Monday movie Project

Today me and Missy are working on our PowerPoint for our presentation. We are making final adjustments to are speeches and are ready to go on Friday.

Movie Project

Today me and Missy decided to create a PowerPoint for are visual. We came up with many discussion topics and we have divided out the speaking part. It is coming along very well.

Group Project

Today was the first day we were able to meet into our movie groups. Me and Missy have decided we are going to watch the Quick and the Dead. I have seen it she has not seen it yet. It is a really good movie as I come up with more ideas for the project I will be posting them thanks readers

Paper topics

I had a really hard time this time thinking about topics. So I read some of my classmates blogs and I have decided that I wanted to to write about how using Indians as mascots should be an honor not as a way of making fun of some one. If anyone has any Ideas of things I could add to my paper I will greatly appreciate it.

Iowa Review

Aexie said " a white guy does not get something just because he is white" I really liked this because it is true. I do not believe this is a bad thing Indians should get more things for just being Indian. We treated them badly for so long, still do so why not? Alexie does not mind nonindians to write about Indians he just wants the readers to remember it is from an outsider. I also like this because when you are reading an Indian novel written by a nonidian it is important to remember that they do not know everything and this is just how they think and feel. Not from what they experienced.

Smoke Signals Review

It really shocks me that Victor Daniels had to put on makeup to look more like a white man playing an Indian part. This makes no sense to me. Churchill compared Cowboys and Indians to Nazis and Jews. I agree with this comparison. Cowboys want to destroy an entire race as did the Nazis. I am glad that Smoke Signals employed so many Indians and was written by an Indian. I feel we are seeing how Indians are really like through this film.

This is what it means to to say Phoenix Arizona

I love when Alexie said " He is a story teller no one wants to listen to it's like being a dentist in town where everyone has false teeth" This was so funny to me it really helped me as a reader understand how Thomas must have felt like. I also thought it was very interesting when he said that the Indians celebrated Independence day when they were not fighting for their independence. I never really thought about this before now. This really got me thinking why do the Indians celebrate this holiday? I really liked this story and I also liked the ending.

Fleur

I really enjoyed reading Fluer. It was a a great mysterious story. I really like the end I would have like to known who the father was but I feel it would have taking away some of the mystery that is Fluer. It was a really easy read and I would like to read more from this author.

Wendy Rose: Truganinny Online poems

I loved Truganinny it was a great poem. It is so sad that she did not get her last wish. Instead she was stuffed like a deer head and hung up for everyone to admire this makes me so sick.

Online Poems
My favorite poem was Alien Seeds I love how she described this plants as intruders as well. It made me wonder who truly owns the land who was here first.

How to Write the Great American Indian novel, Note to culture vulture, and Crimes against Humanity

How to Write the Great American Indian novel
I felt this was a lot like How to play and Indian it made fun of how Indians are portrayed. I really like the last few lines of this "In the Great American Indian novel,when it is finally written all of the white people will be Indians and all the Indians will be ghost" This suggest that all white people really envy the Indians and want to be them. I think this is true. As a kid growing up I always wanted to be an Indian something about their nature loving spirits were so calming to me. As all the other children were picking between Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow white I was always Pocahontas. It sad that this is really how to write a American Indian Novel

Note to Culture Vulture
I really liked this poem and understood it until I got to the last few lines. "I used to say that you were just another fucking white thief stealing what little we have left but I just bought your new book and I liked it, a little" I understand he is writting this to a author however I do not understand why he would pick up the book in the first place.

Crimes against Humanity
Being a Braves fan myself I have never really thought about it a being rude to Indians until I read this article. I do not believe baseball should be baned but I do think out of respect the teams need to change thier names. Which, I do not think would be a major deal the name does not make the team the players do.

Cowboy

In the beginning we realize the women is in charge. This is different from what we have seen so far in the Westerns we have read and watched. The women usually have the role as being submissive and following her husband's orders. Reading this we got to go back and see what a true Cowboy was. When I hear the word Cowboy I do not think of John Wayne. I think of characters like we have in this story.I really enjoyed reading this we got to see into the life of a real Cowboy.

Broke Back Mountain

I did not enjoy reading this at all. It went into to much detail we get the picture. It really surprises me that Alma did not react more to the kiss she witnessed. It also sup rises me that they both act so appalled at the thought of being gay yet they are sleeping with each other. Jack was such a tragic figure and died in a tragic way.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly and handout

We finished watching the movie my favirote qoute it "There are two types of people in this world ones with loaded guns and ones who dig you dig"

The handout this week was very gory. It really wasn't a story behind it it was just a bunch of gruesmone imagery.

The Good he Bad and the Ugly Part 2 and Frayleing Chases Spaghetti Westerns

The Good the Bad and the Ugly part 2: In the movie Tuco went out back to try out the pistol that he was going to steal. I noticed that all the targets were Indians so far in this movie we have not seen any Indians. But it would not be a Western if we did not see a Indian being shot so they used them as target practice. In my first blog I did not know the name of the characters so here are the two that I know The Good= Blondie and the Ugly=Tuco. I thought it was really funny when Tuco said "think if you been on your own" to Blondie. If he had been on his own he would not have even been in that situation because he would not have been in the desert.


