Thursday, May 21, 2020

The Beauty Of The Barbie Fashion Doll - 2078 Words

Humans by nature want what they can’t get. It’s true, we as a species are materialistic. Many of us want the fastest cars, the biggest houses, the heftiest paychecks, the coolest clothes, and the hottest bodies. We are also incredibly impressionable; one Budweiser commercial, for example, may convince us to go out and buy Budweiser brand beer. An Apple commercial can inadvertently coax thousands of average citizens to drop what they are doing, camp for days outside of the local Best Buy, and wait impatiently to purchase the newest iPhone which includes the newest, most overrated feature to date. Even the toys we manufacture perpetuate this endless cycle of unnecessary wants and desires. According to that archaic proverb, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s ironic how we hear and repeat this phrase all the time yet we don’t practice what we preach. A good example of this can be found with the popularity of the Barbie fashion doll. Something as simple as a piece of plastic with fake hair, exaggerated body features, and miniature outfits can instill in young girls across the world the â€Å"standard of beauty†. With this fragile, impressionable persona that we have engrained in women over time, it seems as if we are driving them to their own demise. Through the use of modern day media, toys, and fashion, we have been betraying women across the globe by mistreatment, underrepresentation, and by sexualizing them. We blatantly sexualize and misrepresent women with the toys weShow MoreRelatedMovie Analysis : The Blonde Barbie Doll1725 Words   |  7 Pages Initially, the blonde Barbie doll received a disappointing lukewarm reception from the market because most mothers wished their young girls to remain a little younger without jumping to the teenage Barbie overnight. However, Mattel had a masterpiece plan in promoting the toys through the television and mainly children’s TV. In the late 1950’s, most homes in America had television and children’s program had become a regular part of the programming. Subsequently, the Mattel advertisers managed toRead MoreBarbie Dolls, By Mattel, An American Multinational Toy Company1217 Words   |  5 Pagesparty blowing out the candles on my Barbie doll cake. Neither my parents nor I knew that would be the start to my obsession with Barbie, a fashion doll manufactured by Mattel, an American multinational toy company. For every holiday and birthday, I received anything associated with Barbie. Over the years, I accumulated an absurd amount of Barbie and Ken dolls, along with clothe s and accessories. I even had a Barbie bike and a helmet. My fascination with Barbie dolls is that it allowed me to experimentRead MoreBarbie Doll s Influence On Young Girls919 Words   |  4 Pagesfairy princess Barbie doll. Barbie has been the toy of choice for girls everywhere since her debut fifty years ago, representing the ideal girl with a perfect life to match that can not be achieved. Barbie and other dolls alike negatively affect young girls causing body image issues and low self-esteem. Since 1965, Barbie, and more recently, the Bratz line of dolls, have been the poster children for beauty, despite their grotesquely disproportionate appearance. Barbie and Bratz dolls were meant toRead More Barbie Essays1716 Words   |  7 PagesBarbie Since the beginning of time, toys have often been an indicator of the way a society behaves, and how they interact with their children. For example, in ancient Greece, artifacts recovered there testify that children were simply not given toys to play with as in the modern world. The cruel ritual of leaving a sick child on a hillside for dead, seems to indicate a lack of attention to the young (Lord 16). The same is true of today’s society. As you can see with the number of toy storesRead MoreWhat Does Barbie Mean to You?1086 Words   |  4 PagesWhat Does Barbie Mean to You? The Barbie doll was invented by Ruth Handler, of Mattel in 1959. She was inspired to make a doll after watching her daughter Barbara playing with her paper dolls. The fashion doll was named after Ruth’s daughter and the Ken doll was named after her son two years later. Today the Barbie doll has become one of the best- selling, cultural icon symbols in any young girls’ and women’s’ lives. Barbie can represent a multitude of things depending on who you ask. She can beRead MoreInfluence Of The Body Features Of Barbie On The Ideal Feminine Body1275 Words   |  6 PagesThe Influence of The Body Features of Barbie on The Ideal Feminine Body I. Introduction: Manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, Barbie has become the most famous and popular doll in the world. She has conquered more than 150 countries and over one billion Barbie dolls have been sold around the world since they were launched. Barbie is a young beautiful blonde who is rich and highly-skilled. Mattel claims that she can do more than 150 jobs and buy anything she wants, includingRead MoreBarbie Doll s Influence On American Consumer Culture1722 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Since it was first introduced to U.S. toy markets back in 1959 (Abramson 2009), the commercially successful Barbie doll has historically solidified its legacy in American consumer culture. It is every little girl’s rite of passage to be old enough to finally