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Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) of Rochester, MN made its first effort towards an effective, service learning based, study abroad program by leading a group of 14 students to Cambodia over Christmas break. The purpose of the course was to study Intercultural Communication. However, more importantly, the focus was the student's corresponding service learning projects, all designed to help certain Cambodian orphanages and schools while increasing awareness between Americans and Cambodians. Through their course and project(s), RCTC students uniquely experienced first-hand the many facets of international education and communication, and, with a cheerful willingness, in their own small way helped further an integrated, educated global community.

RCTC students were challenged to develop and implement sustainable service learning projects for Cambodia. Last year, an RCTC contingent, as guests of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), traveled throughout Cambodia, interviewing teachers, village leaders, and students as to what was needed--how RCTC could contribute to sustainable development, while helping create and further the global community. This year, RCTC used feedback from their previous trip to work with a dynamic NGO, Youth Services of Cambodia. Youth Services of Cambodia is an NGO created entirely by students of RUPP, and led by their President, Roeun Ran (ysc_ran@yahoo.com (855)-012-577-331). Ran said that the first task of the NGO (around 50 students), which received a grant from the Ford Foundation of $2,400, is an "elementary enhancement of six primary schools." But first the NGO attempts to create among the students of RUPP a strong sense of community and global spirit. As Ran mentioned, "We try to raise awareness and spirit among the students of RUPP, who are often privileged students, some having never having left Phnom Penh, about real problems that exist in Cambodian rural communities. We ask village leaders and teachers what the students of RUPP may do to initiate and further sustainable projects of improvement in the villages."

To accomplish this, RCTC together with the NGO, participated in a beautification project by planting flowers and trees around a village primary school. Youth Services of Cambodia helps villages by picking up trash, installing water purifiers, supplying garbage bins, marching down the streets of Phnom Penh and villages encouraging citizens not to litter, and providing charity projects for children in Phnom Penh's garbage dumps.

Individual RCTC student projects included one young woman who raised money for modern toilets and a well (many girls quit school, embarrassed from lacking privacy when they begin menstruating); another student worked to connect Cambodian school children with an American class that made a book of what life in America is about, and, in turn having Cambodian kids create a book representing life in Cambodia to bring back to American school children; another student project investigated the sex trade in Cambodia.

RCTC found that international education begins in the classroom with ideas and grant proposals, but it must transfer outside of the classroom to help connect and improve societies for the better in a diplomatic, sustainable way through intimate intercultural communication and a good deal of sweat. This involves working with those whom one intends to serve, listening and learning about their needs, wants, and dreams, then lending one's expertise. The relationship must be long term for any project to be sustainable and fruitful. Carefully nurtured service learning is one avenue of international education which furthers this goal. RCTC will certainly continue to build its program.

Of course, not the entirety of the trip was service learning and intercultural communication, at least of the variety described above. RCTC students were able to travel throughout Cambodia and see up close the many wonders this land and culture holds. Students were able to walk and climb the ruins of the wondrous temple, the largest religious structure in the world, Angkor Wat, where Buddhist mystics sit in enclaves and will tell you your life's fortune and direction for a small fee. It was interesting to notice, too, the Banyan tree which grows seemingly from the top down in and out of the high walls of the temple. And seeing the sun rise over Angkor Wat at 6:00am is a spiritually calming or challenging experience--one of breathtaking beauty.

From breathtaking beauty to breathtaking horror, one can visit Tueol Sleng (a former high school converted into a prison and torture chamber by the khmer Rouge from 1975-79), or visit the "Killing Fields" themselves and see the seven story monument of skulls, and walk along paths where human bones and clothes of those buried by the Khmer Rouge butchers (1975-79) are beginning to surface because of natural erosion and tourists walking. As you can gather, Cambodia is a land of contrasts.

