POST 14: Elephant, a Gus Van Sant movie (2003)

1) What struck you most in the film?

I realy liked so much the images and the way the movie is filmed.
2) What also impressed you?

What most impressed me in the movie was the scene where the two killers recieve the guns that they will use to kill all the students next day.
3) Did you find anything more particularly upsetting?

To my mind, I found that the director took the history maybe to far, and I found it was irrespectfull the way he treats this delicate topic.
4) What did you find very disturbing?

I think that the director treats the fact that they were two students planning to kill their collegues as if it was something normal could be disturbing for some.
5) What was most shocking?

The way the other students were portrated: joks, the girls who throught up at school after lunch, the nerds... It was too caricatural in my opinion.
6) What does the film  suggest about the two school shooters?

That they were normal people and that it was something with no importance,
7) What's more, what does the film director make clear about the two killers?

That they were homosexual.
8) What kind of approach to the school shooting itself did Gus Van Sant opt for?

Gus Van Sant represented the shool shooting in a very heroic and super dramatic way and not as if it was cruel and stupid.
9) Moreover, what's the main consequence of the realistic treatment he uses? What about the 'poetic' touches he instills throughout the film?

In my opinion, this artistic treatment he uses downplays the topic and the barbarian act they comited.
10) As a conclusion, what must we admit about the way in which the killing and the killers are perceived by the film viewers?

They are percieved as if it wasn't really very serious and they could be even forgiven.

BRADY CAMPAIN:

The Brady Campaign was founded in 1974 as the National Council to Control Handguns (NCCH). From 1980 through 2000 it operated under the name Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI). In 2001, it was renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and its sister project, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, was renamed the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Steve SACK, on www.startribune.com,

Gun Lobby and Congress (2010)

The first cartoon was created by Steve Sack in 2010, it is named Gun Loby and Congress. In the foreground we can notice two caracters wich are 'black-tie' dressed and both have a briefcase: in the one on the left we can reed 'GUN LOBY' and in the right one we can reed 'CONGRESS'. The on representing the 'GUNLOBY' seems to give monney in order to preasure the 'CONGRESS' to eliminate gun control. In the background we can notice that it is represented the Capitol with a flag a half-mast and a trial of blood. The blood and the flag are representing the american citicens that where murdered because of the non-control with guns in the USA. 

We could maybe interpret from this caricature that there is a denouce to the massive lobbying some enterprises do in order to still can earn monney in the armament industry.

Dave GRANDLUND, on www.davegranlund.com, 

Second Amendment and NRA (2013)

As an introduction I would like to explain two notions:

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is an American nonprofit organisation which advocates for gun rights. Founded in 1871, the group has informed its members about firearm-related bills since 1934, and it has directly lobbied for and against legislation since 1975. It is also the oldest continuously operating civil rights organization in the United States.

The Founding Fathers of the United States are the individuals of the Thirteen British Colonies in North America who led the American Revolution against the authority of the British Crown and established the United States of America. The term is also used more narrowly, referring specifically to those who either signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or who were delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention and took part in drafting the proposed Constitution of the United States. A further subset includes those who signed the Continental Association or the Articles of Confederation. During much of the 19th century, they were referred to as either the "Founders" or the "Fathers".

In this second document we can see that are represented two statues: on the left, the statue is grey and represents an american man who probably was when the founding fathers founded the USA. Near by him there is a soldier of the army who seems more modern than the other one. Both are above something to be taller. 

This cartoon is saying that today the United States of Amercia is defending his land but not in a good way as the Founding Fathers wanted for their nation.

POST 7; THE IDEA OF PROGRESS: QUANTITY vs. QUALITY

"Things you own end up owning you" -  Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

First of all, when we think about quantity is when there is a forward movement, as a toward goal, or growth.
And then, speaking about quality, it is when there is a gradual betterment, or a progressive improuvment of society.

So we are going to see two documents. The first one is a cartoon by a cartoonist called Polyp which publishes his cartoons without any copyright on his webpage: http://www.polyp.org.uk/index.html

So we can see that the cartoon is divided in four images. There are rats that seem anxious or even stressed or scared. There is in the middle of the four cartoons some words like: "work harder" or "keep going".

In this cartoon, life is compared to a race for owning and consuming more than the others, and humans are compared to rats, because we all do the same and we just follow the society with worring about what we want, we just worry about quantity.

The second document we are going to study is a graph about life expentancy through the second half of the 20th century.

Thanks to this cartoon we learn that life expentancy has grown since 1960 to 2010. So that we can conclude that our life quality has improuved with consumer society.

As a conclusion, we can say that even if the quality of our standard of living has improuved, we seem to be too worried about what we own and we are always looking for having more quantity, instead of having less but still a life with quality.