This is Spinal Tap was
a revolutionary film in its time. Not having much success in theaters, the film
gained popularity as a cult classic once out on VHS.
Many who saw the movie believed Spinal Tap to be a real band. This film reveals the exact problem Aufderheide talks about inDocumentary
Film: A Very Short Introduction; people assume documentaries to be fact.
The director, Rob Reiner, uses this film to mock the structure of a documentary
with ridiculous interviews of spontaneous combustion of drummers and conflicts
over a 18” Stonehenge. This mockumentary created a new field of film – Rob
Reiner is quite a clever man.
How to Die in Oregon explores
the legalization of assisted suicide – dying with dignity. The right to die movement in America has been
an issue in the United States for many years, Oregon being the first state to
allowed physician assisted death. Before this, only the Netherlands and
Switzerland allowed assisted suicide.
Here is the Hemlock Society of San Diego's website: http://www.hemlocksocietysandiego.org/ The idea of assisted suicide has spread since the making of this film.
In watching this documentary I didn’t
really understand the opposing view to dying with dignity. Too prolong
someone’s pain is torture. Like Cody said when talking about growing up on farm
“we didn’t let our animals suffer.” All accounts shown in the film were very
well informed on what they were getting in to and no pressure was paired with
the purchasing of the medication. At anytime the client could choose to back
out of their decision. In Cody’s case, she set a date but found that she felt
much better when the time came. Many of
the interviews claimed that just having the medication in their home gave them
a greater since of control over their lives. In a time when your life is
slipping away and your days solely consist of medication and doctors one would
think we would all agree that people deserve a sense of control in their lives.
Here is a video of a women giving her personal story about dying with dignity
I originally watched Food Inc. when I was in 9th
grade, having already been a vegetarian for four years. At the beginning of my change in protein
source, I did a lot of research on the food industry. Due to this, much of Food Inc. came as no
surprise to me. However, the soybean industries problems with Monsanto shocked
me. This underground mob is not something that is usually associated with this
tiny little green bean. Here is a video summarizing Monsanto’s involvement in
the soybean industry.
Our food system has become so corrupt that farmers are
getting sued for the natural process of pollination. Here is an article about
Monsanto in the government from just three days ago:http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57576835/critics-slam-obama-for-protecting-monsanto/
A new horror was brought to my attention by the
documentary film The Cove. Animals
that have always been presented as friendly loving creatures are being
slaughtered and tortured for no justifiable reason. An interesting comparison was brought up n
the film between the killing of cows and the killing of dolphins. There are
many examples of unethical killing in the meat industry, but something makes
the murdering of these sea creatures different.
In Spain there is the tradition of a bullfight, which is seen by many as a cruel mistreatment of animals. Having gone to a bullfight as a young child, the scenes in The Cove reminded me of the bloody
stabbing of the bull. However, the
difference in this scenario is that bullfights are a true Spanish tradition
unlike the Japanese fishermen claim whaling to be. Also, the meat of the bull
is cut and sold directly after the show where as dolphin meet is snuck in to
groceries and elementary school lunches slowly poisoning a population. I think
what makes this story so horrific is that humans have been conditioned to love
these highly intelligent creatures. With the TV show Flipper thousand of children fell in love in the image of a bottle
nosed dolphin coming to the rescue.
The opening song of the show Flipper.
It has been proven that dolphins are highly
aware of their surroundings. Just imaging the terror they must feel swimming in
the thick pool of blood of their companions sickens me.
