Media Studies Blog

The Yes Men Fix The World review

By: Sam Caldarone

In The Yes Men Fix the World, world-renowned pranksters Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum attempt to ‘fix the world’ through their creative hoaxes. The whole theme of this movie, and of the ‘Yes Men’ is to show good and evil, and how any evil can be good if they just put in some effort. The film does not follow a particular structure: although it does show many flashbacks to accentuate just how bad some of the companies are, it never follows a real, solid structure. However, the way they set up the structure is effective in the film, and it helps to have the aforementioned flashbacks.

The Yes Men Fix The World is, for the most part, an expository documentary. It does share some elements with reflexive documentaries, but it is mostly expository. The film is mostly shown through Andy and Mike’s perspectives. Although, their identity is constantly changing, which allows other people’s perspectives to be shown. For example, the journalist who knew of the impending Bhopal disaster, or even the man who lived and grew up in Bhopal. The film was a little biased, but it was biased against the bad companies, who deserved all the bad karma they got.

I thought that one of the main strengths of the film was the way it was set up. I thought that the cinematography was great (in particular, I liked the scenes where Andy and Mike went swimming in their suits, and got out and went to their ‘headquarters’). I enjoyed all those breaks they had in the film. They lightened up a pretty dark documentary.

The Yes Men Fix The World is important in our society because it plays the role of the everyman rising up against a cruel corporation. Obviously, the negative components of the film were DOW losing a ridiculously large amount of money in stocks, and even when the people of Bhopal had falsely believed that DOW had actually apologized for the incident. It is unfortunate that they had gotten their hopes up just to be shot down like that. However, the positives are great: it shows that anyone can do what Andy and Mike did, which is very inspirational to some. All things considered, it was a great documentary.

TED talk questions

1) What does Deborah Scranton mean by the “disconnect” she hopes to “bridge” with her documentary?

Deborah Scranton is referring to the disconnect between the people at home and the soldiers who are in the line of duty. She hopes to bridge that gap by showing exactly what it's like to be in the army by giving them the cameras. This will give the public a much better idea of what it's like to be in the war. She is posting the raw footage, and connecting that with the emotional toll the soldiers feel. The emotional toll is shown through various methods: the soldiers' reading their diaries', the soldiers' calling home, and even showing how they adjust to normal life when they get back from the war.

2) How does media (television, news, documentaries, film) contribute to creating this disconnect?

The news contributes to creating this disconnect via their reporting. It's not that it's bad reporting, but the grisly images that they show create this idea that Iraq is a dystopian wasteland, so when soldiers first arrive in Iraq, this is what the expect. It also gives the public this idea, and they will tend to act differently towards war veterans. This definitely adds to the disconnect between the soldiers and the public.

3) How can a documentary like "War Tapes" help remedy or bridge this disconnect?

It can help through the raw footage. This will show the public just what it's like in the war. It should show that these soldiers won't always change all that much. Most of the time the reason soldiers act stranger when they return from the war is only because that everyone else is acting so much stranger to them

A moveable feast blog

A Moveable Feast Blog

By Sam Caldarone

In Ernest Hemingway’s timeless classic A Moveable Feast, we are introduced to a plethora of interesting characters that have withstood the test of time. Of those, one of the more interesting characters is Scott Fitzgerald. He is the well-known author of many classic stories, the most famous being The Great Gatsby. It is interesting to have a first-hand account of what it is like to spend time with Scott Fitzgerald. However, I doubt that Hemingway enjoyed his time with Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald isn’t that much fun to spend time with. Fitzgerald is depressed, mostly because of his mentally ill wife pecking away at his confidence. To top it all off, he is a hypochondriac (“There was nothing wrong with me at the Dingo.” This is after he gets taken to the hospital for having too much to drink; pg. 152.). Despite Fitzgerald’s flaws, it is still interesting to see two of the best writers of the 20^th century enjoying small talk.

" If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for all of Paris is a moveable feast.”

The above quote is where I want to go. I have been to Paris once before, but I went years ago, and I don’t think I got the full experience I had hoped. I would love to have the opportunity to go again; only with my good friends and family and during a time where I could remember it. I don’t necessarily want to live there, but I would be perfectly content with a visit. I don’t think any visit could match the beauty of Paris in the 1920’s, but I wish to visit Paris nonetheless. The allure of Paris is incomparable, and I wish to be able to go there; specifically to the Café on St-Michael. I would love to be able to drink white wine with oysters, while being served by a beautiful women with black hair. The place itself seems like a great place to spend an afternoon, or even a day. Of course I would love to be able to visit other places (Eiffel tower, L’arc de triomphe), but that just seems like one of the best ways to let a day pass you by.