GEM 2005/ HY2243
FILM AND HISTORY
Feedback on Project 5
General Comments:
This project is not about "history" per se, but about how
various groups perceive others against a historical backdrop. While the
question is embedded in events in early 1950s Vietnam and 1965 Indonesia,
answers should reflect how metaphors, national identities, and film intersect.
While there may be a lot of "cheem" answers (or fumbling towards one), a good
project should mention (the very clear) metaphor of how the various characters
represent their larger national identity.
In The
Quiet American, Pyle is an earnest, do-gooder
American with a hidden agenda: to spread American ideals around the world,
even if it involves violence. Fowler is the ageing European colonizer who
wants to maintain the status quo, no matter how immoral it may appear in
Europe. Phuong is the seemingly passive, Asian woman who is being seduced by
America and Europe.
In The Year
of Living Dangerously, Hamilton wants to know
more about Indonesia, is fascinated with it, but ultimately finds comfort in
the embrace of the English, despite his discomfort with some of their
practices (the arrogant colonel). While he can sympathize with Billy (a mixed
Chinese-Australian - although that is only in the book - Indonesian, who is a
dwarf [plus a woman playing a man]), Guy sees Indonesia as a mysterious shadow
of manipulation, and bizarreness, that he can never truly understand.
Both films do take place at critical points in the
Australian-Indonesian and American-Vietnamese relationship and represent
problems that both Western countries had with their Asian counterparts. The
Asian ultimately are simply objects, little understood, mysterious.
Double Tick:
(Grade 85)
Articulates the above well, and goes beyond the simple
metaphor. Makes you cry.
Tick plus:
(Grade 75)
Brings up the major points, fairly well written.
Tick:
(Grade 65)
Mentions many of these things, but is focused too much on
simple metaphors, such as "Phuong is Vietnam" (does not explore the implications
any further).
Tick Minus:
(Grade 55)
Reviews the movie. Poorly written.
