Film Analysis Essays (Examples)

Cain (afterward coupled by Mickey Spillane, Horace McCoy, and Jim hompson) -- whose books were also recurrently tailored in films noir. In the vein of the novels, these films were set apart by a subdued atmosphere and realistic violence, and they presented postwar American cynicism to the extent of nihilism by presuming the total and hopeless corruption of society and of everyone in it. Billy Wilder's acidic Double Indemnity (1944), which shocked Hollywood in the year of its release and was just about banned by the authorities, may be considered as the archetype for film noir, even though some critics trace the origins back to such rough but significantly less pessimistic films as his Gun for Hire, High Sierra, the Maltese Falcon, and Stranger on the hird Floor. Modified by Wilder and Raymond Chandler from a James M. Cain novel, Double Indemnity is the squalid story of a Los Angeles…

Film Analysis from a Design Perspective: eading aging Bull

Elements of Design

The focus of this paper is a pivotal scene from the film aging Bull, starring obert DeNiro as real life middleweight boxer, Jake La Motta. Jake's emotional status is reflected in multiple aspects of the film production, such as his physique and costuming, the cinematography, the editing, and the direction. Film communicates the narrative's physical reality and psychological reality with meticulous attention and applied creativity to all of the aspects of filmmaking. The efficacy and condensation of the communicative ability of film is one of the numerous reasons why humans have loved the cinema for over a century. The paper analyzes the scene wherein Jake is locked in prison from a design perspective.

Film Analysis from a Design Perspective: eading aging Bull

On December 19, 1980, aging Bull, directed by Martin Scorcese, was released to the international public.…

The film shows that human beings unlike the robots were way too dependent on habits and routines that make people unfocused causing people to not be able to make their own decisions (Barnes). Later on, when all-E ends up by accident bumps into one of the women, she understands that her attires have transformed into a different color and that she lastly opens her eyes and observes everything from a brand new perspective and the suddenly comes to the conclusion that she does not have to be totally reliant on technology.

Actually after watching the movie, it had a way of making an individual realize that there are times that a lot of people actually we do depend on technology than they do anything else. Most people do have things such as game consoles, computers, cell phones, and televisions, and these are just a few of the items. The researcher…

Film Analysis: "Boesman and Lena" -- a drama of ideas, not people

The central protagonists of Athol Fugard's drama "Boesman and Lena" have what turns out to be a nearly impossible life task. Not only, the drama suggests, must they struggle to survive having lost their home and community. To become emotionally whole again, the depressed Lena and controlling Boesman must find a way to reconstruct their previous relationship as man and wife, to find some emotional comfort in a place of desolation. Gradually, as Fugard's narrative evolves, it becomes clear to the viewer that this will not be possible, that the two are too broken by the oppressive web of the apartheid system to really recreate a loving partnership. However, it also becomes clear to the viewer of the filmed version of "Boesman and Lena" that the actors who play the protagonists in this drama of the South African…

Film Analysis of the Patriot

Colonial America

For the purposes of this paper, the film of focus will the Patriot. This film was written by obert odat and directed by oland Emmerich. The film has quite a cast, including stars the late Heath Ledger, and Mel Gibson, both of which have substantial film careers and reputations both on and off the screen. The film was released in 2000 by Columbia Pictures, a studio among the oldest film studios in American history. The Patriot is a film set in 1776 in South Carolina. The film touches upon a wealth of issues, some of which remain in the past, and some of which present themselves in 21st century America. The film is definitively an epic. From the opening scenes, there is a grandness in the content, each cut feels wide because of the land and number of people on the plantation. The…

Film Analysis on Farewell, My Concubine

Farewell, My Concubine: Lies that become realities

The film Farewell, My Concubine uses the lens of two men's lives to chronicle the political and social upheavals that gripped China first during the communist and then during the Cultural Revolutions. These men are extraordinary and unique: they are actors in the famous, traditional Peking Opera. However, the film argues that the artifice they are forced to use in their art parallels the masks all Chinese are forced to wear in the face of a series of oppressive government systems. Eventually the masks replace 'truth.' Although this is the case to some extent for all Chinese, it is particularly true of Chinese persons of the female gender. Both pre-communist and communist China, for all of its efforts of becoming radical and creating a more equitable relationship between the social classes, were equally patriarchal. Certain bodies (bodies…

The multiple camera views include shots from inside the landing craft, from the beaches, facing the coastal defenses and also from the German perspective looking out at the largest invasion of land by sea in history featuring thousands of vessels and stretching further out to sea than the human eye could see (Katz, 2004).

ealism and Social esponse and Political Influence

In general, the film depicted combat scenes as realistically as was considered acceptable by the standards of the day (Katz, 1991). Certainly, there is no comparison to the graphic images of human carnage depicted in later films such as Saving Private yan, but at the time, the depiction was highly realistic. Critics suggested that strafing fighter aircraft would have made multiple passes rather than the single passes depicted, but few viewers without military combat experience would have noticed. By far, the realism of using native French, German, and British…

This is perhaps where Hoffman is most successful with the character, because he conveys the sense that while aymond knows who Charlie Babbitt is, and while he knows there is a connection between them, aymond does not have the sense of closeness or brotherly bond that Cruise's character needs. The full force of the disease that aymond's personality is imprisoned within - and Hoffman does successful convey the sense of aymond's imprisonment within the sphere of his disease - is an escape-proof prison. Although aymond successfully broke free for a moment because of Charlie, it is an escape without meaning because aymond cannot break free of the autism that holds him.

