Stanley Kubrick Essays (Examples)

Full Metal Kubrick

In the years following the Vietnam War, from 1979 -1989, many movies were created to depict this event from an American point-of-View. The genre of war movies, became inundated with new films based on this violent conflict. The purpose of this essay is to explore Stanley Kubrick's movie Full Metal Jacket as it relates to film media and how it represents this particular era in both history and art. This essay will discuss how this film played an impact on American culture and film in general.

Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick is often noted as one of the best film makers who has ever picked up a camera. His legend is based upon his intellectual capacity and his daring and innovative styles of film that never seem to become outdated and remain fresh and current despite them being decades old. Kubrick had great success as film maker in the…

References

Cocks, G., Diedrick, J., & Perusek, G. (Eds.). (2006). Depth of field: Stanley Kubrick, film, and the uses of history. Univ of Wisconsin Press.

White, S. (1988). Male bonding, Hollywood orientalism, and the repression of the feminine in Kubrick's Full metal jacket. Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory, 44(3), 120-144.

Sperb, J. (2006). The Kubrick Facade: Faces and Voices in the Films of Stanley Kubrick. Rowman & Littlefield.

The 1964 film Dr. Strangelove uses the context of Cold ar brinksmanship in order to uncover a more fundamental problem with patriarchy and the maintenance of a destructive masculinity. This masculinity is under threat as a result of sexual frustration, and the characters of Ripper, Turgidson, and Kong embody three different kinds of this frustration. Ripper's sexual frustration is the most explicit, and leads to the most overtly violent reaction. Turgidson's sexual frustration is not the result of a physiological problem but rather due to pent-up energy, and thus his reaction is to cheer on the violence perpetrated by Ripper, even if he cannot engage in it himself. Finally, Kong, who is denied the kind of sexual immediacy granted Turgidson, nonetheless is able to overcome the frustration experienced by the other two men when he finally succeeds in dropping a nuclear bomb. Thus, the film suggests that the true threat…

Works Cited

Bingham, Dennis. "I do Want to Live!": Female Voices, Male Discourse, and Hollywood

Biopics." Cinema Journal 38.3 (1999): 3,3-26

Cardullo, Bert. "Why we Fight, Or Men, War, the Movies, and Metaphor." The Midwest

Quarterly 52.3 (2011): 239,239-255.

Many of the other characters of the legend, such as Guinevere and Merlin are present in this film, as is the Sword in the Stone legend of Excalibur, Arthur's weapon (it was his father who removed it from the stone.

Ultimately, Arthur denounces his oman citizenship when he is disillusioned by the oman leaders and their activities, especially Bishop Germanius, and he joins the Woads to fight the Saxon Army that is attempting to gain control of Britain. In the end, many of his knights are killed in a ferocious battle, including Lancelot, and when the battle is over; Arthur has won and is declared king, with Guinevere by his side.

This film is so different from the traditional Arthur legend that is seems quite unlikely, but legends are often wrong, and so, the film could actually be based on historical fact, since new evidence comes out all the time…

References

King Arthur. Dir. Antoine Fuqua. Perf. Clive Owen, Keira Knightley. Touchstone Pictures, 2004.

Spartacus. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Perf. Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons, Tony Curtis. Universal Pictures, 1960.

The colors used are also drab and grey-green dominates to evoke a sense of claustrophobic death and destruction.

Another aspect that evokes atmosphere in the film is the use of music. Kubrick chooses a soundtrack which is both empty and banal yet also succeeds in emphasizing the loss of meaning and vacuity in what the young recruits have become. The director makes use of popular songs such as "These Boots Are Made for Walking" and "Surfin' Bird." The very emptiness of the lyrics tends to ironically emphasize the dehumanization and loss of identity which pervades the film (Maslin).

The theme of dehumanization is followed through in the graphic events of the battle and we also see the "…collapse of the individual into the group" (Anderegg 11). For example, when Joker tries to express his individuality by wearing a peace symbol on his uniform, he is sternly rebuked by a marine…

References

Anderegg, Michael, ed. ( 1991) Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

MASLIN J. FILM VIEW; INSIDE THE 'JACKET': ALL KUBRICK . ( 1987) Retrieved

June 8, 2009, from  http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?_r=2&res=9B0DEEDD1731F936A35754C0A961948260&oref=slogin&oref=login

Instead, he proved that art can be achieved through more than one means and that his movies would ultimately achieve great results in the film industry.

