The Sky Is Gray

This story was very sad but uplifting at the same time. I thought it was interesting to watch the film after reading the story because they were very similar. I did not notice anything that was really changed from the story in the movie. I think that this would be hard to pull off because the directer would have no way to express himself in the film. Which I believe is a very important part of something that is so artistic. I think the lack of change may be due to the fact that the film was produced for educational reasons, instead of entainment reasons. It was not as important to make an exciting video that would be enjoyed by millions, as it was to show a film that expressed important topics and lessons for people. I loved the fact that the story was true to time and social positions for colored people. It was nice to know that the story was written by a person who expierenced this first-hand in thier own life and that it was not just an expression of what life was probably like back then. It was also nice that the author showed that although life was hard and unfair, not everything was bad. People did help other people out and pride was always an important thing to have and keep in yourself.

Brokeback Mountain Movie

The movie was very good. I thought the adaptation was done very well in this film. They were able to take a short story and turn it into a compelling drama without changing the story very much, or even adding much to the story. The film stuck to the story very well in my opinion. It kept the general storyline, plot, characters, and time line that the story presents. I think the director was able to show the film in the same way that the author of the story did. It is nice to watch an adaptation that seems to have the same feeling to it as the story that it was based on. I did not feel that the director made changes to make it more presentable, or marketable to the general public, but it was still a very successful film. The only thing that felt different about the movie was the relationships between the supporting characters felt a little more developed in the movie. I think the movie focused a little more on the relationship between Ennis and his daughter then the story. While watching the movie it seemed as if I learned more about his daughter Jr. and how she felt towards her father. It was obvious that she loved him dearly and she wanted to spend more time with him. She was hurt by his inability to show his emotions and tell her that he loved her. She wanted to feel more important to him then his job and his friendship with Jack. This was part of the story but it was not made as obvious to the readers as it was in the movie. I really enjoyed the film and I think it was interesting to see a movie that was so true to the original source. I would enjoy seeing more films like this, as long as they are done well and the story is compelling enough to stand on its own as a movie without the Hollywood drama to beef it up.

Brokeback Mountian Story

This story was very interesting for me since I have not seen the movie yet. It allowed me to simply read the story without the confusion of trying to compare it to the film. I do not usually read this type of story on my own, so it was enjoyable to read something that is out of my comfort range. I felt that the story was a little lacking in details, but still very graphic in spots. The author was not shy about being very descriptive of the love scenes between the two men in the story. But the story jumped ahead in their lives a great deal. It is kind of like skipping to the important parts of their lives where their love tryst is involved. Although this is used alot in story writing to avoid making a story too long or tedious, it does not ususally seem to be to this extent. We skip from thier time together on the mountian, to four years later when they reunite, and various times throughout their lives from then on. Their is very little information about what happens to them between thier times together. I also felt that the story tended to show us Ennis's side of it more then Jack's, which kind of made me feel as if he was a more important character. I did really enjoy the story though, and am now looking forward to completeing the movie.

Short Cuts Movie

I think the movie did not work well. It was interesting to see so many popular faces in a movie that I have never heard of before, but the movie was hard to follow. The movie tried to take on too much for one film. It becomes frustrating to try to follow that many story lines in one movie. An audience identifies with a main character in a story and then enjoy watching that character face his trials and hopefully overcome them. This film does not allow you that pleasure, it offers too many characters to really identify with any one single person. This becomes tedious as the movie seems to drag on for ages, with no real connection between the characters. However considering that they were working with seven individual stories, it was well done. Though I did not care for the movie, I respect the amount of time and effort that was obviously needed to produce this film. I do not think that it is a good idea to try to do so much in one film, and I think this movie is a perfect example of why it should not be attempted.

Lorrie Moore, Foes

This story was interesting because it is very recent and it incorporated some of the ideas and thoughts that have been important to America for the last several months. I enjoyed the ease that the author was able to add ideas of politics into the story without making it seem boring, or hard to understand. It was clever to use an old married couple to bring these ideas to light, so that although you are focused on what it being said, it does not seem to be the only thing the story is about. I usually do not care for political pieces because I feel that the author is trying to push their ideas onto me. But this story did not seem pushy at all. It was like the two characters were having a debate, and the outcome was not all that important. I really enjoyed this short story.

Amy Hempel, The Harvest

I really enjoyed this story. I thought that the writing style was very different and a little choppy. It seemed as if you were constantly jumping from thought to thought with no real relevance. But it worked for this story. It kind of felt as if you were really listening to a person recite what happened to them, instead of reading a story made up by another person. I also enjoyed the fact that not only did the girl exaggerate during her story, but she told you that she was exaggerating, and that she was even flat out lying to you. It was fun to learn at the end of the story the information that she supposiably lied about because she felt that no one would believe it in her story. This kind of makes the story feel a little more real to the reader, then it makes you qeustion whether this person is simply making up something that she thinks you will buy. Which is all irrelevant since it is a work of fiction. But it makes the story fun to read.

Tobias Wolff, Awake

This story was very different from the other ones that we have read in class. It is very modern and focused on a small part of the characters life. The thing that I found to be the most interesting in this story was the self awarness that the main character had. He was able to realize and express the idea that he was just not mature enough for the woman that he is with. He is very detailed with this idea, saying that he knows she deserves better, that he should have met her later on in his lif, and that he was small and trivial. I think the story is a little disconcerting in the beginning because it seems to be completely focused on the idea of sex. But after reading further you realize that the story is really about the journey of self discovery and the various ways that it takes place. It was interesting that after abosessing for most of the story about wanting to have sex, when he gets his chance he pretends to be asleep.

