I chose to do the movie “Half Nelson” related to drug abuse. This movie was directed by Ryan Fleck, and was released in year September 2006. The film started out by showing that the main character Dan Dunne was a Caucasian History teacher and the girls’ basketball team's coach in a middle school in Brooklyn, he taught the 8th grade students. During the daytime, he seemed to be pretty normal, active and cared a lot about his students in the classroom. When he started discussing dialectics of power and world politics with his student, he became really passionate and enthusiastic. He often encouraged his student to understand history instead of just memorizing it as he seemed to reject the education system. Some scenes show that he was fidgeting, …show more content…
He seemed to be unfocused, even though he was constantly clapping for his students to cheer for them. After the game ended, Dan saw his ex-girlfriend Rachel waiting for him. It was obvious that Dan could not handle the emotions after a small talk with Rachel. He immediately went into the locker room to make sure there weren’t other people in the locker room, so that he could smoke crack. Unfortunately, one of his students Drey accidentally caught him doing drugs in the girl’s locker room bathroom even though he tried to hide himself without making any noise. This was pretty awkward at the beginning, as Dan felt uncomfortable for revealing his deepest secret to his student. The scene also shows that the thirteen years old Drey has problem with her own life too. Her parents were divorced, and her brother was imprisoned due to drug dealing for a guy named Frank. She rarely saw her mom because she was working all the time, and her father was irresponsible. As time goes by, Dan and Drey became closer to each other. They gradually talked and learned more about each other’s situation. Dan noticed that the guy Frank had a bad effect on Drey because he was trying to get her to start drug dealing, and Dan tried to pursue Drey not to involve in drug dealing as that was how his brother got imprisoned. The film mainly focused on how Dan and Drey influenced each other, but had troubles dealing with …show more content…
This is led by the intake of cocaine as cocaine is some white puffy powders. In most cases, people intake cocaine by snorting those powder in order to let it absorb through the mucous membrane of their noses, and this was the way he took the cocaine. A scene in the movie shows that Dan Dunne hooked up randomly with a girl he met at the bar, went to her and snort some cocaine with a stick. His emotion began to fall and revealed that he was upset to find out that his ex-girlfriend Rachel was going to marry someone else. Another side-effect led by cocaine cause Dan to have a bleeding nose in the middle of the class. Cocaine is an addictive stimulant, and it is known to be the strongest natural stimulant in today’s
his free time. This is shown a frequent amount of times throughout the movie. This movie is taking place in a neighbourhood in Brooklyn that is undeveloped. This is a common problem for people with these drug addictions as it is somewhat affecting their lives. In Half Nelson, whenever Dan feels sad, depressed or feels stressed out due to either his family problems, school or any other problem, he would use cocaine to get high and not dealing with his problems. By him doing that, he thinks
The history is based on a group of teenagers that not have prospects of life, they live in McFarland which is place without opportunities to progress, the economy and the quality of life are deplorable, and no one is going to be better. Jim White who is an American Football coach, arrives to the school because he had problems in his previous job for his ideas.
He also experienced several occasions of withdrawal when using cocaine. For instance, the next morning after getting high with the red-hair women, he woke up in the living room on a couch with extreme fatigue, slow movements, and instability to hold himself still. Moreover, the lieutenant engaged in substance use that was physically hazardous. He drank alcohol and sniffed cocaine while driving. He was listening to a baseball game, but got upset after realizing the team he was betting for was losing. The cocaine and alcohol altered his attitude which led him to engage in reckless driving and shoot his radio with a firearm. His occupational duties were also reduced because he is constantly using drugs. He was heavily drinking at a bar watching a baseball game he placed a bet on. Consequently, the drugs led him to pay more attention towards the game instead of actively fulfilling his occupational duties. By being able to identify six or more symptoms, the severity of his substance use disorder is severe.
"Smashed" is A well-intentioned, heavily flawed drama concerns the story of an alcoholic school teacher (Mary Winstead) who realizes, after a couple of incidents related to her abuse of alcohol and drugs, that her life is going downhill, therefore, she attempts to get back to the life of sobriety. The only problem is her husband who continues to drink and plays as an enabler instead of actually helping her and himself toward backing to sobriety. The movie seems very real in its portrayals, and highlights many issues and challenges that both characters face as they are trying to stay in a marriage that is founded on drinking. What the movie does well is capture the spirit of life for a recovering alcoholic. As we see in the movie, alcohol is not just the great social lubricant, it can also be the glue holding troubled relationships together. The film gives some elements of this addiction and recovery tale the short shrift in an effort to keep to its brisk pace. Smashed does a great job than any film I’ve seen of addressing the American culture’s schizophrenic relationship with drinking. It covers the journey of life of the couple and the increasing certainty of their drinking problem. Smashed offers an understandable explanation for the couple’s dangerous drinking and gives fair play to booze: Kate and Charlie imbibe because they have a lot of fun while doing it. So they do it all the time.
