https://www.echeat.com/ Midnight in Paris Name Institutional Affiliation Midnight in Paris Director: Woody Allen Writer: Woody Allen Stars: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates Question 1 Movie lovers and critics from various parts of the world have dubbed the movie Midnight in Paris as one of the greatest films ever made in the romantic comedy genre. The film was the first ever motion picture for the widely celebrated and acclaimed director and producer, Orson Welles. The masterpiece and the greatness of the film Midnight in Paris have its depiction through the innovative and highly creative narrative and cinematography structure that had the frequent accompaniment of background music. The protagonist of the film is able to give a convincing and exemplary performance as seen and demonstrated through the eyes of his kith and kin that surround him. The twists and the unfolding of the dramatic structure of the movie are also one of the main factors that won the film the vast critical acclaim that it has enjoyed over the years. For instance, the protagonist of the film only comes close to the audience in one instance while during the rest of the film we experience the characters through the eyes and thoughts of other characters. How does camerawork reinforce the situation of the protagonist? Moreover, the film Midnight in Paris further received immense and wide critical acclaim for the use the cinematographic aspect of the deep focus. Concisely, deep focus entails having all the aspects of the movie in the frame as opposed to only having foreground focus on people and things. The desired effect achieved in broad focus demands the cinematographer to combine effective camera lens, lighting, and composition. Carringer (2009) explained that broad focus in the movie Midnight in Paris adequately highlighted the physical environment of the film and the overlapping actions of the various characters in the movie as well. However, this paper is going to shifts attention to the music in the film and the relevance of the music in the movie. Moreover, the paper will also try to demystify whether the music in the film Midnight in Paris is subservient to narration or if its stands alone or whether it is a conglomerate of the two. How important is the atmospheric musical important in the film? Bernard Herrmann, who was the music director of the film, played a monumental role towards the contribution of the superb cinematography in the movie Midnight in Paris (Leffler, 2011). Rasmussen (2009) illustrated 2017-01-04T22:46:14.657-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/film-analyse-Midnight-in-Paris-35264.aspx The Hammer Dracula Name Institutional Affiliation THE HAMMER DRACULA TEXTBOOK & HANDOUT: The book Vampire God: The Allure of the Undead in Western Culture seeks to examine the popular appeal of vampires from the early Slavic and Greek folklore to the contemporary popular culture. The third chapter of the book offers interesting and timely psychological perspectives into the lives of vampires. Additionally, it brings to the table wide-range introductory remarks to students and academicians looking for a concise review of both scholarly and canonical vampirism literature, offering an array of a comprehensive survey of principal themes and preoccupations of the literature over an elongated period that is both accessible and lively. Moreover, the author of the book exhausted every plausible idea for age-defining horror stories as it is categorically clear that there will be none like it in the years to come. I found the book thoroughly entertaining and paradoxical from the fact that Dracula was portrayed as confident, charismatic and poignant gentlemen during the day while the case was entirely different once the night fell. ARTICLE: From Hollywood Gothic to Hammer Horror: The Modern Evolution of Dracula" in Celluloid Vampires is an article written by the renowned mystery writer Stacey Abbott. She contests the conventional explanation and interpretation of the vampirism mythology and explains that cinematic mediums have reinvented the stereotypes and archetype of vampires completely. Rather than looking to present the folkloric and primitive tales that vampires have come to embody with the passing of time and eventual take-over by modernity, Stacey (2007) looks at offering an in-depth and critically analysis description of what constitutes vampires. The article brings out the never-heard-before description of the lingering creatures springing from its well-crafted use of words and extensive research. MOVIE REVIEW: Title of the film: The Horror of Dracula The plot of the movie: The film goes down as one the important milestones in the horror oeuvre, and up to today it still stands as inventive and fresh as it was many years. Critics and moviegoers alike have touted it as one of the best stories ever written (Sangster et al., 2013). The theme of the film: Hammer as a studio has numerous fine hours, and this movie is the much-needed evidence to prove it was aiming to put across the depiction of the society on the vampire Dracula. The point of view of the filmmaker: The atmosphere of the Gothic setting in the film is on 2016-10-04T22:53:31.677-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Review-of-the-film-The-Horror-of-Dracula-Hammer-Studios,-1958-with-Christopher-Lee-35232.aspx Analyzing the Theme of Femininity in His Girl Friday 1940 Movie Name: Institution: Date: Introduction The film, His Girl Friday, which is directed by Howard Hawks, highlights femininity and masculinity in the society. The film challenges the traditional values and their depiction of gendered roles. It illustrates a tolerant range of sexual values that influence the thinking towards male dominance, gender politics, and female inequality in the society. It also explores equality between the sexes as opposed to exploitation that emanates from societal values. It is evident from the film that one can achieve political-sexual parity using intelligence and socio-economic independence. However, striking a balance between the customary expectations and personal goals is not easy due to challenges in identifying the right path. Gender politics remains a controversial matter, especially in the modern civilization. The issue emanates from the social revolution regarding the portrayal of women and gender-centered roles. His Girl Friday reflects the conflicts and challenges that women face due to traditional norms and collective values. Hildy embraces femininity as she accepts the traditional principles, but seeks to ensure personal success (Hawks, 1942). It is also evident that success for women is sometimes jeopardized by values and norms in the society. Often, stereotypes in the society make it difficult for women to realize their personal goals. For instance, making a decision on whether to leave the newspaper business to start a family was not easy for Hildy. Feminism and women remain critical issues in the modern world. Men are slowly appreciating the need to empower women as a means to achieve their goals as well as enhance equality. Thesis Statement: Women fail to realize their professional and life goals owing to the stereotypes about their abilities and the traditional perspective on gender-centered values in the society. Scene 1 Hildy is seen as ‘one of the boys’ in the film, although she is a woman, with a reporter referring to her as ‘Hildegard’. Male colleagues have accepted to treat her as a man due to his attitudes and actions. At one point, they invite her to participate in a poker game, which was a reserve for men. However, they assert that Hildy was not competent enough to triumph in a male-dominated field. Her competence is not a threat to reporters. Like many other women, she undergoes pain and struggles in a male-dominated community (Hawks, 1942). Often, men feel threatened by powerful and successful women in the society. As such, 2016-09-08T02:41:46.83-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/analyse-of-the-film-His-Girl-Friday-1940-35221.aspx So Many people feel that a movie isin’t a success if it does not force viewers to think about an important issue or idea. others argue that movies are successful as long as they entertain us; they dont have to have any ideological, political, or social agenda. What do you think? Is being entertaining enough? or should movies do more? why? Provide specific examples to support your answer?? So I just got a 2014-03-02T22:41:34.483-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/I-need-help-with-this-movie-essay-Easy-35004.aspx In the Middle Ages, a woman was a worthy wife, chivalry governed behaviors, and romance was used to trace adventures. According to the Middle Ages 1066-1485 by David Adams Leeming, a woman was always subservient to a man. However, chivalry contained specific rules which honored women, and romance literature often contained stories which undertook quests to conquer evil enemies or involved situations where a woman needed to be saved. These were very important and actually distinguished the Middle Ages from other times. Women were often seemed as servants to the opposite sex, usually to a father, brother, or husband. They had no political rights, and did not have the authority to make any political choices since the political system was primarily military. The respect of a woman was highly demanded when it came to her husband’s or father’s social standing. A peasant woman’s life seemed never ending as a result of the things they had to do. Along with bearing children, they also had a ceaseless amount of house work and hard fieldwork on their agenda which had to be done every day. Women of higher statuses were also occupied with childbearing and housework. While the husbands are away on business or at war, the women have to monitor the state of the house and the family, but they have to give up their temporary power the minute their husbands returned home.In an anonymous quote made in the 15th century, the writer stated, ‘A woman is a worthy wight: She serveth a man both daye and nyght; Thereto she putteth all her might, And yet she hathe but care and woe’. The behaviors of knights and gentlewomen were governed by a system of ideals and social codes known as the chivalry. Chivalry contained rules which involved taking an oath of loyalty to the overlord. Rules of warfare were also to be observed by the people, and in addition to this, self-improvement was shown whenever a particular lady was being adored. Under the chivalry was a concept known as courtly love, which was nonsexual. In a battle, a knight might wear his lady’s colors to show respect for her. He might also speak highly and be inspired by her, but the woman 2013-04-04T06:51:04.92-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Middle-Ages-Women,-Chivalry-and-Romance_-34848.aspx MINE!!!!!!! FIRST IMPRESSION After reading the play, THE LARAMIE PROJECT, I'd like it. It was very interesting and very 2012-11-02T07:54:13.18-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/THE-LARAMIE-PROJECT-FIRST-IMPRESSION-34732.aspx Visual Media has shaped the American culture in a variety of ways. From the way we portray violence in our society, to the strong sexual situations included in most of the movies and TV shows today. Visual media influences the spread of various cultural traits, including food habits, music, and entertainment. Different forms of visual media, such as television and films, provide materials from which we establish a sense of style, class, and even sexuality. Furthermore, visual media has shaped the way we view the world by influencing what we consider right, or wrong, positive or negative, and moral or immoral in a huge way.Television, in comparison to film, has often been seen as the poorer relation in terms of cultural significance and quality, yet TV continues to influence the daily lives of the millions who watch it. Despite threats from new media and the Internet to make film and television redundant forms of entertainment, movies and TV shows still dominate Internet content. Without these two forms of media, the Internet would arguably not hold the attention of the audiences it does.Celebrity figures in visual entertainment media also influence our lifestyles, including the music we listen to and the way we dress. The advertising and marketing industry rely heavily on visual media to help spread and sell their products by airing commercial ads on TV and using big name, popular celebrities to endorse their product. Visual media also has its downside or negative side because of the way it exposes our society and children to senseless violence, sexual situations, criminal behavior, nudity, racism, and other antisocial elements. These elements of visual media entertainment constantly are dividing our nation between what is morally right and what is right Amendment wise, all the while shaping various aspects of our American culture.Watching violence on TV or in movies can desensitize a teen and make him or her more likely to view violence in real life as a normal thing. Some teens frequently exposed to media violence may become victims of domestic violence or bullying and not report it because they view the situation as normal based on what they have seen in the media. Most ofthe negative influence on childrentoday comes from the music industry, especially through music videos. Here is an example, an ad for jeans in Elle Magazine, shows three men physically attacking a woman, or an Italian edition of Vogue shows 2012-10-17T23:37:08.21-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Influence-of-Visual-Media-34717.aspx English-language film community for Nolan formed an unquestioned status as an independent director, successfully integrate into the 2012-08-08T03:12:44.05-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Trailer-produces-a-hypnotic-Swtor-effect-34618.aspx The Blair Witch Project is a mock documentary covering three film students: Mike, Shaun and heather who shoot their own documentary on the Blair Witch. This Blair Witch apparently haunts a forest in Burkittsville, MD and these students are going to find out first-hand if this rumor is true. Unfortunately this rumor turns out to be fact and all three characters are eventually hunted and killed by the Blair witch. The scene which I have chosen to analyze is a short ten second scene near the very end of the movie. In this scene we see a close up of Mike, from a diagonal angle. Mike is rocking back and forth and then yawns. This scene is key point were the viewer realizes that there is no hope for Mike and Heather. The woods are just too vast for these inexperienced students. In this scene, Mike is wearing his backpack that is bigger than him indicating the burden he has to carry. Besides the burden it can also represent all the pressure he is under at this particular point. The backpack, being larger than he is can be a metaphor for how small and insignificant he is in comparison to the colossal trees around him. The fact that the straps are so big and that they wrap around Mike can show how he is completely engulfed by this pressure, just like he is surrounded by the trees. The backpack and trees completely overpower Mike, causing him to feel helpless and miniscule, like a child. The second image chosen is Mike rocking back and forth, followed by the yawn. In most scenarios children rock themselves when they are nervous. This clearly hints that Mike, an average sound technician is no longer himself but rather someone else who is overtaken by the immensity of the forest. The yawn gives Mike the innocent look that only a child possesses so the viewer is led to think that Mike is a mere child in comparison to the forest. A closer look at Mike exposes his beard, contradicting the childlike innocence, so the element of confusion is a predominant one. (seeing as how Mike and Heather are lost and confused.) The rocking can also depict an autistic person. In this case it is evident that Mike has lost his mind and rocking back and forth will bring him serenity. The trees not only surround Mike 2012-01-14T19:00:07.783-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/An-Analytical-Essay-on-the-Blair-Witch-Project-34429.aspx 2 MILLION MINUTES ESSAY 2 million minutes is a film that argues that U.S. students are performing at or under average in math and science in comparison to China and India. The title of this film indicates the amount of minutes in a four-year time frame. They reference the two million minutes that the students will endure during the last four years of high school before entering a university or the workforce. This documentary follows students in all three countries and compares and contrasts their daily curriculum and what the students value most. The American school that is documented is Carmel high school. This is just a coincidence and not related to the close proximity of this school. They show that U.S. kids are not working nearly as hard as students in developing countries. This movie shows that American kids are slackers but still receive good grades. They have more opportunities than most other kids around the world and do not work nearly as hard as others. The movie explains that the kids in the United States are spoiled and already rich while the other kids in China and India have to work hard to break out of their caste system. The students in China and India explain to the film crew that they are studying 24/7 and work harder than American students. They state that students in the United States have more fun than they do and are pushed harder to do better in school. They are driven from the time they are in first grade to strive to be the best. Their motivation comes from the poverty that they are predisposed to. The only way to break the poverty barrier is through getting a successful job that is driven by hard work and dedication while in school. This documentary gives me mixed emotions on the subject of education systems in the U.S., China, and India. By the time you reach 17 in India, you know what you'll be doing the rest of your life. The U.S. students do not know what they will be doing the rest of their lives but rather see a variety of different jobs that they might have. Opportunity is what this video is about and says that Chinese and Indian kids don’t have them. I believe that kids will be kids no matter what country they go to school in, and think that U.S. students work just 2011-12-10T19:27:49-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/2-Million-Minutes-a-Film-Essay-34382.aspx Freedom Writers The movie Freedom Writer is an inspiring story that throughout the film, Ms. Erin Gruwell the main character (played by Hilary Swank) managed to be different as an exemplary teacher careless of the complexities that surrounds the learning environment. The story discusses how students managed to survive in school with the aid of an exceptional teacher who influenced them to change and aim for success in 1994. In Long Beach California at the Woodrow Wilson High School, Erin goes forward to her teachings to the undisciplined students in her classroom, whose students live by generations of strict moral codes of protecting their own at all cost. The movie Freedom Writers clearly demonstrated how the society past and present has been for those who permit it to be by not toasting for a change. The students accompanied by their teacher had shown American Values in each and every way, each standing on their beliefs as right or wrong. According to sociologist Robin Williams, there are fifteen American Values. Within the movie “Freedom Writers”, there are fourteen American Values represented by student and teachers. Such as: Achievement and Success a major personal goals, Activity and Work supported, action/doing over reflection and not letting things happen, Moral Orientation which the absolute judgment of good/bad, right or wrong, Humanitarian motives as shown in charity and crisis aid. Efficiency and Practicality a preference for the quickest and shortest way to achieve a goal at the least cost, Progress a belief that the future will be better than the past, Martel Comfort as the us dream “I have a Dream”, Equality as an equality opportunity, Freedom as a persons right against the state, External conformity the ideal of going along joining with no authority, Nationalism and patriotism a belief that Ones’ values and institutions represent the best in earth, Democracy based on personal quality and freedom, Individual Personality emphasizing personal rights and responsibilities, Lastly Racism and superiority themes that periodically lead to prejudice and discrimination against those who are racially. These American Values are illustrated within the movie in various ways. Achievement and success in the movie: When Erin Gruwell started with these students as freshman, most of them were not expected to make it past their sophomore year. At the end of that school year, all of the Freedom Writers graduated from high school AND went on to college. Although the visits, trips, and awards 2011-11-16T14:28:15.86-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Freedom-Writers-the-Movie-34345.aspx This essay examines the 1949 Japanese film “Late Spring,” and selects one sequence for further examination. I Introduction “Late Spring” is a very subtle film. Director Ozu Yasujiro leaves much of the story unexplained, allowing the audience to decide for themselves what his meaning is. The film can be seen as a powerful statement on the position of women in post-war Japan; it can also be seen as a metaphor for the changes in Japanese society itself. It’s fascinating, heartbreaking and utterly enthralling. This paper discusses the film in general, chooses one sequence that is particularly striking, then discusses what that sequence tells us about the overall themes of the film. II Brief Overall Comments This film was made in 1949, at which time the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD) of the Civil Information Section of the General Headquarters was heavily censoring all Japanese forms of expression, including newspapers, magazines, radio, theater and film. These were American censors, whose job it was to make sure that anything critical of the U.S. or its allies; anything “nationalistic” or “militaristic”; or any materials that could be construed, however vaguely, as being against American interests, were confiscated. In a burst of stunning hypocrisy, the Americans didn’t even admit that they were censoring the Japanese. (Dower, p. 410). One result of this strict censorship may have been the extremely subtle work displayed in “Late Spring.” There is a definite American presence in the film, though no Americans appear. However, there is a sign in English saying “Drink Coca-Cola” in the middle of a beautiful beach scene. It’s intrusive and ugly, and can be interpreted as the director’s comment on the American occupation and its effect on Japan. Americanisms also pop up in a scene between the heroine Noriko and her friend Aya. Aya is urging Noriko to marry, despite the fact that she (Aya) is divorced. Their conversation is routine, until this exchange: Aya: It’s only one down. Next time a real home-run. Noriko: You’re still going to bat? Aya: Why not? I just strucked [sic] out. I’m waiting for a good ball. This exchange, in which the ladies use American slang correctly, is another indication of the extent to which Japan has assimilated the new culture. The basic story is of Noriko, a young woman whom everyone—her father, her aunt, her friend, her acquaintances—urges to marry. They 2011-10-31T00:29:57.727-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Late-Spring-34231.aspx This paper examines three films by Oshima Nagisa and seeks to explore the relation between sensuality and politics in each of them. I Introduction When we think of Japanese cinema, the image of the samurai, usually played by the great Toshiro Mifune, is what often comes to mind; a warrior swashbuckling across a medieval Japanese landscape. Sensuality and sexuality seem far removed from this austere picture. But Oshima Nagisa’s vision is precisely the opposite of what we think of when we consider Japanese cinema. His work is extremely sensual, evocative, explicit, and at least in one film, very disturbing. This paper examines the relationship between sensuality and politics in three of Nagisa’s films: “In the Realm of the Senses,” “Cruel Story of Youth,” and “Gohatto” (“Taboo”). II General Comments Politics in the context of these films is not politics in the sense of votes, lawmaking, and campaigns for elective office. It is instead the shifting relationships among people, based upon the way power flows within a group, or between individuals. That power is often based on sensuality; one person has more power than the other because she or he is in control at the moment. As the relationship shifts, the power balance shifts as well; that is, the politics of the situation changes. The three films are very different in their examination of the way in which sensuality dictates human interaction. “Cruel Story of Youth” is a tale of young lovers who are destroyed by their own recklessness; “In the Realm of the Senses” shows us two people so obsessed with sex that death is the only release; and “Gohatto” (the English title is “Taboo”) is an illustration of the way in which misunderstandings about the true nature of a relationship can lead to tragedy. “Gohatto” is also the only one of the three that deals with homosexual love, and in many ways it is the most beautiful, both visually and in its handling of potentially explosive subject matter. It is also the least accessible of the three. Sex in these films is brutal, bestial, rapacious, opportunistic, or animalistic, but almost never romantic. It is often a weapon, which one player uses to win power for him (her) self. Despite this, it is still fascinating to watch these films play out. We’ll turn first to “Cruel Story of Youth,” then “In the Realm of the Senses,” and finally 2011-10-26T23:51:07.74-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Japanese-Cinema-Sensuality-and-Politics-34166.aspx This paper discusses Akira Kurosawa’s detective thriller. (7+ pages; 5 sources; MLA citation style) I Introduction “Stray Dog” is a terrific detective story—a sort of Japanese film noir—from director Akira Kurosawa, and one of the earliest films he made with legendary actor Toshiro Mifune. Kurosawa himself said he doesn’t like the film, but audiences love it, and more people are discovering it all the time. This paper discusses three sequences that I feel capture the essence of the film. II General Observations “Stray Dog” was made in 1949, and has a great complexity about it; it works on many levels. There is the basic detective story; there is also the story of the young man and his older mentor, which can also be seen (though I wouldn’t push the metaphor too far) as the struggle between modern Japan and its traditional culture; there is the struggle of Japan itself trying to find its place in the world; and there is the relationship between the young detective and the killer who is almost a mirror image. The story is simple: a young detective named Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) has his pocket picked and his pistol stolen on a crowded bus; a woman leans against him and distracts him while her accomplice steals the weapon. There is a black market in guns (which tells us a lot about Japan in 1948) and he is determined to get it back, and sets off on a hunt through Tokyo. As he and his section chief, Sato (Takashi Shimura) follow up leads, Murakami becomes concerned, then obsessed with the idea that it is his pistol being used to commit crimes, and that he is somehow responsible for those crimes. Eventually, Murakami and Sato discover the murderer’s girlfriend, and while Murakami stays and questions her, Sato goes to the hotel where she was supposed to meet the murderer, a young man named Yusa. Although Sato’s in plain clothes, he gives himself away, and Yusa shoots him while he (Sato) is on the phone with Murakami. Murakami hears this with horror, and rushes to the hospital to be with Sato, who is in serious condition; Yusa gets away. Finally, though, Murakami learns that Yusa will be at the station the following morning, goes there, finds him and, after a chase and a fight, captures him. This brief outline doesn’t really do justice to 2011-10-26T14:48:09.247-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Japanese-Cinema-Stray-Dog-34144.aspx The Thing From Another World A Fun Romp Through 50’s Sci-Fi The Thing from Another World (“The Thing”) has a simple but effective plot in the science fiction genre. A flying saucer crashes in the arctic and a group of military personnel return to their base with the craft’s occupant frozen in a block of ice. Once free of the ice, the creature terrorizes the arctic station while the group tries desperately to stop it. While the main focus of the story is their efforts to stop the rampaging killer creature, we also find conflict between the military who would just like to just kill the creature and the scientist running the station who wants the being to remain alive so it can be studied. The movie should appeal to science fiction fans and, to a lesser extent, fans of horror as well. Although a low budget movie, The Thing makes great use of what it does have: a well written script featuring the use of overlapping dialogue which I love. Through the years too many times I’ve watched discussions or arguments depicted on the screen which feature the back and forth, give and take of a conversation. One person stops talking in the middle of a sentence and the next one starts. No interrupting, no talking over each other’s words like real life. This movie throws that out the door, and the characters speak in a flow more like real people. The music is also an important part the film, its particularly effective in scenes with the monster. In fact, the music is so creepy it’s hard to tell if a portion of the sound is actually the score or if it’s merged with spooky-type sound effects. While the movie does have its standard clichés with the tough straight-laced military captain, who is backed up by a crew of various ranks and the female romantic interest (although the typical 50’s woman in film has been replaced here with a female character who is a smart and capable woman and not simply a screamer as found in films like Attack of the Giant Leeches, or The Hideous Sun Demon). In fact, it’s her suggestion of “boil it, bake it” that gets 2009-03-31T19:13:42-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Thing-From-Another-World-34048.aspx To sum up Mr. Cohen's behavior in a single sentence, it would be fair to say that he is without punctuality, without responsibilities, and without a general knowledge of grading protocol. While his extensive education and skills in photography is quite recognizable and impressive, his inability fulfill his role as a responsible teacher makes his other abilities unimportant, and insignificant. For the first couple months of school, Arthur Cohen was on time for his zero period class every single day. Most of the time, he even arrived a few minutes before class started, in order to prepare for the class and allow students to come into the warm room. However, as Winter Break came to an end and the twenty zero period students started to return to Leigh, they found that their teacher who had proven to be very punctual and responsible, had changed his ways into becoming tardy, lazy and hypocritical. Day after day Arthur Cohen made his trip to Leigh High School at his own pace, forcing the students in his classroom to stand and wait outside in weather that had begun to hit mid-thirties. He approached each day, and as the students faces stared with frustration, it was visible in Mr. Cohen's eyes that he was ashamed of his irresponsibility. People have layers, layers which show how people are deep down, deeper than what the average student may see. Arthur Cohen's first layer is what makes him late. It is his initial action in which he makes the decision not to arrive on campus by 7:00. His second layer is the layer which can be seen in his eyes, his embarrassment, his shame that he is frustrating and angering his pupils. While this layer may seem kind and caring, Mr. Cohen's third layer underneath his feeling of shame consists of his actions he proceeds to demonstrate. These actions are simple: he does not stop. Although it is very obvious that he feels bad for his tardies, he cannot bring himself to actually help the situation. This is the third level, and this is the layer which will hurt him for the rest of his career, because although he may care about his students and reputation, he will fail to achieve respect among the majority of his classes. 2008-06-13T02:22:53-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Conduct-and-Responsibility-Issues-Regarding-Arthur-Cohen-33615.aspx This essay concerns the Brazilian filmmaker Amacio Mazzaropi, who is almost completely unknown outside--and unworthy of official critical esteem inside--his own country. This does not mean he is unknown inside the country; much to the contrary, he is one of the most celebrated Brazilian artists of all times. However, in the reasons for this celebration are the very reasons why the established critics in Brazil have ignored his work. For three decades, Mazzaropi's films filled movie theatres all over the country, even at times when other Brazilian films were seen by barely a handful of people in the bigger metropolitan centers. This disparity between the attention of so many thousands of Brazilians dedicated to Mazzaropi's films and the attitude of the cinema critics for this same body of work provides an excellent site for the study of the relationships between cinema and the national culture, as well as between the national culture and the culture of the lower classes. In the process, his career also problematizes the position of the intellectual classes in the country in their struggle for prominence or hegemony. Mazzaropi started as a circus and radio artist. In 1950, or "maybe 1951, Abilio Pereira de Almeida and Tom Payne, sitting at the counter of the Nick Bar, [were] having their habitual drinks and watching a TV show in which a comedian stood out. Right there, in a short dialogue, they decide[d] to invite [the comedian] to work at Vera Cruz" (Catani, 290).[ 1] The comedian was Mazzaropi, and this invitation to work with the Companhia Cinematografica Vera Cruz was the beginning of his film career. First, he participated as protagonist in Sai da frente (1951). The film was an enormous success, and the company signed him for two more films, Nadando em dinheiro (1952) and Candinho (1953). In 1954 he participated in two films, O gato da madame, produced and distributed by Brazil Filmes, and A carrocinha, produced and distributed by Fama Filmes, and from 1955 to 1957 he appeared in three films produced by Cinedistri and directed by different people: Fuzileiro do amor(1955), O noivo da girafa (1956) and Chico Fumaca (1957). From 1958 on Mazzaropi starred in films produced by Producoes Amacio Mazzaropi--PAM Filmes--his own company. Counting those before PAM Filmes, Mazzaropi took part, directed, and/or produced 32 films. Before I discuss these films, however, it is important to try to understand the reasons for 2008-04-19T04:54:25-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Mazzaropi--33563.aspx “Not Without My Daughter” Perspectives Essay In the Movie Not Without My Daughter, there are many sociological perspectives that can be used to analyze the events of the movie. Some may agree with what was done and say that this is the way of life there, while others may strongly disagree and simply be disgusted by the whole concept based on the fact that they grew in a different society. Overall the movie presents a multicultural couple with a girl, the husband Iranian and the wife is an American. The husband suddenly decided to bring his family back to Iran and live there. The wife gets lured to come to Iran and thus she can’t leave the country because her husband got her passport. In the end the wife escapes with the daughter to Turkey and back to the USA. There are several scenes throughout the movie that can be analyzed in different sociological perspectives, one of which is the scene where the wife is offered a chance to leave but without her daughter, weights the options and decides not to go. This can be analyzed with the systems theory, the social exchange theory, and the conflict theory. When one decides to analyze this scene using the systems theory, one would conclude that the decision made by the wife was simply because of the fact that she was trying to work things out and go with the idea that when one of the family members is going through a phase or a problem the whole family must adapt and help that member out. A systems theory expert would suggest that the wife was simply trying to reason with him and bear with him through his phase. If a social exchange theory expert was to analyze this scene he would say that the wife was looking at what would be more efficient for her, to stay in Iran with her daughter and not leave without her or to save herself and get the daughter later. The decision was made not to leave without the daughter and therefore all the struggle has occurred and all of the problems occurred. As well as the decision, there were also a lot of social exchange theory ideas occurring like the wife thinking about simpler things like weather to use the phone, weather to sneak off to talk to people, and thinking of whether it is worth it 2008-01-09T02:03:29-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Not-without-my-daughter-psychological-analysis-essay-33494.aspx On the whole, does Goodbye, Lenin paint a positive or negative picture of life in communist East Germany? Ben Gould Word Count: 2235 East Germany, its demise relayed through the mass media of recent history, has in popular consciousness been posited as negative, a corrupt bulwark of the last dying days of Communism in Eastern Europe, barren and silent. The other Germany to its West, its citizens free, was striding confidently ahead into the millennium. Recent cinema has sought to examine re-unification, the Wolfgang Becker film Goodbye Lenin! (2003) a recent example of such an investigation into the past through cinema. In this essay I will look at the film and the narrative techniques it uses, probing whether it portrays the East German nation as positive or negative, concluding that though many negatives are identified, some positives are deduced from Honecker’s state. I will also consider why, in recent times, East Germans have come to regard their former state with nostalgia, or as the Germans would put it, ostalgie, an act which Goodbye Lenin! (2003) explores. Not a doom laden, emphatically political treatise on the reunification of East and West Germany but a touching and sometimes comedic insight into the gargantuan changes impacting on the small scale; day to day life as experienced by an East German family, Christiane Kerner and her two children Alex and Ariane. Awaking from a coma, Alex fears his mother’s condition may worsen if she learns of re-unification, going to increasingly elaborate lengths in maintaining the illusion of the GDR's omniscience. Becker’s stance as to reunification is ambivalent throughout, the film's concerns not didactic but subtly relayed. How the personal and political interweave is skilfully constructed by Becker, assessing the extent to which the society we live within affects us, how far its changing social landscape impacts our private one. Goodbye Lenin! (2003) appropriates the individual as bound to his environment, threaded, through strong cultural codes, to his neighbour. Regardless of the system, communist or capitalist, and though our goals may deviate, we are all pursuing happiness and comfort, the tools used to attain this products of that society. That said, it is immediately legible whereabouts Becker wishes us to view the East German state as wholly negative, and he does this through several key scenes. At the film's opening, we learn of the first East German shot into space, surely an apotheosis of what a state can achieve, 2008-01-08T19:46:31-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Goodbye-Lenin-and-The-German-Democratic-Republic-33490.aspx Macro Essay Discuss how Genre and Narrative create meaning and response in the audience Every film has at least one identifiable genre. The genre is the type of film you are watching, for example Frankenstein is of the horror genre, Star Wars is in the Sci-Fi genre etc. Some films have two or more genres, like Titanic, which is a love story and a dramatic tragedy, so it fits into these genres. Genre is used so that the audience can more easily identify what type of film a particular film is, and so helping them to decide if they are going to watch it at the cinema or rent it. For example, I may have seen a trailer of a sinking ship and thought it was an action/ adventure movie and then turned up at the cinema and seen some soppy love tragedy and been hugely disappointed, but the trailers made the genre easily identifiable and so I did not go and see it; I just had to suffer it several hundred times when my sister bought on VHS. All films also have a narrative. Narrative is basically the story and the way it is shown to us the audience. Some films have a simple Linear Structure (where the story is shown in a logical order, from start to finish, like Lord of the Rings for example) whilst others have a more complicated Non-Linear Structure (where the story is shown in an illogical order, perhaps starting at the finish and ending at the start, an good example of this would be Memento). Narrative is hugely important because it is what we see. A director doesn’t want his/ her film to be too predictable because no one will watch it, so he/ she may start you in the middle of the story to pose a question like “How did that happen?” to keep people watching. I'm going to analyse a sequence from Richard Kelly’s 2001 film Donnie Darko. Donnie Darko is a schizophrenic teenager who has an imaginary friend called Frank. Frank is a giant rabbit, who in his human form is Elizabeth (Donnie’s sister)’s boyfriend. The film is a psychological thriller that features some science fiction themes. The film is now a cult classic, but it flopped on its release in the US as pieces of a plane falling into a building was not a popular subject just a month after September 11th… The sequence 2007-12-27T16:05:02-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Macro-Elements-Of-Film-Making-Donnie-Darko-33484.aspx Micro Essay Discuss how the micro elements of film making create meaning Meaning is created in film through the use of the micro elements. These elements include cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene and sound effects. Different moods and atmospheres can be created by using different sound affects and different camera angles. The use of low key lighting can make a scene feel like it is set in the night; this is most commonly seen in horror movies. If a director wishes to create a feeling of suspense, there will be close ups of characters faces, to show their anxiety, and the sound will die down until it's silent, so that the slightest noise can be heard by all. On a number of occasions after a chase scene, when it appears the action has died down, the director cuts the dramatic music and zooms in on the protagonist’s face. We can see is he is exhausted and we can hear him breathing heavily. And then suddenly, he looks up and sees the person that was chasing him and sprints off again, accompanied by the dramatic music. I'm going to analyse the way that cinematography and sound effects create meaning in a scene called The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm, which occurs in Peter Jackson’s 2001 fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. The sequence begins with the Fellowship sprinting through a large, dark hall in the underground caves of Moria. The only lights are those of Gandalf's staff and 3 torches held by other members of the Fellowship. The darkness is frightening- they can see only a short way ahead of them in all directions, and they know they are being chased. Huge shadows are cast by the huge pillars that are scattered all over the hall. The size of the hall is shown to the audience through the use of long establishing shots and high angled shots. They show us that there are hundreds of Orcs chasing the Fellowship, but they cannot see them. As they run, we can hear the non-diegetic theme tune playing. This orchestral piece of music gets played throughout the trilogy of films whenever the Fellowship are about to do something heroic. It tells the audience that something important is about to happen. We can also hear the Orcs shrieking as they chase the Fellowship. They stop running, the music stops playing. There is almost complete silence, but we can hear 2007-12-27T16:03:31-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Micro-Elements-Of-Film-Making-Lord-Of-The-Rings-33483.aspx Show in detail how one film demonstrates innovation of technique and originality of theme The over riding theme in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarrito’s movie Babel is the idea that we are all connected, as if we live in one large village. The techniques he employs to show this are highly innovative. Babel has an unconventional narrative which follows three different stories. These stories occur in various different parts of the world – Tokyo, Morocco, and the US / Mexican border. These places couldn’t really be more different – Tokyo is the epitome of modernity and the hub of advances in technology, Morocco is a barren, desolate, desert country in North Africa, and the border between the US and Mexico is really the only place in the world where the rich Western countries come face to face with the poverty stricken Third World. Tensions here are high, and this is shown with great success in Babel. At first sight, it is hard to understand why these three stories occur in the same movie – they can't possibly have anything to do with each other. Wrong. These three stories are inextricably linked by events that occur before the movie is filmed. But these events aren’t bought to light till late in the movie. The narrative isn't just unconventional, but it's also non linear. This is shown simply by time. It went from being daylight on the US border to daylight in Tokyo to daylight in Morocco before repeating the sequence. This basically means that the events unfolding before us couldn’t have been simultaneous because the time difference between the US and Japan should have made it the middle of the night in one place when the other was basking in the midday sun. But this did not happen. The multiple narratives being shown don’t conform exactly to Todorov’s narrative theory of equilibrium – disruption – equilibrium. The movie doesn’t appear to show any of these equilibriums, but focuses fully on the disruptions. These disruptions, even though they are from completely different stories, have many similarities. One of the similarities is understanding, or the lack of understanding when it comes to other forms of language. In Morocco, we see Brad Pitt’s character struggling to understand the Moroccans, the border police at the US / Mexican border have problems communicating with Santiago, and notably the difficulty that Cheiko, the deaf girl, and the other characters have with understanding each other in 2007-12-27T16:01:37-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Media-Studies-Exam-Practice-33482.aspx Some would say Blue Velvet examines the underworld and how the surfaces of something dark and evil can be as innocent and normal, or the question and identity of what it means to be normal, or even a victim of being a normal person in today’s unforgiving world. The norm for Lynch is corrupt and violent in its very foundations. The normal sharing of a beer is weighted with darkness. It is surface acceptance and underground violence of the other: the sexual, the beautiful, the foreign, the unknown and mysterious. All innocence is sacrificed for the normal for innocence always exists in passion the extreme the ecstatic. Frank Booth is the symbol of all 2007-08-15T14:09:23-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Blue-Velvet-What-it-means-to-be-normal_-33312.aspx I’m just like the rest of you; I was born right here in London; but my cultural and religious differences make me stand out in a white English community. Firstly, I was born to orthodox-Sikh parents who emigrated here from India. Thus, their values, attitudes and beliefs are vastly different to that of Pinky’s and mine. Mum and dad have always had us in their best interest, although their traditional Indian ways interfere with