Post 1 Redo _ Grief is the Real Monster by Dianesa Sanon

I came across "The Babadook" first as it made its appearance as an internet meme and again when my boyfriend suggested that I watched it. I am a horror fanatic- from haunted houses to Until Dawn and scary books to the things alike. I love to be scared. So, I was down for watching a horror film at 3am made possible by Netflix, may you reign notoriously forever.

The theme of the film is the horror of untamed grief and the monster it can become. The movie stars a mother, Amelia, and her young boy in London in a dreary grey house. The movie takes place as the anniversary of her husband's death, and incidentally, her son, Samuel's, birthday, approaches. The boy is really intelligent and often gets into trouble in school because he isn't social and often doesn't filter what he says before he says. His mother is a frail woman who tries her best to make it through each day but still she never really has gotten over the pain of her husband's death. As the story progresses she becomes sketchier as a character and in some aspect scarier than the Babadook itself, who is a crudely-drawn tall shadow man from a children's book.

For the longest time, I believed that Amelia was the Babadook but as the movie went on I realized the only reason the Babadook was able to manifest was because she let it. In the movie, as the day of her husband's death gets nearer she becomes less and less "human". Samuel, her son, is seen gathering weapons and setting traps because "it's coming" and is constantly telling his mother to "not let it in." As time passes the more and more he mentions the presence of the "it" she becomes angrier, insisting that he needs to grow up and stop going on about something that doesn't exist. Her denial of the existence of “it” is ultimately a denial of her own sorrow. In the movie when she has to come face to face with the Babadook, the monster takes the face of her late husband and I realized that the “it” Samuel kept going on about was his mother’s vicious grief and the violence that accompanies. This would explain his prepared reaction to his mother’s gradual change in behavior that’s timed as the anniversary of her husband’s death comes around each year which is also coincidentally Samuel’s birthday. Internally, I believe, that Amelia has a buried hatred for her son. She hates him for being born on the rainiest day, for forcing them to rush to the hospital and surviving the wreck and while she does a good job hiding that fact throughout the year she slips when poor Samuel’s birthday comes about.

                This may be a bit of a stretch but my guess is that the Babadook, the main antagonist, was never really there. In fact, I think the Babadook was a product of Amelia’s psychotic break. As Amelia becomes more distraught with the anniversary coming up she is the first to see the Babadook and she seems to be the only person who can see it. We view the events of the movie through Amelia’s eyes so it makes sense why we can see the things that Amelia sees while Samuel would just shout at his mother to keep “it” out. From Samuel’s view, he can only see when his mother is getting a far-off look in her eyes or is quietly fighting some fearful hallucination. The hallucinations start off minor and then eventually the Babadook is everywhere she is and even disrupts her sleep. Sleep depravity and depression don’t dance together smoothly. The hallucinations change her and she becomes a woman ravaged with hate for her son. She is “possessed” and is so controlled by her grief that she puts her son’s life in danger. The movie shows the Babadook snatching her son but if the Babadook is a result of her psychotic break then the danger her son is in is because of her. If the Babadook was never real then the strangling of her son, the battering from an “outside force” was all because she let her pain bring out her hate for Samuel. In the lieu of it all though she realizes she needs to protect her son and that means actually coming face to face with the real monster. She defeated the real monster, Grief, by shouting: "I'm not afraid of you!" until the monster was reduced to nothing more than just a top hat and coat.

                The movie progresses to better days and there is more color the scenes compared to the grey tone most of the movie was in. Interestingly enough, inside the basement, the Babadook is being kept. That would be enough to break my theory that he was constructed by Amelia’s grief but till the end, Samuel doesn’t see him and Amelia doesn’t either. Instead of seeing the Babadook we get the essence of his presence instead. She sometimes visits the basement and feeds it worms. I took the worms as a symbol of decay. Amelia is trying to bury her grief and while the pain of the loss of her husband still remains she is trying to lay it to rest. Samuel asks his mother if he can go down and see the Babadook but she tells him no and replies “you’re too young, maybe when you’re older.” Because the Babadook represents pain and grief Amelia doesn’t want her son to know about it. What Samuel really doesn’t understand is the loss of someone who was never there to begin with. He’s too young for the pain of know the pain of not having a father present. Or maybe his grief is along the lines of something else- regardless he is “too young” to know real pain.

