::Last Post for AspecTs of AMeriCaN CuLtuRe CLasS::

After all, what I want to say is I'm so happy to be part of this class, at first, I have to confess that i really had no idea about American culture at all, and when my friend (Mr.Eil) asked me to enroll in this subject, I really reluctant to do so cuz I really didn’t know what the class is all about. But, by now, after one semester watching all aspects of American movies, i started to realize why American Culture is one of the most interesting cultures of the world, because it cover all critical events that were related and yielded the great impact on aspects of American culture and finally all of them melted together to the form the unique characteristic that can be found only in American culture. As Ajarn Cecil had usually mentioned that all aspects of American culture can be found in American movies, and I do agree with him, also I think that watching movies can help learning become more fun than just reading texts.
Lastly, I want to say thanks to Ajarn and all classmates that gave me a great experience in participating in this class before I graduate in this semester, see you........
PS. I have returned all movies to you already na,Ajarn.......

:: To Kill a Mockingbird :: [Civil Rights]

After started watching this movie for a while, at first I thought this movie was a family movie that shows children’s adventure, but later on, what I found in this movie was a serious social discrimination problem against black people, a poor people or people who are not accepted by the society. And this is a great problem that not only affects those who are biased but also affect to the whole society, especially children, like in this movie, what do you think the girl (Scout) would be in the future when she grown up, she had already absorbed a wrong attitude, a social discrimination against black people, people who come from slum or people who are different from her, all these attitude would cause a great problem in the society. At the late part of this movie, knowing that the black guy who was accused as a rapist was shot to death made me really sad and feel very pity of him, it’s just because in that period people still viewed black people as inferior class of people, that guy might already knew that he had no other way but to escape so he ended up like that…..hur , I only hope that in this time the social discrimination might be decrease gradually. At the end of the movie, the scene that really scare me is the scene that when Atticus asked Scout who help her and Jem, and she pointed out that he hiding behind the door, you know what, I almost made me scream when that man slowly come out because he really seemed like a ghost that made me so scared. (additionally I watched this movie at about midnight ) Anyway, what I want to say is that this movie remind me to the movie that used to blog once “”, they show us that we cannot judge people by outside appearance, learn to understand them deeply and then you will know what kind of people they are.

One thing I lastly want to mention is at the middle of the movie you would see that in that period a mad dog seemed to be a great problem for people, especially to kids. I think that maybe in that time there’s still no vaccine for healing people from mad dog biting, that made me think we are so lucky that in this time, medical technology has been improve greatly, so mad dog biting may not seem as a big problem as it used to be……

:: Dr. Strangelove ::

At first, I think this movie’s gonna be a serious war movie which is full with fighting scene, but once I finished watching it, I’ve found that it’s not at all. One thing I really want to know is, is it true that there’s always one reconnaissance plane flying around United States in order to protect the country in the emergency case or it’s just the story that the movie made up because sounds really unbelievable in that case. Other thing, I want to mention is, in military the commander’s order seems very importance that the soldier had to follow him even though it might be unreasonable like in the movie even though the pilot feel that it sounds weird to attack Russia as he’s ordered but anyway he still follow that order. Things I found really interesting in the President’s meeting are those about, the way that one general talk about the Russian, he really insulted everyone who is Russian as a bad communist, he didn’t believe what the Russian ambassador said at all, he always mistrust that it’s a plan of Russia to attack U.S., this shows the idea about how people think about Russia after the period of communism, they still saw Russian as the enemy. Anyway I found that it’s really funny in the conversation between U.S. President and the Russian Prime Minister, it seems like a children talk that each side trying not to lose to other side. At the late part, I found that there’re many funny scene in the movie that really made me laugh, such as, when the Russian ambassador mentioned that the reason why they invent the nuclear bomb is because that they don’t like nylon and the washing machine and the Russian source of information is “News York Times”(what!!! LOL), my favorite scene is the scene that the pilot chief tried to fix the bomb, but at last he fell down with the bomb, ha ha it’s really funny to see his face and he also wave his hand with pleasure ..ha ha.
The movie still continue the humor by ending the movie with the scene that suddenly Dr. Strangelove got up of his wheelchair and stand up , he also shout that “God, I can walk” ha ha….what this movie is all about. But one thing I can see is, it seems really hard that people will truly trust each others, if they still got some biases to them, like the case of United States and Russia in this movie.

:: Song by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band featuring Norah Jones & Robert Randolph - Ruler of My Heart :: [Early Jazz]

I think, this song is a perfect combination between folk sounded music and the jazz styled singing by Norah Jones. I like this song because this song make me feel like I was lying on the plain, looking up to the cloud on sky, and thinking of someone who was so far away. This song might sound a little bit sad and lonely but anyway it can make me feel so relax...personally, I really like Norah Jones' song because every songs of hers don't only have a beautiful sounds but also have a very good meaning in lyrics, I recommend everyone who like Norah Jones like me not to miss her new single "Thinking about you", it's really a nice song, just listen to it and you you'll know what I meant.

