Cardon, Sanders, Villavicencio, Labbe: Whip My Hair Around Loyola

Labbe-Minority Report

Minority Report (2002), directed by Steven Spielberg, is set in Washington D.C in 2054. Scott Frank wrote the screenplay based on Philip K. Dick's novella. Dick questions humanity and reality throughout his works. Minority Report investigates these themes by the unfair treatment of precogs, who are beings with the ability to foresee crimes.


In the film, three precogs, Agatha (Samantha Morton), Arthur (Michael Dickman) and Dashiel (Matthew Dickman), reside together under the PreCrime unit's constant watch. The officers learn the names of future victim's and criminals as well as the time and date of future crimes. Precrime arrives at the scene before violence ensues, haloing the perpetrators, leaving them incapacitated. Then, the criminals are taken into custody and locked up.



Dr. Iris Hineman (Lois Smith), whose research laid the groundwork for the program says Agatha is the strongest precog. Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) finds out PreCrime director Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) killed Agatha's mother, Anne Lively. "You created a world without crime. All you had to do was kill someone," Anderton says to Burgess.



Lively wanted her daughter back. Burgess wanted the distraction out of the way. He knew there would be no PreCrime without Agatha, and his program would be a failure. He had no problem locking Agatha (and the other precogs) up and using her as a tool. He had no problem killing Agatha's mother because he didn't see Agatha as human.



In the article, "Minority Report: Narrative, Images, and Dead Women," Joanne Clarke Dillman says, "Agatha's trauma is the loss of her mother, Anne Lively;Anderton's is the loss of his son, Sean."



Anderton is decidedly human. His loss parallels with Agath's loss, putting them on the same human level. "Agatha reaches out to Anderton," Dillman says. The audience is led to side with Agatha's human qualities, showing Burgess' crime to be unjust.



"The movement of the film takes Agatha and Anderton from the position of melancholy to that of mourning, to a sense of wholeness where both move on." Their stories continue to move on the same level to the film's end. Anderton reunites with his ex-wife, Lara, and the precogs are allowed to live in an undisclosed location in peace.





This clip shows Anderton and Agatha's close relationship.

Labbe-Casablanca

The script for Casablanca arrived at Warner Brothers’ studios the day after the December 7, 1941 Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. France had been invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, and other parts of Europe were also under German control. Roosevelt’s government was diplomatic with the Vichy regime from the time it rose to power in 1940 to November 1942.

Casablanca’s general release was on January 23, 1943. There was general public approval of the film’s timing and political message. The Casablanca Conference was happening at the same time from January 14 to 24, which saw the planning of the Allies European Strategy.

The film was set in North Africa during the early days of World War II, and focused on European resistance to Fascism. People trying to escape Nazi persecution plan to leave Europe through Casablanca to go to America.

At the end of the film, Captain Renault (Claude Rains) the Vichy leader and Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) the American club owner, watch as a plane flies off into the fog. The plane carries Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid) a Czech resistance leader and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) his wife and Rick’s former love. Lazlo and Lund went through Casablanca to try to escape to America. German Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) would have stopped the couple if Renault and Blaine did not work together.

The dominant of this scene is Blaine’s face because he’s placed at the top right corner in the foreground. His eyes look out of the frame to the airplane Lazlo and Ilsa are on. He witnesses their safe escape, the product of his heroic efforts. The camera proxemics are close, there’s a tight frame and there is low density so that the audience focuses on Blaine’s facial expression and proximity to Renault.

Indeed, the background is blurred out in low lighting so that Blaine and Renault are the main focus. Their personal character proximity not only tells of their allied stance against the Vichy regime, but also gives more detail to their relationship and roles in the film.

The character proxemics are almost intimate as Blaine is closer to the camera, standing in front of Renault, overlapping his figure. This tells the audience that even though Renault and Blaine worked together, the American, is the main hero of the story. He sacrificed his personal happiness to preserve American liberty and ensure it spreads throughout Europe.

The film tries to convince the audience to drop the country’s general isolationist attitude and embrace a more active role in World War II.

Yvonne Labbe's Avatar: Redwood Tree

My avatar is a young coast redwood tree. It's also called the sequoia and California redwood. The evergreen is a member of the cypress family.

I grew up around redwoods as a native northern Californian. And after living in Louisiana for a year, I’ve found that besides my best friend, trees are what I miss most about home.

Redwoods and I seem to have similar needs and life philosophies. The trees prefer full sun, but can survive in shaded areas. One of my favorite pastimes is lying outside during the daytime. Redwoods like mild, rainy winters and dry summers. I appreciate rain, but not too much of it. The afternoon downpours and quick floods in Louisiana aggravate me. The redwood is also monoecious. I too, am comfortable with gender neutrality.

The tree represents what I want to be. It’s fast growing, adding 3 to 6 feet per year. I want to be constantly learning and expanding my mind and abilities as well. Redwoods can get up to 300 feet tall and live up to 2,200 years old. I want to mature into something great and impacting. Redwoods are home to birds, reptiles, amphibians, and endangered species. I want to be accommodating to a diverse group, especially those in need.

I see myself as a redwood seedling right now. I’m in college, loosely planning where to set my roots down. Hopefully I’ll settle in a climate conducive to growth, in a natural forest or preserve rather than by the freeway or in a private lumber farm. I'd rather enjoy and contribute to my environment. Like the trees, I don't think I was born to be cut down.

Labbe's Werewolf Comparison

The werewolf film remake is more visually impacting due to the technological advances that have been made after 70 years.

In George Waggner’s 1941 The Wolf Man, viewers see Lon Chaney sit in a chair while his feet grow more hairy in evident multiple shots. Next, we see him as a full furry-faced werewolf with uneven teeth. Waggner spent more time on the transformation from werewolf to man at the end of the film. The shots are still clipped, but the camera angle doesn’t change while the hairy Wolf Man slowly changes back into human Larry.

Waggner might have imagined Joe Johnston’s 2010 The Wolfman, but didn’t have the means to create the nightmare. Past the invention of computers, photo manipulation can help current directors achieve almost any look they imagine.

Johnston imagined a grotesque monster, and the viewer saw it.

The main transformation scene took place in the asylum while he was tied down. The viewer saw Del Toro’s knuckles pop and eyes change shape from human to animal.

Film clarity and stunning effects aside, other elements made the newer version scarier.

In 1941, an average gentleman-looking Lon Chancery Jr. played Larry Talbot. Benicio Del Toro, a man with thick eyebrows and a strong jaw line, played Lawrence Talbot. The second werewolf was more menacing even before any special effects or acting.

In 1941, a fully clothed and clean werewolf ran on tiptoes after his victims. In 2010, the monster ran on all fours in ragged blood stained clothes. The original werewolf caught his victim and held her close as if in an embrace, any violence hidden behind a tree. In the remake, heads were ripped off bodies and red blood sprayed everywhere.