On February 24th, we watched to different films from Decalogue 1 and 5. The first film dealt with the first commandment, "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange Gods before me". In the first episode, the theme becomes very prevalent as to how Kieslowski tied this film to the first commandment. To start the episode, the camera is focused on a man alone by a frozen lake, and as the camera pans around to his face, you can see his eyes adjust to look directly into the camera; symbolizing a being that is always watching. Throughout the film, this character is seen as watching many other characters as they carry along on the frozen ice. In this film, the main characters are seen as a father, who is a university professor in computer science, and his young son. They bond over technology, as they both enjoy the various functions computers can carry out after they have programmed them. A key point in the film is when the father trusts his computer program to declare that the frozen lake was thick and cold enough to withstand his young son skating on it. Later in the film, tragedy strikes as his son was skating and fell through the ice. Even though his father was a brilliant computer programmer who fully trusted and believed in technology, the very thing he worshiped led to his son's death. This ties back to the first commandment. The film revealed that the father was not a very religious man, but instead invested his life to technology and trusted in his computer programing as a being of worship, which directly disobeys the first commandment.
The second film had to deal with fifth commandment, "Thou shall not kill". Throughout the film, the characters that are focused upon act in deviant ways and appear to come off as morally bad individuals. The film follows a young man, who has walked around town acting poorly to people, trying to find a taxi to leave town. While he is walking around, the film also follows a middle aged taxi driver who is treating people equally as poor. Eventually, these two men meet, and the taxi driver takes the young man outside of town to a secluded area, where the young man has plotted to strangle and beat the taxi driver to death. Eventually the young man was caught, and sentenced to execution. The execution depicted a scene as premeditated and as brutal as the actual murder. This scene calls capitol punishment into question, by creating a scenario where the old lesson of "two wrongs don't make a right" becomes relevant. It also makes the viewer question whether or not a execution sentence goes against the fifth amendment.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Monday, February 27, 2017
Daniel Haskett - The Decalogue
The Decalogue is a series of episodes that
digs deep into the emotions of the viewer. All ten commandments are depicted
throughout the series, but the two that we focused on were the first and fifth
episodes. Though these are two episodes contain very different messages, Kieslowski uses cinematography to tell the
story.
What is unique about
Kieslowski’s approach to film?
Kieslowski doesn’t unravel
the ribbon to soon. The story that he wants to tell in each of the episodes has
a distinct purpose, and he doesn’t give away the key to the point until the
end. I Episode 1: "I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other gods
before me" and Episode 2: "Thou shalt not kill" each have a distinct meaning, but the story that Kieslowski wants to tell is not clear in the title.
The development of each episode was the most impressive part. He took the idea
of the commandments and applied them to the lives of normal citizens. On an
emotional level, the viewer can connect to all the other viewers around them.
Also, throughout the episodes there are meanings hidden within context of the
film. For instance, Kieslowski continually uses the computer in episode 1 to
send an important message to one of the characters.
In the first
episode, the monitor read, “I am ready” in three different scenes. Why is that
message get emphasized in the film? In 1 Samuel 3 the Lord speaks to Samuel
three times but he was blind to the fact that he was being called by the Lord. Each
night, Samuel heard his name being called while he was dreaming. He thought that
it was Eli calling him, and each time he responded, “Here I am.” The film is parallel
to this biblical story. The father in the Decalogue
episode was being called through the very medium that he put all of his trust in. The Lord
has his methods of reaching the furthest out individuals. In this case the father
thought that the computer was all knowing and infallible but that was not the
case at all. The computer failed him in the end after he lost his son. “I am
ready” is a symbol that God is all knowing and the greatest in power. He can take
away as quickly as he gives. Through the two episodes there were countless
symbols, but this is the one example that stuck out the most. God is calling.