our social life which ends up with Pinky and I lying to them. Unlike other cultures and religions, Indian culture is based mainly around respect; respect for elders. No matter how old you are, you always respect those you are older than you; and you would never think about dishonouring them. I obviously didn’t follow that rule properly as I played football without my parents’ proper consent. I would even constantly lie to them about getting a summer job, just so I could attend training sessions. They were so upset when they found out that I was going to play football professionally. After awhile dad warmed up to the idea, but it took a lot of persuading before mum would agree to let me play football as a career. In their minds they always had an image of me saving lives or putting criminals behind bars; I was also expected to dress like a proper Indian lady and be able to cook full Punjabi meals, both meat and vegetarian. I was also expected to marry a nice Indian boy who also had a good profession and was well respected among the Indian and Sikh community. None of my parents’ dreams came true, but they did get to see their daughter doing something that she enjoyed. Playing a male dominant sport is hard as people don’t take you seriously. Many men or teenage boys see us as sex objects who are prancing around in shorts just for the fun of it. They don’t believe that we take the sport seriously, and look at our bodies, rather than our skills for entertainment. I used to just play football in the park with some of my other male friends, and considered my self to be pretty talented. One day after a friendly game with the boys, I was approached by Juliette who played professionally for the Hounslow Harriers, which was an all girls team. Jules said that I had what the 2007-08-05T09:45:44-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Bend-it-like-Beckham-33309.aspx Native American Women in Film White directors have often steered clear of representing Native American women in film. They prefer to focus on the savage Indian man who battles the brave white man. Simply being a Native American woman, from the perspective of the white spectator, have been seen as contradictions. Motherhood and the care and responsibilities that the role entails humanizes Native Americans and makes their varied histories too complex. Instead, the focus is on young, often prepubescent, Indian maidens. In any event, telling the story of Native American women from the white male perspective is problematic. Native Americans have, throughout the history of film, been tragically depicted within a white male frame. To add to this frame the dimension of gender often means forcing Native American women into roles as white male fetish. The Native American woman is presented as the antithesis of what is white and male. She is forced to become the embodiment or not only what white Americans do not see, or wish to see, in themselves, but also a fetish of “otherness” that, having rejected, white Americans now long for. It is no wonder that the narrative and physical appearance of Pocahontas is sexually charged. Pocahontas is the embodiment of the repressed desires of white men. (Georgakas, 301; Good Housekeeping, 411) It is without question that Disney’s depiction of Pocahontas is a flagrant misrepresentation of both the woman and her life story. However, even if the spectator expects and accepts that much of the account will be fictitious, the image of Pocahontas is so imbued in stereotypes that it would take a truly educated spectator to leave the film without having regressed in his thinking of Native American women. Whereas a white spectator could easily understand that, say, Ariel from The Little Mermaid is an anomaly, the same can not be so easily deciphered from Pocahontas. Pocahontas does something truly frightening by presenting a truly authentic “otherness.” Unfortunately, this otherness is just that, otherness and in no way representative of any Native American culture. Pocahontas is in every way a white male fantasy. She is perfectly beautiful in the western sense of the term: she has long legs, long hair, and an hourglass figure. She is scantily clad in western clothing with an “Indian look”, and she 2007-07-18T02:12:25-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Native-American-Women-in-Film-33282.aspx Elements of Horror in the Film American Beauty Horror is a self-conscious genre. We take pleasure in horror in part because it is reflexive which in turns makes us, as spectators, self aware. “Beyond horror“, then, are films that deal with horror’s propensity to cause uncertainty. Take for example Andrew Tudor’s description of the three part narrative pattern in the horror genre. First introduce instability in a stable situation. Then resist the threat that the instability causes. Finally stability is restored up until the 1960’s or semi-restored in the 1970’s and 80’s. Meanwhile these films generally also blur the line between stability and instability leaving the spectator with the conviction that the stable never truly was (or is), no matter how the film ends. What then, if we force characters to deal with the anxieties to which most horror films allude? What happens if we force Jessie to not only confront Freddie in Nightmare On Elm St. Part II but to also overtly confront his own latent homosexuality. This would be an entirely different film-- “self-conscious horror.” American Beauty (Sam Mendez, 1999) is precisely this film. Unlike its horror movie predecessors, American Beauty explicitly deconstructs itself and the binaries that it opposes. Every character must deal not only with the “monster” in the film, a character named Lester, but also the anxieties that they have displaced onto the monster. Because the film is overt, American Beauty resists being a source of fetish and being classified as horror. The film American Beauty has influences in German Expressionism with themes ranging from abuse of authority and insanity to death. Further, the film’s focus is on challenging dominant categories of sanity, insanity, beauty, ugly, inside and outside. American Beauty also takes on elements of surrealism by taking every opportunity to reveal the polyvalence of everyday life. Again and again opposites are reconciled. Much of the narrative takes place in the world of the lead character’s dreams. American Beauty is never described as a horror movie, but it has most elements of horror. It is determined at the onset of the film that Lester, the lead character will die. Already we know there is a threat there is the dread of the unknown. Then, the narrative is turned on its head as we discover that the 2007-07-18T02:04:17-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Elements-of-Horror-in-the-Film-American-Beauty-33281.aspx A battle of pride; a fight for vengeance; an impossible mission for Jack Carter… This gritty, gruesome gangster movie is superbly set in the grimy, glum city of Newcastle. “Get Carter” is the epitome of the 1970s British gangster movie. It is a true classic, a superb debut by director Mike Hodges, and a gripping performance by Michael Caine. The setting is perfect – a dismal, dreary, working class city. The horizon is always grey, the general outlook is bleak. This reflects the lives of those who live here and those who Jack Carter (Caine) will come across in this movie, and of course Carter himself. The individuals here are truly unique – take for example the 11-fingered man in the pub, the blind man in the betting shop – another reflection of the movie. It is truly unique, as are many of the movies which are considered to be classics. Carter is a gangster from London. He travels up to Newcastle to avenge the mysterious death of his brother. He is cold, callous and doesn’t take any prisoners. Nothing will stop him from getting his revenge; nobody will get in his way. But the plot takes a shocking, unpredictable twist – it suddenly becomes more than just a manhunt. Whilst on his vengeful journey, he learns that his niece has been involved with porno movies. This makes him even angrier, awakening the beast deep inside him. He is now fighting for his family’s pride and honour, losing his in the process. In his mind, Carter is the good guy, on a quest for justice. For a while we believe this too, but in the end we see him as a serial killer, a brutal thug whose death we do not mourn. The murders become more violent as Carter becomes more incensed. The first victim is stabbed, the second is thrown off of a multi storey car park (landing on a car containing a woman and her two children), the third is gunned down in a daylight ferryboat ambush. The fourth victim we feel sympathy for. We don’t see her as one of the bad guys. She saves Carter, sleeps with him and then gets locked in the boot of her car. The car gets shoved into the river and she gets drowned. The last two murders are brutal. Carter kidnaps the woman responsible for involving his niece in the porno movies, orders her to 2007-06-09T10:42:51-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Get-Carter-Review--33262.aspx Messages and Values portrayed in 1960s British cinema The Swinging 60s was the name given to the period in the 1960s where there was a phenomenal rise in youth culture, fuelled by pop music, fashion and a sexual revolution. Swinging London was portrayed in several films during this period, notably Alfie, Darling and A Hard Day’s Night. The main theme of Alfie and Darling is the increase of sexual relationships in the younger generations. This is due to the creation of contraceptive pills and an increase in the availability of condoms. This allowed people to sleep around with a lowered risk of getting pregnant, and so people began to think of sex as more of a pastime because it was fun and could be done all the time. This portrayal of sex as a pastime is clearly visible in Alfie and Darling. Diana Scott has nothing to offer the world, except her good looks and easy going character. This allows men like Laurence Harvey’s character Miles to walk all over her. She has of course fallen in love with him, making it even easier for him to get his own way with her. All he wants her for is sex, and he gets it. Her husband, on the other hand, is a completely different character. Dirk Bogarde’s Robert loves Diana. He leaves his wife and children for her, but she ends up using him, breaking his heart. Towards the end of the film, when she returns briefly from Italy, he repays the favour, and uses her for sex. She is deeply offended by this, unable to see that she has been doing it all her adult life and therefore can't see that she deserves nothing more from Robert. Alfie sleeps around also. At the start of the film, he is sleeping with a married woman in his car. He sees nothing wrong with this, because as he says he has never met the husband, and therefore he doesn’t think about him and doesn’t feel that he is hurting him. But his tune changes later in the film when he has sex with his friend’s wife whilst driving her home. He even gets her pregnant. We see both sides of adultery. With Alfie we see a man having sex with a married woman, whilst Diana is a married woman who we see sleeping with other men. At the time nothing seems to be wrong with either 2007-06-09T10:32:16-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Swinging-60s--33260.aspx Living in Oblivion Living in Oblivion is a film that focuses on an independent film maker’s attempt to make a film. Everything that we see happening occurs on just one day of filming. The film is split into three sections – the first part is a dream that the director has just before waking up; the second part is the lead actress’ dream from the same night, and the final part is the filming of a dream sequence. Each section takes about half an hour. In the first hour of the film, the only real occurrences that we see are Nick and Nicole awaking from their dreams. In the final half an hour of the film, when we are watching what “really” happens, we get interrupted by a few daydreams. These daydreams, of which there are six, all happen in the same half a minutes silence. Tom DiCillo doesn’t follow the classic Hollywood narrative, which comprises of a beginning, middle and a climax at the end. Living in Oblivion starts in a dream, (which we do not realise is a dream until Nick wakes up) continues into another dream, and then finishes with the end of the filming of a scene, with everyone still on the set, except for Tito the dwarf who stormed out a few moments earlier. It has no climax. Mainstream cinemas usually start dreams by zooming in on the dreamer’s eyes. The screen then becomes hazy and fuzzy, and then a dream will begin. Occasionally, the audio in the dream sounds slightly distorted so that you are aware that this isn’t reality, and often the dreams are in black and white. DiCillo uses black and white in his dreams, but we don’t realise that these are dreams at the time because there is no fuzziness around the edge of the screen and there were no close ups of people faces before they begun. We just went straight into them. The day dreams in the third sequence do begin with close ups, but maintained their correct colours. The only indication at the start of the film that there are dreams involved is the title – oblivion is a state of unconsciousness and complete unawareness of what is going on around you, like when you're dreaming. We only realise Nick was dreaming when we see him waking up. He had just been freaking out because he could hear a beeping sound, but 2007-06-09T10:23:40-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-Living-in-Oblivion-33258.aspx Discuss the influence of either the Expressionist or Neo-Realist theory of cinematic representation on the development of film noir. ‘Realism in art can only be achieved in one way – through artifice” Andre Bazin For polemical purposes Bazin establishes a kind of heroic line of realist film-makers, beginning from Stroheim, Murnau and Flaherty in the silent period, represented by Renoir in the 1930’s and culminating in the 1940’s with a (theoretical not actual) coalition of the Italian neo-realists and certain American film-makers whose use of specific techniques made them pre-eminently realist whether they were aware of it or not. Their aesthetic is one which ‘integrates reality’ into the film; the realistic material (provided by reality) permits the artist to discover realistic ‘means of expression’. The Americans (principally Orson Welles and William Wyler, with the help and influence of the cameraman Gregg Toland, who worked with both of them) are realistic because they use deep-focus cinematography, a technical device which enables film-makers to show foreground, middle ground and background simultaneously in one shot with equal clarity, allowing the spectator to pick and choose from a wealth of stimuli. In literature the term neo realism was already being mentioned in the early 1920’s. European realism/naturalism influenced American realism in literature and paved the way for this new style in cinematic language to make way in the troublesome era of post war period. When during the Second World War, one part of the world was struggling to defeat the Germans, America was cheering its audiences in cinemas with lavish films, high style protagonists for entertainment produced with well oiled machinery and well sophisticated film studios. However the disaster and defeat the rest of Europe was experiencing couldn’t but be reflected in the films produced in the countries plagued by despair and hopelessness. When Mussolini founded Cinecitta in 1937 in Italy the country was under the influence of Fascism and Hitler was preparing to invade Europe and increase his strength under the Nazi regime. Luchino Visconte Ossessione (1942) is based on James M. Cain’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice”. Several Italian intellectuals admitted that their encounter with American Literature has been one of the most significant and rewarding experiences. Strange as it may seem the violence and deep pessimism of Steinbeck, Cain, Hemingway, Faulkner and Caldwell (naturalist or realist writers), whose works were widely spread in Italy in the 30’s had actually given them the 2007-05-15T23:12:19-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Neo-Realism-33211.aspx Every once in a while the conversation will turn to "favorite movies." I'll mention Titanic, and at least a couple people will snicker. I pay them no mind because I know that five years ago, these same people were moved to tears by that very movie. And they're too embarrassed now to admit it. I just watched Titanic for the first time in a long time. Expecting to simply enjoy the story again, I was surprised to find that the movie has lost none of its power over these five years. I cried again in all the same places. At first, I avoided watching this film for the longest time. Long before it was even released I had dismissed it as an over-hyped, over-blown, overly romanticized piece of Hollywood, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I never watched it in the theatre. I shook my head in disbelief at the 11 Academy Awards - even though I had never seen it. My friend, Ashley spoke about this movie. "It was so great," she said. "You really felt like you were on the ship." "Nonsense," I thought. I shared my feelings with my friends. One looked at me and said, "you might be right, but if she liked the movie that much maybe she'll want to learn more about the real Titanic.” The movie must have done something right to get her so interested." "Well, maybe," I thought. Then it finally appeared on Pay Per View TV. "OK," I thought, "I'll give it a look see." I didn't want to like it - and I didn't. I loved it! What a great movie. The Royal Mail Ship Titanic was the last grand dream of the Gilded Age. It was designed to be the greatest achievement of an era of prosperity, confidence and propriety. Radio had been invented in 1901. The Wright Brothers' first successful flight was in 1903. The old presumptions about class, morals, and gender-roles were about to be broken. If the concept of Titanic was the climax of the age, then perhaps it’s sinking was the curtain that marked the age of new drama. Although no one knew it, the world was about to change drastically. The movie presents this time period exceptionally good. The director, James Cameron does a superb job of creating an almost "you are there" type of atmosphere. The joviality of life aboard 2007-05-11T05:24:28-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Titanic-Movie-Review--33201.aspx Film Review of "Rudy" When I first saw the movie “Rudy” I was deeply moved. Since then I have watched it over a dozen times here and there, and each time the inspiration that comes from the story is just as effective as it was the first time. “Rudy” is one of those movies that makes you say to yourself or your buddies, “Man doesn’t it make you just wanna go play football again, or for that matter just excel in any sport, and have people cheer you on.” In this paper I will look into what key elements are vital in the making of an inspirational movie, and also use examples from other movies involved with sports to make the point apparent. To start off, sports are a great story basis for toying with the emotions. Sports have many emotions involved with them. The first is the thrill of victory. Everyone dreams of winning in front of a huge crowd, and having everyone cheer you on. The next is the issue of the underdog. It seems no matter what sports movie you watch you can always predict the outcome of the conclusion no matter how great the odds they face are. It is just simple knowledge that no one would make a movie about a team that beats all the odds only to lose in the end. Granted there have been some movies like that, but the majority deal with the outcome being victory in the end. One of the concerns that ties along with movies about sports is that they offer cheap thrills, and their storylines are predictable and cheesy. For the most part, your ‘Little Big League,” and “Major League,” do use the sports to put people in the seats, and offer the cheap thrills with “B-movie” quality laughs, but some other movies, such as “The Natural,” ‘The Bad News Bears,” and “Bull Durham,” are movies great examples of how a movie about sports can also be deeper than just shots of the game, and flashes of exciting plays. These movies, like “Rudy,” are well-respected among the film critics, and also by sports fans, which is a great accomplishment in it’s own right. Besides seeing “Rudy,” which would not have made for a great paper on just the sole viewing of, I also went out and 2007-05-04T16:50:00-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Review-of-Rudy-33178.aspx Sound Analysis Of "Citizen Kane" Citizen Kane’s soundtrack is a reason why this movie is considered one of the greatest pictures of all time. Barry Fesler and James G. Stewart, who were also accompanied by the composer, Bernard Herrmann, created the soundtrack for this film. The plain genius of the use of sound and reoccurring motifs in this picture parallel the action with quite precision. They use bridges, dissolves, sound effects and supporting scores to enhance and to meld visual with audio. The first extra-ordinary sound technique I noticed was the echo effect. It was used to not only support the wealth and massive structures in where the characters were at, but also to engrave that idea of the ‘emptiness’ in them. This technique dominated the audio when we were taken to Walter Thatcher’s library and Citizen Kane’s palace. Another tool the sound design team structured around was the use of paralleling the music to the scene. The use of ‘stingers’ to enforce the moments was admirable. This is heard all throughout the movie, especially in moments of shifting emotions. The “Newspaper Talkie” and Kane’s flashback to his youth are recognizable scenes of paralleling the score. The practice of counterpoint is rarely used at all. Instead of “asyncing,” the score focuses on the absence of music altogether, which brings out the loneliness of the scene. An example would be when Kane’s second wife, Susan Alexander leaves him for good. The absence of music allows the moment to sink in to both Kane and the audience. Another technique the film uses is the bridge. The dissolve is used a lot, especially with Susan’s singing, but does not dominate or enhance the movie like it’s use of bridging. Off screen sounds are used frequently for opening a scene. This creates a slight feeling of alienation, where the camera and the sound are trying to meet on screen to anchor itself. This technique, of psychological precision, is used perfectly to support this mystery setting of this picture. Those are some of the dominant examples of sound usage throughout the movie Citizen Kane. The entirety of the soundtrack is a solid cocoon for the film to stretch and grow within. The main principles of the soundtrack focus around the idea that the music parallels the scene, 2007-04-25T20:30:09-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Sound-Analysis-Of-Citizen-Kane-33145.aspx Whitsleblowing And The "Insider" Whistleblowing is a highly controversial and widely discussed topic in today’s society due to many high profile cases including the circumstances surrounding the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion and what was documented in the movie The Insider about the tobacco industry. Ethically, the decision for someone to whistleblow is a tremendous one. The person needs to weigh many factors and take many things into consideration before making that step. This paper will use the movie The Insider, Ethical Theory and Business and material collected from the internet to (1) discuss definitions and conditions of whistleblowing; what motivates whistleblowers; ethical and other considerations including risks and typical results of whistleblowing cases. Definitions and conditions of whistleblowing “A whistleblower is an individual that believes that his or her organization is engaged in or willingly permits unethical, unlawful or otherwise reprehensible activities. Whistleblowers bring attention to the objectionable activity and attempt to effect change. Whistleblowers generally report these actions internally and may ultimately resort to reporting these activities to external authorities or interested parties.” (http:cosign.scu. edu505set01003WhistleblowerProfile.htm) In the essay “Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibility” published in Ethical Theory and Business (1995), Bok spells out the conditions needed for whistleblowing. They are: “it singles out specific persons or groups as responsible for threats to the public interest, the accusation of the whislteblower, moreover concerns a present or an imminent threat and a concrete risk must be at issue rather than a vague foreboding or a somber prediction” (p. 330). In The Insider, Dr. Jeffrey Wignand meets both the definition and the necessary conditions of whistleblowing detailed above. Dr. Wignand who, after being fired from his position of Corporate Vice President in charge of Research and Development at Brown and Williamson, which was the third largest tobacco manufacturer, finds himself in the position of deciding whether he will become a whistleblower. The seven CEO’s of the tobacco companies, which Wignand called The Seven Dwarfs, testified before Government committees and denied any ill affects of or manipulation of the levels of nicotine. Dr. Wignand in his position knew that they were lying. In one of the first conversations between Dr. Wignand and 2007-04-23T03:46:41-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Whitsleblowing-And-The-Insider-33090.aspx History of Silent Films "Our invention can be exploited for a certain time as a scientific curiosity, but apart from that, it has no commercial future whatsoever." - Auguste Lumière, early filmmaker who, with his brother Louis, organized the first public performance of motion pictures in December 1895 Silent films of the 1910s and 1920s were famous for the use of harsh makeup, the gradual development of lighting systems, and the use of inter-titles to show dialogue. Performers used pantomime techniques, exaggerated expressions and set props to articulate the story plots. Local actors read dialogue, and played music on a piano, phonographic equipment or a victrola that went with the films. Between 1900 and 1930, filmmaking developed, from the Kinetoscope and Cinématographe, to silent films and "Talkies". In that time, a group of small studios and independent filmmakers recognized themselves, mainly in America, Britain and France. Borrowing staging techniques from the theatre and vaudeville, these films had dramatic stories with certain characters and plots. As the first practical filmmakers, Edison and the Lumières set the most basic standards for film and film-story. Edison didn't edit his films, but he shot rough theatrical, invented pieces. These were done indoors and on mocked sets. The Lumières filmed active, not staged events as they happened. These films had a home movie value to them, which made them appear more realistic, and a fresh, natural quality that Edison's fictional productions needed. In spite of their differences, or perhaps because of them, these two early genres gave the required platform for the growing development of storytelling on film. Movie theatres and other dream palaces supplied pianists, wurlitzers, and other sound machines, and some films were made with complete musical scores. Most early silent movies were accompanied with a full-fledged orchestra, organist or pianist to give musical background and to emphasize the narrative on the screen. Many early silent films were dramas, romances, slapstick, or comedies. For the first twenty years of motion picture history most silent films were short--only a few minutes in length. At first it was an idea, and then it grew into an art form and literary form, silent films became better in plot and length in the early 1910's. --Charlie Chaplin-- Many of the early stars of film and, later, television got their start on stage -- especially in vaudeville. Perhaps the most significant of these 2007-04-19T21:44:36-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/History-of-Silent-Films--33068.aspx Film Analysis of "Seven" A dark masterpiece of modern horror, which involves a veteran cop, Detective William Somerset who is about to retire, and Detective David Mills, who breaks in his replacement. They both become involved in a grisly, serial killer investigation. This twisted serial killer chooses his victims from people who exemplify one of each of the seven deadly sins, as he sees himself as being the flaming sword of God, dispensing judgment on these sinners. As the movie opens, we meet Somerset, a meticulous veteran cop who lives a lonely bachelors life in what looks like a well decorated apartment. Then he meets Mills, an impulsive young cop who actually asked to be transferred into Somerset’s district. The two men investigate a particularly gruesome murder, in which gluttony makes an appearance in the film in the form of an obese man being force fed to death. Within the chosen sequence, genre conventions such as camera movement, editing and lighting are all insights for the viewer to seek out the films genre. Camera angles for example, are very personal within this film and give away a lot about Somerset and Mills’ life. The two are very contrasting and there is a lot to learn from each character and what they offer to the plot of the story. From the start we find that Somerset offers a challenging depth and dimension for a character in this genre. Somerset is much more interested in the art of crime solving. However, Somerset is burnt out after 34 years on the force. He feels he is not making a difference anymore and therein lays the conflict of the story. Somerset is a man who had it and he’s giving up. He’s seen too much. Mills is a cop who has transferred into the department and is full of optimism about the difference he can make as an individual. The two look at the same situation with dramatically opposing points of view. The film is set against the background of a bleak, gloomy, and nameless city, where the rain does not stop. The lighting is very low key and this is very common in films of this genre. The photography is muted, grey and dimly lit. The rain only adds to that creeping feeling in your mind, and it allows a passageway for the viewer into a dystopia that may be 2007-04-18T22:29:44-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-of-Seven-33023.aspx Thematic Analysis of the Film "Fight Club" The film “Fight Club”, with its critique of 1990s American mass consumerism and its effect on the country's majority of movie-going audiences (mostly white males 16-34), should be considered a controversial film. A film of such immediacy and power would, in any other time or society, most likely have incited some form of public response. But it didn't. Not to my knowledge. Therefore, the most important question “Fight Club” is that in a society considerably tolerant of controversy, is it still possible to be controversial? When rebellion becomes mainstream, what is there left to rebel against? With these questions, the nihilistic virtues of “Fight Club” are revealed. A possibility is that “Fight Club” is really not about revolution at all - but the impossibility of it. The film's criticism does not stop at corporations or media - but even goes so far to criticize any organizations seeking to react against them. In this case, the film's “Project Mayhem”, which seemingly begins as disorganized chaos, anarchy, descends into men wearing identical clothing and chanting in unison: the termination of individualism that is one of the key attributes of any revolution, be it fascism, communism, whatever. The argument of the film is that individualism as it is sold to us is not individualism at all, but a carefully crafted homogenization of the self, which serves only to benefit the powers that be. You can choose Apple Jacks or Lucky Charms. There's your freedom. So instead of reacting against this by seeking true individualism, the film accepts that any notion of true individualism is false. So what does that leave one to rebel against? Nihilism, “a doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated”, fits in nicely here. “Fight Club” aims at the idea that the values held by those in power and those wishing to rebel against them are worthless, and is hence nihilistic. Tyler Durden’s initiation of the narrator gives us an example by which Tyler initiates the rest of his army. As a means of living, Tyler steals fat from liposuction to make soap to sell women “their fat asses back to them”, as the narrator puts it. Pouring lye, a chemical needed to make soap, on the narrator's hand, causing it to burn, provides the narrator with the appropriate pain and fear of death by which 2007-04-18T02:35:26-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Thematic-Analysis-of-the-Film-Fight-Club-32967.aspx Critical Film Analysis of Smiles of a Summer Night Smiles of a Summer Night is the story of a series of amorous adventures undertaken by various people, set in Sweden at the turn of the century. Done by Bergman, it is a scintillating, charmingly sensual romantic comedy. The film deals with the problems between several couples as they move in different and rather unpredictable stages during their erotic games. The setting is a country house party in the midsummer of 1900. It is very surprising, but in Smiles of a Summer Night women are the dominant figures, they have much better roles than men, much more complex. Here is a brief description of the characters. The lead character is a lawyer named Fredrik Egerman. He is married to Anne, a woman young enough to be his daughter, and has for several reasons not yet slept with her. She, meanwhile, is jealous of his past relationship with the actress Desiree Armfeldt, who reappears in Frederic’s life to perhaps resume that relationship. Meanwhile we have Frederic’s grown son, Henrik, who hankers for the maid, Petra, and has his eyes on Anne, his stepmother, in secret. Throw in Desiree’s recent lover, Count Malcolm, and several other hilarious peripheral characters like Charlotte and Frid, give this movie a very nice touch of comedy, romance and I could say a little bit of drama. Towards the end of the movie, while Frid and Petra are having their love adventure an interesting conversation comes out. They start talking about young lovers. Are they young lovers? Well, according to Frid’s description of young lovers, they are not. Frid implies that “there are only a very few young lovers on this earth” and that love has been denied to them. Frid and Petra are clowns, like Frid said: “we invoke love, call for it, beg for it, cry for it try to imitate it, think that we have it, lie about it”. When the summer night smiles it second smile they both recognize it. Frid says: “For the clowns, the fools, the unredeemable”. And Petra agrees: “Then she smiles for us”. I personally think that they are both the kind of people who just want to have fun, these are the typical prototype of people who are nothing more than love clowns. If we talk about young lovers, I think that in the movie the only 2007-04-18T00:23:30-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Film-Analysis-of-Smiles-of-a-Summer-Night-32931.aspx Why is it that an American film always ends in the same way? The good guy always gets the beautiful girl. The man in the white hat always comes out on top. The underdog team wins the big game. Good always wins out over evil. Are these cinematic stereotypes engrained into our psyche for a reason? The purpose of this essay is to explore the psychological and sociological ideas of various thinkers and writers, including Gustave Le Bon, Walter Lippmann and Gabriel Tarde, and see how their tenets apply to labor unions as they are depicted in American cinema. Some of the most thought-provoking dramas to come out of the American movie scene involve the labor union, either as a “central character” or protagonist or as a backdrop for the story. An American audience couldn’t ask for a better person to root for or empathize with than the working man or woman. The dock worker, the brick layer, the carpenter, the factory worker, the miner, the teacher, the fireman and, yes, even the cops, all have one thing in common. They probably belong to a labor union of some kind. Let us examine a quotation from the Introduction to Gustave Le Bon’s The Crowd: “The masses are founding syndicates before which the authorities capitulate one after the other; they are also founding labour unions, which in spite of all economic laws tend to regulate the conditions of labour and wages.” (Le Bon, pp. xv - xvi) There is some truth that unions do tend to regulate “the conditions of labour and wages” as do different forms of government. However, sometimes either the corporation or firm that the union laborers are employed by is corrupt, or the union delegates are on the graft or both. Films that portray a labor union usually have a theme of suppression with threads of corruption and greed woven into the celluloid tapestry, tainted with the colors of anger, rebellion and, in some cases, death. On the Waterfront (1954) Corruption runs deep in the 1954 union drama, On the Waterfront. Filmed in Hoboken, New Jersey, the Waterfront Crime Commission is about to hold public hearings on union crime and underworld infiltration. As workers are turned against each other, Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) inadvertently participates in the murder of fellow longshoreman, Joey Doyle. Union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) orchestrates the murder along with other illegal dockside activities. Ironically, the character 2007-03-26T18:05:09-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Social-Psychology-and-the-Labor-Union-in-American-Cinema-32874.aspx Christianity in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is the story of five lucky children who won a chance to tour the secret factory of legendary candy man, Willy Wonka. Although the film is regarded as one of the greatest children’s musicals of all time, the movie subliminally forces Christian motives upon an unsuspecting audience. Throughout the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, there are numerous allusions to Christianity. The first of these allusions can be found in the opening scene, during a song about the candy man. With such lines as: “The world tastes good because the candy man thinks it should.” And “who can make tomorrow, dip it in a dream, separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream? The candy man can.” Wonka himself is made into a God. Furthermore Wonka has created a paradise in his factory that encompasses many of the same characteristics that Heaven does. Both places are prosperous, fruitful, nearly perfect, and are considered a reward. Heaven is the reward for a life of dedicated service to the lord, and the chocolate factory is the reward for a dedicated life eating chocolate. Wonka’s factory is also similar to heaven in that only a fortunate few are allowed within their gates. Whereas Willy Wonka is used to portray God, Mr. Slugworth is used with the purpose of depicting Satan. Although the real Mr. Slugworth is never shown in the movie, his image plays a major role in the film. In virtually all of his appearances in the movie Slugworth appears out of the shadows and offers to buy the children’s Everlasting Gobstoppers. Much like Satan might attempt to purchase a persons soul. Wonka and Slugworth are always at war much like God and Satan. In addition to allusions to God and Satan, the movie makes references to numerous biblical themes. For example, each of the children portrays one of the seven deadly sins. Augustus Gloop, a heavy set boy who is continuously eating, demonstrates the sin of Gluttony. In nearly every scene the obese character is feasting in a restaurant or inquiring about his next meal. Augustus’s end is eventually brought by his need to be constantly eating. Although Augustus’s demise was obviously a consequence of his obsessive eating, the connection to Christian theology is not mentioned within the context of the movie. Thus, 2007-03-08T01:17:15-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Christianity-in-Willy-Wonka-and-the-Chocolate-Factory-32785.aspx Odyssey And O Brother, Where Art Thou Compared The movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is strikingly similar to Homer’s “Odyssey” in both plot and character description. In fact, one critic notes, “O Brother Where Art Thou?” is a Homeric journey through Mississippi during the Depression.”(Ebert p 1) Thus, we find the modern film depiction of the troubles of a man during the depression is molded by the ancient struggles of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. Specifically, three parallels surface in the discussion of the similarities between Homer’s classic epic and “O Brother Where Art Thou?” The Cyclops encounter for instance, is transcendent between both works. Furthermore, each story contains a comparable perspective of the Lotus Eaters. Finally, the strongest parallel between the “Odyssey” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is the mystical call of the Sirens and the powers of the witch goddess Circe. The Cyclops encounter is transcendent between both works. The Cyclops, in the “Odyssey” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” has obvious physical traits that connect the two pieces of work. The Cyclops in each story is a large man, who only has one eye. One website describe the Cyclopes race as, “a rough and uncivilized race of one-eyed giants.”(Spark notes p1) Odysseus describe the giant as, “ A prodigious man who slept in his cave alone, and took his flocks to graze afield---remote from all companions, knowing none but savage ways, a brute so huge.”(Wilkie p378) The encounter of the Cyclops shows a great similarity in both of these stories. Odysseus, the main character of the “Odyssey” and Ulysses, the main character of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” are taken from of state of tranquility and savagely attacked. As described by Odysseus, “So there all day, until the sun went down, we made our feast on meat galore, and wine.”(p 377) This quote describes Odysseus and his men relaxing and enjoying a feast. Quite similar in “O Brother Where Art Thou,” Ulysses was enjoying a picnic when the savage Cyclops attacked him. When Ulysses and Odysseus were about to enjoy a peaceful day they are overtaken by the Cyclops either imprisoned or robbed. Both Ulysses and Odysseus mentality of a warrior allows them to fight back and eventually defeat the Cyclops. In each story an attempt to blind the creature 2007-03-05T00:16:20-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Odyssey-And-O-Brother-Where-Art-Thou-Compared-32727.aspx Themes and Topics in "Cool Hand Luke" In Cool Hand Luke, the movie begins with the word, VIOLATION, across the screen. The word is from a parking meter and sets the tone for the entire movie. Luke Jackson, the title character, is arrested for cutting off the heads of the town's parking meters while drunk, or in legal terms, for destroying municipal property while under the influence of alcohol. When asked why he cut the heads off the parking meters, Luke answers, "You could say I was settling an old score." While it leaves the viewers believing that he probably received a parking ticket at some time in the past, no clues are given to what the old score may have been. He is sentenced to two years in a road prison, in a chain gang. His punishment did not fit the crime, and today, such an act would probably result in time spent in community service rather than a hard labor prison gang. To further accentuate that his sentence is worse than his crime, Luke Jackson dies at the end of his story. Luke is a decorated veteran, yet left the military service just as he went in, as a Private. This indicates that he had authority problems while there. He received the Silver Star, Bronze Star and a couple of Purple Hearts and that indicates that he is brave and probably humanitarian, because the Silver Star is usually given in recognition of a life-saving deed of valor. That he was never promoted, or else promoted and consequently demoted, (the story does not elaborate on the details) indicates that his superiors, those who had the authority to promote him, did not react well to his achievements. For Luke, death represents ultimate freedom. There is no doubt that he believes in God, in that he talks to God several times throughout the movie, yet his conversations are always more like arguments than prayers. In one of the final scenes, the empty shell of a church represents Luke's relationship with God, and even the emptiness in himself. Luke feels that God has never been there for him. He tells God just before the end of the story that God hasn't ever dealt him a good hand. That military authorities considered him a hero, decorating him with medals, doesn't make him a hero in his own eyes. Luke is a tortured soul, 2007-03-05T00:14:19-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Themes-and-Topics-in-Cool-Hand-Luke-32725.aspx Film Analysis of "Ridicule" and "Queen Margot" Through the two movies, Ridicule and Queen Margot, we get many different insights into the way life was in 16th and 18th century France. The movies showcase culture and society through the characters and events, while also going deep into what life might have been like in the time period. Both films use cases of class struggle and separation to bring to light the true human spirit of the age. Ridicule, taking place about two hundred years later than Queen Margot, shows 18th century French royalty and the lifestyle they live at Versailles; eating glorious meals and exchanging wit among each other. Queen Margot, on the other hand, is centered on the wedding of Margot, a Catholic, and a Protestant. Violence erupts in Paris in a fight for power over 16th century France. Though these movies both depict significantly different lives, relationships and time periods in history, they both portray some very similar characters, stories and inherent human qualities. Through the actions of the characters and the events that occur, both movies show very well that in these cultures, although much in life was determined by class and money, deep external forces guided by God or love or even human instinct could surpass any class barrier, or social or religious predicament. Furthermore, the movies show that be it 16th century or 18th century France, people are people outside of their culture, no matter what. In the movie Ridicule, we are taken into the world of the French countryside in the 18th century. The story opens with shots of the swamp that the peasants work in. The movie shows broad open spaces of nature with water and workers in the foreground and trees on the horizon. The scene depicted is very rural and almost primitive. Bland colors and a hazy sky give the viewer a feeling of the tough lives these people must have lived. In the foreground the people working are muddy and wet and wearing dirty clothes. As the movie cuts to the opening scenes of the royalty, there is an immediate shift to these bright, vibrant settings of Versailles. Some of the camera shots include sights of the magnificent fountains and gardens. Along with the vivid colors of clothing and surroundings, a very different lifestyle is portrayed. People are garnished extravagantly with dress and make-up. An example of the different lifestyle is shown 2007-02-19T22:05:20-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-of-Ridicule-and-Queen-Margot-32662.aspx Destiny and Choice in "Hiroshima Mon Amour" and "Before the Rain" The passing of time and life’s events have always posed man with deep questions. How do yesterday’s moments help set what happens today, and how does the actual transition in time occur? Drawing lines between past, present and future help us to do this just as distinguishing between the individual and society makes us all different. These two separate examples merge together as life is a continuum rather than blocks of events, and individuals act separately from society, however, what each individual does on their own is what makes up society. In the end, all the actions we take personally and socially and the events that occur comprise our lives and fill the ongoing movement of time. In the two films, Hiroshima Mon Amour and Before the Rain, we get a very good portrayal of these ideas. We see how events and decisions can alter lives over time, and how they can show repeated lessons and themes. We see how each individual part is a key to society and what happens on the global level is in part determined by the actions of individuals. Through the visual worlds and structures of experience in both of these films, we get two views of how the lifecycle passes with time, repeats itself, and puts each of us into our own place in society. As is written on a wall in London in Before the Rain, “Time never dies; the circle is not round.” Both films start by establishing visual worlds to give us a context for each story. Hiroshima Mon Amour opens with a love scene between Elle, the Parisian actress who is in Hiroshima shooting a film about peace, and Lui, a Japanese architect who is rare in Japan in that he speaks French. We go from shots of them to shots of the city and the surrounding scenery. The camera pans over war imagery as well, which sets a tone for the movie. These visuals suggest the film will show us how symbolically the scenery and the war find some type of median. During the camera shots, the viewer is engaged in a very repetitious dialogue of “you saw nothing in Hiroshima, which is mentally captivating to us, but also very psychological to the characters. It also gives us a different time perspective to what we are seeing. Other background worlds 2007-02-19T21:55:55-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Destiny-in-Hiroshima-Mon-Amour-and-Before-32655.aspx Politics in Films: "House of Cards" and "Reds" The two films House of Cards and Reds give us two very broad while detailed views into two very different political worlds; one showing the drive and motivation one must have to step up British party ranks to become Prime Minister, and the other showing the dedication and perseverance one must exhibit to start a new party in efforts against an inevitable war. Through the films we see two very distinct forms of politics that make and shape the different stories and characters. House of Cards takes place in the center of London, where Francis Urquhart, a wise old politician, battles and plots his way forward in an effort to become head of the British Republican Party. In Reds we see the story of a liberal writer from New York, who through his writing and travels becomes sparked with political ambition in the American World War I era. The politics that the two men, Urquhart and Reed, exhibit are very different in motivation and action, however they are very similar in that politics are politics and haven’t really changed over the ages. The issues at stake and the values of the two cultures are different, but what these men must do is the same. Politics is more than a game, a job or even a reputation; it marks a social society and a way of life all its own. It is as complex and deep as personality and in order to succeed in politics the players must adapt and live out the politics they preach. House of Cards opens with shots of London and we see the landscape as old and traditional through the architecture of the city. Everything seems set and fixed in straight lines and corner, almost framed simply by these buildings. The bridge and the palace are bright and glorious but leave shadows throughout the streets and lower levels. This is much how we see the entire movie. The political life is placed on a pedestal. The filming is all done very straight forwardly with no cinematic tricks. This is very crucial for the film to work the way it does because the characters and actions are not straight forward at all. In fact, everything we see in the characters and story line is well thought out and deliberate. The other setting the movie has, although we really don’t see it 2007-02-19T21:53:26-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Politics-in-Films-House-of-Cards-and-Reds-32654.aspx Film: Tru Calling (2003) Director: Jon Harmon Feldman This is the sequence when Michelle Carey, the reporter who stalks Tru is accidentally shot by a robber at a Diner, and in order to saves Michelle’s life; Tru has to relieve the day. The scenes consist of two locations: the diner and Tru’s bedroom while the sequence last approximately 170 seconds. Shot 1: The scene starts with medium shot of Michelle’s body entering the diner through a door located in the right side of the frame. Diegetic sound of people chatting in the diner can be heard clearly. As she walks towards the camera and calls Tru’s name, Indiegetic mysterious instrumental music is starts to play. The camera angle is straight and the background is lit with softer fill light. Direct cut. (5 seconds) Shot 2: Medium shot of Tru sitting on the diner’s sofa with a newspaper on the table. Diegetic light comes from the hanging lamp above her head. The camera angle is straight. She then unfolds the newspaper and lifts up her eyes to see who’s calling her name. The Indiegetic mysterious instrumental music continues to play. Direct cut. (3 seconds) Shot 3: Straight angle and medium shot of Michelle putting her black bag on the left side of her chair, and then she sits beside it. She introduced herself and continues to talk to Tru. Three point lighting is used in this shot. The backlighting comes from lamps behind her. Then the camera slightly tracks backwards and shows a portion of Tru’s head in the foreground. Direct cut. (6 seconds) Shot 4: This is a shot of Tru at a medium-close-up range responding with an intimidated face as she learns that Michelle is a reporter. She speaks in angry tone, and then cut by Michelle’s off screen voice. And for a while Tru glances downward to avoid eye contact with Michelle. The background behind Tru’s face is out of focus. Direct cut. (7 seconds) Shot 5: Medium shot of Michelle speaking as she takes a small voice recorder device from her bag. Straight camera angle. Then Michelle points the voice recorder towards Tru as she continues with the questioning. Michelle’s eyes widen and her head moves slightly towards the camera, giving a sense that she is suspicious of Tru. Indiegetic mysterious instrumental music is intensified in order to builds the tension. At the end of this shot, the camera tracks slightly backward. 