deblogerizer

five blogs and four papers later

i suppose the one thing i should be worried about is being unable to produce a piece of writing that will do this movie justice. when this assignment first started four weeks ago i wanted to watch ‘Se7en’ just because i heard it was a good movie. not much thought went into the movie i picked. iwatched it on a a sunday and on that monday in class – “i hope you guys picked a movie”(amcentire) – wasn’t a bad thing, but i guess i had my movie, huh.

it just seems like there is more to this topic and i believe i have only scratched the surface. so what i am going to in my paper is take what i know about each sin and try to relate it the best i can to everyday life and the different people we see. but on the otehr hand i am going to take the massively grusome scenes from teh movie and try to depict what i think they mean.

i was never much into churh and reading the bible and all that goes along with that, but i would not mind looking further into the seven deadly sins through “priest text.” the hard thing is finding the time to do so.

I was once told “we don’t go to school, we get through school.” i think i understand what that means now, because we have been working so long on this project i still don’t think i know as much about my topic as i should. so basically i guess that saying means “we try as best as we can in the present moment, but than it is on to the next assignment.”  what do you think about that saying. true, false, let em know.

Not a Biblical Myth, Se7en

Thesis: Everyone falls victim to one sin or the other.

Qoute from first scene

Policeman: “He has had his head face down in a bowl for about forty-five min. now.”

Detective Mills: “That’s it, that is how you guys do it around here.”

Policeman: “Sorry, If he was breathing, you figure he would have gotten up by now.”

Facts about the seven deadly sins

The seven deadly sins are also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins.

They are a classified as the  most objectionable vices that have been used in early christian times to educate  followers concerning fallen man’s tendency to sin.

The Catholic Churh divided sins in to two principal categories 1)venial (being of minor stature) and could be releaved through saraments 2)”capital” or mortal (being more severe). Mortal sins destroyed the life of grace and created eternal damnation.

“Scripture says we are all sinners, and we don’t mind as long as the sins are nameless and faceless.” (White Stone Journal)

Seeing ourselves as we are and not comparing ourselve to people we see is humility. If someone else’s overexaggeration of themselves bothers you, yuo are not humble what so ever.

Wanting more than one needs capitalizes on greed. Virtue against it sins is genorsity. Letting others get praise.

Envy represents the “why not me attitude” towards good others may recieve. Love is which it sins against. It actually looks for the better sake and well-being of others.

Anger acts as our first emotion towards others problems. Completely opposite of this is being kind. To be kind to someones good fortune instead of envious.

Lust is the inability to have self-control. To self preserve and not over indulge. Sex can be used as out-of-control power for those who abuse it.

Gluttony falls to the inability to pertain balance in one’s life. Not only in eating is but entertainment and the company of others. This type tends to be very selfish in one’s wants.

Sloth is the means to be as lazy as one can be. To strive only to meet the bare minimum. In life more than anything. Always looking fo rthe easy way out.

no way, your the one who commits the sins

In this article the author, David R. Slavitt, puts himself in the position making a poem out of the each of the seven deadly sins and applying it too himself. He treats each category or sin, if you will, as if he is defending it. He plays first person quite well i might ad.

Forexample, “Pride gives men a reason for doing the right thing even when the world has gone mad” (Slavitt). Yeah, i try to believe that man or woman will do the right thing if it leaves them feeling better. But then you ask yourself, if it was to leave him feeling better, did he do right for the fact of helping or the was it greed? Like donating money, but letting everyone know you did. That seems more selfish to save good face than charity to me. Or when an athlete gets caught smoking weed than has a sit down interview saying it was his first time. Saving face to the media and for the record. We all know it’s not true though.

“He’s blind or dead, or he has so much himself that he knows envy from the recieving end.” (Slavitt) This meaning that he is so envious of others that he doesn’t notice it, but instead think people are envious of him. How does work? The one with the most envy actually thinks people strive to be like him. Dellusional or what? The author has also said the envious one acts as the alpha male. I’m guessing it has something to do with ‘little man syndrome’. Weakest tries to be the toughest.

Talking in the first person about lust, Slavitt says ” The greeks who were civlized at least for a while-thought of me as a god.” I find it very hard to believe a civilized group crowned prostitutes as god. The ones who succomb to temptation the easiest. Yeah, is that what all the naked greek statues stand for.

These deadly sins are personalities that can trap any body. If i had a question about the article, it would be “Why did you (the author) talk so highly of the seven deadly sins and speak of nearly no negative attributes in which you were describing?

who’s who, huh?

