Our America is a heartfelt story told from the perspective of two young men with tape recorders letting their voices be heard in a community that has been left by the wayside. The book grapples with themes of grief, addiction, the importance of education, systemic racism, and accentuates how a child’s environment greatly dictates who they will become. If Our America was turned into a film, it would need a meaningful soundtrack to illustrate both the tragedy and hope experienced by these kids every day in the ghetto. The songs for the soundtrack chosen below highlight the themes, events, and characters in Our America through messages in lyrics, key musical elements, and shared impulses. The devastating story of Tyrone and Johnny goes hand in …show more content…
Released in 2023, “Nine Ball” tells the story of a father betting on his son to win pool games, not allowing him to have a normal childhood. This story parallels the story of Lloyd and his parent’s struggles with addiction. His mother died from alcohol abuse and his father, Chill, is suffering the same fate which leads Lloyd to be raised by his sisters with no true parental figures. Growing up around addiction influenced Lloyd’s budding gambling addiction. Both of these stories are deeply rooted in the Blues Impulse. The Blues Impulse is about acknowledging the burden placed on one’s shoulders, rather than burying it deep down. Both Lloyd’s father and the song acknowledge the pain and grief that their addiction is bringing not only to themselves, but to the ones they love. However, they are so far into their addiction that there is hardly anything they can do to stop it. The polyrhythm of the simultaneous playing of the upbeat guitar and sad, lilting harmonica in “Nine Ball” similarly contrasts the joy of Lloyd spending time with his father and the sadness as he sees his father’s life falling apart in front of his eyes. Luckily, Chill was able to advise Lloyd to not become like him, leaving hope for the future of his son’s life. Even though LeAlan and Lloyd have to live in this warzone, they manage to escape every once in a while. Their oasis to get away from the violence and strife was the bus. They would ride all the way to the end of the line to leave the depressing state of the Ida Bees in order to just be kids talking about anything that popped into their heads. A song that would serve as an excellent backdrop for these joyrides through Chicago is “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Released in 1991, “Summertime” paints a laid-back nostalgic vibe through its smooth groove, jazzy instrumentation, and layered vocals. As said time
The Seven Five is a documentary that frivolously reexamines the crimes of Officer Michael Dowd and his team of dirty cops. Dowd is a former New York police officer who was stationed in the 75th Precinct in Eastern New York. The film presents the nefarious deeds of these officers via original interviews with Dowd and his former comrades as they recount their crimes and explain the reasoning behind their unethical behaviors. While working as a cop, he embellished his income through criminal exploits which include stealing guns, drugs, money, and eventually he began working in drug rings selling cocaine. Dowd’s felonious activities were extremely lucrative and earned him approximately $4,000 a week. Dowd was eventually arrested in 1992,
The 1998 PBS film, American Experience: A Midwife’s Tale is a documentary directed by Richard P. Rogers. The film is based on a book by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in which she chronicles her research concerning the diary of a colonial period midwife named Martha Ballard. Martha’s diary entries begin when she is in her early fifties in the late 18th century and span up to when she is in her seventies in the late 19th century. Martha and her husband, Ephraim Ballard had five remaining which lived with them at the time in which she began her diary as well as their niece Parthenia Barton. Martha was well respected in her town, although she her title was midwife rather than doctor, “she was usually the first one called” (Ulrich). Martha often
In the book Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago, LeAlan Johns and Lloyd Newman, as two kids grow up in ghetto, document their life from 1993 to 1996 to show the rest of the America the reality of living in a poor black neighborhood. Through vast interviews, diaries and monologues, Johns and Newman provide a new perspective on the ongoing issues in the ignorant black community; they encourage the black residents to express their point of views on gang, drug, crime, and they also address their hope. Since this book is story with long time span and fragmental writing styles, it is impossible to finish the soundtrack for chapters in detail within eight songs. Therefore, if I am going to be the music composer of the movie based on this book, I would choose eight songs for the following eight themes.
The movie Walk the Line, is about the life of Johnny Cash and how he became a famous country singer. He was raised on a farm and was very good at memorizing songs. His brother Jack had a goal of becoming a pastor. Jack was working at a saw mill when Johnny decides to go fishing while Jack finishes his work. Jack was seriously injured by the saw and later died of his wounds with Johnny, his mother Carrie and father Ray by his side. Conflicts between Johnny and his father became hard.
The movie Older Than America is an informational narrative of the treatment of indigenous people in the United States. The fourth cinema is a movement in which people of indigenous backgrounds tell the stories of their people, in a realistic and less Hollywood style. The Movie, Older Than America, is set both in the present and in the recent past, and explores the conflict of identity which plagues many native people. It poses the question; does it wipe the war paint off the lens? My answer to that is yes, it more than scratches the surface of the mistreatment of “Human Beings” by Euro-Americans. The demonization of the Catholic Church, and its duplicity in the abuse of its power over helpless children was the overriding story in this film. In this film the Catholic Church is representative of the United States
The American President is a romantic comedy that takes place in the White House during primary season. The president is hoping to be reelected and to pass two bills, one on gun control and one on fuel restrictions. During this movie, the president meets Sydney, a lobbyist, and goes out with her, and because of this he takes a hit on his ratings. The American President shows many different themes covered in politics and government 101, these themes are the rolls of the media, polls, primaries and elections, and the process of introducing a bill to congress. This movie also shows the relationship between the executive branch and the legislative branch while detailing the relationship the president has with interest groups, and his White House staff. While covering all this the movie The American President shines a positive light on politicians, this movie showed politicians having a genuine concern in human life and truly wanting to improve life. This movie wasn't all optimism though, it also criticized some politicians for muckraking and it criticized the media and the American public for thinking that the private lives of politicians is their business.
