My Cousin Vinny is an American comedy about two young boys from New York being falsely accused of murdering a store clerk. The movie starts out with Bill and Stan, two young boys, driving through Alabama smirking at the slower way of life down in the South. One of the young boys, Bill Gambini, after being arrested calls his “ma” and asks her to find a lawyer to represent himself and his friend Stan Rothenstein in their legal battle. Bill’s “ma” asks if there are any qualifications the lawyer must have, when she finds out there aren’t, she reminds Bill that his cousin Vinny is a lawyer. The amount of foreshadowing in this movie is pretty substantial after multiple views. Most of this foreshadowing is relating to the death penalty in Alabama, …show more content…
showing that in the movie there will be a legal battle regarding the state seeking the death penalty. When Bill and Stan first realize that Bill shop lifted a can of tuna, Stan freaks out and instantly says that Alabama has hung people for worse than that. The DA requesting the death penalty, which is only if the evidence clearly points to the fact that Bill murdered the shop clerk. When the police bus arrives at the prison, all of the people are waiving signs protesting the death penalty.” “We’re going to run enough electricity through him to light up Birmingham” Bill and Stan seem like typical American college students with a convertible containing a cooler, New York University sweatshirt, UCLA handout, and a College Handbook The opening scene is Bill and Stan driving down an empty highway in Alabama while “Way down South” plays in the background. One of the lines in the song sticks out, “Nothin like southern hospitality”, it’s ironic because very little southern hospitality was shown throughout the film. Bill Gambini doesn’t have quite the Italian-American mantra that his cousin Vinny has associated with him. He doesn’t have an overtly Italian-American name, he doesn’t have a gold chain, and he doesn’t sport massive black sunglasses. Bill drives a pretty standard car, although a convertible, it’s not something that a stereotypical Italian-American would drive. Although this movie has mostly Italian stereotypes, it doesn’t stop there, in the opening scene at the store, Stan Rothenstein tells Bill not to pay literally one penny more for a brand name can of beans. When Bill has first been arrested the cop asks him if the crime was planned out. Bill’s response is, “It just sort of happened” with hand gesture pointing to his side and snapping. Obviously the normal way you describe murdering someone if you’re Italian. Although Bill’s gesture to his side is logical when you know that he stole a can of tuna, his wrist flicks and snapping is a jab at these stereotypical hand movements being passed down to the next generation. After Bill realizes that he has been arrested for murder and not shoplifting, Bill calls his mother. When referring to her he calls her “ma” in a thick New York accent and accuses the police of setting him and Stan up as “patsies”. The stereotypes don’t end there, on the basketball courts at the Prison, Bill guarantees Stan that there is no one that can argue like a Gambini. Vinny who’s much older than the boys, is portrayed as a slick Italian-American, starting with his Cadilac, big hair, and Mafiosi attire. When Vinny and his fiancé are first introduced in the film they are captured speeding recklessly in their red convertible Cadillac as they first arrive in Wazoo. Vinny in true Italian-American style goes to meet the boys in prison and pays the guard to take him to "The new guys". The guard is very perplexed as to why Vinny has just slipped him cash, but accepts it anyways. During this in-cell visit, Vinny doesn't even introduce himself to Stan while Bill is still asleep. Stan was worried that Vinny was there to "have fun" with him, rather than the fact that he was their lawyer. During this visit Vinny shares that he took the bar 6 times, graduated from law school 6 years ago, and has practiced law for 6 weeks. Three sixes in a row? Vinny must be the dumbest Italian lawyer out there. The first night in Wazoo, Lisa is complaining about their current financial situation because she has used up most of the travelers checks on hotels and bailing out Vinny.
