2. What do you think Spike Lee's stance on 'jungle fever' is? What different societal pressures have you noticed from what we've seen so far? What are some perspectives on this concept that stood out to you?
3. Make a prediction on what you think will happen to Flipper. How do you think this affair will affect his life in the second half of the movie?
Also here's the Malcolm X musical scene if you didn't know what we were talking about in class:
1. What are your reactions to the first half of the movie so far? What moments stood out to you? Which characters do you like/dislike? What details did you notice?
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying the beginning of this movie. It's a little less stylistic than Lee's other films, but it also feeling tighter and more focused, which is beneficial to the story that is being told. The interactions between Flipper and his daughter stood out to me because they were so full of personality and chemistry. You could see the relationship between these two characters and it was very sweet. I didn't really dislike any of the characters, save for the ones who were blatantly racist. I could understand why some of them acted the way they did. I understood why Cyrus seemed a bit uncomfortable with Flipper making out with a white woman. I could understand why Flipper's bosses refused to acknowledge their own ingrained racial bias. That being said, I can't say I was terribly fond of any of the characters either. I'm interested in their stories, but none of them particularly stuck out. I guess it's a side effect of juggling so many characters while keeping them grounded and not exaggerating character traits to make them stand out more.
2. What do you think Spike Lee's stance on 'jungle fever' is? What different societal pressures have you noticed from what we've seen so far? What are some perspectives on this concept that stood out to you?
I think Lee sees "jungle fever" as a harmful social construct that stops people of different races from making meaningful connections and understanding each other. The opening song says this clearly enough. But what's interesting is how Lee seeming to understand why this construct exists, particularly on the side of black people. Flipper telling his friend that his attraction to a white woman didn't change the fact that he saw black women as equally beautiful. I'd never really considered how some people might see and interracial relationship with a white person as internalized racism, as seeing whiteness as more attractive than blackness, and while I do target, I can understand this perspective.
3. Make a prediction on what you think will happen to Flipper. How do you think this affair will affect his life in the second half of the movie?
I think his affair will have negative effects on his perception in the eyes of those who k ow him. Some of this will be due to the fact that he cheated on his wife (I imagine his wife will be more concerned that he cheated than the skin color of his lover), but for many the whiteness of his lover will take central stage. The film has already shown us that Flipper wasn't really expected by society to stay faithful to his wife. He says that he cheated "for the first time", as if this was an expected, inevitable outcome.
- Joanie
ReplyDelete1. What are your reactions to the first half of the movie so far? What moments stood out to you? Which characters do you like/dislike? What details did you notice?
The first half of this movie angers me. I really admired Flipper as a good, moral family man who seemed like the perfect husband and father, but he seems to have thrown away a perfect marriage/family dynamic to have sex with a girl he just met. The scene in the convenience(?) store with Angie’s high school boyfriend stood out to me. I liked how Spike played with stereotypes in that scene and featured a high-class black woman versus the lower-class white men. I found it interesting that, even with this apparent “role-reversal,” the white men still tried to criticize and oppress the black woman. Not only did Spike Lee feature racial oppression in this scene, he also included gender oppression with the woman left in her car. I liked how Spike ended the scene with a close up of the face of the woman in the car, which reminded the viewer of how arrogant and oppressive the white men in the scene are.
2. What do you think Spike Lee's stance on 'jungle fever' is? What different societal pressures have you noticed from what we've seen so far? What are some perspectives on this concept that stood out to you?
I can’t tell if Spike Lee thinks that the connection between Flipper and Angie is purely because of ‘jungle fever’ or if the two have a genuine connection. I would like to believe that the two are drawn to each other for some reason other than their race differences alone, but it looked like the two became intimate seemingly overnight. I think Spike views ‘jungle fever’ as truly a fever, because it makes good characters, such as Flipper, have an entire change of character in such a short span of time. There were societal pressures from both sides of the relationship, and the friends of both Flipper and Angie stood strongly against the relationship. From Flipper’s side, Spike’s character viewed white girls as crazy, while from Angie’s side, one of her friends was completely disgusted by the idea. The perspective that stood out to me the most was from Angie’s side, with her friend who was extremely against the idea. Though I did not expect her to be fully supportive of their relationship, I also did not expect her to be so blatantly racist without reason.
3. Make a prediction on what you think will happen to Flipper. How do you think this affair will affect his life in the second half of the movie?
