...Introduction This is a critical analysis paper using sociological literature to analyze the movie “Soul Food.” The topics I plan to analyze are coming to terms with death, family values during and after the death of a loved one and the ability to move past the hurt and pain after a death occurs. Soul Food depicts an African American family with many underlying issues for each child in relation to each other and also in relation to themselves individually. Mother Joe is the patriarch of the family who, despite her every effort to maintain peace and harmony, has her hands full with her daughters. Family is the thread of our society. Success for an individual is measured by the way he or she interacts with family. In relation to death and dying, the movie, Soul Food has every element that families encounter when attempting to grasp the concept of a loved one dying. The overall summary of this movie is about a matriarch, Mama Joe, who is adamant about family. She has three daughters, all with differing dramas in their lives, and issues with each other’s lives. Every Sunday, the family would gather at Mama Joe’s for Sunday dinner. There, family conflict would begin, be discussed and most times, end over dinner. Traditions are begun at the table and never forgotten because of Mama Joe. Children With Differing Personalities Dealing With A Major Life Change The daughters in this movie are seen in varying ways. In each of their respective ways, all daughters love their mother and care...
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...successful box business, who is married to a devoted wife, which they have a loving daughter together and love unconditionally. But Mr. Brooks has a terrible secret that he has been able to hide from everyone. That terrible secret happens to be that he is a psychopathic serial killer who is known in media as the “Thumbprint Killer.” Being a wealthy, successful businessman recently honored by the Portland, Oregon, Chamber of Commerce as "Man of the Year" as well as a philanthropist no one has ever suspected him. Being unable to control his horrific addiction, Brooks gives in to his sadistic, all too real alter ego “Marshall” played by William Hurt. A pesky, voyeuristic witness “Mr. Smith,” played by Dane Cook catches him in the act of his latest crime. The rush that Mr. Smith felt after seeing Mr. Brooks brutally kill a couple he used to watch and take pictures of while engaging in sexual activities has set him on a path of destruction and he is taking all the wrong steps to get there. Then there’s the detective, “Tracy Atwood,” played by Demi Moore who has been on the case for quite some time without Mr. Brooks knowledge of it adds a few twists and turns to an already terrifying game of cat and mouse. The way the script has been written, is a “moral” one. You have a man, “Mr. Brooks” who is fighting multiple demons. One demon is his addiction to killing people. “Mr. Brooks” claims in the movie that “he doesn’t kill people because he enjoys killing them. He kills them because...
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...Gender Roles and Disney The Disney princess has become one of the most iconic symbols of Walt’s ever growing empire. The disney Princess’ franchise first began in 1937 with the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs making Snow White the first princess in the now infamous princess lineup. The franchise continues with the most recent disney princess movie Tangled ( Rapunzel) which came out in 2011. Disney and their filmmakers caused great controversy with their princess’ such as race. Disney broke their european tradition by adding their first African American Princess to the line up. Princess Tiana of The Princess and the Frog in 2009 which still caused controversy. Another one of Disney’s biggest controversial topics was gender roles and how women and men are portrayed in these disney films. Gender roles are separate patterns of personality traits, mannerisms, interests, attitudes, and behaviors that are regarded as either "male" or "female" by one's culture. They are what is considered the “ Norm” for the male and female sex. There are stereotypical behaviors normally associated with either gender such as Women are suppose to be more passive aggressive, overly emotional, and illogical, just to name a few characteristics. While men tend to be more tough or in control, leaders, Not crying or wimpy and a womanizer As suggested in Kimmel’s “ Bros before Hos”: The Guy Code in Language Awareness (469). These same messages are often presented to children through the media they...
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...I. TITLE: Baler II. AUTHOR: Roy Iglesias III. SETTING Time and Place: The setting of the movie was in 1898 where a band of Spanish soldiers heroically defended Baler (which would later be the capital of Aurora in 1951) against Filipino forces for337 long and grueling days. IV. CHARACTER Celso Ressurecion – half-indio and half-spanish youth from Pampanga Feliza Reyes – daughter of a Filipino insurgent general Nanding Reyes – Feliza’s father and head of the nationalist rebel group in Baler Azon Reyes – Feliza’s mother Gabriel Reyes – Feliza’s younger brother 2nd Lt. Saturnino Martin Cerezo Capt. Enrique Fossi de las Morenas – replace Lt. Mota as the head of the Spanish in Baler Col. Calixto Villacorte Commandante Teodorico Luna Novicio Fr. Candido Gomez Carreno – parish priest Lt. Jose Mota – head of the Spanish army in Baler Lope – friend of Celso Luming – friend of Feliza V. SUMMARY/PLOT: The story happened during the siege of Baler. A battle between the Filipino forces and Spanish battalion in 1898. A young Filipina, named Feliza who fell inlove with a half Spanish and a half Filipino young...
