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| Photo Credit IMDB |
I've been looking forward to the night when he screens the movie, since Rebecca expressed interest in seeing the movie again. I have never seen it and it will be a fresh movie for Duncan and me.
When the movie was over, Rebecca had been thinking about the characters in the play with respect to Peggy McIntosh's paper “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, question #5, Can I “turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.”
Rebecca had noted that the six protagonists were white, and a plethora of supporting characters were different colours, think, the technician at the ultrasound, the nurse who shows the new mom her adopted son, the receptionist at the abortion clinic, the protestor outside of the clinic, one of Blinker’s friends. I didn’t see any of that. in retrospect I did see it; I didn’t think to be bothered about it.
In our after-the-film discussion, I was reminded of how every time I go to a film with a question, that question colours how I view the film.
Duncan had been questioning the film’s designation as a comedy since how can the word comedy apply to movie about a girl preparing to find a good home for the baby that she can't take care of.
I was remembering an old definition that I carry in my mind about tragedy, and that is that the protagonist has a tragic flaw that causes his downfall. Juno is not about a figure with a tragic flaw. Jun tis a movie that lets us watch someone making serious choices about how her life should go. Maybe that's what makes it a comedy.
Anyway, a good viewing time was had by all and Rebecca and I are looking forward to talking with Duncan about this some more. All three of us just haven’t been at the kitchen table at the same time.
Arta
A very important movie, but no comedy in my mind. It was tender and painful for me to watch.
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice the racial issues, but I am grateful the birth mother was white, not black. Too much baggage to unpack already, and not sure stereotyping the teenage pregnant mother as black would have been useful.
Since the film was assigned for Duncan out of a Play Writing class, I tried to watch the film for the dialogue, to see what can be conveyed with short snappy episodes where a teen-age girl's thoughts are at the centre of the plot. The screen is such a lovely way to capture an incident so that I can look at it from many perspectives. I love film. And I agree with you, the stereotyping is just the wrong way for any of us to learn about the other.
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