1. Essay question
Nick's mother says “it doesn’t matter how life ends, it matters how it was”. Is this the view presented by the film as a whole? 2. Underline the key parts and aspects of this question.
3. Write in your own words what the question is asking you to write about?
Whether or not “Look Both Ways” demonstrated that it doesn’t matter how life ends it matters how it was or not.
4. Describe your contention
I believe this quote was clearly demonstrated in every aspect of the film.
5. 4 main points/topics for discussion
- Overall acceptance to life issues
- How characters lived life to the fullest
- How it demonstrates importance of life for characters
- There dealing of tragic issues
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Monday, October 11, 2010
Student Plan
“Things just happen” says Anna.
‘Look Both Ways suggests that acceptance is the best way to deal with the unpredictability of life.’
Do you agree?
Do you accept that Look Both Ways suggests that acceptance is the way to deal with life and its way of being unpredictable.
I do agree that Look Both Ways does suggest that acceptance is the only way you can cope and deal with life and its way of being unpredictable.
• Do things just happen, yes or no?
• Does Look Both Ways suggest this?
• How does Look Both Ways suggest this
• Do you agree with this prompt?
‘Look Both Ways suggests that acceptance is the best way to deal with the unpredictability of life.’
Do you agree?
Do you accept that Look Both Ways suggests that acceptance is the way to deal with life and its way of being unpredictable.
I do agree that Look Both Ways does suggest that acceptance is the only way you can cope and deal with life and its way of being unpredictable.
• Do things just happen, yes or no?
• Does Look Both Ways suggest this?
• How does Look Both Ways suggest this
• Do you agree with this prompt?
Student Plan
Nick’s Mother says, “It doesn’t matter how life ends, it matters how it was.” Is this the view presented by the film as a whole?
Did the film apply this statement to most of its characters?
Yes, the film did apply this view for most of the characters – but not to all.
1.) Even though both Meryl and Nick were worried about how they would die at the start, The film did show us at the end that they are going to enjoy their lives and not think about how they would die anymore.
2.) Andy also changed his perspective of life.
But
1.) The film focused on Rob’s death for Julia and the train driver not on how he lived.
2.) Phil Stopped smoking because he is worried that he might get cancer like Nick.
Did the film apply this statement to most of its characters?
Yes, the film did apply this view for most of the characters – but not to all.
1.) Even though both Meryl and Nick were worried about how they would die at the start, The film did show us at the end that they are going to enjoy their lives and not think about how they would die anymore.
2.) Andy also changed his perspective of life.
But
1.) The film focused on Rob’s death for Julia and the train driver not on how he lived.
2.) Phil Stopped smoking because he is worried that he might get cancer like Nick.
Student Plan
“Things just happen,” says Anna
‘Look Both Ways suggests that acceptance is the best way to deal with the unpredictability of life.’ Do you agree?
The question is asking me to write about how the characters cope with the good and bad of life in Look Both Ways.
My contention is that the characters in Look Both Ways show that acceptance is the best way to deal with the unpredictability of life.
• Meryl – how she copes with her grief and fears
• Nick –coping with his cancer
• Andy – anger
• Anna – Being pregnant
‘Look Both Ways suggests that acceptance is the best way to deal with the unpredictability of life.’ Do you agree?
The question is asking me to write about how the characters cope with the good and bad of life in Look Both Ways.
My contention is that the characters in Look Both Ways show that acceptance is the best way to deal with the unpredictability of life.
• Meryl – how she copes with her grief and fears
• Nick –coping with his cancer
• Andy – anger
• Anna – Being pregnant
Student Plan
‘Nick's mother says, “it doesn’t matter how life ends, it matters how it was.” Is the view presented by the film as a whole?'
The question is asking whether or not the idea of it doesn’t matter how life ends, its how life was, and whether or not this is displayed throughout the film.
