After our FTC yesterday I am especially grateful for the blog. I feel perhaps I may now be able to better articulate my thoughts. I make no guarantees.
I feel I must have sounded somewhat like “Debbie Downer” yesterday saying things like “you can’t trust anything”. Let me say, I don’t think that is the case. However, there are so many different opinions in the world, I don’t know that anything replicated ever can be 100% the exact way in which things occurred. I guess I’m saying that I don’t buy Kraucaur’s argument. I was glad when we started talking about CGI and how so many things can be manipulated through film now. I suppose I feel that I need to think for myself and not blindly believe just anything somebody happens to tell me. With that being said, there are many things in this world I do believe. For example, I believe without a doubt that Hitler was not a good man and that the Holocaust did occur and that was a horrendous thing to have occurred in human history. Can I say I know first hand this is true? Absolutely not, I wasn’t there – I wasn’t even born until 40 years after Hitler, However, I have made a judgment based on the evidence that I have seen throughout my life. I have been to the concentration camp Dachau in Germany and walked through the gas chamber. I was young but I still have a sick feeling in my stomach thinking about it. I remember the barracks with the small wooden bunks; I will never in my life forget that experience. I have been to the Holocaust Museum and watched the videos of Jews who were experimented on in Concentration Camps. I have seen pictures of naked starving Jews taken during the Holocaust. These images are very powerful and I will never forget them. What makes me believe these things are true? I would have to say that surrounding information helped me form my opinion. I don’t know that anybody would be able to form an opinion on anything without input from others. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I think it is just part of learning and utilizing another’s knowledge in order to develop a more informed point of view. I do not really think film has an obligation to show 100% reality – for one, I don’t know that is even possible, and for another I feel that I am obligated to research and be educated. After I watched “The Thin Blue Line” I immediately formed the opinion that it was very well done, interesting, and thought provoking. After that movie, I began looking for additional information about Randall Adams, David Harris, and even the death penalty. I don’t think it was Morris’s obligation to show absolute reality, I think it was my duty after watching what was shown to gather further information on my own. Furthermore, I think that was something Morris hoped would happen. Morris stated in an interview he does not agree with the death penalty, yet that was never stated in his movie.
Alright, I don’t know that I have made any sense at all. I was really feeling conflicted during our class yesterday and I hope to better sort out these issues in time. Wish me luck.
Here’s a picture of the bunks I remeber from Dachau.
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Here is a short video with images of Dachau.
Do either of these mediums affect you differently or in a particular way? Images really are powerful, I will never make an argument to the contrary.