In the end, the audiences' love of this film speaks for itself in the success of the actors to go deep into the characters they play and bring those characters to life in a believable way for the audience.…

Film Analysis of the Believer

What is the basic plot of the film (write a synopsis)?

Released in 2001 to critical acclaim, director Henry Bean's The Believer presents a searing story of an individual's tragic struggle to form their own identity through overt acts of religious and racial intolerance. Played by Ryan Gosling, the protagonist of The Believer is a Daniel Balint, a troubled young man who has fashioned himself into a Neo-Nazi after violently rejecting his Jewish heritage. During his adolescence Balint rebelled against the orthodox authority of the Jewish religion, questioning the teachings of the Torah during his time as yeshiva student before ultimately refusing to obey a God he considers to be merely a bully. Set in contemporary New York City, The Believer tells the tale of Balint's slow descent into bigotry and fanaticism after he encounters a group of fascists organized by skinheads sympathetic to his…

V's plot and characters represent a diversity in the population of the cast, but perhaps pays a tribute to queer cinema in that it acknowledges the rights of gays and lesbians, and acknowledges, too, that when a government seeks to oppress society, it targets those weakest; the minorities, the disenfranchised (which transcends race), and the creative element within that society.

The film ends with Evey giving a somewhat melodramatic speech as the dead body of V leaves on a tree set in motion to deliver to his final target, Parliament. "He was my father, my mother, my brother, my friend. He was you," Evey says in response to Inspector French's question, "Who was he?," and, then, turning to Inspector French, she continues, "He was all of us." The idea of freedom is all of us.

eference List

Cobb, Michael, ace eligion, Hate and Incest in Queer Politics. Social Text, Duke…

Film Analysis & Critique: Movie Lost in Translation

A film can have numerous motives. A film may possibly have the purpose of conveying a message, to reveal an aspect virtuously for its aesthetic appeal. However more often than not a film may have the purpose of attaining an emotional reaction from the audience or viewers. It is imperative to take note that attaining this emotional response from the audience is largely reliant on the work done by the film director. The director of the film in discussion, Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola, attained this in an exceptional manner. By making use of lighting and music as well as dialogue, it is without doubt that the odd love affair, which is the basis of this storyline, is quite appealing.

In apparent aspects, the film appears to be one where not a lot takes place. Lost in Translation's plot is free flowing…

3. How should the white-collar criminal in this story be sanctioned? (explain also why have you chosen your method of sanction).

Obviously, Seth and the others involved in this criminal activity of selling artificial stocks for artificially inflated prices should lose their Series 7 licenses. That would prevent any of them from trading of stocks of any kind ever again. This forfeiture of their professional rights as stockbrokers is entirely necessary in order to prevent them from victimizing others by creating other shell companies or hatching any similar stock-related schemes. This is especially true in the case depicted in this movie, because they are so young, and this shady business, clearly, is their only profession.

They should all also serve time in a federal penitentiary facility. The particular criminal sanctions against them would have to depend on what they were charged with, and what they were then convicted of. As…

Lam the manager, or the foreign purchasers? Who do you think has more power to improve things for the workers?

Mr. Lam and the Western companies were equally at fault for the deplorable conditions endured by the Chinese workers in the film. The Western companies deliberately contract with foreign manufacturers to circumvent the very laws and public policies of their own societies that are designed to protect their citizens from exploitation in the workplace. Instead of accepting the natural limitations on profit that were possible in their own nations, Western companies chose to export their manufacturing operations to China where no legal or public policy restrictions were available to protect the welfare and safety of working conditions and where children were still routinely forced to work long hours at hard labor.

Obviously, Mr. Lam and other similarly situated Chinese nationals also share the same moral responsibility because without their complicity,…

Film Analysis

The Last Kiss

Never before has Takashi Kusama reached the perverted depths of sadism as he has through 2003's The Last Kiss. The Last Kiss is based on American Gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Ligeia" in which an unnamed narrator is driven to madness by the love of his beloved and ultimately believes that he has the power to will her back into his life. Kusama has taken a step in the right direction by moving away from The Grudge-esque films that have been popping up in Japanese and Korean horror cinema. Through his unique approach to Poe's story, Kusama is able to present the narrative from a new and haunting perspective while maintaining the supernatural ambience that often proliferates Japanese horror cinema.

In The Last Kiss, Kakihara, the film's protagonist, has been slowly driven mad by grief and drug addiction. It is quickly revealed that…

film analysis of movie Juliet of the Spirits released in 1965. The film is a great work of mid-1900's and the lovers of film history enjoy not only its story but also the picturing and the sounds. The movie is about memories, and spirituality of a woman who is in her middle age. The landscape and light effects of the movie are such to support the vision of dreams. Besides the public liking and critiques, the movie holds some development and production-based standards and follows certain styles of movie making, shooting, lightening etc. Some of these are discussed here under separate headings.