This is the only picture i could find of this movie. The picture is of the cover of  David Fincher’s, “Seven”. Not much to analyze about this picture, But since i have seen the movie i am sure i can pulll a thing or two away from the cover. First of all, it has the words from the seven deadly sins cutting the cover in two to show sides of the main characters. From this even having not seen the film you can probably guess the film is gouing to involve the seven deadly sins, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. The question you might be asking yourself is, who is the killer and who is the detective. In this case they are both detectives, one about to retire and one about to get his first assignment. Judging by the age difference in the two you can assume Morgan Freeman(Det. Sommerset) will be the one retiring and Brad Pitt(Det. Mills), who just moved to town living right below a monorail track, will be soon given hios new assignment.

Det.’s Sommerset and Mills walk into the first murder site in a broken down, poor establishment (looks like the ghetto with broken concrete and falling over fences) blinded with only the light shining from their flashlights. As they walk threw this destroyed  apartment shining their light they finally come to an italian man face first in his own plate of pasta. Det. look around and notice hands are tied below the table and ankles are bound together and this obese man has red marks on the back of his head as he had been pistol whipped by the killer. A further investigation proves he had been fed to death, since the bucket under the table is full of his own puke.

Since i couldn’t find a picture i figured i would graphically explain the scene of the first murder.

Five, six, “seven”

Gluton is defined as one who eats or consumes immoderate amounts. In ”Seven” glutony plays a fat man bound at the ankles by rope forced to eat food to essentially his stomach exploded.

Greed is defined by an execessive desire for more thsan one needs. In this case is a lawyer is pushed into cutting a pound of flesh from his body (absolutely NO bone, NO muscle, etc.). Directors view of  lawyers is a persuaded decision that lawyers “dedicate their life to lying”(David Fincher)

Sloth described as laziness or indolence( disinslined to work). Such as drug dealers, pimps, roamers, etc. In “Seven” a man is tortured for a whole year to result in an almost wax-like humanart piece.

Lust is defined as intense, excessive or unrestrained sexual desire. In Fincher’s film a prostitute is killed by a man who had sex with her wearing a knife-like strap-on contraption. This was forced upon by the killer holding a gun in the man’s mouth. He was terrofied in later interviews.

Pride is a sense of one’s proper dignity or value; self respect. “Pride” is painted in blood above the headboard where the woman laid dead. In this case a woman is found in her bedrooom with bandages over her face, glued to her right hand lies a phone and glued to her left hand sits a bottle of pills. After the maming of the face use the phone to call for help or take the pills and kill yourself.

Envy defined as discontent and resentment aroused by desire for possesions or qualities of another. If you haven’t seen the movie i don’t want to ruin it for you, but the victim of envy wanted to live a normal life. He tried at the end, but it just didn’t work.

Wrath is brought on by vindictive anger, rage or fury. This too ties into the conclusion of the movie. And again i will not spoil it.

According to David Dincher, we all fall victim to one of these qualities if not more in one way or the other. Kinda spooky when you talk about everyone showing qualities of one or more of the seven deadly sins. So my focusing question “Why does John Doe say “We see a deadly sin standing on every street corner and in every home, and we tolerate it.”

Muzak or music

What  the hell is Muzak? It sounds like the name of a distant city out of Germany or something (Munich-Muzak). Yea not so much i didn’t think so either. I better get to the point. i guess what i am trying to say is that it sounds so much like the word music, i just thought i was hearing the z in there somewhere. It wasn’t until i actually saw it written down that i knew it was a different word with a different meaning.

Muzak – A trademark for recorded background music transmitted by wire on a subscription basis. Much like the scene in ‘Raising Arizona’ when Hi is robbing the grocery store and the voices cut out of the music, but the harmony still plays. Plays so you as the viewer can hear the characters interact but so there is no dead spots. Its almost as if you hear the movie, but it’s not the characters you hear, it’s the background music.

Just imagine delayed conversation. The anticipation for the other character or characters to respond. It’s would be like hearing toads burp in a mad silence. Or the tumbleweed crossing the deck, if that is easier to picture. Just DEAD AWKWARD silence. A movie is entertainment (most of the time). What is entertaining about silence?

So i guess i am in favor of the so called Muzak, it keeps the flow without creating so much attention you lose track of whats going on in the movie. At least it did for me, i had no idea what muzk even was until now.

