Hunt for the Wilderpeople 2016

Ricky Baker is an orphan who has been arranged to stay with Bella and Hec. As he would usually do, at the beginning, he tried to escape. He got himself lost in the bushes. Bella, the foster Mother, did not punish or scold him for his attempt to escape, instead she teased about him being able to stay in the bushes for more than 15 minutes and reinforced him that he just needed to be back before breakfast. Bella has showered Ricky with uncondition love. Unfortunately, Bella passed away and the orphanage system led by Paula wanted to bring Ricky back. The journey of a national manhunt then begun when Ricky and Hec tried avoid being found in the bushes.

Dealing with Rebellious Kid

Bella's method of communicating with a rebellious kid like Ricky is appropriate. Instead of going against the child and asking him to do things that he obviously will not do, Bella asked him to do the things he like as long as he comes back at the end of the day. This sense of freedom that Bella allocate for Ricky has made Ricky less likely to rebel. People often rebel because they think they are being treated unfairly and want to seek for their own sense of freedom. McGregor (1944) mentioned that insecure or rebellious individual are in the process of seeking independence. They are searching for freedom, not the chance for self-growth (McGregor, 1944). In the case of this movie, since Bella has already gave Ricky his freedom, presumably different from his previous foster care, Ricky will less likely be rebellious.

On the other hand, when Ricky wants to tell Bella his "haiku". Bella listens to a few and then stops him from continuing. Based on Ricky's attitude at the beginning of the film, Ricky might be someone is forced that talk about himself, forced to change, and even brought to therapy sessions where he learnt his "haiku". However, when Bella show signs of uninterested in his "haiku", unlike others, Ricky might feel that Bella is genuine and is a "normal" person, instead of someone forcing him to change and to be the so-called "good" from the eyes of others.

From this, I learnt that at times we just have to be genuine and to learn how to accept others for who they are. Wanting someone to change is not for the benefit of the person, but more often for our own comfort and benefit. At the end of the day, who are we to judge what is right or wrong? In this movie, the child might be doing something that he strongly thinks is right for himself. Therefore, it is unreasonable for us to punish or try to change someone for what we think is wrong. It is important for us to be empathetic and think for others before making judgement and taking actions.

Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Study: Power and Abuse

In the movie, Paula, the orphanage care officer seems to be in-charge and having power. At the end of the movie, we also noticed that Paula shouted phrases that a police would usually say. Her assistant then said to her “This is only used in the states. And you are not even a police". From this scene and statement, we can tell that Paula is already assuming power that she does not have and is behaving in full authority manner. Her eagerness in capturing a child who barely does any crime reflects on her own situation and personality. It could that Paula is having a really lonely and isolated social life.

In Stanford Prison study, it is found that people who are given authority behaved in a brutal and sadistic way, some even began to harass prisoners (McLeod, 2016). With this, it is suggested that people are likely to conform into the social roles that there are given. In Zimbardo's study, no one gave instructions to the guards to perform those brutal behaviors but because of the position that they are in, they became more confident and feel as if they are in-charged when given the authority to guard the prisoners. This could also be the case of Paula, as there is no one giving her order to capture the child. During the live interview on the television (TV), it is also observed that Paula has became obsessed with her responsibility to capture the child. She did not answer the TV interviewers' questions appropriately and she keep repeating "no child left behind" with her eyes widely opened. It seems like she has been too into her own role.

In her journey to achieve her goal of taking Ricky away from Hec, she even suggested Ricky to accuse Hec for sexually assaulting him. Paula seems to be doing everything that she could to reach her goal. Her slogan "no child left behind" and the meaning that she carries is not entirely pure anymore. Her obsession in achieving her goal has made her irrational.

Through this, I realize while it is important for us to achieve our goal wholeheartedly and effortfully. It is also important to take a break from time to time and to evaluate on our ways of doing things. Sometimes, being too into something might lead us to doing things in an inappropriate manner.