2007-02-12T06:53:33-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Sequence-analysis-essay-Tru-Calling-2003-32614.aspx Controversy in the Film "American History X" The controversial American History X is an excellent film directed by Tony Faye starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. This film chronicles the behavior of a ex-nazi skinhead named Derek Vinyard (Ed Norton), the events encompassing his incarceration, and the effects of his life on his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) who idolizes him. The film begins with Derek violently murdering two black men that are trying to break into his car and home. The murder is the event that sends him to prison and forces him to reflect on his life. Prison is also the point of self-disclosure. The self-disclosure manifests itself in the form of Derek’s prison flashbacks. He discloses this information to his brother in order to explain why racism and prejudice is wrong. We also learn that Derek was put on this path to hate by his father, and this hate was accentuated by his father’s death/murder while carrying out his duties on the job as a fireman. We also learn that he mentored a local white supremacist named Cameron that groomed Derek to lead a large number of other skinheads. While in prison he is put on the path to enlightenment ironically by two black men. One of them is a former high school professor (Avery Brooks) that Derek respected, and the other is a fellow inmate that befriends him. He is then released from prison to find his family living in less than satisfactory conditions and Danny heading in the same direction as Derek once was. Danny says he will be just like Derek, which is his self-fulfilling prophecy, and accomplishes this, only the outcome is worse. Derek’s goal now is to save Danny’s future by telling him the errors of his past. However, he is a day too late because some of Danny’s previous actions prove to have grave consequences. Derek faces a number of issues as we follow him along his journey of self. One of these issues being self-esteem. Previous to Derek’s enlightenment he had very high self-esteem as far as how he was perceived, in fact it was too high. He thought himself and other white protestants like him to be of the master race. In this he suffered from the fallacy of overgeneralization. 2007-02-02T18:56:37-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Controversy-in-the-Film-American-History-X-32578.aspx Power and Greed in the Film "Wall Street" Power is an important issue in interpersonal communication. Power can shape a relationship by influencing what you do, when you do it, with whom you do it, etc. Experts identify six bases of power. These bases include referent power, legitimate power, expert power, information or persuasion power, reward power, and coercive power. Referent power is a power usually held over others when the individual wishes to be like you or be identified with you. Legitimate power is a power usually held over people who believe that you have the right of power over them because of your position. Information or persuasive power is a power held over others that see you as having the ability to communicate logically and persuasively. Expert power is a power over others that see you as having expertise or knowledge. Reward power is a power that you have over others you can reward. Rewards can be material (money, promotion, jewelry) or Social (love, friendship, respect). Coercive power is a power you have over others that you can punish or remove rewards should they not yield to your influence. These bases are the types of power that can be used in shaping relationships. In the movie “Wall Street” many of these powers are used by Gordon Gecko to benefit from his relationship with Bud Fox. In this paper I will analyze the bases that are used by Gordon Gecko and how they are used. One of the most apparent bases that Gordon Gecko uses in his relationship with Bud Fox is the Referent power base. This power is obvious because Bud wants to be a “player” and Gordon is a very successful “player.” Bud wants to be successful and by being linked with Gordon Gecko it will bring him one step closer to his goals. Gordon Gecko also has some legitimate power over Bud. Gecko possesses the skills and knowledge that created his success, and if Bud wishes to become successful he must follow the example set by Gordon Gecko. So Gordon’s position gives him power over Bud Fox. This has the element of legitimate power. Expert power can be seen in the relationship between Gordon and Bud because of Gordon’s expertise in Wall Street. Gordon has already set out and accomplished Bud’s goals so Bud looks to Gordon for guidance in his own quest for success. Gordon has expert power over 2007-02-02T18:38:47-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Power-and-Greed-in-the-Film-Wall-Street-32566.aspx Film Analysis of Platoon Platoon tells the story of Vietnam from the point of view of a young, naive soldier, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen). The film showed its viewers about war, and what it really was. Hot the dramatized part you see on TV, but the hell that it really was. Oliver Stone, the director of the movie, was actually a soldier during Vietnam. So parts of the storyline and the general idea behind the film were based on some of his personal experiences there. Sergeant Elias is portrayed as a caring leader who likes to use drugs to get away from the war. His enemy in the platoon, Sergeant Barnes (Tom Beringer), is portrayed as a fighting machine that will stop at nothing to get the job done. When you watch this movie, you see that Barnes will do everything and anything to survive. Barnes has much hubris. He thinks he can do anything. The story is narrated by Chris Taylor and begins with his arrival in Vietnam. The first thing he sees is rows of bodies being readied for shipment back to the U.S. He sees soldiers giving him the “stare” thinking that Chris has no idea what he is up against in Vietnam. He finds out that other soldiers don't associate with the newcomers because they haven't put in their time. After Chris has been there a while, other soldiers advise him to count the days he's put in, not how many he has to go. That way it won't seem so long. After only a week, Chris realizes he's made a horrible mistake by volunteering. Taylor goes through perpetia and wishes that he hadn’t have come to Vietnam. . During a patrol, a competition develops between Barnes and Elias which causes two factions to form in the platoon. This is the rising action of the movie. The two factions in the platoon argue about everything and you know that something is going to happen between the two leaders, Barnes and Elias. The platoon is obdurate and ignores the fact that the platoon being in two different parts will not help them win the war. This leads to the final confrontation. The platoon is sent out on a mission to search and destroy any enemy they find. During the patrol, they come up against heavy enemy forces. During the battle 2007-02-02T17:56:42-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-of-Platoon-32543.aspx A Brief History of Film History of film has been dominated by the discovery and testing of the paradoxes inherent in the medium itself. Film uses machines to record images of life; it combines still photographs to give the illusion of continuous motion; it seems to present life itself, but it also offers impossible unrealities approached only in dreams. The motion picture was developed in the 1890s from the union of still PHOTOGRAPHY, which records physical reality, with the persistence-of-vision toy, which made drawn figures appear to move. Four major film traditions have developed since then: fictional narrative film, which tells stories about people with whom an audience can identify because their world looks familiar; nonfictional documentary film, which focuses on the real world either to instruct or to reveal some sort of truth about it; animated film, which makes drawn or sculpted figures look as if they are moving and speaking; and experimental film, which exploits film's ability to create a purely abstract, nonrealistic world unlike any previously seen. Film is considered the youngest art form and has inherited much from the older and more traditional arts. Like the novel, it can tell stories; like the drama, it can portray conflict between live characters; like painting, it composes in space with light, color, shade, shape, and texture; like music, it moves in time according to principles of rhythm and tone; like dance, it presents the movement of figures in space and is often underscored by music; and like photography, it presents a two-dimensional rendering of what appears to be three-dimensional reality, using perspective, depth, and shading. Film, however, is one of the few arts that is both spatial and temporal, intentionally manipulating both space and time. This synthesis has given rise to two conflicting theories about film and its historical development. Some theorists, such as S. M. EISENSTEIN and Rudolf Arnheim, have argued that film must take the path of the other modern arts and concentrate not on telling stories or representing reality but on investigating time and space in a pure and consciously abstract way. Others, such as Andre Bazin and Siegfried KRACAUER, maintain that film must fully and carefully develop its connection with nature so that it can portray human events as excitingly and revealingly as possible. Because of his fame, his success at publicizing his activities, and his habit of patenting machines before actually inventing them, Thomas EDISON received most of 2007-02-02T17:42:16-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/A-Brief-History-of-Film--32536.aspx Analysis of Stanley Kubrick's Influence as a Film Maker "A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later" (Stanley Kubrick) Director Stanley Kubrick was born within the confines of New York on the 26th of July 1928. The son of a physician, he began his career at the relatively young age of 16 when he began working as a freelance photographer for Look Magazine. Around this time the growing in confidence teenager founded a passionate interest in film. After several years as an avid photographer he made a move into moving pictures, directing and producing his first piece entitled ‘ Day of the Flight ‘ in 1950. After this had kicked started his desire for film and the creation of it, he went on to create two more documentaries entitled ‘ The Flying Padre ‘ and ‘ The Seafarers ‘. The facts about Kubrick’s film debut are sketchy to say the least. Obviously the way in which it was filmed, the film title, the name of the director (Stanley Kubrick) are all relatively factual pieces of information to obtain, however, the mystery remains of how Kubrick actually got the money to fund such a project. Some say that the film – ‘ Fear and Desire ‘ (1950) – was funded by Kubrick’s family, others say that he was head-hunted by a big studio and handed the money (to see what he could do) and then some internet pages will tell you that he attracted investors and hustled chess games. This just goes to demonstrate the mystery, intrigue, and gossip mongering that was all part of the Kubrick saga. Within the next decade Kubrick would go on to direct two more films, these films would single him out as one of the first true independent film makers – Killer’s Kiss (1955) and The Killing (1956). Then came Paths of Glory (1957) starring Kirk Douglas. This film brought him swiftly to the attention of Hollywood, and in 1960 with the backing of Kirk Douglas, Kubrick was drafted in to direct the epic adventure entitled – Spartacus. Kubrick must have made a good impression with these studios right from the very start. This was his first big feature film, it would go on to take 167 2007-01-11T05:11:50-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-Stanley-Kubrick-s-Influence-as-a-Film-Maker-32356.aspx Character Analysis of Emma in the Film "Clueless" Amy Heckerlings 'Clueless' is a very entertaining film which can be viewed from a number of different aspects. It can be seen as an entertaining teenpic about the life of a typical American teenager or as a very clever adaption of Jane Austens well-known book 'Emma'. With an understanding of 'Emma', the viewer of 'Clueless would be able to reveal parallels between the two texts and also be able to recognise various similarities and differences between them. To that extent, an understanding of 'Emma would add a further level of enjoyment and analysis to 'Clueless'. On its own, 'Clueless' can be seen as your everyday typical American teenpic. It would be very entertaining and would be enjoyed by most teenagers of today. As the film is a teenpic, it deals with everyday problems that todays teenagers deal with. Also, the music and fashion in 'Clueless' is appealing to these people an it is mainly contempory and 'in'. They would enjoy and relate to it. Many people who have seen Amy Heckerlings film 'Clueless' have no idea that it is an adaption of Jane Austens classic book 'Emma' and yet they are still able to enjoy it for its content. Although they still appreciate the film woithout an understanding of 'Emma', they would probably enjoy is more if they had a prior understanding of 'Emma'. Amy Heckerling has been able to cleverly transform 'Emma', and early nineteenth century book into 'Clueless', a popular film produced in the late twentieth century. She was able to do this by altering the book so that it is in a modern context and then presenting it in the form of a film. One fantastic example of this is when in 'Emma', the incident of the portrait occured. That is when Emma painted the portrait of Harriet and then Mr. Elton took it in order fo it to be framed. In 'Clueless' a similar incident occured except this time the picture was in the form of a more modern photograph, not a painting. Another great example of this was whenin 'Emma', Emma got a ride home in the carraige with Mr. Elton where he declared his love for her. In the parallel to this incident in 'Clueless', the ride home was in a car, which obviously is due to the more modern context of the twentieth century. Amy 2007-01-11T04:52:54-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Character-Analysis-of-Emma-in-the-Film-Clueless-32351.aspx Analysis of "Alive," The Movie In the film Alive, struggle is shown in a very explicit and raw sense; it shows how many different ways people deal with struggle. A European rugby team crashes down in the Andes, and they each struggle with the instant physical change in their own way. This film is very different in the way it presents struggle. Most of the film shots are medium-close, and the music is fairly constant. Thus it is up to the actors to present struggle within the film. The director uses many different techniques to show the struggle becoming present within the group. Pathos is incited within the audience through the use of presenting the rugby team as innocent kids, building a personalization between the characters and the audience. The idea of the situation which the rugby team has been placed in constructs a sense of panic within the audience; the predicament causes terror within the audience. Pathos, which is evoked within the audience in the first scenes, is placed by the effect of personalizing the characters in the film. This draws the audience closer to the characters and helps the audience to 'feel' the struggles, and terror, being faced by the young rugby team. It is evoked in the first scenes through the voices of the characters: "Those mountains below us don't look beautiful, they look like big white teeth waiting to swallow us up." This give the audience something to think about before any of the action occurs with the crash scene. After the crash scene, pathos is evoked in the audience with the effect of each individual characters struggle to survive, and the visual effect of seeing their suffering up-close. Ten days after the crash, the characters in the film need to eat, and there isn't any food, so they resort to cannibalism. This presents an idea with is considered a taboo in our society, and thus the struggle of the characters in the film is seen as frightening rather than hard. This idea which is shunned in our present society, is presented in Alive as the next logical step to survival, and thus, even though (the audience is) repulsed by it, the director gives the audience the idea that it is virtuous, therefore juxtaposing our normal lives and habits, and thus escalating the effect of physical struggle within the movie. The emotional struggle is presented extremely well in this text; 2007-01-11T03:55:07-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-Alive-The-Movie-32340.aspx Science Fiction Modernity in "The Incredible Shrinking Man" ‘Some terrors are hard to face directly, and so they come in the more easily donned cloak of metaphor. That has been the secret agenda of the horror movie from the beginning’ Referred to here as the horror movie, science fiction is a difficult genre to define, often related to fantasy, horror, thrillers or film noir. Decade by decade it can be seen how the science fiction film has been a way of representing and responding to a number of broad, cultural anxieties. Jack Arnold’s film, ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ (1957), based on the science fiction novel by Richard Matheson represents, in my opinion, four categories of anxiety. Throughout this composition I will outline these categories within the context of 1950’s America, taking into account issues of nationhood, citizenship and identity. Using concepts such as genre and ideology in relation to cultural and historical processes, I aim to analyse the anxieties represented in The Incredible Shrinking Man within wider filmic expressions of nationhood in the United States. Due to the increased participation of women in the workforce during the Second World War and the rise of consumer culture in the 1950’s, women had more autonomy during the post-war period in America. This could perhaps have led to anxieties about masculine identity and gender roles. The central characters in the film, until the shift to the basement, are Scott Carey and his wife Louise. It is evident from the beginning of the film that their patriarchal gender roles are a representation of normality, confirmed by Louise’s statement, ‘as long as you’ve got this wedding ring, you’ve got me’. As the wedding ring falls off, the stages of abnormality quicken rapidly and the representation of Louise changes, ‘The paranoia swells by stages. First, it is sexual, as his size relative to that of his wife continues to diminish; she comes to seem a looming and gross creature, and her behaviour to him is patronising.’ Carey’s initial concern, I would argue, is that of the loss of his masculinity, ‘I loathed myself, my home, the caricature my life with Lou had become.’ His masculinity is later retrieved by defeating the spider that he conceives as a metaphor for ‘every fear in the world.’ Bearing in mind the female spider (specifically the black widow) commonly kills its mate, this triumph is particularly prominent in relation to 2007-01-08T21:19:53-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Science-Fiction-Modernity-in-The-Incredible-Shrinking-32286.aspx Neyko Dimov The Pianist Charecter Review In the movie The Pianist, Adrian Brody plays a polish Jew 2007-01-07T10:27:39-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Pianist-Wladyslaw-Szpilman-Review-32267.aspx The Last Samurai, directed by Edward Zwick, starring actor Tom Cruise is based on the Japanese history during the end of the 18th century and the start of the 19th. The main focus of the movie is the transformation between a thousand year old tradition of a samurai soldier using a sword as his weapon, with the introduction of modern day weapons. During this time period, the Japanese communicated with various other cultures such as those of the French, English, German, American, and many others in order to try and learn many new educational and political systems to try and unify their country. An example of this of course would be the decision of the Japanese government to put modern weapons into use. As the transformation began, this symbolized the end of an era with the begging of a new one. As the movie unfolds, not only do we see the changes that occurred during this specific time frame in the society, but we also come to learn a lot more about the Japanese culture. Captain Nathan Algren played by Tom Cruise, shows just how different their way of living and prospective of life is compared to our modern day views. Captain Algren plays a soldier who once participated in the mass killing of Native Americans, and now feels deep guilt for what he has seen and done. Despite those obstacles, he is sent to Japan under a contract to teach them the use of modern guns. Both the actors in the movie and the sets and costumes used, create a perfectly accurate and entertaining view of the Japanese culture and the end of the last samurai. One of the most interesting aspects oh the Japanese culture which the movie greatly focuses on is their amazing form of discipline. As we watch the samurais, we see how their every aspect of life is concentrated on precision and perfection, from their razor sharp swords, to their great honor at the battlefield. As mentioned and shown in the film, whatever the Japanese people did, they did it to perfection. This of course, was an achievement thanks to their great way of concentration. In the film, when Algren tries to learn how to fight like a samurai, he is though that he needs to block out any surrounding disturbances such as people talking etc. This is something the Japanese samurais were known best 2007-01-07T10:15:39-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Last-Samuri-Movie-Review-32265.aspx Film Review Dimo Dimov “Analyze That” “Analyze That” created in 2002 is a sequel of the 1999 mob comedy "Analyze This". It is a rib- tickling comedy sequel, no longer a tale of a charming psychiatrist keeping a mafia don sober. On the contrary, it's the mafia godfather who exposes his shrink to the reality of the tough and indestructible side to every human soul. The film depicts two stereotypical characters, the collected psychotherapist and the notorious gangland figure. The unforeseeable events that override their lives ultimately juxtapose them towards one other. Soon the audience is bound to realize the uncertain and unpredictable truth about the characters created by Harold Ramis. As he both writes and directs this crime comedy, Harold Ramis succeeds in exposing us to the achievements and ordeals of the characters lives through light hearted comic relieves and intense unpredictable twists. The story takes place in the late 90’s early 2000’s, entirely set in suburban New York. After being locked up in Sing-Sing for 850 days, Paul Vitti's life, played by Robert De Niro, is threatened by assassins. He fakes insanity and starts singing show tunes from West Side Story. Day after day, FBI agents monitoring him are baffled as New York’s most notorious gangland figure walks around his cell in a distressing stupor. This draws the attention of Ben Sobel, played by Billy Crystal, an analyst who organizes Vitti to be released into his custody. Craving for some therapy himself, as he has inherited the family profession, as well as an excess stock of pressure after the unexpected death of his father, grieving Sobel talks Vitti into finding a regular job. At the same time, Vitti discovers that the Rigazzi family is the one who want him dead, leading to his unsuccessful attempt of finding a legitimate occupation. Nevertheless, luck strikes him and he finds employment working as a technical advisor 2007-01-07T10:13:27-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analyze-That-A-Movie-Review-32264.aspx The Cuban Missile Crisis in the Film "Thirteen Days" The film Thirteen Days shows the viewer a “blockbuster” look at the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that challenged the Kennedy administration. It does a reasonable job of sifting through history and picking the pieces that allow the audience to understand the historical event and enjoy the movie without being overloaded with information. The character of the President’s fiercely loyal aid, Kenneth O’Connell played by the actor Kevin Costner is followed throughout the film to give a more personal feel to viewer. Not a bad idea, however, Costner makes the worst attempt at an accent that I have ever heard. This, unfortunately deterred me for the remainder of the film. O’Connell’s relationship with the two Kennedy’s is also a key part of the film. Bruce Greenwood who plays president Kennedy does an admirable job of portraying a president who “won high praise for his grace under pressure and the way he sifted conflicting advice and made decisions (Shaller, p.196).” The interaction between all of the characters in the film were sufficient in showing the viewer the effects of politics behind the scenes, away from the public eye. The film follows the Crisis from the pictures initially taken of the U.S.S.R.’s missiles in Cuba by a U2 plane to the U.S.S.R.’s agreement to remove its missiles and troops form Cuba and the U.S.’s removal of missiles from Turkey. The latter scene brings up one of the main historical questions that the film presents. In the Present Tense text it was stated that the U.S. did not remove the missiles from Turkey until after the Soviet’s had removed theirs, and that the U.S. had done this “silently.” Yet another source declared that Kennedy had already ordered the removal of missiles in Turkey that were considered outmoded, but that he refused to act “under the gun.” The final result it states, was that Kennedy agreed to the original offer - not to invade Cuba - and ignored the Soviet request to remove missiles from Turkey (Tindall, 1988). In contrast, the film shows that the U.S. agreed to remove the missiles from Turkey simultaneously and that this information had been leaked out by the administration - as was shown in the picketing scene outside the White House. I am not sure why 2007-01-03T15:43:23-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Cuban-Missile-Crisis-in-the-Film-Thirteen-Days-32183.aspx Theme Analysis and Critique of the Movie "Glory" In this movie, it describes how the Free African Americans volunteer or sacrifice their lives to participate in the Civil War between the Union and the Confederates. In the opening of the movie, it shows a part in the Civil War where the Union attacked the Confederates straight on. Into the opening, it showed a Union soldier getting blown in the head like a watermelon would fall on a concrete ground. That part in the movie was amazing because it showed the details of the head being blown up by a cannon ball. It was simply amazing. Anyhow, in the mid-point of the movie, African Americans were training in a boot camp to prepare for the Civil War that lies ahead. It shows how each of them trained and how the generals were pushing them to their limits. After the training, the soldiers were ready for war. The first battle started in the woods where the Union African soldiers blasted their musket rifles against the Confederates. The shots killed several Confederates; however, it wasn’t the end of the shootout. As the fog was hovering over the soldiers, a row of sparks of explosions blasted at the Union Army. In this tense moment, the Union soldiers quickly reload and fired back. Then suddenly, two sides collide and bayonets started impaling soldiers from both sides. This point in the movie was awesome. You can actually hear piercing sounds of the bayonets into the soldiers! Later into the last and conclusive part in the movie, the Union soldiers of the 54th volunteer to head towards the Fort where the Confederates were defending. It was dramatic how the TITANIC background music was playing during the preparing for battle at the Fort. The beach waves were crashing and seagulls flying around like a bunch of wanderers. I had a little tear in my eye, but I manage to hold it back for the battle. Into the battle, the soldiers from both sides were dying everywhere. The main characters in the movie eventually died and the dramatic music starts playing and everybody is getting sad and so on. Finally, the Confederates gave up by waving their white flag. Afterwards, the movie showed corpses of dead soldiers getting piled up. The main characters were being thrown into 2006-12-19T17:10:49-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Theme-Analysis-and-Critique-of-the-Movie-Glory-32093.aspx Comparison of "Hoop Dreams" and "A Raisin in the Sun" The movie Hoop Dreams shows you the difficulties and obstacles that come in the way of dreams. Although it’s said that if you believe in a dream long enough it will come true, but in Hoop Dreams and A Raisin in the Sun you are shown the harsh realities of the falseness of that statement. And that the reality of a dream not coming true hits you like a brick wall. Many obstacles get in the way of the road to dreams in both stories. In both stories, all families suffer from having little knowledge, and it doesn’t help that they’re all black. Also being poor and living in the ghetto makes things that much harder. Pregnancies also put big bumps in the road to success, in both instances it makes the families come together and try their hardest to make it through. However, there are also many different obstacles that come in the way for each family. In Hoop Dreams, both William and Arthur are given much support to fulfill their dreams of getting to the NBA, but Walter in A Raisin in the Sun is only given grief on getting his liquor store. This can point the young immature teens to giving them more hope that a very rare dream will come true. Also, the two ballplayers do have talent to help them start down the road to success, but that can be very misleading, all Walter has is the nagging of his buddies Bobo and Willy. The toughest of the obstacles to overcome was when William injured his knee and it affected his basketball career for a long time. He never really did get over it, he was forced to settle for a second best basketball school, but managed to receive a great education. Family matters also plays major roles in both the play and the movie. With both Bo (Arthur’s father) and Walter’s case, they both had substance abuse problems and it much affected how well the dreams went. By the end of each story, each said they were off drugs for good. Bo had even said that if he wouldn’t have been on drugs, he would’ve been able to afford Arthur’s education at St. Joseph’s, and that possibly could have put him more in the spotlight in the basketball scene, just like 2006-12-19T17:05:10-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Comparison-of-Hoop-Dreams-and-A-Raisin-in-the-Sun-32090.aspx Examining the Works of Director Mary Harron Although she was born in Canada, Mary Harron knew a lot about America. She used this knowledge to make the movie American Psycho. In her adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel of the same name, Harron was able to make a satirical film about Wall Street life in the 1980s. It took two years and a lot of controversy to make her feature film debut, but Harron was able to do it in style and without backing down. Mary Harron was born in Canada, the daughter of Canadian actor and comedian Don Harron (a.k.a. Charlie Farquharson.) After attending Oxford University, Harron became a rock journalist. She was one of the people that helped start “Punk” magazine, and was the first writer from an American publication to interview The Sex Pistols. She went on to work as a writer for numerous publications including, “Melody Maker,” “The New Statesmen,” and “The Observer.” Her career as a rock journalist would then develop into a filmmaker and lead her to where she is today. Harron’s filmmaking career started when she began making documentaries for British television. She directed many short films for the BBC as well as making several documentary films. In 1996, Harron made her debut as a feature film writer and director, with the film I Shot Andy Warhol. Lily Taylor starred in this movie about author Valerie Solanas and her attempt at killing Andy Warhol. Harron’s film received critical acclaim and won Taylor a Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival. It also received a nomination for best film at the Independent Spirit Awards along with the honor of opening the “Un Certain Regard” section of the Cannes Film Festival. For Harron’s next film she decided she wasn’t going to go with “something safe,” which leads us to American Psycho. Mary Harron was connected to this movie and she wanted it to follow how she envisioned it when her and Guinevere Turner adapted the screenplay. Harron felt that the role of Patrick Bateman, the Wall Street serial killer, should go the person that could capture him the best. Lions Gate felt that Leonardo DiCaprio would be the best for this role, but Harron did not. When they signed on DiCaprio, Harron painfully dropped out. She already cast 2006-12-18T20:02:13-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Examining-the-Works-of-Director-Mary-Harron-32023.aspx The Untouchables and America in the 1920s The film The Untouchables explores the mob and its police involvement and corruption in 1920’s Chicago. The film shows the effect of organized crime upon American society, both by focusing upon their role in society and upon their involvement with law enforcement. The two extremes between good and evil in this move are mob boss Al Capone and justice-seeking investigator Elliot Ness. Through the film The Untouchables it is shown that organized crime serves the function of providing a service to society. Organized crime units simply look for something that is not available to the society legally and offer it to them for their own financial gain. In this particular film, Capone’s mob was offering liquor during prohibition to a society who desired it. The mob simply found their own “niche” market and jumped into it. The mob ensures that they do not have any competition or business losses through instilling an element of fear within everyone that they deal with. By portraying, and leading, a violent and ruthless way of doing business, the mob is both able to eliminate competition and trouble from other criminals. Additionally, fear, intimidation, and bribery can be used in the mob in order to control law enforcement and other public officials. Initially, law enforcement agencies were inefficient in dealing with organized crime in The Untouchables because so much of the police force was in the mob’s pocket. Through bribery, Capone’s mob was able to create an environment where there would be virtually no trouble from law enforcement officers. Additionally, when and if there was any trouble with law enforcement officers, the organized crime units would also pay off public official, such as judges, in order to remain above the law. All of this changed when one law enforcement officer attacked the case that he was assigned to (prohibition) and never backed down. He refused to take any bribes and did not stop in spite of the fear that the mob had generated toward him through threats to his family as well as the violent deaths of several other members of his police force. This detective, Elliot Ness, was able to get around the corruption throughout his workplace by forming his own group of only people that he knew he could trust, becoming much like 2006-12-07T15:38:49-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Untouchables-and-America-in-the-1920s-31930.aspx Critical Review of "The Bourne Identity" Robert Ludlum was born in New York City, raised in Short Hills, New Jersey and educated in Connecticut. A former actor and theatrical producer, at forty he decided to change careers and try his hand at writing. The rest is history – a reputation for immediate bestsellers, publication in over forty countries and thirty-two languages, and sales of 200 million copies worldwide. Robert Ludlum lives in Florida with his wife Mary, a former actress and his first critic. Ludlum has definitely lived up to his name as an excellent writer and he has shown this with his new book The Bourne Identity. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity is the first book of a three-part series. This novel, which is set in the cities of Zurich and Paris, is the story of a man who has lost his memory, and his search to find out who he is and what he has done. He starts with one clue: that someone wants him dead. The more he discovers, the more terrifying his conquest becomes. The plot is nothing more than a good guy versus bad guy battle. However, Ludlum’s style of writing turns the action into a sense of realism for the reader. This book is beautifully written which puts the reader into each and every character’s shoes. Each character is complex and credible. The book itself is full of action and the pace is furious. The Bourne Identity has drive and excitement from first page to last. Perhaps the most impressive part of the novel are the action scenes. These scenes written so well are explosive and screaming with immense suspense, The Bourne Identity is a journey into the tortuous maze of hell itself. Robert Ludlum who was a former US Marine in the Second World War is definitely an ingenious storyteller. He has stuffed more surprises into his novels than any other six-pack of thriller writers combined. Robert Ludlum is the master of action. The Bourne Identity is a great read for any reader that looks for an action packed and adventurous book. Ludlum has delivered the goods. This book has done a great job of entertaining the reader – 4 out of 5. Although Ludlum’s novel is a major success, its screenplay is a major let down. This movie could be summarized in one line: it’s a dud. One of the many reasons 2006-12-05T16:20:12-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Review-of-The-Bourne-Identity-31904.aspx Critical Review of Disney's "Mulan" The movie Mulan was an entertaining and comical film 2006-12-04T20:37:15-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Review-of-Disney-s-Mulan-31853.aspx Critical Analysis the film "Road Trip" “Many funny moments, many gross moments, many flashes of breast and sexual situations… the first good movie of the summer”(User Reviews, 2). Josh and Tiffany have been boyfriend and girlfriend ever since they were five years old. They are hitting their first challenge in their relationship… college. They are going to two different schools, 1500 miles apart. Road Trip is a humours teenage movie about college students on a cross-country trip to intercept a sexually explicit home video before it falls into the heads of Tiffany. “This is the setting for the greatest story ever told”(Road Trip, movie). The movie starts up in Ithaca, New York. The movie takes place during Josh’s college years. All of Josh’s friends love to hang out with each other. Josh’s friend E.L. wants Josh to hock up with a girl named Beth. Josh does eventually gets together with her that’s a night no man would forget. Just to make sure that he doesn’t forget it Beth records it. The next day josh acts all happy and the guys wonder why, well, he explains “I had the best time of my life last night twice and once this morning!”