"Nobelity" Impressions So Far

Our class recently viewed the beginning of the film Nobelity. After the viewing, I thought about the film a little and what had struck me so far. Nobelity is described as a documentary in which a man interviews nine Nobel Laureates in an attempt to ask and answer questions about modern-day problems that society is facing. So far, the film has brought up some interesting questions and criticisms regarding our society: Decisions are not made with the long-term future in mind. Do Americans not know or care about global issues such as health? Our history is one of war, not peace. All of these are intriguing, thought-provoking prompts. However, while the film does an excellent job of raising these questions, it does not do such a good job answering them. Nobelity points out problems, but not solutions. In addition, the Nobel Laureates interviewed are from a variety of different fields, and they are asked different questions, preventing the film from having a cohesive direction, at least so far. On top of that, I had another issue with the film so far, although it might not bother others. When Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams is interviewed, she says, "There is nothing magical about change. It's just getting off your @** and taking the first step. It's being the future you want to see." While this quote could have been memorable and optimistic, I feel that it was ruined by the unnecessary usage of foul language. In a film that discusses issues in modern-day society, one would think that a Nobel Peace Prize winner, likely a role model to many, would choose not to use such vulgarities. In fact, I feel that in order to address big world issues, we need to start by addressing small, local issues, including overuse of foul language. While Nobelity has done a good job bringing up major issues, it has so far failed to offer realistic solutions to these big problems and does absolutely nothing to address the smaller ones. Hopefully, the rest of the film will not follow suit in the latter two aspects.