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diversions:
video picks
Many video picks
for the long, hot summer
Every story has an
end, so does my weekly column.
As I write my last
piece, I want to thank Don Weberg for the opportunity to take
over Video Picks for the last half of the spring semester.
It gave me an opportunity to view movies, which I have already
seen, from a different perspective. Instead of watching a
movie at face value, I was forced to go deep into the heart
of the story. It also gave me the opportunity to provide quality
weekly suggestions to you, the readers.
Weberg authorized
me to write a massive last run, leaving you with more than
enough movies to last the entire summer so I hope you
enjoy this lengthy column.
Usually, I try
to relate the Picks to something that has directly or indirectly
affected me during each week. I have touched on issues such
as racism, life decisions and overcoming inner demons.
My last column
is going to journey us into a flat out party, merely suggesting
movies that deal with the summer heat, kissing your current
educational institution goodbye and outer space.
With the energy
crisis and temperature expected to skyrocket this summer,
I felt an appropriate journey would be to travel to scorching
Brooklyn, New York and visit Mookie, in Spike Lee's 1989 film
"Do the Right Thing."
In most of, if
not all of Lee's flicks, he uses a lot of foreshadowing to
alert the audience of upcoming eye-opening events. Lee touches
on issues of hate and racism. "Do the Right Thing"
was one of Lee's first films to address ignorance in an intimate
community.
The opening scene
takes place in Mister Senior Love Daddy's (Samuel L. Jackson)
radio booth, with him waking up a neighborhood over the airwaves.
Yelling "Wake up!" Love Daddy foreshadows a trip,
starting with a quiet New York block, traveling through a
day of racial discrimination and tension and ending with a
night of death and resolution.
"Do the Right
Thing," also starring Rosie Perez and John Turturro is
a powerful portrayal of unity by the minorities. Finally fed
up with the dirt that the ruling class dishes down, the Bed-Stuy
neighborhood rallies together to shout "No more!"
Journeying from
the late '80s to the early '60s, our travels land us to a
time of drag racing, Inspiration Point and drive-ins.
George Lucas' 1973
classic, "American Graffiti," captures a coming
of age story of four teenagers on their last summer night
before college.
Starring Harrison
Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard and Suzanne Sommers, "American
Graffiti" tells of a time when rebels were cool and the
rules were always being broken.
The theme of "living
your youth" sticks out in this film. Teenagers were having
fun and they did not let higher authorities control their
decisions. The transition from high school to college usually
leads youth to a summer of no rules and this film recaptures
those moments.
Breaking the rules
of the Video Picks column, our next stop is Huntington Hills
High, in the 1998 film "Can't Hardly Wait."
The tassels have
crossed over and the graduation caps have been tossed into
the air. The only thing left to do is PARTY!
For Preston Meyers
(Ethan Embry), graduation day is more than a transition into
his new life. It is a day to reveal his love to his four-year
crush.
The end-of-the-year
party is Preston's last chance to tell his soul mate, Amanda
Beckett (Jennifer Love Hewitt), of his dying love for her,
before he heads off to Dartmouth College.
The only thing
stopping Preston is Amanda's current boyfriend and the fact
that she does not even know Preston exists.
The movie follows
Preston's eyes in trying to win a love that seems to be forbidden.
Booze, partying and rock -n' roll lead Preston to a face-to-face
confrontation with his love, only to be let down by an angry
Amanda. Amanda embarrasses him, thinking Preston only wants
her for sex.
Much like "American
Graffiti," "Can't Hardly Wait," also starring
Seth Green, Donald Faison and Johnny Zander, captures youths
last stand as high school students. The rules are thrown out
the window and everything goes.
Next, our trip
lands us further back than high school. We find ourselves
in a small Oregon town, in the 1986 hit "Stand By Me."
A group of four
friends, in the summer of 1959, decide to end school break
with an adventure worth etching in stone. They decide to turn
a usually boring weekend into a memory, none of them will
ever forget.
A missing body
is what ties the four teenagers together.
Gordie Lachance
(Wil Wheaton), Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Teddy Duchamp
(Cory Feldman) and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connel) venture into
the woods in search for the Ray Brower kid, the missing body.
"Stand By
Me" is an odyssey of self-discovery. It is a movie that
joins four friends, through tall-tales, youthful "smokes"
and leeches, into a journey of coming-of-age. The movie captures
the strength of friendship and the experiences of growing
up.
For many of us,
our final step through college life is just around the corner.
For Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder), college has ended and real
life is beating her to the ground. "Reality Bites"
(1994) is a romantic comedy that looks at love, intertwined
with post-college life.
Many of us are
afraid of the real world. This movie shows us why many of
us should fear the transition.
Lelaina is off
on her own, with her recently lost internship, trying to find
a new means of income. The only thing keeping her sane is
her friends and developing love life.
Also starring Ethan
Hawke, Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo, "Reality Bites"
joins a love triangle, the fear of AIDS and minimum wage jobs
into a 90-minute realization.
Our final destination
is outer space. There are no graduations or coming-of-age
tales. The only thing evident is "The Shwartz."
Mel Brooks writes and directs one of the only successful spoofs
in movie history, in his 1987 classic "Spaceballs."
Feeding off of
and mimicking Lucas' "Star Wars," Brooks wages battle
between good and evil. The heroes are Lone Star (Bill Pullman)
and his half dog/half human pal Barf (John Candy). Their mission
is to save Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) from the shackles
of the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis). Facing jelly jammed
computer screens, sexual innuendoes and Yogurt (Brooks), our
heroes finally infiltrate Dark Helmet's spaceship, rescuing
the princess and saving the universe.
"Spaceballs"
is a story of "life, liberty and the pursuit of massive
merchandising opportunities."
I hope my experience,
as a columnist, was as enlightening for you all to read as
it was enlightening for me to write. I urge you, when looking
at a flick, to look past what is on the screen and to see
what is in between the film and the projector.
Derrick Engoy
is a print journalism major at Cal State Long Beach.
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