The American dollar goes far in Cambodia; a very comfortable and accommodating hotel will cost perhaps 15-20 dollars a night. During the day, shops of all varieties--garments, trinkets, exquisite handmade items (swords of teak-wood, etc.), and of course the unique and flavorful food in restaurants--is all available for very reasonable prices. The night life of Phnom Penh is relaxed--take a tuk-tuk ride (a motorcycle pulling a cart) with your sweetheart or friend along the Mekong river, explore the many nightclubs, or, if you have had a hard day opt for an hour, full-body massage for five dollars.

Certainly our students' learned a great deal about Cambodia, its culture, and its history. But visiting a foreign land and truly learning intercultural communication means jumping in the water (or rice paddy) feet first, and having fun. Service-learning study abroad trips offer an affordable means to do so.

My name is Mark Halverson-Wente, a father of two wonderful children (who were able to come to Cambodia and particiapte in the project), a true-blue Minnesotan, and therefore an obligatory lover of lutefisk. Because of my taste for lutefisk, l am able to eat the "exotic delicacies" of any land--in Cambodia's case, deep fried crickets and huge, black rice paddy spiders. I am an adjunct professor of Political Science (specifically, Political Philosophy), and, through my wife, who teaches Speech Communication at RCTC, I have had the experience of setting up a curriculum and traveling to Cambodia on two occasions thus far. We are in the process of setting up a permanent relationship with a Cambodian NGO, Youth Services of Cambodia, and are very excited about that prospect. My hobbies are reading, writing, and chess, and spending special time with my family, though not necessarily in that order.

"a Fistful of Dollars" Started Sergio Leone's Masterpiece Trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari in Italian) - 4 Stars (Excellent)

Is it possible for an excellent, groundbreaking film in a specific genre to be overlooked at award ceremonies? Absolutely, and a perfect example is "A Fistful of Dollars" that gave rise to what we commonly identify today as "the spaghetti Western".

A Fistful of Dollars was the first of Director Sergio Leone's masterpiece trilogy that would be followed by "For A Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". It was Leone who realized that the American-made Westerns of the 1950s had become nothing more or less than housing developments designed with a cookie-cutter pattern of staleness.

Leone's answer was to shoot the film as if he was orchestrating an opera. The result would become the model for many Westerns to come, featuring his trademark taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone.

All of this would give rise to "The Man With No Name" (Clint Eastwood), who was originally referred to as "Joe" in A Fistful of Dollars, but became The Man With No Name in the sequels.

I am very boffo on this film and for good reason. The combination of Leone's direction is excellent given Morricone's music, the cinematography by Massimo Dallamano and Federico Larraya, film editing by Roberto Cinquini and Alfonso Santacana, and sound by Elio Pacella. A Fistful of Dollars was shot in the Spanish province of Almeria.

Despite its credentials, A Fistful of Dollars would win only one awardthe Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists' Silver Ribbon for the Best Score by Ennio Morricone. You could see this film for the musical score alone and come away very impressed.

Released in 1964, A Fistful of Dollars would not make its American debut until 1967. The film's arrival here was delayed when "Yojimbo" screenwriters Akira Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima sued for breach of copyright and won, receiving 15% of the film's worldwide gross and exclusive distribution rights for Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Kurosawa said later he made more money off of this project than he did on Yojimbo, which was released 3 years earlier. The screenplay was written by A. Bonzzoni, Victor Andres Catena and Sergio Leone.

The story is about a gunfighter (Clint Eastwood) who comes to a small border town and offers his services to two rival gangsthe Rojos and the Baxters.

The Rojos include the dangerous Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte), Esteban (Sieghardt Rupp) and Don Benito (Antonio Prieto), Ramon's girlfriend Marisol (Marianne Koch), Rubio (Benito Stefanelli) and Chico (Mario Brega). The Baxters include John (Wolfgang Lukschy), his wife Consuelo (Margarita Lozano) and a bevy of additional lesser-light banditos on both sides.

The bell-ringer in the film, Juan De Dios (Raf Baldassarre) warns the gunfighter, "you'll get rich here, or you'll be killed." The gunfighter later acknowledges that the "crazy bell-ringer was right, there's money to be made in a place like this."

Neither gang is aware of The Man With No Name's ploy to play one against the other, each thinking they are using him against their rival, but the gunfighter will outwit them both.

