Monday, April 17, 2017

Sybil

Dissociation acts as a defense mechanism within a person and often the sub types of the split of personalities are the one that deal with most of the issues in life. Split within a person happened are known when stressors occurred are too much to handle so that particular person chose to 'dissociate'. And when certain issue present that need to be deal with the 'switching' happened unconsciously from the host to sub identity. 

Sybil is a girl that dreamed to be a school teacher but dealing with her traumatic and abusive past which her mother cut her vagina with a knife unable to overcome and handle this stress Sybil dissociate into few sub types that are all children. As you can see as the movie progress Sybil showed how her sub types switched in order for her to faced her life and traumatic past.  

The movie started when Sybil as a kindergarten teacher brings her students to the park and in the park she saw the women in white hair and she started to dissociate and end up in the water where everyone saw her. The beginning has left audience confused which later only we realized her mother that abused her during her childhood having the same hair as well so she was afraid in the park and started to dissociate to protect herself. But why she 'woke up' on the pond? If you remembered closely her mother tied her to the piano without letting her to the toilet when she need to pee so she peed on the floor so she remembered the feeling where she ended up in the pond.

When Sybil that she needed the money to seek psychiatrist so he asked her father but after her father rejected her she acted violently and storms out. Soon she wanted to commit suicide to deal with this problem Mary came out and Vicky called Dr Wilbur to help Sybil and even Vicky even confess to Dr Wilbur about the presence of 'others'.

Sybil also depicted this illustration accurately and easily observable on this point in how she needs to meet Dr. Wilbur and Richard. Sybil (the host) is not very comfortable or good in meeting stranger especially guy that liked her and asked her out during night so to deal with this issue and Veronica that is outgoing and keep Sybil's music for Sybil she then go out with Richard.

In the midst of treatment Peggy and Vicky are mostly seen in seeing Dr Wilbur in therapy session to faced the issue instead of Sybil. Finally, Dr. Wilbur confronts Sybil about her problem, and convinces her to undergo hypnosis so she could discover her other personalities. Things seem to be going thoroughly well, until she meets the identity of her mother, upon which she screams and soon after dissociates into a baby. However, she recovers, and the next time she undergoes hypnosis, she recalls an incident when her mother drags up her up to the roof of her barn by her hands, and then locks her in a cabinet.

When Sybil wakes up, she tells Dr. Wilbur that she was making the whole thing up, and that she doesn’t really have multiple identities. She appears to not act negatively towards certain cues, and is a lot more lucid about her own past. However, Dr. Wilbur theorizes that all the identities have “blanded together” to keep her from uncovering what is underneath. She decides visits Sybil’s old town and speaks to the doctor that resided over Sybil when she was a child. There, she discovers that Sybil’s mother had paranoid schizophrenia, and the doctor admits that he simply ignored the vast and peculiar nature of injuries that Sybil had received.

When Dr. Wilbur returns and confronts Sybil about the purple crayon drew on the barn wood she was locked to proved Sybil's word, she admits to having tried to deceive her before. They undergo their last session of hypnosis, where Sybil recalls her mother having sexually abused her by cutting her vagina with a knife. She awakens to rage and bitterness, which Dr. Wilbur tells her to accept. The movie ends with all the different identities of Sybil walking towards her and embracing.

As with typical cases of DID, Sybil’s disorder spawned from extreme childhood abuse and trauma. Her violent, psychotic mother and neglectful father leaves such a scar in her past that her mind tore itself into several different pieces to isolate the pain. The portrayal of DID as a psychological coping method; Dr. Wilbur mentions many times that Sybil’s different “friends” are there to protect and take action when she herself cannot. Moreover, the movie does a great job of depicting the symptoms of DID. Sybil’s auditory hallucinations, which the audience can hear, pervade throughout the majority of the film. Furthermore, she is extremely anxious about her amnesia and loss of time – “Once, I went to sleep, and when I woke up, I was two years older”. Sybil also has several negative reactions towards unexplainable phobias, including the color purple, induced by the crayon that she had with her when her mother locked her in the barn. 