:: Wake Island :: [WWII - Pacific Zone]

Watching this movie is much more enjoyable than watching another WWII movie below this post, it also made me realized sometimes it’s good to look back at the war victory, and see that how many people had to sacrifice to get those victories, the soldiers on the Wake Island was a good example of those groups of people. At first, the name of “Wake Island” didn’t sound familiar to me at all, but later on knowing that Wake Island is located in Pacific Ocean nearby the Pearl Harbor, help me some idea about it. One scene that I found really interesting was the scene that the Japanese ambassador came to the Island and declared that Japan wanted long lasting peace and wanted to build a good relationship with United States, I have to say that the actor who play this role acted really good because you can see that he always spoke with faked smile while he spoke like reading a script, with no doubt, Japan cheated on United States, Japan began attacking Pearl Harbor and Wake Island, Japan’s shown the world how a big fat liar ever happened in history . At the end of the movie, watching all soldiers died in duty trying to protect the Island made me really sad, especially watching how cruel the Japanese soldiers were, they shot the pilot who had to jumped off the plane and falling down to the sea, what!!, falling down to the sea was bad enough for him no need for more shooting, the movie ended with the great sacrifice of all American soldiers on the Island, hurrrrrr, how sad it was, then the question came to my mind why they didn’t send a back up to help those soldier at that time or they were just a small group of soldiers on the tiny far away island which were not important at all, I don’t think so……..

:: A Bridge Too Far :: [WWII - European Zone]

First of all, I have to confess that some kinds of world war movies are not my type at all, but anyway I’ll try my best. The movie began with an introduction that told the story plot after the D-Day war, which made it much easier to watch this movie. Later on, the movie told about the main task of the entire Allies’ troops that is to seize and hold the 3 main bridges in Holland that linked to the boundary of German. Then the battle scene begun, the scene that I like at the early art of the movie is the scene that a thousand of soldiers jumped off the plane and fall down the ground by parachutes, that’s really amazing scene, this made me really wondered of how they ever made this scene because it looks really realistic, especially the scene from the self-camera which attached to soldier when they jumped off the plane, it looked really scary when you see the ground far away down under your feet….
At the middle of the movie, the war still keep going on, with my curious about how the German really underestimate the Allies, even though they could keep the top secret file about seizing the bridges, but the German General believed it’s fake document, how come???!!, it’s really obvious… The interesting thing later on is the scene that the Dutch celebrated for the coming of the Allies’ troop, this scene’s tell us about how European people thought about the war during that period, they gave a warm good welcome to all Allies’ armies, they even gave the Allies a place to hide. A really long time had passed but nothing happened in the movie excepted war and war, scenes that rarely attracted me are the scene that one soldier ran into the battle to keep the capsule which was dropped by the plane but unfortunately he’s shot down before running back to the base…T-T such a sad scene and another scene that seemed really nonsense (but anyway I like it because it’s quite funny) was the scene that the old woman who already lost her mind because of the war, suddenly she ran out of the house in order to pick up the taxi, so she got shot and died in front of her house, it’s suppose to be a sad scene but I think it’s so funny especially the way she fall down with her ballet gesture ha ha…..

After 3 hours long with full of blood, bullets and my wishes hoping that the movie should had finished real soon because I already got bored, bored, bored, a real great bored. The movie just brought me to the end with the sad song sung by Allies’ armies who had been left behind the war, and also about 10000 soldiers died in the war, with the easy excuse by the General said that “Well, as you know, I’ve always thought we tried to go a bridge too far” …such an irresponsible words, wasn’t it??

/// Blogs Assignment : Jack Dempsey ///

Jack Dempsey’s story can show us the clear picture of people's life that truly happened in the time of the American great depression,a lots of people lost job, then they had to do everything he could do to survive or to get money. Not except for Dempsey, he faced with many great difficulties before he could find out his talent in boxing that could save his life, that made Jack Dempsey become the legend of the American boxer. He was the champion of the world heavyweight title between 1919 and 1926, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, champions of all time. And also because of his exciting fights and his attractive personality that made him very popular among fans. Jack Dempsey grew up in a poor family, his father had difficulty in finding work that forced his family to move very often. Dempsey decided to leave home in his teenage, seeking for a better life for himself. Dempsey was a strong and powerful young man, who quickly discovered that he had a talent for fighting, later he began training to be a professional. At the first stage of his boxing career, looking for a chance to get money, Dempsey would occasionally go into saloons and challenge for fights. If anyone accepted his challenge, bets would be wagered. This seems like he's quite a gangster but the fact that when people got nothing to lose anymore, risking for something might be not that much bad choice, I think. What really made him very popular was because of his ten wins in a row that included the fight which he beat Sudenberg, who regarded as one of the world powerful boxer. I think that his success also came from his strong effort and patience that's why he still be mentioned even today.
Jack Dempsey was the real hero for all American not only because of his talent in boxing, and also because of his attempting to survive in the real tough time that might be a good example for the later generation in term of finding their own talent and try to make use of it for their own life.

