記‧憶

一學年一次的「電影研究」大考就要到了，

考試前兩星期，老師出了作業；

這個作業，讓懷玉在英國第一次流眼淚。

她在學校寫的後半段，存在行動碟裡帶回家，

但轉存到電腦前，不小心把它給刪掉了；

她很懊悔「很有感覺」的情況下寫的文字，就這麼不見了……。

我說，用心寫文章的人都有過相同的感受：

當下的感覺只有一次，

不小心刪掉或誤按哪個鍵而整篇不見，真是欲哭無淚，

也會「手軟」，一時無力再重寫……。

在很短的時間內調適心情後，

懷玉憑著紙上寫的大要和記憶，把它補回來。

雖然不滿意補寫的這一段，

但老師仍給了「A」的評價。

How important is place in contributing to key themes
in the American films you have studied for this topic?                                 
                               Chen Huai-Yu

    In general, The Omega Man (TOM) chooses to remain ‘loyal’ to the novel I Am Legend, setting the background in Los Angeles, while in the film I Am Legend (IAL), it’s changed to New York. Hollywood is in Los Angeles, so it might be easier for the producer of TOM to get sources from it therefore reduced the budgets. Budgets in the 1970’s were relatively important than today. However, when filming IAL, there was actually argument about the location because of budgets. The producer eventually moved the settings to New York believing that New York City would be more representative than Los Angeles.

    The theme of TOM and IAL are both about a post-apocalypse doctor/scientist who is desperate to find the cure to the disease and other survivors while most of the people have been turned into mutants and live in the dark. It’s important to emphasize the emptiness of big cities in order to reinforce the atmosphere shaped in the audience’s view. The reason using New York is not just because it is big enough to represent the condition of the whole US, but also because it is one of the most famous spots in the US. For those who aren’t familiar with the US, they may not know LA, but most of them can still recognize New York as they see Grand Central Station, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Broadway. It makes the film easily applied to audience all over the world.

    There are strong contrasts between light and dark in both films. The Family and the Dark-seekers always live in dark places and are afraid of light, while Neville always stay in bright areas and is aware of the mutants’ nighttime activity seeing him carefully checking all the locks on doors and making sure the windows are completely shut. According to Levi-Strauss’ binary theory, this not only shows the physical rivalry between Neville and the mutants but also indicates the rivalry between good and evil power, using the contrasts between light and dark.

    The interior of Neville’s apartment in both films show that Neville used to live a good life until the apocalypse. In TOM, there are decorations everywhere such as candles, paintings, and statues-not just the wooden statue of Julius Caesar. These suggest that Neville has a taste in arts and is highly educated, well, as a doctor. The little bar and Brandy indicate the quality of life Neville used to lead. In IAL, the advanced lab and facility suggest that Neville is a professional scientist. The exercise equipment and a full shelf of guns, perhaps stolen from others, still, indicate that Neville is quite an athletic man. And again, paintings although stolen from museum, indicate that Neville has a taste in arts-not everyone chooses paintings as company when they are alone.

    In TOM, while the Family tried to burn Neville in a stadium, it showed a very strong superstition of the Family that the man as‘the last symbol of science and a "user of the wheel" should die’. For the Family this was an important moment and the ‘ceremony’ should be held dignified. Through the ceremony and Matthias, the leader of the Family, it declared the warning of the dangerous advanced technology. This contributes to the theme a lot because from this the audience know that the Family see Neville as a major threat and it is their ultimate and sacred aim to kill him.

    The theme of TOM was about world peace, which was illustrated between three places, the USA, Russia, and China, during the Cold War. At that time there were strong space and arm race between the two Superpowers, Russia and America, along with their own allies, such as China and Cuba or Russia. The biological warfare in the film was a typical production of the context. Through the warfare, it created the tension between the three places. It also had an indication that the ‘Communists’ should be blame for the loss during the Cold War; in order to win the Cold War, they even used inhumane ways such as biological warfare. But actually America had their own reasons to be blamed. And of course Hollywood wouldn’t make films to undermine their own country. The other point of these three places was that America brought out the idea that the Cold War would not just affect the countries involved directly, but also the rest of the world.

    One special place appears in IAL but not in TOM is the Survivor Village. This indicates that Anna and Ethan escaped safely and could be a preparation of the next film if it were to have a sequel. Both TOM and IAL left a question in the end, whether the cure was passed on or not, but IAL gives the audience a feeling that the cure arrived eventually. But like TOM, who knows? The survivor village was important for Anna because it was her belief. The belief kept her fighting, protecting Ethan, and staying alive. Maybe the film tried to tell the audience that no matter how hard the time is, we should always keep on believing and have faith. The desperate Neville in IAM lost his belief and told Anna that the Village didn’t exist, after he had lost almost everything, particularly Sam, the only thing that kept him working.

    Overall, the places are not just New York and Los Angeles; it could be as big as countries, or as small as an apartment. Places in films are important because they give the audience indication about the settings of the films and draw the audience’s attention. Compare to reading the original novel, there would be lines describing the background while in films, the illustration of places show the audience everything in one sight. Through places, the messages and themes are directly delivered to the audience, rather than leaving people in their own imaginations while reading the original novel.