Finally, the film incorporates several brief traumatic flashbacks by shifting from the third person to Sybil’s view help set the troubled and ominous tone of the entire film.
The interaction between Dr. Wilbur and Sybil’s different identities presents a fairly accurate portrayal of the diagnosis and treatment of DID. The initial screening tests that Dr. Wilbur performs encourage the young girl’s mind to dissociate; she does this by presenting her with a myriad of questions, pictures, and scents that Sybil might have associated with trauma. In the psycho-therapeutic sessions, she confronts Sybil’s old experiences with questions such as “Why can’t you talk about what happened in the green kitchen?”. Finally, she employs the use of clinical hypnosis to aid Sybil in unlocking her past and her repressed anger and anxiety.

All in all, Sybil is an emotionally charged and highly powerful film that accurately portrays the suffering and eventual treatment of DID. It’s critical acclaim and public recognition gave a face and a story to DID, and shortly after the release of the film diagnoses for the disorder exploded. Whether or not these diagnoses were spurred mainly by media frenzy is still a matter of controversy, but it is undeniable that Sybil played an important role in helping DID victims gain the respect and empathy of the public.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Schindler's List


Schindler's List was directed by Steven Spielberg has bring the lesson to most of us especially Nazi on the horror of holocaust and the nature of genocide. Amon Goeth proved the ability of human to be that evil during the opportunities of war. And not the said how the German's soldiers survive after the war killing and burning the Jews, is like an on off button they are being set in a situation and when the cycle stop then only they realized it is wrong. The post process is interesting to find out on how they explained their action to restore their consistency in their discrepancies in their action and behaviour or maybe there is no any dissonance.

Oskar Schindler showed the progress of how he transit from a pure business minded man to the basic human instinct where he used his money to saved the Jewish life by buying each and everyone of them by name. He did not do it intentionally or consciously he is in the middle of doubting and use the list of for business purposes till he spent for millions saving their lives. During the movie we saw how Schindler emphasis on the way he bought them are purely for business purpose and he is so afraid of seeing through by others of his intention he even lied to himself to act it through all the way so that other German believe him. Very much suppressing himself to let the truth surface.

Thanks to Izhak his accountant that inspired or making him realized along the way about the how the German killed the Jewish. The torture that went along is unbearable to imagine how the Jewish survive from the war but is too much to talked about when it showed during the movie the importance of the emotions, psychological well being nor foods was not showed or discuss directly because the life of each Jews might lost anytime. What the Jewish concern the most is the hope they get alive got the next day till the war ends. Most of the faces of Jewish showed the acceptance of death and the inability to fight. That is why it is holocaust.

Even till the very end Schindler did not very much came to a conscious state on what he did is to saved people as the most unforgettable scene at last where they gave him the ring, he came to realized that he do not really deserve the recognition because he was behalf of them and he blame himself very much the fact that he could have save more lives. As he showed struggles in telling how his belonging can trade for lives, as we can see then only he can be fully himself on that moment admitting how much struggles he faced while witnessing Jewish getting killed but he stayed on his foot thinking he cannot do anything about it but in fact he' did something more than enough' said Izhak.



This movie taught a big lesson regarding the nature of human and the existence of humanity in human, if there is plainly conforming and obedience it showed how powerful this elements is and how weak human has for freewill. If human possess freewill we should act on our reasons and not controlled by others.

The one thing that very obvious symbolized the value of human lives are seen from a girl that wearing red where she is the only color can be seen through screen it can represents the innocence of Jewish that get slaughtered. The moment Schindler catches sight of her marks the moment when he is forced to confront the horror of Jewish life during the Holocaust and his own hand in that horror. The little girl also has a greater social significance. Her red coat suggests the “red flag” the Jews waved at the Allied powers during World War II as a cry for help. The little girl walks through the violence of the evacuation as if she can’t see it, ignoring the carnage around her. Her oblivion mirrors the inaction of the Allied powers in helping to save the Jews. Schindler later spots her in a pile of exhumed dead bodies, and her death symbolizes the death of innocence.

After all is it worth it after killing so many Jewish that German hated but does it really bring peace after that. We do not underestimate how foolish human beings can be blindly covered by revenge and hatred. The most unbearable scene are from how the Jews were sent to the camp and their belongings are ordered to marked down their names clearly but the luggage never follow them after that in fact the piling of personal belonging showed the lost of Jews during the holocaust and is very hard not to put yourself in the situation and being treated as objects. Every single picture shown are every single life that lost.