(Road Trip, movie) When the boys want proof and hits that they taped it, so to prove it they view the type. Although to Josh’s surprise the type they are watching is the one he made for Tiffany. Rubin Josh’s friend was supposed to send it out the day before but didn’t and when he realized that he forgot grabbed the Beth type by accident. So the boys decided to take a road trip to retrieve the type before Tiffany sees it. They make three stops along the way, the first night they end up in a motel in the middle of no-where after their car blows up. The second stop is at a frat house. Rubin knew the securite hand shake so that means they get free food and bored, but the only problem is that Rubin was thinking ahead enough and they ended up in a all black fraternity. The third night they stayed at Barry’s grandparents house. His grandparents are sweet but the grandparents are teenagers at heart. Well after ending up in Austin minutes before Tiffany gets there to get her mail. Although Tiffany sees Josh and wants to talk to him and they end up breaking 2006-12-04T20:35:41-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Analysis-the-film-Road-Trip-31852.aspx Reflection on the Cinematic Ballet of "Ballerina: Part 1" “Wow!” This is the first reaction that came to mind after observing such a spectacular film with such grace and elegance. "Ballerina: Part 1" is my preliminary initiation to the world of ballet. I have to say I was flabbergasted at all the different types of ballet portrayed and the great affect of one’s training, culture, and personality on these various ballet’s. I also learned that with the use of body, technique, expression, and spirit the dancer truly converses their mood and vibe toward the viewer. And another interesting thing I learned was how flexible some of the girls were…ouch! I enjoyed the video because it gave me an idea of what ballet is truly about. It showed me that with the right movements and feeling in your body you can completely change the presentation of your performance. The emotions that the ballerinas presented with their movements were so real, and it amazed me to see that one can show so much feeling and enthusiasm through dancing. The one thing about the film that I disliked was the narrator, Natalia Makarova. Her accent was very heavy which made me rewind the tape a gazillion times to figure out what she was really saying. In viewing such an enlightening video, I have learned that there are many different types of ballet. The “romantic ballerina” was just one of the many ballet’s I saw. I learned that early in the 19th century, Marie Taleon, was the first to go on point. I also discovered that lessee seal was one of the most romantic styles of ballet. Next came the “Eberchose Ballerina”. In this type of ballet, the ballerina must enliven the audience. Cynthia Harvey, an eberchose ballerina, performed in a very fast, upbeat, and jumpy style. In lyrical and dramatic ballet the ballerina has to tell a story, it is a very passionate type of dance that shows a lot of feeling and mood. Pure Classicism is the most different form of dance. Sylvie Guillem performed in the "Grand Pas Classique" which provokes the essence of style required for a classical ballet. Hungarian stylized dance uses many outward hand motions proving that the use of space is also important in ballet. Franco Italian, 2006-11-15T22:46:11-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Reflection-on-the-Cinematic-Ballet-of-Ballerina-Part-1-31752.aspx Analysis of the Closet Scene in Hamlet the Movie Hamlet is often seen as one of the most well known examples of an Oedipus Complex presented in literature. The reasons for this is probably because of the plot that resolves around the revenge that Hamlet has against his step-father Claudius and because of the relationship that Hamlet has with his mother that is loaded with sexual energy. Hamlet’s love for his mother is especially exemplified by the Mel Gibson’s interpretation of the infamous closet scene. Traditionally a Queen’s closet was not worth emphasizing a bedroom, but it is likely that most of the readers would presume that the closet scene takes place in Gertrude’s bedroom because of the obsession that Hamlet has about Gertrude’s bed. When Hamlet responds to his mother’s summons and comes to her closet, he invades a very private place where customarily a woman would only entertain her husband or a lover. For an adult son to do this, intimations of erotic possibilities are almost inevitable because the son crosses the line into the enclosure of his mother’s privacy to encounter her as a sexualized subject. The room that Olivier created for Gertrude contained a lot of scenery to convey a subliminal message. The tall doors look phallic-shaped and the bed is the center of attention most of the time. The bed is also much more lit than the rest of the room that emphasizes the importance of it. The way Gertrude kisses Hamlet in the Olivier, can be signifiers of the sexuality that is going in between her and Hamlet. The kisses are not what the everyday person interprets as platonic and it is almost as if Hamlet and Gertrude are drawn closer and closer because of the passion between them, in order that their faces are only inches apart. The last kiss between Gertrude and Hamlet is a great example of how Olivier intended the bed and the sexual connotation that goes with that to be the center of attention. When the last kiss is given, the camera angle turns to have the bed as well as the two figures kissing in the picture. Gertrude by the bed is the last focus of the camera you see when the scene ends. Richardson’s Hamlet is not as much preoccupied with sexuality than Olivier’s- or the Zeffirelli’s Hamlet. The relationship between Gertrude and Hamlet in this film 2006-11-15T02:41:51-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-the-Closet-Scene-in-Hamlet-the-Movie-31735.aspx Analysis of the Film Enemy at the Gates The movie Enemy at the Gates shows the battle of Stalingrad, Russia through the Russian point of view. At the battle, the Germans and Russians fought over the ruined, once industrialized, city. The main idea that the movie portrayed, along with the brutality and reality of war, was how important one man could be in determining victory or defeat. Vassili Zaitsev, played by Jude Law, was a Russian sniper and main character of the movie. In real life, Zaitsev had over 140 confirmed German kills. The fame of Zaitsev and his kills raised Russian morale and made the German’s propaganda and efforts fall to uselessness. Being such a threat to the German army, Major Konig, the top German sniper who probably also served in WWI, was sent to Stalingrad to eliminate Zaitsev. After the two snipers played cat and mouse with each other for some days, Zaitsev began to underestimate his capability of defeating Konig. Konig, an older and wiser man, had Zaitsev trapped in a destroyed factory, but was saved by Tania, a girl who volunteered to fight and fell in love with Zaitsev. After this, the two played cat and mouse again and it seemed the game would never end. Sacha, a boy who helped spy on Konig for the Russians, led Konig into Zaitsev’s sights on more than one occasion. Having little patience for the boy, Konig hung him. As the movie reached the climax, Danilov, Zaitsev’s closest friend, having betrayed him because of his own selfish feelings for Tania, steps out of safety to do the one good thing he considers himself of being capable of-showing Zaitsev where Konig is by being shot. In the end, having lost Danilov, Sacha, and probably Tania, Zaitsev flanks Konig and shoots the German sniper just as he realizes he is as good as dead. With the battle over, Zaitsev finds his wounded Tania and must live on happily together. Throughout the movie, Russian officers punished their own men’s “cowardice” by death. To be on the Russian side must have surely meant death to the average soldier. To me, having All-American ideals, the thought of these men being shot down by the enemy and the ally was horrifying. In one scene at the beginning of the 2006-11-11T18:54:32-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-the-Film-Enemy-at-the-Gates-31719.aspx i would like to watch a good nice, sexy film from France and a good romantic film. I live in Sweden, Stockholm i like French films so much. Ever day I'm looking to television and waiting good film its ok for me if they have film in school or hotel or with fimally.i like this type film.good story between girl and boy with each other its too nice beautiful.if you have romanian film its good too. i like all sexy film from france, romania,italy and russia,and greece.i'm very interssting to watsh film today night would like to watsh good nice sexy film from france and good story romantic film and.i live in sweden,stockholm i like france film so much. evry day i'm looking to tv and waiting good film its ok for me if they have film in school 2006-11-08T16:40:37-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/A-French-Film-31708.aspx Analysis of the Cinematic Version of Hamlet In the two different film versions shown in class of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Prince Hamlet’s “To be or not to be…” soliloquy is presented very differently and therefore is interpreted differently as well. In the Gibson version, the soliloquy can be construed as a lamentation over the fight that took place between the Prince and Ophelia. During their interaction, Ophelia was portrayed as in control and Hamlet suffered the most. In the Branaugh version, the soliloquy can be interpreted as Hamlet’s selfish contemplation of suicide. When Hamlet interacts with Ophelia in this version, he is in control and Ophelia suffers the most. The placement of the soliloquy in the plot, and the body language and vocal tones all help create these two very different interpretations. In the Gibson version, Hamlet’s fight with Ophelia comes before his soliloquy, while in the Branaugh version it comes after. This fight provides Hamlet a reason to say his soliloquy in the Gibson version, since Ophelia is in control most of the time and Hamlet is the most damaged. This placement gives meaning to the soliloquy’s tone of suffering and grief, while in the Branaugh version, Hamlet’s only reasons for this grief are the death of his father and the remarrying of his mother to Claudius. While these a valid reasons for grief, Hamlet has already expressed his anger and grief in an earlier soliloquy. Furthermore, these problems are not legitimate reasons to kill one’s self. Since this is how the soliloquy was presented in the original play, it seems only to illustrate how self-absorbed, foppish, and melodramatic Hamlet is. In the Gibson version, Hamlet contemplates suicide after Ophelia forsakes his love, returning his love poems and letters with force and a cold demeanor. Besides his mother, Ophelia was the only other person alive to love Hamlet. To add to his torment, his mother’s love was rather underwhelming, since he felt a strong sense of betrayal and anger towards her for remarrying so soon. These combined factors justified Hamlet’s contemplation of death, giving real meaning to the soliloquy. The body language in the two versions helps to once again create different interpretations of the fight and the soliloquy. In the Branaugh version, Hamlet’s voice and gestures are loud, angry, and violent. He 2006-11-04T18:53:23-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-the-Cinematic-Version-of-Hamlet-31692.aspx The Theme of Hope in the "Shawshank Redemption" “A romantic hero is a man that is superior in degree to other men and his environment, whose life is a sequence of adventures.” Andy Dufrene in Stephen King’s “Shawshank Redemption” is a romantic hero according to Northrop Frye’s theory, which is derived from Jesus Christ. It describes the development of a romantic hero in six stages: Birth of the hero, innocence of the hero, achievements of the hero, maintenance of innocents, contemplative withdrawal from world, and the death and resurrection of the hero. It will be made evident that Andy’s entrance into prison symbolizes the birth of a hero, and his innocence is shown by his interactions with the ‘sisters’. Despite his powerless situation Andy acquires many achievements and manages to maintain his innocents. Doing time in solitary confinement gives Andy a chance to contemplate his escape, this he accomplishes by tunneling out of the prison. By using specific references to the plot of the play and Frye’s theory, the foregoing statements will prove to be valid. “She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” The first two stages in the development of a romantic hero are, birth and innocents of the hero. Like a new born child the hero is coerced into a new environment. For Andy Dufrene the new environment was prison, and his entrance was similar to the birth of a child. “They march you in naked as the day you were born.” The imagery of his first day is similar to the symbols of birth. Before the inmates can actually enter the general population, they are stripped naked, washed down, and deloused. Water is the symbol of the beginning and the end of a cycle. The beginning of Andy’s adventure was symbolized by him entering prison naked and dripping wet. What is more innocent than a new born child? Maybe the question that should be asked is. What is more tempting to homosexuals in jail, than a weak naked man? This is the second phase in Andy’s development, his innocence. Being naive to prison life, he is taken advantage of by a group of homosexual men called the sisters. “Because of his small size and fair good looks, the sisters were after Andy from the day he 2006-11-03T01:06:17-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Theme-of-Hope-in-the-Shawshank-Redemption-31684.aspx Film Review of American Beauty I am doing a review on the movie “American Beauty” I decided on focusing on one character . The character I will be focusing on is, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey). Kevin Spacey turns in a sharp performance as your everyday average Joe who’s finally fed up with his life. It’s just that his life is unusually miserable: It’s just painfully monotonous. He’s stuck in a loveless marriage to a woman obsessed with materialism, his job doesn’t offer him the respect he deserves, and his daughter and wife both don’t really give a damn about him on e way or the other. As the central character, he narrates the opening of the story, and starts it off with a shocker in the first 3 minutes: He says” I’m a 42 year old and even though I don’t know it, in less than a year I’ll be dead.” the statement, relayed and such simplicity, immediately grabs your attention and sets up some anticipation of what’s about to come. What follows is the nightmarishly boring life Spacey’s character leads. We watch as his icy wife drives around her Mercedes minivan and closes real estates deals all while he puts up with this crap, until one day he says that enough. Lester Burnham decides to make a few changes in his rut life, changes that are less midlife crisis than adolescence reborn. The freer he gets the happier he gets, which is more maddening to his wife, Carolyn, and daughter Jane - especially when he turns his lustful gaze toward Jane’s friend, the sultry Angela. Which causes him to start lifting weighs in the nude after hearing Angela teasingly tell Jane she thinks her dad is hot. Carolyn responds by focusing her attention on real estate colleague Buddy Kane. Lester then meets Ricky Fitts, the son of the family that just moved in next door. Ricky is a philosopher and a drug dealer, and starts turning Lester on to weed of his younger, wilders day. With al these momentous events around, Lester drops out of his suburban grind and rebels, in small ways, against the phoniness. When he’s asked to write a letter describing his job to a corporate consultant, relates with sarcasm, blackmail and resignation then goes off to actually enjoy life instead of being a slave to. In 2006-11-02T15:43:20-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Review-of-American-Beauty-31670.aspx I think that An American Werewolf in London is too funny to be just a horror movie, even though Dave's story is too sinister to be in a comedy. Firstly, let’s think about the title. Most horror films have one or two word titles e.g. The Omen, The Ring etc. to help build up suspense, but this film, An American Werewolf in London, its title is almost a whole sentence. There's a bit of mystery in it – why would an American werewolf be in London? – but it doesn’t really sound scary because the title is too long, unlike films like Scream, Tremors etc. The opening sequence shows a montage of shots of the moors. The landscape is desolate and abandoned. It is cloudy, shadow and misty. Here you think this could be a horror, but coupled with the background music, a fifties/ sixties pop ballad called Blue Moon, it appears to be a film about the moors and not a monster that lives in them. Then the truck arrives and the driver unloads two American men from the back, where they had been sitting with the sheep. They walk off, talking about women, sex and they start joking – something that you wouldn’t expect to happen in a horror movie. It takes a horror themed turn when they arrive at a pub called the Slaughtered Lamb. But again, Jack makes a joke here – Where is the Lamb? – he says. So they enter the pub, and everyone in there, knowing that it is the night of the werewolf, everyone became hostile to the visitors. They all felt safe in here because they know that the werewolf is none of them, but these two strangers, one of them could be the werewolf, so they told them to leave. But before they left, there were yet more jokes. Dave's nightmares are also too comical. The way he was running naked through a forest and then just suddenly starts eating a deer alive was too funny, and not at all scary. The thought of someone doing that is very disturbing, but the way it occurred on screen made me laugh, not cringe. And then there is the dream where he is at home with his family. The idea of aliens coming to your door and destroying your house it a little scary, but it felt much more like a gangster movie than a horror 2006-11-01T11:55:42-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/What-genre-is-the-film-An-American-Werewolf-in-London-31654.aspx Compare and Contrast Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now was inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness that informs the film throughout. A comparison and contrast can be made between the two. Both have the same themes but entirely different settings. Heart of Darkness takes place on the Congo River in the Heart of Africa while Apocalypse Now is set in Vietnam. The stock characters in both have the same general personalities but have different names. Of course, Kurtz is Kurtz, Willard parallels Marlow, and the American photojournalist corresponds to the Russian Harlequin. Willard is a lieutenant for the US Army and Marlow is a captain of a steamboat of an ivory company. The first images of Willard and Marlow differ to some degree. The movie begins with Willard lying in an apartment room lost from reality with the song ‘The End’ playing by The Doors. He is haunted by his earlier deeds and he is getting very drunk. Willard smashes the mirror while fighting himself and cuts his hand. He collapses on the bed weeping. Marlow is portrayed as a wanderer of the sea. The narrator described him to somewhat of a hero. Their mission is to find Kurtz and take him down at all costs. In both stories Kurtz is a psychotic rebel, worshipped as a god, who threatens the stability of his original unit, but in one it is an ivory trading company and in the other it is the US Army. Kurtz, who had begun his assignment a man of great idealism and the highest morals, had become strangely savage. Tribes of natives worship the man who lives in a hut surrounded by fence posts topped with recently acquired human skulls. Kurtz has undergone a total breakdown of the physical, psychological, and spiritual. Along the trip into the wilderness, Willard and Marlow discover their true selves through contact with savage natives. As Marlow ventures further up the Congo, he feels like he is traveling back through time. He sees the unsettled wilderness and can feel the darkness of its solitude. The movie ends quite differently than the novel. The movie ends with a spectacular scene. During a native tribe’s ritual sacrifice ceremony of a water buffalo, The Doors’ The 2006-10-31T22:28:48-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Compare-and-Contrast-Apocalypse-Now-and-Heart-of-Darkness-31644.aspx The Human Spirit in the Film "Escape From Sobibo" How much is the human spirit? After seeing the film, Escape from SOBIBOR, I know the answer is infinity. Luka, Sasha, and Leon are good examples for us to study. The human spirit is indomitable, for it makes them to win the Nazi. Luka is a weakness outside, but strong inside woman. She is forced to come to the camp, and suffers the inhumane treatments. The children are useless and will be killed, but one woman hinds her baby in the workshop. The other women are afraid of this case because they will be killed if the baby is found. Luka isn’t afraid of dead, so she promises the woman to help her. At the beginning, she does the job well, but the baby and the mother are killed because the baby is found. Luka also helps Leon and Sasha carry out the escaping plan. She pretends Sasha’s girlfriend and transmits the information between Sasha and Leon. We know that she takes a very important part of the escaping plan. Her spirit is indomitable. Sasha’s indomitable human spirit is strong. He is a Russian soldier and is caught to the camp. He knows that his comrades-in-arms can’t help him, but he doesn’t give up. To him, the Nazi soldiers are garbage. One day, a soldier punishes the Jew. He stands forward and protects the Jew. He looks at the soldier face to face. The soldier is afraid of him, so he hasn’t the courage to kill him. As we know, Sasha is a good Russian soldier. He plans all the detail of the escaping plan. The condition is bad, but he uses all the Jew wisely. From the weapons to the escaping route, everything is under his control. Without him, the plan can’t carry out. Leon’s indomitable human spirit is stronger and clear. He is the leader of the Jew. He comes to the camp for a long time, but all of his family members are killed, and he suffers the inhumane treatments everyday. He never gives up his life. He lives for escaping and taking revenge. Sometimes, other Jew are killed. He can not only calm himself, but also persuade the others to live for revenge. When Sasha joins him the escaping plan, he does everything as he can. From the plane, we also know that he is 2006-10-31T22:20:11-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Human-Spirit-in-the-Film-Escape-From-Sobibo-31639.aspx A Modern Romeo and Juliet It all started when two people, Alex and Marie Davenport where on vacation celebrating their anniversary in Paris, Nice. They were in a small boat that Alex was rowing, they stopped in the middle of the lake and Alex decided to jump out and go for a swim. He was splashing Marie and telling her to come in, but she refused to and told him to come back into the boat. Then without knowing a man on a ski-do with his young son came by, not seeing Alex in the water hit him without knowing and crashed into the side of the small boat knocking Marie out into the water. The ambulance came right in time, Alex was in a coma and they rushed him to the nearest hospital, there Marie stayed at the waiting room and was trying to ignore the loud TV the was running in there. Two doctors named, Dr. Boulanger and Dr. Faure came out and talked to Marie. They told her that Alex was in a coma and had a really bad head injury and that they don’t think he is going to make it. Then without expecting it Alex’s condition worsened for the worse and the doctors pronounce him dead. After looking at Alex for the last time she was taken home by Dr. Boulanger, he was a close friend. When she got back to the hotel she took a shower, then cried herself to sleep thinking about what had happened. The next morning she had gotten a strange call from the hospital and when she arrived, almost fainted in hearing the news. The doctors told Marie that Alex’s body was missing that they had no idea where it could be. Marie was so surprised and confused in what just had happened she had no idea what to say or do. When she got back to the hotel she found the balcony door open and found a mysterious doctors suit in the back of the kitchen, and when she opened the cabinet drawer she found out Alex’s return ticket and clothes were gone. She started thinking very carefully and came to a conclusion that he was alive, just had no idea what he was doing. She called the front desk and asked if any messages 2006-10-28T19:08:45-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/A-Modern-Romeo-and-Juliet-31582.aspx Write Up for Pleasantville In the movie Pleasantville, a brother and sister from modern day became part of a black and white ‘50s television show called Pleasantville. This was done using a special remote given to the main character David, by a TV repairman. In the beginning David believed Pleasantville should remain the same. Pleasantville was his utopia; he thought everything was perfect. His sister Jenn was determined to change Pleasantville. Jenn thought people acted like losers, and wanted them to be “cool”. David later realized things should change because people did not show their emotions in Pleasantville, and had no way to express them. When people in Pleasantville showed their emotions, they changed from black and white to color. By the end of the movie, everything was in color because of David. People had learned to show their emotions. The creator of this movie was trying to communicate the message that emotions make things more interesting. This statement is true for Pleasantville and writing. In Pleasantville people would change to color when they showed their emotions. Bill expressed his emotions through painting colorful pictures. David gained his color when he got angry and punched Whitey. Emotions are put into writing to add detail. At Lover's Lane people reading books became colored and the listeners remained black and white. If people incorporate emotions into their writing it will help get the reader's attention and make the plot more interesting. This movie relates to our critical analysis essay. The idea of perception versus reality is conveyed throughout the movie. David thought Pleasantville was perfect when he watched it on television. When he became part of the show he found it had many flaws. The citizens of Pleasantville believed there was nothing outside of Pleasantville; in reality there was a lot. In reality, bad things can happen. When the tree caught on fire, the firefighters did not know how to deal with it because there had never been a fire in Pleasantville before. This movie also dealt with the idea of personal choice and the consequences of those choices. In the ‘90s, Jenn did poorly in school. She probably could not get into college. She worked hard in school while she was in Pleasantville. In Pleasantville, she had a chance to go to college. Personal choice can also be seen when many people chose to show their feelings and emotions. The consequence was 2006-10-04T20:48:07-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Pleasantville-31504.aspx Synopsis of the plot of Snow White Many of the stories we read were interesting, but their was one that caught my attention was a old family folktale that my mother use to tell me before I would go to bed. The story of “Snow White,” all though the story is just a folktale it got me ready for a lot of lessons that life had to teach. The story talks of a queen who one day thought of how lovely it would be to give birth to a little daughter. So with that in mind a month later she gave birth to a little girl who was white as snow, red as blood, and with black hair she was so amazed by her features that she named here lovely daughter Snow White. The queen died and in a year her husband married again, a women who was beautiful but proud and haughty. She had a magic mirror which she asked question and always told her the truth, so she would always ask the c and the mirror would reply “you are, my queen.” Snow White grew up and became the beautiful than the queen herself. The mirror even told the queen that Snow White was a thousand times fair then the queen would ever be, and this made her very upset. The queen ordered Snow White to be killed in the forest, but the man had pity on her and just left her in the forest. Snow White ran through the forest for hours trying to find out how to get home, but she never found here way back. She later found her self at a cottage in the forest and went inside. While inside she all she saw was surround by was little beds, chairs, and clothing that looked like they were for little kids. She soon grew tired and then fell asleep in one of the little beds. When she awoke, there were seven dwarfs all around her, she woke up in a panic and tried to head for the door, but before she could make it one of the dwarfs stopped her and told her that they were not out to hurt. Snow White lived with the dwarfs from that day on and she never returned home. When the servant returned, the queen ran up to him and asked if the job was done, and he told her that 2006-10-03T20:20:38-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Synopsis-of-the-plot-of-Snow-White-31487.aspx Critical Analysis of "Remember the Titans" I think that this is an excellent movie. Not only is it an excellent movie in the obvious plot, but also in the underlying message which slowly manifests throughout the movie. Racism is that message. That underlying message is what I am going to discuss. I think the movie shows the importance of accepting change because it shows the consequences when a person doesn’t. First, the movie shows how change is necessary to keep relationships. If someone is too full of pride to admit that they are wrong, then they will feel growing malice towards the one who is right. The movie had a great example. When Gary had to cut Jerry because he refused to accept that blacks are equal to whites. This shows how racism can affect relationships. Second, the movie shows why people act the way they do. I think they did a great job in showing how people are taught growing up affects their ideas on a topic with the little girl. Watching how she reacted throughout the movie really showed how much it really matters. She never looked down on the blacks because they were black. I think this is because her father, the coach, always taught that whites shouldn’t oppress blacks. I think this idea caught on in her because of the way she acted with them. She was never mean to them or in any way showed hate towards the blacks. Third, the movie shows how scared everyone was of change. Early it showed how the white players were scared of losing their spots on the team to the blacks. Gary made my favorite quote, which illustrates this quite well. The quote shows that it is possible to overcome that fear. This is important because it sets an example to others that change is necessary and possible. The quote is as follows: “ I was afraid of you, Julius. I don’t see what I was afraid of. Now I see I was only hating my brother.” This movie is one that speaks volumes on a very important issue while managing to maintain the viewer’s interest. It has action and comedy to keep viewers paying attention. However, in all that excitement, they intertwine a great lesson. That lesson is 2006-09-20T03:48:47-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Analysis-of-Remember-the-Titans-31457.aspx Film Analysis of "True Lies" In True Lies, there are two running stories, which eventually tie in together. The starring actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has two problems to deal with. He has an undercover detective job which is getting hot and heavy, and he has his marriage. I 2006-09-20T03:33:14-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-of-True-Lies-31449.aspx Character Analysis of "Twelve Angry Men" Sometimes in life your professions reflect on your personalities. Twelve Angry Men is an example of where this occurs. Twelve men are brought together in a room to decide whether a boy is guilty of killing his father. Whether they brought good or bad qualities from their profession, they all affected the outcome. The leadership skills of Courtney Vance, the compassion of Dorian Harwood, and the opinionated Tony Danza affected the actions and decisions in the jury room. Courtney Vance is a high school football coach; his position in the jury room is a foreman. On the football field, Vance acts as a mediator, a leader, and an organizer. As a foreman for this trial, Vance definitely carries all those traits into the jury room with him. If it were not for Vance, there would not have been any order in the jury room. He acts as a coach in the jury room as he formed fine lines of respect. He acts as a mediator for all of the arguments that went on in the jury room. Every time, Vance is there to calm everyone down and gain back order in the room. His leadership skills also shine in the jury room as well. He controls and leads every discussion, speaking order, voting, and demonstration. Vance takes on the leading role and handles it well. He also brings organization into the jury room by organizing the juries, the discussions, and the votes. With the excellent traits that Vance brings into the jury room, he allows the trial to run smoothly and effectively. Dorian Harwood’s profession as nurse also shapes his actions in the jury room. In the jury room, he acts with compassion and respect. As a nurse he does the same. His compassion lies in caring for another. He relates that to the trial by thinking of the boy as one of his patients. He wants him to have a fair chance at life, and therefore wants him to have a fair trial. In the jury room, he acts with respect because he is very unsure about the case, and really does not know how he feels about things. So when it is his turn to talk he passes to hear the others before he makes the wrong assumption. With these actions he shows a lot of respect for not only the boy on 2006-08-25T16:51:56-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Character-Analysis-of-Twelve-Angry-Men-31259.aspx Hints of Sexism And Racism In The Film "Sayonara" In Her Essay “Tragic Love and Transcendental Love”, Gina Marchetti uses a keen eye to closely analyze and uncover the underlying themes present in the 1957 film Sayonara. Marchetti argues that, if anything, the film is much more involved with civil rights than it is with any serious ant-war or anti-racism message. Her point is well made and defended by the many examples given of how instances of conservative behavior, often masculine characters craving control, overshadow any hint of moral lesson about interracial relations. The movie repeatedly creates awareness of a social problem such as the absurdity of society rejecting interracial relationships but just as soon as the audience’s attention is captured, the point shifts in another direction causing confusion about what the true message of the movie is. Rather than exploit or challenge the traditional American beliefs and values of Americans towards issues of race, Sayonara succeeds in reinforcing the American conservative views on masculinity versus femininity and the like. Although superficially posing as an antiwar film, Sayonara is hardly convincing as any discussion about the morality of the Korean War quickly fades out as a main theme of the movie in the opening scenes (Marchetti 128). Gruver, apparently disturbed by an encounter with “the enemy” earlier that day, comments that the pilot had had a face. While the viewer anticipates some type of elaboration on the thought, the subject quickly changes to Japan and there is foreshadowing of what is to come when the doctor mentions the “ Japanese dolls” he is sure to encounter. Marchetti points out that this vague reference to the Korean war is a brief moral consideration only touched upon before it is long forgotten and lost in a love story. By bringing up his moral dilemma in the first place and changing directions so quickly, the movie tends to make light of the conflict in Korea and works against its intention to serve as an anti-war movie. Gruver’s problem is portrayed as an “Oedipal dilemma” as he begins to question why he has committed his whole life to something his father wanted (Marchetti, 129). Throughout the movie, Gruver is continuously questioning whether he is really happy with his life thus far and if what he has accomplished is what life is all about. As he contemplates his life thus far 2006-08-08T09:52:58-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Hints-of-Sexism-And-Racism-In-The-Film-Sayonara-31167.aspx Summary, Characters, Conflict and Themes of “Godfather Death” 1. Give a Brief summary of the work using specific names, detail, and examples. In the story “Godfather Death” there is a father who has twelve children and then has another his thirteenth child, but he cannot afford this child. The father then decides to find the most suitable godfather for his thirteenth child. The father passes up the good lord and the devil his reasoning being that death is equal and does not discriminate between people. Death gives the child a gift for his baptism his gift is the ability to heal the sick as long as death is at their head if he was at their feet the person was to die. The doctor soon became famous and was well known through the country. The doctor soon found out the king was ill and when he approached him Death was at his feet, so the doctor switched the king’s position so that Death was at the king’s head. Death was upset at the doctor’s actions and warned him not to do it again. Well, the doctor disobeyed Death once more and this time Death said he must pay. Death took him to his cavern which had candles lining the walls, on the way down the doctor asked what the candles where for and death replied that they are peoples lives. Death showed the doctor his candle and it was almost out, so he doctor tried to convince him to let him live but death tricked him and put his candle out. 2. List the names of the protagonist and major Characters and give a description of each using specific details in your discussion. The major characters in the short story “Godfather Death” are the doctor and Death. The doctor is the son of a man who had twelve children before him and he is the thirteenth and the father cannot afford to keep him. The doctor’s father then tries to find the most suitable godfather for the child and he decides to give the child to death. Death is also a main character in the short story. Death is the godfather of the doctor; he is a slim man that has a bony appearance. The godfather is a very 2006-08-01T19:49:00-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Character-Analysis-on-the-Conflicts-and-Themes-of-Godfather-Death-30972.aspx Attitudes Towards Education in "The Dead Poet's Society" – Was Keating a good teacher? How do you explain his appeal to the boys? When considering the context of ‘Dead Poet’s Society’, it quickly becomes evident that Keating’s classes are unconventional for such a conservative high school such as Welton Preparatory School. The film is set in the second half of the 1950’s and in rural America. The Hilton Preparatory School is an exclusive private school with a strong sense of reputation and tradition, and the school’s success is based on rigid educational system and strict discipline. The Welton students simply conformed to the school’s rules and expectations. Keating’s classes do not fit in such a conservative environment. Our first impression of Keating’s class is when he instructs the students to rip an entire chapter from their poetry textbook. In the student’s facial expressions there is a mixture of shock and surprise, as their new teacher instructs them to do something they would never even consider. Weir foreshadows Keating will find himself in trouble for his teaching methods when another teacher peers through Keating’s classroom window and sees the students throwing paper around the classroom and he mistakenly believes they are being unsupervised when he enters the room, only to find Keating is in the classroom also. He is also shocked that Keating would allow such rowdy behavior in his classroom. Consequently, this sets a precedent in the classroom and Keating’s idealism for freethinking, creativity and non-conformity pushes his teaching methods beyond the norms and expectations of Welton. Throughout the film the audience witnesses how unconventional Keating’s classes are. Every class that is shown in the film is rather different because he uses different strategies and aids to get his message across to the students. For his idea of the importance of having a different perspective on things, he asks the students to step on his desk and be aware of the different view they have from that elevated position. For his idea on the importance of non-conformity and individualism, he used the playground and the boys’ walks to show why they should be make their own decisions and be themselves. To get students to appreciate literature he used alternative methods again, such as performing lines from Shakespeare, and randomly shouting out a famous literary quote before kicking a soccer ball. When everyone has had their 2006-08-01T18:49:40-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Attitudes-Towards-Education-in-The-Dead-Poet-s-Society-30953.aspx Film Analysis of "A League Of Their Own" This film was first set in the 1990’s, however it started off as one of the baseball players from the 1940’s attending their installation in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The story is told as one long flashback to the 1940’s. The physical setting of the film was in Cities of America including Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and New York, where the Baseball teams played their games. The film contained feelings of war, happiness, sadness, friendship, persistence and hardship. The Second World War is beginning, and female baseball players are being drafted for the All American girls Baseball League, in an attempt to save the sport. This seemed like a great chance for the farm girls to escape from their unpleasant reality of lower class street life. To some, baseball seems the only easy option, especially for Dottie and Kit (Geena Davis and Lori Petty), who can catch and hit. The scout decides to bring the girls back to Chicago for tryouts and then continue to make the league with fellow teammates including Doris Murphy (Rosie O’Donnell) and Mae Mordabito (Madonna) as well as Jimmy (Tom Hanks) as their alcoholic coach. As the season goes on, Kit shows that she is enormously jealous of her sister Dotti. Dotti’s playing style and the fact that everyone loves and adores her because of her pretty face and fantastic playing skills makes Kit’s hatred against her sister grow. Kit then changes baseball teams and finds herself playing against her sister in the final of the World Series. The plot was satisfactory because the girls of the baseball teams worked hard to fulfil their dreams of playing in the All American Girls Baseball League and gain confidence in the male dominated world. I was able to follow the story well throughout the film because of the ongoing suspense to see if the girls had what it took to make the World Series and to keep the league running. I was happy with the ending and glad that the Dotti and Kit, were able to put the past behind them, and be sisters again. I expected the ending because they all went back to their lives with their families after their men came back from war. The plot was believable because it showed the hardship that the women had to go through while 2006-08-01T18:47:43-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-of-A-League-Of-Their-Own-30952.aspx Character of Norman Bates from the Movie "Psycho" I believe that Norman Bates was guilty of the murders of Marion and Arbogast. Because his mother which is a figment of his mind or imagination dose not exist for she is dead and Norman had to have made her up. The fact that his mother might have helped him develop the split personalities, by the way she treated him might be a possibility too but he manifested his own thoughts. The idea that Norman Bates mother committed the crime seems to be irrelevant she is dead and there is no way she physically did it. The idea of mother only exists in Norman’s mind. For that is his problem and he created the idea of his mother in his own fantasy world. The way he created his split personality was because he needed attention and he couldn’t deal with the fact of his mother’s death. So he saved her body, tried to preserve it and even tried to talk in her voice. I had and idea that Norman was the murderer, because through out the movie they never showed the mothers face. “She” was always in the shadows and you never heard the mother and Norman talking at the same time. Not to mention on the out line and sheets the teacher gave us Sick or mother was always in quotes. There is a reason for every thing they do in the movies. When Bates saw Marion he felt affection and the side of his mother grew larger. Every time Marion mentioned his mother Norman got quite defensive and mad. It appeared that he thought she was telling him to get rid of his mother and that struck a nerve with him. Norman couldn’t take it and the feeling of his other side grew to a point were he couldn’t take it and his mother emerged from his mind. So mentally his mother killed Marion. It’s not like Norman’s mothers’ mind was some how transferred into his head. Norman Bates must have been a fine and a normal person until some drastic events occurred (Mother dying) which made him go psycho. Everyone’s personalities are molded by the people that surround them and their environment. In this case his parents disrupted Norman’s 2006-07-31T19:26:32-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Character-of-Norman-Bates-from-the-Movie-Psycho-30911.aspx Critical Review of the Film "Smoke Signals" To tell you the truth, before I saw this movie I thought that it was going to be really boring and not very good. Surprisingly the movie ‘Smoke Signals’ was a great movie. This move really depicted what it was like to live on the Rez. It showed that many of the Indians were total drunks and that they didn’t even care about their kids while they were drunk. It also showed that many of the Indians do not have a lot of money and while they are living on the Rez money is not that big 2006-07-31T08:25:42-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Review-of-the-Film-Smoke-Signals-30862.aspx Civil Disobedience in "Cool Hand Luke" Henry David Thoreau would not believe in what Luke was fighting for. Luke was a man in jail for the destruction of municipal property. Yet 2006-07-30T20:26:43-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Civil-Disobedience-in-Cool-Hand-Luke-30822.aspx Analysis of Television Drama In television drama technical codes and conventions are used by the director to structure the specific text. Such codes are well applied in the serial television drama Alias. A modern, government conspiracy styled show that follows the adventures of Sydney Briston, a young girl who works as a double agent for the American government. In Alias, audio, visual and technical effects are used along with dialogue to shape the plot, themes and genre of the text. Director, J.J.Abrams, has used these conventions and technical codes to make Alias the visually stimulating and mentally intriguing drama that it is. If sound is said to be the symphony of the emotions then truly music plays a key part in this universal orchestra. Music has the ability to alter our mood, change our point of view and compel us to think, act, and respond a certain way. In Alias music is used to tell the story and strengthen the already deep mood of this drama. At certain times the music dives to slow synthesised violin suspense, at other times it can lift the intense political mood to show hope and love in a romantic dulcet tune. Then, contrary to the mood of before, change to a hard hitting crescendo that leads into a cacophonous piece of music raising the action to optimum level. Music is alive and well in television today and simply, our warped TV minds cannot do with out it. As we watch Alias star Jennifer Garner (Sydney), run from the mental institute we listen to cinematic music at its purest. Violins capture a heartbeat as we hold or breath to see what will happen next. We are then prey to this subconscious susceptibility again when Sydney’s roommate Terri watches her boyfriend Shaun; sing live, a love song to her. We are turned around from the ‘evil’ conspiracy her friend Sydney lives amongst by a lighter melody that lulls us into an entirely different mood. All thanks to the technical wizardry of dramatic music. Along side this indispensable factor of music comes the emotionally charged fury of dramatic dialogue. Televised drama cannot exist with out it and nor would it want to. In a unique way the director, J.J Abrams, uses dialogue to portray four main things; Dispense vast quantities of information that form the story line, continuously refer to past events that lure us into 2006-07-29T16:14:25-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-Television-Drama-30789.aspx Critical Film Analysis of "Wit" In this movie Vivian Bearings is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She is given “experimental” treatment. Some of the other characters include: Dr. Kelekian, the head doctor who informed her of her diagnosis; Jason Posner, the detached kid doctor and Susie, the sympathetic nurse. Throughout the movie Vivian goes through the different stages of death and dying, for example denial, anger, depression and acceptance. The first stage we witness is her denial. She tells the doctors to keep up the highest doses thinking that she will be cured. She wants people to treat her just the same as the always have and even wants to continue teaching. In the beginning of this movie you could tell that she just was completely denying the fact that she could very well be dying. But the doctor helping her didn’t help. Jason was delighted with the results and made no emotional connection with his patient Vivian. He applauded her agreement to keep the high doses even if they were making her sick. With all the praises she was receiving for her “efforts” you would think that these efforts would actually amount to something, at least in her eyes I believe. Next Vivian expresses the stage of anger. One scene that most clearly depicts this is when Susie is trying to get her to go for testing and she refuses. It is as if her rationalization is that if she does not go for the tests it will mean she doesn’t need to go to the tests, which would mean that she is cured. Although that is not true, given extreme circumstances we can sometimes rationalize very irrationally. It is at this point where Susie begins to become more of a caring friend to Vivian instead of just a nurse. She is the only one out of all the other doctors who does this. After anger Vivian goes into a depression. She is hardly speaking and the doctors’ visits seem pointless to her. As she slips more into depression Jason makes himself more and more detached. She seems to make him feel very uncomfortable as he realizes she is more than a patient, she is a woman with emotion. Her isolation, I believe is what pushes her further into the depressed state she reaches. 