Tomorrow The Movie

I was not impressed with the movie of this story. It seemed to move really slowly, and it was hard to concentrate on what was happening. The movie did seem to try to stick close to the original story. Keeping the idea of the court case, the unfolding reason behind the hung jury, and the somewhat moral of the story. However the movie did not spend as much time on the actual event the book was about, the court case and its preceeding storyline. It focused more on the life and circumstances of Fentry. This made the movie seem longer, and without a point. I was also disappointed that they removed the idea of the niece telling the story altogether. There is some narration in the begging, but it is the lawyer speaking, then it stops until the end of the movie. I imagine the idea was to make the story the focus point of the movie, showing that this was what was important to the film makers. It was also probably intended to make the story seem more personal, rather then a story being related to us by a third party. In all I did not think the movie was very successful in keeping an audience interested, and I wonder why they chose to make that particular story into a movie to begin with.

Tommorrow

I was not too impressed with the short story Tommorrow. I love to read but I was unable to really get into the story. It seemed to be a little long winded for such a simple plot. I did enjoy the few twists that the story took. It was interesting that the narriator was not really involved in the action of the story. It was through the eyes of what would have been a child at the time. I was also surprised by the situation that caused the man to refuse to let the man of for murder. I was kind of expecting his reasoning to be more along the lines of mine. That no matter how bad of a choice his daughter made in choosing her husband, it was her choice and he had no right to kill the man. This was the real problem that I had with the story. The begining speech that the lawyer made seemed to be more in favor of the man not getting away with what he did. He mentions that a life can only be repayed with another life, but the story never says anything about the boy killing anyone. It does mention that a gun was found in his hand as if he planned to kill the dad too. But he did not even shoot at him because the dad killed him before he ever got the chance. Perhaps I am just not that well versed in the ideas of justice back in the old days, but I was confused by the fact that it was supposably a open and shut case, and that the one man was the only one who thought it was wrong t let the murderer go unpunihed.

Memento The Movie

I feel that the movie was a very good adaptation of the story. Although they take plenty of liberties with the general plot and actions, it is a pretty general story that allows the changes without destroying the original idea. The main idea remains the same, a man who is no longer able to make new memories is looking for the man who murdered his wife. This man is out for revenge and he plans on killing the person who is responsible. However after the task that he has set for himself is accomplished, he does not remember it.
The movie is different from the story in many ways. The man in the movie has become a killer for many, he is used by people who are able to gain his trust and convince him to kill for them, and he is presented as allowing this to happen to himself because he is not able to give up his quest for revenge. This is not explicit in the story, although it is one interpretation of the mysterious letters to himself that perhaps someone is writing them to him to get him to do something for them. The movie also focuses on a time after the original revenge death has already taken place, while the story seems to begin with his first attempt at gaining his revenge. He has just escaped from the hospital and he is leading himself to the man that is responsible for his wife's murder.
The most interesting difference between the two stories is the idea of Sammy. This is not mentioned in the story at all, however it is a very important part of the movie. Sammy is a man that the main character investigated before his incident. Sammy was unable to create new memories, and this eventually led to him killing his wife by giving her to many insulin shots. The movie tells us that there is no Sammy, that this is a fictional character made up by the main character to forget that it really happened to him. This means that his wife did not die in the attack, but was not able to live with him in the condition that he was in, and she found a way to commit suicide.

Memento

I really enjoyed this story, it was mysterious and very ironic. The story is about a man who has lost his memory, wife, and even his way of living. The man has to write himself notes to remember what has happened to him. I think that it is amazing that he was able to accomplish so much without the basic memories that we all take for granted in our daily life's.
I was unaware at the beginning of the story that it is the man who is writing the letters about the revenge that he needs to take for the death of his wife. I was surprised when it was later revealed that the person who is urging him to murder, is in fact himself. I loved that this side of him did not relate to the person who he had become. It allowed the letters to take on a life of their own, without detracting from his current situation. The person who was writing the letters was a past version of himself, during a few moments of clarity, which is cleverly referenced in the story during one letter. It made the story very intriguing.
The man was able to accomplish the murder of his wife's rapist by following the simple clues that he left for himself. I loved the idea of the tattoos designed in reverse so that he was able to read them in the mirror. This took from the idea that was presented in the beginning of the story of placing notes where he was unable to miss or forget them.
The notes turned out to be self defeating in the end. As I understood the ending of the story, he was unable to document the event that he had spent so much effort in trying to accomplish. This led me to believe that he would then have forgot that he had killed the man, and so that when he read his notes, he would believe that he still needed to get revenge for the death of his wife.

The Killers

The article we read about heroic fatalism was very interesting. I am not sure that I agree with the idea that is being presented in the article that there was anything heroic about the death of Ole Andreson. Although he is unwilling to do anything to avoid his fate, I see this more as a sense of helplessness, and perhaps even exhaustion from running so long. However, I found the article to be very helpful in demonstrating how his actions would be considered heroic in way for some people. It may simply be more comforting to believe that he was acting heroic, rather then him just wanting to get it over with.
Although the article was helpful in the heroic fatalism area, I found the rest of the article a little off topic and random. It spends a lot of time simply explaining and summarizing the events in the movies. The author even spends a great deal of time talking about the production of the different adaptations of this story. And although it was not important to the idea a heroic fatalism, I enjoyed the bit about the female portraying the exact opposite idea, willing to beg and plead to save her life.
The movies tend to be very different in the way they represent the story. While the earlier adaptations made an effort to stick closely to the story and plot of the book, the 1964 adaptation went in a different direction. The 1964 adaptation was only interested in maintaining the representation of heroic fatalism, changing the plot, characters, and dialog to present a more modern film. I found the earlier adaptations were more enjoyable for me since I had already read the story.