Fruitvale station

The film fruit vale station was made in 2013 and was directed by Ryan Coogler. The film was based on the events which happened to Oscar Grant the third on the 31^st December and 1^st of January. The films was genre are drama, romance and social realism. It is a drama since it displays an honest story of human struggles. Such as the part when he loses his job and has to confess that to his wife. This links in with social realism. This film pin points a spot light on the young, black, lower/working class and illustrates what daily problems they have to deal with. There is also an element of the romance genre for example the plot revolves around Sophina and Oscar, mostly Oscar, making it in the Romance genre.

The Narrative to the film is non-linear. There is a flash back to when Oscar is in jail and his mother, Wanda, is visiting him. At first I believe it was a flash forward. I thought that Oscar had got caught by the police for dealing drugs but by the end of the film I learned that it was a flash back. I believe that this flash back fitted very well with the timing in the scene. The flash back came in when he was on the beach considering to deal the drugs. It gives the audience some information that he had spent time in jail before and was trying to turn his life around.

It represents the young, black man as the struggler. The struggler usually lives for today and makes very few plans for tomorrow. Often seen as the victims, losers and disorganised people with few recourses apart from their own physical skills. They consume heavy alcohol and seek visual impact or physical sensation for example New Year’s Eve. The main character, Oscar, fits this struggler role very well. He recently lost his job therefore making him the loser. He lost it because he was late therefore being disorganised. He finds escapism in the physical sensation of the New Year’s Eve trip. Most of the young black males are represented in this way. All of his Oscars friends have low paid jobs or no jobs at all and they result to drugs to escape the monotonous cycle of their life. I believe it represents the white middle aged man as the succeeder.  The scene where Oscar is waiting outside the shop with white man on the New Year’s Eve night. The white man looks a lot well dressed and tells Oscar about how he stole a ring for the engagement ring and that he started up a web design business. The white man started at the bottom, being a credit card fraudster. Then working his way up to becoming the manager of the web designer company. 

Weekly news 

The article- Have rugby players reached their limit

This article was written by David Rhodes and discusses how rugby players have been getting bigger over the past 20 years but now have reached their peak. Rugby players have been getting bigger ever since 1987. I believe that rugby players have been getting bigger because the sport requires weight and size to achieve its goals. For example if you had the heavier team you would win most of the line-outs, scrums, rucks and mauls therefore scorning more tries.

A recent study from the national institute of sport and physical education in France shows that between 1987 and 2011 the weight of rugby players did increase at each world cup but the weight and size slowed as it reached the end. 

This show that the average weight of a forward between 1987 and 1999 increased by 5Kg, while the average weight of a back increased by 5.6Kg. Yet the weight of a forward after 1999 only increased by 3.9Kg and the weight of a back after 1999 only increased by 2.9Kg. The reason because of this is because the professionalization of rugby players in 1980 caused more players to train much more frequently. That is the cause of why players grew in weight and size so fast from 1987 to 1999. But the reason why the weight and size of the players has slowed down is because the nature of the game is changing. Such as the games are becoming much more stratergized and structured instead of using just brute force.

In my opinion I believe that rugby players have become as big as they need to be. I believe that there is a limit that they have reached. If they were to go over that limit the game would just turn into a brawl of giants and lose the aim of game. By reaching the limit they are at now I believe that the games aims can still be achievable.