She then mentions that she was stiffed 200 bucks at a pool hall. In true Italian-American stereotypical fashion Vinny drives speedily to the pool hall to confront JT, the man that stiffed Lisa. Up to this point in Vinny’s life, he has only worked on personal injury cases. While Vinny and Lisa are confronting JT about him stiffing Lisa 200 dollars, Vinny stops his conversation to ask a guy in a neckbrace if he was rear-ended. Vinny and Lisa show up to a pool hall wearing all black with big black sunglasses. They meet JT, Vinny offers to kick the shit out of JT (instead of killing him) to collect the 200 that JT shorted Lisa in a previous game of pool. What I thought was the most interesting is that right before they are about to fight, Vinny asks JT to make sure he has the 200 dollars on him, expecting to win and take the money. JT says that he doesn’t have it, Vinny doesn’t seem too surprised in this situation, and I think this exchange is to show the audience that this is a very normal conversation that Vinny has. One that happens so frequent, he has already “learned the hard way” not to fight someone for money, unless they actually have all of the money. As Vinny is leaving the pool hall, he confronts the man in the neck-brace again and asks him, what I suppose is the next most popular “winnable” personal injuy case, “Did you fall on someone else’s property?” When the answer was “No”, Vinny shook his head in disappointment and
left. Italian-Americans in this movie are sloth-like, in the first meeting with the judge Vinny has his feet on his desk, wearing “Mobster” all black clothes with a large gold chain necklace. During the arraignment, Vinny sits on the courtrooms defense table. He talks to the judge while sitting down, he still is wearing “insulting” clothes including his black leather jacket. The second time Vinny is thrown in jail for contempt, Vinny tells Lisa that she doesn’t need to remind him that he’s been in jail, and that she needs to stand by her man, just like the stereotypical Italian woman. Later on Vinny, in order to “finesse” the DA, accepts the invitation to go hunting with him. Vinny shows that nothing is more important than the DA respecting him, and he tells Lisa he is willing to shoot a deer in order to avoid the District Attorney losing respect for him. Apart from the physical artifacts associated with Italian-American mob culture, they also possess mob-like social characteristics. Throughout the film they are loud, boisterous, and confrontational, not only with each other, but also with the considerably slow-paced, quiet people of Wazoo. In many scenes, they curse aloud at each other as they try to resolve the daily conflict that they face. One night at their hotel, Vinny begins to argue with Lisa about why the hotel room faucet was leaking. As tension rises, they yell louder and move closer to each other; their argument reaches a sort of climax, which leads them to sexual arousal. This sort of confrontational behavior is seen as abnormal and dysfunctional in the slow moving South, but is shown as an attribute of their Italian-American ethnicity. The second night Vinny hears a drip in the sink, and Lisa starts defending her that it’s just the sink being broken. She then goes into possibly the most elaborate story ever told on why the sink must be broken. Throughout the movie, Lisa often wears stilettos and tight outfits that show a significant amount of her cleavage. She has black hair with a streak of gray on one side, which is often quite messy, almost resembling the Cruella de Ville character from 101 Dalmatians. Lisa has a very stereotypical attitude. In response to Vinny’s quip about her asking about Chinese food, uses her hands with all five fingers pinched to ask Vinny (rhetorically) “What are you, a world traveler?” The first night in Beechum County, Lisa wants to help, Stand by Your man plays in the background. Which she does all the way until the end of the movie where she helps him win his case by being his expert witness. Vinny and Lisa are both Italian-American New Yorkers who are constructed with common mob-like stereotypes associated with Italian-Americans. Throughout the film, they portray certain social dimensions (cultural customs) and sport clothing that represent stereotypical Italian-American mobster culture. When they first step out from their car onto the streets of Wazoo, they are dressed in all black leather, sporting gold and silver jewelry, with black sunglasses. But more importantly, when they leave Wazoo, they are wearing very nice and “honorable” suits and dresses, respectively.
Overall the movie, My Cousin Vinny was a good reputation of what a defense attorney, prosecutor, and judge’s duties are like. Each one of these roles were protrude and were a reasonable example of the job’s responsibilities. Also movie provided what witness have to endure during a hearing or trial. This movie is a more humorous way to learn about the process of a
Foreshadowing hints at what might happen next in the story. Elie used foreshadowing to show loss of faith when one of the Jews from his town was captured. “Without passion or haste, they shot the prisoners who were forced to approach the trench and offer their necks” (6). After this happened the other Jews in town never believed the captured Jew. After no one had believed the Jew he lost faith because the other Jews had no idea what was going to happen to them later on in the story which is an example of foreshadowing. There is a lady in night in the camp with Elie. She is abandoned by her family and separated in the camp. “The separation had totally shattered her”(24). This foreshadows what might happen to Elie later on in the story when his father dies. That would cause him to lose
One of the biggest foreshadowings was the “big black hook” (pg. 2). 148) on the ceiling of Vera’s room, which she will eventually use to kill herself. However, there were other examples of foreshadowing, including Vera’s first sight of Indian Island. She concludes it looks sinister (pg.16), and that hints at the troubles to come.
