The two movies, Sicario and Traffic, are similar and have exciting storylines. In Sicario, we get Emily Blunt’s character’s story as the main protagonist instead of Traffic’s, plot with multiple parallel storylines and characters. Emily Blunt’s character Kate in Sicario wants to get the drug cartel who was responsible for the safehouse and joins a special task force to stop the flow of drugs coming into the country, or so she thinks. We see in both movies that the “war on drugs” is not a war that anyone is going to win anytime soon. Benicio Del Toro is in both Traffic and Sicario, playing completely different characters.
In the movie Traffic, the audiences witness the destruction from the war on drugs on American families like Michael Douglas’s character. The scene between Robert and Barbara in the car is very dark; almost entirely black at some points and the tension between them is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Their marriage is going through some dark times like the color of the scene between them in the car. Barbara is at her ropes end with their daughter, Caroline. “She is depicted as morally weak and misguide for wanting to allow her daughter, already an addict, to explore and figure things out for herself, but there is no such mess liberalism for Mr. Wakefield.” (Fojas, 134) Robert smartly replies that Caroline would know about addictions and then Caroline states that he is the one who can’t make it to dinner without three scotches. The extremely dark car makes a perfect connection for the viewer about this dark time in the couple’s marriage. In Sicario, we see more of the up-close personal war on drugs with Kate learning the truth about her new partners. Josh Brolin’s character has his way of doing things, including using Kate as bait for the cartel. After picking up Robert from the airport, the family sits down for dinner. The only color you see during the entire scene is different shades of blue. Robert talks about his new job, but the family doesn’t seem interested, they are probably tired of hearing about his work. Caroline states how fucking unbelievable it is that her father is the new anti-drug czar. Caroline continues to ramble on (she is probably high) while her parents listen in disbelief. The family relationship has indeed grown cold. The blue shades of the scene assist the viewers to realize the distance between the family members. The parallel storylines in Traffic make the whole plot entertaining. I like screen filter changes in Traffic; Sicario doesn’t have anything comparable to dark tones and bright colors of Helena’s life in Traffic. Sicario does have exciting camera angles and slow-motion features to show the violence of the war on drugs. Helena is the wife of Carl Ayala; we see her having lunch with some other desperate housewives while chatting about her son David, being pregnant, and their lunch choices. All the colors of the country club are very bright, vibrant colors. Everything around the women seems to be full of life, the grass is exceptionally green, the flowers are beautiful reds, and even the women’s clothes are bright colors. These colors are very different from the dusty and dull shades of Mexico or the deep and dark blues used for the Wakefield family. In Sicario, we don’t see another storyline about how the war on drugs is affecting the wife of a drug dealer. Sicario focuses on Kate’s journey; her fight to try and do what is right. In Traffic, instead, we see Caroline and her friends getting high and the effect of the war on drugs on privileged teenagers. Sicario doesn’t need colliding plotlines, and I’m sure the writers knew their film would be compared to Traffic. Caroline and her friends seem to be your average over-privileged white kids with too much time and money on their hands, so they decide to use massive amounts of drugs and drink. The room where the scene takes place is very dark with lots of deep blues; lamps and lighters provide the only light. Caroline and her friends are babbling about the government, being conformist, and sex while doing lines of coke, freebasing crack, drinking, and smoking pot. One of Caroline’s friends declares to the group how high he is, but no one notices he is about to OD. After one of the teen ODs, Caroline and her friends argue about deciding to dump his seizing body off at the front door of the hospital. The colors and shades used to tell his part of the story to foreshadow the teens’ dark future ahead of them, by the decisions they are making during this point in their lives. Another storyline in Traffic is Del Toro’s character, who is also in Sicario. In Sicario, Del Toro plays Alejandro, who is a pretty messed up agent. In Traffic, Del Toro plays Javier, who gives the DEA the information they need to bust the cartel. The characters Del Toro plays are very different in comparison. As Alejandro, Del Toro is lawless and has no conscience. Javier does what he knows is right inside his heart and helps America fight the war on drugs. I think the only way Javier and Alejandro are alike is they are both Jaded from having been used or betrayed. Javier is a pawn by General Salazar, and Alejandro is the one who uses Kate as a pawn in his games. Both movies are exciting and eye-opening to the never-ending war on drugs. I like how Benicio Del Toro’s character is different in both films. Javier is a good guy, and I love the story of him asking for a baseball field for the kids in his neighborhood. In Sicario, Kate was more like Javier’s character in Traffic. Both characters are trying to center their conscience and do what they think is right.