Contention:
that at the beginning of the film, not everyone was happily enjoying their life and instead focusing on death, and how this lead to a sense of depression and suffering especially in Nick, Meryl, Andy, Phil and Anna’s case, but then they become happy and find love. This counteracts the view that there is happiness throughout the entirety of the film.
-Andy Focussed on Male suicide and flirted with the concept himself. > He then found happiness with Anna.
- Meryl Constantly imagining and fearing death. > Then finds happiness with Nick
- Nick fearing death and cancer. > Then falls for Anna
- Anna with children and child concerns. > Happy with Andy
- Phil stressing about life and his job. > Finds a new lease on life
The question is asking whether or not the idea of it doesn’t matter how life ends, its how life was, and whether or not this is displayed throughout the film.
Contention:
that at the beginning of the film, not everyone was happily enjoying their life and instead focusing on death, and how this lead to a sense of depression and suffering especially in Nick, Meryl, Andy, Phil and Anna’s case, but then they become happy and find love. This counteracts the view that there is happiness throughout the entirety of the film.
-Andy Focussed on Male suicide and flirted with the concept himself. > He then found happiness with Anna.
- Meryl Constantly imagining and fearing death. > Then finds happiness with Nick
- Nick fearing death and cancer. > Then falls for Anna
- Anna with children and child concerns. > Happy with Andy
- Phil stressing about life and his job. > Finds a new lease on life
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Look Both Ways Practice SAC
“I suppose everyone has to witness something ghastly one day”. Look Both Ways argues that it is impossible to prevent personal suffering. Discuss.
The film ‘Look Both Ways’ argues that it is impossible to prevent personal suffering. The main characters of the film, Nick, Meryl, Andy, Anna, and Phil, all have bad experiences throughout the film. The film’s director, Sarah Watt, has set ‘Look Both Ways’ in Adelaide, Australia. the storyline is centred around the five main characters mentioned above, and their interrelated experiences over one weekend.
The film starts out following a huge train crash, close to the city. Many people have died, or are still missing. This gives the audience a good idea of what two of the major concepts of the film are: death and grief.
The storyline continues with these same concepts, throughout the five characters.
Nick is a man of age roughly 35, who is a photographer for the local paper. He is fit and healthy and lives alone. Nick’s father died of cancer the year before, which is the reason why Nick decides to move back to Adelaide – for his Mum. They are both still grieving over his death. On Friday, Nick visits the doctor and discovers that he too, has developed cancer. Nick suffers from this news, and is unable to tell his friends until the Sunday. Nick’s and his father’s cancer was unpreventable – there is really nothing you can do to stop it, and the pain and suffering that went along with it.
After Nick finds out he has cancer, he meets Meryl. Meryl had arrived home on the train after travelling to her father’s funeral. On her way walking home, Meryl witnesses Rob getting ran over by a train. Loss is another prominent concept in ‘Look Both Ways’. Although something bad hasn’t happened to you, it is still just as hard to get over someone else’s misfortune, in Nick’s case – whether you knew them, or Meryl’s – you did not.
Andy works with Nick at the local paper. He hates his job as a journalist. Andy is the sort of person who thinks everyone has an agenda.
He writes an article about Rob’s death, asking the question whether his death was an accident, or a suicide.
He has one failed marriage, with two kids, and a failed relationship with his exgirlfriend Anna.
Andy’s suffering is emotional, and not visable to others. He pretends not to care about things, and never takes responsibility for what he has done. He pushes his loved ones away, and although he doesn’t say it, he suffers emotionally from not being able to see his children. Personal suffering does not have to have a physical cause, it can also be emotional.
Although Watt has places Anna as a kind of background character, her problems are just as big as the rest. Anna is Andy’s ex girlfriend, who discovers she is pregnant. Anna suffers from the responsibility and the choice of whether or not to keep the baby or to abort. Anna’s suffering is emotional, and no-one except Andy knows about it. She has compassion for the baby, but at the same time she doesn’t know if she can handle having it by herself.
