Class

42 (2013)

The theme of class runs through the movie 42. The movie tells the story about Jackie Robinson and his journey to making it to the MLB. Since Robinson was black, it was very hard for him to make a career out of baseball due to the structural inequality that surrounded him growing up. Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers manager, took a risk and signed Robinson to the team in 1946. Both men were in the firing line of the public, press, and other players. There was blatant racism coming from baseball fans and the team against Robinson, but he overcame all of the negativity and become one of the most well known players of the game. He showed true courage and determination even when the world seemed to be against him.

The movies Us and Sorry We Missed You relate to the movie 42 in many different ways, but the most common action we see is how people treat the lower class so poorly. In the movie Us, we get to know Adelaide and her experience with the fun house at the Santa Cruz beach as a young girl. It really spooked her since she saw a girl in the fun house that looked exactly like her. She has been scared ever since and eventually has to face her fear when she has an encounter with her doppleganger. At the end of the movie, we realize that the person in red is actually the real Adelaide who was trying to escape the underground. There is a lot jammed packed into this film and it is difficult to uncode everything, but the point is that those who live in the "underground" are people of color, people who have drug addictions, people who have mental disorders, or anything else that wouldn't be considered normal. The people in red were trying to escape so they could try to live a more fulfilling life instead of being trapped in the underground. This is also what Jackie Robinson was trying to do as well. He knew he was a great baseball player and with his determination, he escaped his "underground" and ended up being one of the greatest players in the history of baseball. 

Sorry We Missed You closer relates to 42 in a sense that family matters. Sorry We Missed You tells the story about a family in England who gets pushed to their breaking point. The mom works as a traveling nurse/caretaker where the husband works as a delivery driver. Both of their jobs barely makes ends meet to support their children and both jobs are very demanding. Because of this, the family starts to fall apart when on oldest son starts to skip school and gets in trouble with the police. Both parents cannot afford to take off work to sort out the situation or else they would be fired. Not working would put a further strain on the family and they would be faced with a continuous cycle. While 42 was about his baseball career, there is a love story throughout the film that shows another dynamic of Robinson.We see Robinson's relationship with his wife, Rachel. Throughout the movie, we hear Robinson refer to her as his "heart" and we see the struggle of Rachel watching her husband get kicked around in the league by his teammates, the press, and fans. Robinson wanted a better life for him and his wife and he would sacrifice anything to give her that. 

42 (Roger Ebert)

42: Film Review (Hollywood Reporter)

Animals

 Secretariat (2010)

This week's theme is about animals. I decided to choose the film about the famous race horse Secretariat. Secretariat wasn't your typical horse. This prestigious thoroughbred was the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown in 1973 blowing the competitor away by 31 lengths. He is considered one of the most stunning horses of all time. Aside from the history of him, the Disney movie does portray him with some anthropomorphism. There are times in the film where he and his owner Penny Chenery look at each other in the eyes and you can almost feel their connection through the beautiful cinematography. You can almost see that they are thinking the same thing the morning of the big race. 

This movie can be compared to Life of Pi in a couple of different ways. The first being that animals play key roles in each film. In Life of Pi, the tiger, Richard Parker, is Pi's companion on the life boat. Pi is deathly afraid of Richard Parker for the majority of their journey to land so he keeps his distance. After 200 days of living on a raft attached to the life boat, Pi is sick of it and decides to conquer his fears and starts to live on the boat with Richard Parker. There are many different theories on what the tiger represents in the film, but overall it represents fear. It represents the death, grief and the growing animal instinct the Pi develops over the course of his journey. 

Secretariat isn't nearly as intense of a story as Life of Pi, there is still some symbolism that can be read in it. Horses are generally seen as majestic animals who show determination, endurance, freedom and spirit. I would argue that Secretariat demonstrated that all throughout the film. When he died at the age of 19, an autopsy was done and revealed that Secretariat's heart was 2 and a half times bigger than the average horse. While you could look at the pure facts and say that he was a huge race horse so of course he was going to have bigger organs, or you could apply anthropomorphism and argue that he had the heart of a racer so big where he could accomplish anything. 

Animals add so much to the storytelling element to films. They can add so much more emotion and layers to the story. Both Secretariat and Life of Pi tell very different stories and pull different emotions out of us. If the animals weren't placed in the stories, they would be way less interesting and not as deep of an analysis. 

A great horse and the faith of a brave woman (Roger Ebert)

Putting faith in speed and sinew (New York Times)