The theme of grief manifesting as a monster is congruent with the statement: when dealing with grief the monster that is the scariest to put down is the one we create ourselves. Despite this, the way to move forward from the pain is to come face to face with it and make it your pet? In other words, being in complete control of your pain.

Fear of Death X The Under Representation of Minorities Within the Healthcare System Post 1 Group C

Fear is something that lurks deep in the mind of living things everywhere. Each individual, which is not limited to humanity, has a fear of something. That thing may be spiders, the dark, clowns, etc. Something that I fear is death. There is a saying that there are only two things guaranteed in life. Those are death, and taxes. That is an irrefutable fact. Death comes for everyone it does not discriminate, and you never know when it will strike.

This is something that many people today fear. Dying is even becoming common in the inner-city area where minorities are mainly located. There are diseases and illnesses that affect millions every year such as HIV and AIDS, and the failure of organs within the bod. A large percentage of people within the united states die from not being able to afford healthcare and the underrepresentation within the healthcare system. Many people besides myself fear dying, and in my own opinion, it is not the fact that it is unavoidable, but the fact that you never know when it will come for you. The unpredictability of being able to be doing your normal everyday routine, and your life ends in a snap.

The Health Care industry is worth billions of dollars and affects citizens. In American history, there have been several instances where minorities have died from simple disadvantages within health care. The several disadvantages such as they are uninsured, unrepresented, and discriminated against within healthcare system. The discrimination against minorities started all the way from slavery days in the republic and still affect minorities today. Thomas Jefferson, in Notes on the State of Virginia, wrote about lung differences between slaves and white colonists. Jefferson described many physical distinctions to justify the condition of slaves in the republic, and one was “a difference of structure in the pulmonary apparatus”. The interest in modern spirometers did not start until the 1840 in Europe after John Hutchinson, a London-based physician, published several studies.  The physician Hutchinson, described the technical features of the spirometer and its potential applications. Spirometry are commonly used to test how good your lungs work. The spirometry measures how much air you inhale. The devices used to help you keep your lungs healthy after medical procedures such as a patient receiving a surgery or when you have a lung illness (Orenstein).  The Doctors use the spirometer to measure lung capacity automatically make “corrections” for the patient’s race (Orenstein).  Research was done in the late 1990’s where African- American children were taller and heavier but had lower lung function (Braun). African Americans were poorer and had lower levels of the antioxidant vitamins A and C and α-carotene. Poverty, nutrition, and exposure to tobacco smoke may affect lung development (Braun). Users of the spirometer indicate that many operators are unaware that they are automatically activating race correction when they select a patient’s race (Braun).  The correction for blacks is reduced by about 13 percent of the normal settings for whites. It is crazy to go back and see that black and white lungs differ has a long history dating to the early years of the US slavery-based republic.

Minorities have been targeted in research and largely affected. Moreover, minority populations are not represented equally within the Health care industry. If, the United states doesn’t come up with a plan, to make better health insurance and policies the same problems will remain. physicians will keep having the ability to discriminate against unserved patients within healthcare system.  The percentage of people who die from health circumstance will always be high for minorities, and the rate people die from thing such as heart failure will stay high for the urban communities. The reason African Americas, and Latinos have more health problems are not from a genetic difference, it is because the discrimination they receive and underrepresentation within the healthcare system           

Fearing death is one thing, but along with that comes the strength to overcome that fear as well. Life waits for no man, and will continue to flow down its long stream, and does not stop for those who inhabit it. That is no way to live. Being able to live with your fears are something that humans must be able to do.  Death is a very scary thing. It is not a slasher movie murderer, or a scary monster that lives under your bed. It is much more real than those, and it is absolute.

Orenstein, David. Brown University . 3 6 2013. 1 3 2017. <https://news.brown.edu/articles/2013/06/spirometers>.