Frayeling Chases Spaghetti Westerns:I liked being able to hear clips from the different Spaghetti Westerns. In a fist full of Dollars I thought it was hilarious that he tried to make them apologize to the donkey. Most of this clip was over the Western film director sergio leone. Leone said he made westerns because Hollywood had stopped making them. Leone liked Westerns without a lot of talking he felt the music and action should do the talking. An interesting fact I found was that Leone does not like John Wayne. You can tell this because the Searchers and the Good the Bad and the Ugly are very different. Leone did not like the fact that the towns did not look lived in. I can relate to this it makes the movie feel more real. I feel that Spaghetti Westerns are closer to way the West really was compared to the American Westerns. In this interview they made the comment that in American Westerns you do not shoot children in cold blood but in Spaghetti Western this is common. In the West if someone had a problem with you they would kill everyone not just the men and women. When these movies came out there was no home television so these movies were meant to be seen by a home audience in the theater. Leone felt that 40% of the movie experience was the sound. So sound was very important to him and he took a lot of time in choosing the soundtrack.

The Good The Bad and the Ugly and Once upon a Western

We started watching The Good The Bad and the Ugly today in class. It was good so far I can not say much on it because we are only 50 min into the movie. One thing that I did notice that was a little odd was it took 10 min into the movie before the first word was spoken. Everyone was just staring at each other.
As for Once Upon A Western it was a Documentary we watched on You Tube about the spaghetti Westerns. The music is a big difference that I noticed.

Quotes from The Searchers

I plan to use these quotes in my paper.

"Humans ride a horse until it dies then goes on foot Comanche comes along gets there horse up rides him 20 more miles and eats him" Ethan

"Two sons killed by white man for each son I take many scalps" Scar

"This are my people" Debbie

"Fetch what home? The leavings a Comanche buck sold time and again to the highest bidder with savage brats of her own?" Laura

"They ain't white not anymore they are Comanche" Ethan

Essay Topics

I want to write my paper on similarities of Avatar and Westerns. Dr. Griffiths said it would be better to focus on one similarity, this is going to be my challenge. There are so many I do not know which one to pick. I would love to hear any suggestions someone may have.


If I decided not to do my paper on Avatar I would probably do it on Morals in Westerns ,like Ethan in the Searchers did not have to scalp Scar at the end of the film two wrongs don't make a right.

Facts about John Wayne

• John Wayne was also know as Duke
• His first role was in The Big Trail
• Movie that gave John Wayne his Big break Stagecoach
• Married Josephine Saenz and had four children
• Divorced her married a Mexican Actress
• Divorced her and married a Peruvian Actress and had three children with her before divorcing her
• Sands of Iwo Jima Landing John his first Oscar
• The Searchers was marked among the ten greatest films of all time (how I do not know)
• He died from a long battle with stomach cancer

John H. Lenihan About John Wayne Background to Dear John Wayne

The Searchers

We finished watching The Searchers today. It made me so mad I was enjoying it until they find the girl. Ethan goes to shoot her then decides no I will just take her home. What made him change his mind? What was that all about? Oh and I did not like the fact that Ethan scalped Scar at the end because it made him no better than the Indians like he claimed to be.

John Wayne Interview and Searchers

I agree with John Wayne when he said "They seem to forget the one basic principle of our business—illusion. We're in the business of magic. I don't think it hurts a child to see anything that has the illusion of violence in it. All our fairy tales have some kind of violence—the good knight riding to kill the dragon, etc. Why do we have to show the knight spreading the serpent's guts all over the candy mountain?" Film Makers today go to far with all the gory stuff. John Wayne is a little ruff around the edges but I learned a lot from this interview like,"They went out and brought the best hillbilly recording artist in the country to Hollywood to take my place. For the first couple of pictures, they had a hard time selling him, but he finally caught on. His name was Gene Autry. It was 1939 before I made Stagecoach—the picture that really made me a star." Who knew John Wayne had a hand in making Gene Autry what he is today.

John Wayne is old fashioned. He says he does not feel bad about what happened to the Indians and I can understand not feeling guilty but not even feeling sorry for those who were hurt, that's wrong.

We are on the second day of watching the Searchers I missed the first day but I was able to catch up quickly with the help of my classmates. I really got into the movie. I did not think I would like it since I hate westerns but this one is funny and I find my self curious about what will happen. My favorite part was when the guy who accidentally married an Indian kicked his wife and sent her rolling down the hill. Shocking but hilarious none the less.

Movie Indians

How to play Indian

This Handout was hilarious yet so true everything I read is what we make Indians out to be in movies. Like " Make your presence known by giving the coyote cry" In all movies about Indians before they attack you hear the war cry. When reading this I felt like I was reading a how to be a "Movie Indian" as William Weaver puts it. Yet this is not how I see Indians. Indians are great hunters so how can they ever have a successful hunt if they go around yelling all the time. Indians live off the land they are smart not savages that go around killing everything and everyone in site.

