Understanding Cool...

With the movie of the week being Reservoir Dogs, I expected the theme of cool to be "Cool Heist" because of the nature of the film, or possibly "Cool Inspiration" because of how Quentin Tarantino was able to shape how action movies are shot. But when I saw that the theme was "Cool Literacy" I was confused. I was wondering how a movie full of violence, expletives, and awesomeness had a theme of literacy. It was then that I remembered that literacy can mean something other than the ability to read and write. Literacy can be defined as knowledgeable and educated in one or several fields, as in the phrase Computer Literacy. In this context, I can see how Reservoir Dogs is considered as Cool Literacy.

The characters in the movie all have there specialty, and they all know what to do. They are definitely literate in there respected field. This type of literacy is also seen in the movie The Italian Job. Each member of the team in that movie has a certain job. They are all literate at some aspect of the job that they are pulling. Charlie is idea literate, Stella is safe cracking literate, Lyle is very computer literate, Left Ear is explosive literate, and Handsome Rob is automotive literate. Each of these characters all have a certain literacy that definitely add to, and even define there cool. Another movie that shows literacy in this definition is Sweeney Todd. Now I chose this movie primarily to get out of the heist movies and try to convey the "Cool Literacy" thought in another form. Sweeney has quite a literacy in two things: being a barber and being crazy. He is the best barbor in London. He has mastered his trade and the speed that he can shave a man's face is amazing. The literacy he has in his craft is really one of the only things that makes his character cool. When literacy is seen as apptitude and skill, the trancedental properties of cool come into context, and many people can be seen as cool.

When looking at literacy as the trancendentaly cool aspect of a person, vast posibilities are opened up to what "Cool Literacy" could be. It is anyone that is good at there job, to kids that game so much. But when a person achieves that ultimate level of skill at something, they are cool. Wether that is the ultra-computer literate hackers, or a woman that can draw super realistic pencil sketches, or even a little kid that can read and write when they are four, they are cool.