receive a Barbie. Although the gifting of a Barbie can be an exciting moment for children, its effects on their body images can leave lasting detrimental damage to their self-esteem. These damages often manifest themselves in multidimensionalRead MoreEssay about Beauty and Perfection in Today ´s Society692 Words   |  3 PagesIn today’s society, beauty and perfection is being striven for like never before. Confronted with all the â€Å"beautiful† celebrities and photo-shopped magazine pictorials, women are facing an unrealistic expectation of how they should look. If they don’t have a thigh gap or a lean stomach, girls feel commensurate with themselves and try to change how they look just to appeal to society. How often have we been told as children that beauty on the inside is all that matters, yet we see and live by differentRead MoreBarbie Role Model Essay1683 Words   |  7 PagesBarbie is more than just a doll for young girls, it became a role model for them. Barbie was a friend, a fashion archetype, and a stylist who transformed young girl lives. Many young girls were impacted with Barbie’s in a materialistic way. For instance, Barbie’s clothing style and accessories became an obsession for young girls to be just like them. Young girls wouldn’t even play with other toys and only focused on their beautiful Barbie, who became their best friend. It was like these young girlsRead MoreThe Barbie Phenomenon Essay1049 Words   |  5 PagesThe Barbie Phenomenon The Barbie phenomenon took the world by storm. The creation of the eleven and one–half-inch tall â€Å"glam gal† didn’t begin at a large corporation’s drawing board, as some might think. She actually came straight from the hands of her loving â€Å"parents†, Ruth and Elliot Handler. The Mattel Corporation, founded by Ruth and Elliot Handler, has successfully marketed the Barbie doll for over four decades and still continues to sell the doll throughout the world. It is amazing

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Basic Education in Lesotho - 1582 Words

THE BASIC EDUCATION OF LESOTHO Education in Lesotho is divided into four main sub-sectors, namely Basic education, Secondary Education, Technical vocational Education and Training and High Education. The practice and policies guiding the Basic education sub-sector, the sub-sector’s philosophy, how relevant to the clientele are the programmes, or the subjects offered and whether Adult Education can influence the policy and practice of Basic Education shall be displayed or examined in the essay. Basic Education according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), comprises of primary education and lower secondary education, whilst in Lesotho is regarded as continuous from the first seven years of primary school†¦show more content†¦Non formal and formal educations were to complement each other in a way or another. Thus, both young and old needed education which is functional or practical per say. According to the Education sector Strategic Plan 2002-2015 the main policy in Basic Education sub-sector is Education for all â€Å"Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belong to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete compulsory primary education of good quality. Policies are simply guidelines by which the government shall achieve their goals or objectives basing itself from the foundation of the philosophy of basic education – Education for all Basotho and the provision of sufficient numbers of people with appropriate qualifications, technical and managerial skills to ensure the development of the modern sector of the economy. How the policy was to be implemented was to follow the government goals as they are stipulated in the strategic plan. The goals are as follows, a) to provide primary education for all Basotho, b) to provide sufficient numbers of people with occupational, technical and managerial skills, c) to provide opportunities for continuing education both in basic skills such as literacy and numeracy and in more advanced skills in industry and the government, d) to incorporate cultural values in schoolShow MoreRelatedThe Prevalence Of Hiv Is Higher Among Women Essay2100 Words   |  9 PagesThe prevalence of HIV is higher among women (30%) than men (19%) (Ministry of Health [Lesotho] ICF International, 2014). For both men and women, HIV prevalence increases with age and then declines. HIV prevalence is highest for women at age group 35-39 (46%) and for men at age group 40-44 (44%). Taking employment into consideration, employed individuals in Lesotho have higher prevalence of HIV than unemploy ed for both men and women. The prevalence among employed men and women is 39% and 23%, respectivelyRead MoreA Perspective of Poverty and HIV on Sub-Saharan Africa1018 Words   |  4 PagesFaso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Democratic Republic), Cà ´te dIvoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Laney 2 Rà ©union, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal,Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda,Read MoreHealth Cases throughout the World975 Words   |  4 Pagesresulted in high infant mortality rate and incidence of preventable childhood and adult illnesses. Education and health indicators in the rural areas are also as poor as the people themselves. Progresa (The programa de Educacion, Salud y Alimentacion) or Oportunidades