The main reason for why Kubrick has drawn many critiques for his movies is that he chose to satirize society through a series of cliches.

Similar to Kubrick, Park Chan-Wook, the South-Korean filmmaker, has intended to make movies that would bring together both comedy and drama into films that have a touch of satire of the society.

Park's films are generally recognized for the direct way that he uses to make his audience better accustomed with his work. Both Park and Kubrick have abused extreme violence and S.F. In their movies, but this only added to the dramatic feeling that one gets when viewing one of their creations. Kubrick and Park stand out from the rest of the film directors for the reason that…

The only connection between the two worlds of Tesla and Robert, electricity and old-fashioned staged magic, is the sense of hyper-reality: of magic and stagecraft in one realm, and electricity and the 'real world' of science that makes the depiction of magic on film possible. Tesla's mad scientist hair, the bags beneath his eyes, make him look more mentally unbalanced than a rationalist -- a mad inventor of film, not a trusted authority to the eye. The viewer's apprehensiveness is dependent upon this awareness of cinematic conventions, just like the audience of a magical illusion is dependant upon their awareness that it is, in fact, an illusion.

Further unsettling the viewer's sense of Tesla's trustworthiness are the buzzing electric generators that hum like tiny bees in the background, sparking with fire. Tesla seems purely a creation of the cinema, of electricity itself. Electricity unlike staged magic is real but close-ups…

Works Cited

The Prestige. Directed by Christopher Nolan. 2007.

Cold War and Film

Generally speaking, the Cold War has been depicted as an era of spy games and paranoia in popular films from the 1960s to the present day, but the reality of the era was much more complex. The Cold War was a period of military and political tension from 1947 to 1991, or from the end of WW2 to the collapse of the Soviet Union, in which the "politics of war" masked the business and social agendas of multinationals and ideologues. The era was marked by myriad issues: East-West mistrust, proxy wars, espionage, the threat of nuclear war, domestic and foreign propaganda, the rise of the military-industrial complex and multinational corporations, assassinations, detente, de-colonization, new nationalism, neo-colonialism, the vying for control of resources, alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact), and an inculcation of the "deep state." [footnoteRef:1] It can be divided into five basic periods: 1947-53, 1953-62, 1962-79, 1979-85,…

Bibliography

Dominik, Andrew, dir. Killing Them Softly. NY: Weinstein Company, 2012. Film.

Eliot, T.S. "Burnt Norton." The Four Quartets. Web. 10 May 2015.



Frankenheimer, John, dir. Seven Days in May DVD Commentary. LA: Warner Home

O rother, Where Art Thou?

Homer in Hollywood: The Coen rothers' O rother, Where Art Thou?

Could a Hollywood filmmaker adapt Homer's Odyssey for the screen in the same way that James Joyce did for the Modernist novel? The idea of a high-art film adaptation of the Odyssey is actually at the center of the plot of Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt, and the Alberto Moravia novel on which Godard's film is based. In Contempt, Prokosch, a rich American dilettante film producer played by Jack Palance, hires Fritz Lang to film a version of Homer's Odyssey, then hires a screenwriter to write it and promptly ruins his marriage to rigitte ardot. Fritz Lang gamely plays himself -- joining the ranks of fellow "arty" German-born directors who had earlier deigned to act before the camera (like Erich von Stroheim in Wilder's Sunset oulevard, playing a former director not unlike himself, or…

Bibliography

Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock'N'Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999. Print.

Cavell, Stanley. Pursuits of Happiness: the Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984. Print.

Connors, Catherine. Petronius the Poet: Verse and Literary Tradition in the Satyricon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print.

Doom, Ryan P. The Brothers Coen: Unique Characters of Violence. Santa Barbara, Denver and Oxford: Praeger / ABC-CLIO, 2009. Print.

Meantime my favorite character is James T. "Joker" Davis, who is the main protagonist, and also the narrator. He eventually becomes a reporter for the Army newspaper, Stars and Stripes, and true to Kubrick's style of developing fascinating characters, he's a paradox: he wears a peace sign on his uniform but on his helmet it says "Born to Kill." A colonel sees Davis' peace symbol and the following funny dialogue takes place. The Colonel asks, "Marine, what is that button on your body armor?" "A peace symbol, sir." "here'd you get it?" "I don't remember sir." "hat is that you've got written on your helmet?" "Born to Kill, sir." "You write 'Born to Kill' on your helmet and you wear a peace button. hat's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?" "No sir." "You'd better get your head and your ass wired together, or I will take a…

Works Cited

Stanley Kubrick. "Full Metal Jacket" (1987) Starring: Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin,

Vincent D'Onofrio, and Lee Ermey. Music by Abigail Mead. Produced by Stanley

Kubrick and Jan Harlan. Harrier Films, Studio.