On November 17th approximately 30 people and I congregated to the OSU College of Nursing to watch The Anonymous People, a documentary film about American’s who are living in long-term recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction. The film addressed the stigma related to alcoholics and drug addicts, including their experiences to the track of recovery. Applicable to what we have discussed in class, I was able to understand more into the healthcare stigma and healthcare disparities that people around us deal with daily. The eye opening video provided an example into the lives of people, famous or not, being mistreated and judged due to their life choices. As a group frequently misunderstood, the film tries to teach the audience to a new view
Inner City Blues is a piece by Marvin Gaye released on September 16, 1971.The song conveyed the ghettos of inner-city America and how the economic situation would lead to someone wanting to holler. In this essay I will identify the musical techniques used by Marvin Gaye e.g. musical space, range, register, scales and ornamentation. I will also discuss how Gaye negotiated the roles of the soloist and the accompanist and how the piece makes me feel and what emotion the piece exerts.
Take for example Mama Morton’s “When You’re Good To Mama,” this number not only introduces Mama, but it also exposes the way in which things are run in the Cook County Jail, where Roxie and Velma are inmates. The song “We Both Reached for The Gun” is imperative to the musical as it tells Roxie’s story from Billy Flynn’s perspective, which ultimately attains her discharge from jail. Chicago is packed with great energizing songs that always seem to reach several climaxes as they build momentum towards a big musical orgasm, as is the case with the last song of the film, “Nowadays”, where Roxie and Velma perform together on stage for the first time. Regardless of their function, all the songs in the soundtrack have a certain finesse that makes the movie a real auditory delight. In conclusion, everyone who enjoys the magic of Broadway and the fantasy world of Hollywood must watch Chicago.
American Pie” is an impressionistic ballad by Don Mclean which features unique and intriguing lyrics. It has imaginative changes in tempo, vocal delivery and instrumentation, and imparts a wide range of emotions ranging from pure joy, to melancholy and despair. The song takes the listener on an autobiographical journey through the turbulent 1960’s with references to the events that shaped the era. Don Mclean was enshrined in the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2004 for his work on “American Pie” (Don McLean: Songwriters Hall of Fame Inauguration). With its use of formal structure, allusions, and figurative language, the song, “American Pie”, has many poetic qualities.
African-American music is a vibrant art form that describes the difficult lives of African American people. This can be proven by examining slave music, which shows its listeners how the slaves felt when they were working, and gives us insight into the problems of slavery; the blues, which expresses the significant connection with American history, discusses what the American spirit looks like and teaches a great deal from the stories it tells; and hip-hop, which started on the streets and includes topics such as misogyny, sex, and black-on-black violence to reveal the reactions to the circumstances faced by modern African Americans.
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
The film “Coming to America” by filmmaker John Landis, presents a dilemma faced by an African prince regarding his country’s culture and traditions. Although the film is not based on any real country, persons, or events it may affect certain individuals as they may relate to some of the issues presented within. Coming to America takes place in two different countries. One of them being Zamunda Africa a fictitious place and the other Queens New York in the United States. The main characters I will focus on primarily are Prince Akeem and his father King Jaffore of Zamunda Africa and Cleo McDowell along with his daughter Lisa McDowell of the Queens New York. Prince Akeem has approached his twenty-first birthday and now is troubled by a prearranged
In the big city of New York there always exist those who push the envelope a bit, and stretch the law. One such man played by Michael Douglas makes money buying and selling others' dreams. He is a stock speculator; but one that succeeds based on illegal inside information. As he puts it "I make nothing, I own" Released in 1987, Oliver Stone's Wall Street is a representation of bad morals and poor business ethics in the business world. It also shows the negative effects, bad morals and poor business ethics can have on society. The film revolves around the actions of two main characters, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) and Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Bud is a young stockbroker who comes from a working-class family and Gekko is a millionaire who Bud admires and wants to be associated with. Wall Street points out how wrong it is to exchange morality for money. Gordon Gekko reflects this message, and yet receives a standing ovation at a stockholders meeting after delivering his "greed is good" speech. The underlying theme of the movie is that greed is not only not ethical but it lacks moral substance in today?s society.
The song that I chose for for my Essay is “Neil Diamond-America”. This song is all positivity on American ethics and American culture. All it talks about it America's great accomplishments. It talks about how great that is that people from other countries are coming from land and by sea just to see how amazing it is to live in America. It talks also made me realize that most Americans don't see America in the same way, that we don't realize the places we have and how truly great our country is. This song analyzes what a foreigner looks in in finding a safe haven or just a new place to live.