was established to provide incentives to poor families in the form of cash transfers in a horizontal way. Focusing on health, education and nutrition in Mexico, cash transfers were given to poor families in Progresa. The program targetedRead MoreThe Birth Of Marriage And Marriage1539 Words   |  7 Pagesto provide for the child despite the mother’s desires for her children’s upbringing. At the time of marriage, the rights of the father over his daughter are transferred directly to the husband. The m atrimony process typically proceeds through four basic steps of payment, ceremony, cohabitation, and consummation. This final step implies that for a marriage to be considered valid, the woman must engage in sexual relations whether or not her body has achieved physical maturity. Moreover, the legitimatizationRead MoreSouth Africa s Location Of The Continent Of Africa2209 Words   |  9 Pagesboarders Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Swaziland. One interesting thing is that there is a landlocked, surrounded on all sides by land, country of Lesotho. This is evident by Map 1, shown below, that shows South Africa in the red box and the darker brown country within South Africa being Lesotho. Which still remains true today, Lesotho is still its own country with an unsettled relationship with South Africa. Map 1: South Africa’s location on Africa (South Africa, 2015) The country hasRead MoreImproved Status for Women1455 Words   |  6 Pagesbeen excluded, they lacked many of the skills that were needed in the workplace. Women that come from very traditional homes (where from a tender age they were only taught how to eventually become good wives and never received any form of further education, were disadvantage compared to some urban dwellers. In order to assist them reach their full potential various projects were aimed at empowering women. Projects were not only set up by national government, but by non-governmental organisations (NGOs)Read MoreRacial And Economic Justice Can Be Achieved Without Violence2140 Words   |  9 PagesMogale City. The government then passed the Bantu Education Act in 1953. This law lowered the standards of education for black South Africans and greatly limited their chances of receiving good quality higher education. For a few years I tried my best to provide good education to his students in spite of the legal lim itations, but grew increasingly frustrated at this Act which explicitly promoted inequality. Unwilling to be a part of the corrupt education system anymore, I resigned from my teaching jobRead MoreWorld Geography Level : South Africa1599 Words   |  7 Pagessouthern portion of Africa. Countries that border South Africa are Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. The bodies of water surrounding the country is the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Also in South Africa are two provinces, Swaziland and Lesotho. If you were to locate South Africa with longitude and latitude it would be 30 ° S, 25 ° E. The land of South Africa features many amazing sights and spectacles. Some land features include its great interior plateau stretching many miles across theRead More1. The History Of The Black People Of South Africa Is Currently1712 Words   |  7 Pageshad difficult duty of raising their children on a diminished income and in the inhumane apartheid system of South Africa. Nonetheless, his parents, especially his mother, instill the important of becoming an excellent student and attain higher education for upper class mobility and economic advancement. In 1952, Steve Biko attended St Andrews Primary School and Charles Morgan Higher Primary School, he was well-known as very intelligent student who was allowed to skip the 4th grade. He was knownRead MorePsychobiography on Nelson Mandela2020 Words   |  9 Pagesreforms, and expand clinical and healthcare services. Nelson Mandela played an international role of acting as a mediator between the United Kingdom and Libya in the bombing trial of Pan Am Flight 103. He also oversaw the intervention of military in Lesotho. His deputy, Thabo Mbeki, succeeded him after he refused to go for a second term. He then became an elder states man, shifting his focus on charitable work including laying out strategies to help reduce the deadly HIV/AIDS and combating poverty in

Van Sant’s ‘Death’ Trilogy Gerry, Elephant and Last Days Free Essays

Gus van Sant’s three films, Gerry, Elephant and Last Days, are, in essence, a trilogy, linked by their common structures, compositions, and representations of death. In this paper, I will analyze these similarities and discuss the treatment of each film’s central event. Van Sant’s early career showed a unique experimentation with story structure and plot devices. We will write a custom essay sample on Van Sant’s ‘Death’ Trilogy: Gerry, Elephant and Last Days or any similar topic only for you Order Now In films like My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy and To Die For, he displayed a freedom of narrative, creating esoteric, poetic pieces that challenged and often bewildered viewers. His career then became more conventional, and he hit somewhat of a lame lowpoint with the film Finding Forrester, a sappy story about a young black teenager whose writing gifts are altruistically recognized by an aging author played by Sean Connery. His next film, however, was completely different