Blog 3. Million Dollar Baby. Due 2 September by 8PM.

"Frankie liked to say that boxing is an unnatural act...That everything in boxing is backwards.  Sometimes the best way to deliver a punch is to step back"—Scrap.

"Dear Lord, do your best to protect Katy.  Annie, too.  Other than that, you know what I want, Lord, not gonna repeat myself"—Frankie.

REF.  Somebody tell me what's going on?
FRANKIE.  I was late, Sally was just workin' till I get here.
REF.  You're telling me this is your fighter?
FRANKIE.  Yeah, this is my fighter.

MAGGIE.  I got nobody but you, Frankie.
FRANKIE.  You got me.  Till we find you a manager.

Maggie Fitzgerald (Hillary Swank) and Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood).

Danger Barch (Jay Baruchel) and Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman).

Clint Eastwood directing.

F.X. Toole (Jerry Boyd), author of the story "Million Dollar Baby."

Maggie Fitzgerald training.  Hillary Swank worked with extensively with a professional trainer to prepare for the role.  His physique and moves in the ring bear this out. 

1.  So...what do you think of Million Dollar Baby?  What scene or moment has stayed with you since our viewing Wednesday/Thursday and Friday?  And why?

2.  The genre is boxing, of course.  Think Rocky (all fourteen parts); think Creed (and Creed Two is due out soon).  It's a venerable Hollywood genre.  Look below at the training montage from John Avildsen's Rocky (1976). 

So whether you are familiar with the genre or not, what do you think will happen in the last quarter of "Million Dollar Baby"?  How do you see it ending?

Pick one of the two questions below:

3.  There's that little moment when Maggie jokes about the Englishman proposing to her.

MAGGIE.  Man says he loves me.
FRANKIE.  I'm sure he's not the first.
MAGGIE.  First since my daddy.  I win, you think he'll propose?
FRANKIE.  You win, I'll propose. 
It was a joke, something said off the cuff, but suddenly Frankie feels embarrassed.  Maggie senses it, is charmed.

In 5th period there was laughter—a little uncomfortable—at this moment.  It's an awkward monent for sure.  So: what is awkward about it?  And in answering that, talk about Maggie and Frankie's relationship.  What is the relationship?  Do you find it believable?

3.  What, right now, is this movie about to you?  Do not say it is a sports movie or a boxing movie.  Yes it is—just the way Paths of Glory is a war movie, but at the same time, as Yani said, it is not.  What, to you, is its major theme or concern or conflict?  And where do you especially see it?

300 words.  Due by 8PM Sunday.  See you all next Tuesday.  Enjoy your little break!

Blog 2. Paths of Glory (second half). Due 10PM Monday 8.26.

"Power?  You have no power!"—Pvt. Arnaud to Father Dupree.

"Why do I have to die?"
"Do not question the will of God."—Pvt. Ferol and Father Dupree.

"Colonel Dax, your men died very well."—General Mireau.

"The case made against these men is a mockery of all human justice.  Gentlemen of the court, to find these men guilty will be a crime to haunt each of you until the day you die.  I can't believe that the noblest impulse of man, compassion for another, is completely dead here.  I humbly beg you to show mercy to these men."—Colonel Dax.

Watch the execution scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt37sGBqtEg
Watch also the scene between Dax, Mireau, and General Broulard.

And finally watch the famous ending of the film.

As I wrote on the information sheet that I passed out last week, Paths of Glory was banned in France for 18 years.  It was banned in Germany for two years, in Spain for 29 years, and in Switzerland for 23 years.  When it was released it was banned on American military bases in Europe.  That's a whole lot of governments that didn't want their citizens seeing this film.

1.  Your reaction to the entire film?  What moment in today's viewing has stayed with you and why?
Finally: in a sentence, what to you is the point of the movie?  In other words, someone asks you what the movie is about; what would you say?

