Play vs. Movie vs. Written Play Vs. Movie

I was thinking about the question that our professor posed to us last class. What do you think the purest form of Shakespeare is/was? After thinking about it for awhile I realized that at this point in time I don't think that it is really possible to get a "pure" form of anything Shakespeare. I feel that the only time in which Shakespeare could have been pure and acted out in the way that he wanted it would be the first time the plays were every acted out with Shakespeare as the director. Only then would he be able to make sure that each actor was in his place and each line was said the way that he wanted.

After thinking about this I thought of my favorite recreation of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCapprio, I felt, shed a humorous light on the play. It infused the language of Shakespeare with an odd assortment of present day artillery and dress. It also is most likely the farthest in Shakespeare's mind of what he wanted his play to become.

I feel that Shakespeare's intentions aren't as clear cut in moves such as Romeo + Juliet and O because the directors get so caught up in trying to make the movie and the plot more modern that they may confuse what Shakespeare was trying to say or twisting it in ways that, although it makes it less confusing for the audience, does not show the underlying stories of Shakespeare's plays.

Displacement

A couple of classes ago we were posed with the question: What is displacement?

In going about answering this question I came to the conclusion that there are two types of displacement, physical and emotional. A person or a thing can be displaced. Like water is displaced from a container when something heavy is placed in it. A person is displaced when their home is no longer there for them. The biggest example that I could think of was Hurricane Katrina. Many people in the New Orleans area were displaced from their homes and forced to move to other areas.

After discussing displacement I realized that people can be emotionally displaced, too. Trying to come up with an example I thought of myself. After my dad died I think that I emotionally displaced myself. Which brings about the other point, that displacement can be a voluntary action. I went about my life shortly after my dad's death thinking that no one could relate to me and that I was the only one with those issues.

Am I really okay?

I just watched Girl Interrupted last night. I had previously read the book so I knew the basics for the movie but I was still shocked as to what happened in the movie. Towards the end of the movie I was reminded of a movie that I watched in my AP Psych class last year called The Snake Pit. In this movie the protagonist, Virginia, is put into a psych ward much like Susanna was in Girl Interrupted. The scene that reminded me the most of Snake Pit was when Susanna had to go in front of the board and petition her case to leave. In Snake Pit Virginia has recovered but in the board interview her anxiety is revealed and causes the board to think that she is still not completely recovered. This is a lot like Girl Interrupted in which Susanna goes to her board meeting and the board began to question what her plans were for after she left the hospital. During this exchange I feel that the director did a good job of showing the anxiety that Susanna must have felt in the constant questioning of the who, what, where, and why.