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..."I am Sam" is a touched movie of the relationship of a mentally handicapped father—Sam and a very sensible daughter—Lucy. Sam is special, because he only has the seven years old children’s IQ, just so he has a good character and live a happy life. Sam is simple and pure, so that people feel easy and relaxed to associate with him. Although he is a retard, he is not self-abased but beams with smiles all day. He is like a clear spring infusing into the fierce competitive society, which can warm the cold hearts of people in the modern society. Moreover, Sam had a positive attitude to his life and his job. In spite of his handicap, he did his best to live and work with the spirit of persistence. For instance, when Sam and Rita had lunch, he wanted to treat Rita in order to prove that he had the ability to live. Another example is that he did a good job in the coffeehouse he worked, making the owner intended to give him a promotion. When talking about his persistence, it is clearly showed in the movie that he kept his resolve to ask Rita to be his lawyer. It was this persistence that gave him the chance to have his pro bono lawyer. In addition, Sam lives a simple life. It is only a simple reason that can drive him to happiness or sadness. For example, Sam together with his friends accompanied Lucy to buy clothes, after buying they held air balloons passing the avenues with delight. Thus we can see that their worlds are such simple and joyful. What’s more, Sam is...
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...Name Professor’s Name Course Date Analysis of Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan in ‘The Help” (2011) This paper is set to take a detailed look at Skeeter in the film known as ‘The Help’. In the movie Skeeter is presented as a 22 year old white lady who has recently graduated from Ole Miss College. In addition, she is a fortunate daughter of a large scale cotton farmer at Jackson in Mississippi. Her nickname, Skeeter is given to her by her older brother due to size at birth. He thought she took after a skeeter. Upon her return from school, she realizes a degree of modifications based on the issue of racism. To be precise, she has a changed perception on the relationship between the members of the white households and afro American maids. She wonders why her society adopts a double standard notion at looking at individuals. For instance, she is surprised at the fact that the whites would not let their maids use the same lavatories as them, yet entrusting them (black maids) with the care of their children. Her attitude is heavily attributed to the absence of her favorite maid. She feels it was unfair for Constantine to leave without informing her. As a result, she suspects that something awful must have compelled her to part ways with her family. She later realizes that Constantine had been relieved off her duties upon her act of reuniting with her daughter, Lullabelle Bates. Another change worth noting in Skeeter revolves around the nexus between education...
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...17 Again By Burr Steers In this essay, I am going to analysis a moving image text through the film techniques and media theories I have learnt in this term. The film is called “17 again”, which is directed by Burr Steers and written by Jason Filardi. This movie is took place in USA and released in 10 April 2009. The budget of this movie is $20000000 US and the final gross is $64149837 US which is a great success. This story is taking about the main character-Mike O’Donnell ( Zac Efron) whose life didn't quite turn out how he wanted it to and wishes he could go back to high school and change it. He wakes up one day and is seventeen again and gets the chance to rewrite his life. The genre of this film is comedy romance, which is a hybrid genre as I can find lots of signs and conventions in the movie. For examples, the kissing scenes and some silly reactions of the characters can be found in the movie. What’s more, the lighting in this film is high-key lighting which connotes the meaning of happiness and serenity. Moreover, the mode of address in this film is indirect to the audience which was used the third person angle to encode the meaning to the audience. On the other hand, I choose this movie because of few reasons. Firstly, I love the main character- Zac Efron very much. He has acted in many teenage romance films before, for instance, High School Musical 1, 2 and3. After I watched the High School Musical, I admire his out-looking and his acting skills. Therefore...
