Once Were Warriors Themes

“Oh, Jake, we could have had such a damned good time together.’ ‘Yes, Isn’t it pretty to think so?”. Their final discussion is right where they started in the back of a cab. Brett has just dug a hole even deeper into the abyss of disappointment that Brett has already given him. Jake has lost his masculinity in more ways than one. He has to live without Brett, and with his disability, denying him any chance at all with women. He has finally accepted the loveless relationship that has become of them, and will push forward knowing how it will never be.

| Tom wants his old life back prior to the accident and he sees the accident as the end of his life as he knew it. He loses his sense of identity and sense of family in particular.Feels guilty and ashamed about the irrevocable consequences his brother’s irresponsibility had for other people and their familiesRetreats into a depressed state which feels empty and black.

“Why? What’s the point?”. Jake has a wife and a daughter and he hasn't spoken with his kid in months. His daughter refers to him as “the man that used to live with us” and he doesn't like speaking with his

Out of the Past is definitely an interesting movie with a lot of things to talk about. I will touch briefly upon two main things I have noticed during the screen: the film noire genre and the image of the femme fatale.

The movie begins with Tracy, the main character, as a normal teenager whose life seems from the outside “ok”. However, even at this point in the movie, there are hints of Tracy’s inner pain and discomfort or distress with her world. Tracy lives a tough life. Her parents are separated, and do not have a good relationship. Tracy lives with her mom and brother in a suburban low to middle class neighborhood. Her mom, Mel, is a recovered addict, who works as a hair dresser. Her dad, Travis, is a somewhat rich executive, who works all the time and barely

So many new faces with unique life stories. What brought them all together was the sad fact that they didn’t earn enough money to provide for their family, that they had to face poverty in the most brutal season of the year. For the rough deck of cards most of them received, they smiled and burst with kindness and gratitude for what they did have. Once again, it was all about perspective. I am 99.99% sure that the man we chatted with at the end of the night wasn’t the only person in the room who snapped at one point in his life. Looking around as people dug into their dinners, most expressions seemed despondent, lonely, even shameful to me. Like if they could turn back time and do something over, they would in the blink of an eye. Maybe they had a moment in their lives when right and wrong changed places similar to the case of

Jake is consciously aware that there is a problem, which is more than can be said about his friends. Perhaps the people that surround Jake are the issue, though. His close friends and the people whom he travels with include Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Bill, and Mike. Brett, the target of Jake’s unrequited affections, is likely someone whom he should stop spending time with; however, it seems that he just can’t get away from her. She is a very strong and independent woman who isn’t known to behave in a traditionally feminine way. Jakes does remark that although she is very independent, “She can’t go anywhere alone.” Robert Cohn is a Jewish, wealthy expatriate; but unlike many of his friends, did not spend any time in the war. Cohn also falls head over heels in love with Brett, who soon rejects his affections as well. As a wealthy, Jewish, non war veteran Cohn stands out in the group and his fumbling attempts to court Brett are the source of much mockery and leads to many fights. Bill is also an American veteran who seems to be always drinking. He tends to use humor to try and deal with the emotional scars of war; however, is not immune to the immaturity and cruelty sometimes characterized by Jake and his friends. Finally, Mike is a very heavy drinking Scottish war veteran who is completely bankrupt. He is seen to have a terrible temper, which most often displays while he is drunk. Mike is also not comfortable with the

This shows he is hard working and not a lazy kid, but when you figure out that his dad beats him and takes the money Jake earns at work to buy alcohol, you understand why Jake is the way he is. His father provides him with a shack as a shelter, but on most nights Jake spends his nights sleeping in a trash can. To me, this shows Jake’s great maturity for his age accepting the conditions he is faced with. In my opinion, this also shows his toughness and brevity to endure these rough situations that he is forced to be in the middle of. A part in the book that I found very symbolic of a theme was when Jake was caught by Mr. Gerbati stealing out of his business’s money safe. Although Mr. Gerbati was very upset, from my point of view, it seemed as if he understood why Jake was doing something like that. Mr. Gerbati was very firm with his voice, but told Jake he was willing to take care of him. In my opinion, this is the beginning of a very important recurring theme in this story, transformation.

