How Does Mankind Is No Island Relate To Belonging
'In each of the texts, perceptions of belonging involve connections between people and places. Compare the portrayal of the connections between people and places in Mankind Is No Island and Gran Torino.'
For people to have a real sense of belonging, they need to make connections with the place they live and the people around them. If either of these connections is missing, then individuals will suffer as a result. Two films that examine this idea are the 2008 Tropfest Winner ‘Mankind Is No Island’ and the motion picture ‘Gran Torino’ directed by East Clintwood.
The Tropfest film ‘Mankind is no Island’ represents the challenges of belonging to a place by exploring the irony of the misconceptions that cities, being so grand, would also create a grand sense of belonging within the individuals that populate them. However, the film shows us that many people are faced with isolation, starvation and alienation. This is shown in a scene with the quote ‘do we measure empathy by donations’, after these 6 words, the camera focuses on a homeless man kneeling in the street. The camera angle is low when you see the man appearing to be begging for money. His head is positioned downwards at …show more content…
At the beginning of the movie, Walt is appearing to have a racist attitude towards his neighbours as he is always calling them ‘gooks’ or ‘zipper heads’. It is evident in the scene in which Tao’s cousin and his gang try to recruit Tao in his own front yard, that Walt does not like the Hmong people. Tao resists which causes a conflict that ends up moving over to Walt’s lawn. The scene is cut to Walt pointing a gun into the gangs’ faces whilst saying ‘get off my lawn’. One of the members of the gang says to Walt ‘are you crazy, go back in the house’ where Walt replies to this ‘how about I blow a hole in your face and then I go in the house and I sleep like a baby, you can count on
For people to have a real sense of belonging, they need to make connections with the place they live and the people around them. If either of these connections is missing, then individuals will suffer as a result. Two films that examine this idea are the 2008 Tropfest Winner ‘Mankind Is No Island’ and the motion picture ‘Gran Torino’ directed by East Clintwood.
The Tropfest film ‘Mankind is no Island’ represents the challenges of belonging to a place by exploring the irony of the misconceptions that cities, being so grand, would also create a grand sense of belonging within the individuals that populate them. However, the film shows us that many people are faced with isolation, starvation and alienation. This is shown in a scene with the quote ‘do we measure empathy by donations’, after these 6 words, the camera focuses on a homeless man kneeling in the street. The camera angle is low when you see the man appearing to be begging for money. His head is positioned downwards at …show more content…
At the beginning of the movie, Walt is appearing to have a racist attitude towards his neighbours as he is always calling them ‘gooks’ or ‘zipper heads’. It is evident in the scene in which Tao’s cousin and his gang try to recruit Tao in his own front yard, that Walt does not like the Hmong people. Tao resists which causes a conflict that ends up moving over to Walt’s lawn. The scene is cut to Walt pointing a gun into the gangs’ faces whilst saying ‘get off my lawn’. One of the members of the gang says to Walt ‘are you crazy, go back in the house’ where Walt replies to this ‘how about I blow a hole in your face and then I go in the house and I sleep like a baby, you can count on