Kubrick himself suggested the baton be passed onto Spielberg due to that director's unique abilities.

The play was originally-based Brian Aldiss's short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," on which a.I. is based, in 1983 (Corliss 1-3). In the Kubrick formulation, the world is a lot darker and Gigolo Joe is much more aggressive. According to Corliss in the "Joe was much more aggressive, more twisted." Here he is, in Spielberg's word, David's "scoutmaster." Spielberg did this to solve many of the problems Spielberg had with the text, Joe being one of the biggest problems. By softening things and making them more human and less dark, he provided solution to the problem (Ibid 1). The Flesh Fair and Rouge City are vintage Kubric and remained a part of the body of the work. Garish scenery completes this menagerie Spielberg identifies himself with the abandoned child (ibid 2).

It is the…

Works Cited

Corliss, Richard. Time 17 June 2001: 1-3. Web. 3 Nov 2010.

An American Alex would be against classical music, with anarchists normally being associated with hard rock music. Moreover, he would find it perfectly normal to use drugs instead of drinking milk in a club that has dummies for tables. The reason for which a Hollywood producer would not have his psychotic character drinking milk is that he or she would unquestionably find such a scene to be sick, and, thus, not to be presented to a general public.

Most American movies presenting young people fighting for anarchy want to teach a lesson. They want people to understand that society is good and that it is not worth fighting it, since you only harm yourself in the process. In contrast, Kubrick shows that the system is bad and obsessed with maintaining control over people. After Alex is freed from prison, he can no longer be free, as his mind continues to…

Works cited:

1. A Clockwork Orange. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Warner Bros, 1972.

Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 Academy Award nominated film made by Stanley Kubrick about the Vietnam ar. It is based on the novel Short-Timers, by Gustav Hasford and it follows a group of recruits through their basic training and eventual deployment to Vietnam. (Hasford) The movie is divided into two parts: basic training and Vietnam. hile this movie is not accurately depicting any one particular person's experiences, it does give an accurate overall portrayal of the U.S. Marine Corp basic training and the experiences of U.S. Marines in general during the Vietnam ar.

The film begins with a group of young marine recruits entering basic training at Paris Island South Carolina. Paris Island is the actual Marine Corp training facility for all make enlistees who come from east of the Mississippi. Those from west of the Mississippi go to California for training. Today it is the same for male…

Works Cited

Hasford, Gustav. The Short-Timers. Web 4 May 2011.

 http://www.gustavhasford.com/ST2.htm 

Kubrick, Stanley. "Full Metal Jacket (1987)- IMDB." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) Web. 4 May 2011.

"Marine Corp Recruiting Depot: Paris Island." Marines, the Few, the Proud. Web. 4 May 2011. http://www.mcrdpi.usmc.mil/

Artificial Intelligence / Robotics

Robot Outline Name: Complitar (aka the LoveBunny 3000).

Personal Statement: Greetings, human. I am the LoveBunny 3000, and I offer advice on relationships and also sex. You are here gazing at my glass containment because you are troubled in your relationship, or you seek advice for how to drive your lover wild, or perhaps you just need concrete advice for how to find a lover -- although in these days of social media and nonstop connectedness, if you can't find someone to sleep with you, you're doing it wrong. And that's where I come in. You can ask me any question pertaining to the relationship genre.

My form is that of a classic automaton -- a spooky sort of robotic doll that performs certain functions within a limited and circumscribed physical field. Some may recognize my appearance from a standard fairgrounds type fortune-teller or more specifically…

This film is supposedly based on a real event, and that makes it all the more frightening - that commanders are willing to sacrifice and jeopardize their men for their own selfish ambitions.

The court-martial itself was also extremely troubling, because it was so clearly unfair and did not represent the appeals of the men at all. The judge was clearly biased or influenced, and the men were doomed from the start, something that seemed impossible in real life, but could be all too true. The entire situation was frightening because it seemed so real, and it was not at all difficult to believe a situation like this could occur. It made me think about the men and women fighting in Iraq today, and how many of them could be facing the same issues of poor commanders and situation that are not all on the up-and-up. If our people are…

References

Paths of Glory. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Perf. Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, and George Macready. United Artists, 1957.