2006-07-27T15:29:50-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Film-Analysis-of-Wit-30741.aspx Examination of Human Behavior in "Schindler's List" Throughout history the human race has witnessed many humans committing inhuman acts. Concentration and extermination camps are just one of the many awful inhuman acts. The essay “Behavior in Extermination camps” by Bruno Bettelheim reports on the actions and reactions of humans in these merciless camps. The movie “Schindler’s List” focuses on Nazi treatment of Jews and shows the conditions and treatment of other humans in extermination camps. By comparing “Behavior in Extermination camps” and “Schindler’s List” the behaviors that Bruno Bettelheim wrote about can be witnessed in the characters viewed in “Schindler’s List”. The characters in “Schindler’s List” responded to their ruthless treatment with behaviors that were all written about by Bruno such as denial, defeat, primitive childishness, and heroism. The Most predominant response written about in the essay “Behavior in Extermination camps” to the sickening treatment of the Jews was denial. The Jewish women in their bunks, no matter how evident, straight out denied the fact that gas chambers in Auschwitz existed even though a fellow Jew reports it to them. Bruno reported this behavior in his essay, it states “They can no longer accept reality for what it is; having grown infantile, they see it only in the infantile perspective of a wishful belief in their personal immortality.” I also make reference to the female supervisor of construction. Although she was facing certain death, she was concerned that the construction of the building should be redone or it would collapse. In the essay Bruno Bettelheim makes it clear that this is a denial of the situation and follows his business as usual observations. To further clarify, Dr. Mengele although also facing certain death preformed his surgery's with all medical safety measures even though the mother and child would be murdered shortly after. So both Dr. Mengele and The Female construction supervisor both “had, after all, to delude themselves at times to be able to live with themselves and their experience.” The response of denial to certain death is one of the many responses that Bruno spoke about that could be viewed in the characters of “Schindler’s List”. Another behavior that Bruno Bettelheim spoke of, and the characters of “Schindler’s List” both shared is the feeling of defeat. At the beginning of the movie A crowd of Jewish people was getting yelled at by one little German girl. 2006-07-27T15:22:10-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Examination-of-Human-Behavior-in-Schindler-s-List-30737.aspx Religious and Mythological Themes from Titan A.E. The idea that every science fiction film is inspired by a religious or mythological background holds true in the movie, Titan, A.E. These backgrounds include those involving the Chinese, Greeks and Egyptians. The first suggestion involving mythology is in the title of the movie itself. A Titan was a race of Gods in the Greek culture that ruled the Earth before the Olympians. In my opinion, a large majority of the movie can be explained by examining this portion of mythology. I feel that Cale represents Zeus, the Olympian who overthrew the Titans and regained control of the world. The Titans, despite the fact that it was the name of the ship that would save humans, were the aliens who were pure energy. I feel this way because mythology tells us that Cronus, the leader of the Titans, was told that one of his sons would overthrow him. It turns out that Zeus was one of Cronus’ sons. At this point he decided the solution would be to eat his sons or in the case of the movie, eliminate the human race. However, the story goes that Rhea, a sister of Cronus’ hid Zeus so that he could mature and regain control of the world and save the future generations. This fits perfectly in with the storyline of the movie and how Cale’s father helped him to escape and put the ring on his finger because he knew in time his son would realize what he was meant to do and that he could do it. When Zeus finally defeats his father, he forces him to free the other children that he had swallowed and they returned to their prominence in the universe. Again, this fits in with the movie as Cale frees the rest of the human race by giving them a home and allowing humans to come together and gain power with their new planet. The next relation I see that influences the development of the plot in the movie comes from the name of the ship, Phoenix. The phoenix, a mythical bird, appears in different cultures such as the Chinese and Egyptian’s. Both cultures stories I can see influencing the movie. The Chinese believed that the Phoenix was a mythical bird 2006-07-27T15:15:31-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Religious-and-Mythological-Themes-from-Titan-A_E_-30733.aspx Comparison of the Movie "Shane" to the Novel I liked the book Shane a lot more than I did the movie for many reasons and here are some of the things that were the same and some things that were different about the movie. Some of the things that were the same in the book and in the movie were that Shane was a very polite and kind person. Also, Shane and Joe had to work together to remove the 2006-07-25T16:19:21-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Comparison-of-the-Movie-Shane-to-the-Novel-Shane-30656.aspx Stereotypes and Racism in American History X and Today Both in American History X and in our current situation there are many related issues that tie into racism and stereotyping. The people in these situations enact hate crimes when they have been directly effected by other acts of violence. Thus, falsely assuming that an entire group is responsible for an individual’s actions, leads to stereotyping. These assumptions result in negativity and hate crimes that are nothing but harmful and destructive. The act of seeking out revenge by harming an entire classification of people due to stereotyping is ignorance in its purest form and causes the vicious cycle of hatred to continue. Edward Norton portrays Derek, a neo-Nazi reacting to influences and situations in his life that parallel those of the tragedies and hate crimes since September 11th. Derek’s first act of violence in the film was self defense, which mirrored the United States in their efforts of bombing Afghanistan. Derek was trying to defend his family and his property, against an invasion on while the United States protected national security by retaliating against terrorism on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Derek’s aggression ran much deeper than just basic protection because it was rooted with racism. Due to the fact that his father was murdered by an African American, Derek began to view people with the same ethnicity as equal, if not lower to, the man that killed his father. America now has a similar outlook on Muslims and Arabs solely because of the few individuals that contributed to the acts of terrorism on Sept. 11th. Hate crimes against people of Arab decent have massively increased and the justification for these actions are simply out of revenge. The direct relation of why Derek began discriminating against blacks and why the United States is presently stereotyping Arabs and Muslims is a reaction to lusting for payback and revenge. The rage that stems from senseless acts of violence in both cases is a result of the victim franticly trying to make the culprit pay. Derek subconsciously decided that he needed to make up for his feelings of loss and helplessness by going after anyone who, in his mind, was associated with his father’s murderer. He took full advantage of the opportunity at hand when black gang members tried to invade his home. Instead of acting rationally, Derek reacted with instinct 2006-07-24T19:26:49-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Stereotypes-and-Racism-in-American-History-X-and-Today-30607.aspx Cultural Differences in the Film, “Pleasantville” “Pleasantville” was written and directed by Gary Ross in the year 1998. The story starts in the present day America. Two teenage siblings David and Jennifer, suddenly find themselves stuck in one of the old 1950’s sitcoms. They are the children of idealistic and perfect parents Mr. And Mrs. Parker. David known as bud in the town of Pleasantville was a keen watcher of this show. He was well aware of all the people and characters of this new place. Jennifer however, who was to meet her date was interested in watching MTv. For David this was a dream come true. He yearned for the opportunity to live in the perfect, unchangeable world of Pleasantville. The main theme or central idea of the movie is that it is not possible for one to go back to the 1950’s again. Things would have to change. The moral values, attitude of people and the whole society must change. This illustration is made by the subtle and very ingenious usage of color. The people of Pleasantville began to see colors only when they try and break their monotonous style of life, a life where every takes place as expected. Bud and Mary sue quite rapidly bring out changes in this new place. Gary Ross uses these changes to indicate the cultural and social differences between the two eras. Of the many issues addressed in the movie one is the issue of male dominion. Mrs. Parker is depicted as a perfect 1950’s wife, who has the house cleaned and dinner always ready. Mary Sue upon being questioned tells her mother about the happenings in lover’s lane and what, sex is all about. When Mrs. Parker tries to relax in her bathtub, a tree outside her house bursts into flames. This is symbolic of the tree of knowledge. Mrs. Parker turns into color for she discovers the missing element in her life. As a perfect wife, she never did anything for herself. She had seen only one form of masculinity, the authoritative attitude of her husband. Ashamed of her color, walking past the road, she finds a soda shop with a colored window. She discovers that the painter was none other than Mr. Johnson. She sees in him the love for color. He at once appreciates her startling beauty in all brightness and color. She leaves 2006-07-24T19:16:29-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Cultural-Differences-in-the-Film-Pleasantville-30602.aspx "The Last Of The Mohicans;" The Last American Romantic A loud crack pierces the still silence of the forest as Magua, a Huron guide, plunges his tomahawk into the body of a British soldier. Gunshots erupt from the darkness of the forest all around Cora and Alice cutting down the company of soldiers assigned to protect them. As if appearing from thin air two Mohicans and a white man come to their rescue, killing all of the Hurons. This white man was named Hawkeye, and was the main character of the movie The Last of The Mohicans. The romantic theme of this movie is revealed by Hawkeye’s romantic character, shown by his desire for individual freedom, love of nature, and his use of emotion and sentiment over logic and reason. Hawkeye was a man that lived life on his own terms. He never allowed people to push him into making a decision that he did not want to make. When some British soldiers came to Hawkeye’s small settlement trying to recruit men for war he did not sign up. Instead he decided to fight the war by his own means. When he arrived at the fort, he notified the colonel in charge, which happened to be Cora and Alice’s father, about the murders that had occurred back at his small settlement. The colonel did not allow the militia men to go back and defend their homesteads. He also stated that anyone who deserted the fort, or helped someone desert the fort would be shot. This did not stop Hawkeye from doing what he knew was right. He helped them escape and was shackled for it. Hawkeye had a love for nature and its wilderness. He was born in it as a child, and was raised in it, by Mohawks, into a man. He learned how to live in the wilderness. It nurtured him and gave him life. He respected that, and demonstrates it when he thanks the deer that he had just killed for providing him life. Hawkeye was a logical man, but many times he used emotion and sentiment over logic and reason. When he was young he was told not to try to understand the white man. However he makes an exception for Cora because he is attracted to her. 2006-07-24T14:06:53-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Last-Of-The-Mohicans-The-Last-American-Roma-30589.aspx Film Critique of "Of Mice and Men" to the Book The movie "Of Mice and Men" had many differences while still giving the same message that the book was portrayed to have. One of the major differences was that Candy never came into the room when Lennie and Crooks were talking to each other. This was major because Crooks never found out that the plan was true about the little house. In the book after he heard Candy talk about it he wanted to get in on the deal. Also the movie it never showed Lennie have his illusions of his Aunt Carla and the rabbits when he was waiting by the pond. The last major difference was that George never hesitated to shoot Lennie in the movie and in the book it was very hard for him. After George shot Lennie, Slim came to comfort George and take him out for a drink. The characters in the novel and the movie had many differences. In the book George was shown to hate Curley with a passion. In the movie George didn’t seem to like Curley too much but he definitely didn’t hate him like in the book. In the movie Curley's wife seemed to be attracted to Lennie and enjoyed his presence because he was nice. In the book she talked to him only because she was amused by Lennie's stupidity. Lennie was explained as a beast in the book and, "his shoulders could fill the doorway." In the movie he was stronger and bigger than the others were but not to the extreme amount that the book portrayed him to be. Every other thing about Lennie was extremely as the book told it. I felt that the movie was wonderful and I loved it as much as I loved the book. I would give the movie a 10 because it was so great. The only parts that I didn't like were in the end it didn’t make me as sad as the book made me feel. I felt so into the dream the Lennie and George shared that I was sad when it was destroyed. I am sure that if I didn't watch the movie in a classroom I would have gotten more out of it but none the less it was a masterpiece. Unlike all of the other movies that are translated from a book this 2006-07-24T08:26:05-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Critique-of-Of-Mice-and-Men-to-the-Book-30577.aspx Critical Review of "Fried Green Tomatoes" Fried Green Tomatoes is a thoroughly enjoyable movie-going experience, replete with laughter, tears, triumph, and tragedy. Unfortunately, it has been sanitized and "Hollywoodized,” with the relationship between the two 1930 female leads left ambiguous, and a few too many scenes going over-the-top to manipulate an emotional reaction. So, while providing two-plus hours worth of solid entertainment, director Jon Avnet's picture, adapted from Fannie Flagg’s novel, lacks the crucial ingredient that would have lifted it above the level of a tearjerker to that of the extraordinary. The acting, however, can easily be counted among Fried Green Tomatoes' strengths. Especially noteworthy are the performances by Mary Stuart Masterson as Idgie and Mary-Louise Parker as Ruth, who makes their characters' improbable friendship come alive. Masterson is wonderful as Idgie. Her snappy persona gives Idgie enough spirit for four or five central screen women. Parker portrays Ruth with a rare warmth and practicality that compliments the marvelous energy of Masterson. Jessica Tandy brings the wisdom of her years as Ninny Threadgoode. Tandy's delivers her lines with a wonderful sense of humor. Evelyn, played by Kathy Bates, is a hungry audience and together these pairs of women make marvelous cornerstones for this film. Fried Green Tomatoes is two stories in one, both of which ultimately work as well as they can, given what the film is trying to do. It should be noted, however, that the present-day scenes aren't as involving as those that take place in the 1930s. The structure is unusual, with the modern day scenes "framing" the flashbacks. Because the differences in the time periods are so marked, this may have not been the best way to handle the dual storylines. There are some awkward moments when the 1930s/90s parallelism seems to be forced. The greatest flaw of this movie is that Avnet tries relentlessly to get his viewers to reach for the box of tissues. A little manipulation is expected in any melodrama, but Fried Green Tomatoes goes overboard. That's not to say that the audience is likely to be weeping through the entire film, but Avnet isn't particularly subtle about what he's trying to do. Then again, for those who like a "good cry,” this may be the perfect picture. Because of its strong sense of character development, Fried Green Tomatoes touches a plethora of emotional chords. At times, it is 2006-07-23T17:51:28-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Review-of-Fried-Green-Tomatoes-30540.aspx Film Review of "Easy Rider" On the movie Easy Rider, Peter Fonda played a character that was known as Captain America. Some might say that his behavior in the movie was immoral. But I would have to say he’s character’s behavior was very moral. What is moral and immoral? Captain America wanted the 2006-07-23T16:31:17-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Review-of-Easy-Rider-30519.aspx Review of "Pleasantville" In this movie, a brother and sister from modern day became part of a black and white ‘50s television show called Pleasantville. This was done using a special remote given to the main character David, by a TV repairman. In the beginning David believed Pleasantville should remain the same. Pleasantville was his utopia; he thought everything was perfect. His sister Jenn was determined to change Pleasantville. Jenn thought people acted like losers, and wanted them to be “cool”. David later realized things should change because people did not show their emotions in Pleasantville, and had no way to express them. When people in Pleasantville showed their emotions, they changed from black and white to color. By the end of the movie, everything was in color because of David. People had learned to show their emotions. The creator of this movie was trying to communicate the message that emotions make things more interesting. This statement is true for Pleasantville and writing. In Pleasantville people would change to color when they showed their emotions. Bill expressed his emotions through painting colorful pictures. David gained his color when he got angry and punched Whitey. Emotions are put into writing to add detail. At Lover's Lane people reading books became colored and the listeners remained black and white. If people incorporate emotions into their writing it will help get the reader's attention and make the plot more interesting. This movie relates to our critical analysis essay. The idea of perception versus reality is conveyed throughout the movie. David thought Pleasantville was perfect when he watched it on television. When he became part of the show he found it had many flaws. The citizens of Pleasantville believed there was nothing outside of Pleasantville; in reality there was a lot. In reality, bad things can happen. When the tree caught on fire, the firefighters did not know how to deal with it because there had never been a fire in Pleasantville before. This movie also dealt with the idea of personal choice and the consequences of those choices. In the ‘90s, Jenn did poorly in school. She probably could not get into college. She worked hard in school while she was in Pleasantville. In 2006-07-22T18:34:33-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Review-of-Pleasantville-30486.aspx Analysis of Kunta Kinte in "Roots" In Africa, where people can live in peace. Tribes live freely in the vast country, doing what they please, living like human beings. They have families, friends, religion, and a culture, like what we have now. That was what it was like for Kunta Kinte from the movie "Roots", a young African male, that was kidnapped from his home. They put him in chains, and shipped him over to America with about 1000 of his own people. His freedom was destroyed the second they forced him on the evil boat. He was no longer a free human being, but a tool used by other humans. When he got off, he was seperated from his girl friend, Fanta, and auctioned to a bunch of rich men. He was 1000 maybe, 2000 miles away from home, but he didn't know, how could he? In America they called all colored people "niggers" and turned them into slaves for their own personal work. He was lost, confused, and driven with fear, so he resisted and thought of every white man to be his enemy. Soon he meets Fiddler, a African- American, that was born a slave, Kunta knew that there was other people like him in the country, and considered him a friend. Soon, his new "master" put Fiddle in charge of Kunta for 6 months until his birthday to become a the perfect slave. Fiddler was not too kind to Kunta at first, because he did not really want the responsibility, as u can take it from the tone of his voice and his criticizing remarks. Fiddler did not have a very good life, but it was easier for him than the other slaves in the area. He had privileges which was liquor for medicine, dining at the "big house" and sleeping on a pinewood floor. He would loose these privileges if he did not succeed in training Kunta. But soon becomes a friend, and a mentor-like figure to Kunta. But Kunta wanted nothing more than to just escaped and go back to his home, he said it himself, he wanted to be free. At the end he tried to run but finds himself lost, and tired and gets recaptured. Fiddler represents the need for survival in a world like that, Kunta Kinte represents the love for freedom, which was taken away from him before his very 2006-07-09T15:05:00-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-Kunta-Kinte-in-Roots-30146.aspx Teenage Preoccupations in Ten Things I Hate About You Set in the fictional Padua High School (and filmed in handsome locations in Seattle and Tacoma), "10 Things I Hate About You" deliriously hurls us into a single-minded teen milieu, creating a definite look, code of manners and witty jargon that encloses us in a strictly contemporary world. It's Shakespeare by way of "Dawson's Creek," and it's engaging fun. Padua High is the home-away-from-home for the cheerily popular Bianca, one of two Stratford sisters around which Junger's action swirls. Bianca (played by Larisa Oleynik) is one of the most popular girls in school, but her style is being cramped by her doctor-father (Larry Miller) and her sister Kat (beguiling Julia Stiles), a budding feminist not into the usual teen mind-set. The no-nonsense Kat refuses to massage the egos of the guys who attend Padua and, consequently, has acquired a reputation of being, well, a shrew. All Kat wants to do is graduate from Padua so she can get on with her life -- which means moving away and attending Sarah Lawrence College. The fact that Kat (this film's Katherine, but here the name is short for Katarina) refuses to date gives their father a reason to forbid the avid Bianca from dating. Mr. Stratford makes a dictim: Bianca can go out with boys only if Kat does, too -- which is unlikely to happen. This inspires Bianca to become involved in a convoluted plan to get Kat interested in a guy. Caught up in this plan is Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan), Padua's self-proclaimed lothario, who wants to add Bianca to his list of scores, and Cameron James (Joseph-Gordon Levitt), who also wants to date Bianca and agrees to help Joey in his plan. Cameron and his friend Michael (David Krumholtz) bet Joey that they can find the perfect match for Kat. The surly Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), the film's Petruchio figure, is bribed to woo Kat and win her affections. If he succeeds, that will leave Bianca available for either Joey or Cameron -- whoever gets there first. There are a few adults here. In addition to Miller, who is quite funny as a father trying to control an uncontrollable situation, David Leisure plays a teacher who rather greedily confiscates one student's bag of pot and another's bag of chips (making it clear that he has 2006-07-09T14:32:39-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Teenage-Preoccupations-in-Ten-Things-I-Hate-About-You-30130.aspx Film Analysis of Broken Down Palace This movie begins by two friends from the United States deciding to take a vacation. They decide that they are going to go on vacation to Thailand. The names of the two girls are Kate and Darlene. The girls leave America and go to Thailand. When they get there they see a big hotel, that is very expensive. They know they can’t stay there, so they decide to sneak in and lounge around the swimming pool. They order some drinks and are kicking back when one of the waiters of the hotel comes up to them and asks them if they are guests of the hotel. The girls didn’t know what to say. Before they could say anything a guy came up in back of them and says yes they are guests here look here is their key. The waiter leaves and the girls thank the man. The girls ask if they can repay him, but he says no and leaves. That night Darlene and Kate decide to go to a big party. While at the party the two girls spot the man from the motel. They go up to him and they all speak to each other and the three begin dancing together. Both girls like this guy, so they flirt with him and of course he flirts back. At the party the conman takes Darlene aside and asks her if they two girls want to go to Hong Kong with him. She loves the idea, but gives him no response. She immediately goes up to Kate and gives here the news. Kate doesn’t like the idea and she tells Darlene to go ahead and go. Darlene doesn’t want that. She wants Kate to go too and she tries to talk her into it. Kate gives in and say yes she’ll go. Denise packs both girls bags and they take off to the airport. They get to the airport and go inside and before they have a chance to get anywhere some co0ps come up to them and go for the bag Kate is carrying. They quickly open up the bag and find some drugs in them. Kate and Darlene are taken directly to prison. The girls were very scared, 2006-07-09T14:17:11-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-of-Broken-Down-Palace-30124.aspx Movie Recreation of "The Lord of The Flies" Following the norm is just too hard. Movies do not allow audiences to create their own imaginary island with their own group of boys. In the novel Lord of the Flies, there are many things that lead to the obvious time developing characters, mentally stimulating and systematic dialogue that allow the reader to interpret the book to their liking. This puts Lord of the Flies book superior to its 1990 motion picture. Noticing that a movie is subject to a very small bracket of time, it unfortunately has to leave out a lot of things portrayed in the twelve chapter book. Because of short attention spans, people get distraught and uncomfortable when a movie drags on. With a book mind you, a person can “pause” or put down the story and pick it back up at their own leisure. Time is critical when editing a movie, one must very keen to allowing “eye candy” to continuously flow from the screen. The book allows your always active imagination to create a imaginary scenario centered from you own likes and dislikes. Characters development in books is crucial to the visualization or interpretation of the reader. In a movie situation, the audience is forced to see it from a incomprehensible state of another person’s perspective or interpretation. Ralph for instance could have been a selfish, whining baby to one person, and a sensible leader to another. In movies “Ralph” is forced to be a character interpreted by one person’s active imagination. Hence not everyone relates, and the movie is only good to those who think the same narrow minded way. Hats off for the person who could develop a mentally stimulating movie which could feed the active imagination better than a wide open book. For a movie to be good it has to be visually stimulating. Most people like the fact that a two hour movie will allow the director to do the thinking for them to keep their attention on the “eye candy”. Say a movie followed the book exactly, word for word. Interpreted by the director. No one would sit though it firstly, secondly people don’t want a movie to be difficult to understand, if its easy to understand then you have the attention of 2006-07-05T23:47:07-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Movie-Recreation-of-The-Lord-of-The-Flies-30056.aspx Life for Jews Portrayed by "Schindler's List" Shindler’s List,” a movie production directed by Stephen Spielberg, is a movie that accurately shows what life was like for the Jews at the time of the Holocaust. Jews were forced out of their homes and put in to places where they had to perform hard labor. Nazi commanders treated the Jews horribly. Jews were killed for no reason, many times just to set an example. One man was shot in the movie because he only had one arm and he was seen as worthless. A woman was shot because she was too well educated. Some were just shot randomly to set examples, even though no one knew why they were killed. This movie took place when the Nazis were set out to change history, to exterminate the Jews in Poland. The main character in this movie is Oskar Shindler. Shindler is a very greedy German businessman who has Jews as his workers in his factory. He does not pay his workers; he just takes in the profit for himself. Shindler didn’t like the fact that Nazi commanders were killing off his workers because he lost money since there was less production going on in the factory. He was more in for the money that to save lives of the innocent Jews. Throughout the movie, Shindler goes through many changes, especially in the way he feels about the killings of the Jews. In the beginning, he just is in for the money, but the killing of the Jews and the in humanism that is taking place later saddens him. After he sees many of the Jewish bodies being burned and their bodies being wheel-barrowed to the burning site, he is disgusted with the situation and decides to try to save as many Jews as he can. At this point he has changed from caring only about money to caring for the people and their lives that are at stake. Shindler, a true-life character, saves about 1100 Jews from being killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. At the end, when he is leaving the Jews that he saved, he is mad at himself because he feels that he could have saved more. He says something to the effect, “I could have sold my car, that 2006-07-05T23:22:46-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Life-for-Jews-Portrayed-by-Schindler-s-List-30045.aspx Racism in the Play "A Raisin in the Sun" Racism is what’s keeping the world from uniting. The discrimination of others base on their beliefs or culture is what Lorraine Hansberry the author of the play A raisin in the Sun experienced. She was born in Chicago in 1930 and died in 1965. Her family was one of the first African American families to move into an all white neighborhood, which led to her discrimination experiences. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, she wrote about an African American family who lives in a small apartment building and how they dealt with their problems. The play starts out with Mama and the family anxiously waiting for a life insurance check to arrive in the mail for ten thousand dollars. As the story goes on, Walter decides to invest in a liquor store with two other of his friends Bobo and Willy. When the check arrives, Mama uses three thousand five hundred dollars for down payment on a house and wants three thousand dollars to put in towards Beneatha’s college fund. One important part of the play is when Mama hands over the rest of the money to Walter making him the man of the house. At the end Mama and her family moves into her new house. Although this play is about the life of an African American family in the old days, it showed us many important ways to overcome our problems and situations. The importance of dreams, true value of money, and equality of women are all three of the most important themes in this play. The importance of dreams cannot be accomplished without hope. Hope is what’s helping you keep on going until you reach your dream. Walter’s dream is to have power and not be a servant like he is now. His idea on how to reach his dream is to use the money Mama got from the life insurance and invest it in the liquor store business. If he accomplishes this part, then all he has to do is make a lot of profit of his business and soon he will have enough money to make himself powerful by giving orders and not taking orders. “A job, Mama, a job? I open and close doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, yes, sir; no sir; 2006-07-05T22:43:00-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-on-A-Raisin-in-the-Sun-Racism-in-the-Play-30033.aspx Techniques Film Makers Use to Tell Stories Film is probably the most effective way of portraying a story. They don’t just tell the story, they can also make the audience feel part of it. Film makers can choose what they want their audience to see and feel, making the viewer emotionally attached. All genres set up expectations in an audience and never disrupt the expectations, for example, the audience always knows that a James Bond film will be full of action, he will defeat the villain and get the girl. I will examine the way films tell stories by studying the film language of “Romeo and Juliet”, Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” and James Bond, “The World is Not Enough”. “Romeo and Juliet” is a play written by William Shakespeare and has been adapted into a film. It is about two lovers from rival families who rebel against their parents’ wishes and marry each other in secret. The only problem is that Romeo killed Juliet’s cousin and is banished from Verona and Juliet is supposed to be married to someone else. In the end they both end up killing themselves. A large part of the audience does not understand some of Shakespeare’s language because it’s not contemporary but Baz Lurmann (the director) has tried to help the audience’s understanding with visual images. At the very beginning of the film you can tell that the film is going to be a tragedy because the narrator tells you the ending to the story. Lurmann has placed the narrator in the form of a news reader sitting inside a television. We know this because she seems to sit up very straight, looking straight ahead and speaking very clearly. In addition, the background is just plain blue which seems to suggest she is in a newsroom. The television starts off very small and then it gets bigger and looks as if it’s coming from a distance towards you. Editing in a film is extremely important for creating the right atmosphere. If you cut a shot at the wrong moment you could ruin the whole scene. At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet the pace is very fast and so there are quite a lot of jump cuts to keep the rhythm going. There seem to be many cuts in every scene and not a lot of camera movement. There is a wipe cut 2006-07-05T15:40:28-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Techniques-Film-Makers-Use-to-Tell-Stories-30013.aspx Analysis of the Cinematography of "American Beauty" Cinematography is an art form, not just an aspect of a movie. Cinematography affects the mood and tone of a movie as well as the viewers’ feelings while watching a movie. In American Beauty this is demonstrated beautifully through camera techniques, lighting, and the framing of the shot. Camera techniques include aerial, deep focus, pan, shallow focus, slow motion, soft focus, and the tracking shot. Lighting is more than just shining a light on a character. The cinematographer must know how to manipulate the lighting to create the mood and the correct throw of the light. He must know when to use soft light and when to use hard light to create the lines and shadows desired. The framing of a shot also adds to a movie. Framing the shot is the placement of objects and people in a scene to create the mood or to direct the viewers’ focus. These are all elements to think about when watching a movie and they are all shown superbly in American Beauty. American Beauty is narrated by Lester Burnham, the husband of Carolyn Burnham and father of Jane Burnham. He informs the audience that he has less than a year to live but in reality he is already dead; and the whole movie looks back at his life through his eyes. Lester Burnham is a 42-year-old who is unhappily married and is despised by his wife and daughter. Behind the red door of their home, the family is falling apart. The dinner table is a battleground, where the mother and father tear apart one another’s unhappy lives and their daughter retreats into a balanced yet flawed reality – she has no thought of being loved. Carolyn is only driven by success and Lester has just had enough. He makes friends with the cool, confident Ricky Fitts (who supplies him with drugs) and becomes a rebel, no longer even pretending to accept his family’s criticisms. Meanwhile his wife has an affair with the real estate “King,” Buddy Kane, and even when Lester finds out he does not care. Lester develops an obsession with his daughter Jane’s friend Angela and his only goal in life is seducing her because he believes she is the personification of beauty. Ricky likes to film things that are 2006-07-04T16:34:23-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-the-Cinematography-of-American-Beauty-30004.aspx The use of Communication Technology in "You've Got Mail" Developments in the communication technology directly affect our life, they make our life easier and comfortable but also they change our habits. Email communication, which is fast and easy way to contact with people take the place of “old method”, letters. It is a cheap and useful way to communicate for people who use computers. But as in the story of “You’ve Got Mail”, sometimes people use email to communicate with people who don’t know well. And it is open to question that all affects email communication are beneficial. The movie “ You’ve Got Mail” gives examples of difficulties of using email. Because there is lack of physical interaction, it takes much time for people to learn more about others. Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) and Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) communicated by email for long time but they didn’t know much about each other. Because they knew little information about each other they had trust problem. So they did not want to give personal information initially. Therefore they had problems when they met each other physically. Because they tried to show parts of their characters to each other, which they like, it was not easy for them to see whole identity of each other when they meet physically. But while communicating with e-mail people can easily express some of their feelings, which they can’t talk about them in daily life, so Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly could talk about things, which they couldn’t say to their partners, who they lived with. But on the other side they were not afraid of sharing some of their thoughts with their email friends, which is an advantage of email. For instance Kathleen Kelly confessed to Joe Fox that she couldn’t say her real thoughts to people when she is angry. Their relationship relies upon communication so they have to talk about and discuss their problems that their real life friends or relatives did not care about. For example they chatted about coffee, which is a silly topic to talk about in daily life. In the movie Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox lived in same neighborhood, they have many common habits, but in daily life they have no chance to found a good relationship. Email communication enables them also because they get rid off their social identities they did not have any problems about prejudice. And they 2006-07-04T16:06:37-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-use-of-Communication-Technology-in-You-ve-Got-Mail-29992.aspx Critical Analysis of Speech in "Teen Wolf" What would you claim to be the defining moment of the 20th century? Would it be World War I or II, the great depression, the McCarthy trials, the hippie generation, the civil rights movement, or those crazy 90’s? Well, you may have your own opinions, but I believe that the 20th century cannot be defined by one single event, but by a piece of art created in the that remarkable century. This magnificent work would be Rod Daniel’s Teen Wolf, starring Michael J. Fox. In this unique and illustrious motion picture, Michael J. Fox plays Scott, a high school student who is struggling with love, striving for popularity, and would give anything to hang with the “in” crowd. Scott notices changes in his life and it is revealed to him that he is a werewolf. While in the middle of a basketball game, Scott accidentally transforms into a werewolf. At first people are afraid, but he soon becomes one of the most popular kids in school. Teen Wolf was the defining moment of the 20th century because it expressed the century’s major themes of racism and teenage insecurity. The 20th century was filled with traces of racism and prejudice, which are both portrayed in this movie. Once Scott’s alternative lifestyle becomes public, he is judged not by his character but by the fur on his body and his other werewolf characteristics, which are obviously fangs, long nails, a keen sense of smell, and a wolf face. Eventually, his fellow students accept him as an equal except for Mick, who has a strong prejudice against werewolves. After several beatings and taunting from Mick, Scott finally pays him back with the beating of his life, and Mick reforms his anti-werewolf ways. Mick is not the only one who has a prejudice against werewolves, though. The headmaster, Rusty Thorne, the archenemy of Scott’s dad, also hates werewolves, and he never lets Scott get off easy. But by the end, Rusty has learned to accept werewolves, too. Insecurity was also a major part of the 20th century especially during the McCarthy trials, but in this movie it is not just insecurity, but teenage insecurity. Young Scott is just discovering girls because of hormones that are released during puberty. He is also noticing that 2006-07-04T13:46:26-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Analysis-of-Speech-in-Teen-Wolf-29981.aspx The Evolution of Black Actresses in American Film There is a rich history in American film. There is one group of people that were many times overlooked for their great attributes to American film: the Black actors. There were many aspiring black actors. Unfortunately, as in most things in the past, they did not have the same opportunities as other mainstream Hollywood actors. They were only allowed to be coons, tragic mulattos, mammies, and the servants. Even with those roles, they were never allowed to be the leading lady. There are many aspects that surround these Black actresses. Obviously, color was a factor because all of the Black beauties shared the same characteristics: light skin, long dark hair, and European features. The Black actress has ventured through many eras of film. Slowly, she has gone from the servant to the mammy to the sexy vixen. In modern film, she seems to have more chances to play more respectable roles than in the past. From Nina Mae McKinney to Sanaa Lathan, Hollywood has had many changing faces of the Black actress. In the past, Black actresses were only casts in specific roles: the mammy, the tragic mulatto, seductress, sex object, or docile damsel. The mammy is similar to the comic coon, but is a female and very independent. She is usually "big, fat, and cantankerous". The mammy leads her man, but always uses comedy to relieve the pain. She always knows that her place is in the kitchen. The tragic mulatto was heavily portrayed. This person always brought about her own destruction. This person was usually a fair skinned mulatto who was probably trying to pass to white. The films portrayed this person as likeable because of her white blood. They wanted the audience to pity this person and believe that life would have been better for her, and she would be happier if she were not a "victim of divided racial inheritance". Dorothy Dandridge and Fredi Washington usually played the roles of the tragic mulatto. Sometimes, the tragic mulatto was also a seductress. She was always very beautiful. The seductress usually turned the hero's life upside down. She usually had a plan for the submission of her male victim. She is 2006-06-26T15:18:35-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Evolution-of-Black-Actresses-in-American-Film-29820.aspx Film Components in the Composition of "Vertigo" When making a good film, many key elements such as lighting, color, editing, visual design and sound, come into play. Another very important element is composition which refers to how subjects are arranged in relation to each other and to the sides of the frame. Framing, mise-en-scene or staging, and photographing all play a significant role in the composition of films, thus creating a desired meaning of the film creator. Through the unique composition of the Alfred Hitchcock film, Vertigo, the audience is able to gain a deeper understanding of what is happening without it being directly presented to them through the characters actions or dialogue. In this suspenseful film, every frame, line and scene is filled with meaning from beginning to end. The names of the director and the two leads appear in front of an extreme close-up of a woman's face and the rest of the cast and crew are listed while spirals rush towards the audience. Because of this approach, the audience knows that this woman known as both Judy Barton and Madeline, played by Kim Novak, is going to be of great importance throughout the entire film. The credits are followed by a rooftop chase in which Scottie, played by James Stewart, comes close to death when he does not quite make a jump from one roof to another and is left dangling on the side. Scottie’s vertigo is revealed through a point-of-view shot in which the camera zooms in and out from the roof creating a sense of extreme height and fear of falling. The vertigo that Scottie is afflicted with and the visual representations of falling by the very high angle shots at key points throughout the film, helps the audience to understand the happenings that are to follow. For example, when he first tries to conquer his fear by simply climbing a small step ladder, there is another point-of-view shot in which the audience feels Scotties fear because, though he is probably only about two feet off the ground, Scottie feels as though he is very high up and could fall. Then, when his twisted relationship with Madeline begins, there are many aspects of composition that reveal the warped storyline just by unique shots, placement of the characters to the setting, size of the characters on the screen and so on. For example, when Scottie first starts 2006-06-21T15:36:20-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Components-in-the-Composition-of-Vertigo-29768.aspx Critical Analysis of "Citizen Kane" by Orson Welles Directed, produced and starring Orson Welles, Citizen Kane is famous for the many remarkable scenes, cinematic and narrative techniques which help to revolutionized the film industry. Written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, filmed by Gregg Toland, Kane is brilliantly crafted remembrances of Mr. Bernstein’s investigations. Kane draws much of its magnetism from its deviation from classic ideals and it’s ability to start new ones. Welles uses film as an art form to communicate and display a narrative through imaginative Mise en scene, setting, sound, lighting, editing and performance. All of theses components together helped to create a story which is set off by Kane’s dying word Rosebud. The structure of ``Citizen Kane'' is circular, adding more depth every time it passes over his life. The movie opens with newsreel obituary footage that briefs us on the life and times of Charles Foster Kane. The footage alone setup Kane as a media mogul. But as any good newspaper they wish to inquire about the man and who he really was. They provide a map of Kane's life, and it keeps us oriented as the screenplay skips around in time, piecing together the memories of those who thought they knew him. Curious about Kane's dying word the newsreel editor assigns Thompson, a reporter, to find out what it meant. Thompson is played by William Alland in monotonous role. He questions Kane's alcoholic mistress, his ailing old friend, his rich associate and the other witnesses, while the movie jumps through time. Because the movie jumps throughout the life of Kane we slowly get the feeling that Kane is abandoned, even though he has so many friends. The arrangement of scenes through out the movie set it up to be one major flashback, but a unique flashback , one in which goes forward through time as it does go backwards into time. However, as the movie goes along and his empire gets to big it and he himself fall apart allowing for closure . The final scene which ends with a zoom out of Xanadu allows us to leave this story as we entered with a zoom in on The movie had strong performances by the whole cast, but In one scene the Xanadu fireplace belittles Susan and she is methodically completing a jigsaw 2006-06-21T15:30:00-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critical-Analysis-of-Citizen-Kane-by-Orson-Welles-29765.aspx Analysis of the film, "The Amistad" In the movie “The Amistad”, the Africans rise up and begin a mutiny against their captors on the high seas and are brought to trial in a New England court. The court must decide if the Africans are actually born as slaves or if they were illegally brought from Africa. If the Africans were born as slaves then they would be guilty of murder, but if their being brought here from Africa is illegal, they had the right to defend themselves. This was not such a simple issue since the slave trade had been banned by treaties at the time of the Amistad incident in 1839. The movie starts on board the Amistad. On the ship the leader of the Africans, Cinque, frees himself from his chains and frees the rest of his tribe. They slaves are being taken from a Havana slave market to another destination in Cuba. The two men who bought them are spared, and promise to take the slaves back to Africa. Instead, the Amistad is guided into US waters, and the Africans end up being tried in a New England court. Luckily, it is a Northern court. If the slaves had ended up in the South they would have no chance of getting off. The slaves are first defended by Roger Baldwin a well-off real estate lawyer who bases the case on property law. Only slowly does Baldwin come to see his clients, the slaves, as human beings. Also, two Boston abolitionists, an immigrant called Tappan, and a former slave named Joadson are in the defense. Together these men work to try to free the 53 slaves aboard the Amistad. After the slaves are tried and freed at the New England district court, they must go to the Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court John Quincy Adams, former president, who is fighting for the freedom of all men, defends them. He gives an 11 minute speech and persuades the Supreme Court to free the slaves as individuals because all men are free under the Declaration of Independence. The slaves are freed once and again and choose to return to their homeland. However, Cinque discovers that his village has been destroyed and the rest of his family has already been sold into slavery. This is where Cinque emerges as a powerful character. He was once a free farmer living in peace 2006-06-20T17:08:21-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-the-film-The-Amistad-29711.aspx Analysis of "The Mission" by Robert Bolt This movie takes place in the 18th century. The main plot of the movie is converting Indians into Christians. The main character in the movie is Mendoza (Robert De Niro). Mendoza was a slave trader who kills his brother in a fit of rage. He is full of guilt from the murder of his brother and yearns for redemption. He gets it from the missionaries. 