Monica Goodwin - Decalogue 1 & 5
In class we watched two episodes of Decalogue, specifically episodes 1 and 5. The first decalogue, titled "I am the Lord they God; thou shalt have no other gods before Me" is about a father named Krzysztof and his son Pawel. Krzysztof is a computer enthusiast and professor who shares his love of machinery and computers with Pawel. Although he was raised in the Catholic faith, Krzysztof has a very matter-of-fact view on the world and this is apparent in how he consoles Pawel after he finds a dead dog in the snow. This faith in the concrete and visible is explored throughout the episode as Pawel becomes more and more interested in what the ideas of death and God truly mean. In these discussions, ideas of the abstract and divine clash with the factual and scientific. The first instance of this clash is when Pawel asks Krzysztof about what being dead means. While Krzysztof answers matter-of-fact and scientifically, Pawel keeps asking what being dead means, implying a desire to know deeper meanings and more abstract understandings. This instance ties into the religious concept of midrash, which incorporates different levels of meanings. In midrash, deep and personal meanings are identified. In this scene, Pawel tries to identify the deeper and personal meanings, but is blocked by his well-meaning father.
Krzysztof instills in Pawel a strong dependence on machinery, computers, and the calculable. However, in the course of the episode the focus shifts from how computers are godlike to how they fall short of living up to godlike expectations. When Pawel falls into a frozen lake that Krzysztof calculated to be safe, the title of the episode became more and more clear. This episode reflects God's first commandment because when Krzysztof rejected God and Catholicism at a young age he began to revere computers and machines in their place. Then, when machines fail him, he has nowhere to turn but to God. However, this turn is not one that is filled with grace, but with malice. Krzysztof destroys a small altar in front of a Madonna painting and the destruction makes the image of Mary appear to be crying. This emotionally charged image creates a lot of questions: Is Mary crying because of Krzysztof's anger, Pawels death, or maybe both? Does Krzysztof blame God for his misfortunes?
The second episode, "Thou shalt not kill," had a more obvious connection to its title. The episode centers around two men; one, a young man who commits a premeditated murder, and the second, the man who acts as his lawyer. This episode contains a lot of contrasting images and dialogue. One example is how at the beginning of the episode the lawyer is talking about how the law should "improve nature" or make humanity better, yet later in the episode he defends a murderer. Another example is all of the symbolic imagery that occurs before the man commits the murder: on the taxi ride to the murder location the taxi passes a statue of a saint and a group of young schoolchildren (implying innocence) and then pass by smokestacks and dying grass (the ugliness of the location denotes the ugliness of the heart, in this case).
This episode left me with a lot of questions, many of which center around the idea of hypocrisy in the two main characters. The murderer receives a kind of poetic justice in the episode by dying the same way he murdered the taxi driver, but is that truly justice? Is killing killers a way to show that killing is wrong? The lawyer emphasizes the power of the law to promote goodness and fairness, but how is defending someone who is guilty an example of goodness?
Krzysztof instills in Pawel a strong dependence on machinery, computers, and the calculable. However, in the course of the episode the focus shifts from how computers are godlike to how they fall short of living up to godlike expectations. When Pawel falls into a frozen lake that Krzysztof calculated to be safe, the title of the episode became more and more clear. This episode reflects God's first commandment because when Krzysztof rejected God and Catholicism at a young age he began to revere computers and machines in their place. Then, when machines fail him, he has nowhere to turn but to God. However, this turn is not one that is filled with grace, but with malice. Krzysztof destroys a small altar in front of a Madonna painting and the destruction makes the image of Mary appear to be crying. This emotionally charged image creates a lot of questions: Is Mary crying because of Krzysztof's anger, Pawels death, or maybe both? Does Krzysztof blame God for his misfortunes?
The second episode, "Thou shalt not kill," had a more obvious connection to its title. The episode centers around two men; one, a young man who commits a premeditated murder, and the second, the man who acts as his lawyer. This episode contains a lot of contrasting images and dialogue. One example is how at the beginning of the episode the lawyer is talking about how the law should "improve nature" or make humanity better, yet later in the episode he defends a murderer. Another example is all of the symbolic imagery that occurs before the man commits the murder: on the taxi ride to the murder location the taxi passes a statue of a saint and a group of young schoolchildren (implying innocence) and then pass by smokestacks and dying grass (the ugliness of the location denotes the ugliness of the heart, in this case).