Is unbearable to imagine the mind of each children during the holocaust.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Me and this fat kid / We ran we ate and read books / And it was the best


The title Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Watiti expansive sense of human beings allows his characters to endure loss and hardship without forcing them to be wholly limited by their suffering, as Mr. Waititi knows that we love to cry at sad and bad times, but he also knows that people in pain need to get on with their lives. They’re romantic and pragmatic, eccentric and utterly ordinary. They’re also reasonably flawed, as is this movie, but Mr. Waititi transcends the essence on ordinary people yet down to earth feelings.


The story started with odd-couple adventure is the well-acted story of a down-and-out Maori kid and his grouchy foster parent. Quirky and offbeat it is a little movie that showcased moments of surprising emotions and magic , Hunt for the Wilderpeople has bring very familiar yet strange especially regarding orphan or foster children, but it manages to stay between Ricky and his foster parents chemistry, well played with human nature and movies. The film is funny, heartwarming and doesn’t leave the viewer feeling cynical or hopeless.

But his foster aunt Bella breaks down his defences with down-to-earth love and affectionate mockery. Bella honest and pure affection making sure Ricky has a "hottie" (hot water bottle) on his pillow every night to keep him warm and cuddly. But she's also fierce enough to slit a wild pig's throat and then casually say to Ricky "well, that's dinner." Her foil is the hilariously hard-nosed child protective services' case worker Paula, who will stop at nothing to "rescue" a boy she considers a "bad egg." But this isn't ultimately their story. It's the story of city-kid Ricky, who learns to appreciate and even love the bush as much as his "uncle" Hec, a man who may not know how to read words but knows how to survive -- something they both become adept at doing together. Gradually they realized the two rejected loners will only be accepted by such gold-hearted Bella.

But after the sudden death of Bella has leave us all in stunt where audience are expecting the chemistry and love between Ricky and Bella, as well Ricky transformation to accept a family and a home but the death has leave all of us to experience the same grief as Ricky does. However, when a tragedy threatens to steal back the life that Ricky has come to love, 13 years old Ricky has changed him a little or less for him to decide taking an adventure into the bushes to send Bella to the top of the mountain. And of course he do not want to go back to children welfare service knowing that Uncle Hec do not want him to stay with him. Deep in the forest, Ricky plans a life living off the land with his dog Tupac. He was found by Hec, who gets injured because of Ricky, delaying their return to civilization long enough that the authorities come looking. Ricky writes haiku. Hec hunts. And the two become famous, all over national news and tracked by the incompetent Paula. “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” becomes a road movie with no road, a film about two people who may seem entirely different but have both been discarded by society.But the real heart of the story rests in the between Ricky and Hec. Forced into a relationship neither really wants, they eventually grow to a place of true friendship and respect. Alone together they must grow beyond their own way of thinking and see things from the other side. Eventually they do, with Hec's proclamation that we didn't choose the skuxx life, the skuxx life chose us sealing the deal.

 The comedy in “Wilderpeople” showcased in a very quiet yet funny ways, which strengthens the story’s realism. Ricky is a funny kid. He’s amusing to look at, for one thing, like the bad-boy haikus he creates as part of his therapeutic training. As a child of social services, he throws words like “processing” around, though this abandoned children has not much chances to expressed his emotions and haikus might be the only way he know could help him. 

Despite the claims of Paula (the social worker tasked with ‘hunting’ Ricky down) that ‘no child should be left behind’, her treatment of Ricky does not stem from care and/or a sense of responsibility as much as it shows an exercise of state power and containment. Indeed, paula actually take all these 'problematic' children as problematic and might be a threat to country so she did her best to contained and controlled Ricky. She uses 'No Child Left Behind' as she seen as a threat focusing Ricky as problem that needs to be solved. As she said Ricky and Hec as not people so much as problems to be solved. She is the one that sets Ricky as failures by listing all his problems instead of qualities even when she first met with Bella (his new foster mother). 


‘He’s not just a child, he’s a spanner in the works’ – a reflection of the existing colonial mentality in New Zealand, where Māori children are treated as older and less innocent than their Pākehā counterparts. 

