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DLW
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 2457
| Posted 9/25/2003 9:18 AM (GMT -6) |   | I think this movie directed by Spike Lee really gets at the spiritual problems of the US as being primarily based on us not caring for others enough.
This theme is through out the movie from the beginning of the movie when Monty saves Doyle the dog to the end when Monty's father spins the story of where Monty escapes from the callousness of NYC to go to the MidWest where he is able to through much hard work build a new life for himself and build a family.
A key figure is Francis, his stock-broker friend, who relishes his wealth/power/understanding of how things work in the world around him and the sex-appeal it brings him. From the beginning, he and his others are gambling on the employment/unemployment of others. Whether or not people have jobs is viewed strictly from the perspective of whether or not they will cause wages to rise and subsequently inflation...Unemployment is "natural" and good because it keeps prices/wages down since people will be afraid that someone else will be given there job. But he treats everyone around him like dirt and is callous to the losses of 9-11 and whether or not another one of the building surrounding his would be destroyed. Francis even incorporates another concept from economics, the view of marriage markets, whereby we are all in competition with each other for who we marry, or who we get to sleep with as in his case...
But while he is a success economically, his social skills have deteriorated and it seems that his being true to his friendship with Monty is like one of the few normative values he still holds to.
His talk with Nat where he castigates her for living high on Monty's drug-money is sort of surreal, given how he makes his money.
I also think that Jacob's kiss with his student is an indictment of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandals over how authority-relationships can be taken advantage of and how teacher/authority-figures who stand as role-models for young people so easily fall short on this account. With the result that the girl now would believe that all guys, her age and older, despite how nice they may make themselves out to be, are really only after her ass.. With the absence of a strong parent-figure in her life, this is likely to have a terrible impact on her and the choices she makes...
That's all I have time for. I think I need to see the movie again, there's too much that is worth reflecting on..
Not having lived in a big city, it feels like I have a glimpse of what that is like with so many groups bumping into each other and having so many conflicts.
The end though seemed to be an expressal in the hope/belief that people can love each other despite their differences and that Monty could start over again and live a better life than he had.
dlw
Niebuhr thought that sustained moral energy in politics depended on religion's power to mobilize reason along with self-transcending love. The prophetic tradition, meanwhile, gave Jews and Christians some protection against the temptation to identify their social causes with God's will. Lincoln's second inaugural address expressed the prophetic insight, "The almighty has His own purposes." | | Back to Top | | |
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