This episode left me with a lot of questions, many of which center around the idea of hypocrisy in the two main characters. The murderer receives a kind of poetic justice in the episode by dying the same way he murdered the taxi driver, but is that truly justice? Is killing killers a way to show that killing is wrong? The lawyer emphasizes the power of the law to promote goodness and fairness, but how is defending someone who is guilty an example of goodness?
Friday, February 24, 2017
Evelyn Harper - Commandments Come to Life
In class February 24, we watched two episodes of the Decalogue including commandment 1: “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me” and commandment 5: "Thou shall not kill.” In the first episode, I found it fascinating that the man by the lake resembled God. The beginning of the film the man in the coat was staring into the camera which depicted God gazing into souls. The little boy in the film, Pawel is 11-years-old. He lives with his father, who is an IT-teacher at the university. The father was not a religious man. In fact, he put technology and science before God. Pawel looks up to his father for his intelligence - they bond over solving math problems together. Pawel and his father agree on the fact that computers create miracles. Ironically, it’s Jesus that performed miracles. However, Pawel still showed interest in the concepts that were not covered by calculations and measurements, such as death and God. When he asks his father about the dog that died his father references the anatomy aspect of the heart not pumping blood after death. However, when he wonders about his aunt's faith, he asks about God and the soul. Due to the calculations from the computer, Pawel could skate on the frozen lake but the father neglected to consider his own common sense and Pawel died after falling through the ice in the lake.
His father suffered in more than one aspect; he lost his son, his science and calculations failed him, and lost confidence in being a good father. The loss of his son did not bring him closer to God nor faith, in fact, it pushed him to resent it which is portrayed by his father knocking over the altar to honor the children who died in the lake while ice skating. The boy is very curious about life and strives for answers. The aunt comforts Pawel’s curiosity by telling him to lean on God for answers. Many humans turn to religion and a belief system to find the unknown answers. Religion is comforting. One consideration is that God is punishing Pawel’s father for not following the commandment “thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me,” however God is not one to seek revenge but it can still be incorporated. The episode is a mystery because had the father been more faithful would the son have died, so would it have been a tragedy?
In the fifth episode, “Thou Shall Not Kill,” provides an eye-opening perception on the political system and the flaws within execution. Is it fair to have an eye for eye system? It’s easy to hate the convicted suspect and seek revenge through the death penalty but there are two sides to every story. Instead of convicting all killers as criminals the judicial system should learn more of the suspect's position to better understand the situation from a holistic perspective. However, that is a lot easier said than do because if my loved one was killed I would find justice in making inducing pain on the killer. That’s a very humanistic position. The film enabled the audience to get an understanding of the killer’s perspective and it uprooted an emotional response when the killer began talking about how his sister was killed. It was ironic how the judicial system was so fast to execute the boy after reviewing the evidence. If there was false evidence placed and the boy was innocent, it wouldn’t have mattered the judge was focused on the facts at hand. They would have still executed the boy. Before DNA testing there must have been hundreds of cases where the suspect was convicted and executed though he or she was innocent.
God’s commandment is often disregarded because of an emotional response to frustration and anger. The fact that the judicial system was quite to execute a man depicted that they are no different than the criminal being executed. But what makes it okay for the judicial system to execute without any punishment?
His father suffered in more than one aspect; he lost his son, his science and calculations failed him, and lost confidence in being a good father. The loss of his son did not bring him closer to God nor faith, in fact, it pushed him to resent it which is portrayed by his father knocking over the altar to honor the children who died in the lake while ice skating. The boy is very curious about life and strives for answers. The aunt comforts Pawel’s curiosity by telling him to lean on God for answers. Many humans turn to religion and a belief system to find the unknown answers. Religion is comforting. One consideration is that God is punishing Pawel’s father for not following the commandment “thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me,” however God is not one to seek revenge but it can still be incorporated. The episode is a mystery because had the father been more faithful would the son have died, so would it have been a tragedy?