than anything he had directed. It starred Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, who, along with van Sant, would normally create box office demand with their work. Yet the film was not widely released or widely seen. It was mostly dismissed as an indulgent experimental piece, something created by Hollywood artists bored with their usual work and with easy access to too much funding. Van Sant followed this with a film that premiered at Sundance and, surprisingly, took the top prize. It purported to be a representation of the Columbine killings, even though Columbine was never mentioned, and several liberties were brazenly taken with facts that most people were intimately familiar with. It featured no professional actors; actually, the characters were all essentially playing themselves, even using their real names and shooting in their actual school. The film was much more widely seen, and the unique treatment of time and plot proved to be very similar to his previous work. His most recent film, officially titled Gus van Sant’s Last Days, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and attempted to vaguely recreate the death of Kurt Cobain. The thematic elements and structure were by now easily recognizable. The film’s first reviews were harsh, but eventually, critics seemed to warm to it, and it was widely praised for its bravery and patience. Van Sant refers to them as a â€Å"news story† trilogy, in that they are all based on real events. Gerry is about two guys who get lost in the desert, and one of them eventually kills the other one. Even if we’re unfamiliar with the event, we can picture the sensational headline, probably depicting the event as horrific and the murderer as an animal. Van Sant’s portrayal of the event, from the characters losing their way to the actual murder, reveals his intent to fully immerse himself in the event and depict how such an act could occur. When we witness the murder, it appears natural and even compassionate. The circumstances under which the characters are behaving are unusual and extreme, but their intentions and humanity are always recognizable. The next two films are events with which the culture is very familiar. Almost everyone who sees them has a strongly formed emotional impression of the stories. The Columbine massacre and the suicide of Kurt Cobain are two of the most omnipresent cultural events for this generation of Americans, and van Sant chooses to take them on. His intentions are similar to those of his first film in the series; he wants to discover, through the process of filmmaking, how such acts could occur. It is unclear as to whether van Sant intended to create a trilogy, but these films are unmistakably similar in several different ways, including their shooting and editing style, their themes, and their attempt to depict a â€Å"found story†. Common Style Cinematographer Harry Savides shot the trilogy, and his style remains consistent; it can best be described as meditative. Most of the elements and techniques were developed in the process of making Gerry. The shooting period lasted twenty-one days. There were lots of problems during the shoot, and the scenes were always planned and executed on set, in collaboration with the actors, and with very little adherence to a shooting script or written dialogue. During this process, van Sant and Savides developed what would become a signature style for them. They composed very long tracking shots of the characters simply walking through the desert. Some shots were close-ups of their faces as they trudged, always with a definite purpose and determination. Others were long shots of their tiny bodies against the hugeness of the landscape. The most famous shot is the two of them barely moving, close to death, silhouetted against the sunset, still moving slowly towards nothing. Another element they developed is a lack of adherence to any definite sense of time or chronology. The films are edited haphazardly, with several scenes repeated at different points in each film from different perspectives. In Gerry, the two men never find water, yet the sun rises and sets at least eight times during the movie, in very different settings. In Elephant, one hallway encounter between two characters, with another character running by, is seen three times from each characters’ perspective, and continually serves as a warning that the killers are about to enter the school. There is no attempt to operate by any logical standards of time or character arc. The focus here is on a creation of atmosphere. The flexible chronology and the long static shots create a strong sense of freedom for the actors to immerse themselves in their characters. In each movie, and especially in Gerry and Last Days, the characters operate in a trance-like state, moving through the world of the film with no attempt to relay an emotion or communicate to anyone in any way. They simply are, and we watch them as voyeurs, knowing in each case that they are moving slowly towards death. The process of close collaboration with the actors is similar for each film as well. The actors are very much a part of the development of the story and their own characters. This trust in the actors to create their own worlds adds a unique element to the trilogy. Common Theme The central theme of the three films is â€Å"young death†. The first death is a compassionate murder; the second deaths are emotionally empty executions; the last is a slow wasting away. They all seem tragic because of the age of the victims and the somewhat easily avoidable circumstances under which the deaths occur. The deaths are also empty of crescendo. There is no sense of narrative closure in the deaths of the central characters, or an attempt to draw moral or dramatic conclusions from the deaths. This treatment of death is similar to the films analyzed by Catherine Russell in her work Narrative Mortality: Death, Closure and New Wave Cinemas. She notes that conventional cinematic narratives â€Å"codified the desire for meaning as a desire for meaningful death, and the desire for ending was formalized as a desire for death.