Week Eight Blog

This week in class we looked at cinematic representations of prison

In Paul Mason's reading hedelves into how prison films are portrayed and the genre conventions that have been used over the past century. Overal, the prevelence of prison films in the mdia is not very high, but most of the same character types are used. We see an innocent man who was wrongly convicted of a crime, sent to prison where he has to deal with a malevolent warden who makes his time as hard as possible. We usually end up sympathizing with the main character, and hope that in the end he gets out of prison. This character usually makes friends as well as enemies in prison films. We see the prison as a dirty, corrupt place where people are trying to survive. These general images that used throughout most prison films feeds into our ideas about what the prison system is like, as well as life on the inside. In many cases, films and documentaries choose to show the prison as an unsafe, violent place where murder and fighting is rampant. However, daily life in prison is not always this exciting.

Rafter expounds more on the prison film and the same genre conventions that are discussed in Paul Mason's article are discussed in her book. However, she also mentions prison documentaries and they are focused on redemption and in some ways dramatized.

The Shawshank Redemption was an inspirational prison film to watch because it focuses on the relationship between Andy and Red. Andy is wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, and ends up spending more than 20 years in prison, going through a lot of experiences. At first, it wasn't easy, because he was attacked and the film also suggests that he was gang raped. After a while, he becomes good friends with Red and forms a deep bond. All throughout the movie, he is portrayed as a hero, who only trys to do good for the prison guards, fellow inmates, and the warden. He gets money to build a library, helps educate a young man to get his highschool diploma, helps the warden with his finances, and helps people with their taxes. The warden is portrayed as corrupt and evil throughout this film, and will go to any lengths to keep Andy in prison. Andy escapes from prison by digging his way out, and in the end we see him meet up with Red in Mexico. I thought this film was heart warming because we see the innocent man escape from prison finally, and it mentions things about hope throughout the film. Red said that hope is  dangerous thing, and Andy said that hoep is a very good thing. We see the evil warden kill himself and two best friends who get to spend the rest of their lives together in Mexico. Justice has been achieved.

At CNN.com i found an interesting article about a man who had been arrested for 70 days on account of the disappearance of a woman he was vacationing with in Aruba. His attorney has asked for his release, and claims that he is not responsible for her disappearance. He argues that the courts do not have enough evidence to continue to detain him, but the court did not agree. The man claims that while him and the woman were out snorkeling, he signaled for her to come back, but she was no where in sight. Is he innocent? is he guilty? when there is not enough evidence to prove someone innocent or guilty, the verdict usually leans towards locking them up instead of letting them off in most media trials. However, some recent trials have shown the contrary in which the socially guilty, but legally innocent are not locked up. In the media we see this going both ways, and in prison films, we tend to see the innocent accused of a crime they did not commit.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/17/justice/aruba-missing-woman/index.html?hpt=ju_c2