Final Paper

Since my group project was about Wyatt Earp, I decided I that I would base my paper on how Earp is regarded throughout history a famous, violent lawman but I plan to explain how he tried very hard to be a pacifist in almost all situations, contrary to popular belief. I think Earp is a very interesting man who has influenced change in law enforcement during his time period which has led to other changes in law enforcement over time. I plan to argue how he was justified in having to act violently in certain sitiuations.

Presentations and Paper

The group presentation I related to best was the group who presented "Tombstone". Tombstone is also another film based on the Earp family and the biggest difference between the two films is our film, "Wyatt Earp", has more of a documentary feeling to it because it portrays and focuses on all aspects of Wyatt's early life as well as his later accomplishments whereas Tombstone has a more Hollywood film that gives informative information on the Earp's but not as much as our film. For my paper, I am really at a standstill on rather writing about the Earp's or making an argument on the violence that law enforcement had to use in the West was justified.

Group Project 2

Thus far, me and my group member have already put together most of our powerpoint presentation and are currently still deciding which video clips to incorporate into our project. Today we will decide who will present what apsect of the project and conclude our deciding on our vidoe clips. Also we will conclude our point of view on the cinematography of the film and decide how we would like to expose it to the class and what makes it different from other Western films.

Group Project

With our last group meeting me and my partner put forth alot of strong ideas to start our project. We have started deciding on what movie scenes are best in our best interest to include in the project and we both agree that Wyatt Earp is not a traditional western. We also have began to narrow down our themes with, Wyatt's ability to not go looking for a fight despite his reputation as well as his thirst for justice that very could well be justified given the time period in the film. We are going to explore the camera work behind the movie, which is excellent, and compare the gun scenes with other more traditional westerns seing as this film has quite a bit of gore and violence.

Wyatt Earp: A Force To Be Reckoned With

For my project, my group will be viewing the feature hollywood film, "Wyatt Earp". The film portrays the life of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp and follows the many exciting up and downs of his life. He is extremely close with his brothers and throughout the whole movie they work and live together as a cohesive unit with Wyatt always being the head of the family. The movie has many historical references but the most interesting of course is Wyatts participation in the famous gunfight at the OK Corral. My favorite character in the movie, as well as the most diverse, is Doc Holliday. Doc is dying of tuberculosis and is heavy drinking, crazy comical figure that gives viewers a nice change of pace from Wyatt's serious demeanor. The film depicts what life was like for law enforcement in the West and it also portrays on of the most famous gunslingers of all time, Wyatt Earp. Excellent film and I would recommend for all action lovers.

Iowa Review

This interview with Alexie definetly showed me that he is more outspoken than I originally thought. By all means he has earned the right to be so but I just never imagined that he had such strong opinions on certain subjects such as others writing about a culture that has been "colonized". I do agree with his point of view to a certain extent but I do not like how he says some of Americas literature about Indians written by non Indains is an "outsider" book. I do realize that there is some truth to this thinking but how can he honestly say that when America's and his culture are so closely intertwined? Certainly there is some Native American literature that is inaccurate by Indian standards but their is just as many that are accurate, regardless of who has written them. It is possible and probable that their were many people who understood the Indian culture perfectly in the western era of our country whether they were white, hispanic, african american or european because surely all of these ethnicities had people who's lives were closely intertwined with Native Americans which therefore gives them the right and perogative to write about Indian culture.

"This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona"

This story by Alexie gives the reader a very descripitive picture of how difficult and trying life is on an Indian reservation. The story forces you to focus on all of the negative aspects of Indain life on the "rez" such as extreme poverty for everyone and the excessive loss of their tribal traditions and culture. I found myself wondering, as the story was coming to an end, what was the reasoning for his father leaving. I can relate to the trials he was enduring but Alexie nevers gives the reader this piece of mind. It was evident to me as the story progresses this reservation was a lot like what we have been talking about in class in the sense that there is alcoholism and poverty everywhere not to mention the sense of a lost culture to the world. Thomas is a colorful character throughout the story who carries himself and thinks like his ancestors before him. His telling of his visions begin to make Victor realize that even though there culture is struggling, there is always a turning force to guide them at all times or as Thomas says, "Nothing Stops, cousin".