The Last Picture Show

After watching The Last Picture Show I was left with mixed feelings. I think it was a good and very well made film but it had quite a melancholy ending. It wasn't really depressing it just left you feeling a bit flat with life and the feeling that it's all really been done before.

The film is set in a small town in Texas where everyone knows each other. The story follows several different characters, mainly a group of teenagers who are graduating from high school. Although made in 1971, the film is set in the early 1950s. And even though society in the 70s was a lot more liberal than in the 50s I think the content of the film would still have been quite edgy and potentially shocking for the audience of the time. The film deals a lot with themes of sex and promiscuity, and there is quite a lot of nudity.

The film is very character driven, I think. There is a good mix of different characters which helps to drive the plot as well as exploring the different aspects of the central themes. There is the usual mixture of kids in their late teens: Duane, the popular hot-headed male, his quieter friend Sonny and the popular, well-off and pretty girl, Jacy. When they graduate from high school, these characters fan out and in a way, we follow their individual stories in the film even though their paths still cross. And through each of them, different issues about coming of age are dealt with. For the young man Duane, he has to battle with losing Jacy as she is fed up with him and intent on experimenting sexually with other, more fashionable youths in the surrounding towns. Duane's friend Sonny is all the while engaged in a relationship with a middle-aged woman in the town, whose husband is their former basketball coach.

Although the film was probably quite liberal and challenging for its day, I think the key themes and ideas still stand up now. That was one feeling I got when I watched it, that although this was made about 40 years ago, very little has changed really in terms of how people live their lives nowadays to what is shown in the film. For example, near the start of the film there is a scene in the classroom and shortly after, scenes of the Christmas party and it was not unlike watching an episode of The Inbetweeners. The key ideas were the same with the awkwardness of the young men around women, the jealousy of peers, the newness of alcohol, conformity of youths, the list goes on. And it just got me thinking that very little has actually changed in the present day apart from perception and a bit of technology.

Finally, I liked the soundtrack of the film. Well-known country songs can be heard throughout being played on the radios and a couple of times I thought the words in the songs were almost telling the story of the film.

Cathy Come Home

Before we watched Cathy Come Home, I had heard of it but didn't really know much about it. Andy gave us a bit of background knowledge before the programme started about how it was originally aired in 1966 and at the time, the content was extremely ground-breaking and revealing. It is easy to see why.

I thought Cathy Come Home was brilliantly made. It wouldn't be right to say that you enjoyed the programme but it was certainly a very powerful watch. The story revolves around the characters of Cathy and Reg who are fictional representations of real people and real stories of the time. The programme begins on the happy note of Cathy and Reg starting their new life together, buying a house and having their first child. However everything goes downhill from this point as Reg loses his job and they cannot afford to pay their rent. They are evicted from their home and are forced to try and find other places to live while Cathy continues to have children.

From a story point of view, if you've never seen Cathy Come Home, you might wonder how this story could be so interesting. And when you think of the story in terms of screenwriting and three-act structure etc. it might not be particularly conventional, but it never stops being completely gripping. You find yourself caring for the characters a great deal and it's the sort of material that can actual evoke a bit of anger just by watching it.

The style of filmmaking is also important to its success as well I think. It is filmed in a documentary style and most of the people in the film are not actors apart from the main characters. It was all shot in real locations as well which made the story seem a lot more realistic. In the final scene of Cathy Come Home when Cathy has her children taken from her by the authorities in a train station, the camera was placed so that members of the public didn't know it was being filmed so they thought the event was actually taking place.

All in all I think Cathy Come Home was a great piece of filmmaking which helped to highlight one of the greatest social problems in Britain at the time. And although things have changed and systems are obviously different now, the message of Cathy Come Home is still sadly very relevant today.

The Election and The Television

So in the run up to this year's general election I think it would be fair to say that we've had more than our fair share of television coverage. In fact, most people will probably be glad when it's over and not have to constantly hear about Brown, Clegg and Cameron and all their elusive promises of change.

But saying that we have had a great deal of coverage isn't necessarily a good thing. This year has seen the first ever election debates in which the three "main" parties' leaders had the chance to discuss and debate different issues in front of a live studio audience. Three debates were held in total and ran continuously for 90 minutes each, broadcast one week by ITV then Sky then BBC. As a result of the first debate, polls showed that support for the Liberal Democrats increased dramatically. Clearly this indicates that television has an extreme influence on shaping people's opinions. In fact, I would argue that out of all the branches of the media, television is by far the most influential. The first debate on ITV received 9.4 million viewers, a very respectable amount in today's world. It even overtook the ratings for Coronation Street and Eastenders.

So if we assume that the main function of all this election coverage is to aid the democratic process by providing accurate and unbiased information to the country's viewers, how successful has it been? Well I think there obviously has been a lot of coverage and this is a good thing as far as informing people goes, however as far as representing all the options available to people, the coverage has been extremely poor. For example, I remember seeing a Labour election leaflet that was sent to my house that was peddling the notion that the election is a two-horse race between Labour and the Conservatives therefore if you don't want a Tory government you have to vote Labour. And just recently after the final debate on April 29, Clegg of the Lib Dems in now claiming that the election is a two-horse race between his party and the Conservatives because of Brown's performance in the debates and due to his recent scandal in Rochdale. Basically, the coverage of any alternative to the three "main parties" for me has been almost non-existent. I've seen little coverage for the nationalist parties apart from some side articles such as the SNP and Plaid Cymru teaming up in opposition to nuclear weapons.

All in all I think there has been a lot of coverage. But in terms of a fair representation of everything that's out there, I think there is room for improvement. And I'm not suggesting giving the Monster Raving Loony Party a regular slot on BBC1 at tea time, I just think there should be more in the way of alternative views represented on the mainstream channels to give people a more informed picture of who they can vote for and not just the option of three unionist capitalists parties.