So we watched Running Brave and there were various topics the movie played with; some of the biggest elements presented in the movie were: prejudice and segregation, native american culture, passion and finding yourself.
The movie begins with the protagonist participating on a track and field race where he first meets the track coach of Kansas University. Right of the bat in the first minutes of the movie we can see the prejudice this coach has towards the native americans, in this case, a young man from the Sioux tribe. The coach immediately is disappointed and decides not to have him on his team. Billy quickly convinces the coach that he will follow his orders and win races for him. Billy is half white and half native american; this basically separates him from white americans and from native americans as well. Although he suffers a great deal of conflicts due to his race, Billy is allowed to compete and live in both worlds, or societies.
Billy suffers from internal conflict throughout most of the movie. He is unable to find himself in what he does. Many a times Billy wonders why does he run. He can't seem to understand why does he need to win races. The coach of the Kansas University team also plays part in this trying to throw Billy off by saying he needs to focus solely on winning which causes him to reflect on his character and attitude.
In the end, Billy finds a balance in his life. He gets to fulfill his dream of running in the olympics and win. With the help of his wife, the coach, his family and understanding his culture as well as the american culture too, Billy is able to grow and become a successful man later on in his life.
Here are two links:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emyxFILkkPA -- this a trailer of the movie. Running Brave
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F5iCsymMj0 -- Billy Mills incredible win at the Olympics in 1984.
Its a nice review and plot summary but, the asignment was to write about Identity and how it was incorporated in the movie. Then again, it is hard to ignore most of the movie and talk about the moments where identity is focused on, without giving an explanation about how things turned out that way.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you agree with me, but for me the most likely showed that he could be himself no matter where he comes from or goes to, it's at the end when he is the car and he looks back and see a native american being happy for him in the middle of a lot of "white" people. In this moment, I believe, it's when he finally realizes that he doesn't have to choose a side, because he can live in both and still be proud of who he is.
ReplyDeleteIm going with Jeanette's opinion in this one. Billy realized that he can be a native in a white society and live happy with it.
ReplyDeleteHello Nicolas! I guess I'm concurring with previous comments as to the fact that its a pretty good movie summary and the fact that you skimmed through the identity debate that Billy was going through... if you could maybe elaborate a little on that...
ReplyDelete~~~Paula