Saturday, April 9, 2016

Discussion n. 13: GIVE US THIS DAY

COMMENT:

  1. What did you think of the film in and  by itself, without including the association with the book?
  2. Surprised that the plot is not what you expected?
    Surprised that the characters are not the same as in the book?
    Surprised that the Italian American theme is almost absent?

REPLY:  reply to a comment you don't agree with completely.

17 comments:

  1. I thought the film was not engaging. I didn’t really care for the Geremio in this adaptation. His character was a bit much—loud, selfish, and rash. His love affair was a bit too Hollywood. I didn’t expect Geremio to be forgiven by Annunziata and the working men so easily, which seemed too Hollywood as well. When Geremio did demonstrate some growth towards the end, it was quickly thrown away by his death.

    I was surprised that this film did not explore deeper into themes of poverty—I only felt the weight of this when the Great Depression came. I didn’t really notice that there was a lack of an Italian American theme, but it does seem surprising. I assume this theme is implied with the names or accents of the characters, along with the different traditions that were portrayed.

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    1. I second you on the Hollywood part. I also think they could have expanded that part of the plot a bit more; instead of the people forgiving him so easily.

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  2. My feelings towards the film are completely biased after reading the book, but considering that they tried to give a life beyond the Geremio that we've read about, I can't say that it was horrible. I wasn't surprised that the plot wasn't the same but I did expect the characters to be the same.


    Also, I think his death scene is so corny, it's just thrown in there; it lacked any real emotion.

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    1. I agree that the death scene was pretty boring, but it tried to copy the book. I wish they would have made it seem a bit realistic (and less corny, as you said). Compared to the rest of the film, the death scene made me cringe.

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    3. I also agree that the death scene was not what I expected, I thought it was going to be a little bit more graphic and horrifying. It is like they just put it in to end to make a little relatable to the book, I don't think it was well planned out.

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  4. I did not expect the characters to be the same. However, I didn't like how they made Geremio the antagonist; an adulterer, corrupt and hot tempered. Not forgetting he caused their deaths.

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  6. I think that this film was a bit more dramatic than I expected it to be. There were certain scenes that felt a bit extra, however, I seemed to enjoy it. If I watched the movie without reading the book, I normally would have enjoyed the film.

    I was surprised at the direction that they took Geremio's character. I could appreciate the fact that they allowed his character to be present during the entire movie rather than in one "chapter". His character did become a bit grim with his alcoholism and assault on Annunziata which was a bit shocking. It definitely took away from the innocent characteristics that they gave Geremio in the book.

    There was also a lack of an Italian theme which did bother me a bit because this film was supposed to be based off the book. Besides the constant mentions of spaghetti and meat sauce, and Annunziata's accent, it was pretty difficult to locate the Italian feel that this film should have had.

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  7. The film in and by itself was okay for its time. I admit that I looked up its reviews online before watching it (100% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.4/10 IMDb), so I was expecting it to be a bit better. The plot was bland, and what happened next was easy to anticipate. Nothing in the movie surprised me. It is difficult for me to judge the film without associating the book. There were far too many references in the film that made me think about the book.

    The plot didn’t really surprise me that much. Things really made sense to me once I figured out that the film took place before/at the start of the book. Many of the characters in the film are similar to the characters in the book, so I wasn’t confused by it. I was a bit curious why the film threw away the Italian American theme, but they kept the accents.

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    1. I would have to disagree. I think the characters in the movie were hardly anything like they were in the book. Some characters and their storylines were totally unrecognizable. It was a little bit difficult to find the correlation between both the movie and the book but I do agree that the movie was okay especially for its time period.

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  8. I'm a bit surprised that the film itself doesn't reflect a lot of Italian culture. The film itself it's more like an American film instead. Everyone is so perfect in their English, the Italian culture was not shown in the film besides spaghetti and the Italian American hardship were absent from the film. I felt like the film itself it's almost a based on a different book.

    When I realized that there's a feature film about Christ in Concrete, I knew that the film would be a little bit different from the book. But after I watched the film I'm a little dissatisfy because they change a lot of the plot in the film. They also changes the Geremio characteristics into a totally different person from the book that we've read. Overall I agree with most of the class that the film had lost it's authencity and had became a more commercialized film.

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  9. I thought the film was a pretty okay movie by itself with no association to the book. However, I felt like the movie lack the deeper meaning of the plot. It was missing the realness to it, the plot was simplified and the scenes were dramatized to make up for it. I am little surprised that the plot was not the same but then again I am not, film based movie are usually never identically the same. I just thought this would have been a better movie since the book was just relatable and in depth. I didn't really realize that the italian american theme was missing until you asked that question. I wonder why it was not that important to the directors.

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    1. I know that we are supposed to comment on a post that we disagree with but I agree with everyone ! Maybe it would have been a good movie had I not read the book . Geremio was not like able and the story line fell short in comparison to the tale of a 12 year old boy who was forced to become a man .

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  10. the film give us this day, portrays in my opinion the struggles and obstacles that many people endure especially immigrants but even in USA poverty
    the lack of social acceptance exist. I did not expect for him to die.I enjoy the film very much.

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  11. I did not care for the film . It did a good job of portraying the struggle of working immigrants but I was surprised that the family oriented, great friend and worker Geremio, was such a jerk in the movie . At the end he became a better man but I still didn't like him. The book was way better . The few scenes that related to the book were good . Annunziattas character was AMAZING . The actress represented her strength, love and struggle perfectly .

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