The fact that he commits suicide supports the belief that he is unable to live with his memories in boot camp, given that he was permanently traumatized. The film's general character changes significantly after the sergeant and Pyle die and one can almost say that it turns into a typical war movie from that point on.

The Hurt Locker Although the action in this film revolves around the Iraq ar, it is not actually meant to discuss this conflict. Its main purpose is to have people acknowledge the effect that war has on soldiers and on their failure to integrate society properly consequently to taking part in a conflict. hile the film uses the character of illiam James to exemplify a soldier's experience during warfare, it can be considered to portray sentiments felt by soldiers everywhere. The masses typically see soldiers as fierce warriors capable to make it in any…

Works cited:

Dir. Bigelow, Kathryn. The Hurt Locker. Warner Bros. (Italy), Summit Entertainment/Universal Studios (USA), Optimum Releasing/Lionsgate (UK), 2009.

Dir. Coen Joel & Coen Ethan. No Country for Old Men. Miramax Films, Paramount Vantage, 2007.

Dir. Curtiz, Michael. Casablanca. Warner Bros. 1942.

Dir. Kubrick, Stanley. Full Metal Jacket. Warner Bros. 1987.

Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn

Karl Marlantes' novel of the Vietnam War, Matterhorn, seems to want to offer the reader an immersive approach towards the experience of Vietnam. If we can say of earlier Vietnam narratives -- whether in film, such as Oliver Stone's Platoon or Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, or in fiction, such as Tim O'Brien's novels Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried or Gustav Hasford's The Short-Timers (a cult classic of Vietnam fiction and the basis for Kubrick's film) -- that they have a sort of expressionistic technique, seeking to capture the experience of the war in a series of vignettes, we can see the originality of Marlantes' approach in greater relief to what has come before: his approach is not so much expressionistic as it is encyclopedic, an attempt to catalogue (in fiction) every single aspect of the one small event, the movement of a Marine…

Flew ver the Cuckoo's Nest"

Independent films have become such a mainstay of American cinema that it is difficult to tell what should be considered independent and what should be considered a major production these days. Small, independent film studios can gain such a following that they are soon producing movies that are seen by millions. f course, this was not always the case because the reason there are indie films is because of the rebellion over the control of the large studios. In the case of the movie "ne Flew ver the Cuckoo's Nest" it was an indie film, but it was seen by a large audience. Like many indie films of that time and this though, it had a flare that could not be seen in major motion pictures. Since major motion picture studios were interested more in the bottom line and worried about turning a profit for…

One only has to look at history to see the fallacy perpetrated by major motion picture studios. "They Died with Their Boots On" is a retelling of the story of the Little Bighorn massacre which starred Errol Flynn and was released by the major motion picture company Warner Bros. The movie makes a hero of Custer as he tries to run down Sitting Bull and a corrupt, gun-selling Indian agent. The picture is factually inaccurate from start to finish and perpetuates the myth that Custer was the honorable one at Little Bighorn. Sitting Bull is seen as an opportunist and a rebel who only wants to kill white people. This sort of movie was immensely popular (released in 1949) because, although everyone knew it was probably a biased retelling, it had a distinct hero and a villain (there were actually later movies which had Sitting Bull as the hero which is also factually inaccurate). Although the movie is enjoyable when an individual wants to spend a mind-numbing few hours in front of the TV, it is also a symbol of why many people were tired of major motion pictures, and why indie films have gained the traction that they currently have. A true telling of the story would reveal that neither was a hero, but that Custer, as a glory-seeker and narcissist, sacrificed his troop on a fool's errand.

In recent times, major motion picture studios have gotten the message, at least partially, that people crave a little more reality. That is why big name releases such as "American History X" and "American Beauty" were released by New Line Cinema and Dream Works respectively. These are considered indie film companies, but they are that in name only. These are both major studios that are producing edgy movies under an indie tag. Both of the releases mentioned above were both critical and box office successes because they were edgy. Another film that shows the influence that indie films has had is "Unforgiven." This is not a classic Western that has a distinct white-hatted good guy and a black hat wearing bad guy. The lines are blurred between the sheriff and the ex-outlaw. Some of the things Eastwood's outlaw character does are good, and some are not. The same can be said of Hackman's sheriff character.