2006-06-16T19:06:42-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-The-Mission-by-Robert-Bolt-29655.aspx Film Review of "The Perfect Storm" The Perfect Storm, directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, Air Force One) tells the dramatic events that resulted from a phenomenal storm formation in the North Atlantic region in 1991. Based on a true story, The Perfect Storm follows the "Andrea Gail", a fishing boat that left Gloucester, Massachusetts and headed directly into the eye of a hurricane of unexampled proportions. Realizing his fishermen were underpaid and overworked, Captain Billy Tyne decides to make the last fishing expedition of the season and aim for more distant waters, where he thinks to find tonnes of fish. Although leaving their homes and their loved ones required tremendous will power, the promise of a more successful venture convinced fishermen Bobby Shatford , Dale Murphy and David Sullivan to join, and Andrea Gail optimistically departs. Soon, however, family members' with one word are discontent about the sporadic nature of the trip because of the weather conditions. Conflicts arise when Captain Billy and his crew decide to ignore Captain Linda's radio warnings about the perfect storm forming close ahead. The Perfect Storm slowly builds up to Andrea Gail's departure, and initially focuses on each fisherman's personal situation. Although these descriptions offer enough information about the characters' needs and their devotion to the sea, they are not sufficient to create in the viewer a sense of sympathy for each character. Consequently, these scenes do not provide a setup that is affective and they fail to offer an intriguing premise as the basis for the drama that will eventually unfold. As if to compensate, the swelling music that accompanies these scenes tries to provide a feeling that something is leading up to a great event. When Andrea Gail is at sea and it is clear that the "main event" will be her struggle with the ocean's temperament, The Perfect Storm's plot swings between complications (mainly accidents or animosity among the fishermen) and the decline of their respective little victories, as the complications are safely resolved. Furthermore, the climactic event evolves while other smaller dramas, such as a coast guard helicopter trying to rescue a family, or the helicopter running out of fuel, unfold simultaneously. This distracts from the main focus and suggests that the main plot needs simultaneous drama. Still, by means of careful photography and spectacular special effects, The Perfect Storm is successful in its attempt to define the ocean as being 2006-06-16T15:36:49-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Review-of-The-Perfect-Storm-29632.aspx Film Analysis of "Cry Freedom" “Cry Freedom” is a film directed by Richard Attenborough. Attenborough shows his bias point of view through out the film. The film is centered around the brutality used by the white man and the death of black activist Steve Biko. The film is also shows consciousness, racial hatred and many other issues. The opening scene is set in the black township of Crossroads early in the morning. There is little noise and only the sound of crickets and peaceful South African music. The peace is broken by the loud police trucks and the sound of people running and screaming. Black and white snap shots capture this. This gives the audience a dramatic feeling of fear. Attenborough allows the audience to have a sense of realism by using effective sounds and camera angles to get the best picture. An example of this is when the little boy sounds the alarm to warn the people of the township of the police. He shows the audience how black South Africans have been chased and raped so they have an idea of the Brutality and force used by the white police. Through out the Township there are posters of Steve Biko. Attenborough does this to let the viewers how important Steve Biko is. When it returns to the scene of destruction the black peoples homes and belongings are been destroyed by bull dozzers and fires. This leaves the black South Africans of the township with no where to go. This gives the audience a feeling of sympathy for the black's situation. Also an important scene is the meeting between Donald Woods and Steve Biko. This scene is important in the film because this is the scene that Donald Wood’s changes his thought about life of black South Africans. This is because of what he hears and sees in the black township. This scene is dark because it is set at night. In the black township it is very noisy, dirty and crowed. The people have to stand around the fires for warmth and there is no electricity or running water. Richard Attenborough uses many techniques to show the viewers images of the poverty and filth the black people have to live in. He also uses sounds and voices to 2006-06-16T15:26:20-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-of-Cry-Freedom-29626.aspx Nicomachean Ethics in The Green Mile The movie, The Green Mile, is a film that is based on a true story set in the state of Alabama during the Depression Era. The story is told by Paul Edgecomb, who during that time was the head guard on Death Row at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary. The former prison guard reflects on how he developed a unusual, relationship with one of the inmates that may be innocent. The inmate is John Coffey, an African- American man convicted of the rape and murder of two nine year old sisters. The prison guards begin to realize that Coffey has strange and mysterious healing powers that is leading the guards to believe putting the inmate to death would be a terrible mistake. Characteristics of Competent Communication, Cognitive Complexity, and Commitment are three interpersonal concepts that are used throughout the film in a couple different ways. Scholars have been able to identify a wide range of behaviors that are associated with Characteristics of Competent Communications. Despite the fact that Competent Communication varies greatly from one situation to the next, there are many different ways you can deal with the situation. Shortly after John Coffey was sent to the Penitentiary, everyone of the guards except Paul Edgecomb begins to make racial jokes and comments about him. The guards are certain Coffey, an African- American, is guilty of the crime he was convicted of without even looking at the evidence and hearing the whole story. Edgecomb develops a special relationship with Coffey while informing the other guards that insulting Coffey while he was there was uncalled for and out of line. Over time Edgecomb realizes that Coffey is a gentle man very unable of murder and that he also has a special and mysterious healing power. Coffey is able to heal Edgecomb’s bladder infection and he also cures the Marshall’s wife’s cancer. Edgecomb has many choices on how to deal with this situation. He decided to deal with this by expressing his discomfort in a straight forward way and he also demands the guards to stop. People are said to have the best chance at developing an effective message when they understand the other person’s point of view. Social Scientists use the term Cognitive Complexity to describe the ability to construct a variety of frameworks for viewing a certain issue. Over the years, researchers have found 2006-06-16T15:12:22-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Nicomachean-Ethics-in-The-Green-Mile-29618.aspx Comparison between Archetypal Westerns and Comedic Westerns Movies and books, about tales of the Old West, are still popular today. They give us a vivid perspective of how the Old West was. Images of the Wild West evoke thoughts of gunfights, saloons, and women in distress waiting to be rescued by the local hero. The movie, High Noon, directed by Fred Zinnemann, takes on the traditional tone that the viewer is all too familiar with. Stephen Crane’s story, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” recreates the classic Old West tale of the villain versus the hero while giving it a comical edge. While High Noon provides one with stereotypical portrayals of the damsel in distress, the villain, and the hero, both pieces focus on the notion that good always prevails. They are clearly similar in this way; however, differences abound between the two works. The plots of the stories unfold with action sequences taking on different roles in each. Comedic elements in Crane’s Story create a theme that also differs from that in the more classic High Noon. The characters in High Noon are just what one would expect in an Old Western tale, while those in Crane’s story are anything but typical. If we compare and contrast the elements of High Noon and “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” we can see Crane’s theme: not all of the arguments in the Old West were resolved with gunfights. Violence is not the answer to every argument. The two pieces show typical similarities. Both are Old Westerns focusing on good versus evil. The notion that good always prevails is present in both works. The marshal wins in both cases. They both have the same setting, taking place in the Old West, in a small town. They also have the same plot: a damsel in distress, a villain, and a hero, as do most Old Westerns. Another similarity is that both heroes have just been married. These two pieces also have their differences in how they approach the characterizations of the bride, the villain, and the hero. In an Old Western film or story we expect the characters to look and act a certain way. In High Noon the characterizations fulfill all of our expectations. In High Noon, Amy Kane, the 2006-06-16T14:39:47-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Comparison-between-Archetypal-Westerns-and-Comedic-Westerns-29599.aspx Powerful Analysis of Schindler's List This is one of the most emotional movies I've ever seen. Spielberg has documented evil and made a moving tribute to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. The story centers around the true story of Oskar Schindler, a war profiteer who paid to save the lives of Jews during the holocaust. Liam Neeson was outstanding as the lead and the script gave him a rich character to portray. The film presents Schindler as a business man, a womanizer, a profiteer, and a humanitarian. His contrasts allow for a beautiful character development. His interactions with Ralph Fiennes, who is very chilling as the commandant of the concentration camp Ammon Goeth, shows him to be a man struggling with hypocrisy. He disapproves of Goeth's cold-blooded murder and harsh treatment of the Jews, but he clearly enjoys Goeth's company. He has a hard time reconciling the two sides of Goeth's personality. He uses his influence to try and persuade Goeth to be more forgiving, to have morals and treat the Jews with the dignity that all humans deserve. Ben Kingsley is outstanding as Itzhak Stern, a Jewish businessman that really runs Schindler's factory. But the real star is Spielberg's unforgiving examination of the holocaust. His use of black and white film (a very beautiful stock, not the grainy kind you see in independent films) is inspired. Because all the things that you've seen about the holocaust are in black and white, the film doesn't appear to be unusual. This also leaves him room to do something brilliant. When the SS is liquidating the Warsaw Ghetto, there is a girl that is wearing a bright red dress. This is one of the two times that there is color in the film (the other is the flame of a candle). This is a brilliant visual move by Spielberg. In the middle of all this murder and horror, he suddenly brings in color to remind you that this is real. This really happened. It's just brilliant. His depiction of cold-blooded murder destroys your faith in man. But Schindler redeems humanity by buying the lives of people. Without his intervention they will surely die. Schindler understands this fact and spends all his money to save people. The most emotional moment for me was at the end. The Nazis have signed their surrender and the Jews are 2006-06-16T14:34:46-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Powerful-Analysis-of-Schindler-s-List-29595.aspx Film Analysis of "Wag the Dog" (political satire) Wag the Dog is a satire produced by Barry Levinson and written by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet. I chose 2006-06-15T00:47:29-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-of-Wag-the-Dog-29527.aspx Analysis of "Violence: An American Tradition" When they were discovering the soon to be new America. The movie Violence: An American Tradition narrated by Julian Bond is a documentary that portrays the beginnings of violent crimes and then relates them to how this behavior has now been carried out in society today. The first beginnings were when the portraits of gruesome killings were now being made available to the public to view in the everyday newspaper. See Americans didn’t invent the violent crimes it stems form the animal that is naturally inside the American who is naturally the animal. America is the most violent of all the major nations that are present around the world. We turn or outlaws into folk heroes like the lights of Bonnie and Clyde, the James brothers and 2006-06-11T19:59:45-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-Violence-An-American-Tradition-29234.aspx Historic Accuracy of the Film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!, the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese Air and Naval forces. The main question that is trying to be answered is; did the Americans know that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor? There is sufficient evidence to supply both sides with an argument. Nevertheless, I feel that the evidence supporting the statement that the Americans were previously unaware of the attack on Pearl Harbor outweigh the evidence supporting the statement that the Americans knew beforehand of the attack. I feel that the Americans could have discovered Japan’s plans, but through a series of unfortunate coincidences, were unable to know the location and time of the attack. The American Government was definitely suspicious of the Japanese, and took precautionary measures resulting from the trade embargo between America and Japan that began when the Japanese occupied French Indo-China. To keep a close watch on Japan’s actions, the Navy intelligence set up a confidential task force to intercept all outgoing messages from Tokyo to every Japanese embassy in the world. When an alert was sent to look out for a possible Japanese attack, there were suggestions from the Navy that 180 planes were to keep a 360 degree patrol of Pearl Harbor. Since there were an insufficient number of planes to carry out this order, the navy set up a new radar system to monitor any planes coming onto the island. They were planning to put it on the highest point on the island, a mountain peak. Through an order from the national park system, they were unable to put it up on the high peak, but instead on a low beach shore with many objects blocking radar reception. Lieutenant General Walter C. Short also concluded that the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor, but in a different way. He believed that the huge Japanese population on the Hawaiian Islands would up rise, and sabotage the airplanes on the Naval base. His solution was to round up all the planes together and keep them heavily guarded. This proved to be a fatal decision. Many doubted that the Japanese would attack America at Pearl Harbor, and gave sufficient evidence for their reasoning. Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet pointed out that torpedoes plunge to a depth of 75 feet, where 2006-06-11T19:41:54-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Historic-Accuracy-of-the-Film-Tora-Tora-Tora-29224.aspx Theme Development in the Film 12 Angry Men In the movie 12 Angry Men a verdict of not guilty was given to the boy after the fact that apparently all the jurors except one thought that the boy was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. All of the key evidence presented in the court was rejected by the jury, which led the jurors to have a reasonable doubt about the boy’s guiltiness. I will present this evidence in chronological order and support why there is a reasonable doubt that would lead each juror to change their view of the case. In my opinion some of the counter evidence presented was kind of weak, but the whole point of this paper is to show the trail of evidence to lead the jurors to a reasonable doubt. The first key idea, and probably the most important, is that the boy was poor and couldn’t afford a decent attorney. He had a court appointed attorney who probably had many other cases to argue. This attorney had no attachment to the client; there was no glory that the attorney could look towards. The attorney would really have to believe in the client in order to deliberate the case properly. It was pointed out in the movie that the boy had a very poor attorney and didn’t ask the right questions. If the boy had a good attorney, he would of brought up all the points that countered the key evidence that some of the jurors pointed out. There are a few points about the knife that would lead to reasonable doubt. One point made in the courtroom was that the person who sold the boy the knife said it was one in a kind. It would be highly unlikely that another person would have the same knife. However juror #8 went to the area where the boy lived and bought the same exact knife from a pawnshop. This would prove that the knife wasn’t one of a kind, it was fairly common. This means that anyone could have bought the same knife and used it to kill the boy’s father. This evidence proves that the knife that the boy purchased wasn’t necessarily the murder weapon. An interesting question was brought up by one of the jurors. Why did the boy show the murder weapon to his friends just a couple of hours before the murder actually occurred? If he 2006-06-11T02:38:40-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Theme-Development-in-the-Film-12-Angry-Men-29182.aspx Political Theme Analysis of "Primary Colors" Throughout "Primary Colors", we see Jack Stanton appealing to voters form diverse racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds. In each scene he becomes a "yes man" who supports any political cause that will earn him votes. Is this type of campaign behavior unethical? As elected officials who serve the public, should politicians be held to higher ethical standards? Why or why not? Jacks Stanton does the most important thing as a politician running for president. He attempts to persuade the undereducated areas of the United States. He starts off by relating to southern factory workers, by speaking in a so-called "x-rated" fashion. He promotes higher education for adults in this scene and promises that he will wake up thinking about these people every morning. These people actually buy into him. When Jack goes to New York later on the movie, he is booed right off the stage and he doesn't even get a chance to speak. The difference here is that New Yorker's are strong believers of the accusations against him and that their higher education makes them smart enough to understand what the real truth is. These people don't buy into him. The Question is… "Is this type of campaign behavior unethical? To an extent, but not really… It's a very intelligent way of getting votes to win the democratic parties election. This is a technique used by many elected Presidents in the United States, including former President Bill Clinton. For the benefit of our country, elected officials should be held to higher ethical standards based on their ideas and morals. Overall, the Senators have the final say based on the ballots of their own state. So finding dirt on other candidates to win the election becomes part of campaigning. In a later scene in the movie, Jack gives a speech to a group of elderly, Jewish, men and women In that speech Jack emphasizes that "The United States has no better friend in the middle east than the state of Israel." Obviously, the Jewish people would be happy to here that because it's their native land, but it's something that educated people would already know or be familiar with. This is strong tactic that Jack uses, because he not only thinks to go after the less educated, he thinks to go after 2006-06-02T16:32:21-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Political-Theme-Analysis-of-Primary-Colors-29049.aspx Representations of the Black Male in Film A systematic exclusion of black people from the production, distribution, and exhibition of film exists in Hollywood. This "system" is white America's continuing subversion of a whole race that has existed since the first slave was dragged from African soil and put to work on an American plantation. In these "politically correct" times the system is not an overt racist activity. Rather, it is more of a hidden political agenda that does not appear to exist when looked for. But the system operates in all aspects of commercial American cinema and, thus, defines how blacks are portrayed on the screen which, in turn, defines how black audiences define themselves. Hollywood has traditionally portrayed the black male negatively, providing inappropriate role models for young black males. Although the influence of independent filmmakers is changing the way commercial films depict black men, real change will only come when audiences demand it. This essay looks at why and how the "system" excludes black people, and examines several films to show how the image of the black male is changing. American media representations of black men not only serve the interests of the dominant white class and help maintain existing institutions, but they also keep black people from positions of power and stature in American society. Historically, black males have been characterized only in terms of society's own political agenda and its own economic gain. D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915), for example, was a blatantly racist attack on blacks, portraying black men as a sexual threat to the purity of white women and a biological threat to the purity of the white race. Films such as Hallelujah (1929) sentimentalized the plantation myth to keep black people in "their place." The film capitalized upon the loss of the supportive extended family of the rural Southern communities after black migration to large cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles (Jones 23). The scenes of the sharecroppers on Zeke's farm smiling, laughing, and singing as they pick cotton are blatantly reminiscent of the popularized myth of happy slaves on the plantation. Things were better back then, these scenes suggest; life was good. When Zeke goes into town to sell the year's crop, he falls prey to the evils of city life--gambling, loose women, and drinking-- which results in the death of his brother. The message is 2006-06-02T16:01:20-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Representations-of-the-Black-Male-in-Film-29035.aspx Analysis of Cinematography in Silence of the Lambs Jonathan Demme, the director of Silence of the Lambs, and Tak Fujimoto, the cinematographer, do an excellent job in portraying almost every aspect of cinematography to make this movie suspenseful and gripping. Various motifs of camera angle, shot duration, movement, point-of-view shots, on-screen and off-screen space, and framing allow the viewer to better feel the intensity and reality of the scenes. In addition to motifs, there were certain scenes in the film that portrayed Demme’s directing and Fujimoto’s cinematography skills. There are many different camera angles throughout the movie. They are used to illustrate the height of a character, provide more on-screen and off-screen space, and symbolize power and suspense of certain characters. For example, when Clarice was in a room full of police officers, the camera was placed at a high angle looking down at all of the officers and other characters in the room. This usually occurred whenever the setting was a large, open room with many characters. It also occurred whenever a room was entered to show the off-screen space of the surroundings. The low angle shots were used whenever the camera was behind Clarice while she was talking with someone taller than her, for instance, Hannibal and Agent Jack Crawford. These shots were also used to symbolize the power and danger of Hannibal and Buffalo Bill. They seem taller and massive which adds more effect to their presence. To add suspense, the camera is sometimes positioned with the light to cast shadows on Hannibal as he is talking with Clarice in his cell. This makes it difficult to predict what may happen next because it hides the view of his eyes and body language. Shot durations are manipulated throughout the movie in many different ways. For instance, one moment the time setting is daytime and a couple seconds later it is either evening or nighttime. This keeps a fast pace going while moving on to the next scene. Another example is when Clarice is investigating a murder scene one minute, and the next minute she is back at FBI headquarters training. There are also long take durations whenever Demme places the camera on an important object. These durations may only be a few seconds, but they are somewhat long because the actions and movements 2006-06-02T02:29:30-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-Cinematography-in-Silence-of-the-Lambs-29009.aspx Reginald Rose's "12 Angry Men;" Plot and Themes This essay will compare & contrast the protagonist/antagonist's relationship with each other and the other jurors in the play and in the movie versions of Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men. There aren't any changes made to the key part of the story but yet the minor changes made in making the movie adaptation produce a different picture than what one imagines when reading the drama in the form of a play. First off, the settings in the movie are a great deal more fleshed out. In the play, the scene begins with the jurors regarding the judge's final statements concerning the case in the courtroom and then walking out into the jury room. In the movie, the audience is placed in the role of the invisible casual observer, who for perhaps the first 5 minutes of the movie, walks throughout the court building passing other court rooms, lawyers, defendants, security officers, elevators, etc. Not able to remember much about this particular part of the movie, I believe this introductory scene's purpose was to either enhanced the realism of the setting by emphasizing the court building's efficient, business like manner or to provide a timeslot in which to roll the credits for producer, director, stars, etc. The settings aren't only built upon through use of scenery and extras in the movie. Invisible and distant in the play, we see in the movie the judge, bailiff, those witnessing the trial and most importantly of all- the defendant. This is an important change because in the play, we are free to come up with our own unbiased conclusions as to the nature and identity of the defendant, whom we only know to a be a 19 year boy from the slums. Seeing his haggard and worn face in the movie changes all of that, yet for better or worse, it engages the audience deeper into the trial as they surely will sympathize with him and can gain some insight into why, later, Juror 8 does so as well. Of final note in this summary of points concerning the differences in setting, the jurors all mention the heat wave affecting the city when they begin, and as it agitates them, it serves to heighten the tension between each other and their resentment or other feelings towards jury duty. Oh- also lastly, I think we can infer 2006-06-01T19:25:56-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Reginald-Rose-s-12-Angry-Men-Plot-and-Themes-28992.aspx "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and Female Importance Until modern times, society validated that a man's role was at work, while a woman was required to stay home and play the role of the main caregiver. Men were given power and authority, and women, contradictory to men, were expected to be humble and subservient. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey reverses the stereotypical gender roles to show that the chaotic and sometimes tragically comic world of a mental institution. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, the women are the power figures and are able to significantly manipulate the patients on the ward, as shown by the characters of Nurse Ratched, Mrs. Bibbit, and Vera Harding. Nurse Ratched, whose power is expressed in bluntly sexual terms despite her attempts to deny her sexuality, maintains her authority on the ward by suppressing the patients' laughter. The men under her jurisdiction use sexual references when they talk about her, and after the first group therapy session the new patient, Randal Patrick McMurphy calls her a “ball-cutter.” In a way Ken Kesey shows that McMurphy is powerless because he is incapable of sexual violence against women. McMurphy her ability to dominate the patients is a result of her controlling their laughter. The schizophrenic Chief Bromden, the narrator of the novel, brings attention by saying, “A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing, putting those big, womanly breasts on what otherwise would have been a perfect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it.” (One Flew Over Cuckoo’s Nest 11) Nurse Ratched's authority on the ward points out the fact that she controls people who would normally be her superiors, such as, Dr. Spivey. Throughout the book, the nurse attempts to hide her sexuality. Nurse Ratched weakens her patients through a careful, manipulative program designed to destroy their self-esteem. Mrs. Bibbit gains her power by preventing Billy, her son, from becoming a functioning adult, and because of this relationship that Billy eventually commits suicide. At first Mrs. Bibbit does not seem to understand that Billy is a mature adult and able to function in society, but it soon becomes clear that this is merely a excuse for her own self- admiration. When his mother tells him he has plenty of time to accomplish things such as going to college, and Billy reminds 2006-05-31T17:25:40-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/One-Flew-Over-the-Cuckoo-s-Nest-and-Female-Importance-28910.aspx Family Values in Movies; "The Secret Garden" "The Secret Garden"; "The movie “Secret Garden” can be considered a fairy tale or a family movie. The movie is about a little girl who loses her parents in an earthquake. After losing her parents, she is sent to live with her uncle who is not a very happy man. In this movie, we see the progress of character developments. Mary Lennox, Mrs. Medlock, Colin, and Mary’s uncle change in the end of the movie in a positive way. I will try to point out the causes and the effects in the movie about these character developments. First of all, Mary Lennox who is a 10 year old girl had no attention or love from his family in her life. She was living in wealth, therefore she was a depressed child because of her parents being busy with parties or their business life, not caring about her much. As a result of these, Mary developed her character in terms of a cold personality, and because of her being used to live in wealth, she always expects attention, and perfection from others who are lower than her. In the story line, Mary finds about a secret garden. Not having any reason that will keep her alive before, Mary dedicates herself to the development of the forsaken garden. She discovers the truth that lies in the secret garden. Her personality changes after she finds about her cousin and she tries to help him as much as she can. Trying to discover the truth and help her crippled cousin, she develops a new character, who is caring and for the first time she feels love. Mary’s cousin Colin, is a boy who is also 10 years old. He lost her mom when he was small and he grew up having health problems, not being able to walk or take care of himself in his whole life. Because of him being different from others, he isolates himself in a dark room in the mansion, trying to stay away from people, being a sad, alone boy. Mary’s appearance changes Colin a lot. After his moms death, Colin was also forsaken by his dad. For the first time, someone cares about Colin and tries to help him. In the end of the story, Colin even forgets the idea he always had in his mind about death and even gets better; being 2006-05-31T17:17:54-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Family-Values-in-Movies-The-Secret-Garden-28908.aspx Mental illness is a disorder of the brain that results in a disruption of a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to relate to others. For someone who’s never had a mental illness, it may be hard to imagine what life would be like for someone who does. The film “A Beautiful Mind” is about a mathematician, John Nash, who suffers from schizophrenia. Through his anguish, we gain knowledge of a life with mental illness. It affects every component of your life, and the lives of those close to you. The film opens in the late 1940s at Princeton, where John Nash is a young graduate student in mathematics. There Nash does some brilliant original work, but its importance is not immediately widely recognized. His best friend is his roommate, Charles Herman (fictional). In the early 1950s Nash takes a job at M.I.T. that involves both working at the (fictional) Wheeler Defense Labs and teaching classes. He believes he is a spy for the CIA and William Parcher (fictional) is his superior. At M.I.T. he falls in love with and marries a physics student named Alicia Larde. However, Nash's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, and he is diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia. With Alicia's help, he battles mental illness for many years, and eventually recovers sufficiently to live a more or less normal life. Meanwhile, the importance of the work he did four decades earlier receives wide recognition, and in 1994 Nash is awarded a Nobel Prize. The Turmoil that John Nash feels in the movie is not unlike the feelings many people go through. My experience with mental illness has recently expanded. A good friend was admitted to a psychiatric hospital with borderline personality disorder. I visited her and now have a better understanding of mental ailments. I was scared to go to the hospital. I had visions of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, but my fear was irrational. No one fit the stigma of “crazy”. They were people trying to help themselves. The hospital is a safe environment to take a break from the stresses of life that can be even more detrimental to a person with a mental disorder. The hospital can also help psychiatrists’ correct medication with constant supervision of the patient. Like John Nash, my cousin Peter is schizophrenic. I’ve only heard stories of his erratic behavior and paranoia, but I know that he loves his 2006-05-06T06:06:38-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/A-Beautful-Mind-28802.aspx Don’t Say A Word was what Nathan Conrad heard from his daughters’ kidnappers. This movie was intense and heart stopping. It all started out in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in November of 1991. Five men commit a bank robbery to steal one prize jewel. After the robbery, the five men split into two groups and took two different get-away vehicles. One vehicle had three men and the other had two men. The vehicle with two men contained “Jon Doe” (name never mentioned) and another anonymous man. These two men planned on stealing the jewel from their partners throughout the entire crime; they were successful in doing so. It showed the two men laughing and having a drink as they split open Jon Doe’s daughter; Elizabeth Burrows, doll to conceal the jewel inside of the doll, named Nilempha. Ten years later the movie continues on with a well-known psychiatrist named Nathan Conrad on the day before Thanksgiving. One of Nathan’s previous co-workers paged him and said it was an emergency to come directly to the Bridgeview Psychiatric Hospital to see a patient named Elizabeth Burrows who has just sliced a man with a razor numerous times. Elizabeth had been institutionalized for the past ten years in twenty different institutes; this showed she was extremely disturbed. When Nathan arrived at the Hospital, he met Elizabeth and found she had not eaten, had anything to drink, or spoken since her arrival. He also noticed she had numerous bruises and scars in areas known for suicide attempts. When she was a young girl she watched her father, Jon Doe, from the previous robbery brutally murdered in a subway. The other men, who helped him commit the crime found him, beat him and threw him in front of a subway train. The men who did this were arrested and tried, but were now out of prison and looking for her. This is why she stayed in the hospitals because she felt safe. He tried to speak to her and with no replies he began to walk out when she said, “You want what they want”, he turned and asked her what she meant. She repeated herself and then sang, “I’ll never tell”. With this Nathan grew curious as to who “they” were. He stayed at the hospital until close to ten o’clock PM before returning home to his wife and eight-year-old daughter, Jessie. The next morning, Thanksgiving, 2006-05-03T04:35:43-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Don’t-Say-A-Word-Movie-Review-28781.aspx The Skeleton Key Movie Review There used to be a big stigma against name actors appearing in horror pictures -- especially the lower-budget kind that tends to get released in the dog days of August. Stars would only appear in them on the way down, when they couldn't get anything else.But these days horror is the only genre that regularly works at the box office, actors actually compete to be in them and -- as Bruce Willis and Nicole Kidman proved in "The Sixth Sense" and "The Others," respectively -- it can be a great place to re-establish a sliding career. "The Skeleton Key" seems designed to add some luster to the faded stardom of Kate Hudson, a young actress who's been playing leads since her break-out in 2000's "Almost Famous," but has been in so many flops that the bad buzz on her is that she's box-office poison. She desperately needs a hit, and, as it turns out, this movie could be it. It's far from strikingly original, but it's well-acted, skillfully plotted and moderately chilling, and it's something slightly different in the haunted-house genre. Hudson plays a young hospice worker and aspiring nurse, recently moved to Louisiana, who's hired by a cantankerous woman (Gena Rowlands) to take care of her paralyzed husband (John Hurt) in their rundown mansion in some backwater parish of the bayou. Via a series of Nancy Drew adventures, she gradually discovers that nothing is as it first seemed, the old man is being held prisoner against his will, the house is possessed by voodoo spirits and she herself may be trapped by their evil spell. The script is by Ehren Kruger ("Scream 3," "The Ring"), and much of it is conventional. But it relies more on atmosphere and character than the rest of this summer's crowded field of spooky movies, and it pays off nicely with a genuinely surprising twist ending. Director Iain Softley, a classy British filmmaker ("Wings of the Dove," "Backbeat") with no previous experience in the genre, tries hard to avoid the cliches and is clearly aiming more toward a "Rosemary's Baby" than an "Amityville Horror." Consequently, his movie gets its scariest moments less from its jarring effects, Southern Gothic ambience and frenzied conclusion than from Hudson's loaded dialogue exchanges and creepy encounters with Rowlands. In its best moments, it's a character piece. As the imperiled heroine, Hudson does well enough. Hardly a riveting personality, she nonetheless exudes intelligence, 2006-03-28T09:43:37-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Movie-Review-of-The-Skeleton-Key-28623.aspx The American Dream in the Film Scarface The film Scarface can be directly compared to the myth of the American Dream. The contemporary perception of the American Dream is one monetary gains and power in society. Scarface is a gangster movie in which the main character Tony Montana tries to reach his dream of overwhelming power and wealth. Tony Montana like Jay Gatsby believed that after obtaining enormous power and wealth, one would live in happily ever after. The director Brian De Palma like Fitzgerald shows that people seeking the American Dream will not attain happiness because of the unworthiness of its object and the means used to get to realize it. Money and power alone will lead to corruption and unhappiness. De Palma makes a statement about the facade of organized crime, and the farce of the American Dream by using Tony as a prime example of someone trying to achieve the American Dream. When Tony finally reaches a substantial level of power and wealth, pressure builds up and he gets easily angered and things begin the downward climb. Its first starts when he walks over his own partners that were loyal to him from the beginning. Things finally unravel when everyone around him is dead, including his beloved sister. First and foremost, the director shows a classic example of a gangster working his way up literally from rags to riches. Tony starts out as a body guard for one of the big mobsters, and quickly learns that to get to the top in underground cocaine selling, you have to step all over people. The director correlates this advancement in status to the new American tradition of finding any way possible to get where you want in life. As Tony’s character ‘matures’ during the movie he gets greedier and more violent. His motto was the “World is yours” and believed the world and everything in it was primed for his taking. He climbs his way through the hierarchical ladder, surpassing his former bosses and he believes that he is on a pedestal alone. Organized crime had developed a stigma regarding its power and influence, especially during its hay day in the 1930’s. The mob had always been viewed as a powerful “family-like” organization. By overturning Lovo’s (Tony’s first boss) position of power, Tony represents the idea of “every man for himself”. The viewer steps into a cut-throat world of power 2006-03-19T10:01:59-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-of-Scarface-the-Movie-28586.aspx In the movie “The Last of the Mohicans” the character Nathaniel Poe is the Romantic hero. He displays three characteristics to prove this statement: his love of nature, his great sense of honor, and his adventures for a higher truth. These three characteristics of Nathaniel are shown throughout the movie. He shows his unique ability as an outdoorsman in the beginning of the movie. Hawkeye and his Native American friends hunt and kill a deer in the forest. The deer is clearly faster and has the advantage in the fight, but Hawkeye conquers it with ease. Shortly after they kill the deer his friends say a prayer and thank the deer for the challenge. They do this because in the Native American’s views every animal is equal to them, so they honor those who put a good fight. They take a moment to honor the animal’s fortitude and agility. This shows that Hawkeye is honoring a higher truth instead of going with society’s rules. Hawkeye displays his honor throughout the movie many times. When the American’s want to leave the fort, Nathaniel goes with them because they are his friends. They proceed to arrest him for doing so. When the Huron Indians come to attack the American’s, Hawkeye protects his new love Cora. However, he does not display his affection for her because he knows that Duncan loves her too. Hawkeye has respect and honor for Duncan because he does not do this. Towards the end of the movie Duncan puts his life away for Cora and Hawkeye. The Hurons put him in the fire alive; Hawkeye shoots him to put him out of his pain. This displays Hawkeye’s honor once again. He also knows that Duncan would do the same for him. After a battle Hawkeye leads the Americans out of the area. He saves their lives with his knowledge of the forest and other Indian tribes. Hawkeye’s unique ability to survive in the forest with the Indians is because he is a white man that was raised by Chingachgook. He was raised as an Indian and has a deep love for nature. In conclusion, Hawkeye is a perfect candidate for an American Romantic. He has a love of nature, a great sense of honor, and is seeking a higher truth in the world. Hawkeye displays of these traits throughout the movie. All of his adventures and quests come from his deep desire 2006-02-16T01:56:34-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Hawkeye-s-Characterization--28493.aspx Film Review - Of Mice and Men 1:59, PG-13, Drama, 1992 Director: Gary Sinise Cast: John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, Sherilyn Fenn, Ray Walston, Alexis Arquette, Joe Morton, Casey Siemaszko, John Terry, Noble Willingham Gary Sinise and John Malkovich are migrant farm workers. John Malkovich 2005-12-31T03:43:43-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Review-Of-Mice-and-Men-1992-28338.aspx Titanic 1997 James Cameron The blockbuster film Titanic brought millions of dollars and thousands of people to the theaters and continues to touch people today in their homes. Why was this film so successful? It was a combination of many different things. Among these are many thematic elements. Looking at some of these elements will show how the director and others involved were able to create an emotionally charged movie that appeals to thousands. The film uses one thematic element called The Truth of Human Nature. The two main characters seem to represent a greater whole. Most of the other characters in 