Mashup Summary

For the mashup project, I took inspiration from the scene in Apocalypse Now (and whatever that took inspiration from), where the cows are slaughtered. I made this comparison, between soldiers and livestock more obvious, because I am not a film student and don’t understand subtlety. With this mashup, I was trying to show that the comparison between soldiers and livestock begins with their recruitment and training, not just the “slaughterhouse”. It’s a fairly simple comparison, but the ‘life’ of a soldier matches up pretty well with that of beef cattle. They are first “round-up” and recruited, put through training where they gain enough pounds to be shipped off. All throughout this process, the cattle are herded along by ranchers and those who profit from their death, while the soldiers are herded along by politicians and those who profit from their wars. The last few clips are cut from a documentary on how to prepare Kosher meats; I think the “ritual killing” (in a sense) matches well between the organized religion of Judaism and that of the government.