These movies seem to rely on the success of such movies as "One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest." Because movie producers could see a major shift in the way they viewed edgy movies, the large motion picture studios changed the way they made movies. The money shifted, so the movie makers did also.

Bowie

olling Stone describes David Bowie as the "consummate musical chameleon" because the superstar musician continually reinvents himself and appeals to a fan base wider than most artists ("David Bowie: Biography," n.d.). Bowie was born David obert Jones in Brixton, South London, in January 1947. He started playing the saxophone at age 13, and played in several different bands during his teenage years, including the Konrads, the King Bees, David Jones and the Buzz, the King Bees, the Manish Boys (featuring Jimmy Page as a session guitarist), and Davey Jones and the Lower Third ("David Bowie: Biography," n.d.). As Crocker (2011) points out, Bowie slipped easily into London "mod" scenes as a teenager, and quickly developed his artsy chameleon style that characterized the meat of Bowie's career. Gender-bending, avant-garde performances, and avant-garde music were the cornerstones of Bowie's identity and image throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. David Bowie came…

References

Crocker, L. (2011). Nine juiciest bits from new Bowie biography. The Daily Beast. July 12, 2011. Retrieved online:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/12/david-bowie-starman-biography-9-juiciest-bits.html 

"David Bowie." Retrieved online:  http://www.biography.com/people/david-bowie-9222045 

"David Bowie: Biography," (n.d). Rolling Stone. Retrieved online:  http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/david-bowie/biography

Of note, Out of the Past was released in Europe and Great Britain as Build My Gallows High. It seems that both films could have been subtitled with this alternative note, particularly when we focus upon the editing -- each piece is but a plank in the construction of the gallows and when the camera has had enough of these nefarious people they are then cast aside as they do others (Homes).

Editing Example 2 -- Geometric vs. Sound-Based Editing- Geometric editing is essentially a technique that uses the positions of the camera, one following each other, when put together, form a geometric shape or picture of the action. For example, the interaction of close ups (when the policemen are talking, for instance) with long shots, of traffic and the city, in The Line Up. In addition, the geometry of the editing moved from box to box, almost in a…

REFERENCES

Ballinger and Graydon. The Rough Guide to Film Noir. New York: Routledge, 2007.

Christopher, N. Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City. New York: Hentry Holt, 1997.

Dancyger, K. The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice. Burlington, MA: Focal Press, 2007.

Dmytryk, E. On Film Editing. Boston: Focal Press, 1984.

In fact, in 1968 Stanley Kubrick chose Strauss's tone poem "Also Sprach Zarathustra" as the theme music for the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Strauss's inspiration for the tone poem also happened to be avant garde fellow German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche.

Strauss's and Mahler's willingness to be innovative and creative led to considerable criticism as well as acclaim. The compositions of both Strauss and Mahler are filled with an emotional intensity that reflects the troubled times and political chaos they lived through. Richard Strauss's "Metamorphosen" was purportedly composed as a reaction piece to the Nazi bombings. The emotionality present in the works of both composers places them squarely within the late Romantic tradition.

One of the most noticeable characteristics of a Mahler composition, especially evident in his symphonies, is layering, polyphony, and eclecticism. A Mahler composition wanders through peaks and valleys of different terrains, even shifting key and…

Works Cited

Coy, David E. "Richard Strauss Biography." 15 Nov 2000. Retrieved Nov 24, 2008 at http://people.unt.edu/~dmeek/dec-straussbio.html

Gustav Mahler." 8Notes.com Retrieved Nov 24, 2008 at  http://www.8notes.com/biographies/mahler.asp 

Richard Strauss." Classical Net. Retrieved Nov 24, 2008 at  http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/straussr.php 

Sadie, Stanley (Ed.) "Gustav Mahler." Classical Music Pages. 2000. Retrieved Nov 24, 2008 at http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mahler.html

Scorsese equates him with "a magician enchanted by his own magic." This freedom allowed Welles to create from narrative techniques and filmic devices a masterpiece that is self-aware of its own form. It intends to communicate this self-consciousness to the audience, thus contradicting the classical canons of filmmaking whereby the camera ought not to be noticed and the shots should be seamless. In other words, Welles expanded the art form of cinema, using the camera the way a poet uses a pen. He even created fake news footage in unique ways to enhance the film's appearance. His immense influence can be seen more on the art form as later with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Censorship was still rife in Hollywood. The league of decency suppressed adult themes. Elia Kazan's adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) was censored. What we would see now as almost innocent -- a…

