The Characteristic of Movies - Essay Example

Reflective Essay 2 Hate Crime (2005 Movie) The movie is about a homophobic young man who ironically turns out to be gay himself in the end. Chris moves into a new neighborhood, and his first encounter is a scene of two young men: Robbie and Trey trying to kiss to their disgust as they offload the moving truck with Alton, his friend. Alton jokes to Chris that something should be done about the faggots and Chris later threaten Robbie to watch his back and that he will go to hell for the sin. Apparently Chris is the son of a pastor; Boyd and is a youth pastor himself. It emerges that Chris broke up with his girlfriend two months ago at a dinner table and his father; Pastor Boyd expresses his disappointment as the son walks out on him. An unknown assailant later brutally attacks Trey with a baseball bat, and an investigation ensues with Chris as the first suspect following his prior threats to Robbie. As the detective looks for more clues into the attack, Trey succumbs to his injuries and dies in the hospital. Robbie turns into a detective as he gathers evidence against Chris, at one point attacking him for which he gets a restraining order. Homicide takes over the case, and shifts focus to Robbie as a possible suspect from the fingerprints to the insurance policy on Trey’s life to which he is a beneficiary. The movie takes a turn when it emerges that Chris is also gay despite his Christian background and contempt for homosexuals. In the end, evidence points to Pastor Boyd for the murder of Trey for which he set up by Robbie and two accomplices for forced break in where Robbie murders him in the scripted act. The movie shows hypocrisy and double standards when Pastor Boy, who had knowledge of his son’s perversion following evidence gathered by a private investigator, murders Trey, who like his son, is also gay. Hate crime committed by in Trey’s murder baffles audiences with no initial connection between the pastor and the victim. As the plot thickens, the movie reveals a family that is living in ways that are ungodly when it emerges that the son, who is also a youth pastor is and his father, a respected minister of the word, a murderer. Killing Trey for being what his son comes out as the movie’s twist and the biggest irony in the Tommy Stovall production. A Time to Kill (1996 Movie) Description: The movie is about a father, Carl Lee whose 10-year-old daughter Tonya, is raped and murdered by white racists. Carl Lee seeks the service of Brigance a white lawyer who admits that the rapists stand a chance of walking free. This stirs up Tonya’s father who opens fire in the courthouse killing the rapists and hurting Deputy Looney in the process. The movie changes to Carl Lee’s prosecution for the murder of these suspects and Brigance accepts to represents him. The case stirs up the Ku Klux Klan in the South, who threatens Carl Lee and his lawyer Brigance who is now joined in the case by Ellen Roark, a law student. The KKK marches several times during Carl’s trial where they encounter black protesters, and a brawl ensues. Brigance loses his home to arson by the Klan, and Mississippi National Guard is called to maintain order as the lawyer sends his wife and daughter away for safety during the trial. Brigance decided to continue with the case despite the threats and is shot by a member of the KKK, who misses. Roark, the law student, is kidnapped hurt and left to die only to be saved by another member of the Klan and as the case intensifies, Brigance bulges to pressure, asking Carl to take a guilty plea. Carl refuses to accept his lawyer’s advice and instead tells him to put forth whatever argument that would result in an acquittal. As Brigance makes his closing arguments, he asks the jury to close their eyes and pay attention to the story. He tells graphic details of 10year old Tonya’s murder leaving no part untouched, then asks them in the final comment to imagine if all that happened to a white Tonya. He says that the jury would have spared the father if he was white and the same should be done for a black man. He is found innocent in a message delivered by a black child running out of the courthouse. Violence from the Klan erupts following the verdict and the two families of Brigance and Carl unite for a cookout at the end of the movie. Homicide: Life on the Street, Season 4, Episode 5 In this episode, a young man is attacked and beaten to death by two white supremacists in a gay bar. Investigation is led by Pembleton and Bayliss while Lewis traces a star witness in another case. In the gay bar murder, pieces are put together by the two detectives and the case solved in the end. Crime Scene Investigators (CSI): Season 10, episode 4 Description: In this episode, Conrad has concerns about his image and that of LVPD when a veteran white cop nearing his pension age is accused of shooting a colored man and even firing another shot while he’s on the ground. The CSI team follows the evidence that point to hate crime against a rookie who had earlier filed a complaint against the veteran. The investigation is gathered in the usual CSI style, and the veteran found culpable. Examples of how diversity and hate crimes are essential elements of them. The two movies depict hate in crime in different segments of the society with the first happening in the gay world while Mississippi affects the African- American community. When a pastor attacks and harms a gay man when his own son is gay in “Hate Crime”, the element of motive in this scenario depict a crime motivated by homophobia rather than religious belief. It shows that even with Christian values of judging not and loving everyone despite their inequities, fear of homosexuals is real across America and the rest of planet earth. So serious is the phobia that respectable members of the society are willing to kill on grounds of one’s sexual orientation. Tonya’s rape and murder in the American south and the ensuing failed court process open up hate crime in two aspects: Ku Klux Klan seeing no evil in the brutal rape and murder of a 10-year-old child, and the jury is not finding any reason for convicting the perpetrators just because the victim is black. The Mississippi case and the gay scenario in the two movies show elements of hate crime in two corners of the society where those affected are willing to kill in revenge when they feel the justice system may not serve impartiality. Discussion on how hate crimes are portrayed and the subjective suggestions of why the crimes occur The movies and TV series looked at above represent hate crime in different lights. Homophobia, for example, is one reason for hate crimes but is motivated by an underlying drive like was seen when Pastor Boyd killed even with the knowledge that his “pastor” son is gay. His reason for the crime was diverted hunger at how his son turned even after being raised in the church and serving with his father. Because he could not kill his own son, he sought to show vengeance and frustration in another young man who was exactly like his son. His killing of a gay man was not purely because of homophobia, but was additionally fueled by disappointment in his own son, who was living a lie against his teachings as a pastor. Tonya’s rape and murder were purely racial. The movie opens bare the centuries of divide among blacks and white in the south where hate crime is committed on the sole ground of skin color. Failure of the white-dominated judicial system is the only reason for Tonya’s father to seek his own version of justice. His crime at the courthouse that leaves the two racist dead and a deputy wounded is, therefore, note racial, but motivated by the American judicial system. Movies and TV series as an important aspect of modern culture are useful in shedding light on societal realities around the issue of hate crime. It is true that people are killed every day in America for being gay, black or even of another religion. Having such crimes beamed through cinematography opens debate on the societal realities. Cases like recent Ferguson riots following the death of a black teenager are, therefore, not a surprise when movies like “A Time to Kill” are watched by the American audience. Without an iota of doubt, movies and TV series prepare the society for happenings in areas where cameras may not reach and for stories that may not make it to the New York Times’ headline. People are today more aware on crimes that would otherwise not be known if Movies and TV series did not share them with audiences around the world. References http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117913/?ref_=nv_sr_1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uptUYRarXEY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2EC3aTGE2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnEzwvIgf9s Read More