City Life

In the film we watched, Cabin in the Sky, religion played a role in the film, because Little Joe’s actions (before the viewing audience realized it was all a dream) determined whether he went to heaven or hell. At the beginning of the film, after making a serious promise to his wife, Petunia, that he has definitely quit gambling, Joe runs away to the casino at his first opportunity while Petunia’s distracted. A shooting takes place at the casino, where Little Joe’s severely injured. He then dies and his soul makes a deal with the General (representative of heaven) and Lucifer, Jr. (representative of hell) to become a good husband and quit gambling in a lapse of six months, otherwise, his soul will be condemned. Little Joe resuscitates and apparently is behaving well, but closer to the end of the film, it seemed pretty obvious that the chances of Little Joe going to heaven were slim to none, since he began to behave poorly. It all began after he found out that he won the lottery. He and a seductive singer, Georgia Brown, begin to hang out and exhibit themselves with elegant clothes, expensive jewelry and a luxurious car in front of Petunia. However, after all this has happened, both Little Joe and Petunia are fatally shot. Petunia is guaranteed a “cabin in the sky,” or as I believe, “a cabin in the sky” is meant to be a metaphor for a guaranteed spot in heaven, as shown in the movie. However, Little Joe has not behaved too well in the six-month time span. Soon thereafter, Little Joe wakes up, and it all turns out to have been a dream. This relates to the class unit of cities and spaces, by showing that your surroundings or the “spaces” which you inhabit truly affect how you behave. As we saw in the film, Little Joe’s flashier surroundings after he found out he had won the lottery influenced his behavior negatively, not giving him very good chances of going to heaven. In conclusion, this film, “Cabin in the Sky,” shows that how you behave reflects the “spaces” which you inhabit and vice versa, thus relating to our class unit of “cities and spaces.”

-Ashley Tune

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Cabin in the Sky: the ending

In the movie Cabin in the Sky, I was very upset about the ending.  Little Joe goes through the notions of becoming more religious within six months while having to choose between the devil on his shoulder and the angel on his shoulder.  By the end of the six months the devil had done one last trick and Little Joe fell into it.  When it came time for him to meet God he was told he was rejected because of the money spent on Georgia Brown and on gambling.  His wife Petunia on the other hand was told she was allowed to enter into heaven.  Luckily, Georgia Brown repented of her sins for taking away Little Joe from his wife, and all the other bad things she had done.  Then Little Joe was let into heaven.  Petunia and Little Joe walked their way up the stairs to heaven, to the cabin in the sky, music was sung and they were happy.  So everyone is thinking that it was great, Little Joe finally got his act together and became the religious man Petunia dreamed of him to be.  Except, after this is shown it goes back to Little Joe lying in his bed, after he had been shot from gambling earlier before.  It turns out that the whole part about Little Joe giving his life to God is all a dream!  I could not believe it.  It made me very upset.  I mean I hope this means that now Little Joe does turn his life to God.  I think it was a very odd ending to the movie.  Most movies do not end that way, sometimes it happens within a movie, but never just the ending.  I think it was an interesting ending to choose, but I think it made most people frustrated because you want to know if Little Joe turns his life around.  Overall, I was very disappointed in the ending of the film, because it was very nice to see Little Joe turn his life around, now I have no clue if he made that life change or not.

S.L.

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