A little catch up

Ok so I haven't done the greatest job with posting on the blog this project. Sorry. Things were a little crazy with personal life and school. But let's try to update all the hard work we've put into this:

For our first group meeting, Steve, Braden and I met in the library and looked up information on the Battle of Iwo Jima. We found the website http://www.iwojima.com/ and read the information we found there. We then decided to each take a flag raiser to research so we could have a better idea of the lives they led. Steve took Ira Hayes, Braden took Rene Gagnon and I had John Bradley. We also decided that I would order both Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima from amazon so that way we had the movie for the entire project. We thought Letters From Iwo Jima would be a good movie to supplement into the project since it deals with the same battle but from the Japanese side.

The movies came and Braden offered to have us over to his house to watch Flags of Our Fathers. Prior to watching the movies we had done some research on the New York Times database to get information on the battle. We had also each done the research on our individual flag raisers. Braden and I had talked to Dr. Cooper about some frames and ideologies to look for in the movie. While watching, we picked out clips that would support Racism. After watching the movie we decided we wanted to incorporate heroism.

We had a meeting with Dr. Cooper and we told her our ideas. We asked how to incorporate heroism and she said to make it a frame. The government made Gagnon, Bradle and Hayes all heroes, but at what cost? They didn't take the time to realize all the hardships and horror the men faced in the battle and forced them to reenact the flag raising on the bond tour. After talking about this, we also decided to use the Capitalism ideology. The government soley wanted money and would stop at nothing until the money was raised.

After the meeting with Dr. Cooper, we met as a group for a couple of hours and outlined our powerpoint. Steve showed us that he had bought the book Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley (John Bradley's son). We then used this book to look into the facts and myths of how Iwo Jima had been portrayed. We were struggling with finding information on the New York Times database and the book helped us tremendously. There's a chapter devoted completely to the bond tour. Another devoted to bringing truth to all the myths from the war. And so many others that we used. I would say this book was our saving grace for this project.

At the end of this meeting, we decided to split up the frame and ideologies so everyone could look for information on them and then we'd meet again to put it all together. We also talked about the strongest clips to add to the powerpoint. I was going to look up Heroism. Braden was going to look up Capitalism. Steve was going to look up Racism.

I watched Letters from Iwo Jima and found this to be helpful in the sense that it answers the question "whose story isn't being told?" In Flags of Our Fathers the Japense side is being told. Or even what is still going on in the war. After the government brings Gagnon, Bradley and Hayes home for the tour, they never go back to what is happening in the war at the time. The three men have flashbacks but they are all based on what happened when they were there. The viewer is never taken back to Iwo Jima and the war. In Letters from Iwo Jima the entire movie is based on the war. It shows what happened after the flag was raised on Mount Suribachi. The strongest point I made from wathcing the two movies was that Clint Eastwood is continually making viewers choose a side, and as a viewer you aren't really sure who to root for. When watching Flags you are rooting for the Americans. When watching Letters who grow close to the Japense soldiers and become mortified at how they are treated and what they have to go through. In the end, it all comes down to selective perception. How a person perceives things determines how they choose a side and how they choose to feel. I thought it was very important to include both movies in the project.

So the final meeting, we all get together to pull everything together. Steve has worked out the technical side of things and we have to put it into the powerpoint. I have worked on the outline and bibliography and need to make sure Braden and Steve agree with what I've put. Braden has started on the powerpoint and needs the information we have found to put into it. After many hours, it finally all came together.

The only problem we came across was that it was difficult to find information on the New York Times database about the bond tour. We thought for sure we would find information because of the sense of urgency that was felt while watching the movie to get the money. But we could only find war bond ads. I thought we'd be able to find statistics about how much was made and what was still needed but these didn't exist. We used this as a difference between the media covereage and the movie. The sense of urgency wasn't depicted in the news as it was in the movie. The movie doesn't talk about it being in the Times but one would think it would be if it was such an important topic.

Overall I did enjoy this project. It was a ton of work but I felt like we all worked together and made it happen. I felt like having the outline helped us make sure we have everything we needed for our presentation.

Again, sorry this is all at the last minute. The end of the semester just snuck up on me.

-Laura

Wednesday meeting...

All three of us met together in the library yesterday. Laura and I were there for a whopping 6 hours. It was a party. Steve joined us after he got off work to get the finishing touches done. We are pretty much wrapped up. I worked more on the Powerpoint when I got home last night and have continued this morning. It's time consuming but it looks pretty stellar if I say so myself!

Braden

Monday Night Meeting

Steve and I met Monday night...wish Laura could have come...but work calls!! Steve has the movie ripping figured out and that should be good to go for our Powerpoint. The Powerpoint has now been started and is underway. We all just need to do the research in the New York Times...which means we probably need to go to the library to do some of that.

Braden

Research

Just been doing hours of research on the Bond Tours and how the government treated the 3 soldiers. It's really interesting. I am leaving town for work stuff for the weekend, so I am trying to cram to get a bunch of material put together! I am finding research not only online but also from the book Flags of Our Fathers. Thanks for providing the resource Steve. It's legit.

Braden