:: Bobby Jones - Stroke of Genius :: [Roar20]

After finished watching this movie, I began thinking about learning to play golf, because there’re many scenes in this movie that shows how playing golf might be the real interesting and exiting sports, personally I really like the way that the movie shows how the ball is hit and fly over the sky, it’s sound really attract to try hitting the ball to fly away as far as in the movie. This movie also cause me a question that why there’s gonna be 18 holes in one golf course or is it true as the character in movie said that it because there’re about 18 shots for one whisky, so they decided that there should be 18 hoes for golf as well. And did they already drink cola-cola since about 70 years ago? , wow, it means that cola soft drink has been produced about 100 years already, that’s so amazing.

The movie also shows the picture of the American culture around the year of 1935 to 1940, when many new invented equipments and technologies had been used in the society such as engine car (that looks really classic), electronic trail way, the telephone (that also looks really weird because of it’s shape that really looks like a pepper mill and I can’t see how to make a phone call because I don’t know where’s the number button to push). One scene that I really like is the romantic scene that Jones kiss his girlfriend under the same umbrella during the rain, this is really romantic and really classic scene too. This real-life based movie illustrates and be a good example of one man story who never give up to raise his dream and finally he could reach his goal, and even if you fail, it’s okay just stand up and fight again, that’s never too hard to make your dream come true like one character in the movie said something about “Golf is like the life, it’s the game of recovery”…….

:: Meet John Doe :: [Great Depression]

Again, I found difficulty watching movie without subtitle, and more trouble with black and white scene, anyway i'll try my best. But, after watching this movie, all i can say is it's really boring and boring.....because even though at the first part of the movie, it may seem interesting about how they try to cheat on people by creating the faked character to be the real one and the guy who play as John Doe, really looks like the one who play "James Bond007", but at the middle f the movie, it become the real boring experience watching this movie, nothing's interesting and the movie just goes with no direction, and then at the end of the movie, everything seems to be better with the scene that made me really exited and really want to know whether John will fump off the building or not, and like i guess he did'nt and then the movie ended suddenly without any cue... that really made me soooo confused about how they wrote the script like this.

What i can see in this movie is that in the age of great depression of America, people seems to do everything to get their money like character in the movie "Ann", when she's fired, she could do everything to get her job back, even though she have to cheat on people by creating the faked character......but i think i understand her feeling because she had no choice left and at that time, people could get fired anytime, so if it's necessary, we can do anyway to survive. Next thing i want to mention is when John went to the show that at first i think i's T.V. show, but i think exactly it's radio station because i cannot see any video camera and people can can enjoy the show by radio, so i think maybe in that time, there's still no video camera or T.V. broadcasting there...but one thing that really made me so surprised is airplane, i meant the real transportable plane not a military plane, wow, seems like technology had been improved very very quickly within 19th centaury.....

:: Meet Me in St. Louis :: [Industrial Age]

Watching this movie is the real fun, because of the easy-to-understand content and many beautiful scenes in this movie make this movie very enjoyable to watch. Since the opening of the movie, I can see a lots of American life in the movie, people in that time used the classic car that looked very classic and unigue, also in that time, people still made everything by their own even the ketchup, that seems very complicated than just buying in the supermarket like in this period.

The next thing that i can see is that, in that period, it's the time for new developed transportation that is trolley, rather than the classic car and horses, it's mass transportation that made the city lives become more comfortable. Next thing i found really interesting is the way they use telephone, do they have to shout out loud while they talking on the telephone? ha ha If it's true, then it's really funny because everyone in the house would hear what you said or even your your neighbor... Another thing that made me really curious is why people in that time had to wear full uniform while they having dinner in their own house, it looks very uncomfortable.

One thing i want to mention, in this movie, i can see the old tradition of Halloween and Chritmas, Halloween seem to be the day for the kids to treat people and i just knew that children would throw powder into people face ha ha, it really remind me about Songkarn day in Thailand, and Christmas is the real family day from the past until now, watching all family members building a snowman made me really want to try building one... The movie ends with the scene of the annual fair in St. Louis that many characters have been mentioned many times, what the movie want to show is that in that period, civilization was expanded all over the continent, not just the big city like New York, it's the real age of industrialization, that many people found thier new oppotunities...