References:
McGregor, D. (1944). Conditions of effective leadership in the industrial organization. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 8(2), 55-63. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0056439

McLeod, S. A. (2016). Zimbardo - Stanford prison experiment. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html

Grace Is Gone 2007

The movie "Grace is Gone" portrayed the grief of lost of a family member by focusing on the grief of a husband losing his wife. The father, Stanley Philip lost his military wife through a battle, and is struggling all by himself while trying to keep the truth away from his daughters. From here, the audience could observe Stanley's fatherly love. Furthermore, this movie showcased how Stanley deal with his lost through different methods that could be explained through Kübler-Ross model of stages of grief.


The Kübler-Ross model explained that there are five stages of grief (Patricelli, 2017):

Picture adopted from http://www.change-management-coach.com/kubler-ross.html

1) Denial
2) Anger
3) Bargaining
4) Depression
5) Acceptance

Stanley Phillip's struggled in handling his grief when he found out that his wife passed away in battle. He goes through the first stage of grief in Kübler-Ross model which is denial. When Stanley asked his daughters to not eat the casserole given by someone in their neighbourhood, it is a portrayal of him not wanting to accept the reality of his lost of wife by not accepting sympathy and consolation from the people around him. This is because somebody might have been told about the death of his wife and hence that person left a plate of food and a note out of sympathy.

Another scene which portrayed Stanley's denial stage of grief is when Stanley called back home to listen to his wife's pre-recorded voice message on his house phone was a way for Stanley to feel his wife's presence. It could be that one of the most functional method of coping with the of lost of a loved one is to maintain an ongoing relationship with the person who has passed away (Klass et al., 1996; Moules & Amundson, 1997; Moules et al., 2004, 2007; Rosenblatt, 1996, as cited in Bouchel, Rallison, Moules, & Sinclair, 2015). The bonds that is maintained despite the deceased of a person helps the alive person to go on in living (Moules et al., 2004, as cited in Bouchel, Rallison, Moules, & Sinclair, 2015). Through this, the audience could tell that Stanley was still in the first stage of his grief, which is denying that his wife has passed away and trying to continue his life normally by connecting to his wife through listening to her voice.

Holding on to something that connects us to the deceased person is a way to cope with grief. This could also explain the reason of some people walking around the place where he or she once used to share with the deceased person. In this movie, Stanley brought his two daughters back to Enchanted Garden, an amusement park that they have been as a family before the death of his wife. The place that Stanley have chosen to go takes on meaning to preserve a reality where his wife is still alive. And by not telling his children that their mother has gone could temporarily preserve a reality where the wife is still alive, that they are spending their last holiday as a family together.

The movie did not focus much on anger, bargain, and depressed stages of Kübler-Ross model, instead the movie emphasized on the denial of the father and ended with the acceptance stage of Kübler-Ross model by the family members. This can be seen from the scene where Heidi read out her report on her mom during the mom's funeral in the church.

Through this movie, I have realized that life is short and we should celebrate life together and appreciate it before it is too late. Life could be very fragile and we should treat every day as our last presence by living in the moment and doing what you want to do. Once things happened, we could not run away from reality, though we could temporarily just like how Stanley did in the movie. But the truth is, we cannot run away forever. Anyhow, we will have to face it one day.


References:
Bouchal, S. R., Rallison, L., Moules, N. J., & Sinclair, S. (2015). Holding on and letting go. Omega: Journal Of Death & Dying, 72(1), 42-68. doi:10.1177/0030222815574700

Patricelli, K. (2017). Stage of grief models: Kubler-Ross. Retrieved from http://www.amhc.org/58-grief-bereavement-issues/article/8444-stage-of-grief-models-kubler-ross

Experimenter 2015

'Experimenter' is a biopic that showcases the life of the famous Stanley Milgram and his effort in studying the behavior of obedience.