Along the way he will personally kill at least 14 of them, get the Rojos to completely obliterate the rest of the Baxter gang, rescue the kidnapped wife and return her to her family so they can safely escape, rescue the innkeeper Silvanito (Jose Calvo), and eliminate Ramon Rojo in a classic showdown worthy of any Western movie every made and too good to share here.

Another actor to watch in this film is Piripero the undertaker (Joseph Egger), who provides the avenue for The Man With No Name's escape when he is incapable of doing so on his own.

The genius of Sergio Leone is seen in one of the film's earliest scenes. As the gunfighter rides slowly into town, 3 Baxter gang members fire shots to scare the mule he is riding. After some food and whiskey, the gunfighter confronts his tormentors with this dialog:

"I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it."

Properly incensed and challenged, 4 key Baxter gang members draw to fire and are cut down in a blink of an eye by The Man With No Name.

While the dialog and action in this scene are excellent, Leone's direction is even more so and here is why: In American films, when a cowboy was shot, one camera was ALWAYS focused on the shooter and a split second later, another camera cut to the victim. Leone captured the scene with the camera over Eastwood's shoulder, so the moviegoer could vicariously witness the shooting as if he was doing the shooting.

Leone's genius was as powerful today44 years lateras an interactive web site on the Internet, both of which did not exist in 1964. No wonder it is so easy for moviegoers today to experience his genius.

A Fistful of Dollars is too good not to experience. Like so many films that are expected to be nothing and become classics in movie history, the role of The Man With No Name is littered with big names who did not play the role when an unknown like Clint Eastwood did.

This list includes Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Charles Bronson and Richard Harrison. Harrison would later acknowledge that "maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing A Fistful of Dollars and recommending Clint for the part."

Eastwood had been in the television series "Rawhide" prior to being tapped for the role. He helped build the character of The Man With No Name by buying black jeans form a sport shop on Hollywood Boulevard, buying the hat he wore from a Santa Monica wardrobe firm, and buying his trademark black cigars from a Beverly Hills store. He cut the cigars into thirds to give them a more distinctive look.

Leone was reportedly taken with Eastwood's distinctive style, commenting in Italian that "I like Clint Eastwood because he has only two facial expressions: one with the hat, and one without it."

Like another tremendously successful actor Tom Hanks, Eastwood knew how to instinctively exude enormous charisma that was never evident in his low-key style. Any real man in America would be proud to strap on The Man With No Name's gun belt and pistol. Is A Fistful of Dollars a guy film? Certainly.

Leone did not direct the first spaghetti western ever made, but his was the first one to receive a major international release, not to mention the fact that it launched Clint Eastwood on an incredibly successful career as one of Hollywood's most popular, profitable and bankable actors and directors ever.

About the Author

Read more of my movie reviews on action adventure films, including:
"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" with Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow
"Pirates of the Caribbean: "Dead Man's Chest" with Johnny Depp as the perfect pirate
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" with Johnny Depp
Find my articles at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/MovieReviews.html

Isnt JJ Redick one of the best Basketball Players EVER!?

Hes has the most points in duke & ACC history. He also is the best 3 point shooter in the NCAA. He won tons of awards--James Sullivan Award
John R. Wooden Award
James Naismith Award
Adolph F. Rupp Trophy
Senior CLASS Award
Consensus All-American
AP National Player of the Year
NABC Co-Player of the Year
USBWA Co-Player of the Year
ESPN National Player of the Year
Sporting News National Player of the Year
Basketball Times National Player of the Year
ACC Player of the Year
&&ACC Tournament MVP

JJ is very good diffently one of the best shooters but sadly not best player when he can dunk it and dominate down low then he is but Im a huge DUKE fan and he is amazing guard and very clutch.... close but not close enough

Rupp Decides: Will Race Cardinal 10K
Friday, April 30, 1:00PM PDT--Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar says Galen Rupp has made what they promised would be a last-minute decision on venue and is headed to Stanford's Payton Jordan/Cardinal Invitational on Saturday evening to chase a fast 10K time.

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