Phil is Nick and Andy’s boss, and the editor of the local paper. Phil has a wife and two children at home, but he neglects them. He spends the majority of his time working late hours at the office. Phil suffers grief over hearing about Nick’s cancer, and starts to realise the more important things in life, his family who had been suffering, without a dad or husband for years.
The title ‘Look Both Ways’ is a metaphor for life. To not only look the way of happiness, and ignore the other way, because something bad could be headed for you. It tells us that although it is impossible to escape personal suffering, whether that be the death of a loved one, the pain and suffering from a serious condition, emotional things such as not being able to see your children, or neglecting them, happiness will always be around the corner. ‘Look Both Ways’ proves this. At the end of the film, we see a short photomontage of the main character’s lives a short time on.
Nick had been treated for cancer, and is married to Meryl. They go around the world together.
Andy and Anna have the baby, and are very happy together.
Phil gives up smoking, and decides to focus his attention more on his two daughters and his wife, rather than spending all his time working at the office.
All the characters in ‘Look Both Ways’ suffering from the negative, bad things in their lives, but as the title suggests, happy times were just around the corner.
“I suppose everyone has to witness something ghastly one day”. Look Both Ways argues that it is impossible to prevent personal suffering. Discuss.
The film ‘Look Both Ways’ argues that it is impossible to prevent personal suffering. The main characters of the film, Nick, Meryl, Andy, Anna, and Phil, all have bad experiences throughout the film. The film’s director, Sarah Watt, has set ‘Look Both Ways’ in Adelaide, Australia. the storyline is centred around the five main characters mentioned above, and their interrelated experiences over one weekend.
The film starts out following a huge train crash, close to the city. Many people have died, or are still missing. This gives the audience a good idea of what two of the major concepts of the film are: death and grief.
The storyline continues with these same concepts, throughout the five characters.
Nick is a man of age roughly 35, who is a photographer for the local paper. He is fit and healthy and lives alone. Nick’s father died of cancer the year before, which is the reason why Nick decides to move back to Adelaide – for his Mum. They are both still grieving over his death. On Friday, Nick visits the doctor and discovers that he too, has developed cancer. Nick suffers from this news, and is unable to tell his friends until the Sunday. Nick’s and his father’s cancer was unpreventable – there is really nothing you can do to stop it, and the pain and suffering that went along with it.
After Nick finds out he has cancer, he meets Meryl. Meryl had arrived home on the train after travelling to her father’s funeral. On her way walking home, Meryl witnesses Rob getting ran over by a train. Loss is another prominent concept in ‘Look Both Ways’. Although something bad hasn’t happened to you, it is still just as hard to get over someone else’s misfortune, in Nick’s case – whether you knew them, or Meryl’s – you did not.
Andy works with Nick at the local paper. He hates his job as a journalist. Andy is the sort of person who thinks everyone has an agenda.
He writes an article about Rob’s death, asking the question whether his death was an accident, or a suicide.
He has one failed marriage, with two kids, and a failed relationship with his exgirlfriend Anna.
Andy’s suffering is emotional, and not visable to others. He pretends not to care about things, and never takes responsibility for what he has done. He pushes his loved ones away, and although he doesn’t say it, he suffers emotionally from not being able to see his children. Personal suffering does not have to have a physical cause, it can also be emotional.
Although Watt has places Anna as a kind of background character, her problems are just as big as the rest. Anna is Andy’s ex girlfriend, who discovers she is pregnant. Anna suffers from the responsibility and the choice of whether or not to keep the baby or to abort. Anna’s suffering is emotional, and no-one except Andy knows about it. She has compassion for the baby, but at the same time she doesn’t know if she can handle having it by herself.
Phil is Nick and Andy’s boss, and the editor of the local paper. Phil has a wife and two children at home, but he neglects them. He spends the majority of his time working late hours at the office. Phil suffers grief over hearing about Nick’s cancer, and starts to realise the more important things in life, his family who had been suffering, without a dad or husband for years.