Psychographic Analyzation

Psychography – based on an individuals psychological charateristics; attributtes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests or lifestyles.

After reading Moss’s paper on the  film, Raising Arizona, i do agree that this is a psychographic film.

The whole film is based on the present lifestyle of an individual and the desire to change the way one lives. For example, Hi (as you already know this) is a man in this struggle between commiting crimes and becoming a family man. In this struggle, Hi envisions himself growing up and raising a family with the wife, Ed, and leaving his past of petty crime and misfortune.

Hi, i believe, is dealing with psychoactive shcizophrenia. Meaning he has a split personality affecting the mind or the menatl process. During the film, there is a bounty hunter by the name of Leonard Smalls which actually portrays the battle between Hi(the good side) and Leonard (the outlaw, do what you want side).

Leonard sees this oppurtunity to make money on Mr. Arizona’s problem and presents Arizona with a price to get his baby. Since Arizona was in Hi’s dream this allows Smalls to feel as though he can interact with the man. He negotiates a price, like the outlaw would, trying to make a few bucks on a mishap to a family. It is almost like Hi is in a battle with himself. To do good or to go on—- in and out of prison that is.

In one of the closing scenes, Smalls snatches up Jr., Hi distracts as Ed grabs baby and Hi pulls the pin on one of the grenades on Smalls’ jacket followed by him blowing into a thousand outlaw pieces. At that moment in time, Nathan Jr. is returned to his family by Ed and Hi. Knowing that doing good starts with returning what was stolen. Hi then swears to Ed he is a changed men.

So basically, Hi exterminates his outlaw-don’t give a shit attitude(leonard) and in return gets his good side back. Now he can grow up on having a normal life until his next schzioprhrenic dilemma arises.

criminal vs. family man

Does this film have a moral?

Like every movie, i believe there is a mmoral you just have to search for it. In the beginning of the movie Herbert IgNasious McDonough is a law breaking outlaw that just can’t seem to stay out of jail. During the course of the movie H.I. marries the photo lady from the precinct, Edwina. Now shortly after they get married they try to have a baby, but the doctor tells them it’s just not possible.

After being told Ed couldn’t concieve a baby H.I. runs off and steals Nathan Jr.  What changed through the course of the movie? Did H.I. and Ed realizes you can’t just go on snatching up what you can’t produce yourself. Through trial and error H.I. figures out he isn’t cut out for family life.

For example, when his friends break out of jail, they come to H.I.’s trailor in the boondocks. He seems not to think much of the arrival, but on the other hand his wife, Ed, isn’t to happy with the idea. After his fugitive buddies are aware of the disagreement one of them looks at H.I. and says “now who’s wearing the pants in this relationship”. Soon after the boys are told to leave under the families newly given circumstances.

Ed wants to change H.I. into a family man with dinner guests and everything. He invites his boss, boss’ wife and children over one night and they raise all sorts of questions like vaccine shots, what to feed them, etc. Things H.I. and Ed didn’t think about before they had snatched this baby from the Arizona’s. Long story short H.I. punches his boss in the face and gets  fired the next day. Ed says “now where does this leave our familyH.I., how are we gonna support a family when you don’t have a job.” Given the criminal in H.I. he makes a quick solution and robs a quick-e-mart. Another step in the wrong direction of becoming this perfect family man Ed wants.

The moral of the story, You can’t be some one your not.

tough being a blog

This is a first. I guess i will talk about how events in my life effect the way i write and what i write about. A lot of papers i have written about in the past have been on topics such as meat cutting, snowboarding, golf or just random things that happen.

To be more specific, I was told to write a descriptive paragraph of  an enclosed area. Anything from the size of a little box to the size of a giant stadium room. Since I cut meat for a living right now i wrote about the meat cooler and the types of meat i cut. Explaining left to right, wall to wall everything that happened in that cooler. From shipments of meat delivered by the tons to the sounds of sports radio to the look of fresh dripping blood caused by a broken seal in the meat.  I used the five senses to explain the sounds, smells, feelings, and sights. Not so much taste, tasting in a meat cooler of that calibur may be hazardous to your health. Its all about being given a topic and being able to relate to it the best way you can get your ideas across so someone that will be able to understand where your coming from.

When i can relate a topic to everyday life or random topics i might be familiar with it makes it much easier to write about. Thats the thing about school there is so much to learn  (like blogging) and so many different things i haven’t a clue about.