Reflection 22

I don't have my notes because they are currently being graded, but I will still reflect on what happened in class this week. On Monday we did one more essay to finish the book Ceremony. All of my questions were written down in the reflections that we wrote in class, and they were answered. We watched Smoke Signals this week in class. It was a fantastic film. I wrote a reflection in class over the film so I don't know what else to write down here. The film had a major theme of the colors red, blue, and white which represented anger/violence, relaxed/calm, and healing. I love how the director created the mood throughout the film with the use of the colors, it was very effective. There were also camera angles that helped enhance the film as well. Now that I am reflecting on the movie I remembered a camera angle that I forgot to write down in my notes. When Thomas is looking at the river and Arnold comes to pick him up and bring him back home the camera angle shows Arnold above, reaching down for Thomas. That camera angle shows that Thomas is vulnerable and needs help. The camera angle is looking up at Arnold which creates the image that he is helping Thomas up and is saving him. Other than that the rest of the film was fantastic.

The end of Smoke Signals was unexpected and made me enjoy the film even more than I already did. Arnold is the one that killed Thomas' parents because he was an alcoholic, which relates back to the entire film. I always thought that Arlene was mad at him because he was always drinking instead of being himself, but after seeing that his alcoholism caused him to kill someone it explains why she always hated him drinking. Victor had an incredible amount of healing in the end of the film. Seeing Suzy Song burn the trailer that Arnold lived/died in was a very dramatic scene that created many emotions in me. Then, when Victor gave Thomas some of the ashes of Arnold I was very moved. It shows that Victor is healing and that he was very calm and actually showed some respect and love to Thomas. Especially since Arnold killed Thomas' parents, yet saved him. It definitely was a part of Thomas' life and was necessary that he got some of the ashes. The film was fantastic and I am glad that we got to see it. Finally, on Friday we got the prompt for the essay to write this week. I have been thinking about how I am going to relate the films as well as the novel. I think alcoholism is a major theme in Smoke Signals, but that doesn't seem to be very important in Dances with Wolves. I need to think about it a little bit more and then I am going to start writing the essay tomorrow, Monday.