Learning Journal 5
This week, Yasmine and I presented on Now You See Me, which was one of my favorite assignments this semester. I love the movies and have watched them more times than I can count, but I had never watched them with the intention of analyzing them. Preparing for our presentation made me pay attention to details I had overlooked and question characters I had always rooted for.
One scene that stood out was when the Horsemen get Arthur Tressler’s private information while talking to him on the plane. They casually ask questions, and he gives away information that can be used to answer his security questions without realizing it. After our discussions about phishing and scams, I recognized how this connects to social engineering. It made me think about how easily a normal conversation could be used to get information from someone.
The presentation also made me question whether Dylan should be considered a good guy or a bad guy. He is an FBI agent secretly organizing the operation to get revenge for his father, yet I still wanted him to succeed. Before this assignment, I had accepted the ending without thinking much about whether his actions were justified.
That connects to our class discussions about rooting for the “less bad” person. The Horsemen deceive people and steal, but because their targets are portrayed as worse, it becomes easier to excuse what they do. I realized that my judgment depended partly on whose perspective the movie encouraged me to take. Now I am curious about why we do that as viewers. Would I feel the same way about their actions if the story were told from someone else’s perspective?
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