Film

Beginning roughly with the release of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Loved the Bomb in 1964, and continuing for about the next decade, the “Sixties” era of filmmaking made many lasting impressions on the motion picture industry. Although editing and pacing styles varied greatly from Martin Scorcesse’s hyperactive pace, to … Read more

The film Cruel Intentions is a narration based on a bet between two step-siblings exploring society’s sexual boundaries. We are first introduced to Sebastian, a fifth year high school Senior with no respect for anyone/ thing except his own reputation of sexual conquest. His stepsister Kathryn is, well, as she puts it “I’m the Marsha … Read more

This film, from 1979 was directed by Francis Ford Coppula and starred Martin Sheen (Capt. Willard) and Marlon Brando (Col. Kurtz). The film takes place during the 1970’s in the middle of the Vietnam War. Coppula was rewarded for his hard work by winning the Academy Award for cinematography. The story is based on the … Read more

This is a critique of” Roger And Me”, a documentary by Michael Moore. This is a film about a city that at one time had a great economy. The working class people lived the American dream. The majority of people in this town worked at the large GM factory. The factory is what gave these … Read more

In the film, “Citizen Kane” directed by Orson Welles, Charles Foster Kane had built an entire empire around Xanadu. With all of his money, he was never truly happy. He had bought many things for the wives that he had, but they too were also never truly happy. His wives wanted something from him that … Read more

The film La Triviata displayed a fundamental romantic attack on conventional bourgeois morals, arguing that a good heart is more important than social acceptance, that the distinctions which split the beau monde (socially elite) from the demimonde (courtesans) are harsh and hypocritical, and that true love must triumph over all. Alfredos father destroyed this relationship … Read more

Affliction, based on the novel by Russell Banks, was very interesting, mysterious, and kept you guessing up until it was over. The actors/actresses portrayed in the movie was Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte), Wade’s girlfriend Margie Fogg (Sissy Spacek), Glen Whitehouse (James Coburn), Rolfe Whitehouse (William Defoe), Lillian (Mary Beth Hurt), Jill (Brigid Tierney), and Jack … Read more

Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange was a deeply disturbing depiction of human nature that shed light onto dark thoughts in the character’s soul. Alex seems to have no regard for human decency or human life. He and his gang of friends kill at will. They have no purpose for their violent outbursts other than to shock … Read more

In Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Sidney Lumet and Stanley Kubrick question the relationship between technology and humanity by emphasizing mankind’s tendency to create machines that cannot be adequately controlled. By blatantly revealing the absurdity of game theory (Mutual Assured Destruction as a reasonable … Read more

Pieces of a puzzle slowly fitting together, to reveal a picture. This is an accurate description of how the film, Gummo by Harmony Korine pans out. Through a series of quite disturbing yet visually stimulating vignettes, Korine somehow relays a tragic story. Essentially, the film is a collection of random events that are assimilated into … Read more

Director Ridley Scott’s Postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot be destroyed, because it’s destruction leads to silence, must be revisited. So memories and emotions are meaningless without immortality. ” Like tears in the rain. ” Director Scott has a chilling story to tell, and there is a … Read more

The period of American cinema between 1965 and 1975 produced many films that almost completely restructured classical Hollywoods accepted genre conventions. A fine example of this would be Robert Altman’s iconoclastic take on Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye (1973), a detective film based on the final book in Chandlers Philip Marlowe series. … Read more

Lords of the darkness, Darkling Dancers, Nosferatu, Vrikolakas. And the list goes on like this. The vampire concept is thought by the most to be a myth that has crept into almost every culture. It has influenced many writers to write novels on them and many directors to shoot films on. Vampire myths go back … Read more

Apocalypse Now is a film about madness. In this film, Willard, played by Charlie Sheen, is sent through madness, reminiscent of Dantes’ journey through hell. His mission is to kill Kurtz, who’s gone insane according to military intelligence. Kurtz has gone on his own, starting his own society in Cambodia, where his troops and the … Read more

Thus far, most discussions of cinema in the digital age have focused on the possibilities of interactive narrative. It is not hard to understand why: since the majority of viewers and critics equate cinema with storytelling, digital media is understood as something which will let cinema tell its stories in a new way. Yet as … Read more

Whether it be through his epic Star Wars saga, or through the exalted special effects crew he pioneered, Industrial Light and Magic, he continues to amaze audiences world wide. His name in synonymous with famous directors/producers in the world. His impacts reach out in more fields than just film. He has created companies that produce … Read more

The theory of authorship as applied to film directors is a subject that is argued extensively throughout the film world. The auteur theory was first introduced in the French film journal Cahiers du Cinema. Andrew Sarris who suggested that there are a group of filmmakers who fit into this category brought the theory to America. … Read more

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is a brilliant, cult classic Science Fiction/Film Noir that takes a look at the future of man in 2019 California. The film offers a bleak view of the future from the very beginning, with dark skies and endless cityscape. Although it is not explained why, we know there is very little … Read more

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau is one of the most important filmmakers of the cinema during Weimar Republic period. He is often grouped with Fritz Lang and G. W. Pabst as the “big three” directors of Weimar Germany. He finished his career in Hollywood and was killed at a young age in a car crash. Three of … Read more

I am going to be talking about Stanley Kubricks 2001: a space odyssey, focusing (obviously) on the music, but also the sound. I will also be incorporating elements from Mark Millers article 2001 – a cold descent 2001: A Space Odyssey, introduced in 1968, is a high concept production that begins by tracing the Dawn … Read more

Also known as “white heat” films and “the real thing,” the snuff film myth lives on like Bigfoot, despite the fact that no law enforcement agency in America has publicly admitted to ever locating one. Alan Sears, former executive director of the Attorney General’s commission on pornography during 1985-86, agrees with the more than two … Read more

Wait, are you telling me that Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys addresses women’s issues? If “women’s issues” include understanding why guys spit, scratch themselves, and give each other noogies, well then this book certainly addresses them! As for addressing the whole bit about a patriarchal world history, the subjugation of women, and accused responsibility … Read more

David Lynch’s Blue Velvet is an exploration of things above and below the surface. This surface is really a borderline between not only idyllic suburban America and the dark, perverted corruption that lies underneath but also between good and evil, conscious and subconscious, dream and reality. Although this division seems quite rigid and clean-cut some … Read more

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, and directed by Robert Weine. It was produced in 1919 by Erich Pommer for Decla-Bioscop. 1919 was a year in which the movie industry was transformed into a giant industry. Although the movie was produced in 1919, it was not released in … Read more

In this paper I will discuss Brazil and it’s current film industry. I will elucidate its role in the Brazilian economy, and also what part the government deals in the industry itself. Certain Brazilian films will be given as representations towards my theories. Within a year of the Lumiere brother’s first experiment’ in Paris in … Read more

War is an ever-present entity in the world of cinema. The films Braveheart and Full Metal Jacket show strikingly similar, yet different aspects of war. Braveheart is an epic tale of love lost and how the circumstances surrounding that loss contributed in sparking one man’s emotions, eventually leading to a bloody rebellion and his country’s … Read more

As I watched “The Crucible” taking shape as a movie over much of the past year, the sheer depth of time that it represents for me kept returning to mind. As those powerful actors blossomed on the screen, and the children and the horses, the crowds and the wagons, I thought again about how I … Read more

Many young people today are learning about their world through electronic means radio, television, video movies, computer games, virtual reality games and the Internet. In particular the visual environment of the electronic media is greatly attracting the print media in all its forms. How many children read comic books these days? Most would rather watch … Read more