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. "