Up the Yangtze is a film that wanted to show an audience the changes in Chinese culture and the attitudes that are shown around it. We can all say this is a general description of the movie but how would you explain it to a friend or just anyone in general interested in watching this particular documentary. Would you put in a positive light or give a negative impression? We discussed in class how it seemed cruel that people were being forced to move out of their homes and they would have to start a new life because of the government (one could take away from the film) but by our class discussion we found out that the dam was needed in order to provide the country with electricity... I'm sure I wasnt the only one who thought that we need to take a step back and wonder what other things we might be missing.
Although none of the information was wrong there were some things that may have been "forgotten". So now knowing this what does that mean for the audience. Do we eliminate the perspectives provided. That's impossible we know that people are suffering. So do we ignore this new information? Well that's not fair either. So this really becomes a problem that an audience member must take carefully. The audience will want to know as much information as possible, afterall we are curious.
If that's the case, does that mean the movie succeeded in its goal? We are now aware of a problem/problems. Doesn't that make us want us to take action? Or give at least a response? It doesn't even matter the type of response because it gives the movie the chance to be popular.
It's effective.
1 comment:
This is really interesting because I didn't think about how I would pitch this movie to a friend or someone that was interested in it. However, it brings to mind that whatever someone tells you is their point of view on a movie..sometimes that can shape the way you go in or the attitude you bring when you watch it.
I'd definitely question some of the information and that it could be wrong and most likely "forgotten". For audience, we go on the information we have or that is given to us, unless we go to search for it ourselves. I think that the best thing we could do as an audience member is remember not to take all of the information as truth because we may only be getting certain aspects of an argument. Burke put this nicely by saying that we select some information, reflect some, and finally deflect.
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