Choose one of the two below to answer.  Don't merely repeat what someone else has said.  You can add to their comment, but don't simply echo it.
2.  This a movie of quick, unsettling cuts from one scene to the next.  Several of you mentioned in the first half of the movie the jarring cut from the dead French soldier, killed by Lt. Roget's grenade, to the next brightly lit scene, punctuated by a cymbal crash.  In today's viewing, there is another jarring cut, from the end of the trial to Sergeant Boulanger giving directions to the firing squad.  In other movies we would probably get a scene of the court rendering its verdict.  Not here. Why do you think that is left out? 

2.  Andrew wrote on the first blog: "Even writing this two days later I can see every gilded surface, velvet couch, and shimmering medal where Dax and Mireau discuss what is to become of the regiment."  Mireau certainly has a fancy place to live.  The extravagance Andrew highlights is further reinforced in the execution scene as we see the huge palatial building and beautiful grounds as the backdrop to the brutal execution of the three soldiers.  What is the effect of the extravagance highlighted throughout the movie?  Why show so much of this splendor?

Choose one of the two below to answer.  Don't merely repeat what someone else has said.  You can add to their comment, but don't simply echo it.
3.  As Gracelyn pointed out in the first blog, there are no women in the film—until, of course, the end.  Why no women?  And why the young woman at the end?  (If you wrote about this in number one, don't answer this)

3. Is Dax a hero?  Is he better than the Mireau's and Broulard's of the world?  Think about this before you answer.  And say why you think what you think.

So that's three questions in all.  300 words for all three.  And here's the preview, the trailer, for our next film, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_RsHRmIRBY

See you tomorrow!

Blog 1. Paths of Glory (1957). Due by 8PM, Sunday 8.26.

"Hello there soldier, ready to kill more Germans?"

MIREAU.  I never got the habit of sitting.  I like to keep on the move...I can't understand those arm-chair officers, fellas trying to fight a war from beneath a desk, waving papers at the enemy, worrying about whether a mouse is gonna run up their pants leg.
DAX.  I don't know, General.  If I had a choice between mice and Mausers [the rifle the Germans use], I think I'd take the mice every time.

 Here is the information for the film.

Look at this clip from the film, probably the most famous in the film and one of the scenes Stanley Kubrick is most famous for.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkUKAtzE0r0

Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) is generally considered as one of the greatest of American film directors.  He wrote or co-wrote nine of his thirteen feature films as well as produced many of them.  The great majority of his films were adapted from literary works.  He was nominated for a best director Oscar four times, and for best screenplay five times.  He won once as director of special effects on 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax.

Major Saint-Aubun (Richard Anderson), Dax, and General Mireau (George Macready).

Private Ferol (Timothy Carey), Corporal Paris (Ralph Meeker), and Private Arnaud (Joe Turkel).

General Broulard (Adolph Menjou) and Dax.

Stanley Kubrick on the set of Paths of Glory.

The original poster for the film used now as the cover of the novel.

Now the questions:  remember to write your responses as you would for an in-class assignment.  Please don't do this on your phone.  I always know when someone does.  But if you do, again: write this as you would an in-class assignment.

1.  Your reaction to the first half of the film (we pretty much stopped in its middle)?  Like?  Dislike?  Why?

2. Some of you in first period were commenting on its small budget, even for a film of its era.  The big blockbuster of two years later was Ben-Hur which cost a little over $15 million.  That is 2018 money is $127 million.  So indeed Paths of Glory was a small movie.  Yet it looks, at least to me, like the proverbial million dollars.  It's a gorgeous-looking movie.  So what about the movie stayed with you hours later?  What moment, what scene, what image, what sound, what editing, whatever, struck you so much that you can still see and/or here it?  And why?

3.  This is the moment Colonel Dax agrees to take The Ant Hill.  Mireau has already laid out the math of the attack: Dax will lose over half his men.  He quotes Samuel Johnson that "patriotism is the last refuge for a scoundral."  He clearly does not believe this attack will succeed.

Yet...he agrees to lead the attack.  What do you think of his decision?  Agree?  Disagree?  Was he right to do this?  Support your answer.

You need to write 200-250 words for the three questions.  Just click on the comment icon and write.  Feel free, please, to agree with your classmates—or disagree.  If you have problems with posting, answer the questions anyhow and email them to me.

Enjoy your weekend.  See you Monday.