Hal Jordan

Imagine it’s December 23, 1971 and you are on a long anticipated date night at the local theater in your neighborhood. You are your love have settled on the new romantic comedy Harold and Maude by director Hal Ashby. What better than a romantic comedy on date night, two quirky, upbeat, individuals who fall in love through adversity and live happily ever after; all while getting a few laughs along the way. Like most couples you may not say much during the viewing but as soon as you walk out of…

The value of life in Harold and Maude The movie, Harold and Maude, released in 1971, is directed by Hal Ashby and written by Colin Higgins. It talks about a young man, Harold, who is fascinated by the world of death. He simulates suicide, drives in a hearse and goes to the funeral as a hobby. He meets Maude in a funeral. She is an energetic old lady full of life. They had a romantic adventure together until Maude commits suicide on her 80th birthday. Through Maude’s influence, Harold loses his…

Northern Baroque: Baroque Art was the principal European style of art in the 17th century. Although encapsulating the whole of Europe, Baroque art greatly varied from region to region. Having been divided into two separate spheres, the Northern countries who turned Protestant, and the Southern countries who remained Catholic, developed two distinctive artistic styles. In Italy and Spain, the Counter-Reformation was in full swing, promoting complex and dramatic paintings and sculptures such as…

role in this film due to the futuristic elements of space, themes of existentialism, and evolution. HAL 9000 is introduced in the film as one of the most reliable computers around, but like all powerful characters, HAL had a tragic downfall that was integral in this film. As Iris Murdoch once wrote, “art is the imitation of nature”; HAL is perceived as art (Murdoch, page 113). HAL is a super computer that was created for the sole purpose of using its knowledge, speed, and…

2001: A Space Odyssey, two men are on a spaceship alone with an advanced AI computer HAL 9000 who maintains the ship's stability and mental health and well-being of the crew. HAL being a computer he couldn’t be completely trusted and caused him to lie about a mechanical failure and killed the crew. Dave, the main crew member, knew that “ I am so much more capable than you are of supervising the ship”(187) than HAL after he said that he would control the ship. After explaining this to the…

The Fight with ISIS “All wars have unintended consequences. No matter how cautious generals and political leaders are, war sets in motion waves of change that can alter the currents of history” (Tirman 45). The United States involved itself in an ongoing conflict that has spanned from Crusades to the colonization by the European powers. When the United States pulled out of Iraq in December 2011, a splinter group of Al qaeda headed by Abu Musab al Zarqawi attacked major Shia communities to…

Israel & Palestine Conflict It is interesting to think that such that the modern conflict, like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, started almost hundred years ago in the heart of both eastern and western Europe. Today Jewish nationalism is now known as Zionism, its origins stem from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. There are many political and social actions that created a foundation for Zionism. Most notably three stand out the most, the first being Dreyfus Affair of 1894, secondly the…

Although there has always been tension between Syrians and their government, the tension officially erupted on March 2011 with the punishment of revolutionary teenagers. This marked the end of peaceful protests as consequences for rebelling against the government became more severe. Since then, the conflict has escalated, leading to a loss of more than 300,000 lives and the displacement of six million people throughout Middle Eastern countries. While financial aid for Syrian refugees has…

The Syrian Refugee Crisis has been an ongoing issue that has been mainly present since 2011 but has been an ongoing issue since the World War II era. Violence and turmoil has caused Syrians to mass migrate to other countries. However, the current refugee crisis has had a widening Impact in the neighboring countries of Europe. The First issue that needs to be resolved is that not a lot of countries have the courage to stand up and take responsibility on fixing the issue of migration. The second…

democracy. More than 250,000 have died, 1.2 million have fled the country, and more than 6.5 million people are trapped inside war bound Syria (‘’Syria: The story of the conflict’’) . Although many of the refugees have fled to neighboring countries like Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey; the UN has safely relocated many others in European countries. However, countries like the U.S and Canada are still very averse to accepting high numbers of Syrian refugees into their borders. Since the beginning of…