Now vs. Then

The time has changed and so have the standards of movie making. The technology has tremendously evolved and it is not cartoons and animations alone that are produced in 3D but movies like Iron man also offer a reality like experience. However, discussing a movie…

Introduction: Contextual Information
Released in 1987 and based on a 1973 book by William Goldman, Rob Reiner’s film The Princess Bride has been aptly called a “cult classic,” because of the way its mediocre box office performance belies its perennial popularity and the ways the film has infiltrated the public consciousness. As with other cult classics of the 1980s, The Princess Bride has offered popular culture in America several catch phrases including the phrase continually uttered by the character Inigo Montoya, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die,” and the use of the euphemism “As you wish” to symbolize true love. Starring Robin Wright as Buttercup, the titular Princess Bride, Cary Elwes as her one true love, Wesley, Mandy Patankin as Inigo Montoya, as well as André the Giant, Chris Sarandon, and Chistopher Guest, The Princess Bride has left an indelible mark on filmmaking.…

SunriseIn Murnaus silent film Sunrise, the Woman represents the active allure of the City, the Wife represents the settled life of the rural countryside, and the Man/Husband represents the conflict between urban/rural life. What Sunrise tells us about Americas conflicting notions of city versus country values is that no matter where one is one is likely to find the same issues of virtue warring with vice. Indeed, the opening titles say as much: For wherever the sun rises and setsin the citys turmoil or under the open sky on the farm, life is much the same; sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet. Some evidence of this is the fact that Man and his Wife are not happy in the country for whatever reason, and the Man is tempted to murder his Wife by the Woman from the City, who promises some kind of grass-is-greener happiness. Yet in the city the Man and…

Cannibal Tours 1988
The quote by Albert Camus says it all at the opening of the film: “There is nothing so strange in a strange land, as the stranger who comes to visit it.” The film suggests that the natives of New Guinea are not the ones we should be concerned with, but rather the Europeans who come to take pictures of them as though they were collecting snapshots of curiosities and eccentricities that will make their collection of oddities at home even more special. The reality is that the Europeans are far more intriguing because there is some disconnect between themselves and their sense of self. It is almost as if they are unaware of themselves in their hyper-awareness of the natives. The natives on the other hand simply accept the Europeans as weird but harmless, and so the natives act friendly to them.
In the one exchange, the…

Summary: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
This particular film is about Randle McMurphy, a criminal who upon serving a brief stint in prison for rape pleads insanity and is relayed to a mental institution. On being moved to the said institution, McMurphy rallies up colleagues (the rest of the patients) against a harsh and cruel nurse. The film is based on a novel by the same name.
One of the psychiatric concepts displayed in the film is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). ECT is, in essence, a process that attempts to adapt brain chemistry via the passage of small electric currents through a person’s brain. In this film McMurphy is taken through this procedure. It is important to note that in the past, as is demonstrated in the case of McMurphy, the process was largely brutish and harsh in that it involved the passage of intense doses of electricity (often times…

Conclusion

It is hard to deny that Sophie's Choice indeed has the trifecta of what I believe good movie-making needs: superb acting, sound, and cinematography, as it was nominated excellence in acting (won by Meryl Streep), cinematography, and music by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' annual Academy Awards. hile I have seen many movies, few have touched me the way Sophie's Choice has. I can remember the seamless acting, the haunting music, and the visual beauty of the film itself. In viewing Sophie's Choice, it's easy to see that a great film is so much more than commercial success or box office revenue; a great film is compelling. It grabs hold of you and doesn't let go. In looking for movies that resonate with the viewer, one cannot come any closer to perfection than Sophie's Choice, one of the most compelling films of all time, a gripping…

Film Analysis: American Beauty

Women's Sexuality

Film Analysis: American Beauty

Film Analysis: American Beauty

American Beauty (1999) was written by Alan Ball, creator of the HBO series 6 Feet Under, and directed by Sam Mendes. American Beauty centers around the Burnham family, who, on the surface seems like a picture-perfect, white, upper-middle class, suburban family. The protagonist of the film is the father and husband of the Burnham family, Lester, who, fed up with the boredom and monotony of his life, has an interesting "mid-life" crisis, that includes a very active crush on his adolescent daughter's Lolita-type best friend.

The film follows the Burham family as each member (mother, father, and daughter) transition into new stages of their lives. Lester's transition is the most notable and spectacular. He loses his high paying job and begins working at a fast food restaurant. While working the drive-thru, he discovers that his seemingsly…

movie, A League of Their Own centers on the All-American Girls Professional aseball League's (AAGPL) first season; the league was initiated to bridge the chasm that was formed by disbanding of the Major League aseball on account of the Second World War. For the very first time in baseball history, young females from urban softball and farm leagues across America were sought for playing professional baseball. The league was fairly short-lived, partly due to a return of the men following the war's culmination and subsequent re-establishment of ML; as a result, the AAGPL's popularity dropped. The dozen years for which the league operated left its mark on sports history, since it offered female athletes a chance to professionally pursue baseball and make much more money than factory workers.