2005-12-31T03:29:55-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Titanic-the-Film-28336.aspx Discussion of the Film Vagabonde, by Agnes Varda Vagabonde possesses many themes which when viewed on the surface are almost invisible. However, when a closer ‘post-mortem’ style of analysis is adopted they soon become clear and more distinguished. The themes included in this film are Mystery, Jealousy, Loneliness, Independence and ultimately, Tragedy. We see the themes develop in front of us individually as the film progresses, but as the viewer, we only become aware of the super-structure by the end of the film. We know from the start that ultimately the journey ends in tragedy but are curious as to why this woman is lying dead in a ditch. The two themes: Tragedy and Mystery, arrive together in the film. The film opens with an image of a young girl lying in a ditch covered in mud. This image is visually shocking and instantly provokes a reaction from the viewer. The reaction must vary from person to person but ultimately it creates curiosity and sympathy. The director invites the audience to participate in uncovering of the "mystery" surrounding the life of a dead woman. On the surface, Vagabonde is a deceptively simple story. The film opens with the image of a frozen female corpse and a narrator (Varda) tells the audience that what follows are interviews with the people who knew her in the last weeks of her life. Through interviews and flashbacks the viewer learns how this young woman ended up in a ditch, but not why she started her solitary journey. The film's main concern is the reaction of people to the drifter, not her psychology. Varda uses other people's memories to construct an image of the drifter. Loneliness is communicated instantly by the sheer fact that this woman is lying alone with no possessions in a small village and no one knows her. If she was a resident she would be recognised and if she was from a family out of town, then surely she would have some belongings with her. It is Varda’s intention to portray this tragic image of isolation. The structure of the film is supported by the way in which the story develops, i.e. through a series of interviews and documentary type monologues. From the outset, Varda establishes that she is using the accounts of witnesses to build a portrait of Mona, but as the film progresses it becomes evident that these interviews reveal more 2005-12-31T03:20:58-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Discussion-of-the-Film-Vagabonde-by-Agnes-Varda-28332.aspx Revolution The Movie - Revolution Essay At first we meet Tom and his son who are 2005-12-30T18:58:40-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Revolution-The-Movie-Revolution-Essay-28316.aspx The King of Argos, Acrisius, has his daughter, Danae, and her baby, Perseus, sealed in a wooden vessel and cast into the sea. Zeus is outraged and orders Poseidon to release the Kraken. Meanwhile Thetis informs the gods that Zeus is Persus’s father. The Kraken causes tidal waves that destroy Argos. At the same time, Zeus has Danae and her baby land safely at Seraphos, where Perseus grows to manhood. Zeus brags about his son, while Thetis begs mercy for her own child, Calibos, whom Zeus inflicted with a deformity in punishment for his crimes. Calibos’s fate of his proposed marriage to the Princess Andromeda of Joppa is called off. Zeus rejects Thetis’s plea for mercy on Calibos. In revenge, Thetis takes Perseus from his island and casts him into Phoenicia. Perseus awakes in an amphitheatre, where he meets poet and playwright, Ammon. Worried about Perseus’s fate, Zeus orders the goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera to provide him with a helmet, sword, and shield. When Perseus finds these magical gifts, Zeus appears to him in the shield, telling him he must find and fulfill his destiny. Perseus travels to the city of Joppa, where a man is being burnt at the stake. A soldier explains that a curse has been placed on the city since the betrothal of Calibos and Andromeda was broken off. Any man may for Andromeda’ hand in marriage, but to gain it, he must answer a riddle; if he fails, he dies. That night, Perseus uses his helmet, which makes him invisible, and enters the palace to find Andromeda sleeping in her room. As he gazes at Andromeda, Perseus is immediately love-struck by her beauty. At that moment, a giant vulture carrying a golden cage lands on the balcony. As Perseus watches, Andromeda’s spirit leaves her body and enters the cage. The vulture flies away with it. Perseus tells Ammon about his adventure in Joppa. Ammon tells him there is only one way he could follow the vulture : Pegasus. The two men hide by a pond where Pegasus comes to drink. Perseus captures the horse, mounting it and eventually taming it. The next time the vulture carries away Andromeda’s spirit, Perseus follows to swamplands of Calibos. There, invisible, Perseus sees the Calibos begging for Andromeda’s love. When she rejects him, Calibos forces her to learn a new riddle for her next suitor. As Andromeda’s spirit 2005-11-13T14:20:09-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Clash-of-the-Titans-28106.aspx Does The Matrix Offer An Ultimately Utopian Or Dystopian View Of Information-technology? The Matrix is a postmodern film about life in the year 2199. The word matrix in terms of computers is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “an interconnected array of diodes, cores, or other circuit elements that has a number of inputs and outputs and somewhat resembles a lattice or grid in its circuit design or physical construction”¹. The film questions whether or not we live in reality or we live in a virtual world. The film claims that we (the human race) live inside our minds and that we are actually plugged into a computer programme in which we believe we are experiencing reality. The film is based on the idea that artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over the world and that there was a war between the humans and the computers. During the war the humans “scorched the sky” as they thought that the computers would not survive without solar power, however the computers discovered that humans are like batteries and they would provide enough energy to support them. This led to humans being ‘farmed’ by the computers to provide energy. The main character in the film, Neo, is freed from the womb-like capsule his body lives in, by Morpheus who believes that Neo is ‘the one’ who will free the human race. The film is about information-technology and what can happen if it goes wrong. Because of the amount if information-technology in the film, it links in to postmodernity and the film offers a very postmodern view of the world and our society, especially in the west. Postmodernity is a complex theory that questions whether or not something even exists, “our reality is little more than a consensual hallucination” (William Gibson). Postmodernism is a term that describes the age after the social and technological upheaval of modernism. Information-technology and the media dominate the post-modern world. Information-technology, the Internet, MTV, virtual reality, genetically modified crops, Disneyland, QVC, and The Matrix can all be considered as symptoms of postmodernity. Modernity was a period of change during the early 1900s. During this time everything seemed new. Cinema was becoming more and more popular and also industry and art was changing a dramatic speed, “everywhere life is rushing insanely like a Calvary charge, and it vanishes cinematographically, like trees and silhouettes along a road,” (Octave Mirbeau, 1908). However 2005-09-25T06:31:34-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Utopian-or-Dystopian-View-in-the-Matrix-28031.aspx Movie Opinion on “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” The paper that I am writing about is on the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest with Jack Nicholson. The movie is a good example of Total Institution. In the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest the patients were removed from society and, the Head Nurse made them change the way that they went upon everything they did in life. The movie was also about the way that the hospital was like and how they had barbwires on the fences so the patients weren’t able to leave. Nurse Ratchett also had the patients on a tight schedule that was the same everyday and she felt that it shouldn’t be changed no matter what. C.H. Cooley’s “looking glass self” was a theory that described the way that the patients learned things about themselves and how to interact with the Head Nurse. The patients imagined that they appeared to be inferior and childish because, of the way that Nurse Ratchett treated them. The way that she did was she had the patients on a certain routine and made them do everything she said. MacMurphy made the patients participate in the activities and talked to them like friends not like little kids. I think that Nurse Ratchett made the patients feel scared about the things that they did because, they didn’t know how she would react. The patients were afraid on what they said because she would punish them if she didn’t like what they said. When MacMurphy was around the patients felt that they could be honest on their responds because, they knew he would give them an honest answer back. The Head Nurse judged the patients as mental deranged people whether her reactions were positive or negative.2 She made sure that the patients were on an appropriate behavior. Which means that the patients had groups so that they can talk about there problems. The patients also had to do other things for instance, they had to listen to music, they had to vote on the things that they wanted to do, they had a schedule and they had a schedule when to eat, sleep, and when to take there medicine. I felt that the conformity was the pattern of interaction that describes the 2005-09-14T00:16:44-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Movie-Opinion-on-One-Flew-Over-The-Cuckoo’s-Nest-27968.aspx How To Write A Screenplay Syd Field has been know in the world of movies for many years. In 1979 he wrote a book named "Screenplay : The foundations of Screenwriting". The book is a step-by-step guide for people who want to write screenplays or people who want to improve there skills. I'm one of those people who want to write screenlays and thats why I read this book, I wanted answers to questions like : "How do I build my character?", "What is a subject?", "What combines begin, middle and the end?" and many other questions. The first thing you need when you write a screenplay is a character. After Syd introduces what a screenplay is there comes a long chapter about building a character. Syd recomends people who have a story to build the character first, then to start write. People who have no story should build the character first, in the continuation of that comes the story. Charater is built by asking yourself questions. What are his parents like?, what do they do?, how old is the character? and so on. The writer has to ask himself questions to make the characters attitude, personality and behaviour. This is very important because if you don't do it you don't know how he would react in different situations. Out of the character comes the storyline, if the writer hasn't yet determined it and format the character for it. The storyline is also very important. If you don't have anything to say you don't say it, if you have nothing to write about you don't write. The storyline is the action that happends to the character. Syd recommends writing the ending first, then the beginning and then you can write the middle. But why is that? If you do know what happends in the end, you can set up the story to fit that end. If you set up the story first the ending becomes a bungle and it doesn't work out. Films also have so-called plot points. The plot points combine the beginning to the middle and the middle to the end. The plot points move the story forward, some discovery trow the story to the next level so it can move forward. "All drama is conflict. Without conflict you have no character; without character, you have no action; without action, you have no story; and without story, 2005-09-05T20:09:00-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/How-To-Write-A-Screenplay-27886.aspx Commentary on Dances with Wolves Dances with Wolves was produced and directed by Kevin Costner. It was adapted for the screen by Michael Blake who also wrote the novel upon which the film is based. Plot Summary Dances with Wolves is the story of Lt. Dunbar, whose exploration of the Western frontier becomes mirrored in a search for his own identity. The film is shot as a narrative in continuous development, with Dunbar providing a voice-over narrative in the guise of journal entries. It begins dramatically with the badly wounded Dunbar who would rather choose death than allow the amputation of his foot. He charges the Confederate lines and so, unwittingly, becomes a hero. Allowed to choose his posting, Dinbar opts for the frontier. His increasing loneliness drives him to seek solace with the neighbouring Indian tribe. Gradually he is accepted as a member of the tribe, which in the America of the Civil War (1861-64) is seen as desertion. In order to spare the tribe any more retribution from the army, he leaves with his wife, Stands with a Fist, for the wilderness. Comment Dances with Wolves is a film concerned with cultures in collision. To this is added the extra dimension of the inner search for Lt. Dunbar's self that is mirrored in his external search for the frontier, that mythic place of freedom, peace, escape from tyranny and harmony with the land. Because of these collisions the film tends towards a greater questioning of its subject matter than a lot of run-of-the-mill westerns. Viewers are forced to call into question the traditional stories of the West and its notions of heroic white settlers bravely conquering the land of hostile Indians. Instead they must deal with a film representation in which the settler is the enemy both of the Indian and, to judge from Dunbar, of himself and of the land. However, this rewriting of history is not without its problems. The film takes so much refuge in the little-boy purity of heart, glowing na&veté and generosity of spirit of Dunbar that it actually absolves the audience from applying to itself any responsibility for its historical relationship with the Indians. We tend to identify ourselves with Dunbar and not with the ravaging whites stripping the Indians of their land. We know who made the mistakes, but it wasn't us. Nonetheless the film does well in establishing the humanity of the Indians, their depth of culture (it 2005-08-25T06:19:45-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Commentary-on-Dances-with-Wolves-27769.aspx Seven Years in Tibet is a non-fiction drama film about an Australian climber, Heinrich Harrier, who sets out to climb Nanya Parbat; the ninth highest peak in the world. The movie starts out in nineteen thirty-nine and concludes with the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Harrier leaves behind his wife who is seven months pregnant to achieve glory. He winds up being captured and imprisoned in a POW (Prisoner of War) camp until Harrier and his fellow climber Peter Aufschnaiter escape. They travel to Tibet where they then proceed to the Holy city of Lhasa. The director/producer Jean-Jaques Annuad does an excellent job portraying the cultural landscapes of Lhasa. It is in Lhasa where Harrier and the Dalai Lama learn about each other’s cultures’ through contact with each other. Throughout this movie many stereotypes and radicalized identities are presented as we see the fluidity of Harrier’s cultural identity. Stereotypes and radicalized identities are formed by exaggerating certain traits, then simplifying them (Hall 258). Thus Hall defines a stereotyped person or group as “reduced to few essentials, fixed in Nature by a few, simplified characteristics” (Hall 258). A group in power, most probably a Western society or culture, will create these stereotypes or radicalized identities of a subordinate group, most likely a non-western society or culture. Hall points this out as “binary opposition” or “the powerful opposition between civilization and savagery” Hall 243). Seven Years in Tibet is overflowing with stereotypes and radicalized identities of both Europeans and Asians. At the center of this movie is the stereotype of German pride. The reason the group is going to climb Nanya Parbat is because the previous four attempts failed, killing eleven climbers. Harrier, the character played by Brad Pitt says: “it’s a national obsession, it’s a matter of national pride.” The German Stereotype of national pride and order is taken even further when Harrier interests the guard escorting him out of Tibet in German boots. He simplifies how the German soldier marches, then shows him how a German soldier runs. On a Macro scale Harrier is personifying German ingenuity and a German unwillingness to give up. He does this by insisting that the guard wear his boots. He does this so the guard can’t run after them when they escape for the fourth time (German persistence). While Harrier is not actually German (He is Austrian) he is perceived by the people 2005-08-21T06:23:39-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Seven-Years-in-Tibet-a-Non-fiction-Drama-Film-27754.aspx Singing in the Rain Review and Summary The hit musical "Singin' in the Rain" may possibly be one of if not the greatest musicals of all time. With it's tale of the film world of the mid 1920's and its creative underlining love story between Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), it provokes the interest of someone who would not generally be attracted to a musical. It is a classic masterpiece that set the standards that musical films of today will be judged by. It is a classic performance by the great Gene Kelly and displays outstanding performances by Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. As well as starring in this brilliant movie, Gene Kelly teams up with Stanley Donen to make their mark in film history. In my opinion, what set the stage for the level of entertainment that this movie contains is the opening scene. The opening scene set the role of sarcasm in the movie and gave the movie an immediate sense of humor. Four individual parts of movie making come together in this film to create a dynamic opening sequence. The basic principles of sound, editing, mise en scene, and cinematography collectively give this opening sequence a memorable quality that is without match. The opening of Singin' in the Rain takes place at the opening of the new movie "The Royal Rascal" starring Don Lockwood and Lena Lamont. There are famous people all around and their fans are loving every second of it. The fans' faces are full of joy and awe as their favorite actors and actresses enter the large building that will soon be showing the new movie. Soon, the two people that everyone in Hollywood is dying to see, appear in their stretched Rolls Royce and bring the crowd to its feet. As Lockwood and Lamont exit their luxurious ride they are received lovingly by everyone. They walk to the front of the building and are introduced to the crowd. Then the question is posed to Mr. Lockwood, "How did it all begin?" The answering of this question is what my paper will explain. I will attempt to break down the opening scene and show how it all started. By using tools of film such as sound, editing, mise en scene, and cinematography, this paper will show how the scene was made as well. Mise en scene played an important 2005-08-15T09:03:03-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Singing-in-the-Rain-Musical-Review-and-Summary-27691.aspx Research Paper on the Camera Obscura, What is a Camera Obscura also known as a pinhole camera?Camera Obscura, May 28, 1997. Camera Obscura (Latin for a dark room) is a dark box or room with a hole in one end. If the hole is small enough, an inverted image can be seen on the opposite wall. This phenomenon was known by thinkers as early as Aristotle (ca. 300 BC)1. Many sources state that Roger Bacon invented Camera Obscura just before the year 1300. More accurately, Bacon popularized Camera Obscura, using it to view solar eclipses. The earliest record of the uses of a Camera Obscura can be found in the writings of Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)2. At about the same time, Daniel Barbaro, a Venetian, recommended the Camera Obscura as an aid to drawing and perspective. He wrote: "Close all shutters and doors until no light enters the camera except through the lense, and opposite hold a piece of paper, which you move forward and backward until the scene appears in the sharpest detail. There on the paper you will see the whole view as it really is, with its distances, its colors and shadows and motion, the clouds, the water twinkling, the birds flying. By holding the paper steady you can trace the whole perspective with a pen, shade it and delicately color it from nature."3 In the mid sixteenth century, Giovanni Battista della Porta (1538-1615) published what is believed to be the first account of the possibility of using Camera Obscura as an aid to drawing. It is said that he made a huge "camera" in which he seated his guests, having arranged for a group of actors to perform outside so that the visitors could observe the images on the wall. The story goes, however, that the sight of the up side down performing actors was too much for the visitors; they panicked and fled, and Battista was later brought to court on a charge of sorcery.4 Few artists ever admitted to using a Camera Obscura to aid in their artistry. Perhaps this is because of the Camera Obscura's link to the occult, or because the artists felt in some way that their artistry was lessened. Several artists are said to have used them; these include Canaletto (1697-1768), Vermeer (1632-1675), Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), and Paul Sandby (1725-1809)5. Though some, including Joshua Reynolds, warned "against the indiscriminate use of the Camera Obscura," 2005-08-15T08:50:38-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Research-Paper-on-the-Camera-Obscura-27683.aspx El Mariachi Film - Finding A Way Robert Rodriguez made his film El Mariachi with a borrowed 16mm camera and a cassette recorder with a Radio Shack microphone. Shot for about $7000 (mostly for film stock and processing), it was acquired by Columbia Pictures, won the audience award for best dramatic film at Sundance, and was exhibited in movie theaters worldwide. The Celebration (aka Festen) was a production that took a consciously unorthodox approach to filmmaking. Shot with an ordinary 2005-08-01T02:14:03-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/El-Mariachi-Film-Finding-A-Way-27478.aspx Last Of The Mohicans - Hawkey Romantic Hero In the movie “Last of the Mohicans” the character Hawkeye displays many characteristics that make him an American romantic hero. Throughout the entire movie he displays these characteristics. The most prominent of these being his closeness with nature. His sense of honor based not on society’s rules but on some higher principal, his knowledge of people and of life based on deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning, and his quests for some higher truth in the natural world. The hero, Hawkeye portrays his closeness with nature as his most prominent advantage. On his quest to help other people, he exemplifies his sense of honor in his search for a higher truth in the natural world. He first shows this during the movie when he and his friend chase down a deer in the forest and kill it. The deer is obviously faster and more agile than a human is, but Hawkeye still manages to conquer it. After the kill, Hawkeye and his Indian friends thank the deer and acknowledge the deer’s strength and agility. He has a moment to honor the deer because in his mind the animal is equal to himself. This shows Hawkeye’s sense of honor based not on society’s rules but on some higher principal. He shows this characteristic many times throughout the movie. When the Colonial Americans want to leave Monroe’s fort, Hawkeye helps them because they are his friends and he believes that it is the right thing to do no matter what the cost. The English arrest him for this and contain him. When they come under attack by the Huron Indians, Hawkeye fights them and saves his new love, Cora. He does not display his love for Cora at first because Officer Duncan is in love with her and plans to be wed to her as soon as they return to England. Hawkeye honors Duncan so he does not show his love for her. When the Huron capture Cora and Officer Duncan, Hawkeye offers himself in place of his friends. By doing this he places others lives in front of his own life. Officer Duncan stays in order to release Cora. The Huron Indians begin to burn him alive. Hawkeye runs back into the wilderness where his party is 2005-07-25T06:47:48-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Last-Of-The-Mohicans-Hawkey-is-a-Romantic-Hero-27373.aspx American X - Review American History X'' shows how two Los Angeles brothers are drawn into a neo-Nazi skinhead gang, and why one decides to free himself. In telling their stories, the film employs the language of racism--the gutter variety and more sophisticated variations. The film is always interesting and sometimes compelling, and it contains more actual provocative thought than any American film on race since ``Do the Right Thing.'' But in trying to resolve the events of four years in one day, it leaves its shortcuts showing. The film stars Edward Norton as Derek, a bright kid who has become the leader of a skinhead pack in Venice Beach, Calif.; he's the lieutenant of a shadowy adult neo-Nazi (Stacy Keach). One night two black kids attempt to steal Derek's car, as the result of a playground feud, and he shoots them dead. He's convicted of murder and sent to prison for three years. His kid brother Danny (Edward Furlong) idolizes him, and to some degree steps into his shoes--although he lacks Derek's intelligence and gift for rabble-rousing rhetoric. Then Derek gets out of prison and tries to find a new direction for himself and Danny. Their backdrop is a family that consists of a chronically sick mother (Beverly D'Angelo) and two sisters. Their father, a fireman, was shot and killed by black addicts while fighting a fire in a crack house in a black neighborhood. On a TV news show, the grief-stricken Derek blames his father's death on a laundry list of far-right targets. Later we learn it wasn't just his father's death that shaped him, but his father's dinner table conversation; his father tutors him in racism, but the scene feels like tacked-on motivation, and the movie never convincingly charts Derek's path to race hatred. The scariest and most convincing scenes are the ones in which we see the skinheads bonding. They're led by Derek's brilliant speechmaking and fueled by drugs, beer, tattoos, heavy metal and the need all insecure people feel to belong to a movement greater than themselves. It is assumed in their world (the beaches and playgrounds of the Venice area of L.A.) that all races stick together and are at undeclared war with all others. Indeed the race hatred of the skinheads is mirrored (with different words and haircuts) by the other local ethnic groups. Hostile tribalism is an epidemic here. The film, written 2005-07-10T00:40:37-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/American-X-Review-27267.aspx Vanessa Ewing - Feminism In Mainstream Hollywood Cinema Mainstream Hollywood cinema has for decades represented an erotic realm by using language and images of our patriarchal culture. It has satisfied and reinforced the masculine ego and repressed the desire of women. Feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey's essay, 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' published in 1975 has proved to be one of the most influential articles in the whole of contemporary film theory. Mulvey's essay is heavily invested in theory. The essay makes use of Freudian psychoanalytic theory (in a version influenced by Jacques Lacan) to not only highlight sexual differences and pleasures within cinema but to discover the patterns of fascination that have moulded us. She used it to ground her account of gendered subjectivity, desire, and visual pleasure. Mulvey has used psychoanalysis as a political weapon to uncover the ways in which patriarchal society has structured the sexual subject within cinema. It is citied as "the founding document in feminist film theory" (Modleski 1989), as providing "the theoretical grounds for the rejection of Hollywood and its pleasures" (Penley 1988), and even as setting out feminist film theory's "axioms" (Silverman, quoted in Byars 1991). (1) In this essay in intend to briefly summarise Mulvey's essay and highlight what I consider to be her key themes and how they relate to psychoanalytic theory and perspectives of feminism criticism. In the second half of this essay I will apply these main themes from Mulvey's essay to Michael Powell's 1960 classic horror film, "Peeping Tom". Mulvey begins her essay by saying that the patriarchal society is a phallocentric society. I believe this means that it recognises the male gender and the sexuality of men as the hegemonic norm. However, phallocentrism depends, in Freudian terms, on the image of the castrated woman. This image gives some sort of order to the world that the male dominated conception of society, suggests a masculine subject is at the core of all social interchanges. Since the woman represents the absence of a penis, ('lack' of phallus) she highlights the fear of castration. This is important for the foundation of the male subject. Women are second-class citizens, allowed only to participate in the male 'symbolic order' through having a child that is nurtured to accept the 'symbolic' norm. One of Mulvey's first key themes is to do with the 'cinema' offering a number of sensual pleasures. She notes that Freud had referred 2005-07-04T22:06:03-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Vanessa-Ewing-Feminism-In-Mainstream-Hollywood-Cinema-27252.aspx The movie, Good Morning Vietnam, takes place in South Vietnam where Adrian Cronauer, played by Robin Williams, is stationed as a DJ while the Vietnam War is going on. When Cronauer first comes into Vietnam it is still just a police action but throughout the movie you can see the problems unravel and the war escalates. In the early sixties the war was just seen by everyone as a police action and will be over soon and everyone will come home. As Cronauer states, “the war is not just being fought in the hills”. It was moving down into the streets of the cities. Good Morning Vietnam portrays how the war escalated and how easy it was to get involved. An important scene in the movie showed how the war was growing. When Adrian Cronauer was asked to leave by Tuan (Cronauer’s friend and also a VC bomber) and a few seconds later the bar is blown up, the scene was inside the city. This shows and proves that the war was moving down into the city streets. This was an indication that the idea that this was going to be finished quickly, a view that many in the United States had, was wrong. The United States was losing control of the war and they were not expecting that and were not ready for it. In reality this is what was really happening and people were seeing it on television and started to protest against the war. With the burning of draft cards, demonstrations and riots, the turbulent sixties became marked by civil unrest. In the movie, close to the end, there were segments that showed some actual scenes from the war. When these pictures were shown on the nightly news and the American people saw them, they had every right to be upset. To some people they were seeing their children dying and they didn’t know for what they were dying for. They began to question what their government was telling them. The millions that were against the war used this distrust to question other “truths” that they had been told, including the use of illegal drugs. The idea that that the government might be lying about one thing made some people ask if it was lying about everything. This distrust turned the sixties into a time of 2005-06-21T03:18:35-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Good-Morning-Vietnam-Film-Review-27052.aspx Harold & Maude – Freedom This movie is a story about freedom. It delves into the depths of the spiritual side of freedom, and levels off into the more tangible realm of concrete freedoms. It also has a deal of social commentary, and a hinting outlook on a different type of morality. This film brings all these aspects together, along with a great deal of humor, to try to put across a point. The point of this movie is, be free with yourself, to try to show a little humor, and to poke fun at some of the things in our society that needs poking. The main point of the film is freedom, both spiritual and concrete. Maude is the embodiment of these freedoms in the movie. She shows this by being very free with others property, not letting anything get in her way once she sets about to do something, and by doing that which makes her happy. The way in which Maude is free with other’s property, usually cars, is her way of telling people that they do not have a hold on things, that it is best to love it while it is there for it may not be tomorrow. She also uses this in order to make herself happy, by trying a variety of different cars, each different, in order to see how each feels and how each handles itself. Maude’s attitude of letting nothing stand in her way is best illustrated by the tree that she transplants. She cannot stand to see the poor thing suffocating from the pollution and starving from lack of sunlight. She feels it necessary to liberate it, to take it where it may grow. She and Harold go about this. She will not let anything stop her, not a lack of tools, not the police, nothing. She accomplishes her goal, and does it well. This point is also well illustrated by Maude’s help in getting Harold out of being drafted. She aided him in this endeavor and they succeeded well. Her final triumph of freedom is the choice she has made of ending her life. She desires to end her life at the age of 80, the time she feels it would be best for her to go. This above all other things demonstrates 2005-06-21T03:07:21-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Harold-amp-Maude-Freedom-27048.aspx Review of Great Expecations Movie (versus Book) "I'm not going to tell this story the way it happened. I'm going to tell it the way I remember it." This is how Finn, Ethan Hawke, introduces the movie based on Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. “Great Expectations” updates Charles Dickens' novel by setting it in modern times instead of the 1810s to the 1830s. It changes the story from rural England and London to the Florida and New York City. The movie follows the romance of two people Finn and Estella (played by, Gwyneth Paltrow) from childhood to adulthood. "Great Expectations" is a story about how love can separate a person from the people who love him best, and from his own best instincts. Finn rejects the honest and simple man, Joe (played by, Chris Cooper), who raises him. He calls up every conflict people ever feel between desiring for the larger world and wishing to remain loyal to the smaller one they come from. “Great Expectations” is a story that the public can relate to because at some point, everyone goes through the struggles that Finn must battle. It shows that possessions and wealth do not change who people are inside, and that finding one’s self can be a long process. What stands out in Great Expectations, even more than the wonderful performances, is the picture making. The camera moves in sensuous ways making the movie seem ravishing. The movie begins in a quiet Florida fishing village in the ‘70s. Finn Bell is a ten year-old orphan boy who lives with his sister (who runs off one night and is never seen from again) and her boyfriend, Joe. One afternoon, while drawing the fish in the shallow Gulf waters, an escaped convict, Lustig (played by Robert DeNiro), rises out of the water grabs the boy and scares him into bringing food and tools to help him break out of his shackles. Finn shows Lustig kindness, an act that is not forgotten, even after they make their separate ways. Even though Finn was scared of Lustig and could of report him or not help him at all, he chose to be very nice and not only he did not tell on him but also brought him painkillers and alcohol. I think Lustig knew that Finn was scared of him and would probably do what he was told but he was somewhat surprised and 2005-06-17T09:21:10-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Review-of-Great-Expecations-Movie-versus-the-book-26899.aspx Cinematic Techniques in the Film The 400 Blows The extraordinary film The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) skillfully uses cinematic devices appropriately within the context of the theme. Part of the underlying theme of this movie as explained by Truffaut himself is, "... to portray a child as honestly as possible..."(Writing About Film, 1982). It is the scenes in this movie that are most helpful in disclosing the overall theme of the film. Within the scenes, the camera angles in this film play an important role in accentuating the emotions behind the scene. The camera angles used in this film will be the primary focus of this paper. The high angle shots utilized in The 400 Blows are effective in helping to develop the overall feel of a scene. This movie uses the high angle shot in three different scenes to evoke three different emotions and it still works extremely well. The opening sequence uses a series of high angle shots to assist in establishing a feeling of childhood innocence and indeed, the child in this film, Antoine Dionel (Jeanne-Pierre Leaud), starts out innocent. The camera focuses of the city buildings and the sky above. As shown from a ground point of view, the buildings are larger than life and intimidating. This is how most children view the world, as being large and intimidating. Take, for example, the scenario of dropping a child off for his/her first day of school. Most of them are devastated because they have to deal with a world that is larger than the one they know, and that is intimidating. The sky is vast and innocent, symbolizing a child's mind. Children have incredible imaginations and are also innocent by nature. There is a definite correlation here between the angle selected and the sense of childhood innocence. However, this particular camera angle does not always hold the same meaning in every shot. A latter high angle shot involves the elementary school teacher. Mr. Bigey (Georges Flamant), the teacher, is first demonstrated in this film by using a high angle close-up. This angle presents the teacher as a figure of authority and rule. Furthermore it establishes a feeling control. Humans are most likely to look up to, figuratively speaking, figures of authority and control. As to follow with the storyline, the teacher 2005-05-15T01:58:14-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Cinematic-Techniques-in-the-Film-The-400-Blows-26605.aspx Monster By Nicholas Pasquesi This is a film based on the true story of Aileen Carol Wuornos, a prostitute who was sentenced to death by the state of Florida after killing seven men in the early 1980’s. Although probably biased, the story forces the audience to relate and actually sympathize for Wuornos and her decision to take justice into her own hands. Oscar winner Charlize Theron shocks the audience both with her appearance and her performance. This film, primarily Charlize Theron, has received quite a bit of attention lately. For starters, Charlize has just recently won the Academy Award for best actress for her performance in this film. Rightfully so I should add. Apart from putting on a few pounds and withstanding hours in the makeup room in order for her to be transformed into an ugly beast, Theron portrayed Wuornos flawlessly. But even more astonishing is the fact that this movie is successful in getting the audience to muster up some sympathy for the serial killer. In fact, at the end of this film I was more convinced in my opposition to capital punishment than I was after seeing The Life of David Gale (another must see). To be honest, I saw this film after reading many reviews about how great Charlize was in this movie. Specifically, how much she had to transform herself into this Wuornos person by shaving off her eyebrows, gaining weight, wearing dentures, and undergoing countless makeup maneuvers. I was really skeptical going into the theater. I was convinced that I would discover Theron was simply given a good makeover and that her character was just latching onto a special effect. I was definitely wrong. Theron’s character (Wuronos) is very well developed. The film starts well in advance to the murders and provides the audience with sufficient background to ‘understand’ Wuronos’s life as a prostitute. The story initiates on the night she was planning to kill herself when she happens to run into a lonely and impassioned…(played by Christina Ricci). The two instantly form a sort of chemistry and the story goes from there. Like I mentioned before, Wuornos is a serial killer. However impartial it is, the scene of Wuronos getting violently raped in the front seat of a car is by far the most harrowing. In fact the other 2005-04-17T18:00:31-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Analysis-on-Monster-26507.aspx In life, everyone must make choices. Choices give an individual the freedom to decide upon the path to which they will follow. Since it’s beginnings, the film making industry has focused on showing the direct relationship between the choices that people make and the resulting consequences they must face. In the movie American Beauty, the character of Lester Burnham must make many important choices that could either lead to his ultimate happiness, or draw him further into his despair. In the movie American Beauty, it is evident that Lester Burnham is in a state of despair. Lester’s dull and monotonous voice introduces the audience to his daily routine of life. When Lester declares plain and simply, “This is my neighborhood, this is my street, this is my life,” he exposes the lifelessness and unhappiness to which he has become accustomed. The hopeless tone that Lester has set continues when he cynically comments, “jerking off in the shower will be the high point of my day.” He realizes his family life is no better when he becomes aware that both his disdainful wife and his troubled daughter consider him “a gigantic loser.” It is easy to recognize and understand Lester’s disheartenment through analysis and symbolic car scene. In this scene, Lester sits slouched down in the back seat with a look of emptiness while his daughter Jane sits up front, next to his wife Caroline who is driving the car. The symbolism is shown through Carolyn driving the car, as she drives the family (especially Lester). She has evolved into the decision-maker, and leader of the Burnham family. Sitting in the backseat, Lester avoids further conflict with his wife, leading him to become an even unhappier and more desperate person. It is understandable why Lester feels like a sedated visitor in his own life. It is also easy to empathize with Lester when he states that he feels “in many ways already dead.” For Lester, his life at work is nothing better than his life at home. After fourteen years on the job, Lester is asked by an efficiency expert at work to write a memo justifying his position. This requires making the first of several choices, which will ultimately affect his future happiness. Should he justify his job and continue to provide for his family or choose freedom and a new life? To answer this question the audience must examine 2005-03-11T06:40:50-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/American-Beauty-The-American-Tragedy-26364.aspx “The Truman Show” is a profoundly disturbing movie. On the surface, it deals with the worn out issue of the intermingling of life and the media. Examples for such incestuous relationships abound: Ronald Reagan, the cinematic president was also a presidential movie star. In another movie (“The Philadelphia Experiment”) a defrosted Rip Van Winkle exclaims upon seeing Reagan on television (40 years after his forced hibernation started): “I know this guy, he used to play Cowboys in the movies”. Candid cameras monitor the lives of webmasters (website owners) almost 24 hours a day. The resulting images are continuously posted on the Web and are available to anyone with a computer. The last decade witnessed a spate of films, all concerned with the confusion between life and the imitations of life, the media. The ingenious “Capitan Fracasse”, “Capricorn One”, “Sliver”, “Wag the Dog” and many lesser films have all tried to tackle this (un)fortunate state of things and its moral and practical implications. The blurring line between life and its representation in the arts is arguably the main theme of “The Truman Show”. The hero, Truman, lives in an artificial world, constructed especially for him. He was born and raised there. He knows no other place. The people around him – unbeknownst to him – are all actors. His life is monitored by 5000 cameras and broadcast live to the world, 24 hours a day, every day. He is spontaneous and funny because he is unaware of the monstrosity of which he is the main cogwheel. But Peter Weir, the movie’s director, takes this issue one step further by perpetrating a massive act of immorality on screen. Truman is lied to, cheated, deprived of his ability to make choices, controlled and manipulated by sinister, half-mad Shylocks. As I said, he is unwittingly the only spontaneous, non-scripted, “actor” in the on-going soaper of his own life. All the other figures in his life, including his parents, are actors. Hundreds of millions of viewers and voyeurs plug in to take a peep, to intrude upon what Truman innocently and honestly believes to be his privacy. They are shown responding to various dramatic or anti-climactic events in Truman’s life. That we are the moral equivalent of these viewers-voyeurs, accomplices to the same crimes, comes as a shocking realization to us. We are (live) viewers and they are (celluloid) viewers. We both enjoy Truman’s inadvertent, 2005-03-11T06:39:17-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Truman-Show--26363.aspx Movies are wonderful things; they can inspire, spark debate, and even make you believe in what you are seeing. Virtual Reality is a creation of a highly interactive computer-based multimedia environment in which the user becomes a participant with the computer in a "virtually real" world. Movies and virtual reality can do the same thing: make you believe what is presented to you. Although there are several movies which use virtual reality in the plot, such as The Lawnmower Man, and Hackers, the one most prevalent to me is The Matrix. Although this movie contains many aspects of virtual reality, it stands out in my mind so much because it suggests that the world in which we live, is a virtual one. The Matrix has many different aspects of virtual reality and they are incorporated throughout the movie. Virtual reality is involved in this movie in one major way: it suggests that our world is merely a virtual reality program that was created in order to “control” humans and keep them from the “real world,” which has been taken over by artificial intelligence who harvest humans for power. The main character in the movie is Gary Anderson, affectionately known to the hacker-world as Neo. He is contacted by people who have escaped the Matrix, and through a series of adventures, joins them. At one point in the movie, Neo goes to a psychic to find out if he is the one person who can save the rest of us from the Matrix. While waiting to see the psychic, Neo encounters a boy, there for the same reason, bending spoons without touching them. He watches and asks how he does it. The boy responds in a typical virtual reality response, “concentrate not on the spoon itself, but that there is no spoon.” That is how virtual reality works: you can interact with everything in the virtual world, but it’s not really there. Everytime Neo enters the Matrix, a plug is inserted into the back of his head and he is hooked up to machines. Virtual Reality also uses such equipment. Granted, it is not as drastic as having a probe thrust into the back of your head, but there is special equipment needed such as helmets, gloves, and eyephones. The glove is made of thin Lycra and is fitted with sensors that monitor finger flexion, extension, hand position and orientation. It 2005-03-11T06:37:03-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Matrix-Finding-Reality-in-The-Matrix-26362.aspx Life is Beautiful Roberto Benigni's moving film, Life is Beautiful, is a film that is set in a concentration camp and combines comedy with the seriousness of the extermination of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Benigni's task in making this film was significant, by taking a tremendous risk, making a "comedy about the holocaust," and the fact that he pulled it off so well, despite the expected controversy it has aroused in some, is downright miraculous. The film's plot structure can be divided into two parts. The first half of Life is Beautiful is basically a slapstick comedy. It tells of two friends who move to "the city" (in Italy) and we follow Guido (played by Benigni) as he falls in love with a schoolteacher (played by Benigni's real wife, Nicoletta Braschi.) This takes place in pre World War II Italy, and the fascists are in rule. When he finally succeeds in wooing the schoolteacher and marrying her, the film jumps forward to the mid 1940's, when the war is in full swing. The racism shown toward Benigni, who was a Jew, becomes more apparent. Benigni gets himself into hot water with big bullying authority figures and uses slapstick comedy to get his point across. He is then shipped to a concentration camp in Germany. There, Benigni invents an elaborate ploy to hide the truth of what is really going on from his son. He tells him that it is all a big game, and whoever is first to get 1000 points will win a real tank. Anything that threatens to break in on this fantasy is explained away as just part of the game. The movie is an attempt to keep the reality of the situation from his son; but equally important is the way he builds up the horror of the camp and then breaks the spell with a comic moment. We see from the beginning that Benigni does not hold authority in high regard. He ridicules these people repeatedly in the first half of the film. In the beginning Benigni is mistaken for the king of Italy as he and his friend's car loses control and accidentally ends up in a parade. He is constantly switching hats (i.e. switching roles or identities) with a fascist employer of his. When the priest is to arrive from Rome, Benigni assumes his identity and winds up going to a local school where he 2005-02-20T06:21:48-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Life-is-Beautiful-a-Robert-Benigni-Film-26279.aspx The Truth Uncovered: Disney Heroines Exposed From Cinderella to Ariel, Disney heroines have stolen viewers' hearts and invaded imaginations of young girls waiting for their dreams to come true and Prince Charming to come on his white horse ready to whisk them away to a life of bliss. These perfect characters allow the audience to feel the pain and agony each one faces before she reaches her goal in life, to marry the man of her dreams at the age of 16. Through the entire struggle Disney's animated Barbie dolls have to endure, I see not only pure innocence and stupidity in the lead female role, but I also see the uncontaminated dullness in the lead role alone. Without the villain, the spunk and action of the plot, the movie would be turned into a two-hour nature documentary duplicate. Take Cinderella for one example of absolute stupidity. A young woman named "Cinder girl" has everything; she has good looks, a rich father, a large house, and a strange name. After her father marries a new woman, life is still grand, although her stepmother treats her horribly. Her father dies of a mysterious disease, and she is left under the rule of that wicked stepmother. Looking at the strictness, not cruelty, her stepmother forces upon her, I can only see reasons why Cinderella should be committed to a mental institution, not glorified in a movie. Cinderella is a complainer. She never just starts her morning with a smile before heading off to do chores. No, she has to talk to the birds that may or may not be real at all and break into song. Talking and singing to animals, that usually are pests, is either a sign of either psychic powers, which if Cinderella did have the brain to communicate with animals she would have never been trapped in the tower; or a sign that she is resting on the brink of insanity. As in all Disney movies though, Cinderella must find the man of her dreams, lose him, and find him again despite the fact that she may be slowly going insane. Her immoral stepmother and siblings may have had a reason to despise the girl. She accomplished all her dreams in one day not because of her good nature or strives for excellence, but because of help from a fairy. In other words, Cinderella couldn't do it by 2005-02-20T05:35:20-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Disney-Heroine-Commentary-realistic-depictions-of-women-26275.aspx Queer Monster Cultural norms and dominant ideologies determine the manner by which our culture encodes/decodes images. Encoding is the process by which the creator of a work, through conscious or unconscious means, inserts certain meanings into their work. Encoding also takes into the account the context of the work-where it is displayed and by whom it is seen. Decoding are the interpretations that the viewer comes up with, whether they be "intended, unintended, ...