Presidential Words

After reviewing all of the word clouds produced from the past presidential inaugural speeches given throughout American history, the most interesting thing I came upon was the differences I noted when I compared the word clouds created from President George Bush’s 2nd address in 2005 and President Barack Obama’s first inaugural address given in 2009.

The biggest difference I noted between the two was the nature of the words presented in the cloud. Words used by President Bush such as tyranny, fire, and enemy were aggressive and rough in nature. This was contrasted when I looked at the word cloud created from President Obama’s 1^st inaugural address to the country which included words such as care, promise, journey, and life. These words are very different in nature than those of President Bush in that they are more reserved and positive.

I believe the reason for this juxtaposition of diction used in these two speeches most likely has to do with the timing of the speeches given and the fact that one speech was a first inaugural address while the other was a second and last. President Bush was giving his second inaugural address and his speech which used the more aggressive wording was at a time where 9/11 was more recent, and the war on terror was a large issue at hand. President Obama’s speech with the softer language used was a first-time address and he was probably playing off of his campaign theme of hope and change for America as a country. Just by analyzing the words used in their speeches to the nation, it’s clear that Obama was a change from President Bush.

Scene Analysis

Two things that I noticed that the film maker of Apocalypse Now, Francis ford Coppola, used in the opening scene of the film were the use of music, and also the mix of war imagery with images of what was actually occurring at the time.

Francis Ford Coppola, the film maker of Apocalypse Now, successfully employed the use of music in the opening scene of the movie. I thought that the juxtaposition of the scenes of bombing and destruction paired with somewhat calm, slower music was very interesting and worked to make the slower-motion scenes of destruction of more impactful to the viewer. I believe that was most likely the main goal of the film maker—to make the scenes of destruction more impactful by placing them in slow motion and adding the slower music, and also to evoke some emotion from the viewing audience.

Another interesting strategy that Coppola used in the opening scene of Apocalypse Now was having a mixture of war scenes, but also showing the view of what was actually occurring with the character at the time (lying alone in a hotel room). He successfully combined the two very dissimilar sceneries in creative ways such as having the propeller of a helicopter fade into the imagery of a ceiling fan in his room. I feel that this mixture of images was incorporated to demonstrate the truth that even when a soldier is not in battle, the scenes and images of the battles he has endured never fully depart from his head.