Based on the scene where Flipper was unable to respond to his daughter because of his overwhelming guilt, I am going to assume that his wife is gonna figure out that he is hiding something almost immediately because of his inability to disguise strange behavior. Though I don’t wan’t to admit it, because I loved Flipper’s family dynamic before his affair, I think that their marriage is going to fall apart because of his apparent ‘jungle fever.’
1. What are your reactions to the first half of the movie so far? What moments stood out to you? Which characters do you like/dislike? What details did you notice?
ReplyDeleteI really liked the scene with Flipper and his family, when his daughter is asking all the questions just to see how they would answer. The daughter seems really smart and is able to pick up on things without people saying them, which is how I think she is going to pick up on the fact that her father is acting weird. The moments that stood out to me the most, were the comparison to when Flipper first walked his daughter to school, and when he walked her to school after he cheated on his wife. During the first walk he is cheerful and having a nice conversation with his daughter, but during the other walk he is clearly having regrets about cheating on his wife. Clearly, I dislike the obviously racist characters, like most of the people in Paulie’s store, especially the one who asks him about why he’s reading so much.
2. What do you think Spike Lee's stance on 'jungle fever' is? What different societal pressures have you noticed from what we've seen so far? What are some perspectives on this concept that stood out to you?
I would like to think that Angie and flipper have a genuine connection, but they just met each other and started having sex after a couple of days. I think that it is kind of up to the viewer to decide if they had sex because of “jungle fever” or if they really did like each other. The societal pressures mostly come from their friends, because they both had at least one friend that knew this is not a socially acceptable thing. One that stood out to me was from one of Angie’s friends. She said that if Angie wants to have sex with a black guy why should they [both of Angie’s friends]care since it’s her life. I think more people could use this in their own lives.
3. Make a prediction on what you think will happen to Flipper. How do you think this affair will affect his life in the second half of the movie?
As I said in the first paragraph, I think that his daughter will pick up on his lack of talking and will eventually confront him about it. Eventually the wife will figure it out as well, but I do not know how she will react. I think she might want to leave him after that, but they might decided not to because it will not be fair to their daughter. I think Angie will end up leaving Paulie, but I do not know who she will leave him for, if anyone.
I think that after “Do the Right Thing” this may be the next most entertaining for me. I can see the step up in production and I think it’s another ‘bold’ theme for Lee to present to people at the time the film was released, and even still to this day. The scene of Angie telling her two girl friends about getting with Flipper stood out to me because it was that classic Spike Lee way of making a serious topic be glazed with humor for the audience. Also their reactions to Angie were rude and telling of what those times in those places were like. I don’t think I’ve developed a favorite or least favorite character yet. I do like watching Angie’s family interact. I think Spike Lee’s stance on ‘jungle fever’ is that this is something that happens and obviously white and black people can be together but there is just too much negative stigma attached to an interracial couple and it is too much of a shock for others. He is good at showing both sides of the dilemma like how it goes back and forth between Flipper’s conversation with his Black friend played by Spike Lee and Angie’s conversation with her Italian friends and you see similar reactions from both ends. I think Flipper’s wife will find out soon enough to cause a rise in tension… I’m interested in finding out who he ends up with at the end… maybe no one? Or Angie’s brothers will go after him.
ReplyDelete1. I find this movie pretty entertaining. I can tell that Spike has a lot more money for use in this movie compared to “School Daze,” or any other film he has made. I like that Spike takes a bold theme and chooses to make a movie about it. As far as I can tell, he usually makes movies that forces people to talk about what happened. He makes “heavy” movies in that it forces a conversation that people don’t want to have. A moment that stood out to me was when Flipper told Cyrus about his affair, and how when Cyrus thought it was with another black woman he was fine, but when Flipper told him it was with a white woman, the tone immediately became somber, and darker. Same thing for when Angie told her friends about it and her friends had the same reactions as Cyrus.
ReplyDelete2. Because we are only halfway through the movie, I can’t tell what Spike Lee’s stance on “jungle fever” is. Mainly because we haven’t seen the ending or a conclusion to the story. So far, we have only seen negative pressures towards Flipper and Angie’s affair. Like I said in my last answer, what was weird is that all side characters were fine with the affair and semi-supported it until they found out that the other person in the affair was a different race than themselves.
3. I don’t think things will end well for Flipper. I think someone is going to slip up and accidentally tell his wife about the affair. I also think that either the two brothers of Angie Tucci or her boyfriend (or fiancé, I can’t remember which) is going to find out and some big fight scene, or big argument will happen between Angie’s partner and Flipper.
1. What are your reactions to the first half of the movie so far? What moments stood out to you? Which characters do you like/dislike? What details did you notice?