This enables both Crassus and Gracchus to seem courageous. He sits on his horse, looking strong. Yet it is important to point out that unlike Spartacus, Crassus does not actually lead his horse into battle. Moreover, Spartacus and his army use creative methods such as the fire logs to launch an offense. Even if their offense might fail, Spartacus is willing to do what it takes to achieve his goals. Of Spartacus, Crassus, and Gracchus, Gracchus is the least courageous because he commits suicide at the end of the film. His suicide shows that Gracchus did not have the bravery to face reality. Spartacus, on the other hand, remains strong even when he was going to be crucified. Spartacus's bravery is one of the main reasons why he is the most outstanding leader of the film.

Spartacus also remains true to his ideals, unlike Crassus or Gracchus. For example, Spartacus…

" (p. 78)

This leads us to the very question that the achowskis struggle with in their work, casting figures such as Neo and Trinity, or Violet and Corky, into a struggle for individualism against a culture defined by demands for uniformity and male-driven values of violence and domination. here Bound relies on highly grounded visual effects to express this idea, the Matrix explores the very same themes using innovative and ground-breaking special effects. It is in this way that in the Matrix, as we become more aware of the fake things that once were presented as reality, that ripples begin to appear on the screen. hen Neo-is 'located' in the Matrix, the scene begins with his being absorbed into a mirror. The mirror ripples unnaturally and in a way that jars with the physical rules of the real world. This is a visual effect that is repeated throughout the…

Works Cited:

Bordwell, D. (2002). Intensified Continuity: Visual Style in Contemporary Hollywood

Film. Film Quarterly.

Bordwell, D. & Thomp, L. son. (1996). Film Art: An Introduction. McGraw-Hill

Companies; 5th edition (August 5, 1996).

"

Hard Target, 1993 -- His first Hollywood movie.

Face-off, 1997 -- John Travolta and Nicholas Cage helped create Woo's first real Hollywood blockbuster on the third try.

Mission Impossible 2, 2000 -- Tom Cruise. Pure, unadulterated action and thrills in true Woo style.

Windtalkers, 2002 -- discussed earlier. Critically excellent. Not a big box-office hit.

Red Cliff, 2009 -- his first movie back in Hong Kong after a long stay in Hollywood. Critically, perhaps his best effort ever (Yahoo).

Impact on Asian Cinema

To say that John Woo has had massive influence on Asian filmmaking would be appropriate. His thought-provoking style of making action films with a lot of blood, and yet containing them in a movie that projects humanity, chivalry, and sensitivity was unknown.

He brought dramatic, yet "poetic" action to action films and moral expression to filmmaking in Asia. The meticulous and disciplined narrative style of a…

Bibliography

Ebiri, B. "John Woo on Red Cliff, on Returning to Asia, and Why He's Not a Hustler." 20 November 2009. Nymag.com. 14 December 2009 .

hkfilm.net. "John Woo and the Art of the Action Movie." n.d. hkfilm.net. 14 December 2009 .

msn.com. "John Woo: Biography." 2009. msn.com. 14 December 2009 .

reporters, Tribune. "John Woo." 2009. Chicago Tribune. 14 December 2009 .

93)."

That the post modernists rejected the psychotherapy of the modernist era is by no means suggestive that the artists of the era have escaped psychological analysis. Because of the extreme nature of the pop culture, it has presented a psychological windfall for study in excessiveness. It is represented by an excess of economic affluence, drugs, sex, and expressions of behavior. The excessiveness is found not just in the music industry, but also in literature, film, and paintings and photography. It is all encompassing of all art expressions.

One important definition of the post-modern, as a radically sceptical and questioning attitude of mind, is that provided by the philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard (1984), who wrote of it in terms of 'the death of grand narratives', with Marxism and Freudianism particularly in mind. Lyotard would see as futile attempts to consider the modern and post-modern in terms of historical periodisation. For him,…

Works Cited

 http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=76905168 

Buchanan, Iain, Michael Dunn, Elizabeth Eastmond, and Frances Hodgkins. Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press, 1994. Book online. Available from Questia,  http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=76905182.Internet . Accessed 24 August 2008.  http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=21033116 

Cantor, Norman F. Modernism to Deconstruction. New York: Peter Lang, 1988. Book online. Available from Questia,  http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=21033116.Internet . Accessed 24 August 2008.