For starters, Tatum goes in chronological order from when he started out as a teacher to where he is at now with his career. Tatum looks back on his first year as a teacher for the Chicago public school system. He, further goes on to reflect about his passion for creating a positive atmosphere for his students. Furthermore, Tatum, reflects on the gang violence that was occurring around, not just him but his students. In addition, Tatum writes about his third year as a teacher and how there was finally going to be change. And that change was the Chicago School Reform
At first the murder of their father by a black man appeared to be the catalyst of hate towards blacks for the boys but once Danny .began to analyze his life he realized his father was actually responsible for the indoctrination into a life filled with hate, resentment and conflict towards all minorities. He recalls a conversation that took place during dinner between Derek and his father; Derek is praising the academics and teaching approach used by his new black history teacher; Mr. Sweeney. His father begins to use derisive labels to discredit the achievements of his teacher. His father is actually nurturing racism into
In Alexandria 1971, high school football was a way of life, for everyone. So when a local school board was forced to integrate an all black school with an all white school, the foundation that football was set on would be put to the test. During this film, many of the characters face moral issues and dilemmas that change the way that they will see things forever. One of those characters includes Gerry Bertier who struggles to befriend his African American teammate, he also struggles to accept what is going on around him. Those are some of the biggest obstacles for a teenager from that time to face, most white families taught their children that the African Americans were trouble, to not go near them that they were animals. And consequently, to not disrespect their families they stayed away, believing everything that their parents had said, creating a disrespectful stereotype of African-American citizens.
Interpersonal communication can vary from personal relationships, professional relationships, and on to family relationships. Dan and Ann-Marie show the signs of the romantic relationship stages, however, Ann-Marie and Mitch also show these signs. Stage one, whenever, Ann-Marie ask about the books at the bookstore is initiating. Stage two, when they begin to discuss about what like to do would relate to the experimenting stage. Stage three, would be whenever they go and have lunch together and just spend the evening together, this would be intensifying. The rest of the stages they shuffle through and aren’t particularly in order, however, they still end up going through them. Another relationship that is shown is the relationship between Dan and his children. They show a nuclear family, which is the Dan, Jane, Cara, and Lilly. This relationship goes on to change whenever Dan and Ann-Marie get married, it creates a stepfamily. We can also relate the four different panes to Dan’s life. The open area of Dan’s life is whenever he is using his own intellect to give others advice in his columns. The hidden area of his life could be whenever the people from the newspaper come to his house and he doesn’t tell them completely about his life. The blind area would be whenever his family and everyone around him knows that he is lonely, however he thinks he is content by himself, but his actions speak differently. The last area, is the unknown area, which could relate to the scene where he is playing the guitar, Ann-Marie didn’t know he could play, and I think he forgot he
Throughout the film we, see both the coach, individual players, and the team as a whole face numerous psychological obstacles which they overcome to reach the final. The film is based highly around racism and racial divides within basketball. Throughout the film we can see a constant battle with the idea of Perception, and how both player and overcome this. In order to form the 1966 championship winning team,
In the film, Herman Boone had just been hired to be the new football coach of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. The school had just been told to integrate so the whites and blacks all go to the same school now, as well as go on the same bus. Coach Boone and the former head coach Bill Yoast both go up to football camp with the new team. While they are up there, the team learns the meaning of working as a team no matter what color you are. When they get back from camp, the football team has to remember to act as a team rather than racist idiots by coercion from their parents. They also have to fight through the discrimination of the black players and having a black coach. They learn to stick as a team and even band together when Gary Bertier, one of the head players, paralyzes his legs. This all illustrates that by forcing integration, Coach Boone was able to get his team to work together, and the team learned on their own that they’re not so different after
These thoughts have been consuming Dan's mind for the past two hours, slowly filling his body with great amounts of stress and anxiety, which eventually overcame his entire being and took control of his actions, ensuing in the forceful push of his schoolwork out of his sight. Tears began to develop in his brown eyes, but he immediately blinked them away, not wanting to feel even worse about himself. After all, crying would make Dan assume that he has lost the battle between himself and...himself. In other words, he does not want his emotions to get the best of him, or interfere with his life outside of his college
In 1971 Coach Herman Boone replaced a popular, successful white coach at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in that community's effort to finally integrate its schools. The school and community were angrily divided by the federal integration order, and the volatility of the situation was heightened by the abrupt demotion of Coach Yoast and Boone's promotion to Head Coach. In this movie Coach Boone is on a mission to try to get the white and black players to unite and play together as a team. He wanted the two races to become a team. Around that time, there was a lot of racism and a lot of schools were segregated, so the players obviously didn't get along with each other at first. A lot changed when Boone replaced Yoast
In prison, Derek unhesitatingly realizes he is the minority. He finds comfort when he is taken in by another group of neo-Nazi’s. He begins to work with a black male who repeatedly tries to talk to Derek. After several failed attempts, Derek sees past his color and sees him for an actual human being. After playing one game of basketball
Tommy was very upset and tells Dan, “With friends like you who needs ------, right Dan-o?” After that Dan goes home and he begins hallucinating. Dan lets his emotions control him and he feels lost.
Crack is the smokable form of cocaine, and can only be taken into the body by smoking it. Smoking crack cocaine introduces it into the system faster than other methods (Zonderman and Shader, 660. To smoke it, the crystalline chips are either put into a glass pipe and smoked, or crushed and smoked in a marijuana joint. The chips change to smoke when heated, which is inhaled, drawn into the lungs, and then diffused rapidly into the bloodstream (Edwards, 77). The little sacs of the lungs are lined with fatty tissue that readily absorbs the fat soluble crack (Mickey, 2). Circulating blood transports the dissolved cocaine to the brain where it has immediate effect (Edwards, 77). Crack reaches the brain within seven seconds (Mickey, 2). The effect, called a rush, is caused by the almost pure cocaine's assault on the brain and central nervous system. The central nervous system responds by involuntary movement of the muscles, increased body temperature, and an overstimulation of the pleasure centers of the brain. The high