How does the film relate to what you read about the early history of sport (Module 3: The Early History of Sport…

Movie Analysis: Psycho (1960 film)

The movie's most relevant cast for this discussion includes Norman, Norman's mother (Mrs. Bates), and Marion. After the death of his dad, Norman becomes entirely dependent on the love, attention, and support of his mother. It is for this reason that when she (Norman's mother) takes in a lover, Norman feels as if he is no longer a priority in his mother's life -- he feels as if he has been replaced. Apparently, he can't stand sharing her and as a result of his intense jealousy, he ends up killing not only his mother's lover but also his mother, through poisoning. However, he elects to preserve the corpse instead of having it buried -- in what could be seen as an attempt to perpetuate the illusion that his mother is not dead but is, instead, still alive. As a consequence, he begins to not only…

Intercultural Film Analysis on Up in the Air

Interpersonal attraction

Interpersonal attraction is one of the themes at the heart of Up in the Air. For the purposes of this analysis, interpersonal attraction is taken to mean the ways in which people are drawn toward one another. The main character, yan Bingham, is a challenging character to analyze in this regard because he has experienced significant success through resisting interpersonal attraction, and yet he eventually comes to realize that people cannot simply shelter themselves from interpersonal attractions, even if they desire to live in complete alienation from others. yan makes his living through flying to workplaces and firing employees so that the bosses do not have to perform the unpleasant task, and yet he also doubles as a motivational speaker. His character is unusual in that he effectively tells people they are not suitable for their jobs (in his job…

(Chu 58 -- 67) it is also important to note that the film has an emotional / cultural tie, to the director Ann Hui. As a child, she immigrated to Hong Kong. Where, she learned English, as a second language and went through some of the common struggles of immigrants. ("Ann Hui")

Clearly, the film the oat People would highlight a shift that is occurring in the cinema of Hong Kong throughout the 1980's. Where, a variety of different new genres would emerge. This is because audiences felt, that many marital arts films lacked substance. At which point, a shift would occur in the motion picture industry, as a variety of new genres would quickly emerge. The oat People would underscore this shift, by telling a unique story of Vietnamese peasants trying to escape the brutality of the communists (three years after the collapse of South Vietnam). Where, they are…

Cinematography

As with any film, what is captured by the eye of the camera in this film is done with skill, expertise, and a high level of perfection in direction. The locations are captured by the camera in a way that supports and adds to the film's satire. For instance, in the gypsy camp, where Turkish and Tommy have gone to purchase a caravan to serve as an office for Turkish to work out for the fight he has to fix, the pair must walk around what appears to be large pile of excrement - and it doesn't appear to be animal in nature. Gross, yes, but it works with the conveyance of the stereotypical image that the director is attempting to convey.

Much the same holds true when Brick Top is giving Turkish and Tommy a tour of the pig pens. It is a harsh looking environment that successfully…

Memento Film Analysis

Christopher Nolan's Academy Award nominated film Memento provided a new perspective on film noir and helped to redefine how a narrative was presented in cinema. Memento stars Guy Pierce as Leonard Shelby, Carrie-Anne Moss as Natalie, and Joe Pantoliano as Teddy/John Edward Gammell. Through Leonard's psyche, the film's narrative structure, and its mise-en-scene, Nolan is able to demonstrate the perpetual conflict that arises in the film between good and evil, fact and fiction, and instinct and knowledge.

Memento is the story of Leonard Shelby, a former insurance investigator, who is suffering from anterograde amnesia. In the film, Leonard is trying to find the person that raped and killed his wife, but has trouble retaining any information long enough for him to make any progress in his investigation. However, through a series of techniques designed to jog his memory, including tattoo, Polaroid pictures, and extensive note taking, Leonard…

Traffic Film Analysis

Traffic is a 2000 film directed by Steven Soderbergh that focuses on the drug trade between the United States and Mexico, the factors that encourage individuals to promote the drug trade, and what steps are being taken to curb the drug trade. The film relays a very realistic interpretation of the proverbial war on drugs and demonstrates that drug culture has becomes so ingrained in society that it may be impossible to completely stop the drug trade between the United States and Mexico, or the United States with any other country.

Traffic seeks to investigate the ideologies of those that attempt to stop the trafficking of drugs between the United States and Mexico and those individuals and/or groups who promote drug trafficking either out of necessity or because they want to expand territorial claims. In the film, ideologies can be divided based on nationality and further divided…

Thus, even Valerie singles out the protagonist as special from her insane peers. Susanna's conflicts are seen as more, rather than less compelling than the other women's struggles because Susanna is 'really' sane, and able to take the advice of good people like Valerie. In contrast, the problems of people such as Daisy, who has a flip hairdo and an enmeshed relationship with her sexually abusive father, are used more as shock value (like Daisy's fondness for chicken) rather than as evidence that the less mentally stable girls are worthy and compelling subjects.

Susanna's worthiness of subjectivity is further underlined by her constantly reiterated desire to writer, and her parent's inability to appreciate her ambitions and creativity. Of course, many young people have artistic aims and defy their parent's expectations that they go to college and fulfill conventional aspirations of success. This does not make them crazy; the film rightly…

I.'s friends, Dot and Glen arrive to visit with their out of control kid and bad parenting habits. The couple are exaggerated in their ineptitude by their wardrobe and actions; Dot is the "trailer trashy" woman, and her equally trailer-trashy, beer guzzling husband, Glen, who ignores his own child, as does Dot, and the child runs wild. These behaviors and the scene is one that many young parents who have a better command and control over their lives and children can relate to. In this parody comedy, it is amusing and helps deflect the reality of the experience of real life, but it is nonetheless one which is easy to relate to having had.