In the fifth episode, “Thou Shall Not Kill,” provides an eye-opening perception on the political system and the flaws within execution. Is it fair to have an eye for eye system? It’s easy to hate the convicted suspect and seek revenge through the death penalty but there are two sides to every story. Instead of convicting all killers as criminals the judicial system should learn more of the suspect's position to better understand the situation from a holistic perspective. However, that is a lot easier said than do because if my loved one was killed I would find justice in making inducing pain on the killer. That’s a very humanistic position. The film enabled the audience to get an understanding of the killer’s perspective and it uprooted an emotional response when the killer began talking about how his sister was killed. It was ironic how the judicial system was so fast to execute the boy after reviewing the evidence. If there was false evidence placed and the boy was innocent, it wouldn’t have mattered the judge was focused on the facts at hand. They would have still executed the boy. Before DNA testing there must have been hundreds of cases where the suspect was convicted and executed though he or she was innocent.
God’s commandment is often disregarded because of an emotional response to frustration and anger. The fact that the judicial system was quite to execute a man depicted that they are no different than the criminal being executed. But what makes it okay for the judicial system to execute without any punishment?
Ben Ertel- Decalogue
The Decalogue is a series of episodes that cover situations in which you should interpret to represent the ten commandments of Exodus and Deuteronomy in the Bible. The first episode of The Decalogue that we watched was to represent the commandment of God being in control of your life and having no other God's that you worship. This episode displays that in that the main character's God that he worshiped was science, logic, and technology. The main character trusts these things so much that they eventually lead to his son's demise after a miscalculation which represents the fact that other Gods don't work. The second episode represents the commandment that you should not kill. The plot is this man who decides to murder a cab driver then gets caught and is put on death row. The true message of this episode is that the state was just as calculated in the killing of the main character as he was in killing the cab driver and the state is not justified in killing him.
The term midrash means focusing on interpretation of legal and homiletical Biblical texts and provides relevant meaning to the scriptures to people (Redick). The visual medium of film explains midrash in a very unique way in that it makes the Biblical issues very relevant because they pop in up in situations that we would see today thus making it easier for use to practice hermeneutics, which is the practice of interpreting the Bible (Redick). Both episodes of The Decalogue do a really good job of making these Biblical principals relevant to today. In the first episode, talking about worshiping other gods, they do a very good job of showing another God that a lot of people cling to day which is science, logic, and technology and showed that it, much like other foreign gods, will undoubtedly fail you. In the second episode about not killing they cover more than just a murder that you could expect when discussing this but show how the death penalty could also be considered killing considering it is the premeditated taking of someone's life. These episodes both have a good amount of symbols that help to bridge the gap of understanding. In the first episode, the biggest symbol is the symbolic value of weeping. In this episode the main character weeps when his son dies, the god symbol wipes a tear which I interpret to be because of the main character separating himself from Him, and the madonna portrait in the church begins to weep when the main character destroys the altar in rage against God. All of these weepings are because of losing a son: the God character losing the main character, the main character losing his son, and when Mary lost Jesus. In the second episode the fact the God character came in several different forms and the main character's reaction to him in each way is very symbolic. The first instance is in the rest room when the main character sees him then shoves him into the urinal to represent turning from God, the second is when he's working the stop sign and the main character remains hidden from him to represent hiding from God in your sin, and the third instance when he is carrying a ladder to symbolize his ladder to heaven since he would soon die. They also used symbolism in this episode in the way the character interacted positively with the little girls representing his relationship with his deceased sister. I believe the film related feeling to meaning in that the Bible can be hard to interpret so they used relevant issues to the people of today that they would have an emotional attachment to to show the way these issues would be addressed or responded to Biblically. The episodes incorporate the code into people's lives by showing relevant issues with an address to them that is rooted in the word of God with the purpose of showing that eternity without God would be chaotic and upsetting to anyone that isn't centered in Him.
