Shiloh

I felt great empathy with Norma Jean. She and her husband grew apart as he was always on the road. While he was gone, she cultivated other interests and had her own life. Now that he was home, he wanted her to focus on him and his interests (the log cabin). But she just couldn't (and didn't want to) go back to that suffocating role. I feel her pain, as I am going through major changes in my own life. After spending 25 years being a wife and mother, and doing the "right thing" (sacrificing my own happiness for that of my husband and children), I want "me" time. I want to grow as a person, be stimulated intellectually (thus the return to school), and have fun! Unfortunately, just like Norma Jean, my marriage has not survived. I could no longer continue to be that person and remain psychologically healthy.

Shiloh

Shiloh is the story of a recently out of work trucker named Leroy and his tentative wife Norma. For much of their marriage Leroy was on the road but since being injured he has been at home with Norma smoking pot and planning a log cabin. With Leroy now home all the time neither one of the couple know how to act around the other and their distance and tension is felt throughout the story. This is compounded by their long, sordid history; (thier baby dying at four months old), and Norma's mother, Mabel who is constantly bagering them to visit Shiloh, TN. Shiloh is a civil war battle site that Mabel visited years ago with her husband. Ultimatly the couple decide to go and it is here that the conflict between Leroy and Norma is brought to a head with Norma saying she wants to leave him. I thought this story was alright; it was a good example of foreshadowing, we knew they were probably going to divorce but we didn't know how. My only discrepency was the how; Norma just says, "I want to leave you", and they have a brief conversation and that's the end.

Shiloh

Leroy is a former truck driver who was hurt in an accident and has been stuck at home for the last three months. He spends his time doing crafts, like building models, which sparks an idea to build a log house for him and his wife, Norma. Over the story we come to find Norma is frustrated with seeing Leroy all the time, even with her plethora of activities (working out, job, school). So with his mother-in-law's advice he takes Norma to Shiloh in hopes of reconnecting and to get a break from their lives a home. This however backfires and while having a picnic Norma tells Leroy he wants to get a devorce, and walks away.

Casablanca

This was the first time seeing this movie. I liked the fact that Rick is entirely self interested at first, he runs a speak easy in neutral Casablanca and seems to care for few except when it effects his business. He seems like a real scum at first, then you see the caring relationship he had with Iisla in the flashbacks. I wanted rick to get her in the end but the husband was more important to the overall plot and theme of duty and loyalty to ones county and women in the story.

I had fully expected that Rick would give himself up, be shot, or sent back to the concentration camp as the plane took off. I was shocked when Rick shot the Nazi officer and became business partners with Louie Renault ("Louie, i think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."). this seems to go back to Ricks' shady line of business and the fact that he's good at dealing.
Louie seems to have regained his pride as a Frenchman and seems to want to keep fighting for the french rather than peace with germany (as indicated when he threw the bottle, of Vichy champagne in the garbage.)

I don't think that this movie should be remade, but if there was a movie that was with similar themes, made into today's world. it would have to focus on national pride, loss, and the idea that even a criminal can have national pride and fight for his country.

Casablanca

Casablanca is a movie I had not seen before, but with the dynamic acting combined with the deeply expressed dialog between characters, I can see why this is a classic. With no prior knowledge of what the movie was about, it was very clear what the message was and how certain phrases have been taken from this movie and put into others ever since it's release in the 1940s. I can recall lines such as "...Someday you will regret this. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow..but someday" (Casablanca). These are jewels of the family of America cinema that continue to be passed down.
The character that meant the most to me was Captain Louis Renault because front he very beginning he was always honest about his intentions and even shared that he was a romantic with the audience and the characters in the story. He also tried his best to stay neutral as far as picking sides which to me showed just how much war had affected him that he would go so far as to say that he took only "the winning side". When it came to close encounters with some of the more hostile members of the Nazi party like Major Heinrich Strasser, his impression was not completely loyalty, nor was it completely disloyal.

At Shiloh

Leroy, a truck driver from rural Kentucky, refused to go back to his truck again after his leg was injured in a highway accident. Instead of looking for other jobs, he started doing craft kits and his goal of life was to build her wife Norma a log cabin in the subdivisions in 1980s.

Both Leroy and Norma met severe troubles in adjusting to their lives after Leroy's accident. Suggested by his mother-in-law, Leroy decided to take Norma to Shiloh, Tennesse. At Shiloh Norma eventually told Leroy, "I want to leave you." Walking around the battlefields, Leroy gained inspiration and courage form both the Confederate army and Virgil Mathis, a policeman Leroy used to shoot pool with. Therefore he decided to quit building the log house and start over. Norma's attitude toward Leroy was ambiguous at the end of the story. She "waves her arms" toward Leroy, but "she seems to be doing an exercise for her chest muscles." Howerver, at least she was waving, not just turning away.

Comments for Guang's post re Casablanca

I agree with you about Victor - we want to hate him because he is in the way between Rick and Ilsa, but he's such a great guy we can't! I think the writers did this on purpose, so that we would be conflicted over the character. In war, too much is black and white(the good guys vs the bad guys). In Casablanca, we are torn. Rick is an anti-hero (a flawed character at best), while the antagonist Victor is brave, loyal, and unafraid to stand up for what he believes in, even in the face of the threat of death. Yet we want Rick and Ilsa to be together - storytelling at its finest!