As often is the case, art mirrors life and we find that once children arrive, life changes for couples in ways in which they perhaps never anticipated. Suddenly, Dot and Glen are not the best company…

She bites the forbidden fruit and brings to life a monster who bites the heads off two of the fairies who served as her guide. Here, again, del Toro overlays fantasy with reality as Ofelia demonstrates remorse for having disobeyed and caused the death of the two fairies.

The Simplicity

Del Toro says that it is the simplicity of the myth that makes the myth so intriguing. The director does not believe that it is necessary to reveal the source of magic, that it is enough to demonstrate the magic without explaining it that makes it magic. To explain the magic, which is what Del Toro says Hollywood has a tendency to do today; is to take the magic out of the myth, and it is the myth and the magic, the origin of which is not known to the viewer, that makes the myth so interesting.

The other simplicity…

Sunset Boulevard is a classic film noir produced in 1950 and directed by Billy Wilder. The film begins with the murder of Joe Gillis, a floundering screenwriter who ends up dead in a swimming pool. "Poor dope," the voice over says. "He'd always wanted a pool. Well, in the end he got himself a pool, only the price turned out to be a little high." The voice over, delivered in classic film noir style, turns out to be none other than Gillis himself. Far from being an unreliable narrator, though, Gillis promises "the facts" and delivers. The entire film Sunset Boulevard is the retelling of "the facts" from Gillis's perspective. Wilder's choice of narration is dutifully ironic, as a failed filmmaker becomes famous. The theme of the movie is reminiscent of the Great Gatsby, with its peek at American decadence and lost dreams. Because it offers rich social commentary, Sunset…

Crazy Stone

Hao Ning's 2006 film Crazy Stone is part action thriller, and part comedy crime caper. It has a polished look and feel due to excellent cinematography and good use of multiple camera angles. Because of the direction, cinematography, sounds, and editing prowess of Hao Ning, Crazy Stone looks almost like a Hollywood big budget movie. The film does not necessarily have a wide array of special effects, but those that are used judiciously and within the appropriateness of the tone of the movie. Humor is a huge part of what makes Crazy Stone as effective as it is. The combination of action/suspense elements with the multiple levels of humor is what makes Crazy Stone an instant success. The director understands what film pacing is about, in the way that the serious scenes draw in the viewer for just enough time before inserting another joke or prank. Some of…

Film Awards

The film industry produces experience goods for consumer enjoyment and consumption, and substantively relies on consumer differentiation for the economic success of movies. Moviegoers appear to differentiate films primarily on the basis of genre, starring actors, exposure to promotion, recommendations from other moviegoers and film critics, and -- for the dedicated film buffs and connoisseurs -- directors, cinematographers, and even screenwriters associated with the film production (Albert 1998, De Vany 2004, Eliashberg and Shugan 1997, Hand 2002, Krider and Weinberg 1998, Nelson et al. 2001, avid 1999, Smith and Smith 1986, Wallace, Steigermann and Holbrook 1993). Access to information about films is related to the resources and networks that moviegoers enjoy, and on the attention that films garner, as expressed by the media and through social networks. Information about films is accessed by moviegoers from many sources: 1) The genre of the film; 2) the rating of the…

Women Want is an American romantic comedy brought to the big screen in 2000, staring Helen Hunt and Mel Gibson. The story revolves around Nick Marshall (played by Mel Gibson), a Chicago advertising executive and ultimate alpha male personality and considered to be a chauvinist. He is considered highly skilled at selling what men want and seducing women. Although Nick thinks he is next in line for a big promotion, he is faced with new competition from Darcy McGuire (played by Helen Hunt), who is hired in the position Nick aspired to, to broaden the company's general appeal to women. In a freak accident, Nick is electrocuted and develops the ability to hear the innermost thoughts of women. He subsequently uses that ability to advance his ideas vicariously through Helen Hunt; encouraging her as if the ideas were her own or even a collaboration of their two ideas. Nick also…

N!ai, the story of a !Kung woman is a 58 minutes film that provides a wide overview of !Kung past and present life. The film, which is considered to be more than a biography, highlights the life and change of a group of individuals who are personified through one person’s existence. The film is about the story of N!ai, a !Kung woman who was in her mid-thirties when it was produced by John Marshall and Adrienne Miesmer. This story effectively integrates ethnography and history as it presents scenes from 1950s, which portray N!ai as a young girl and a young wife simultaneously. This film is considered as an important historical piece that shows changes in !Kung society for more than three decades (Marshall & Miesmer, 1980).