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...(Bourdain, A, 2000). From the viewpoint of communication studies, food has been, and remains to be, a significant representation in our foundation of meaning. Food, as an everyday necessity of social life, is an important aspect to study as it expresses current social studies through distinct relationships of class, education, gender, and sexuality. In addition, the customs of sharing foods and meals have been key in communicative practices in cultures all over the world. In the following paragraphs, the Taiwanese feature film Eat Drink Man Woman, managed and written by well-known director Ang Lee, who also successfully directed movies such as Brokeback Mountain and Hulk, will be analyzed to see how food is constructed and represented in the movie. In the film it is stated by character Jia-Chien that they “communicate by eating” (Lee, A, 1994). This is important because it displays that food is a form of expression and communication, a form that is commonly misunderstood or avoided. The film Eat Drink Man Woman, articulates communication family and loved ones by representing food as a symbol of the presented themes of relationships, displayed through illustrations of love and admiration. According to PBS, “There is no closer relationship than kin, and food plays a large part in defining family roles, rules, and traditions” (PBS, 2005). The text Eat Drink Man Woman...
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...ETHICAL DILEMMA An ethical dilemma can be defined as a complex situation that often involves an apparent mental conflict between moral imperatives. In this movie context, an ethical dilemma is a debate between two moral principles, where two sides can argue about what is wrong or what is right. This is simply because each person has their own self-interest. However, there is no real answer to an ethical dilemma. It is simply a matter of what one believes in. In this movie, it tells us the story of parents who conceived a daughter which is Anna through genetic engineering in purpose to save her elder daughter Kate who was the patient of leukemia by donating her sister the blood and other body organs like kidney and marrow all over her life span. The ethical dilemma issue was portrayed in the movie started when Anna want to protect her own body from medical procedure by engage a lawyer and filed a law suit of medical emancipation against her parents. Now the question arises who is ethically correct? Whether Anna or her parents. Both sides argue that they are right and have a right to do so. From the parents’ perspective, the mother, Sarah fitzgerald strongly stick with ethics of care which a person should take care of the person close to him or dependent upon him. In this case, Kate depending on Anna for her living and Anna should help her out in every possible way. During the court session, Sarah make statement that people give their kidney to total stranger and...
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...Eyewitness Memory in Accuracy on Recall of 2nd Year Students of Daughters of Mary Immaculate School (DMI) Beginning from the conception until our present condition, we possess a certain characteristics which can only be found in ourselves. It is a unique way to see that everyone can speak in different way and act in different manner. We perceive different things in accordance with what our sensation sense. We can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel a stimulus and tend to bring that information in the brain for our own interpretation. After reaching it to the brain, the person produces reactions whether it is acceptable or not on particular setting. If it is unanimously acceptable to all, it doesn’t mean that we all have the same way of thinking or in a state of group mind. Every individual can still showcase another different facial expression after they come up to a decision. This is why individual differences are obviously seen to all individual. One of the basic parts of the body that can be the medium for accepting information towards our environment are eyes. It plays a vital role in encoding all perceived stimuli to our brain. From the part of the retina which is rods and cones, the information is relay to the ganglion cells and transmitted to the optic nerve until it reached to the occipital lobe. This is one part of the brain that responsible for the process of visual information. Stimulus that reached to the brain can either be remembered or not. Memory has the ability...
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...as “the Finches” experience and face the trials of living in a small Alabaman Town called Maycomb. The book itself was written by Harper Lee, a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. When the novel was turned to a movie, there were many challenges that the director had to face while turning this classic novel into life. The director Robert Mulligan had to make sure the movie itself is an excellent adaptation of the book within the restrictions of creating a movie such as time limit, audience restrictions, money, and making sure to not replicate the entire book. This is why a book is better in an aspect as there are not as many restrictions to when creating a book compared to a movie. The film and the novel itself has many similarities and differences, however it is upon whether or not the film is a successful adaptation and portrays the theme of racial injustice. This film is a reasonable adaptation as it demonstrates the message of the film using the same context as the book and brings the characters to life in a creative way. There is great screenplay and dialogue amongst the characters which allows the audience to understand the movie thoroughly. However, there are key components which are missing from the novel that pay resemblance to the message that could’ve made this movie more outstanding in relation to racism. In order for the film to be an effective adaptation, it must have the same storyline, good development of characters, and portray the same message as the story. The storyline...
