American Dream Analysis

Submitted By vangruber422
Words: 4592
Pages: 19

American Dream
Hormel’s actions in this movie were unexpected and not fair in any way towards the workforce. He had cut the hourly wage from $10.69 to $8.25 and cut benefits by 30 percent which is just crazy and prejudiced. The people of the city get mad, of course, and start a strike again him, which is something anyone would have done. I don’t disagree with the people at all because they had a right to do that. If they were making more once and are not cut $2.45 an hour, that is just wrong. Hormel didn’t realize the long term effect it would have on the people and their families. This caused hardships and financial problems for everyone. I think that the strikes that were held were informative but the strike that incorporated the peoples’ emotions and personalities was the strongest because it made the people sympathetic to the workers’ distress.

Metropolis
This movie in particular I didn’t like because it was hard to follow. The fact that there were no words made it even harder to follow because I am so used to movies with a script. Although the characters acted very well with big emotions and actions, it did help in following the movie. The characters though were very unreal and made it really hard for me to connect to them and try to understand them. The story line in general was very confusing and hard to follow for me as well because I just didn’t understand what was happening at certain points in the movie. I found myself tired of trying to figure out what was going on in the movie with the characters and the plot. Overall the movie was not my favorite but I could see how this movie might have please a lot of people when it was first made.

Modern Times
I really enjoyed watching this film! I love that song “Smile” that is played throughout the whole movie. I found Charlie Chaplan’s character very interesting and independent which I liked. It kept me interested the whole time and I was constantly curious as to what would happen next in the movie. The way that the movie was made was very good because I found myself laughing many times during the movie which was much unexpected for me. I liked the humor part of the movie which gave it comedic relief and at the same time telling a story about the impact of machines on the work place and workers. However, I do think that that humor took away a bit from the plot and overall message of the movie, only because I wanted to see him do something funny rather than focus on the issue in the movie.

Norma Rae
In the movie, Sally Field served as a very inspirational and passionate character. She went through many struggles, including being blacklisted from working in the textile industry, but she became an ACTWU organizer and even was the 13th winner of the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award in 1980. She accomplished much in her lifetime to try and stand up for what she believes in. She worked hard to unionize the workers, and although she failed the first time, that sure didn’t stop her from trying again. She is a very motivational character and made me think about all her efforts that have affected us today. The whole movie was very real to me because the noise and air pollution that were portrayed in the movie were actually real and the workers were working with a mask. This might not seem like a big deal but it was extremely dangerous to one’s health to do that in the labor force.

R.U.R.
Karel Capek’s RUR was a take on the workforce with robots. Many times now, people have started experimenting with robots and trying to do something similar to Capek in the respect of making things more efficient and productive. This movie was overall my favorite because if this was still taking place today, the world would be transformed. Like they said in the movie, 100 robots represented one human; this would dramatically change the workforce and labor system that we have implemented today. The fact that the robots wouldn’t feel and emotion or have a sex drive would