One of the most fascinating aspects of the film is its depiction of !Kung’s life before and after Whites’ settlement in Africa. Prior to…

Dead Man's Walk

In the stories of the Wild West, there is always a white man in a white hat who serves as the hero of the story. The villain is always the other white man in the black hat. Symbolically, the villain becomes a racial other because of the color of his hat. When a black hat cannot be found, the other villain of a western will be the Native American, more commonly referred to as the Indian, since calling them by the more politically correct term would be anachronistic. This is a tradition of American stories of the Wild West where the white man, no matter what his character is, will always be heroic in comparison to the villainous other. In the movie version of Larry McMurtry's novel Dead Man's Walk, the heroes of the story are intended to be the Caucasian Texas Rangers and the villains are…

Sport in Two Films: Any Given Sunday and Field of Dreams

Sport has been a significant part of society for centuries. In part, sport is a recreational activity, a social activity, and a means of competing. However, sport also holds greater significance for many people. It represents something that goes beyond just competing or just winning and says something about the way people interact and work together to achieve their dreams. At the same time though, the meaning of sport has been lost over the years. Winning has become so important to some that the joy of sport has been lost. For others, sport has become so intertwined with making money that the meaning has eroded. In today's society, the joy and meaning in sport has begun to be lost. Two films that deal with these issues are Any Given Sunday and Field of Dreams. Both films offer a view…

Arsenic and Old Lace

The movie Arsenic and Old Lace uses a variety of film techniques to tell its story. Rather than opening with a voice over, it uses text on the screen to provide background information for the story.

The director frames shots in interesting ways: in one scene, Mortimer fills one side from top to bottom, while on the other side, his aunt is at the other side of the frame. In other shots, Jonathan and Mortimer are centered. Some scenes resemble tableaus, with the heights of four characters carefully arranged. This is repeated with Jonathan (the taller one) on the left, and his assistant on the right.

Close-ups that are close to extreme emphasize the scars on Jonathan's face. Close-ups are used on Mortimer (Cary Grant) several times, to emphasize his shock when he first realizes his sisters have poisoned a lonely old man, and then again…

Twelve Angry Men

Criminal Justice

Courts and procedures in the film version of Twelve Angry Men (1957).

The title of the film Twelve Angry Men (1957) is somewhat misleading: there are actually eleven angry men depicted in the film and one rational man who is capable of seeing the facts. The classic courtroom drama depicts twelve male jurors who have recently heard a trial where a young Puerto ican boy stands accused of the murder of his father. At the beginning of the film, all of the jurors (and the weary judge) seem resolved to convict the defendant. They believe the case is open and shut. The one exception is a single juror who refuses, based upon his belief that when a man's life is at stake, no decision can be made lightly. The movie (actually a filmed stage play, given its static nature) dramatizes how the other jurors come…

Holy Motors Movie Analysis

Holy Motors: An Analysis

Director Leos Carax has done it again. He has shocked the film industry with an abstract film focusing on the damaging power of our obsession with gazing into another's life. Voyeurism is a destructive force in the 2012 film Holy Motors, one which destroys the life of Oscar, the never-ending actor.

This intense French film was a major shocker in 2012. It is a very unique story told with incredible cinematic genius. Oscar, an actor, constantly drives around to different appointments, where he plays a number of odd roles. Sometimes he plays his roles in front o a large audience, while at other times they seem to be in front of only a few individuals or even no one at all. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to his roles, as he is random characters without much explanation of what…

There is a direct correlation with, say, Henry Hill's cocaine abuse and the increasingly rapid cuts between shots. Faster-paced narrative parallels quicker-moving shots. When viewers finally see the film in the theater, the finished product reads like a cohesive narrative when in fact the filmmakers strung together disparate shots and cuts and combined them later after thousands of hours of painstaking labor. Analyzing a movie must therefore include respect for the editorial prowess of the post-production crew.

Editors must be intimately familiar with the screenplay they work with, especially in films that do not have a linear narrative. For instance, Christopher Nolan's 2000 film Memento describes one man's struggle with memory degradation. elying on a non-linear plot, the filmmaker depended on the post-production crew to adequately convey the disjointedness of amnesia. Other elements like dramatic irony, in which the audience is privy to information that protagonists do not have access…

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) came in a time when the public became fond of funny westerns. The editors carefully made the movie's beginning and its end in order for it to have an exceptional result consequent to the audience viewing it. The silent beginning and the freeze-frame ending gave the movie an exceptional character, showing the public something that they had never seen before.

In times when the whole world filmed in color, a number of directors reached the conclusion that it had not been the color that made the difference between a good movie and a bad one, as it had been the script and the movie crew. Peter Bogdanovich, the director of the Last Picture Show (1971), had been influenced to film the movie in black and white because of a conversation that he had with Orson elles. The two concluded that it had been…

American Psycho

The movie American Psycho is written and directed by Mary Harron. The story is adopted from the novel "American Psycho written by Bret Easton Ellis. The movie has presented the life style of a typical young and prosperous broker of the Wall Street, who has a unique way of clothing, dining, listening to music etc. In fact the movie is a social interpretation of extremes of the 1980s.

The character being portrayed in the movie is a kind of a man who believes to spend his life on his own. He used to dine at the finest restaurants of the city, wears the fanciest cloths and has a unique way of living. Working as a Vice President of Pierce and Pierce, he is considered to be one of the most disciplined executives of the company. As Mr. Patrick Bateman keeps on enjoying his routine life, socializing with his…

God on Trial: Movie Analysis and Review

The Holocaust of orld ar II spawned many tragedies, one of which was the crisis of faith it precipitated amongst European Jews. The film God on Trial depicts the inhabitants of a concentration camp literally putting God on trial for his crimes against humanity as they wait to be "sorted out" into groups of who will live and who will die at Auschwitz. The film begins set in the present, where various tourists to the concentration camp are shown gawking at the premises. They can hardly believe the horror was once real and then slowly, there is a shift as the camera pans away to reveal a change of time and the viewer is taken back to orld ar II. The event is based upon an apocryphal incident in which the residents of Auschwitz were said to have staged such a mock court,…

Transmedia Property. Case study related a media property (e.g., comic, film, television, ). This analysis existing property development a transmedia plan property. Break movie's elements starting introduction, music, back ground, audience engage movie, flow movie All typed papers assignments double-spaced, 12- 11-point font -inch margins.