The movie basically did a metaphorical domino affect, as you see the family slowly falling down. Like I mentioned earlier when a family gains or losses a family member it is now considered a whole new group. Sadly for the Jarrett family they lost a son and were now dealing with adjustments of living, in a sense, as a new family. Calvin, the father, does a very good job staying positive but still recognizing that something horrible happened to their family and things still need to be dealt with. Beth seems to only worry about the material things as a form of a distraction. You see her focusing on setting the silver just perfectly; worrying about what clothes her husband is going to wear, and she worries more about making sure that what is happening inside the family stays between the family. Conrad is emotionally going through a lot but tries his best to keep it inside.

This family comes together in a time when they all need it. Phillip at one point tells Judd he’s on his side and has his back no what the situation is. Then every time Judd and Wendy meet on the roof to talk they are creating a turning point during a bad time. It can be see that each brother, sister, brother, brother, and/or mother, child moment is a growing point where something/someone else is thinking and acting different. The Altman family displays resilience by walking away at the end and assuring each other that they have their backs.

It shows how Jake is persistent and dedicated to his job, even if it always seems like he is in over his head. Jake, however, also departs from the film noir tradition when he lets his emotions get the best of him. The greatest example of this is seen during the exchange between him and Evelyn when he is trying to find out the truth about Katherine. Resorting for the first time to violence against a woman, the near desperation with which Jake pushes Evelyn to confess is an expression of his fears and anxieties about being completely lost amidst the lies that surround him. The result is the humanization of Jake Giddes’ character. He simply is not perfect, and ultimately fails to see the bigger picture of what he is involved with until .

The book The Warrior Ethos, by Steven Pressfield depicts the warrior’s mentality from ancient times to the present through a variety of different aspects and stories. In The Warrior Ethos, Pressfield states that men are not born with the certain qualities that make a good warrior, but instead are inculcated through years of training and indoctrination, stating at an early age. He goes on to show how different societies have been able to instill the same or very similar ideals throughout history while maintaining their own unique characteristics. Things have changed from ancient Sparta where parents would be enthusiastic about their children going to war, and even more elated

Because of this injury, Jake cannot be with the woman he loves- and this plot line serves as a catalyst for the larger and far more important theme about the American Dream - and chasing everything desired, but never truly being able to achieve these dreams to satiation.

putting someone else down. Jake also uses Bill Gorton just to keep himself busy and not get bored. Near the end of the book Jake states, “Next morning I tipped every one a little too much at the hotel to make more friends...I did not tip the porter more than I should because I did not think I would ever see him again. I only wanted a few good French friends in Bayonne to make me welcome in case I should come back...” This statement show what friends really meant to Jake. They were people that would be some type of service to him.

The movies start out with a semi regular family, considering it is only a mother and a son, and the son is a heroin user. Dean Schmitz a movie reviewer for Variety says that, ¡§Many of the tragedies in the world are accidents; sad blunders of luck, but some, like the four stories in this film are the results of a chain of events that started off with ¡§normal everyday folks¡¨ and ended in the worst kind of way, and in a way that was not accidental, which is maybe the saddest thing of all.¡¨ All four characters start off as normal good people, other than the fact that three of them occasionally ¡§push off¡¨ which is the term used in the movie for shooting up heroin. The movie is broken down into three seasons of the same year, summer, fall, and winter. Summer is a great time for all of them, they seem to be doing well in life and most of their dreams seem to be within reach. Fall, is just what it says, all of the characters begin to fall into, or at least begin their decent in to their drug educed slumps. Finally comes winter, it is this season that all four characters hit rock bottom. Which is graphically depicted in a final montage of disturbing and shocking clips of all of them in their personal hell.