I walked into my English class just today thinking that since we were watching a movie in class, it would be a great time to catch up on homework. The title of the movie we were going to see, Chop Shop, didn’t sound very interesting, so I dismissed any possibility of liking it. So I turned on my Mac and started doing some chemistry homework with every intention of zoning out. I ended up doing just the opposite.
I feel this movie preserves culture because it shows the life of an orphan child in Queens, who’s had to grow up prematurely to survive. The film, written and directed in 2008 by Ramin Bahrani, follow’s Alejandro, a twelve year old boy living and working at an auto shop in Willets Point, through his everyday life with his sister Isamar (Izzy). Ale has never been to school, and doesn’t know how to read, his best skills involve physical labor (stripping parts off of cars and making minor repairs). His physical appearance is that of a normal twelve year old, short, skinny and scrawny looking, his still has child like qualities and likes to have fun, as any twelve year old would. And yet he does work that most adults can’t even do, he lives in conditions that the average person wouldn’t even look at twice. He works to support himself and his older sister, who, despite the fact that she went to school but never graduated, acts more immature than him at times. This movie shows the difficult side of living in New York, and how underprivileged some people are. Ale certainly isn’t the only child living in New York who has this kind of life. When people think of life in New York, they think of the bright lights and the big city, not of Queens, where the everyday people work and struggle. Bahrani’s film featured nonactors and was shot in the style of neorealism, so while its not a documentary, its still pretty powerful.
The reason this film captures this moment in society so well, and so memorably for me is because it’s about a kid. Ale looks like the kind of kid you’d see in sixth grade, not working on cars or stealing hubcaps in a stadium parking lot. And his sister Izzy, is the kind of girl you’d see in high school, hanging out with friends and partying, not working in a food van and selling herself as a prostitute. The two are loving siblings who are just trying to look out for the other and make up for the lack of an actual adult figure in their lives. They’ve lived a life completely unsheltered from the harshness of reality, and as their situation gets worse, so does Ale’s behavior. In the beginning he performs “honest” work, waiting on the road side for work, selling candy on the train, and working in an auto repair shop. But once he finds out that Izzy is a prostitute he grows upset and his methods of making money become less honorable. Selling pirated DVDs are the least of his crimes, he also steals hubcaps to sell to another auto owner, and helps that owner strip a car for parts. During the course of the movie he and his sister talk about their goal, to buy a food van and start their own business, this dream gets crushed however, when he buys a van that turns out to be unsuitable to serve food off of. When his happens the viewer feels his pain and his anger, and can understand how it manifests into stealing a woman’s purse and yelling at his sister that she “should be working” (meaning prostitution).
He’s just a boy, how else is he supposed to react to getting cheated out of his money? No matter how grown up Ale is he’s still a kid, one who, because he’s uneducated, is subject to being tricked. This film demonstrates just how much a child like Ale has to “grow up” to even have a shot at surviving the streets. One without street smarts doesn’t stand a chance, and in today’s society, those who are naive are vulnerable. In today’s culture we prey upon the weak and unsuspecting, whether it’s through physical means (like bullying) or in a professional setting like business (where the shrewdness is needed to succeed). The unfairness of the sibling’s situations brings up a lot of sympathy and emotion to the viewer. I suppose its easier to feel sorry for a child, because were this a story about a man in his twenties or thirties, we’d be less inclined to care so much. But we have it programmed into us that children deserve a special consideration, and that they should be sheltered from cruelty.