The Effort of an Early Social Science Experimenter in Obtaining His Result
In this movie, we could see Milgram's effort in proving his findings. As a social science student, I have many acquaintances that are conducting their own study for undergraduate dissertation. However, based on my observation, student nowadays are more relaxed in conducting researches when compared to Stanley Milgram. Students are also afraid to do what they want to do and merely adhering to the rigid rules and guidelines set by the faculty.

What is the reason behind modern student being more relax in terms of conducting study?
1. There is a saying in Chinese: 前人种树，后人乘凉 (qian ren zhong shu, hou ren cheng liang), which means ancestors make the effort and descendants enjoys outcome. Many conclusions have been made by previous studies, therefore some students might think that their effort will not contribute to the field of study. Also, living in the enjoyment from the outcome of ancestors' hard work, some modern students might not see the need to come out with new findings.

2. The experiment guidelines are different as compared to how it was used to be. There are various ethical guidelines that students are oblige to adhere to when it comes to running experiment. Without the tension of needing to run a research that might cause discrepancy, students are in their safe zone when they are conducting their study. This indirectly will result in student being more relaxed as it is noted that there will not be many ethical criticism.

The Appearance of Elephant in the Background
There is no explicit explanation in the movie regarding the elephant that appears at the back of Milgram when he is talking to the audience while walking in the corridor. The appearance of the elephant might be a metaphor of Milgram's worldview. The appearance of elephant in an indoor corridor is rather unrealistic, therefore the meaning that director wants to portray might be that Milgram is starting to be unrealistic in his procedures in running his study. It is also mentioned in New York Times movie review by Dargis (2015) that the appearance of the elephant in the background seems to be raising a question: Did his experiments finally turn Milgram into a kind of accomplice? Through this, it makes the audience wonder whether is Milgram still doing research based on reality or is he living in his own perception/fantasy of human behavior.

In addition to the movie, if time, money and ethics in not an issue, I would come out with a psychology experiment which study the effect of forceful blaming on rebelling behavior. This study will require an experimenter to vigorously put a false blame on the participants. The blame could be accusing the participants for stealing. Participants will be asked to react naturally as how they would react in a real life situation. This aim of this experiment is to study how likely will a person defend himself in the case of false forceful blaming. This is because in Asian context, the Asian values promote one to be polite by not talking back to others, especially to elderly and/or to authority. However, this is often the reason for a falsely accused person to admit mistakes that he/she did not make. I believe this study would result in an interesting finding in understanding the impact of certain Asian values.

References:
Dargis, M. (2015). Review: In "Experimenter", are they following orders or instincts? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/movies/review-in-experimenter-are-they-following-orders-or-instincts.html?_r=0

Amadeus 1984

This movie illustrated the cruel of mediocrity through Antonio Salieri. Given the longing to be the town's best musician, Salieri is not the most talented musician. He blamed God for giving him the longing to be the best musician but not talent. When it comes to the best musician in town, most people will recall of the name Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Salieri, living in hatred towards God and his one and only competitor in the music industry, decided to take his revenge one day by not allowing Mozart to be successful by setting him up in various methods. These methods including not helping him in regards of financial and suggesting to the emperor ideas that are contradicting to Mozart's goal.

Salieri's action of blaming God for giving him the will to be a great musician but not the talent showed a contradicting worldview in religion. He believed of the presence of God only when something good occurs. However, when something undesirable happened, he stopped believing in God and swore to be the one to laugh at God and Mozart.

Towards the end of the movie, Salieri and Mozart both worked together in completing an orchestra. Despite Salieri's previous hatred towards Mozart, it is observable that Salieri also admires Mozart as a most talented musician. Salieri have dual attitudes towards Mozart. On one hand, Salieri wants to hinder Mozart from becoming the most successful musician in town. On the other hand, Salieri deeply admires Mozart's music production.

It is also observed from the movie that Mozart's attitude is different from normal person. His thought processes are not matured and he tend to perform inappropriate action in a formal occasion. For instance, Mozart occasionally laughed in a high pitch tone in the front of the emperor. His abnormal behavior signals that he might be having certain mental illness.