Note: As you read the selection of comments below from your timed writings on A Better Life, you’ll notice that the reaction to the film was mixed. As I mentioned in class, every cinematic creation contains a ratio of truth to fabrication. Filmmakers working in the neorealist tradition want to think that their work contains a higher than average ratio of truth, and personally, I like to think that it does too. Your mixed reactions to A Better Life are instructive. This is a film that focuses on a challenging social reality in the United States right now, and because of this we are in a better position to understand the impact that neorealist cinema can potentially have on its local audience. Imagine what it would have been like for an audience in Mexico City to see Los olvidados; or more recently what it was like for an audience in southern Mexico (Chiapas or Oaxaca) to see El violín; or an audience in Río de Janeiro to see City of God. Undoubtedly all of these films elicited very strong reactions from their respective local audiences as well, some loving them and others loathing them. Suffice it to say that we have watched all of the films leading up to A Better Life from a very comfortable distance, safely removed from the cultural and historical contexts to which they belong. Because of its relevance to our here and now, A Better Life has allowed us to better understand the emotional force of neorealism. I appreciate the genuineness of your responses to the film, and on a similar note, I was very pleased with the consensus that was achieved during the class discussion. -Professor Cope
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The camera also pans slightly behind Carlos and Luis in some scenes to give an overall view of the setting and show the role of the surrounding environment on the characters.
A Better Life is more complex, however, because it represents a deeper underlying theme that Bicycle Thieves does not, the immigrant struggle.
I felt this movie was the most relatable out of all of the films we have watched thus far. That could be because it’s the most recent, but I believe it’s because it’s much more relatable than movies about the favelas in Brazil or poor villages in Mexico.
In its own, seemingly personal way, it manages to excavate stories about the everyday struggles of real people.
Unfortunately this film, which invites comparison to Bicycle Thieves, simply does not seem to have the edge of its predecessor.
Bichir’s acting was refined and beautiful but Luis’s was raw and similar to the acting seen in Bicycle Thieves.
The one silver lining was Carlos Galindo as Luis’s father who was the one that I connected to the most. Other than that it was hard to connect to a cast that suffered from terrible screen writing and relied on forced stereotype conversation to sell its authenticity.
there were a number of close-up shots that highlighted the character’s emotions. When a character’s mood quickly changed, the music did as well. This change heightended the emotions felt by the audience.
There is also a neorealist ending to this film. We see Carlos, 4 months later, trying to sneak back into the country. However, there is no happy ending with a walk into the sun. Carlos is still undocumented, and can possibly face more consequences if detained once again. The director may be showing that this issue is a constant struggle for those undocumented and does not go away if deported out of the country.
Through first showing a very intimate scene between Carlos and Luis, Weitz establishes empathy for those in this type of situation. The empathy Weitz creates here transfers into the next scene as the audiencethen better understands the situation of each person being separated from their loved ones. Through these scenes, the story becomes much broader and depicts the lives of many immigrants rather than only the lives of two.
Furthermore, the deportation of Carlos brings together the overarching problem that immigrant families face being separated due to minor misconducts at any time. The film makes it apparent that this problem is a reoccurring problem for the immigrant community to this day.
Telling the story of the hidden in this country is not an easy task. A Better Life, directed by Chris Weitz, showed how in this land of “The American Dream” there is still great suffering in the shadows. It turns waht could have been another manifesto of liberal guilt into a truly moving story of a father and son with a common cause in a hostile world. …. Through the use of lighting and poetic realism, this film captures the despair of being an undocumented immigrant in the United States.
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