ReplyDeleteI really like the movie so far. I think it was expected that Spike would make a movie that challenged racial standards set in the 80’s, but even though the gist of the movie is similar to other movies of his, I really liked the difference of centering the movie around an affair with a black man and white woman. There were some moments that were dull, but overall, I have really enjoyed it.
2. What do you think Spike Lee's stance on 'jungle fever' is? What different societal pressures have you noticed from what we've seen so far? What are some perspectives on this concept that stood out to you?
I think Spike Lee sees jungle fever as any love connection someone wants to have, disregarding race. I think he thinks that if someone wants to have an relationship with a person of the opposite race, the societal standard says that it shouldn’t happen, but I believe Spike it challenging it. This is just a guess because we haven’t really had too much info on the directors take on jungle fever yet.
3. Make a prediction on what you think will happen to Flipper. How do you think this affair will affect his life in the second half of the movie?
I definitely think his affair with Angie will be found out by his wife and there will be lots of conflicts. I predict the movie will end up as Flipper getting divorced from his wife because not only would she be mad about him having an affair with another woman, but in addition, a white woman.
1. What are your reactions to the first half of the movie so far? What moments stood out to you? Which characters do you like/dislike? What details did you notice?
ReplyDeleteI'm conflicted about the movie so far. While it is tied with "Do The Right Thing" for my favorite movie we've watched so far, it's also definitely the least characteristically Spike Lee. What I mean by that is that, if I didn't know it was by Spike Lee, I wouldn't be able to tell because it's fairly mainstream in terms of filming. While we were watching, I remembered how John had mentioned that some people think Lee is anti-white in the beginning of the class. A movie like this would be a perfect way for Lee to portray the white girl in the movie negatively (which could fuel people's idea that he's anti-white), however, the girl in the movie is portrayed as smart, independent, and hardworking.
2. What do you think Spike Lee's stance on 'jungle fever' is? What different societal pressures have you noticed from what we've seen so far? What are some perspectives on this concept that stood out to you?
Based off this movie, I think Spike is not completely against 'jungle fever'. Again, based on how he chose to portray the white characters, I think Spike is not completely against it.
3. Make a prediction on what you think will happen to Flipper. How do you think this affair will affect his life in the second half of the movie?
I think he'll eventually have to decide between his wife and daughter and his office romance.
1. What are your reactions to the first half of the movie so far? What moments stood out to you? Which characters do you like/dislike? What details did you notice?
ReplyDeleteI was really disappointed in Flipper. I really thought he was a good guy with a solid career and family and he gave it all up to sleep with this random woman that he was literally saying he didn't want earlier for him working in the movie. I think the theme of the movie is also angering but I think that was intentional on Spike Lee's part. The moment that stood out to me was when Flipper was walking his daughter to school and she kept asking him why he wouldn't talk to her and why he wasn't laughing and telling jokes? I think is so interesting when kids pick up on adult behavior and expose it for what it is. I don't like any of the characters except for Flipper's wife, his daughter, and the man who plays Angie's fiancé because he seems like a sweetie. The one detail I noticed is that Spike Lee flipped the roles and made the black man wealthy and successful and made the white woman more working class.
2. What do you think Spike Lee's stance on 'jungle fever' is? What different societal pressures have you noticed from what we've seen so far? What are some perspectives on this concept that stood out to you?
I'm not really sure how Spike views jungle fever this far into the movie. It's hard to tell if Flipper and Angie really have a genuine connection, or if it's just for the sex. I think by having the reaction of Flipper and Angie's friends side by side in a film really showed how powerful it was for both of them to have an affair. I think Spike wants to bring to light the perspective that some people do have about jungle fever, like it's gross and wrong, as demonstrated by one of Angie's friends. Or that it's a natural curiosity thing, as demonstrated by Flipper's friend. I think one of the social pressures in the movie is the necessity for men to really feel they have dominance over women. Also the idea that you should only really marry people the same race as you.
3. Make a prediction on what you think will happen to Flipper. How do you think this affair will affect his life in the second half of the movie?
I think that Flipper will continue to have an affair with Angie. I think that his wife will eventually find out and I don't think she will be able to forgive him. I also think that Angie's family will find out about it and try and hurt Flipper really bad in order to "defend" Angie. Overall I think that Flipper doesn't really have a promising ending, and I think his part in the affair will effect him more than it will effect Angie.
