Every week starting from the week beginning January 20 students will be required to write a minimum of 1 blog entry on the movie that we have watched in class. This entry will be due every Tuesday at 12 noon exactly ONE WEEK after the previous weeks film screening.

Your blog entries may take one of many different approaches: you can reflect on parts of the film that you found interesting or had an impact on you. You can describe how this film illustrates a particular psychological theory or idea. You can link part of the film to your own life experiences. You can critique the film, describing what you liked or disliked about the story or the acting. You can even set up links to other films or TV shows that share similar themes to the film.

The blog entry should be a minimum of 300 words.

Note that your lecturer, tutor and fellow classmates will be given access to this blog so please use your discernment when deciding what to write and share.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Movie Review 4: Mississippi Burning (3.8/10)

"Anyone's guilty who lets these things happen and pretend like it isn't"
- Agent Ward, Mississippi Burning (1988)

 Mississippi Burning, by Alan Parker, was a retelling of the racial violence that took place in the 1960s and Agent Ward (Willem Dafoe) and Anderson's (Gene Hackman) efforts to solve the deaths of three civil rights activists. The human behaviour portrayed in the film will be reviewed in the respect to psychology theories and concepts.

 Learned Helplessness amongst Black Americans
The Black Americans (BA) exhibited this towards the violence from the White Americans (WA) many times throughout the film, such as when the BA didn't bother aiding the agents who wanted to help them. One "learns helplessness" when exposed to an aversive stimuli so often that avoiding it is deemed pointless. BA also did not bother taking action anytime one of them were killed, tortured, or raped.

 Ethnocentrism of Race and Religion
WA demonstrated ethnocentrism when they elevated themselves (Anglo-Saxon Christians) from BA and Jews, using blatant insults like "nigger" and "Jew boy". Also, Mrs. Pell's brief reference to Genesis 9:27 subtly explained how WA schools justified slavery to 7-year-olds. In this biblical scripture, Noah curses his grandson Canaan (through Ham, Noah's son) and his descendants to be slaves to Sham and Japheth (Noah's other sons) and their descendants. Mrs. Pell exasperated that her community is conditioned to this groupthink, that "... you live it, you breath it. You MARRY it.". Underlining the whole course of events, the WA felt most threatened by BA newfound right to vote, which was a step towards racial equality (and was the reason the activists were murdered in the first place).

 Hooliganism of the Ku Klux Klan
Typical actions of the Ku Klux Klan were portrayed in this film, including the burning of the wooden crosses, the kidnapping and killing of BA, and the burning of churches and homes. Hooliganism typically takes place under the anonymity of crowds, where individuals can act radically with little risk of being caught.

 Notably, Parker compares the "by the book" method of Agent Ward (which yielded little results) against Agent Anderson's effective-yet-questionable approach (which led to Mrs. Pell injuries and the Mayor's suicide). I felt that the film was more documental than a dramatisation of true events. This made for good behavioural analysis, but not entertaining, material.
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