Waititi’s film never judges its characters. Ricky isn’t a “bad egg” or a “dumb kid.” The film finds joy in scenes like the one in which he creates a fake Walkman and dances to the music in his head. It’s essential to the film’s success that Ricky’s not just the bumbling idiot he could have been in another filmmaker’s hands. We feel honest affection for Ricky. Waititi and Hec find depth within the characters, as small moments become the foundation for the film’s emotion. They don’t play the coming-of-age arc, they play the reality of each scene. It may sound obvious, but so many films like “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” try to play the emotion instead of grounding it in character.

He breaks “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” up into chapters, making it feel almost like a memory or the story that an adult Ricky is telling his kids later in life. It almost approaches fairy tale mythology, especially the surprisingly action-packed finale, one in which we honestly care about the fate of our two protagonists.

So much of “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” looks easy. It’s not until one considers the number of places it could have gone awry that one truly appreciates it. There are so many minor beats that produce laughs and major moments that create surprising emotion. There’s a great scene halfway through in which Hec and Ricky are high enough in the mountains that they can almost touch the sky and Hec calls it “majestical.” It’s not a real word, as Ricky corrected him but at last even Ricky prefer the wrong one. And indeed, it's a downright majestical movie.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Grace is gone


Director by James C. Strouse

This is a story regarding a family’s grief, and how this family with different personalities come together to cope with the grief and mourn over the death of their beloved one. Director chose to shared something intimate within a family to shared across to let audience witness the truth of reality. This is not a story regarding right or wrong but its a movie about grief and sometimes we just need to let intuition led us.

It hits audience from the first place when Stanley can't even move out of denial and it is totally understandable right from Stanley opens the door to find two officers from the Army base. Stanley is ex-Army himself and this is the only time in his life he has ever been unhappy to see the uniform. Because he knows what it means. 

The moment he saw them, he left in state of shock and could not response in a moment at the same time he is afraid to awake his daughters. He do not let the officers in because he afraid his daughters might come down but then he still let them in to let situation a bit clearer to let him shaped his mind. Yet as long as he doesn't tell their daughters what happened, it hasn't really happened yet. He even reject and do not let the officer to pray with him, he is in a state of denial or delay a few moments to not accept the death of his wife.

We all know Stanley from the moment he walks into the first scene, stiff and awkward in his own skin, it's not that Stanley doesn't feel, it's that he doesn't show. He then knew he need to take up the role to raise his two daughters without her wife at the same time he knew her daughters have closer relationship with her wife instead of him. He confirmed he need to formed a good relationship with his daughters first before disclosing to them, at least Heidi and Dawn felt that they have someone close to them to shared this grief with. Very well-thoughts and meticulous in thinking his daughters feelings as well as coping his grief over his wife.

So Stanley takes them on an impulsive, indulgent road trip to Florida. And he bites his tongue, and smiles, and whenever they're not around he calls home, just to hear their dead mother's voice on the answering machine. He is trying to linked or have relations back with his death one by hearing Grace's voice and in a meanwhile hope Grace will tell him what to do because he is too afraid to screw this up and his daughters might hate him forever.

Before the day, he feeling a bit depressed so he decided to attends a support group for soldier's wives, he mentioned that he is proud of her. Stan and Grace met while they were both in basic training and over the years have created a good marriage based on friendship. He misses her decision-making abilities and her closeness to their daughters.

This has come up with a tender and touching story about family, grief, and the challenges faced by a nervous and sad father who feels his way slowly into a deeper relationship with his daughters. Stanley has been doing his best, we sense, providing some order for his children, but he is not naturally nurturing. He's concerned about Heidi, who, like him, is fun challenged and is having trouble sleeping. He knows Dawn misses sharing important moments with her mom, which becomes apparent when she hides out in a little house in a store just after she has her ears pierced.

There are stages of grief, and Stanley goes through shock and numbness, accepting the reality of the loss, and beginning to work through the pain. Although some, including his brother, think it's wrong that he delayed telling his daughters, he seems to know that until he can face it and until the girls have come to know him in a different way, he will be no help to them in their grief. Instead of following social customs about death and grieving, we have to trust our intuition. There is a right place and a right time for everything.