† 1 She claims that new wave films â€Å"consistently split death from closure, and prevent meaning and ending from fitting neatly together.† These films have no plot or story; they end abruptly, with no attempt at coherent explanations. Their focus is on the world of the characters as they hypnotically and obliviously move towards their death. Common Intentions: A ‘Found Story’ This refusal to exploit the deaths of the central characters for emotional or dramatic effect highlights van Sant’s focus on creating realist cinema. He strives to present each scene as naturally as possible, with no cinematic affectations or even unnecessary camera movements. They wanted no â€Å"moves†. He and Savides make it clear that their intention is to recreate reality on screen. Realist theorist Siegfried Kracauer defines a ‘found story’ as one that â€Å"emerges from the filmmaking†. 2 This description aptly describes van Sant’s triptych; the process clearly defines the product. An example of this comes from the production of Last Days. Van Sant was in the costume designer’s office when a Yellow Pages salesman entered and delivered his pitch. The director envisioned the affect this would have on his drugged-out, detached lead character and threw the two worlds together. The effect was brilliant in that it intensely highlighted the two different worlds that these characters inhabited. It also reveals van Sant’s attempts to infuse his films with as much realism as possible, down to the actors who portray the characters. In fact, the actors are usually playing themselves. In Elephant, each character uses their real name and moves around their actual high school, interacting with their actual friends. The scenes are meticulously composed, but the dialogue and relationships, the individual moments, are mostly improvised, providing the audience with a strong sense of voyeurism and recognizable interactions. The affectations occur during editing. The sound design and aforementioned obscure chronology are the clues as to how we interpret the reality that they present. In Elephant, a character that most recognize as the eventual killer walks through the cafeteria drawing up his ‘plan’. He stops and we hear the sound slowly rise and overwhelm the boy, implying his â€Å"special mode of reality†.3 In Last Days, a somewhat bizarre element is employed in one of the final scenes. Blake, the Cobain surrogate, is lying in his garden house, close to death. Suddenly, his spirit emerges from his naked body as an apparition and hovers beside him. This mystical element meshes with the hypnotic, often spiritual mood of the film. At first glance, it seems to stand in stark contrast to the dogmatic realism of the rest of the film. However, the scene effectively illustrates the characters’ state, and in this sense, remains consistent with the production’s intentions. These common elements all serve the common event in each film: the eventual deaths of the major characters. Gerry Gerry depicts two characters, both ostensibly named Gerry, wandering through the desert looking for â€Å"the thing†. They see tourists with lame visors taking one path, and they decide to take another. They lose their way and spend the film attempting to survive. Each interaction between the characters is infused with purpose and a wry humor. They always have a new plan and never lose their forward-thinking state of mind. They resist despair and anger and seem always to assume that they will make it out ok. The majority of the ninety-minute film consists of the characters moving through the desert, searching always for the way home. There is maybe fifteen minutes of dialogue and, except for the tourists, no other characters. We see them simply walking, moving together, sometimes in what seems to be a competitive state, and other times alone, separately climbing different peaks to get a better view. The desert scenery is beautifully composed, and there are few shots less than a few minutes long. The characters are resisting death. They are slowly succumbing to the elements, fighting thirst and fatigue, never wanting to appear weak to the other. They always keep moving. Once, when they have stopped to rest, one of them comes to the other, tired but satisfied. He says, simply, â€Å"I found the car. I have water. I know the way out.