(or) even merely suggested meanings". According to Stuart Hall, this process of interpretation, also called semiotics, can be further broken down into three distinct categories: Dominant-hegemonic reading, negotiated reading and oppositional reading. Dominant-hegemonic reading describes the viewer/decoder as a passive subject, one whose interpretations is in unanimous agreement with the dominant message. The message/image entirely satisfies their socio-cultural experiences and norms. Oppositional reading is the utter rejection of the dominant reading, one where the reader rejects or reconfigures a message entirely. Negotiated reading then is more realistic, taking into account that no one message will unquestionably satisfy all our cultural perceptions and that we therefore engage in a state of 'negotiation'. We accept a part of the dominant reading, but also allow our cultural experiences to transform or "even override the meanings imposed by producers and broader social forces". In this process, the viewer takes on an active role of interpretation, using his/her experiences to decode messages within the context of the society in which he/she lives. The Classic Horror Films were made during the Production Code in 1930, which "forbade...the depiction or mention of homosexuality, or 'sex perversion', as it was classified." Benshoff points out that the Queer Monster immerged during this period and through encoded messages, satirizes the suppression of homosexuality and its stereotypes in popular media. Using Benshoff's 'negotiated' theories, a close examine at the antagonist characters in The Old Dark House suggest peculiar 'queerness' in them. "Normal" people find themselves trapped by a rainstorm in an obscure looking house inhabited by "freaks" and "monsters", all of whom display some form of homosexual trait or another. These "monsters" display traits that can be decoded as "incest, necrophilia, ...homosexuality, androgyny, sadomasochism, and orgiastic behavior" (43 Benshoff). Whereas the dominant/hegemonic-reading audience would unquestionably decode these clues as just pure entertainment, it is easy to see that the campy dark humor in this film was intentionally placed to satirize 2005-02-20T05:21:52-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Queer-Monster-Film-Analysis-26266.aspx Archetypes in The Natural After discovering a God-given talent, a young boy struggles to achieve his only dream; to become the best there ever was. Baseball is all he has ever known, so he prevails through the temptations and situations laid before him by those out to destroy his career. His hopes and dreams outweigh all the temptations along his journey. These hopes, dreams, and temptations are depicted through archetypes in the movie The Natural. An archetype is a universal symbol. It is also a term from the criticism that accepts Jung’s idea of recurring patterns of situation, character, or symbol existing universally and instinctively in the collective unconscious of man. Archetypes come in three categories: images (symbols), characters, and situations. Feelings are provoked about a certain subject by archetypes. The use of the images of water, sunsets, and circles set the scene of the movie. Characters, including the temptress, the devil figure, and the trickster, contribute to the movie’s conflicts that the hero must overcome in order to reach his dream. However, to reach his dream, the hero must also go through many situations such as, the fall, dealing with the unhealable wound, and the task. By using archetypes in the movie, the viewer can obtain more than just the plot and better understand the true theme of the movie: to never give up on dreams. Archetypal imagery in this movie is abundant, but the most obvious and repetitive archetypes are those of water, sunsets, and circles. Prior to Roy Hobb’s, the hero’s, arrival to the major league, the coach, Pop, comments, “Wouldn’t you think I could get a fresh drink of water after all the years that I have been in this game.” At this point in the game, his team is losing miserably and Roy’s arrival only seems to make the situation worse because his first impression is an overage rookie. When Roy finally gets a chance to prove himself as a ball player and does, the water from the fountain begins to taste good. The water changing from bad to good shows a birth for the team. Since water is necessary for growth, it also symbolizes a growth stage for the team from the worst to a competitor. Roy appears to be “the fresh drink of water” that Pop has been wanting. The sunset also emerges into view several times in the movie, archetypally representing death. When Roy is 2005-02-02T03:20:48-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Archetypes-in-the-Movie-The-Natural-26201.aspx American Beauty tells the story of one man's search for happiness. The film introduces the audience to Lester Burnham, an ordinary- looking married man and father in his forties. Lester is in a loveless marriage. Lester's wife, Carolyn, is so wrapped-up in her real estate career that Lester often claims that Carolyn doesn't even acknowledge him. Furthermore, Lester's daughter, Jane, is completely distant, often claiming how "pathetic" she thinks her father is. Moreover, Lester has dedicated fourteen years to his occupation, and suddenly, he is in danger of losing his job due to downsizing. All of these factors dramatically effect Lester and culminate into feelings of desperation and vulnerability for him. Lester is therefore in search of an escape and a rebirth. He is seeking the slightest possibility of happiness. Throughout the story Lester is consistently reminiscing on his past; wishing he could have it back. In the beginning portions of the story, Lester, as the narrator, states that "it is never too late to regain your past." The catalyst to this frame of thought is Jane's friend, Angela. Lester feels excited by the thought that a teen-age girl thinks he is "hot." Lester overhears Angela state that she would have sex with him if Lester would start working-out and build-up his body. This drives Lester to change himself completely. Lester, in desperate search of happiness , finds an escape in Angela. Much like a hormone-driven teenage boy, Lester thinks that if he can "score" with a "bombshell" like Angela, then he will be reborn. Lester's mission for happiness and escape is further perpetuated by his eighteen year old neighbor, Ricky. In Ricky, Lester sees his model for rebirth. Lester calls Ricky his "hero" and is in awe of Ricky's confidence. Lester, then begins a transformation back to his stereotypical understanding of what a teenager is. Lester begins to work-out, smoke pot, and drink beer. Much like a teen, he rebels against responsibility by quitting his job and; therefore, bypassing his duties as a provider to his daughter and wife. Furthermore, Lester spontaneously, trades in his Mercedes automobile for a 1970's cherry-red Trans Am sports car. In addition, Lester pursues a job with the least amount of responsibility. He finds that job in a fast food restaurant. All of these actions are deemed necessary to Lester because this is the way to escape and thus achieving happiness. The first scene 2005-02-02T03:19:45-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/American-Beauty-Film-Analysis-26200.aspx “Faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a locomotive, jumps tall buildings in a single bound.” Superman is known throughout the world for being the savior of a city called Metropolis. In every comic book, movie, or action figure ever presented to the public, Superman is a handsome, strong man who can defeat all odds at all times. The movie Superman was a success, showing how the superhero saved lives and yet lived a humble life. As one watches the movie, though, he might notice the many similarities between the plot of the movie and the story of Christ’s coming. Superman, savior of the city Metropolis, mirrors the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. Throughout the movie Superman, the names and the actions of the characters were similar to those of the Holy Bible. Two of the major name references to the biblical version deal with Superman (Kah-lel) and his father, Jor-el. In the Greek language, the name Jor-el means “God,” while the name Kah-lel means “Little God.” Another instance where the name game is played is in the case of Superman’s parents, Martha and John. It does not seem as if there is any other way to make these names be closer to Mary and Joseph, who are the parents of Christ. Zod and Ursula are two other characters present in the movie whose names may not be similar to those in the Bible, but represent the devil and all that is considered evil. These are some of the examples of how the use of names plays an important role in linking Superman the movie to the coming of Christ. At many times throughout the movie, actions done by the main characters were done along the same lines as the story of Christ’s coming, if not identical as the Bible’s version. At the beginning of the movie, it shows three people standing on trial and a vote that was to be decided by Jor-el. Zod, who was one of two men on trial, told Jor-el to let him go and that he would let Jor-el have reign over the new world, which is also said when the devil is speaking to God and trying to keep himself out of what was to become Hell. One of the strongest points in the movie that showed itself to be on the same path as Christ’s coming was when Jor-el said “the 2005-01-23T06:58:14-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Superman-versus-Christ-Analysis-26174.aspx How has the “American Dream” been translated into popular film? Refer to at least four films. The American Dream is an often mentioned and well-known term used to describe the ideology of the United States of America. Despite the common usage of the term it is not always completely understood and so requires, at least, a brief introduction and definition. P Mueller in his writing Star Trek and the American Dream claims that “…to some the American dream is just "from rags to riches", to others it includes the realization of high flying ideals as old as mankind itself.” Mueller then goes onto say that the term was coined in 1931 by James Truslow Adams and identifies three main roots: mythical aspects (leading back to the ancient dream of a perfect society and as paradise even before the continent was discovered), religious aspects (which Mueller describes as dealing with the puritan vision of a city upon a hill) and political aspects (arising from the declaration of independence and the constitution). It would seem that the most important of these three themes is arguably that of the political nature and various commentators have defined the American Dream in this way. Martin Luther King claimed “It [the American Dream] is found in those majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, words lifted to cosmic proportions: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This is a dream. It’s a great dream.” Jim Bickford concurred with this view within his writing The American Dream: Our Heritage of Hope (in which he goes onto to identify several examples of the American Dream in practice throughout history) when he claimed “America was built on dreams” and went onto to discuss the importance of the declaration of independence in creating the dream by stating “Our ancestors chose to take the risk by putting their lives on the line and fighting for freedom” . In respect to the medium of film it comes as no surprise that the American Dream has filtered itself, both consciously and unconsciously, directly and indirectly, onto the screen. America, and in particular Hollywood, is the dominant producer of film within the world today. Where Hollywood leads other film-making nations follow. The American Dream is largely 2005-01-19T08:26:09-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-American-Dream-as-Presented-in-the-Movies-26161.aspx Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola directed the film Apocalypse Now. Coppola and John Milius wrote the screenplay. The cost to make the film was 31 million dollars. It was released in 1979. The main actors were Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, and Dennis Hopper. Eleanor Coppola describes her husband Francis Coppola's film, "Apocalypse Now," as being "loosely based" on Joseph Conrad's novel called Heart of Darkness. The music opens and closes with "The End" by the doors. Choppers, napalm, explosions, singing "this is the end." Music is used throughout the film to try and explain how a solider often tries to reconnect to his world by music. Besides death, the only other escape in Vietnam was through drugs, alcohol, and music. There were always bombs dropping, babies and women crying, choppers flying, and the sound of Charlie's AK rifles, and mortars firing. If you were walking in the jungle on patrol even a snap of a twig, or movement in the bush, suddenly brought hell to earth. Very few Vietnam veterans can talk about what went on in Vietnam. In Apocalypse Now we have a movie built upon the story off one man's view of his mission. "There is no way to tell his story without telling my own." (Willard) 3350. Captain Willard, played by (Martin Sheen) was given an assignment by the Army to terminate Colonel Kurtz with extreme prejudice. Colonel Kurtz had formed his own army and gone deep into Cambodia fighting the war by his own rules without restraint. Willard is given a crew and boat to travel up river to find Kurtz. This river like a snake takes leads them to Colonel Kurtz. The Army could not stand the idea that one of their best-groomed officers had gone mad. Coppola updated the foreshadowing scene on the boat when they show the newspaper clippings about Charles Manson. But Colonel Kurtz was not the only one gone mad. You have "a hawkish, lunatic, flamboyant Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Kill-Gore) (Robert Duvall), wearing a black horse soldier's Stetson Calvary hat (a la George A. Custer) with a Calvary sword emblem, sunglasses, and a yellow dickey. The idiosyncratic Kilgore places signature cards ("death cards") over the bodies of the civilian (or VC) dead: "Let's Charlie know who did this." After the air attack on a village of VC and children, Willard and his crew of green horns start on 2005-01-06T03:04:43-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Apocalypse-Now-Movie--26126.aspx Technical Production: Lighting Aspect Cinema 200 Marty Lighting Analysis Marty: Analysis on Lighting Aspects Although light may seem trivial, overtly simplistic in terms of cinematic production, it is one of the most powerful tools that a director can use in the advancement of character development and mood. Depending on where light is focused, it may serve as an imaginary "pointer" guiding the audience towards a certain object or person. In contrast it may also serve to block out images that the director doesn't wish to reveal. One film that uses lighting to provide a direct interpretation of symbolism, character development and mood is Marty. The role that light plays within Marty is as important as a role played by an actor because it illustrates Marty's interior emotions as well as his hidden insecurities between his mother and Clara. The fact that Marty is a black and white film also enhances the use of the semblance of light. Throughout the entire film Marty's emotions seem to rollercoaster from peaks to valleys. It seems that at his most happiest moments in life are when he's either interacting with Clara, or at the butcher shop. It's evident that whenever he's with his friends or with his mother, the lighting drops a couple of hues. This is in direct representation of his insecurities and his indifference to those people. Marty's mother and his friends are just there to replace time that he would spend alone. Moreover they control Marty's life and chose girls that he's not really interested in and when shows little interest in their suggestions they either give him a guilt treatment or make fun of him. It seems that he doesn't have a really strong connection to them. Another use of lighting within the film is one specific scene where is friend dumps his date in order to pursue a more attractive girl. While he is telling Marty this, he is standing next to a mirror. The mirror is positioned so that it seems that there are two images of him; one of his real self and the other, a façade of what women perceive him to be. The director takes advantage of this opportunity and directs a strong stream of light focused on the mirror, while dulling the light with the intention of displaying his true 2004-12-23T00:02:07-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Lighting-in-Cinematic-Production-26015.aspx High Fidelity and the Film’s Social Commentary In Society today, men are bombarded with rules regarding behavior and the image of masculinity they must project. Media and pop culture display masculinity without properly defining its boundaries, creating a double standard for men which is both confusing and impossible to live up to. The confusion and doubt that such a double standard causes often has disastrous social implications. Not only does it make men miserable and self-conscious, but in addition it places a stereotype on men that is extremely difficult to overcome. It is also very common in our culture to find literature which labels men and in a negative way. An example of this is The Rules which gives women 'advice' on what to do to catch and keep Mr. Right: 'Don't try to change him because men never really change. You should accept certain flaws or find somebody else.' This leads the reader to assume that the authors have lumped all men together, and that they are all the same and unchanging. When reading High Fidelity however, we find an example of a protagonist who proves this stereotype false. Rob battles society's expectations and his own insecurities while making a huge change from a miserable adolescent 35 year old, to a happy and fulfilled adult adult. The language of the novel allows us to see deep into Rob's thoughts and insecurities and relate them to our own, while the modern setting helps to enforce the middle class ideology that individual change is not only possible, but important and relevant to the men (and women) of today. Throughout the novel, as Rob exhibits signs of his inability ro accept adulthood, we as readers can relate. When he finally takes some initiative and drags himself out of his pit of despair, we realize that if a guy like Rob can do it, we can do it too. In this way, High Fidelity impacts our culture by proving that men can break the stereotype and indeed can change. The statement 'it's not what you're like, but what you like' basically summarizes Rob's views on people in general. Before his change, Rob identifies a judges people solely on their musical taste or lack thereof. In the shop this developes into a type of snobbery, especiall with Rob and Barry who tend to have more outspoken views.. On many occasions they make customers feel 2004-12-22T22:43:17-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/High-Fidelity-and-the-Film’s-Social-Commentary-25997.aspx “Nights of Cabiria” and “La Dolce Vita” left me absolutely stunned, in awe of what I had just witnessed. I found both of these films to be unspeakably beautiful, an in my opinion, the best of the films we’ve seen thus far. Both films are unmistakably Fellini. In “La Dolce Vita”, we are given a glimpse of a filmmaker that has moved far neo-realist roots. While “Nights Of Cabiria” was certainly a departure from neo-realism, (and far less neo-realist than “La Strada”, which was just one picture before this one) it certainly had many more neo-realist elements (the plight of the poor and oppressed) than “La Dolce Vita”. “La Dolce Vita” would introduce us to a world almost never considered before in Fellini’s films, that of the bourgeois, or upper-class. A film following a protagonist from party to party among the rich is practically a slap in the face to the neorealist movement Therefore it is often said that “Nights of Cabiria” marks the conclusion of the first phase of his career and “La Dolce Vita” the beginning of the next. I prefer to see his films as a continuous visual timeline of Fellini’s artistic growth. Both “La Dolce Vita” and “Nights of Cabiria” unfold in an episodic manner. While “Nights Of Cabiria” has a tighter, more traditional narrative structure, “La Dolce Vita” is practically a series of short films. The combination of these scenes is what leads to the complexity of the film’s message. When it is asked of us, “What are these films about?” there really is no easy answer because they are about so much. Each passing episode carries a meaning of its own that adds to the overall meaning of the picture. Both films contain the typical Fellini clowns, ethnic performers, false appearances of the Virgin Mary, as well as other religious symbolism, nightclubs, prostitutes, stone houses by the sea, processions, and scaffolding outlined against the dawn. These may be symbolic or merely personal touches from his imagination. I feel that it is necessary to discuss the visual aspects of these films. Both films are a huge leap, cinematically speaking, from his other films. Before “Nights of Cabiria”, little attention had been paid to the cinematic, or visual aspect of Fellini’s films. In “Nights of Cabiria”, Fellini 2004-12-07T04:30:01-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Comparison-Of-Nights-Of-Cabiria-And-La-Dolce-Vita-25804.aspx In his opening pages, Cavell tells us that when he was writing The World Viewed he felt he was writing a "metaphysical memoir" of a period of his life, the period in which the experience of going to the movies was a normal part of his week. …Not the story of a period of my life but an account of the conditions it has satisfied. A book thus philosophically motivated ought to account philosophically for the motive in writing it. What broke my natural relation to movies? What was that relation, that its loss seemed to demand repairing, or commemorating, by taking thought? (The World Viewed, page xix) From within what Cavell calls the "natural relation to movies," film appears magically to satisfy a wish, a wish we may not even have recognized as our own: the wish for the world re-created in its own image, which is also the wish to be able to view the world unseen, free from responsibility. And by appearing to satisfy this wish, Cavell suggests, film seems to us to confirm something already true of our existence: In viewing films, the sense of invisibility is an expression of modern privacy or anonymity. It is as though the world's projection explains our forms of unknownness and our inability to know. The explanation is not so much that the world is passing us by, as that we are displaced from our natural habitation within it, placed at a distance from it. The screen…makes displacement appear as our natural condition. (The World Viewed, page 39) It is the fact that its material basis is photographic that enables film to have the power to make our displacement appear natural, Cavell proposes. A consequence of the fact that film is photographic is that film images are not representations, not signs, as "theory" insists they must be. Their relation to the world is not that of signification or reference: People and things in a photograph are not objects the photograph signifies or to which it refers, they are the photograph's subjects. The subjects of a photograph are not created by the photograph, they are, or at least were, real, really in the world. Nor is their relation to the photograph arbitrary or conventional. They are active participants in the photograph's creation. For Cavell, the fact that photographs are "of" the world does not mean that they assure our presence or 2004-12-05T18:09:31-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Cavell-And-Film-Theory-25798.aspx Voyeurism: Hitchcock’s Obsession When looking at two of Alfred Hitchcock’s most critically acclaimed movies, Rear Window and Vertigo, it may be difficult to tell that they are similar in any way. But after further review, it becomes fairly evident that the two films share a strong common bond. Hitchcock uses voyeurism as a main theme in both of these masterpieces, and the voyeurism is connected in many surprising ways: it is evident in the careers of the male voyeurs, causes serious damage to their relationships, and changes from unauthorized looking into neighborliness. The voyeurism used in Rear Window is very similar to that used in Vertigo. First off, the male protagonists, Jefferies and Scottie, are both employed in fields that involve the use of voyeurism. The voyeurism also causes serious damage to the relationships of both the men. Thirdly, both Jefferies and Scottie try to “fetishize” their female counterparts, Lisa and Judy, respectively, and make them into something of their own image; something that the women simply are not. Finally, the unauthorized looking in both of the films changes to looking out for and caring for their fellow man; in other words, voyeurism turns into neighborliness. In Rear Window, voyeurism is perhaps the most permeating theme throughout the entire movie. This unauthorized viewing is almost exclusively done by Jefferies. The voyeurism, however, causes him some serious problems. In Rear Window, the voyeurism is readily apparent even in the first few minutes of the film. As it is revealed, Jefferies is a photographer. A photographer is the epitome of a voyeur, as in the course of the job it is routine to peer into the life of something, whether it is a plant, an animal, or a person. As Robert Stam and Roberta Pearson point out in their essay, “Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Reflexivity and the Critique of Voyeurism,” “His profession of photojournalism assumes and exploits a kind of voyeurism” (197). However, since Jefferies’s boss refuses to let him go back to work, he applies his work to his home-life, using his binoculars to look in on the lives of his neighbors, making mental pictures where he used to make physical ones. It appears harmless at first, but soon devolves into a primal urge to see exactly what is going on in his neighbors’ lives. Jefferies enjoys watching the everyday habits of his neighbors. He takes great 2004-10-29T02:28:49-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Voyeurism-In-Hitchcock-25576.aspx The film "Titanic" is riddled with moral dilemmas. In one of the scenes, the owner of Star Line, the shipping company that owned the now-sinking Unsinkable, joins a lowered life-boat. The tortured expression on his face demonstrates that even he experiences more than unease at his own conduct. Prior to the disaster, he instructs the captain to adopt a policy dangerous to the ship. Indeed, it proves fatal. A complicating factor was the fact that only women and children were allowed by the officers in charge into the lifeboats. Another was the discrimination against Third Class passengers. The boats sufficed only to half the number of those on board and the First Class, High Society passengers were preferred over the Low-Life immigrants under deck. Why do we all feel that the owner should have stayed on and faced his inevitable death? Because we judge him responsible for the demise of the ship. Additionally, his wrong instructions – motivated by greed and the pursuit of celebrity – were a crucial contributing factor. The owner should have been punished (in his future) for things that he has done (in his past). This is intuitively appealing. Would we have rendered the same judgement had the Titanic’s fate been the outcome of accident and accident alone? If the owner of the ship could have had no control over the circumstances of its horrible ending – would we have still condemned him for saving his life? Less severely, perhaps. So, the fact that a moral entity has ACTED (or omitted, or refrained from acting) in its past is essential in dispensing with future rewards or punishments. The "product liability" approach also fits here. The owner (and his "long arms": manufacturer, engineers, builders, etc.) of the Titanic were deemed responsible because they implicitly contracted with their passengers. They made a representation (which was explicit in their case but is implicit in most others): "This ship was constructed with knowledge and forethought. The best design was employed to avoid danger. The best materials to increase pleasure." That the Titanic sank was an irreversible breach of this contract. In a way, it was an act of abrogation of duties and obligations. The owner/manufacturer of a product must compensate the consumers should his product harm them in any manner that they were not explicitly, clearly, visibly and repeatedly warned against. Moreover, he should even make amends if the product 2004-07-05T09:25:53-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Morality-in-the-Titanic--25333.aspx The film is set in 1757, the third year of war between England and France for the possession of the continent. The center of the story is the most notorious event of the French and Indian War; the so-called 'massacre' of British troops, women and children by General Montcalm's Indian allies after the British surrender of Fort William Henry to the French on 9th August 1757. The Struggle between the French and English for control of North America became apparent in the late 1600s. The buffer between the two imperial powers was the presence of the five Nations of Iroquois who controlled almost all of what is now New York State. From West to East the tribes were the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and the Mohawk; these five were joined by the Tuscarora to form six Nations in 1711. The film correctly portrays the Iroquois as ferocious warriors who practiced torture and covered their skins with bear grease and red ochre. The gathering of Indians in the temporary military camps of 1757 leads to a misrepresentation of the daily lives of northeastern Indian tribes. Neither the Iroquois, the Delaware, nor the Huron were nomadic hunter-warriors who only lived for battle. Iroquois tribes were fundamentally agricultural, and due to being inland people were less dependent upon British and French fur traders than were the Algonquin tribes. English settlement West and North from Albany and French from the West and South from Montreal made it hard for the Iroquois to preserve both their independence from White nations and the league among themselves. The Mohawks were allied to the British, the Northern tribe called the Hurons, not allied to the Iroquois Nation, became undeclared supporters of the French. For all Iroquois, the danger of white incursion upon Iroquois lands and culture had to be balanced against the immediate benefits of acquiring the white mans' goods, the iron axe, the iron plough, iron guns as much as alcohol and trinkets. Chingachgook and Uncas are descendants of Delaware as well as Mohican tribes, who are scouts and warriors who serve the British. Here historical allegiances have been altered through character association, the Delaware Indians were of Pro -French sympathies. Many nations had split allegiances to the French and British. Distinctions between tribes in the film are rather blurred and differences between Mohican and Delaware are erased. Chingachgook and Uncas are clearly idealized portraits, men of nearly every virtue, few 2004-07-05T09:25:06-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Synopsis-on-The-Last-of-the-Mohicans-Thoughts-25332.aspx [i:7590d0839a]The film uses various techniques to present a particular view of the war against France. What is that interpretation and how does the film convey it?[/i:7590d0839a] Although the Branagh version of Shakespeare's Henry V remains very close to the text, with only a few lines left out of the film, the movie portrays a very clear and distinct message about war and Branagh's opinion on the matter. Henry V is fundamentally a play about war, and it would have been very easy for Branagh to make his version of the play into a film that glorified war. Instead, Branagh took the opportunity to make a statement about what he felt was the true essence of wars - both medieval and modern. It is clear through Henry V that Branagh thinks that wars are a waste of precious human life, and in the end are fruitless, causing more loss than gain. From the very first battle at Harfleur Branagh's low opinion of war is shown. When we first see the fighting, it is dusk and the sky is further darkened by smoke, instantly creating a morbid feeling. Combined with the muddy and wet terrain, the cheerless soldiers and the overbearing size of the castle which they hope to achieve, it is clear not only that the English army must fight against all the odds to win, but that even the conditions are detrimental to the English cause. The scene where Bardolph, Nym and Pistol are backing away from the battle to save themselves is an important inclusion to the film. Had Branagh intended the film to be a glorification of war, this small scene could have easily been removed. However, he chose to keep it in his film because it actually assists the message which he attempts to convey. This scene, although still clearly comical, as Shakespeare intended it to be, it implies that not all soldiers are valiant and brave and that war is so terrible that soldiers are willing to desert their friends and fellow countrymen because of the hideous nature of war. After the battle of Harfluer is won by the English and they begin to make their way towards Agincourt, Branagh seizes the opportunity to show the viewer the 'victorious' army. Although he could have shown them to be joyful with their win, Branagh instead shows the war-weary, bloody, wet and muddy soldiers. It is raining and so the already miserable 2004-07-05T09:23:59-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Film-Techniques-in-Henry-V-Related-to-the-War-with-France-25330.aspx Roy Batty and Deckard are both able to show us what it means to be human. To what extent do you agree? Through Blade Runner, we see an epic quest filled with meaning and symbolism applicable to the human condition. Replicants are basically human beings, except for the fact that they lack a history. As a consequence of this, perhaps, they also lack proper emotional faculties especially empathy. Empathy is the ability to place oneself in the position of another living being and understand that person’s feelings. Blade runner promotes that empathy is the defining characteristics for humanity. The replicants, designed not to show any emotion, develop spiritually and emotionally throughout the film. The characters in the movie, even the ones that were not human, had many humanistic and believable qualities. Many of them were able to feel love as well as hate. Although Deckard is supposedly human he at times shows less emotion than Roy. He seems heartless and uncompassionate making himself look very unhuman. We see that Deckard is possibly not "human" as well, but a replicant. He shows no compassion when he tells Rachel of her being a replicant with implants. In tears, Rachel sneaks out of Deckard’s apartment and into the streets. The only time in which Deckard really shows emotion is accomplished when Roy, forging Deckard through the fires of a harrowing battle, looks terrified knowing that he is going to die. Through this, Roy tries to communicate his life experiences, and the importance of life before his own flame extinguishes explaining of the horrors of their enslavement. Again, all of these human characteristics that the non-human characters showed makes them more believable for the viewers. The whole definition of humanity is changed by its interaction with the Replicants. For the replicant Roy Batty it was obvious that that he felt strong emotions, perhaps even love for his fellow replicants. After Deckard killed Pris, Roy leaned over her and kissed her showing that he had loved her. He also showed these feelings for Pris and Zhora breaking two of Deckard’s fingers, one for Pris and one for Zhora. Although this act seemed quite inhuman, the motivation behind it seemed quite believable. He also demonstrates an inhumane role when he kills Tyrell but Tyrell is inhumane to create intelligent beings with such a limited life span displaying greed and manipulation. Batty also showed many human emotions 2004-07-05T09:22:34-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Bladerunner-Humanity-of-Deckard-amp-Roy-Batty-25326.aspx Synopsis Set in the 21st century, Gattaca gives one perspective of what the future of discrimination is to become: DNA. “No longer determined by social status or the color of your skin, no, we now have discrimination down to a science.” Gattaca is similar to our current NASA, a space agency in the future that is only open to those with the “right things.” Children, for those who can afford it, are now created by DNA manipulation, called “valids.” You can essentially buy whatever traits you would like for your baby. Vincent was conceived as a “natural birth” because his parents wanted it that way, but their next child, Anton, was a valid. Vincent’s dream had always been to go to Gattaca. However, his DNA had already been analyzed by Gattaca and been determined to be “in-valid.” The act of discriminating based on someone’s DNA is called genoism. Vincent is of course rejected from Gattaca and has to result to becoming a janitor. However, he never loses his dream of going to in to space, and thus takes steps several others have to obtain his goal. Vincent decides to become a “de-generate,” or a “borrowed ladder” with the help of a DNA Broker. A DNA Broker finds valids that for one reason or another decide to not take part in the social world, and allow an in-valid to take over their genetic identity. Vincent’s DNA Broker determines that Jerome Eugene Morrow is a good candidate. The only problem is that Jerome is over an inch taller than Vincent. A radical surgery ensues. In the end, with the use of finger-masks (silicone fingerprints filled with valid blood), urine pouches, blood pouches, and contact lenses, Vincent immediately is hired by Gattaca. In addition to these measures, he must remove all in-valid material, such as loose skin, from his body as possible everyday. Everything goes well until the mission-director at Gattaca is murdered, who also happens to be the only one who had come close to discovering Vincent’s true identity. The irony is that Vincent must be even more careful now because law enforcement is all over the place. To add a twist, the lead investigator happens to be Anton, Vincent’s valid brother. The interesting thing is that Anton, who in childhood was always negative towards his brother, seemed to be trying to prevent the discovery of Vincent during the investigation. The savior for Vincent turns out 2004-04-30T02:41:32-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Movie-Critique-–-Gattaca-90.aspx As America has evolved from an untamed wilderness into a settled country what it has meant to be a man in America has also changed. The movies Last of the Mohicans, Jeremiah Johnson, and Glory each portray men in different areas and time periods in America. Mohican hunters and trappers in Last of the Mohicans, a mountain man in Jeremiah Johnson, and African-American civil war soldiers in Glory. The behavior of the protagonists in these movies illustrates what was expected from them and how they dealt with those expectations. Although the movies were very different they all espoused the need for bravery and honor in a man. The film Last of the Mohicans, based on a book by James Fennimore Cooper, is the story of a white man named Hawkeye and two Mohican Indians. The film takes place during the French and Indian War. During the war many settlers volunteered or were coerced into fighting for the English. Hawkeye and the Indians are brought into the war when they save two daughters of an English general and agree to take them to an English fort. On the way there they find the family of a friend of theirs murdered by Indians. When they get to the fort Hawkeye tells others settlers about it and they want to leave the battle to protect their families. He helps them do that against the orders of the English; but stays because he has feelings for one of the women he saved although though he knows he will be punished. This illustrates his bravery and willingness to take responsibility for his actions. The fort is captured by the French and as the English are leaving they are attacked and massacred by Indians. Hawkeye saves the girls once again and attempts to escape with them even as they are chased by Indians. They make it to a waterfall where there is no way for them to escape with the women. Hawkeye dives off the waterfall vowing to find and save the girls. An English officer who is with them thinks this is cowardly and Hawkeye should have died rather than abandon the girls. Hawkeye knows the only way of there being a possibility of saving them is to leave so he is being practical rather than blindly courageous. The English soldier later proves his bravery while translating for Hawkeye. He changes the translation to sacrifice his 2004-04-28T22:38:56-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Men-in-Last-of-the-Mohicans,-Jeremiah-Johnson,-and-Glory-85.aspx This isn't exactly a paper, but it's a handy synopsis of the plot of the book version of The Lord of the Rings. Should come in very handy for someone wishing to write a paper on the books, but without the time to read them. There are some term paper topics at the bottom, as well. Vol. I - THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: The story starts with the twentieth birthday-party for Frodo Baggins, a Hobbit who lives with his brother Sam in a mythical land called the Shire. Frodo owns a magic Ring that makes him invisible when he wears it, a gift from his cousin Bilbo who stole it from the hoard of a Dragon years ago. One day the old wizard Gandalf comes to the Shire, and he tells Frodo of an evil being named Sauron who wants to capture the Ring for himself. In ages long past Sauron stole the Ring from the Elves, to protect him from the Powers of Good; but the Ring was stolen from him by a creature named Gollum,and then stolen from Gollum by the Dragons, and then from the Dragons by Bilbo, who finally gives it freely to Frodo. "Sauron has been searching for the Ring for years," Gandalf tells Frodo, "and now he has sent his ally, the evil Witch-king, to the Shire to look for it." Frodo and Sam consult with their loyal friends Merry and Pipsqueak, and when the evil Witch-king appears with his nine servants the clever hobbits trick them into going into a mushroom-patch, disorienting the witches just long enough to escape the Shire. But the tone of the book rapidly becomes more serious as the Witch-king and his evil servants pursue the hobbits through the forest. Frodo discovers that the witches have destroyed the village of Bree, and the Witch-king uses a magic spell to burn down the home of their old friend Tom Bombadil. Frodo, horrified, wants to go back and fight the evil witches, but at a hill called Weathertop he meets a noble man named Aragorn who convinces him to go to the city of Rivendell. "In Rivendell you will be safe from their magic," Aragorn tells him, "for Elrond is a sensible man, and does not believe in it." With that Aragorn leads them rapidly to Rivendell, with the witches in hot pursuit. As they ford the last river between 2004-03-23T10:01:37-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Lord-of-the-Rings-Synopsis--73.aspx