That stage of life is dramatically one of the most fraught with all sorts of complications and emerging consciousness. Heidi is bursting with confusion and emotion and her father is trying to bury it as much as he can. What she was doing when she wasn’t talking was really subtle, always small. She would never overdo it, an amazing instinct to have. When she called back their house phone, she knew something was wrong but she knew her father is planning on something and she knew if he does he must have a very good reason so she never probe questions anymore further.

And when the time finally comes Stanley tell his children the truth, grieving over until the sunsets and i loved how they watch chime moment in front of Grace's graveyard and the family spent a moment of each and every living day thinking about her.

And you can't really understand the essence of agonizing unless you have had the experience of living through them yourself.


Monday, March 13, 2017

Stanley Milgram



The life of social psychologist Stanley Milgram (Peter Sarsgaard) conducts controversial experiments designed to measure conformity, conscience and free will.

In this movie after his obedience experiment his results was not appreciated by majority and he struggles with the public objection about the ethics of his experiments and how his career advances as he becomes a professor in New York City and continues to study social interactions and social pressure in more benign experimental settings, including the small world experiment, the lost letter experiment, the street-corner (or gawking) experiment, familiar stranger experiment and various experiments that he makes his students carry out. He tried to move on with other experiment but his friend reminded him the importance of obedience experiment that he could run again in different culture to obtain more accurate results. 

His experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience.
His experiments idea came from his childhood experience and hope to find the answer regarding human nature. He examined justifications for acts of genocide offered by those accused at the World War II, Nuremberg War Criminal trials. Their defense often was based on "obedience" - that they were just following orders of their superiors.
Milgram did more than one experiment to prove his results, he alter the situation (IV) to see how this affected obedience (DV).

The conclusions we can get from his obedience experiment is that ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being. Obedience to authority are ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up. People tend to obey orders from other people if they recognize their authority as morally right and / or legally based.
This response to legitimate authority is learned in a variety of situations, like in the family, school and workplace.

Milgrams' Agency Theory
Milgram explained the behavior of his participants by suggesting that people actually have two states of behavior when they are in a social situation:
The Autonomous State
People direct their own actions, and they take responsibility for the results of those actions.
The Agentic State
People allow others to direct their actions, and the pass off the responsibility for the consequences to the person giving the orders. In other words, they act as representative for another authority’s order.

Agency theory says that people will obey an authority when they believe that the authority will take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. This is supported by some aspects of Milgram’s evidence.
In the film many of the participants asked for assurance and confirmation regarding who should take the responsibility if there is anything happened to the participants that receiving shocks. Once they found out the responsibility will be taken by the experimenter and not up to them they all mostly go all along till 450 volts intact with Milgram's expectations.
The Milgram studies were conducted in laboratory type conditions and we must ask if this tells us much about real-life situations.
We obey in a variety of real-life situations that are far more subtle than instructions to give people electric shocks, and it would be interesting to see what factors operate in everyday obedience. The sort of situation Milgram investigated would be more suited to a military context.   

Milgram's sample might be biased towards male only, the participants in Milgram's study were all male. Do the findings transfer to females?
Milgram’s study cannot be seen as representative of majority population as his sample was self-selected, where they became participants only by electing to respond to a newspaper advertisement (selecting themselves). They may also have a typical "volunteer personality" – not all the newspaper readers responded so perhaps it takes this personality type to do so.
Milgram’s findings have been replicated in a variety of cultures and most lead to the same conclusions as Milgram’s original study and in some cases see higher obedience rates.
But the majority of these studies have been conducted in industrialized Western cultures and we should be cautious before we conclude that a universal trait of social behavior has been identified.

Ethical Issues
Deception – the participants actually believed they were shocking a real person, and were unaware the learner was a confederate of Milgram.
However, Milgram argued that “illusion is used when necessary in order to set the stage for the revelation of certain difficult-to-get-at-truths”.
Apparently after the experiment Milgram claimed that 83.7% said that they were “glad to be in the experiment”, and 1.3% said that they wished they had not been involved.
Harm to participants - Participants were exposed to extremely stressful situations that may have the potential to cause psychological harm. Many of the participants were visibly distressed as decsribed by Milgram such signs of tension included trembling, sweating, stuttering, laughing nervously, biting lips and digging fingernails into palms of hands.
In his defense, Milgram argued that these effects were only short term. Once the participants were debriefed and it was obvious after the 'teacher' have seen the 'learner' was not receiving any electric shocks and was in fine condition, the 'teacher' feel much better and decreased in stress level.