1. I have really enjoyed the movie this far. I think that a very key moment that has occurred so far in the film was when Flipper and Angie were talking to their friends about having an affair with each other. To be completely honest, my favorite character so far was one of Angie’s friends, the one that was sitting closest to Angie in the scene, just because of her supportive attitude. An important detail that I saw was the way that Flipper’s attitude towards his daughter changed after the affair started. It’s like he knows that he’s betraying her in a way.
ReplyDelete2. I hesitantly think that Spike is trying to say that color shouldn’t necessarily matter, but to be completely honest it’s very hazy to me. I think that from Angie’s standpoint he is in support of it and from Flipper’s standpoint he doesn’t support it. That is probably partly from the fact that Spike may be trying to show how women are pressured to be confined and he’s trying to show Angie as a woman who is trying to break out of her confinements.
3. I’m assuming that Flipper is going to get found out by his family and that his wife is going to either leave him or kick him out. He may end up exiled in a way, especially since he doesn’t have a job anymore, and it’s a strong possibility that he’s going to go live with his friend.
I really enjoyed the first half of jungle fever. The movie seems to follow some of the same formula Spike uses in the previous films we watched, but I just like the way he puts together the scenes more in this one. The movie feels very real and intense.
ReplyDeleteHe is playing with the idea of inter racial Love and how people react to it. I think the reactions Spike have the characters that heard about their friends dating a black man or white woman where spot on. “Disgusting” was one of the adjectives that really popped out at me.
If any other white people find out about Flipper’s love affair, I think it could be very bad new for him. Although racism hasn’t played a huge part in the movie so far, at least directly to Flipper, I think Flipper now has something coming his way.
ReplyDelete1. What are your reactions to the first half of the movie so far? What moments stood out to you? Which characters do you like/dislike? What details did you notice?
So far, I have really enjoyed the movie. The first half alone is thought-provoking and is continuing to keep me interested. One of the moments that stand out to me is the initial reactions that people have towards Flipper’s relationship with his white coworker. It fascinates me how people were not as accepting as they are now. The character that I really like is Flipper’s daughter; although she does not seem to have any extremely major significance in the plot, I admire her intelligence. In fact, I believe that the daughter’s intelligence is a very important detail in the evident discovery of Flipper’s affair. For instance, when Flipper walks his daughter to school for the second time in the film, she notices that her father is “talking less than normal.” This detail is important because it shows that if a child can notice a difference in Flipper’s behavior, then it will not be long before he is exposed. In a sense, this was a type of foreshadowing.
2. What do you think Spike Lee's stance on 'jungle fever' is? What different societal pressures have you noticed from what we've seen so far? What are some perspectives on this concept that stood out to you?
Honestly, I believe that it is too early to determine what Spike Lee’s take on jungle fever is. We have only seen the reaction of two people: Angela’s friend and Flipper’s friend. However, what we do know from these reactions is that people who lived back then were under constant pressure to date “within their race.” One of the things that stands out to me (regarding this topic) is that Angela and Flipper received the exact same reaction from at least one of their friends. They were both ridiculed and told to exercise caution, not because they were cheating on their significant others, but because they were going against the social norm by dating members of other races.
3. Make a prediction on what you think will happen to Flipper. How do you think this affair will affect his life in the second half of the movie?
I believe that Flipper’s affair will be exposed and he (and Angela) would continue to face more scrutiny because of their relationship. Because of this relationship, I believe that people will see Flipper as a hypocritical figure. The people who know him (his wife, his bosses, etc.) know that Flipper is more inclined to work with people of color. If people found out that Flipper graduated from denying white people to sleeping with one, then that could weaken their trust in him.
I really like this movie so far. It's interesting to me because it's very different than most of the Spike Lee movies we have watched. The scene where Gator was asking his mother for money really stood out to me because I was very confused by Gator's relationship with his father. I found myself wondering why Gator and his father didn't get along. I like Cyrus because, like most of the characters Spike Lee plays, he's funny. I also like Pauline because he seems like a good person. I noticed a lot of lines being repeated throughout the movie by different characters. Drew would say something in the beginning, and then it would be repeated later in the movie by Angie. I think that Spike Lee is very aware of the consequences of being in an interracial relationship. From viewing this movie, it is obvious that Spike understands the problems one can face when engaging in a relationship with a person of a different race. I've noticed that the characters' parents are the ones that are most opposed to interracial relationships in the movie. None of the characters' parents are completely ok with their children being with a person of a different race. I do not think that Flippers' wife will take him back in the second half of the movie. That just seems like too much of a happy ever after type thing, and I don't think that Spike Lee would ever create a movie that as an ending as predictable as that
ReplyDelete