In 1939 Gone with the Wind was released in the United States. It would become one of the highest grossing films of all time. It won ten Academy Awards, and has been listed in the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest American Films of All Time. In 1989, it was selected to be preserved by the National Film Registry. At the time, it was the longest film to have been made and one of the first technicolor films ever made. It has become a point-of-reference for American film and American culture.
The film takes place in the south during the American Civil War and is a window into the lives of an aristocratic family living on a plantation. While not quite as stridently polar and racist as Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind reflects a view of the pre-Civil War south as a paradisiacal lost world that was ruined by a war of "northern attrition." The roles of lead characters Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler clearly and very determinedly establish first sympathy for the efforts of the south and then resentment for the north. When the film was initially released, this "lost cause" view of the south in the Civil War was prevalent. However, later the film was heavily criticized for its depiction of African-American slaves as docile, subservient people content with their lives and clearly incapable of independent action.
The film is important in its own right, but more importantly the film is a timepiece for how American culture viewed the Civil War in the early 20th century. It is historically important because its not a retro-active expose of the events of a certain time, but a very public declaration of how Americans interpreted that time.
This scholarship is sponsored by USDish.com
Sunday, July 1, 2012
ATT Savings App Scholarship Contest: Dream App
I should preface this by saying my app design is in no way serious. Most apps with serious merit have already been invented be they designed to help you find your way around town, organize your life, or connect with people in a more efficient way. Having said that, my 'dream app' is just as useful as the ones created to deal with the above issues. I would like to design an iPhone and Android application that takes calls and texts from people you don't want to talk to and offers you an update-able series of programmed responses. For instance, if someone repeatedly texts you requesting a hang-out session and you don't want to go, but you don't know how to break it to them, you could open the application and select one of the following messages: "I will be studying sharks in off the coast of south Africa for the foreseeable future. It has been a pleasure knowing you"; or "The number you have reached is a private interoffice network for use by the President of the United States only."; or "I will be in orbit aboard the International Space Station for the next two years. For more information, contact NASA."
This way, as long as you lay low for a short period of time after the message is sent, you will have permanently discouraged the unwanted contact from messaging you. This app will engage and work with the Siri function on the iPhone 4S and can be accessed hands-free. One obvious flaw to this app is the notion that eventually the user will get bored of the entry set of responses. However, I would solve this problem by allowing the user to download new responses as they are uploaded to my company's server. The aim of this application, to the extent that there is one, is to rid everyone of the accusation of having dodged calls. As long as the person does not see or hear from you in the near future, this application will have provided the impenetrable excuse for not communicating.
This scholarship is sponsored by ATTSavings.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)