† He is convinced of the truth of this claim, and is extremely disheartened when, after a few minutes of forceful persuasion, he realizes it is an illusion. Eventually, after moving around for what could be days, they lie down, exhausted and in a trance. One is clearly stronger than the other and is capable of continuing; one is finished. They lie next to each other, staring at the sky. Suddenly, the strong one moves on top of the weak one, wrestling him, literally shaking the life out of him. He stabs him and he bleeds, giving in quickly to the loss of consciousness. No emotion is displayed, and the event seems natural and pure. The act is clearly one of compassion for the pain of the weak one, a hastening of the inevitable and a cessation of the pain and agony and waiting. It is an act of euthanasia. However, it is also an act of survival; the strong one is now free to move again and attempt to survive on his own, which he eventually does, seeing the highway before him shortly after the murder. There is no lesson in the death, or any sense of closure. It is simply an act, and it bleeds into the reality of the rest of the film, having no special significance. It comes and passes in the same manner as the rest of the journey. It is a violent act, somewhat selfish, and it occurs in the vague context of an allegorical journey. The film is about being lost and eventually succumbing. However, there is never a sense of panic from the characters, or a sense that they have lost control or even hope. There is an acceptance at one point, when they lie down, and some timid shedding of tears from the weaker Gerry. But the characters admirably remain focused on survival and getting out, on proving their strength against the elements and their own thirst and exhaustion. The stronger character’s devotion to this elusive hope eventually saves him, and he finds his way, leaving behind a friend who, all elements aside, he had murdered. He rides away in a car, still in a trance, looking back at the desert. The film is beautiful, and it is essentially a meditation on the struggle to survive. Elephant Elephant is a montage of different students at a public high school. Because the audience knows it is about the Columbine murders, the outcome is a given. Each ‘victim’ is introduced with a title card, and we see them in their world, interacting with their friends, with no exposition or context. We know what high school is, and we understand and recognize the basis of the conversations and relationships. Scenes and characters intertwine as new characters are introduced and followed. Various social issues are broached in the context of the characters’ lives, issues that have all been mentioned in the context of the killings as an attempt at explanation or blame. The first shot is a weaving car, casually sideswiping a parked car and almost hitting a biker. It creates a reckless and irresponsible tone, depicting apathy towards life and danger. We see that it is a drunken father driving his son to school, and the son demands that his father pull over and let him drive. He is not angry, just exasperated, and the issue of parental carelessness and forced responsibility of the child is depicted. We see the boy being disciplined by the principal and feel pity for him and his circumstances. We are introduced to three popular girls as they flirt with a boy and then eat lunch. They enter the bathroom, awkwardly discuss their body issues, and casually, simultaneously, vomit. The killers are at home, receiving weapons in the mail, which they have ordered over the internet, and practicing with them in the garage. The shy, geeky one, earlier seen picking spitballs out of his hair and plotting in the cafeteria, is playing Beethoven, slyly invoking A Clockwork Orange. The blond, outgoing one, who slyly invokes Eminem, enters his room and plays a generic video game, playing a character wandering through a vast white empty landscape shooting men in suits in the back as they slowly and obliviously walk towards the horizon. Video game violence is thus invoked as a ‘factor’. Later, as they prepare to enter the school for the massacre, the blond one enters the shower with the shy one and says, â€Å"I’ve never even kissed anyone, have you?†, and they embrace. Another element, repressed homosexuality and a sense of separation, is introduced. These issues are peripheral to the mood of the film. It is amazingly ominous. We see the killers entering the school with their arsenal very early in the film, and are repeatedly reminded of their entrance as other characters pass through the same time period. We never know when the first shots will occur. We know from the news that the library and the cafeteria were the scenes of the massacre, and we repeatedly hover there, watching characters, picturing the chaos about to occur. It is visceral and exciting, and sickening and bizarre. Van Sant, without affectation, makes us fall in love with some of the characters, simply from the purity of their interactions and their lives. He highlights their beauty, and exposes their talents and quirks. Even the killers are presented almost sympathetically, or at least without any attempt to vilify them. We observe their normal lives, at breakfast with their family, practicing the piano and playing games, and their relationship is almost pleasant to watch. We see their psychosis, however, and realize very soon that they are capable of total detachment and extreme violence in retaliation for a vague sense of being underappreciated and emotionally tortured. The killings finally begin, a few scenes after we hear the machine gun being cocked in the library. The geeky girl with the long pants in gym class arrives late