Alex D., What I've Learned

5 Things I Have Learned about Film
-Mise-en-scene is the best friend of both a filmmaker (to get their message portrayed most effectively) and their audience (to best understand a scene).
-No matter the subject or genre, every film has a deliberate message for the audience to understand (Except for Uwe Boll -- he just vomits into a camera for 90 minutes and calls it a tax write-off)
-Directors love using rhyming elements, like the pen in State of Play and the ocean in American History X, to tie certain parts of a film together.
-Films can be very powerful allegories for current events; for example, although Good Night and Good Luck was about the McCarthy hearings, it also served as a metaphor for covering up information about the Iraq war.
-Thanks to Blackboard's streaming video services, I have been able to re-watch parts of films that I might have missed or ignored.

5 Things I Have Learned about Politics
-Simply tolerating an evil act is equivalent to supporting it. (Good)
-Even many proponents of the War on Drugs are not exactly optimistic about the outcome, perhaps comparing it to a Pyrrhic victory. (Traffic)
-Many political leaders did not plan to spend their lives in government service; in fact, most of them would be happier if they worked in different job areas. (W)
-Appealing to fear, or "boogeyman tactics", is very profitable. (Bowling for Columbine)
-You can love your country but disapprove of your government (Harold and Kumar)

Before I took this seminar I had some speculations about the political leanings of films and how directors get their message across (e.g. Micheal Moore generally supports left-leaning causes, while Clint Eastwood is more libertarian in his beliefs.) And I knew that some films had very heavy messages, their political leanings non-withstanding (Elephant: nobody knows what goes through the minds of mass murderers, and anyone who claims they have found the "magic bullet" is merely pushing their own agenda. Tropic Thunder: Actors should not take themselves and their antics too seriously.) Now that I have taken this seminar, I might be able to characterize films by their political analyses.
Also, many of the 14 characteristics of mise-en-scene will probably pop every time I watch something, whether it be something at a film festival or a comic-book movie. Whether or not this will enhance my film-going experience remains to be seen.