The Sea Inside Response

1. What is your general reaction to the film? What do you think of Ramon's plea for assisted suicide, the court's response to his case, and his eventual actions? What do you think of his friends who were willing to help him? THINK.

I think that the film was very interesting. It may seem like the film is introducing the idea of Ramon, but it used painful scenes to talk back to such belief. However, I do believe that life is a right, not a obligation. There are many times when life can be extremely painful, and you are willing to give up everything to escape such sufference. I think that the reason why Ramon's friends would help him willingly is because of their love and friendship. They saw his pain, and don't want him to suffer anymore. They really don't want to witness the dissappearnce of Ramon, but because of love and friendship, they would like to suffer from the pain of losing a friend rather than seeing him suffering. I think, because of different beliefs in life, the court's decision may represent the opposing side. It is true that no one has the right to kill anyone else, and that you should not commit suicide, not because of the deal with afterlife, but because of not to hurt the people you love.

2. How does The Sea Inside compare and contrast to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly? What similarities and differences to you notice? Which one was more powerful, in your opinion? Why?

The Sea Inside was a lot more depressive than The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Ramon completely give up and felt hopeless regarding his life. I think that The Sea Inside was more powerful due to the visual. The scene when Ramon drank the poisonous water is still vivid in my mind. The director used some disturbing scene to coat the idea of ending one's life with bitterness. It was painful to watch. In the other hand, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was quite difficult to imagine, Bauby didn't gave a detailed description about himself, so it is hard to picture him as a person and develop a sense of emotion toward him.

3. Refer to your notes that you took during our viewing of the film about technique, camera angles, and camera movements. What scenes did you notice, in particular, where the film technique underscored meaning and added to the message being sent by the director?

The scene when Ramon was describing the experience of drowning in the background and the camera gave a long-lasting close-up shot to the drowning, 18-years old Ramon's face and the air coming out of his mouth. It really showed the lost of life, especially when things are shown in slow motion as Ramon described it as a "slow, but sweet way to die"... As air bubbles slowly escape from his lungs and mouth, his life was slowly deceding as well... and because of the slow motion and created a peaceful feeling, it made the shot of Ramon being pulled out from the water even more interuptive than it actually is.