Response to "Earthlings"

     From watching the film "Earthlings" in class, I realized that I am definitely not the sort of person who needs to see animal cruelty for it to have an effect on me. I am heavily burdened by the suffering of animals frequently and I feel a great deal more sympathy towards them than I do towards many people. The situations animals live in are not a matter of choice for them. They have no knowledge of how to improve their circumstances and we are wholly and completely rely on us for their well being. Animals are like babies that never grow up. They are innocent and unable to communicate their needs. The fact that humans can willfully commit acts of cruelty against such beautiful creatures is beyond me. I have never been under the belief that people are greatly superior to animals. I am much of the mindset that we share this planet with a number of creatures and each deserves the right to live peacefully. This is not to say that I will never eat meat or wear leather, I have always believed that humans are meant to consume animals. I believe that we have the knowledge and the technology to prevent cruelty to animals in their execution. If an animal is killed as quickly and painlessly as possible, I believe that we can honor that animal's life by utilizing its body to the fullest potential. What I have the biggest problem with is animals that are not respected in life through neglect and abuse, and then are not respected in death by being wasted and squandered.

Movie Review #1: Evaluating the 'Human Footprint'

      The "Human Footprint" is a documentary made by National Geographic to demonstrate the resources the average US citizen consumes in their lifetime. The film set out to show Americans the effects our consumer lifestyles have on the planet. The premise is to take typical items used in everyday life, such as milk cartons or hair products, and lay the amount used in an average lifetime in a single camera shot. While the impact of seeing the sheer volume of waste is undeniable, I felt like this film could have been much more galvanizing if more attention had been paid to finding solutions to the growing materialism in our world.
     Watching the film, I felt like it did a great job of pointing out our consumeristic pit falls but did so with an air of snooty superiority which greatly put me off as a viewer. This was especially demonstrated when the resources in question were necessities which have no substitution, such as showers. The producers would spend a great deal of time and witty narration building up to the reveal of said necessary resource, and then would present it in such a way that made me feel guilty for requiring it. While it doesn't seem like the intention of the film, it's almost impossible not to walk away feeling guilty for needing things like soap and medicine. It certainly doesn't serve their cause well.
    To be honest, I was a little confused as to what the message of the film was. It seemed like it was presenting itself as a piece of expository journalism when the concept would have worked better as an advocacy piece. It was kind of all over the place. On the one hand, it did an excellent job of making people realize how much waste one life can generate, but the format left some serious holes for the audience to stew over. The biggest of these was, what did they do with all the stuff after they arranged it? Was it donated? Or was it too wasted? It was a question that every person had on their lips when we were watching it in class. It seemed strange that a documentary that was potentially arguing for less waste didn't address what it did with the waste created in filming. It was also very unclear what their argument was. It seemed as though they were trying to present the images in an objective fashion, but the writing and the acting made the viewer feel as though they were combatively challenging the average American lifestyle.
    Overall I thought that it was an interesting concept, but it needed to be developed further. It became monotonous to just see mounds of resources after a short while. I believe that the was things were presented detracted from the film and their concept as a whole.