Spring Movies Extra Credit

Trevor Jones

4/9/16

Per. 3

There Will We Blood: There will be blood is a movie about Daniel Plainview, a successful oil tycoon, and his orphan son, who work together to acquire the land of a third revelation preacher, Eli, and his poor farm family. Daniel eventually takes control of this land for a very low price, and a series of unfortunate events takes place for his orphan son, workers, and Eli’s family. This movie can be related to chapter 8 (political geography) by being a metaphor of geopolitics. We can see this come into play as powerful tycoon, Daniel Plainview, representing powerful core countries, taking advantage of Eli’s land, representing poor peripheral countries, using their influence and power. In the end, the core country, will succeed and acquire what they wised to acquire from the less powerful peripheral country, as we see in the outcome of “There Will Be Blood”. This example of classic geopolitics can be used at a variety of scales, varying from world powers to large scale corporations.

The Quest for Fire: The Quest for fire is a movie about, as you would guess, the quest for fire, or in the more broad spectrum, societal advancement. In the beginning of the movie, a hunter gatherer tribe of early homo sapiens achieve the gift of fire, which is soon taken away from them by a neighboring tribe. The remaining part of the movie deals with three members of the tribe trying to regain the fire, picking up a friend on the way from a more advanced tribe. This friend helps the three tribesmen recover the fire by teaching them the advanced ways of their tribe, including efficient long-ranged weapons, and making fire with friction. The four reunite with the rest of their tribe in triumph, having recovered their lost artifact, fire. This movie can relate to chapter 11, agriculture, due to the transition of the primitive hunter gatherer society (the tribe seen first), to the semi sedentary more advanced tribe seen later in the movie, as well as showing the notion that the same ideas can appear at once in several different hearths (use of fire).

A Soldier’s Story: A Soldier’s Story is a movie about an African American U.S. Army officer, Richard Davenport, in the time of WW2, who is assigned to the murder case of an African American sergeant, Vernon Waters. Officer Davenport, an officer from Washington DC, is assigned this case in Alabama, and interviews multiple soldiers/ball players at the military base he is assigned to in order to crack the case. He eventually solves the case despite his racial background in the face of other white officers, and turns in the guilty soldier, PFC Peterson. This movie can relate to chapter 5, race, because of the racial differences between military officers, seen between Officer Davenport and other high ranking officials. This racial barrier complicated his job severely, however justice prevailed despite the racial differences. 

Detroit Lives: Detroit Lives is a documentary lead by Johnny Knoxville about the Motown city Detroit of the 60’s, versus the Detroit we know now. Johnny Knoxville tours the city along with several people educating Knoxville about the promise that Detroit shows to talented young, do-it-yourself people. Instead of looking at Detroit as a decrepit city with no hope because it doesn't have major corporations located there or a big sports team, people should look at Detroit as a city of cultural innovations, with promise for the future. This can relate to chapter 9, urban geography, when talking about abandonment of large manufacturing cities and “rust belts”. As people became successful in Detroit, it allowed them to move out of the crowded city into the suburbs, followed by companies and large manufactures soon after. This left Detroit as an empty shell of its former self, with abandoned manufacturing buildings around every corner, labeling Detroit as the perfect example of a rust belt state.