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With technology growing every day, humans have never had it more comfortable if you're upper or middle class, but that's a different topic. Most of the general population consider themselves middle class and has access to AI techs like Siri or Alexa. For the past couple of years, you can ask Siri or Alexa for music, recipes, and even ask them to write a grocery list or schedule your calendar for you. But why are the AI tech female names and personalities? In my opinion, women are usually the ones making things happen, like grocery lists or scheduling activities. The AI tech is built for the average person and making the personality friendly and helpful like your wife or mom only makes sense.
Most AI's sexuality is not questioned because the genders are usually female or male, and they are assumed to be heterosexual. In Blade Runner, Harrison Ford's character falls in love with the replicant robot played by Sean Young. In other stories like Marvels Avengers, Scarlet Witch and Vision fall in love. Hollywood and comic book characters are not new to falling in love with an AI tech machine. In my opinion, stories are missing androgynous AI and pansexual AI. I think having more genderless AI and asexual AI in tech would be more futuristic and realistic. Media is obsessed with gender; everything has to be one or the other. Even when you are transgender people are still going to ask if you are male or female, which is extraordinarily invasive and rude. Unfortunately, most people don't understand gender and sexuality are two completely different things. If you ask Siri if she has a gender, she replies, "I don't have an answer for that." Of course, Apple would program the tech not to answer the question instead of giving Siri a genderless personality. Today society and media are even more obsessed with gender because of birthing reveals and gender stereotypes like tomboys or girly-girls, which never made sense to me. Until media and society, except there are more than two genders, AI tech can never evolve past being Siri or Alexa. Thanks for reading! Jason Jason Newkirk
Media is Everywhere Media is all around us, we wake up and turn on the news, check our Instagram while pouring coffee and send out a tweet before heading off to work. Thanks to technological convergence, anyone can overwhelm themselves in movies and sequels by watching new shows on your phone with Hulu, after calling a restaurant to make reservations while posting pictures on Instagram. These remarkable stories get told through transmedia storytelling, for example, when your Watchmen Blu-ray comes with a comic book to accompany the movie and further enrich the entertainment experience. When the Bollywood film “Rok Sako To Rok Lo” was live-streamed on a cellphone in 2004, this cultural convergence and how people will use this technology to sample other movies. Other examples of media and pop culture randomly coming together and causing a media uproar, is the picture of “Bert” from Sesame Street with Bin Laden on a poster that traveled from anti-American protest covered by CNN. This is what convergence culture is in a nutshell; a sign can create outrage on many different levels. It doesn’t matter if your anti-American or shocked to see a childhood icon with a World is known Terrorist, media affects how we think and feel. Thankfully, you can drown out your confusion of “Life” with transmedia storytelling and technological convergence, and not have to focus too much energy on Terrorists or what really going on in the World. Everywhere people go we are surrounded by media, we go to the gas station there is a TV at the pump telling you the weather and news, you go to work, and your coworkers are talking about the latest political news. How consumers take in media and what we do with this knowledge of the information is up to us. Thanks for reading! Jason |
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AuthorI am a four-year Starbucks partner, and I love making up stories, and making people laugh. I am currently looking for new employment opportunities. I have recently completed my bachelor's degree, and I am ready to start a new chapter in my journey. I have been a creative story writer since I was little. 'I'm an aspiring screenwriter, and I love making up characters and stories. I've taken Storytelling classes, digital media classes, film classes, animation, and multiple screenwriting courses. I speak a little German, and I love learning new languages. Thanks for your time and consideration. ArchivesCategories |