exemptions. His dad eventually became a role model for him in term of expressing ones passion via dancing in own ways.

We always has a choice between being conform to social rules or having passion of expressing talent in own way. Choosing the right path is crucial as it can make a difference. So, be conscious on what you are doing as realizing your needs and making the effort to grant one is definitely to road to success.