Blog Entry 11

By F. Mason Hertrich
“Big Night”, and “Dinner Rush” are similar in that they both display a large amount of family dynamics with the businesses. In “Big Night” it is a sibling rivalry, slightly different then “Dinner Rush” where the familial conflict lies in the fathers hesitancy with his son taking over the business. That relationship compared to the other son who is a gambler, and a very bad one. Except for the food he makes, everything the son does doesn’t go well. To the point that the father has to hire a guy to kill the people the son owes money to. Which was an interesting turn for the character (played by John Corbett), who I didn’t know what they were doing with the character, until he is revealed to be a hit man. As for the use of food in the films it is a lot of times used for referring to character traits or conflicts the characters are going through. In “Big Night” the food is used both these ways. Tony Shalhoub’s character is a perfectionist with the food which is shown by the food always being very good. Also the brother (played by Stanley Tucci), cooks eggs for his brother as a way of showing that even though they fight they are still family and care about each other. In “Dinner Rush” the food is used similarly. The one brother Duncan makes his father sausage and peppers which is what the dad likes, and a way of appealing to the dad in a way. Where in he messes things up a lot, but he still makes good food, and food that his dad likes. As opposed to the other stuff who doesn’t like the food his father likes and likes to try a lot of different things. A similar difference the two brothers have compared to “Big Night”, except it is different in that one the conflict is about tradition, and in “Dinner Rush” it’s more about making their dad happy. In both separate films the brothers disagree.

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