King Kong, anthropology, and more "trash talk"

We went to see King Kong last Sat, and I must say that I did like it (contrary to what Marsha thought-read her post b/c she bashes it hahahaha). I liked it b/c of the effects and the GREAT scene between King Kong and a dinosaur. Makes you wonder what life was like millions of years ago when great creatures were roaming the Earth and fighting each other.... like wooly mammoths and things like that. I don't normally like movies where you have to have an imagination (like awful Harry Potter or that Narnia junk), but I liked this. There is another scene where Naomi Watts is dangling in some branches and so are the dinosaurs and King Kong too-I won't say too much for those that haven't seen it. It is a long movie though- 3 hrs and 7 min. My brother was funny when he said that you have to spend a week in the theater to see it. haha

BUT, I do have to throw in some academic criticism stuff in here. So Jack Black (I forget his character's name)and his team are filming this pretend movie on Skull Island (which is supposed to be near Papua New Guinea if I remember right), and encounter native people. Typical reaction of white people to natives happened when Jack Black offered the little native girl a piece of candy to get in her good graces. DUH, she probably won't even know what candy is, or what to do with it, or even like it. Don't try to corrupt her with your dumb stuff. Here my anthropology is kicking in. So later in the movie, the team is back in NYC putting on a play for the world to see and and Jack Black describes the natives as SAVAGES. Okay, they are savages to YOU maybe, but not in their own eyes. In anthropology classes, we were taught that if you ever did field work, you have to get rid of your preconceived ideas about culture and life in general, and look at someone's way of life through their eyes. For example, just because we think that something like initiation ceremonies or rites of passages ceremonies of the Masai people might be stupid (which of course I don't think), doesn't mean that they do. We have to remember too that this movie takes place in the 1930s when anthropology was not a hot subject in academia, and savage was a generic word to describe foreign people whose cultures were different than our own ("our" meaning the West). It wasn't until decades later, especially after WWII, that people started questioning the whole of human existence and wanted to study behavior even more. This link from the American Anthropological Association tells about how anthropology came about as a true academic discipline, and how it has been categorized (debates over its coupling with departments such as psychology, humanities, sociology... etc.). WWII really caused a stir in academics and how to approach certain subject areas.

I guess I'll stop there b/c I feel people are getting bored. hahaha

One more thing about the movies: everyone knows that I throw out my trash after movies and sports things and I hate it when other people don't b/c there is no reason to be that lazy and leave trash on the ground. Well, upon leaving the theatre, I almost went nuts b/c some little kids were carrying out their empty popcorn bags and their soda cups. THANK YOU TO THE PARENT WHO TAUGHT THEM THAT!

That's it. : P