cartercrime-blog

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This is a super interesting take. I definitely agree, and am curious to see how it affects mature content that even we discussed in class. 

Censorship

I just read about Tumblr changing their Community Guidelines. This may seem like a mundane message to many of us because websites and applications frequently perform this sort of task. But this change is different than most; it will have a much larger impact. As you can see from the screen capture I’m posting, Tumblr’s Community Guidelines will change to no longer allow adult content. What this screen capture does not convey is the fact that Tumblr will now begin censoring their website and content posted on the website.

The reason that I am bring attention to Tumblr’s censorship on my “Crime and Punishment in Film and Television” class blog is because when I heard this news, I couldn’t help but think of the Hays code imposed in the 1930′s. Much like this censorship, the Hays Code had a significant focus on the way in which adult content was displayed or portrayed. The Hays Code had a major impact on the motion picture industry. This leads me to wonder what sort of impact Tumblr’s censorship will have on its website and social media platforms in general. I think that it will have a much lesser impact than the Hays Code did. If a movie did not conform to Hays Code, it would be banned from screening. This incentivized film makers, producers, and studios to make their movies conform to the code. Tumblr, on the other hand, is one of many social media platforms. People can simply migrate to another platform if Tumblr censors their content. 

I am very interested to see how this censorship will affect Tumblr over the course of the next several years.

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Thursday’s Presentations

As I presented Tuesday, I was able to have the chance to review my classmates work Thursday and see how creative and interesting everyone was!

Nicko had a really cool advertising campaign titled the Subliminal Criminal. He came at it from the lens of psychopaths and it was super creative. 

Kevin had a really interesting hypothesis T-test about profanity in crime films and how it related to their critical review on IMDB. Overall, he was leaning towards swearing being more common in better crime films due to the realism it offers. 

Arni also had a super cool card game called Deviance in Disguise. She took Disney characters and basically argued every hero has criminal qualities. It was interesting how you also how to prosecute or defend them.

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Artistic Statement and Synopsis for Final Project

      ARTISTIC STATEMENT: This short story is a culmination of research on both historical and legal evidence, as well as from film and writers. Artistically, this piece is intended to inspire its audience to sympathize against the death penalty and sympathize with criminals by feeling a compelling emotion of understanding and forgiveness.         The story itself will be ten to fifteen pages, and depict a narrative of crime. Specifically, this story will deal with exoneration in the criminal justice system from the lense of a professional gang member in the 1970s and 1980s era. The process of creating a foundation by researching historical and artistic influences will help legitimize my story. Concluding my narrative and having the support of my research is necessary to create a fuller story. The research will revolve around robbery, armed robbery, murder, exoneration in the legal justice system to offer realistic sentencing to the characters, appropriate 1980’s pop culture, and artistic inspirations.

       SYNOPSIS: Jack Wildermuth wants a retrial. He wishes to be exonerated. Three years earlier, he was involved in the heist of a jewelry store. Jack, along with three other professional thieves, robbed this store, but it was meant to be burgled, that is violence was supposed to be avoided. However, this all goes wrong when the wild card of the crew, Freddie, snaps and murders the lone security guard rather than subduing him. After a mad dash is made for the getaway car, a chase ensues with multiple police cars trailing the wheelman and his crew. Two of the four robbers are subdued and taken into custody, but the other two manage to escape. These two alone must face justice for their group’s thievery, and association to the murder of the security guard.

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Fargo stamp posters - created by Klufer

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Fargo. Up next.

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The moment both Thelma and Louise fully accepted themselves as criminals and decided there was no going back. 

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Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney in Fury (directed by Fritz Lang, 1936) / source: IMDB

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Mid-year analysis of what the word “crime” means based on the etymology of the word. 

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Steve Madden and Jordan Belfort portrayed in The Wolf of Wall Street.

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Challenge Post 16

Gendering the Serial Killer Label: One example of a female serial killer is Tillie Klimek. She became notorious for poisoning food and murdering her husbands, close neighbors, and other relatives. With the help of her cousin, Nellie, Tillie accrued a list of twenty suspected victims, fourteen of whom died. One of the most peculiar aspects of Tillie, was the fact that she believed (or claimed) that she had premonitions of her victims deaths. She was sentenced to life in prison and died in 1936 after being found guilty for murdering her third husband (she had 5 total). Sidenote:  some “reporters noted that unlike most of the husband-killers who had been acquitted in Chicago courts, Klimek was not beautiful or charming, but a ‘squat’ woman who spoke only broken English” (Chicago Tribune). We talked about this at length in class, but it is really interesting to see how often media obsesses over the physical appearance of criminals, especially female criminals. 

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Challenge Post  12

One character that is seen as admirable despite his crimes is Baby, from Baby Driver. While he steals and murders, the film frames him in a way that each action may be justified. When he steals the woman’s car, he returns her purse, blurring the line from pure crime as opposed to a tough situation where he needed a getaway car. When he murders Bats, it is only because he realizes how much of a monster Bats is that is too dangerous to be kept alive. Throughout the film, Baby was trying to get out of the crime lifestyle, but he kept getting dragged in with threats on his life or his close friends from Doc. In this way, Baby is a juvenile criminal, but he is much more admirable because he tried to do good in circumstances that were tarnished by so much bad. 

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Challenge Post 13

A film from our class that is very often spoofed or referenced is The Godfather. One example is a reference to the horse head in bed, pictured below: 

This is a nod to the horse head that is left in bed as a threat to the film producer. In fact, the Simpsons references The Godfather so much there was a wiki page with a multitude of examples, if you all want to see more: https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/The_Godfather#References_to_The_Godfather_in_The_Simpsons 

It’s just business, I guess!

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Challenge Post 17: Normalizing Sociopathology

I think the character Deadpool is a sociopath because he has shown a sense of narcissism and a complete disrespectful/ self-serving relationship with other people. He is a compulsive murderer with a horrible sense of comedic timing that indicates even more of a crazy demeanor. While he has moments in recent films of looking out for other people, the comic book version of Deadpool is much more of a sociopath. link 

#deadpool

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Week 9 Challenge Post - My challenge to you is this: find a film that depicts “big brother” in action.  It can be about government surveillance, or the invasive actions of some other organization or powerful body.

A huge series of films that deals with a protagonist versus a “big brother” type adversary is the Jason Bourne films. This scene in the Bourne Ultimatum depicts how he dodges not only enemies sent by the government agency, but also the cameras that are always watching him. 

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My thesis: The People v. Turner case has the largest implications not simply due to its commentary on sexual assault and incrimination of a highly privileged individual, but because of the public outcry over Brock Turner’s sentencing. The People v. Turner case truly highlighted the media’s opinions on sexual assault, societal privilege, and flaws in our criminal justice system in present day America, while motivating citizens to make tangible impacts in the legal system.   

Just so you know, Brock Turner is forever immortalized as the definition of rape in a criminal justice textbook.

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...you must acquit. A huge reason the jury was swayed. It is so interesting to see a perspective from the jury in this series, because it holds so much power in our perception of crime. Even afterwards however, people still hated OJ and wanted him to be behind bars. Yet, he was still able to walk free because of the jury’s acquittal. 

this show was nominated for 22 emmys and won 9 of them

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