for her job in the library, and as she speaks to the boys with their arsenal, they splatter her blood against the books. They turn and randomly shoot into the crowd of scurrying students. The killings are not gruesome or ugly; they are simple and easy. We meditate on the killers’ callousness and the painful pointlessness of the act, rather than recoil at the blood and shock of the shootings. We also never see a panicked face or hear a shrill scream; the deaths, as in Gerry, blend with the everyday we have adjusted to seeing. The world does not change because of the acts that occur. The ending is extremely abrupt; the killers meet in the cafeteria, and as the blond brags about his kills, he is ruthlessly shot in the head by the shy one. He is speaking, we hear a shot and see blood, and he falls out of frame. At first, we are not sure if he was shot by another student or a sniper, but when we see the shy one, in the same long shot, moving towards the freezer looking for more victims, we realize. The film ends as he finds a popular couple whom we know and he obviously despises, and tortures them happily, pointing the machine gun at them and reciting eenie meenie miney mo. The film takes place in a single morning, in the span of a few hours. The characters we meet have no thoughts of their fate, wandering through their lives as death approaches in a sedan with a devil hanging from the windshield. Van Sant chooses an extremely familiar event and gets inside what might have happened. What he manages to create is a total sense of normalcy in the high school. There is no sentimentality in this film, this depiction of an event that is so loaded with emotion and sentiment and anger and backlash and blame in our culture. He strips it down and rips away all the sensation, and reveals easy to know people in an easy to know situation about to face something horrific and familiar to us all. His intentions and approach are similar to that of the film United 93, about the September 11th plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. We all know the details, we have all felt the sentiment, but the film attempts to forget all that and show real characters in a real situation, without any sentimental pretensions. It tries to depict how such an event really looked. In Elephant’s case, this is done in service of a meditation on the casualness of violent death. Last Days Last Days depicts the deterioration of a rock star, based on the suicide of Kurt Cobain. The first shots are of Blake walking through the woods, urinating in a pond, vomiting, and singing Home on the Range by a fire and a tent. He returns to his house and wanders ghost-like through the halls and rooms, avoiding contact with any of the stragglers in the house, cooking macaroni and cheese and watching a Boyz II Men video. We see the state of his life intimately, and his world becomes recognizable. He is out of it and detached, and has no desire to connect with anyone. He carries around an ominous shotgun in several scenes, and at one point, he mimics shooting two of his friends as they lie in bed. He is in a trance. He literally hovers in some scenes, slowly, slowly, collapsing to the ground and resting, comatose, against the door, falling violently when it is opened and a straggler checks for his pulse. No one in this film wants anything. No one, especially Blake, has any sense of purpose. This is the weakness of the film from a cinematic standpoint. Gerry and Elephant remain fascinating in large part because of the strength of their characters’ intentions and purpose. In this world, no one feels anything. The peripheral characters might have intentions relating to a vague sense of hedonism or greed, but that is not near enough to drive the film. This is about a wasting away, a slow, drawn out surrender to death, a suicide. The wallpaper is crumbling, the house is falling apart, no connections are made, and we are witness to a man who is totally numb to the world. It again features the long, static shots of seemingly nothing, zooming in on the television, holding on Blake’s lifeless body on the floor. There is a beautiful shot of Blake experimenting with sounds in his studio. The camera slowly moves backward, and we watch for an extremely long time as he moves around the room, haphazardly enjoying himself with his instruments, seemingly at peace, In the end, we see him cowering in the garden room, watching characters come and go, completely alone, and ready for an ending. This is a meditation on decay. Death These films very effectively reveal worlds that simply are. The characters we follow slowly approach their death, one at the hands of his friend, others at the hands of gun-toting teenage psychos, the last, presumably, by his own hand. But, in fitting with the tone of the trilogy, death simply is. It happens just as casually as the taking of a photograph or the preparation of macaroni and cheese. When it happens, nothing is done to signify or indicate any sense of change or profundity. The realism of the films is, to me, something almost euphoric. There is a real beauty in the interactions between the characters, in how recognizable their worlds are, and because of this, the audience receives a gift: there is a chance at a profound understanding of the nature of what happens to them. How to cite Van Sant’s ‘Death’ Trilogy: Gerry, Elephant and Last Days, Papers