The title ‘Look Both Ways’ is a metaphor for life. To not only look the way of happiness, and ignore the other way, because something bad could be headed for you. It tells us that although it is impossible to escape personal suffering, whether that be the death of a loved one, the pain and suffering from a serious condition, emotional things such as not being able to see your children, or neglecting them, happiness will always be around the corner. ‘Look Both Ways’ proves this. At the end of the film, we see a short photomontage of the main character’s lives a short time on.
Nick had been treated for cancer, and is married to Meryl. They go around the world together.
Andy and Anna have the baby, and are very happy together.
Phil gives up smoking, and decides to focus his attention more on his two daughters and his wife, rather than spending all his time working at the office.
All the characters in ‘Look Both Ways’ suffering from the negative, bad things in their lives, but as the title suggests, happy times were just around the corner.
Student Practice Response
LOOK BOTH WAYS PRAC SAC
The stories of all the characters carry equal weight in Look Both Ways. What do you think?
Each character in Look Both Way’s don’t carry the same weight, some carry huge weights such as Nick with his life or death cancer and some carry different weights such as Anna and Andy with the baby dilemma, All the characters carry some sort of weight but are to all different extents.
In the film one of the main characters Nick carries the heaviest weight of all. He has recently been told he has testicular cancer , which is what he has just watched his father die from, throughout the film he doesn’t tell anyone except Phil because he didn’t know the state of the cancer and he doesn’t want to leave his mother with after his father just dieing. Another weight on his shoulders throughout the film is his relationship with Meryl, He is drawn to her because that have similar experiences and they have numerus things in common, but he is reluctant to burden her about his cancer because she see’s death in everyone except him for some reason, due to Nick not being fully honest with Meryl about his health it makes the viewer feel a sense of awkwardness between the two of them whilst they are together.
Meryl also carries weight around with her throughout the film, although it’s not the same as the Life or death circumstances that Nick carries around with him, Meryl carries the emotional weight that her Father has Just passed away which leaves her in the mental state that causes her to imagine death scenarios during her normal life, these are shown through the artistic animations shown in the film such as the one where nick walks up to her window and says hello but she imagines him walking up and pulling a gun on her, also throughout the film there are many more instances where Meryl imagines being killed from everyday situations. This shows the mental state she is in during this time of her life which is the main weight she has to carry around with her.
Anna and Andy are carrying around a different t weight than what Nick and Meryl are, although it isn’t as challenging as the previous two characters it is very difficult. There weight is the burden of an unplanned pregnancy between the two of them which is brought to there attention after they have sort of broken off there relationship, Annas main concerns are that Andy isn’t at the right place in his life to look after another child along with his other two with his ex-wife, this is made even more clear to Anna when she witnesses Andy and his ex-wife arguing and her not trusting him enough to take there children to a party.
Although Julia isn’t featured as much as the other characters in the film she carries the weight of her partner being hit by a train and dieing, this happens after the two of them had recently brought a project house that needs plenty of renovations which gives the viewer a sense that the two of them are at the start of a long term relationship, after Robert dies it leaves Julia with far to much work to handle. One of the things that hurts Julia the most Is the Newspaper article that is written by Andy about her partners death possible being a Suicide not an accident and it featuring a large picture of herself on the front page, the article is obviously incorrect because that Julia and Robert where happy together and just at the beginning of there life.
Phil is the character that is carrying the lightest weight on his shoulders compared to the rest of the characters because he isn’t dieing or had someone die close to him. The weight that Phil Carries is the one of his familys wellbeing because of his bad habits of drinking, smoking and always putting work ahead of his family which is a very unhealthy life he is leading which could fly right past him very quickly, But by Nick coming to him an telling him about his cancer it opens his eyes up to the way he is living and how it would affect his family if he died, due to this eye opening experience Phil decides to change his lifestyle choices and stop smoking and drinking as much and putting his family ahead of his work, this is shown in the scene when Phil goes to his daughters party instead of working, due to this change of lifestyle it takes a huge weight off his shoulders in the end.