Del Loewenthal, and Robert Snell. Post-Modernism for Psychotherapists: A Critical Reader. Hove, England: Brunner-Routledge, 2003. Book online. Available from Questia,  http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107976699.Internet . Accessed 24 August 2008.  http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99670131

Curtis LeMay:

Using Hersey-lanchard leadership theory to analyze LeMay's strengths and weaknesses as a leader

Situational leadership theory and LeMay

The Japanese campaign

The Cold War

Vietnam

Contrasting military and civilian leadership

How first, personal successes influence leadership

Four-star General Curtis LeMay is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the modern U.S. Air Force. LeMay's philosophy can be summed up as follows: it is more advantageous and ultimately more compassionate to use massive levels of force against the enemy. This results in a quicker victory and ultimately preserves more civilian lives. However, LeMay's legacy as a military leader is complex. On one hand, he is credited with speeding the end of World War II, thanks to his superior leadership style, tactical ability and boldness. However, as a political leader and advocate of U.S. interests, his legacy is mixed. "When he retired in 1965, LeMay was widely…

Bibliography

Blanchard, Ken. "Situational leadership II: The article."

 http://wed.siu.edu/faculty/BPutnam/566/Situational_Leadership_Article.pdf  (accessed 7 Sept 2013)

Coffey, Thomas M. Iron Eagle: The Turbulent Life of General Curtis LeMay. New York: Crown

Publishers, 1986

movies Gladiator and Braveheart both focus on the highly popular and time-honored, classic theme of humankind's unending struggle for freedom. Braveheart and Gladiator share numerous similarities, but are very different movies, in several important ways. In both movies, the average man becomes a true hero, after he is horribly wronged, and is thereafter forced to fight for freedom for both himself and others, against what seem to be almost hopeless odds.

In these movies, the average man becomes a hero, both through circumstance, and the strength of his individual character. The average, unassuming man who evolves into a classic, but tragic hero is charismatic. It is this charisma that allows him to attract loyal followers, against their common and powerful opponents.

In both Braveheart and Gladiator, the tragic and unassuming hero ultimately suffers a horrible and dramatic death, as a result of his struggle for freedom and justice.

Certainly, both…

Works Cited

Bradley, K.R. Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1989.

Braveheart. Director: Mel Gibson. VHS, 1995.

Gladiator. Director: Ridley Scott. VHS, 2000.

Goldstein, R.J. The matter of Scotland: Historical narrative in medieval Scotland. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.

Cold War Era

Many films about the cold war era, especially the early films, speak out against its ideals, while others support these ideals. elow is a consideration of selected Cold War era films, and how these were influenced by the Cold War.

Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove is subtitled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the omb." Its producer/director is Stanley Kubrick and the film was released during 1964. The film is a satire with the aim of exposing Cold War politics that could result in absurd accidents such as a nuclear attack. The more serious film Fail-Safe, released during the same year, has often been compared with Dr. Strangelove. This is discussed in more detail later.

Part of Dr. Strangelove's theme is the evils of technology. This is the culprit causing the disastrous accident. It is interesting that a disclaimer had to accompany the film's release shortly…

Bibliography

Dirks, T. "Fail-Safe." 1996-2002.  http://www.destgulch.com/movies/fsafe/ 

North by Northwest." 1996-2002.  http://www.filmsite.org/nort.html 

Heise, H. "Dr. Strangelove." Hannover, 1996-2000.  http://www.filmsite.org/drst.html 

Hinson, H. "The Russia House" film review. The Washington Post, December 12, 1990.

film Spartacus, its historical background, the significance of the movie being made and shown in 1960's America, the real-life events occurring in the U.S. In the 1960's, the historical significance of the slave revolt of Spartacus, how gladiators and slavery in Rome relate to the movie, and background information about Rome at the time of Spartacus, including the slave revolt, and the rise of Roman generals to positions of power.

Spartacus was a slave, who is famous for having led a revolt 'the slave revolt' against the Roman Republic, from 73 D to 71 C. Spartacus was born in Thrace, a region northeast of Greece, and was a member of a group of nomadic herders and later served in the Roman Army (Sinnigen, 2003). Spartacus deserted the army, but was captured and enslaved, following which, the Romans trained him as a gladiator to fight other gladiators and wild beasts in…

Bibliography

Handlin, O. (2003). The Vietnam War. In World Book Encyclopaedia, for Apple Macintosh.

