The first movie I thought after clustering my mind was the "Truman Show."
It is the movie of the protagonist named "Truman" living an artificial life that was shaped and carved by other people. His life was taken by camera to every people. His life was involuntarily devoted to the audiences of the TV series of his life. The place where he lives is a gigantic dome made as a stage for his life. All of his near-by people were actors and actresses, even his wife and his family. All, even climate, surrounding him was controlled.
This movie, "Truman Show", FRUSTRATED me. I came to doubt everything that seemed real in the idea that all could be unreal, like the "Truman Show". However, I escaped this terrible idea very quickly since this movie was not based on the real incident, but on just HYPOTHETICAL thinking. The fact that this movie was not based on the reality soothed me a lot.
However, this movie "Catfish" is shaking me more than what the "Truman Show" did. Now the fact (although some say it's not fact) that this movie is true distorts my mind. The Maginot Line that kept me sane is collapsed now. It's total confusion for me now.
However, despite the matter whether this movie is true or not, I think this movie had done wonderful job in asking this question, "Can you be sure in anything that it's true?" Not the summary of the movie but the movie itself is raising this issue! In this part, they SURE got me!
Lie! Deceit! Malice!
"Truman Show" was telling me that ALL around you was fake, and that was the reason why I was not terrified a lot (because it was less convincing for me compared to "Catfish"). "Catfish" now tells me that some part of my life can be fake and this seems more possible and more believable to me. Less the scale of lie is, more believable it is. But continuing this idea, I found out that my horror is for no such thing. We are fooled by some lies (some small, some big) everyday. We all are sometimes fooled and get angry to liars, but why are we not shocked a lot by those small lies? Maybe it's because it destroys only small part of our life.
So, I came up with the conclusion that the shock we feel from lies are proportional to their scale. This seems pretty obvious but this conclusion gave me an idea which was obscure to me: We are so much dependent of our backgrounds. Some might call this view materialism, but no matter what they call and what they criticize this idea for, I strongly believe in this idea after taking a look at my natural horror when suddenly all my surroundings seemed to collapse. Maybe we are only the reflection of our surroundings. Maybe we are only the reaction of our surrounding actions. Maybe we are only the mirror.
I came to understand what Aristotle said: Man is by nature a social animal.
Having this understanding, I came to love everything that was surrounding me. My family, my friends, my school KMLA, teachers I know, things I have. They were so usual to me like the air, that I got used to them and forgot their values. They were desperately needed for me every time like the air. Some who lack those that l have may be zealous about me for having those. The bad part is, I don't get to feel their importance since they are right next to me. We always forget importance of our near-by things before we lose them. But this time, I, without losing anything, felt importance of things that I have. In this part, this movie sure became 'catfish'.
Summing up, the movie "Catfish" really became 'catfish' in my life in the aspect that it woke me up the importance of things and people that I have near by. Angela, as said by his husband Vince Pierce, was 'catfish' in the aspect for giving a shocking incident in Nev's boring life, whether in good way or bad way. So does this movie, "Catfish". It, whether it's true or not, or whether it has given me a good effect or bad effect, had been astonishing to me and gave me a chance to look back my life and feel the importance of my surroundings and myself.
Hmmmm. Let's start with things I like. Comparing the movie to Catfish to Truman is worthwhile. Their are similarities in how the veil of unreality is lifted, and how the main characters deal with it. Interesting connection. However, more about Catfish and less about Truman. You seem to focus more on Truman and dog-paddle a bit to get to your main points (some of which wander too much to be succinct).
답글삭제I like the images you use and the mention of Vince's "catfish" analogy. However, since this seems to be the focus of your last paragraph, I think you should introduce Vince's theory in the first paragraph, and make that your main focus. If you'd written this assignment the day after watching the film you probably would have fresher thoughts to explore. Most students seem to share this drawback in their delayed responses. Next time it will be "next class" homework :).
I like the Maginot Line thing. I've never heard of that until now, and I'm sure Mr. Ganse would applaud such creative use of historical metaphor.
All in all, some good writing, but it lacks a cohesive thesis/idea that delivers what the assignment asks for. More about Angela and the movie would help. However, good stuff.