Braun, Lundy. Race, ethnicity and lung function: A brief history. Ed. RCTR 51.4. Canadian Journal of Respiratory Therapy: CJRT, 2015.

Cartwright, Dr. Samuel A. Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race. Volume XI. Debow's Review . New York: AMS Press, Inc. , 1851.

Post 1, Group C: The purpose of life and death, BY: Weini Weldsilassie

A 2008 movie "Seven Pounds" starring the amazing 'Will Smith' which was directed by Gabriele Muccino is one of the must see categorized movie that I watched over the weekend. You don't actually know what the movie is about until you see it till the end, so it holds the mystery all the way through. The movie delivers a very powerful message and leaves you thinking about what your mission in life is and how it would change if your life is suddenly changes in a matter of seconds.
The movie begins as mysterious suicide reporting made by an anxious man Ben Thomas(Will smith) to 911 under unknown reason. It is instantly clear that the movie addresses matter of life and death, but the mortality that the story has to say can't be revealed. Ben who acts as an imposter IRS agent by stealing his brother IRS badge visits a variety of people to find people with special needs. His contradictory character of being merciless when insulting and criticizing a blind man and later him being helpful to rescue an elderly woman in a nursing home confuses you where the direction of the movie was going. From that point on, you see the order of the unexplained and a little puzzling events unfolding and leading us to the final minutes of the story.

A flashback throughout the movie reveals that Ben Thomas, will Smith, was in a terrible car accident that he caused and took seven lives including his wife. Ben's outlook on life changes with the accident. This tragic memory haunts Ben, and his grief compels him to seek out and test the character of seven individuals to see if they are deserving of gifts(his organs) he wishes to give them. In this way, he hopes to atone for the seven lives he ruins. Along the way, Ben Thomas falls in love with Emily Posas, who has a rare blood type and needs a heart transplant which requires his own life. The movie more focuses on three strangers where he changes and improves thier rare situations.
His search and helping people starts with Ezra(a blind call center worker). Ben calls Ezra to try and yell and make fun of his blindness in order to make him upset. But Ezra was calm and tried to be helpful throughout the conversation. Ben was impressed by his response and decided to help him. The other individual he went and talk to was Connie Tepos, who has two kids and was brutally beaten by her boyfriend. Ben signs the deed on his beach house over to Connie so she can escape with her kids from her abusive boyfriend. Then Ben finds a girl (Emily) who has a heart disease. When he starts to get to know her, he learned that her heart disease was getting worse and has to wait for a heart donor or she will die before a heart becomes available. Ben kills him self allowing other seven people to be saved. The movie ends with people finding out Ben was their donor.

The movie focuses on Ben's redemption through the giving of his important organs to different people. Ben finds peace and lost his feeling of guilt through his love and relationship with Emily. Ben didn't die for nothing, the people who helped started a healthy life because of him. There are so many lessons to learn from this movie. Ben's deed will leave almost anyone with sympathy at the end of the movie. I feel like the most important and central message of the movie is for us to think deep down into one's own life and discover for what purpose we are here on this world. Does something tragic has to happen as what happen to Ben for us to be aware of our surroundings and knowing people in need and providing some help? The physical act of giving is the one part of the story which was shown in the movie on fulfilling one's personal purpose on this earth. Even though the movie has a sad ending it leaves you satisfied seeing other people lives changed.

Post 1, Group B: Grief is the Real Monster By Dianesa Sanon

I came across "The Babadook" first as it made its appearance as an internet meme and again when my boyfriend suggested that I watched it. I am a horror fanatic- from haunted houses to Until Dawn and scary books to the things alike. I love to be scared. So I was down for watching a horror film at 3am made possible by Netflix, may you reign notoriously forever.

