Free Write

      I think for the first essay, I am going to choose to do prompt B. Instead of comparing the role of machines in Hugo and in Modern Times, I think the concept of machines in Dancer in the Dark is a much more interesting and provocative idea. Each movie has its own unique problems with machines and what they cause, although we see it a little more subtly in Dancer than in the machine-filled Hugo. Both movies give us the same message: machines can bright light to the world if in the hands of the good, who can use their imagination to bring out what machines can do. One of the main differences that I see, having just watched Dancer is this: Hugo shows us the dangers of losing imagination in times when its needed most, but Dancer shows the beauty of fantasy and the sadness that comes from too much.
     In Dancer, Selma is this beautiful, bright soul that doesn't let the depression of encroaching blindness ruin her life. She chooses to see the magic in the world, and makes some very good friends a long her journey. Her love for her son is what drives her to desperate measures to regain the money for his vision surgery (a new technology, or machine). In Hugo, its the other way around. It's a son feeling the need to connect with his late  father through the technology they shared together. Both need to use imagination so they don't feel so small, or helpless, in their situations. Hugo chooses to see the bigger picture, that he is a cog in a machine with a job to do, while Selma brightens her life with the thing she enjoys most: musicals. Both messages are brought out clearly in the style the directors chose, but there is most likely more room to explore the connections between the two films.