This last blog really is not about any specific documentary but about documentaries all together. Documentaries are suppose to attempt to document reality but the definition of what exactly a documentary is suppose to be is an ever changing definition with an every changing debate. The question is what exactly makes a documentary a true representation of reality and what makes it a misrepresentation?

In class we were presented with the question of whether or not the ends ever justify the means. The example used in this was Michael more and the tactics he used to get a pancreas transplant, which I discussed in my last blog. Since I was in kindergarten until I was a senior in high school I was enrolled in the Catholic school system. My junior year of high school there was a required course call morality which taught us all about morality through the eyes of the Catholic Church.

In class we had a discussion about Michael Moore and his techniques that he used and the morality of his actions while he was trying to get a pancreas transplant for a man whose insurance company simply was not covering it. Now what Michael more did was basically rolling on the ground and cry like a baby until he got what he wanted, which was a very immature way to go about getting what you want. Michael more went to the company’s headquarters and caused big outlandish scenes involving caskets and funeral invitations.

For the longest time I have believed that it is very hard if not nearly impossible for someone to kill a person if they truly believe that they are truly a person and truly their equal. Now you may be thinking that this is completely untrue and that people kill others that are their equals all the time. For example when people are in war they kill soldiers that are equal to them in everything but the country that they fight for. In the case of the civil war they may even be brothers or cousins.

As long with about everyone in America I too have seen Borat and definitely enjoyed it for a good laugh. In class the order day a presentation was done about Borat which made me think about the movie for the first time in a different light. The presentation could not have been more correct in the assumption that by going to the extremes Borat really did tease out some truth in America. What is most interesting is that Borat himself was a Jew and that Jews were probably the thing that Borat feared the most when he played Borat.

When I read through the novel Lucy there was a lot about our discussions in class that made me thing. Everyone kept trying to characterize Lucy as something like a slut or a rebel or just a messed up teenager. At first glance it may seem like Lucy is just some kind of crazy teenager but just looking on the surface does not give you even close to the full story when it comes to Lucy. There are a lot of hidden details about Lucy, about her past, and about her mother and father. This gave me the idea for my first paper, an idea that there was more to Lucy than appeared.

Now when I set out to write my second paper I knew as soon as I saw Grizzly Man exactly what I wanted to do. In Grizzly Man, Timothy is caught in a horrible lifestyle of addiction. Now one of my favorite writers, Chuck Palahniuk has written several novels with almost a Buddhist theme to them. By this I mean that he write about the only way to happiness is by detaching yourself from your worldly possessions. I have found a lot of truth in this belief. Chuck Palahniuk addresses this issue from somewhat of a morbid perspective but at the same time it is a very true perspective.

Triumph of the Will was a documentary that was made with the intention of persuading large amounts of people to the Nazi party. Let me first say I am setting aside any ethical issues and will not be addressing them in this blog. I will simply look at the tactics used in Triumph of the Will and talk about them. I will start with the good tactics used in the film. Let us first look at the crowd mentality, or as I like to call it everyone is doing it mentality.

What was Sherman’s March really about?

Timothy Treadwell was a man who dedicated his life towards bears. Throughout the documentary Timothy talks about protecting the bears and about trying to save them from some kind of evil. I found it rather interesting that that there is not much footage actually explaining what this great threat to the bears is. There is a moment where we find that Timothy is suspicious of poachers but this is not until really late in the movie. I think that Werner Herzog may have done this on purpose. He purposely left out any footage of Timothy’s actual motives until really late in the film.