The movie stars a mother, Amelia, and her young boy in London in a dreary grey house. The movie takes place at the nearing of the anniversary of her husband's death and incidentally her son, Samuel's, birthday. The boy is really intelligent and often gets into trouble in school because he isn't social and often doesn't filter what he says before he says it. His mother is a frail woman who tries her best to make it through each day but still she never really has gotten over the pain of her husband's death. As the story progresses she becomes sketchier as a character and in some aspect more scarier than the Babadook itself, who is a crudely-drawn shadowy tall man from a children's book who is, my guess, is written by the Amelia, the mother.

The fear of grief is the theme of this horror movie. For the longest time, I believed that Amelia was the Babadook but as the movie went on i realized the only reason the Babadook was able to be manifested was because she let it. In the movie, as the day of her husband's death gets nearer she becomes less and less "human". Samuel, her son, is seen gathering weapons and setting traps because "it's coming" and is constantly telling his mother to "not let it in." As time passes through the more and more he mentions the presence of the "it" she becomes angrier and angrier insisting that he needs to grow up and stop going on about something that doesn't exist.

In the movie, while she is facing off with the Babadook, the monster takes the face of her late husband she has to fight to beat down the grief she has to save her son who has been captured. She yells "I'm not afraid of you!" until the monster is reduced down to nothing more than just a top hat and coat. Later the grey color of the movie is gone and replaced with more color. Inside the basement, she keeps the Babadook and feeds it worms. 

The obvious theme of fear is in the movie but there is also the aspect that we are our scariest monster when we are faced off with something as heavily laden as grief. When Samuel begged his mother to "not let him in" he was asking more than just letting the monster into the house after notoriously raps on the door. He is asking that she keeps out the bad depressive emotions that cause her to act like a monster. Again when he mentions that "he's coming" Samuel means more than just the Babadooks arrival. Samuel tells everyone at school that his birthday is coming, but he also never fails to mention that his father died the same day. Samuel knows that as his birthday approaches his mother becomes a whole different person. In the movie, as the day gets closer the family dog stays near Samuel and hardly ever leaves his side and meets his end after barking protectively to keep the possessed by anger and grief Amelia away from her son via neck break. Again, in the end, Ameila keeps the Babadook cellar under the stairs and feeds him worms. I made the connection that worms usually signify death and decay and her feeding it was a way of her accepting the grief and moving forward. As she feeds it the gruel she still seems to fear the creature but she isn't crippled by the fear. Before descending into the basement Samuel asks if he can come along and feed it with her but she tells him he is too young now and can maybe do so when he is older. I understood this as the author's way of saying that because Samuel is too young to understand the grief of losing someone much less the loss of someone you never knew would be too much for him so he had to wait till he could better cope with it as an adult.

The Anti-Hero in Modern Cinema by: JJ Leath

             While contemplating which movie I would analyze, I thought it would be best to re-watch a movie that I haven’t seen in a while and try to catch something worth analyzing through the new-found theoretical lens that I have developed from partaking in this class. I decided that I would re-watch Suicide Squad. As I re-watched this train-wreck of a movie, I found myself intrigued by why I felt so connected to Will Smith’s representation of the villain, or "anti-hero," Deadshot, and as I pondered this connection further, I think that the root of this feeling is causing a new wave within the realm of cinema as a whole.

              In Suicide Squad, Will Smith portrays an assassin who goes by the name Deadshot. Deadshot is a criminal. He is a professional murderer. On paper, you shouldn’t find yourself rooting for him. But, something about Will Smith’s character struck a chord with me. As the movie progresses, I find myself viewing Deadshot as a hero. There are moments where he shows great virtue. He has an opportunity to turn against his friends, but he doesn’t. He has the opportunity to run away, but he doesn’t. He stays and fights because he wants his "daughter to view him as something more than a screw-up." In spite of all of his flaws, he wants to be a hero. And at the end of the movie, I found myself disappointed when he has to return to prison. As the credits began to roll, I didn’t find myself counting up all of the times a phallic shape was used by a myriad of overly-sexualized characters, but I was asking myself why I saw this professional killer as a hero and why I found myself identifying with him.

