Hello everyone! Last semester, I focused a lot of my efforts into covering horror film character’s because I was interested in how they developed. Given that horror films are much more focused on the horror occurring to the characters rather than how a complex character reacts to atrocities beyond their comprehension, a change was needed. I wanted to shift my work this semester to broaden my horizons outside of horror, starting with Ghost in the Shell (1995), an animated science fiction film concerned with relinquishing the physical and mental self to keep the peace (by force.) The original animated film Ghost in the Shell was released in 1995 and was directed by Mamoru Oshii. The film is an adaptation of the manga that goes by the same name, though their similarities aren’t extensive and won’t be covered here. Ghost in the Shell follows Sergeant Major Motoko Kusanagi through a world full of cybernetic enhancements and political strife. The major herself is part of a specialized police task force that takes on various threats, though in the film we see the task force assassinating a foreign politician in their introduction to the story. Their involvement in this assassination causes them to encounter “The Puppet Master.” This character analysis contains spoilers for the film Ghost in the Shell (1995) and (2019.)
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Harper’s Character Selection Screen – Bleu: Julie, Lucille and the Renewal of Motherhood
Hey everyone, welcome back to the blog! I wanted to start off my blog this semester with a film that I watched for a course this semester, so I decided to go with my favorite so far: Three Colors: Blue, Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. Three Colors: Blue follows Julie (played by Juliett Binoche) as she navigates through the grief of losing both her young daughter and husband in a car crash in which she was the sole survivor. A large chunk of this film focuses on the aftermath of her husband’s death because he was a famous composer with an unfinished symphony meant to play at the unification of Europe, which places him as an extremely famous composer. The music played at the funeral haunts Julie whenever he is brought up in passing or in conversation, but there aren’t a lot of moments in the movie that connect back to the daughter’s passing. Three Colors: Blue seemingly forgets about the daughter’s impact on Julie, but a deeper analysis shows that she is just as represented as the husband in the narrative, but through a more subtle approach. Julie’s daughter holds firm the undertone of motherhood through the blue candy wrapper, the mobile hung in Julie’s new apartment, and Lucille herself. This blog post contains spoilers for the film Three Colors: Blue.
Continue readingHarper’s Character Selection Screen – Midnight Mass: Beverly Keane and Puritanical Judgment
Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! I’ve been recently going on a Mike Flanagan Netflix binge and was brought back to one of my favorite works of his titled Midnight Mass. Midnight Mass is a horror series about a small fishing island that gets stranger with each passing day after a new priest arrives. The show has a couple of obvious antagonists, but there is one that develops over the course of the show that might fall under the radar due to horror tropes: Beverly Keane. Her character role as an unassuming and often rude religious white woman is largely unassuming until the very end of the show where she becomes the main villain of the island. Despite this, she suffers from a very similar framework of being tied solely to a religious view that the rest of the characters operate on, which actually makes her flat character function differently than we would expect. This character analysis will spoil the entirety of Midnight Mass.
Continue readingHarper’s Character Selection Screen – 1922: Wilfred Jones and Self Sabotage
Hello everyone! On my continuous trek to find new movies to enjoy and analyze (I’m the least fun person to watch a movie with) I’ve been finding myself back in the horror movie section. I think it has something to do with the many open endings and morally gray characters that they house, especially characters like Wilfred “Wilf” James, the main character of Stephen King’s novella turned movie adaption 1922. Directed by Zak Hilditch and released as a Netflix Original in 2017, Wilfred James takes matters into his own hands after his wife plans to sell his farmland and move to the big city of Omaha Nebraska, which causes him to doubt his surroundings. This character analysis will contain spoilers for Stephen King’s adapted 1922.
Continue readingHarper’s Character Selection Screen: Snowpiercer – Curtis Everett and The Rejection of Divinity
Hello and welcome back to the blog! For a while now I’ve been revisiting movies that I used to watch when I was younger, and one that came to mind was Snowpiercer. Snowpiercer directed by Bong Joon Ho (the movie, not the newly created TV series following the same story and title) is about a train that travels around the world full of survivors after the world freezes over when a method of closing a hole in the ozone layer causes a modern ice age. The train is split into different classes with the poor in the back of the train with the wealthy up at the front. Many of the themes have to do with environmental and climate disaster as well as class and arbitrary social standing. This blog will be highlighting Curtis, the main character of the movie as he struggles in the face of becoming God. This character analysis will contain spoilers for Snowpiercer.
Continue readingHarper’s Character Selection Screen: Master Chief from Halo – Tragic Hero or Vapid Writing?
Hello everyone! Welcome back to the blog! I’ve decided to shift my focus to something more personal to me compared to my last post: the Halo franchise. Originally developed by Bungie under the supervision of Microsoft, the debut of Halo: Combat Evolved unexpectedly stood as a flagship for the upcoming original Xbox console. With the title’s success after its release due to its creativity and innovation within the first person shooter genre, its main character “Master Chief” or “John-117” became a staple of video game iconography. In this entry, I’ll be discussing the evolution of John-117 and how the video game medium warped a character initially seen as a self-insert archetype into something a bit more complicated. This character analysis will spoil the ending of Halo Combat Evolved, as well as some parts of Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4.
Continue readingHarper’s Character Selection Screen: The Janitor from I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
Hello everyone, Welcome to my blog! Harper’s Character Selection Screen is a blog that analyzes characters from movies, books, and video games to shed light on interesting interpretations or theories associated with said characters. While many options initially interested me, I thought it would be a good starting point to talk about I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Charlie Kaufman, a movie about a couple who go on a road trip through a storm while reality becomes increasingly confusing and disjointed. This character analysis will spoil the entirety of the movie as well as the novel it was based on. It also mentions suicide and mental illness in its themes. I highly recommend watching the film first before reading this not only because it’s a great film, but also to have a better understanding of this analysis in general. The film is incredibly dense, and I won’t be able to go over everything that happens in the story, so some background knowledge will make this make more sense. With all of that in mind, let’s talk about a high school janitor.
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