The American dream
Zachary May
LBST 1102
23 November 2014
The American Dream
Movies that depict the American dream are some of my favorites, even though the movies we watched in class were not the usual ones I would watch. Stranger than Paradise, American Movie, and my third pick, Brian DePalma’s Scarface all have many similarities but also their differences. All striving for the American dream, all having their troubles to grasp it.
All three main characters had trouble from the start. Examples from Stranger than Paradise would be when Eva made it to Willies. Eva could not travel northwest because their aunt was in the hospital, so things halted. An example from Scarface would be when he traveled by boat from Cuba to Miami and had to stay in one of the immigrant camps under the freeways for a while. American Movie is a little different to me in this idea because Mark Borchardt was born into late 20th century America. Things were maybe easier to grasp for him, which shows in the movie when he sets his goals on becoming a movie director. When trouble comes for new Americans, it usually has to do with finances. While Eva could have just kept the money she won in the lottery and been happy, the other two main characters had it a little bit harder. It took Mark three years and tons on contributions to produce his movie, and it took Tony years to rise to becoming one of the wealthier men in Miami.
The differences these three movies have are in my opinion based on the time the movie was filmed and also the standpoints the main characters started upon. One was in more modern times only around 15 years ago. The other two were filmed in the early eighties, Stranger than Paradise being based earlier, but the two characters come from different walks of life to make the movies very different in that regard. During each movie the characters do go different paths throughout the movie. In Stranger than Paradise, they go from New York, to Cleveland, and finally ending in Florida. In American Movie, Mark makes the choice to stay inside his county limits to film his movie. Scarface came from another country, as did Eva, went to other countries, but mostly resided in Miami Florida.
The main difference in all of these movies based on the same theme is their different outcomes. Two of the movies end in a moderate way. One ends with them just settling their earnings at their last stop for horse racing in Florida, and the other stays in his hometown and settled with his money and movie making. Tony Montana on the other hand doesn’t. He does end up working his way up to getting the power he wanted, and actually the most money of any of them, but he comes to his end when he seemed to get a little power crazy and is executed at his home after a fight.
All three movies were good examples of three of the levels of wealth in the United States at the outcome of the movies. Tony Montana gets his wealth by illegal drug running and selling. Willie, Eva, and Eddie lose their earnings gambling their lottery earnings in dog racing which is legal in the United States. Mark borrows money from his dying uncle and actually is able to give the money back, which shows that there is hope in working hard towards your dream and actually achieving it. The American dream can be shown as inspiring in film, and make you believe that you can do it. Or in some cases it can show you what happens when the limits of power are pushed.