              To better analyze my question, I considered some of the film theory that we had learned. I found Mulvey’s application of Lacan’s Imaginary Order to be extremely useful. Essentially, we identify with the characters in the movies we watch. Mulvey likened this with a "(child imagining) itself to be more adult, more fully formed, perfect, than it really is." These ideas were further developments of Baudry's ideas on the cinematic apparatus that he first wrote about in 'Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus' in 1970. What these works demonstrated was that we portray ourselves onto the idealized characters in a movie. I believe this to be caused by our desire to be the characters on the screen. I want the status of Bruce Wayne, the intelligence of Sherlock, and the virtue of Superman. This, though, always leads me to disappointment. I will never live up to these heroes. I see myself as who I wish to be, but when the movie is over, I then see myself for who I really am, and I don’t measure up. I'm not an idealized person, and because of this I have a split within myself. I have things about myself that I am truly proud of, but I have things I wish I could change about myself or my past. I believe this is something within everybody. This, though, is not something within Superman, Iron Man, or any other grandiose character, but it is a struggle within Deadshot. This is where I think my conflicting view of the villain Deadshot comes in. Deadshot showed characteristics that I hope I have as well. He was skilled, intelligent, brave, and loyal. He wasn’t perfect though. He had qualities that I hope I never show, for he was still a villain. When the movie was over, and when the larger-than-life character was gone and I was just left with myself, I didn’t feel the disappointment that I do when a Sherlock or Superman movie is over. It was for this reason that I think I found myself rooting for a “bad guy.”

To take this concept further, I think this is why I, and many others, have a tendency to root for and identify with the anti-hero. I think that this dynamic is what makes Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, and Deadpool so successful. But I don’t think that the anti-hero is becoming just a niche genre within Hollywood, though. This “anti-hero” concept is starting to bleed into other films as well. Characters are becoming darker and less perfect. Compare the Batman movies from the 90s to Christian Bale’s Batman. Bale is a much darker, more broken version of Batman. Further, even though he has money and status, Bale’s Bruce Wayne isn’t perfect. This concept has even made its way to the new Star Wars movie. Luke Skywalker was an idealized hero in the 70s, but in the new film he is much darker and less perfect. He doesn’t always show the virtues that marked him in the original trilogy. I think that this interestingly marks an aging Luke, but also a changing society where anti-heroes are not only accepted, but praised.  

None of us are perfect. We all have a split within ourselves. When we portray ourselves on to the grandiose characters we see on a screen, we won’t measure up. I believe that characters like Deadshot show us that this is okay. Even though he was a villain, he wanted to be a hero, and he became a hero in spite of a troubled past. The concept of the anti-hero isn’t new, but a recent wave has made them far more prevalent. And as audiences continue to grow tired with idealized human perfection, the prevalence of anti-heroes will only grow.

Post 1, Group B: Willy Wonka and Murder Castle

Fears really dominate our every move. So apparently does our subconscious that really just wants to have a penis (or rather fear of losing one). This idea has been the staple of our film culture for so long that there are even certain jokes or nuances that are built into movies that cannot be understood without it. I would like to focus on the fear that is brought upon in the movie of “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Not usually on the list of scary titles for most people but believe me there are some intense moments that bring suspense together with fear but are then wrapped up in a package of candy and brightly colored little men to make it more palatable.

                First let us discuss the movie for just a moment. I will not bore you with the details of the story line just to fulfill a word count, but rather let us discuss what we see Willy Wonka, deftly played by Gene Wilder, do to the other characters in this story and then the unknown that they are passed into. These children and accompanying parents ‘win’ tickets and then willingly step into Willy Wonka’s personal version of Murder Castle, a group of buildings that were specially designed by H. H. Holmes to murder people during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, where they do not know what will happen. It is perfectly established in the first scene of the factory that “[t]here’s a little surprise around every corner, but nothing dangerous” a promise that we clearly see does not ring true as all but one of the children and even one of the parents, Mr. Salt, are most likely dead by the end of the movie. The situations these people are placed into and then run afoul of are depicting various virtues and showing how not to raise a child into them… sure, but isn’t it interesting that Wonka does nothing to try and stop them in fact he almost encourages them with his sarcastic “No don’t” that he occasionally sends their way, and then once the atrocity is set upon them he offers ‘help’ to fix it.

