Any movie can be deconstructed and its true meaning deciphered. Rent these films and see for yourself!
Drugstore Cowboy |
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Matt Dillon plays a small businessman in charge of a freelance pharmaceutical procurement association. Exceedingly harsh words to an intransigent employee spur her to abruptly leave the organization. Her sudden departure puts the association in grave peril, eventually causing Dillon to leave his position. The message of this employee-management primer is clear: constructive criticism is always better than a stern rebuke. |
Near Dark |
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A young farmboy thinks he has met his dream girl. Unfortunately, she is travelling with an itinerant band of night owls (so to speak) who are deeply into alternative lifestyles, and is only passing through. She initiates him into the group and he tries to live in their world, but it just doesn't work out. Eventually, after an extremely cathartic process, she settles down on the farm with him. A fascinating study of the dating struggles faced by rural teens, as well as an affirmation of how old-fashioned family values can triumph over the counterculture. |
The Abyss |
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Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio play a couple whose marriage has fallen apart until a series of work related team-building/trust excercises brings them together again. A gripping study of how career-related stress can sometimes (ironically) strengthen a relationship. |
Anything directed or produced by John Hughes |
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Rich white males and their male heirs are divinely and magically ordained to have dominion over the Earth. |
AIR SEUSS (A Recontextualized Fable)
Once upon a time, everyone wore T-shirts that were completely blank. Everyone looked the same and they were all happy, because they didn't know any better. Then one day a man named Nick came with a magic machine that could print a funny stripe on your T-shirt if you wanted it. It only cost five dollars and it seemed so neat that several people went to the man and had the cute, funny stripe put on their shirt. These people were the envy of everyone they met and folks would ask, "Where did you get that stripe on your shirt?" Lots of times the striped people wouldn't say, but eventually everyone heard about the man who had set up the machine in the middle of town. Soon almost all of them had paid Nick five dollars and gotten a swoopy stripe on their chest.
Then the people who had gotten their stripes first, and had felt so much better than the others said, "What are we to do, now that everyone has the stripe? How will we feel cool?" So they went to the man in the center of town and said, "Help us Nick! We no longer feel special, because everyone has the stripe."
Nick said, "I understand your problem. That's why the machine can also put a stripe on your hat." So they paid Nick ten dollars to have their hats emblazoned with Nick's neat stripe, and they felt real super, until word spread again and all the others got their hats changed.
The few special people went back to Nick again with the same complaint. "How can you let everyone else put this stripe on their hat? We had it first."
Nick said, "Well, they have a right to the stripe just like you. Anybody who can pay the money has a right to the stripe. But I'll tell you what. I have some shoes here that I've made up special that not only have the stripe, but my name on them too. Then everyone will know you got them from me."
So it started again. Before long, everyone had the special shoes and then the special pants and the special socks and the special jackets and the special sweatbands and the special underwear, until finally, everyone in town had spent all their money on Nick's special clothing and they couldn't buy food or pay their rent.
The square in the center of town began to fill with hungry and homeless people, who had every article of clothing covered with stripes. They were beginning to get restless, because they didn't know what they were going to do. Suddenly a man stood up in the middle of the square and started yelling at the people. "You have all been swindled by Nick! He has fooled you into believing that the stripe is important, but it's not important at all. What matters is your family and your friends and what kind of person you are. Not some silly stripe. Wake up everyone!"
The crowd stood silent. Finally a small child said, "Look Mommy, that man doesn't have any stripes at all." Everyone laughed at the funny, stripeless man.
Someone else said, "Hey, Nick's giving away free hot dogs!" All the people rushed past the stripeless man who was begging them to listen.
"Gee, Nick sure cares about the community," they said, munching their free hot dogs.
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