The author uses foreshadowing to create suspense in “[T]he Taste of Melon”. When the narrator goes swimming at a nearby lake beside Mr. Wills farm. It’s a full moon outside and they're only talking about the watermelon. This adds suspense to the story because it makes an intense feeling when the narrator and his friends are on a river and there is a full moon. Usually, when there is a full moon it is just known to give off a creepy and mysterious mood. When they keep talking about the watermelon like it is
The element of foreshadowing is exemplified early in the passage with the visual description of the Indian skyrocket. Was the skyrocket, with its orange and yellow star-burst and streaking gray tail, a warning? Perhaps the skyrocket was a portend of a horrendous attrocity about to occur. Certainly, the resounding echo and brilliance of the skyrocket would alert the villagers to impending danger. In a land already rocked by its internal strife, such a sight in the still darkened sky would send shockwaves of fear and panic throughout the small community. The reader, too, must ponder the implication of this apparant signal of peril.
There is foreshadowing in the young ravens story because it keeps on mentioning how unsafe
My Cousin Vinny is a classic comedy movie involving mostly underrated actors, but somewhat more surprising is the accuracy of which it depicts the court proceedings. The movie portrays all of the significant aspects of an actual criminal trial, however it leaves out less “entertaining” portions of the court process. This being said, I would recommend this movie to anyone who does not have a basic knowledge of courtroom proceedings, as it hits on all of the major aspects of a trial in an exciting and comical manner, keeping the viewer entertained throughout the entire film, which one would not receive from any other piece.
Foreshadowing- “She has slipped a ring from her finger and seems to be holding it towards the light. You see? I could do alot more of that but you wouldn’t like it. I slipped a lot of details in there and provided all those hints about strange and dangerous things under the surface. That’s called foreshadowing.” (Arnason, page 228)
Foreshadowing appears multiple times in The Veldt with two prime examples leading the way. The first case of foreshadowing comes in the form of screams emanating from the nursery. Lydia Hadley, George´s wife, says that the screams seem awfully familiar. Although they don't realize it then, those screams are actually the screams of a dying George and Lydia Hadley. These shrieks are played over and over again in the nursery
In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, foreshadowing is used a great deal throughout the whole story. From the beginning to the end, it appears everywhere hinting on what will happen in order to make the book more enjoyable. It was used to show that Lennie will be getting into trouble with Curley's wife, the death of Lennie, and exactly how he dies.
Another example of foreshadowing unfolds when Harker is being transported to Castle Dracula by the mysterious and tenebrous driver. "Then, as we flew along, the driver leaned forward, and on each side the passengers, craning over the edg...
For instance, foreshadowing takes place when, after shooting the doe, Andy runs away and “Charlie Spoon and Mac and her father crying Andy, Andy (but that wasn't her name, she would no longer be called that);” (338) this truthfully state that she no longer wanted to be called Andy, she wanted to be called Andrea. Finally, Andy realized she is at the stage of growing up so she depicts between the woods where she can be a male or the ocean where she can be a female. She chose to stay true to herself and become Andrea because “Andy” lost her innocence when she shot the doe. Another example of foreshadowing is when Charlie was having distrust that Andy should come with them because she is a girl. The allegation Charlie made can be an example of foreshadowing because of how Andy will never go hunting ever again because she hated killing doe and it hurt her to see the doe suffering. This resulted to Andy never wanting to kill doe ever again. She changes her nickname to Andrea, her real name, because that’s who she is. Andy must face the reality of death before she can grow up. Additionally, foreshadowing contributes the themes overall effect by explaining how Andy’s loss of innocence happened and how she realized she must grow
Foreshadowing is used in this play to help the audience trounce the dreadful outcome.
Another example of foreshadowing is the clues to the death of the Marquis St. Evremonde. The people that want a revolution hate the Marquis. “That I believe our name to be more detested then any name in France” from Charles Darnay to the Marquis (113). The Marquis hears this and reply’s “’A compliment’, said the Marquis, ‘to the grandeur of the family’”(showing that he is completely oblivious to what is going on in France)(113). This is foreshadowing that the people will probably punish the Marquis. The final event is when the Marquis’s coach ran over a child and he replied “’It is extraordinary to me, said he ‘ that you people cannot take care of yourselves and you children’”(102). Then Defarge throws his coin back into the carriage, showing his anger. This event angers the people, and is a key part in the foreshadowing of the Marquis’s death.
Foreshadowing is first used when grandmother tells the family about The Misfit when discussing the vacation destination. “‘Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose.’” (393). O’Connor throws the idea of The Misfit up in the air for the reader to grasp. “aloose from the Federal Pen and headed towards Florida,” suggests that the family may in fact have a run-in with The Misfit while in Florida. O’Connor leaves the audience with the feeling that the criminal is dangerous and commits unspeakable c...