Free will of participants and humans in this context has raised questions regarding how much free will one possess to the extent our actions and behaviors is it necessary came from our self-determination or being controlled by social laws or prior causes? If then do we human consider to have free will or act upon free will? This movie depicts the struggle of experimenter in all fields fight against the norm of society and the readiness of our society to receive new or threatening idea on the concept of human living. Societies work in a circle and human tend to follow the circle or norm so that they feel same with others and not easily out cast, if then we all live in a system that repeating itself and not our own life we have control of. 

This movie provoke questions regarding human nature by using fact-based story. Milgram will remain inspiration to us all to question about human nature and life.




Monday, March 6, 2017

Amadeus


The film, Amadeus, written by Peter Shaffer and directed by Milos Forman, is a not only an Academy Award winning film, but is also a surprisingly accurate portrayal of Mozart’s life. Antonio Salieri was a contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791). An accomplished musician, Salieri competed with Mozart for recognition and employment. This film is a fictional exploration of how Salieri might have felt when he realized that despite all his hard work, talent, and popularity at the time, he could not hope to approach Mozart's genius. Driven out of his mind by jealously, Salieri is confined to an insane asylum, and fantasizes that he has killed Mozart. "Amadeus" provides a thoughtful exploration of an existential and moral dilemma.


 Moral Ethical Emphasis
In the light of ethical principle of responsibility, Salieri's thinking flawed and responsible in Mozarts' encounters. Instead Salieri get jealous at Mozart's genius and being enemy with God that 'choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation'. Salieri could appreciate and persevere in his own music along with Mozart to learn from him and to improve self but instead he let jealousy covered up his eyes and speaks bad about Mozart in front of the royals and people. Salieri showed that he did not have clear thoughts before he act he did not think about the consequences, if he did not speaks bad about Mozart, Mozart could get few students and will not faced financial crisis and his wife wouldnt left him and he would not be alcoholic. Humility is the key but Salieri did not shows.

Salieri is a very religious person as he refers the music to the voice of God, but if he is really truly serving for God he should not have envy and betrayed Mozart. As Salieri described Mozart's music as the very voice of God, but instead he did not work along with Mozart as they are both the voice of God but Salieri think there should only be one and that is him he could not accept God make him witness the birth of Mozart that his music is nothing to compared with. If he is truly religious he will cared and never let jealousy covered his eyes, so he just want God to give him the gift of music but he never walk the path God wants him too. The creation of beauty by God should not be a competition.


Mozart in movie showed symptoms of personality or neuropsychology disorder, his rapid speech and catatonic movements has raised few questions relating to Tourette's Syndrome but research has found that gifted or extraordinary individuals especially in musical abilities shown suppression in mental and emotional in brain plasticity therefore in sensation, perceptual, imagination and movements will experienced heightened over excitabilities. 


In relation with Mozart's father, Leopald Mozart possess controlling and obsessive nature controlling and preoccupied with his son life and career has created certain amount of pressure and stress on Mozart and in addition to his environment, financially challenged and his abandonment of his wife has make him drink more than usual therefore he become alcoholic. His biology nature and environment nature as a gifted individual has make him vulnerable to stress and failure there he developed depression and loneliness. In addition to the problems, the death of his father has much impact on him and he is even afraid to compose the Requiem Mass because he is fear of his own death. His father death haunt him about his own death and as well the person he loved is gone left him alone in facing the world. The disintegration of him and his world happened after all the problems occurred but he feel helpless, all he ever did it just his piece of music, socially he is not good in relation with his genius, gifted child is not good in socializing. Mozart spend too much time asking questions regarding injustice, unfairness and morality but all this are written on his music and so majority people and the royals could not accept his 'socially inappropriate behaviours'. If he was born in a right culture, meeting the right people will his life be longer? Such great man that has died leaving us all in pain.