The statement ‘The stories of all characters carry equal weight in Look Both Ways’ isn’t correct as shown in the previous paragraphs from Nick who is carrying possible death around to Phil who is just worrying about how his family would cope without him around if he continued his unhealthy lifestyle, so a better statement would have been ‘All characters carry weight on there shoulders throughout there life but all are to different extents’.
The stories of all the characters carry equal weight in Look Both Ways. What do you think?
Each character in Look Both Way’s don’t carry the same weight, some carry huge weights such as Nick with his life or death cancer and some carry different weights such as Anna and Andy with the baby dilemma, All the characters carry some sort of weight but are to all different extents.
In the film one of the main characters Nick carries the heaviest weight of all. He has recently been told he has testicular cancer , which is what he has just watched his father die from, throughout the film he doesn’t tell anyone except Phil because he didn’t know the state of the cancer and he doesn’t want to leave his mother with after his father just dieing. Another weight on his shoulders throughout the film is his relationship with Meryl, He is drawn to her because that have similar experiences and they have numerus things in common, but he is reluctant to burden her about his cancer because she see’s death in everyone except him for some reason, due to Nick not being fully honest with Meryl about his health it makes the viewer feel a sense of awkwardness between the two of them whilst they are together.
Meryl also carries weight around with her throughout the film, although it’s not the same as the Life or death circumstances that Nick carries around with him, Meryl carries the emotional weight that her Father has Just passed away which leaves her in the mental state that causes her to imagine death scenarios during her normal life, these are shown through the artistic animations shown in the film such as the one where nick walks up to her window and says hello but she imagines him walking up and pulling a gun on her, also throughout the film there are many more instances where Meryl imagines being killed from everyday situations. This shows the mental state she is in during this time of her life which is the main weight she has to carry around with her.
Anna and Andy are carrying around a different t weight than what Nick and Meryl are, although it isn’t as challenging as the previous two characters it is very difficult. There weight is the burden of an unplanned pregnancy between the two of them which is brought to there attention after they have sort of broken off there relationship, Annas main concerns are that Andy isn’t at the right place in his life to look after another child along with his other two with his ex-wife, this is made even more clear to Anna when she witnesses Andy and his ex-wife arguing and her not trusting him enough to take there children to a party.
Although Julia isn’t featured as much as the other characters in the film she carries the weight of her partner being hit by a train and dieing, this happens after the two of them had recently brought a project house that needs plenty of renovations which gives the viewer a sense that the two of them are at the start of a long term relationship, after Robert dies it leaves Julia with far to much work to handle. One of the things that hurts Julia the most Is the Newspaper article that is written by Andy about her partners death possible being a Suicide not an accident and it featuring a large picture of herself on the front page, the article is obviously incorrect because that Julia and Robert where happy together and just at the beginning of there life.
Phil is the character that is carrying the lightest weight on his shoulders compared to the rest of the characters because he isn’t dieing or had someone die close to him. The weight that Phil Carries is the one of his familys wellbeing because of his bad habits of drinking, smoking and always putting work ahead of his family which is a very unhealthy life he is leading which could fly right past him very quickly, But by Nick coming to him an telling him about his cancer it opens his eyes up to the way he is living and how it would affect his family if he died, due to this eye opening experience Phil decides to change his lifestyle choices and stop smoking and drinking as much and putting his family ahead of his work, this is shown in the scene when Phil goes to his daughters party instead of working, due to this change of lifestyle it takes a huge weight off his shoulders in the end.
The statement ‘The stories of all characters carry equal weight in Look Both Ways’ isn’t correct as shown in the previous paragraphs from Nick who is carrying possible death around to Phil who is just worrying about how his family would cope without him around if he continued his unhealthy lifestyle, so a better statement would have been ‘All characters carry weight on there shoulders throughout there life but all are to different extents’.
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