Shame

Exchanges with friends about the reporting of the Ferguson crisis has made me wonder if what so many people loathe about Fox News is the apparent lack of shame on display. The barometer that used to help us gauge our behavior toward family, friends and strangers seems to be disappearing (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/shrinkwrapped/201103/shame-third-pillar-civilization).  Shame kept us from telling lies or misbehaving for fear of discovery and humiliation. Being accused of being unfair or unkind was enough to elicit apologies or requests to make amends. Now, such accusations are noise lost in the ether. Caught in a lie? We were misunderstood or taken out of context. Caught in wrongdoing? Blame others. Offend someone? It's their fault for being sensitive or for provoking us. Do what earns. Scapegoat. Spew utter nonsense and walk away, much like Philip Seymour Hoffman's character in The Master. The scene in which Hoffman's Lancaster Dodd had the luckless, rageaholic Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) walk back and forth from a wall to a window in a ridiculous search for meaning was a chilling representation of shameless mind-control and puppetry. That was fiction. What we are seeing on display on TV is real and heaven help us.

Reading movie posters

Well-designed movie posters often reflect
both the content and context of a film
and may go beyond simple promotion to become works of art.
Below are some of my favorites from past years.



The Truman Show (1998)

Even though I'm fascinated by photo mosaics in general,
the use of this technique for the poster of this film of a fabricated life
~ composed of controlled experiences ~ seemed especially appropriate.

Gallipoli (1981)

The meaning of this poster's striking image is not revealed
until the last frame which makes it even more intriguing
and elevates it to more than a promotional device.

The Color Purple (1985)

Though some said Spielberg's film was too sentimental,
the tone and, yes, the color of the movie and
Alice Walker's epistolary novel are captured
in this image of star Whoopi Goldberg.

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

The image of Mia Farrow superimposed over that of a pram
on a lonesome hilltop was sufficiently creepy to make audiences
who weren't familiar with Ira Levin's novel wonder
what the devil the film was about.
Speaking of which ...

The Exorcist (1973)

This image of the solitary hatted figure
under a streetlight was subtle and sophisticated.
Everything most modern posters for horror films aren't.

Reading movie posters

Psycho (1960)

This has to be THE most deliberately misleading movie poster in film history. Janet Leigh had a brief scene at the beginning of the film in which she appeared partially dressed but she didn't spend a whole lot of time trotting around in her bra in this movie. And the appearance of the shirtless John Gavin (bottom right) was just as fleeting. And tucking Anthony Perkins, the real star of the flick, on the far left was clearly calculated to throw moviegoers off.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

This poster's image is all edges and sharpness, things that hurt, which is entirely appropriate considering the film and the source novel is set in a world of "ultra violence" and chaos. The poster is disturbing and the text intriguing enough to pull folks in who had never heard of the Anthony Burgess novel. I don't believe this was an original movie poster as the film was first rated X, as was the next film.



Midnight Cowboy (1969)

One of the most famous motion picture portraits, this image ~ cold, brittle and gray ~ reads "desolation." Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie's daddy (Jon Voight) have been immortalized in this film about a gimpy conman and a naively inept gigolo who form a bond on the mean streets.



Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966)

This film and the one that follows are about parties at which the hosts start chewing on the guests. I like the Virginia Woolf poster at top better than the one that displays more conventional photographs of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton because the outlines of the faces of Taylor and Burton spewing at each other in blue and red bounce around in my head.


The Boys in the Band (1970)

This film poster featured the image of the nine men who were in the off-Broadway production ~ the boys, if you will. Playwright Mart Crowley, who never matched this play's success, offered unrelenting anger, bitterness and self-loathing in his play and in the film, which is why the note "is not a musical" is especially rich.

Flintstones cigarette ad

Celebrity endorsements are advertising staples, and before cigarette ads were pulled from television in the early '70s, stars of popular programs shilled for Chesterfields, Camels, Philip Morris and other brands. This advertisement from the early '60s features Fred and Barney ducking Wilma and Betty as the women tend to household chores. Remember, during its initial run from 1960-1966, The Flintstones was broadcast on ABC during prime time.

Hey, Mabel

This animated commercial from the '50s interests me for a couple of reasons. It exploits to comic effect the traditional division of labor between husbands and wives. But because the animation doesn't really match the words of the jingle, it is quite likely a radio jingle repurposed for television. The section about the yard chores does not suggest in any way that it's the wife who is doing them. In fact, it makes little narrative sense.

Wash your hands, Roger

The commercial above is chockfull of cultural markers ~ the ball glove, granny rocking and knitting, the sniping sister, the bespectacled father. I found it especially interesting because even though soap ads are targeted at Moms, this commercial leaves Dad as the arbiter of clean. In the commercial below, however, Mom trumps Dad to comic effect.

Low-hanging fruit

I've shown this commercial in class many times and the response is usually gales of laughter and sniping. Though it would not be incorrect to say the cultural markers or conventions here are rooted in a different era, I don't think it would be fair or accurate to say that this ad should be read as a "literal" presentation of gender roles or expectations in the '60s. As with many commercials from this era, exaggeration was used to comic effect. Yes, social conventions of the '50s and '60s did direct women to try to please their husbands, but this was also the era of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique. I feel the husband's extreme doltishness and the wife's doormatiness were actually ironically tapping into the cultural shift.

1959 Chevrolet Station Wagon television commercial

I study vintage television commercials for their cultural markers. Automobiles are especially interesting markers because of the various roles automobiles play in society. The narrative in this commercial centers on Mom's use of the automobile, so some of the business created to establish that is peculiar. For example, why would she put the groceries in the front seat? Putting Dad and Junior in the back seat and Mom behind the wheel establishes the point that this is her car but where are they when they pull off at the end? And why is the salesman still in the car?