Sinnigen, H.D. (2003). Spartacus. In World Book Encyclopaedia, for Apple Macintosh.  http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/spartacus.html 'Spartacus: Historical background'. Accessed on 26th January 2004.  http://reviews.imdb.com/Reviews/140/14080.Review  of Spartacus (1960) presented on the World Wide Web by Brian Koller. Accessed on 26th January 2004.  http://www.historyinfilm.com/spart/ .'Spartacus'. Review of the film, and of the historical context of the film. Accessed on 26th January 2004.

Cold War dominated American culture, consciousness, politics and policy for most of the 20th century. Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the fall of the Iron Curtain and therefore finale of the Cold War, Cold War rhetoric and politics continued especially in the War on Terror. Depictions of the Cold War in American literature and film parallel the changes that took place in American ways of thinking about its own domestic policies as well as American perceptions of the alien enemy or "Other." Tracing the evolution of American film and literature from the end of World War Two until the 1980s reveals trends in thought. Early depictions of the Cold War were modernist in their approach, with clear distinctions between good and evil and no moral ambiguity whatsoever. Clear delineations between right/wrong and good/evil prevailed, a form of political propaganda and even brainwashing that prepped the…

References

Booker, K.M. (2001). Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Comyn, J. (2014). "V2 to Bomarc: Reading Gravity's Rainbow in Context." Orbit 2(2). Retrieved online: https://www.pynchon.net/owap/article/view/62/174

Hamill, J. (1999). Confronting the Monolith: Authority and the Cold War in Gravity's Rainbow. Journal of American Studies 33(3): 417-436.

Jarvis, C. (n.d.). The Vietnamization of World War II in Slaughterhouse Five and Gravity's Rainbow. Retrieved online:  http://www.wlajournal.com/15_1-2/jarvis%2095-117.pdf

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…

Metal Jacket" Analysis

How does the director use the elements of the film, such as music, photography, sets dialogue, etc., to give the story a sense of realism? Give example to explain. "Gunny" on the History Channel's "Mail Call" was a former drill sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps; his language is fairly reflective of that used by the drill sergeant in Kubrick's production, only Gunny's language is cleaned up for public consumption. Kubrick, though, makes it clear that notwithstanding General Patton's reprimand for slapping a combat-fatigued Army soldier, the U.S. Marines would curse you and beat the hell out of you if you did not shape up to their standards. The language, brutality and downright cruelty shown by the drill sergeants in this movie were all highly effective in communicating a sense of in-your-face realism about what was taking place; further, the military base sets used for the training…

The Godfather is the quintessential example of the gangster genre, which includes “films that deal with organized crime, often with mob families,” (Chapter 4). In fact, The Godfather also fits squarely within the gangster genre because it is nostalgic and romanticized, offering “recreations of past eras” in which Italian-American mafia families like the Corleones did dominate both licit and illicit business activities and politics in American cities. A sub-genre of the crime film, gangster movies like The Godfather are unique because the audience is rooting for the bad guys, not the cops. Even when the protagonists of the film kill people, they are still tragic heroes. “Many gangster characters then had a certain mystique that made them appealing, almost heroic, in their ability to overcome youthful poverty and oppression to rise in power and wealth,” (Chapter 4).
In The Godfather, Michael Corleone did not necessarily overcome poverty, because he was…

Cultural in the United States

Compare and contrast what Morris Berman, Frank Capra, and David Fincher present as the flaws in our culture's pursuit of material self-interest.

Morris Berman, Frank Capra, and David Fincher present the society in postmodern consumer where the masculine identity is lost: the gray-collar male personnel and the satisfaction socially created by the society focused in materialism. Technology is the baseline for Berman's argument. The argument goes well-known to Neil Postman, and McLuhan Marshal it is not normal, not only does it change the way we connect with the rest of the world, but it also gets our brains wired (Berman 21). A normal brain of a person who has been print raised differs with a big margin from that of a person who, most of his time is corrupted by the internet.

However, the significance of the internet is making a reduction to our understanding…

Work Cited

Berman, Morris. Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012. Print.

Frank, Capra. It's a Wonderful Life: A Play in Two Acts. Woodstock, Ill: Dramatic Pub, 2008.

Print.

Finchers, David. "fight Club." Mu-nchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2007. Internet resource.