There are some interesting horror film tropes built into the making/cutting of this production. In particular the music and the camera angles really drive this home. The music… well what is there to say it is classic horror. Even the ‘happy’ songs have dissonance, notes causing tension, that make you feel that there is something wrong with the situation. The intense moments use music that could have easily been from Halloween or The Shining in that it brings your hair on edge and you almost do not want to watch with the horrors brought before you. The camera angles however can be somewhat tricky to nail if you were not paying close attention because they are subtle. They help express who is really in charge and who the victim is. You can even tell, though it is easier from the story line, who will be the next victim because if you look those characters are always lit from slightly different angles than everyone else usually it is a low angle casting rings around their eyes and highlighting their teeth, which ultimately makes them look like they are dead already.

Why is any of this interesting or important? Let us look at when this movie was produced, 1971, this is when the stranger danger movement was big in the United States. And what is the first thing that comes to mind when stranger danger is mentioned a man in a van with candy… a Willy Wonka type if I have ever seen one. So I suppose to really bring this home I believe that “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” is a frankly horrific stranger danger film that teaches not just children but also parents.

Post 1, Group B: Beneath Human Cruelty, Intention, and Innocence by Kathleen Paxtor

“An American Crime” truly opened my mind into looking at the depths of how intentionally cruel humans can truly be under dire, psychological circumstances and how the loss of innocence can go beyond sexual tendencies. This movie is based on a true story over the murder Sylvia Likens. Sylvia (and her sister Jenny) were left in care with a lady named Gertrude. Both of Sylvia’s parents had to leave for work and decided it was best for their daughters to stay somewhere stable, but little did they know that they had made a deal with the devil. The deal Gertrude was that Sylvia’s parents were going to pay Gertrude $20 a week to take care of both Sylvia and Jenny Likens, instead of that they received Sylvia’s cold, dead body.

After Sylvia’s parents failed to pay one week, Gertrude goes from the ideal kind-hearted hostess to Satan himself. Little by little Gertrude starts to abuse Sylvia making her do the most perverse things. For example, Gertrude made Sylvia stick a glass Coke bottle into her vaginal area. From there it only got worse, Gertrude would strike Sylvia with every chance she would get and eventually held her captive in the basement. Gertrude let the abuse get so far that she would have teens come over and beat up Sylvia while Gertrude branded Sylvia with the words “I’m a prostitute”. I thought the way Gertrude was portrayed was really interesting. I believe that her circumstances drove her to an edge. The movie portrays Gertrude as a low-income woman who is trying to raise a large family by herself. She is seen washing people’s clothes to try and raise extra money to provide for her large family and deadbeat boyfriend. Throughout the movie there were many scenes where she mixed medicine and alcohol together. Her boyfriend would also beat her. I think that all the problems Gertrude had she projected onto Sylvia. There was a specific scene that really made me think about Gertrude's psychological and mental state. In the scene, Gertrude is on the floor cleaning and wiping down Sylvia after she had just received her beating, Sylvia was tied down and beaten by Gertrude herself yet seconds later Gertrude looked worried and acts nurturing. Scenes like this made me feel pity yet hatred towards Gertrude, because it made me wonder what was really going on with her. The way the director filmed the movie made me wonder if Gertrude was truly evil because of her circumstances or was she always evil at heart.

(the top picture is from the movie, bottom picture has the directors guiding the actors)

Sylvia lost her innocence not only sexually but also in life. She had to undergo things that should never be mentioned. She was stripped from her life at a young age and was thrown into a life of murderous torture. The directors’ play with this idea of cruelty and innocence throughout the whole movie and this can be seen through the locations they chose to portray.  In the opening scenes, the movie starts off with locations that stereotypically portray innocence. The first of the two locations was the carnival. This is where we meet Jenny and Sylvia Likens. When you think of carnivals you think of children, fun, food, and games. That is exactly how it is shown in the movie, with happy music playing in the background and the sound of children laughing; towards the end of the movie the perspective of this completely changes (we will come back to this). The next scene is located in front of a church. I found this interesting because this is where they meet Gertrude and her children. The church is supposed to represent values, honesty, and purity, which is the opposite of who Gertrude was or represented. In the end, Gertrude went against everything that would be considered as acting “godly”.