Summary of the property

The transmedia concept is not a novelty these days, as the concept was first patented at the beginning of the 1990s. According to researchers, "The term transmedia was coined in 1991 by then-USC professor Marsha Kinder, while the transmedia storytelling concept was developed by current USC Annenberg professor Henry Jenkins. He describes transmedia storytelling as "a process in which integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story." (Tenderich, 2013) More precisely, transmedia…

Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey is a masterpiece in the science fiction genre. Based on a story by Arthur C. Clarke, the film epitomizes the features of science fiction, including an overarching theme questioning the role of humanity in the universe. The film could just as well be classified as an epic, given its length and breath, as it begins with the origin of human beings through a depiction of evolution from primates, through the story of a space mission occurring millions of years later. Plot practically takes a back seat to cinematography and design in 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which Kubrick employs multiple cinematographic tools including music, mise-en-scene, editing, lighting, design, and script elements.

The mise-en-scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey is simply extraordinary, because each image captures the tension and existential angst that pervades the movie. Because the bulk of the film takes place…

Fight Club

The 1999 film Fight Club is filled with Freudian references, especially those related to death wish, masculinity, and male sexuality. If Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and the narrator played by Edward Norton are indeed one person, then the film addresses the psychoanalytic elements at play in a fractured psyche. Death wish is one of the most poignant themes in Fight Club, which explores an ironic, postmodern violence that is directed against both the self and society. Masculinity and sexuality prove also to be problematic elements for the narrator. The Oedipus complex also surfaces, as it is implied the narrator kills his mother.

Aggression is one of the ways that the narrator can act out his homoerotic fantasies. The narrator feels a keen and poignant sense of alienation and isolation. His predictable life gives him such little pleasure that he develops pathological insomnia: for which he seeks treatment and…

Student of Prague and German Cinema

The Germany film industry revolution

The Film industry in Germany has come a long way and is seen as one of the ancient film industries that gave a portrayal of both the artistic as well as the aesthetic and the economic value of films in Germany in the early 1900s. The paper will hence not only look into the history of the Germany film industry, but also select a relevant film to demonstrate the significance of the film selected to the subject matter it covered, the people and the relevance to the time that it was produced and it depicted. The film that will be used in this demonstration is "The Student of Prague" which would be analyzed to see the kind of contribution that it brought to the film industry in Germany at that given moment in time.

The films of the early…

Forrester

Sometimes it seems that the last person to come up with an original dramatic idea was illiam Shakespeare - and we all know that he borrowed most of his ideas from other people too. So we should not expect to see much that is new in a story that is a retelling of Shakespeare's "Othello" - which is what Tim Blake Nelson's film "O" is. The film, which is certainly attractive and innovative on a purely formal level, does a generally poor job of convincing us that this is the way in which real teenagers speak. On the other hand, "Finding Forrester" (while it too has its flaws) is a far more intelligent look into what it is like to be a young black man. This paper analyzes the ways in which each of the films depicts certain subcultures of our society and the extent to which the filmmakers…

Movie Analysis and Ethics Theories Application

The daily operations of organizations across the globe is faced and directed by the ethical decisions that they make and the ethical approach that they use as a culture will determine the end result of their performance and their stability. Art has always helped in imitating real life and movies often depict the actual happenings within corporations that are hailed as the top corporations in the society, and from such depictions teach the same society lessons they never knew about the corporations. This paper takes a keen look at two movies, 'Wall Street (1987)' and 'Michael Clayton' and the association between these movies and the ethical theories or approaches that are available.

Wall Street (1987 original)

Plot

The movie rotates around two central characters; Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox and the daily undertakings they have in the business arena. Fox is depicted as a…

Film Analysis orksheet Karmen Gei / ednesday October 14, 2015

Karmen Gei

Director, Year

Joseph Gai Ramaka, 2001

Mode (for instance, adaptation)

Adopted from novel; influenced by Carmen.

Approximate time code (beg. -- end.) of selected scene

Title or brief description of sequence

Opening dance scene

Number of shots in selected sequence

hat happens, at the level of plot or narration, in this sequence?

As a musical sequence, it sets the tone for the film and introduces the audience to the main character and the overarching themes including sexuality and the cultural constraints upon women of color. The dancer seduces a female prison guard into dancing, and when that happens, the entire group of women express their joy through their bodies.

hat role does this sequence play within the larger action of the film (e.g. rising action, climax, turning point, exposition, character development, motifs, patterns, etc.)?