The term midrash means focusing on interpretation of legal and homiletical Biblical texts and provides relevant meaning to the scriptures to people (Redick). The visual medium of film explains midrash in a very unique way in that it makes the Biblical issues very relevant because they pop in up in situations that we would see today thus making it easier for use to practice hermeneutics, which is the practice of interpreting the Bible (Redick). Both episodes of The Decalogue do a really good job of making these Biblical principals relevant to today. In the first episode, talking about worshiping other gods, they do a very good job of showing another God that a lot of people cling to day which is science, logic, and technology and showed that it, much like other foreign gods, will undoubtedly fail you. In the second episode about not killing they cover more than just a murder that you could expect when discussing this but show how the death penalty could also be considered killing considering it is the premeditated taking of someone's life. These episodes both have a good amount of symbols that help to bridge the gap of understanding. In the first episode, the biggest symbol is the symbolic value of weeping. In this episode the main character weeps when his son dies, the god symbol wipes a tear which I interpret to be because of the main character separating himself from Him, and the madonna portrait in the church begins to weep when the main character destroys the altar in rage against God. All of these weepings are because of losing a son: the God character losing the main character, the main character losing his son, and when Mary lost Jesus. In the second episode the fact the God character came in several different forms and the main character's reaction to him in each way is very symbolic. The first instance is in the rest room when the main character sees him then shoves him into the urinal to represent turning from God, the second is when he's working the stop sign and the main character remains hidden from him to represent hiding from God in your sin, and the third instance when he is carrying a ladder to symbolize his ladder to heaven since he would soon die. They also used symbolism in this episode in the way the character interacted positively with the little girls representing his relationship with his deceased sister. I believe the film related feeling to meaning in that the Bible can be hard to interpret so they used relevant issues to the people of today that they would have an emotional attachment to to show the way these issues would be addressed or responded to Biblically. The episodes incorporate the code into people's lives by showing relevant issues with an address to them that is rooted in the word of God with the purpose of showing that eternity without God would be chaotic and upsetting to anyone that isn't centered in Him.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Caitlin Murphy- Decalogue
The two episodes of the Decalogue that we focused on were commandment 1: “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me” and commandment 5: "Thou shall not kill". Episode one was an emotional piece between the bond of father and son and the underlining conflict of religious differences. The son desperately wanted to know more about what happens after you die, coming from curiosity of his aunt's (the father's sister) discussion. The son's father had little to no religious faith, and believed fully on science, math, and technology. Throughout the film, we watch as the son juggles between his love for technology and his curiosity for religion. After a tragic skating accident in melting ice, the son falls into the lake and sadly dies. We watch as the father completely shuts down with sadness and despair and even begins to blame himself for his son's death because of his miscalculation in how deep the ice would be. This is when we begin to see the father begin to distrust technology and we see a small spark of interest in faith that is quickly destroyed with more anger. The symbols of tears show up many times during the episode, starting with a frame of the aunt watching her deceased nephew in a tv commercial for milk, then with the "homeless" man staring the fire, with the father's single tear while he watches his dead son be lifted from the bottom of the lake, and then lastly, the biggest symbolic representation of tears, is the candle wax falling from the Mother of God's eye. These tears show the pain and suffering in our world, yet also show vulnerability and a subtle cry for help to the higher being. Midrash, a focus on deep, comparative, or secretive meaning, is shown in the episode by the contrast of "higher power" between religion and technology. The father shows little to no emotion throughout the entirety of the film, until tragedy occurs, which he involuntarily passed down to his son, when we see him show no emotion when he passes by the dead and frozen dog.