Monday, February 27, 2017

Paikea Apirana



“In the old days the land felt a great emptiness. It was waiting to be filled, waiting for someone to love it, waiting for a leader…. our ancestor Paikea. But now we were waiting for the first born of the new generation…. My brother died and took our mother with him … He died and I didn’t”. 



The story started when the twin was born but 'my brother died and i didn't' and everything has gone wrong after she was born and her grandfather was not glad when she is alive. They named her Paikea Apirana but her father, Pororangi left the town to Germany so that he could not see the emptiness of the tribe where substance abuse happened to replaced their emptiness. 


Whale rider in this movie act as the symbol of culture and relating to growth of individual of leader as how it portrays by Paikea bringing her whole tribe together and proving her ability as the chosen leader. The whale is the representation of God and the death of the whale shown to prove the disappointment of God towards their people and after the incident of this only the people started to realized and regret about their people loses faith in their God. The decaying culture and the man's soul that drifting is between the unconscious, Paikea is then feel the responsibility for her to lead the people and to awaken the tribe glory and she experience death and then resurrection, not only prove to the tribe but herself.


LEADERSHIP - TRADITION AND CHANGE

Paikea knew she is the real leader that she born with, she knew she has been chosen by the ancestor but at the same time she don't dare to speak up just so she is a girl and she knew her grandfather will be very disappointed and angry at her if she do so so she kept it quiet within herself but at the same time she learn from herself the rituals of a leader should have. Her bravery and perseverance that brings her further, especially she learn to fight with the 'taiaha' where only boy allowed to hold it. As a leader it could apply to the society nowadays being trapped and confronted by tons of reason to not hurt others while realizing their dreams or doing goods for others. The girl child, Pai, on the threshold of adolescence, and leadership of her tribe, is prepared for the death of her younger self as she sounds on the back of the bull whale. 


EXPECTATIONS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES

Pai's grandfather, Koro faced great pressure from his tribe to find a leader and he is disappointed when he realises that there will be no son and heir to continue as Chief. Even though he loves Pai, he will not allow himself to see her potential as a leader because she is a girl.  Koro is even more disappointed at last where none of the males tribe succeed in becoming the chief. The boys fail the final test of retrieving a whale tooth from the sea bed.  An underwater shot of two boys fighting over the tooth one of them has retrieved seems to underline the limitations of masculine competitiveness. But Pai succeeds, a fact her koro learns later after his grand daughter has helped a stranded pod of whales return to the ocean. The old bull whale responds to her voice and touch, as he did eons past to her ancestor, Paikea, and he leads his “people” back to the depths of the ocean.


THE CHANGING ROLE OF WOMAN

In Whale Rider, Pai has to fight to get recognition as a leader despite she is a girl especially form her grandfather, Koro what she wants the most is the acknowledgement of Koro on her. Her love towards Koro is deep that she never blame Koro for anything even at how the way Koro treated her but she chose to forgive him where at last he said 'Its okay, Papa'. She strive herself to become a chief. Pai also succeed in bringing the new concept and meaning to the tribe where 'feminine' can also be a leader it does not necessary just stay at home and perform certain required rituals. Which she brings new breathe to the tribe to go extra miles long. 


WHALES AND OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NATURE 

The close connection of tribe Maori taught us a lesson that human by should come together to create a harmony world to live but this is exactly human has forgot to do. Being too occupied in their own world and material has drive human to another corner where nature are only for certain human that love nature. The idea should impose on human where all human should take care of the nature and not modernizing their life to be more luxurious life. The sea and whales form a larger context, which provides an image for the depth and intensity of the emotions, powerful forces, which are enacted through the specifics of the characters and story.  These are the elements which give the film the universal quality many have spoken of. This film hits audience to love a more authentic life despite technologies and modernization.



The film succeed in bringing audiences to see a range of issues from struggling of identity, for separateness and belonging; inter-generational and gender conflict; the struggles and triumphs of a culture to re-establish itself after resurrection.



The question is what effect, if any, such a film has on the consciousness of the individuals and social groups who see it. It has certainly had an effect on the people who made it.








Sybil

Dissociation acts as a defense mechanism within a person and often the sub types of the split of personalities are the one that deal with mo...