[HW #49]

[a]Personal Contribution
I was and am an extra. Enough said.

[b]Analysis of the Message and Tone
Our class film seem to have portrayed the message of: Reality is, despite what the teacher might say or do, students will remain the same, if not stay similar, at the end of the day.In our film specifically, Mr. C the teacher completely blows off the cover of all the students, and had this moment of revealing to the students why the role they play will get them nowhere. And even with everything said, it only took the students less than half a minute to go back to their roles, neglecting everything that was said. This film showed the audience, especially with the detail of the teacher being an alcoholic, that teachers are not flawless nor are they saviors. In most cases, teachers would just lecture the students; never go above and beyond to "save" the them. That is because the teachers themselves are trying to escape (through sleeping, alcoholism, and leaving the room in this case).

The film displayed a sense of hopelessness, as though all the characters would be doomed even after the film. The teacher would have became an alcoholic, while the students continued to be misfits, and not be well-educated. There was also a sense of indifference in this film. Regardless of what happens, people would do what they do. The students could care less about what the teacher said. Meanwhile, the teacher could care less about what happens to the students, as he is able to easily give up on them after one attempt. Overall, there was an alienated feel between the characters, and I guess that's how school really is; we're all here within the same building, but in terms of who we are as people, the students don't have much say in the teacher's lives, and vice versa.

[c] Contrast the Film With the Savior/Teacher Films

Similar to "Hamlet 2", our film had a flawed teacher, who had alcoholism as one of their his flaws. But aside from that and the carnival aspect, there weren't many other similarities. However, the message of our film was very similar to "The Class" because contrary to most other movies about school, these films had a teacher who were unable to save the students. At the end of the film, nothing was resolved but the day went on, as showed by the students and teacher having fun playing football, even after Souleyman was expelled in "The Class," and the students chatting away after the teacher left in our class film.

[d]Theorize the Connection Between Salvation and Education/Schooling in Our Culture

School as training ground. School is supposedly saving us from ignorance and poverty. It prepares us for the "real world," and whoever does the best job preparing would become the most successful. Schools are trying to polish us- to refine us so that we are the perfect contribution to society, however that might be. This is partially true; school is saving us from total ignorance at least. Although school is saving us in this one aspect, it is trapping us in another. School may save us, but it also gives us a reason for us to be saved. There are many flaws in schooling that would come at the expense of students' lives. One obvious one would be how the students are encouraged to follow this one path. Schooling in our culture is homogenizing the people in our culture. There are patterns between people's attitude, way of thinking, way of holding up a conversation, interests in conversations, etc. Regardless of who the person is, he or she would have a similar approach in doing whatever as another person. So isn't that something to be saved from?