Sugar (2009)
Directed By: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
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Sugar
ReplyDeleteEscrito por: Erica Errkila
The movie Sugar is a very interesting deptiction of cultural differences and racial prejudice between the Dominican Republic and the United States. The main character Sugar is a talented baseball player who goes to a school in the Dominican Republic that specializes in teaching boys and young men how to play professional baseball.
It really surprised me how little English this school taught. The educators taught the boys the basic vocabulary. The vocabulary included: "Fly ball," "I got it," and "Home run." Even though this would help the baseball players if they were able to develop their skills enough to play in the American major leagues, the little English that they learned would not help them live in the U.S. I was surprised that the school pushed the boys so physically hard, but it did not push them hard with their studies. The main character Sugar did not finish high school, but the school he attended was more concerned about his knuckle ball. Some of the baseball players in the United States were forced to eat French Toast over and over because they did not know how to order anything else. I think it is sad that because the school did not teach Sugar, and the rest of the students enough English that they were judged by people in the U.S. People called him "Mexican" and "Puerto Rican" as if those nationalities were insults. I think this movie showed the viewer how difficult it is to come to a new country where there is a different language and culture that a person is unfamiliar with and have that person to be forced to adapt to it. The United States is a country of immigrants and I think that it is very sad that in the land of immigrants, people can be so prejudiced.
I found the connection with family is so strong with the Latin American culture to be a powerful thing. For example, when Sugar quits playing baseball, he goes to New York because he has a friend there. It was very interesting that so many people who were in Sugar's situation were congregared in the same area, and they were almost like one big family. In the movie Sugar, the viewer begins to understand the importance of being accepted by the people around them and that is why all of these people make up their own mini-community in order to make up their own group that accepted them for who they were.
The movie Sugar was a very powerful film because it exposed the viewer to the intensity of the Dominican Republic's culture. Compared to the United States, I think it is shocking to see people live in such poverty that they would allow their sons to be sent to a boarding school where, academically, they learn virtually nothing. They do this to give their children the opportunity to develop their baseball skills so they may have the opportunity to play in the American major leagues. I thought it was shocking how prejudiced the people in the U.S. were judged by where they came from since most of the American people's ancestors were not from this country. Even though Sugar was judged by some of the people in the U.S., he was able to find where he belonged--with his friends in New York. The movie Sugar was an interesting depiction of the prejudice that exists in the United States.
Plot Synopsis
ReplyDeleteCourtesy of Yahoo! Movies
Miguel Santos, a.k.a Azucar, a Dominican pitcher from San Pedro de Macoris, struggles to make it to the big leagues and pull himself and his family out of poverty. Playing professionally at the Kansas City Knights baseball academy, Miguel finally gets his break at age 19 when he advances to the United States' minor league system. Miguel travels from his tight knit community in the Dominican Republic to a small town in Iowa, corn country, where he and a couple other Latin American teammates are the only Spanish-speaking people in the vicinity. As Miguel struggles with the new language and culture, despite the welcoming efforts of his host family, he is faced with an isolation he never before experienced. When his play on the mound falters, he begins examining more closely the world around him and his place within it, and ultimately questions the single-mindedness of his life's ambition.