 At the end of the movie we go back to the carnival but this time it is somber. There is melancholic music playing in the background and Sylvia (now dead) trying to find peace with what happened. Sylvia gives a monologue where she says, “I’ve returned to the carnival, the one place I felt safe…with every situation God always has a plan. I guess I’m still trying to figure out what that plan was”. With those last words and last location we see the movie come to an end leaving with us questions of human cruelty, innocence, and the psychological perspective behind emotions.

Post 1, Group B - Inherit the Wind (1960); The Fear of Change by Kenneth Butcher

The movie I chose to look at for this assignment was Inherit the Wind. A film I was introduced to in my Anchor class last semester based on a play of the same name that I found pretty interesting. The plot is a fictionalized recounting of a real-life court case in 1925, where two renowned lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution in his classroom. The ideas of the proliferation of fear can be found almost everywhere in this film, but I specifically want to talk out the flim's take on the fear of change by looking at the ways the characters in the story respond to having their fundamental beliefs challenged.

There’s a scene towards the beginning of the film where Spencer Tracy’s character Henry Drummond (the lawyer arguing on the behalf of the teacher who was jailed for teaching evolution in school) is walking into the town to speak with his client and Fredric March character Matthew Harrison Brady (the other lawyer as well as the towns pastor) organizes his congregation to hold a parade for him as he rides to the courthouse. Something I interpreted as sort of a demonstration of sorts, once conceived with the intent of getting two messages across; the fist being that the town was predominantly comprised of unapologetic, fundamentalist Christians. And the second being that that aforementioned demographic was going to adamantly stand against Drummond in court on the grounds that any challenge to their core beliefs and traditionalist methods of teaching (in this case the rationalization of the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in schools) was direct affront to god and would be meat with fervent push back. I believe that this is highly indicative of a homogeneous state that has become so accustomed to life within the confines of their society for better or for worse, the live in fear of anything that poses any sort of challenge to that pre established normalcy. Thus they have to in a way constantly be on the defensive about their beliefs (hence the preemptive parade/demonstration against a lawyer they never met, entirely on the basis of what he represented)

That being said those are just the outward signifiers of a fear of change or being challenged. I think the more insidious aspects of the effects of this fear can be seen more heavily in the way Brady and members of his congregation speak and behave. As well as the rhetorical devices they use when they debate. As the trial continues one starts to notice a pattern in the way Brady behaves whenever Drummond want to make a point that might cause him to question one of his long standing beliefs or call someone who might be able to say something to incite the same effect; automatic dismissal. Brady (and subsequently the members of his congregation) would proceed to laugh off and or purposely misinterpret every point or more secular joke Drummond would make in lieu of actually addressing it. These scenes are played as comedic but I think they’re very indicative a strong adverseness to change and I think one of the exchanges that most exemplifies this is this one:

Matthew Harrison Brady : “We must not abandon faith! Faith is the most important thing!”

Henry Drummond :” Then why did God plague us with the capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you deny the one faculty of man that raises him above the other creatures of the earth? The power of his brain to reason. What other merit have we? The elephant is larger; the horse is swifter and stronger; the butterfly is far more beautiful; the mosquito is more prolific. Even the simple sponge is more durable. But does a sponge think?”

Matthew Harrison Brady : “I don't know. I'm a man, not a sponge!”

Henry Drummond : “But do you think a sponge thinks?”

Matthew Harrison Brady : “If the Lord wishes a sponge to think, it thinks!” 

So I kept my discussion on the themes of the film light with the thought that there’s a chance so of you might not have seen it; as to not completely spoil it. But if you have an hour and forty five minutes free I definitely recommend checking it out if your into these kinda films, it’s pretty funny and interesting.