This scene is critical…

Suspects

There are many different aspects of life, culture, society, and history that are embedded in the 1996 film The Usual Suspects, however, one of the more prominent themes deals with the notion of stereotyping. In this respect, the film prominently illustrates a sociological issue more so than other issues -- yet there are certainly cultural ramifications that could be construed from these issues as well. However, one of the chief points of brilliance in this movie's portrayal of stereotyping stems from the fact that the film presents this issue in an extremely subtle way which demands the audience to reconcile these points intellectually. It serves as an alternative to the conventions typically employed in which movies often highlight racial, religious, sex, or national bias in a predictable fashion. Instead, this movie deals with a profound subject, central to the nature of humanity itself, by focusing on the perceived nature…

Chung King Express by Kar Wai Wong

This is an inspirational films that covers the ideals of love and the mystery tat there is in the aspect of love. It covers the unspoken ideas of love which, as the film depicts, are some of the most important thing in the love circle. It also depicts the irony of love especially when one sets out to seek love. The film also depicts the intricate struggles of life that people come across as they seek love, some of which may not be totally known to people outside.

Chung King Express highlights the life of two policemen within the Hong Kong City, both of whom had been abandoned by their love and were struggling to have their love life straight once more. Tony Chiu also referred to as cop 663 in the film is seen to be struggling to get over the girlfriend…

Not only does Nichols provide a good context for the many paradoxes that can confront film studies with his insightful and thoughtful introduction, but he also shows how sharing approaches and methods can help to stimulate a lot of the best writing regarding film. In addition he shows many of the common problems that are seen and deals with the contradictions that appear. Like the first volume of the anthology, this second volume also provides smaller introductions so that each essay and piece of information can be more easily understood. It also allows a reader to peruse the book and find the pertinent piece of information that he or she needs at that point in time, which can be very valuable, especially for a novice to the film industry trying to find information quickly. Having the smaller introductions before each piece also help to showcase each item within the context…

The leading lady of the film within the film is crazy, without the need for abusing any form of intoxicating substance. But the primary difference between the contemporary and the past film does not lie in any of these imperfect parallel details involved in their mutually chaotic plots, nor the minute distinctions in the minds and portrayals of stock characters. Rather, the difference lies in the way that DiCillo's style of storytelling constantly forces the audience to remain on edge, unaware if they are watching real life or the film that is being filmed -- or the director or actor's idealized dream of what the creative product should be. Thus, the later film has an added nuance about how the creative process can take over the lives of actors and directors, as well as seem absurd to individuals outside of the movie business. It also forces the viewer not simply…

Humanity seems to unravel altogether in Pi: Faith in Chaos, both written and direct by Darren Aronofsky. Max is a brilliant but socially crippled young mathematician who has built a supercomputer and possibly unlocked the mathematical secrets of the universe, explaining everything from the stock market to God. The mathematical precision with which the world would operate if this is true casts a great deal of doubt on the existence of free will. At the same time, however, the film is asking questions about reality, and whether or not Max's discovery can truly be used in any practical way. Ultimately, both questions are rendered moot by Max's destruction of the mathematical portion of his brain. Though this seems to be an act of free will, it could also be the natural and inevitable next step in the algorithm of his life following his discovery of the sacred 216-digit number. Regardless,…

Grey with a way to accommodate the needs of their Ids and their Superegos. Their Superegos imposed the societal constraints on sexual relationships, which would drive both Lee and Mr. Grey to enter into monogamous sexual relationships. Their Ids drove Lee and Mr. Grey to seek immediate gratification of their aggressive urges through sexual behavior. By entering into a relationship with each other that allows them to fulfill both needs, Lee and Mr. Grey allow their Egos to reconcile the needs of their Ids and Superegos.

Furthermore, the Secretary addresses the issue of sexuality, and highlights the intimate relationship between sexuality and aggression. The unusual thing about the Secretary is that it demonstrates that a relationship that might be viewed as deviant was actually helpful to both members of the relationship. Prior to becoming involved with one another, Lee and Mr. Grey are both in pretty bad shape. Lee was…

His stance is also one of superiority as he presents himself as the victim of his own vision and artistic expression. In this context, the generic pronoun "they" symbolizes Craig's detachment from the world around him as he feels superior which he believes, is what causes his isolation.

Craig's wife, Lotte, is perhaps the most radically changed as a result of traveling through the portal. She becomes convinced that she is a transsexual, and consequently, feels the only way she can be true to herself is to assume a new sexual identity, i.e. that of a man. However Lotte abandons her desire of sexual reassignment when she becomes aware that by starting a relationship with Maxine, she can in fact assume a different gender role simply by falling in love with Maxine. Maxine, on the other hand, embarks on a sexual relationship with Malkovich so she can be with Lotte.…

The birds flying away in the end are representative of the freedom to love each other that Allie and Noah now have with each other. No physical bounds can restrain them. These elements became apparent on the fourth viewing. I then went back through the scenes to see if bird imagery was hiding in other scenes. Birds were found throughout the story, such as Noah providing bread for Allie to feed the birds, a mockingbird on the porch after they make love, etc. Upon closer examination, this emerged as a central tool for conveying the theme that Noah and Allie's love was as wild and free as the birds.

An analysis of "The Notebook" is a prime example of how the technique of viewing the film several times until the layers emerge can reveal deeper meanings with each viewing. In order to understand how the various elements of the film…