John Wayne

I do not know much about John Wayne. What I do know is from my great great grandfather. I am guessing John Wayne is this tough cowboy with a bad ass attitude. He probably has a great shot and never misses and he probably has a special horse with a name like Duchess. I am noticing a theme in the West. All Indians wear headdresses and moccasins and carry tomahawks. All cowboys have a great aim and a horse and fight Indians. So I am sure he is just another stereotypical cowboy from the West.

Alexieand Lone Ranger

Alexie hated his own people because of the way we portray them.

“I watched the movies and saw the kind of Indian I was supposed to be.”

“I mean, I knew I could never be as brave, as strong, as wiser as visionary, as white as the Indians in the movies.”

Look what we have done to this rich culture. It amazes me how we can make a whole race feel bad about themselves.

The Lone Ranger

I watch the first episode today and I am not sure how I feel about it yet. I need to see more epidodes before I can say if I like it or not however, right now I am not to thrilled about it. Hopes it gets better.

Group Discussion and Paper Topics

Out of 5 group members only 2 members did not read Jesse James. So mostly the discussion was on Jesse James. There was this common idea on justice vs. money. Money always won. We also discusseed why did the dective always got away.

If I were to write a paper on this story I would talk about the fact that everyone was about the money and not justice. I think this would be a good topic becaouse justice should always come first and in this novel this was not the case. I would try to figure out what type of audience the author was trying to appeal to.

The End

It amazes me how many times Jesse and Frank James has been shot at and not hit. They all had really bad aim.
“Jesse dodged the pill intended for him”
“I fired another shot that only grazed Frank James' cheek,”
However the detective finally manages to shoot and kill Jesse James’s horse Dancer.
Well at the end Jesse James is found out, he wears protective armor under his clothing. So no he is no God, only a coward. However, he lives on to rob more trains and create more adventures.

Strange things that has happened in Jesse James

1. Why do the James Brothers bother wearing mask when everyone knows it is them?
2. Why are the detectives so worried about the reward money and not justice?
3. Why is the story so poorly written and choppy?
4. Chapters switch back and forth to talking about the brothers to the detectives.
5. Who is the good guy and who is the bad guy?

I don’t understand why the James brothers took the time to put on mask when everyone knew who they were. The James brothers did show some compassion in the fact that they never robbed women. Jesse James was apart of the guerilla warfare, I can’t help but to wonder if this had something to do with the path he has chosen. In my reading I found out that the James brother’s father was a Baptist Preacher, I guess this goes back to the old saying the preacher kids are always the worse. In this chapter Jesse dropped down to yet another low level. He tried to sale is own “dead body”. Just as I think Jesse can not get any lower he goes and does something like this. I ended my reading with Jesse being held up by gunpoint will he finally be caught or will he yet again escape?

The James brothers

Jesse James is a thief
A murder yet loved by many
How can this be
Is it his tricky escapes
Or his gruesome murders
That draws us in
Jesse James riding on Dancer
Robbing trains and putting fear in all
Poor Frank always in his brother's shadow
No fame for him
Just the pain of always being second best
Just like all the rest

Indians

Frank Baum’s editorial on Sitting Bull is appalling. In his editorial he states “wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth”. Baum talks about Human beings as if they were a mere nuisance that we must get rid of. How does he have the right to pick and chose whom should be here on this earth? He also admits that we as Americans are the ones in the wrong, yet he believe the Indians should all be killed. Where is the logic in that? Baum says that the Indians should die because they have lost their quality of life. I want to know where he has gotten this information yes, Indians or mad because their land was taken away but we would be to. This does not mean we would want to die because of it. He has filled graves with our bones. Bear claw gave a speech after the white men wanted them to start paying taxes. I agree with Bear Claw, why should they pay taxes on something that was there’s in the first place. It pains me to know how cruel people can be. The Indians took us in feed and helped us through the winter and we repay them by stealing their land and then making them pay taxes for it. Some may argue that Bear Claw talks about white people like Baum talks about Indians. To a degree this is true Bear claw has strong negative thoughts on white men however, they have the right to. White people should not look down on Indians they did nothing to us we are the ones in the wrong here and we should be thankful the Indians helped us instead of calling them savages. I feel we are more savage then the Native people. If Indians are so bad then why did the Boston residents dress up like Indians in the Boston Tea Party? Was it because they wanted people to think it was Indians who did it? Was it because they did not want others to know who they were? Or were they just playing Indians back then to?

Zitkala Sa

Zitkala Sa's Impressions of an Indian Childhood is a vivid telling of her childhood life as an Indian child growing up in a "pale face" world. Reading this made me really excited about learning more about the Indian culture. In her story The Legends I found my self identifying with her. Sitting around the campfire telling stories is where some of my fondest childhood memories occurred. When she made the "coffee" I was back many years ago making mud pies with my sisters. This one line explained her childhood innocence.

The New motion picture movie Avatar reminds me of what "Pale Faces" did to the Indian people. We drove them out of their homes in order to gain more land. What we did was wrong yes I am glad that I live here in America but the way we acquired the land was wrong. Charles Dickens The Noble Savage is a racist article. He also sugessted that whites were the supeior race. He has it all wrong people are people and everyone needs to relaize that.