In episode 5, we see a much more hostile group of characters. Even though the setting was quite dreary in episode 1, episode 5 puts off a very negative feeling. The taxi driver seems to lack morals as he cat calls women, drops clients from having rides after waiting their turn, and purposely scaring dogs walking passed by blaring the horn, making one dog actually run away. Next we see a mysterious, rebel 20 year old boy who rarely speaks, keeps to himself, and shows no emotion. Both of these characters seem to find joy in bringing pain to others lives. About half way through the episode, the young man gets a ride from the taxi driver and ends up choking, murdering, and robbing him. The taxi driver and young man have no connection to each other, the young man just needed to kill someone, and it did not matter who. I find it interesting that the two of them ended up connecting in such a gruesome way, considering they are quite similar. The young man is sent to life is prison without parole and sentenced the death penalty. The act of killing the killer has always been an argument across America, and has even been resigned from the law for sometime, because of its hypocritical tendency. Should someone be killed because they killed someone? Is it a form of punishment to scare other potential murderers from killing? Or is it for economic reasons in the prison? We do not know the exact reason behind the death penalty, but we see a very graphic representation of it at the end of the film.
Before the young man is killed by the prison system, he talks to his lawyer (a new lawyer at that) about his wishes for after he passes. He would like to take the last spot in the grave where is father and younger sister are buried, which was left open for his mother. I became quite disappointed when I heard this, because as soon as he started to show vulnerability, he became a selfish human again by taking his mother's plot. He then goes into detail about how his sister passes, and begins to open up about how the person who ran over his sister was actually his friend who he was drinking with just before the accident. Things finally begin to make sense as to why he had so much anger built up and what caused him to kill someone. The guilt of being a part of his favorite sibling's death ate him alive to the point of killing others. Although this story is incredibly dark, there are forms of love that shine through. There is love shown between the lawyer and young man, when the lawyer calls out his name after the sentencing almost in a way of hopelessness and apology. There is also love shown between the criminal and his deceased sister. Although love was only shown a couple times in this episode, it was more prevalent than ever because of the lack of positivity during the rest of the episode.
In episode 5, we see a much more hostile group of characters. Even though the setting was quite dreary in episode 1, episode 5 puts off a very negative feeling. The taxi driver seems to lack morals as he cat calls women, drops clients from having rides after waiting their turn, and purposely scaring dogs walking passed by blaring the horn, making one dog actually run away. Next we see a mysterious, rebel 20 year old boy who rarely speaks, keeps to himself, and shows no emotion. Both of these characters seem to find joy in bringing pain to others lives. About half way through the episode, the young man gets a ride from the taxi driver and ends up choking, murdering, and robbing him. The taxi driver and young man have no connection to each other, the young man just needed to kill someone, and it did not matter who. I find it interesting that the two of them ended up connecting in such a gruesome way, considering they are quite similar. The young man is sent to life is prison without parole and sentenced the death penalty. The act of killing the killer has always been an argument across America, and has even been resigned from the law for sometime, because of its hypocritical tendency. Should someone be killed because they killed someone? Is it a form of punishment to scare other potential murderers from killing? Or is it for economic reasons in the prison? We do not know the exact reason behind the death penalty, but we see a very graphic representation of it at the end of the film.
Before the young man is killed by the prison system, he talks to his lawyer (a new lawyer at that) about his wishes for after he passes. He would like to take the last spot in the grave where is father and younger sister are buried, which was left open for his mother. I became quite disappointed when I heard this, because as soon as he started to show vulnerability, he became a selfish human again by taking his mother's plot. He then goes into detail about how his sister passes, and begins to open up about how the person who ran over his sister was actually his friend who he was drinking with just before the accident. Things finally begin to make sense as to why he had so much anger built up and what caused him to kill someone. The guilt of being a part of his favorite sibling's death ate him alive to the point of killing others. Although this story is incredibly dark, there are forms of love that shine through. There is love shown between the lawyer and young man, when the lawyer calls out his name after the sentencing almost in a way of hopelessness and apology. There is also love shown between the criminal and his deceased sister. Although love was only shown a couple times in this episode, it was more prevalent than ever because of the lack of positivity during the rest of the episode.
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