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...Movie Analysis John J. Sullivan Rasmussen College Author Note This research is being submitted on, September 19, 2014, for Heidi Croatt’s G141/COM1002 Section 01 Introduction to Communication - 2014 Summer Quarter. John Sullivan [Final Draft] September 19, 2014 The movie CRASH covers thirty-six hours of encounters between people of different races. Within that thirty six-hour period, interactions between strangers turn into heated racial arguments, full of hatred, fear, compassion and understanding. The movie portrays interactions between people of different races and some of the same race, causing tension and racial slurs. The movie illustrates that whenever race is an issue conflict in communication is inevitable. Communication through facial expressions/gestures is the only form that does not seem to have a racial barrier. Communication is an important factor in everyday life. However, in the movie, crash communication between the individuals created misunderstanding aggravated by racial differences. This is displayed right away in the first seen where two cars crash. Ria, a Puerto Rican detective who was driving her car, was rear-ended by an Asian woman. The following argument ensued, (Haggis, 2004) Motorcycle Cop: Calm down, ma'am. Kim Lee: I am calm. Motorcycle Cop: I need to see your registration and insurance. Kim Lee: Why? Not my fault! It's her fault! She do this! Ria: [approaching] My fault? Motorcycle Cop: Ma'am, you really need to wait in your...
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...makes. For example, Mildred is in a situation where she is jobless and does not have a husband who can support her. Therefore she steps out of her boundaries and takes a stand to find a job and eventually open a business. She does become successful but she has to give up on her personal life to become more successful and support her daughter. She chooses this lifestyle and has lives with the downfalls of the choices she made. In this case, she is dealing with the downfall of working very hard and not having much of a personal life. This suggests the fact that a woman has to choose from a bunch of choices. 2. Into which Women’s Film category (Molly Haskell's four categories) would you place Mildred Pierce? Why? (Use the Woman's Film Lecture notes for this question). Molly Haskell discusses four categories in Women’s Film- sacrifice, affliction, choice, and competition. Mildred Peirce would definitely be considered in the sacrifice category, because the whole movie is about Mildred making sacrifices to satisfy her daughter Velds needs and wants. This was shown right in the beginning when Bert left Mildred because she cared more for her daughters then him. After having...
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...FILM 3759G Dr. Christopher J Mitchell Chengdong Hu Analysis of Cultural Denotation and Humanity in Ang Lee’s Films Ang Lee’s film works, not only in the business, but in artistic level won the world audience recognition. He grew up in a traditional Chinese family and study in the United States. The differences between eastern and western culture took a sharp collision in his heart, and it revealed without hiding in his movie and finally become his own unique aesthetic features. This article try to read Lee’s creative thought and artistic style through analysis and research of Lee’s special culture background master’s creative ideas, and learn more about the human temperament of the director which is full glory of human nature. First, this article will introduce about Ang Lee’s growing environment and studying experiences, in order to analysis the formation of his Chinese and Western characteristics. Secondly, through multiple films, the article would analysis of the impact of the East-West cultural collision and merger. Furthermore, a comprehensive interpretation of Ang’s unique film elements and the traits would be expounded. Abstract Ang Lee, Taiwan filmmaker, however, doesn’t have the same characteristics with other Taiwan film makers. He is like a movie ranger, with no specific cultural identity, however, simultaneously, it could be find a certain kind of familiar cultural identity on him, especially in his...
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...appearance of life but the inner reality, life as felt rather than as seen (Barnet 519). The Glass Menagerie is mostly expressionistic: the first sentence of the Production Notes declares that “it is a memory play.” The term “memory play” suggests that it is a play worked out in one’s mental process, rather than a realistic representation. Instead of external reality, the inner vision becomes the primary concern of expressionistic drama. Thus this paper focuses on the repressed state of each character in the Wingfield family, and tries to shed light on their inner psychology by means of psychoanalytical approach. As a mother figure, Amanda is quite distinctive from those in conventional drama. With the father absent for years, Amanda takes on not only maternal nuturing responsibilities but also the paternal disciplinary role. She is a breadwinner (though partly) as well as a caretaker. Yet in her attempt to fulfill this double-sided role, she actually encounters a series of frustrations and repressions, which provoke her to escape into the retreat of past. In the play, what characterizes Amanda is her poignant sentiment toward the Old South days. She believes in the myth of “gracious living, family tradition, chivalry, coquetry” (Senata 23). Obsessed with the past, she frequently retold her memory as a young girl who received at most seventeen gentleman callers within a Sunday afternoon. Once these memories are provoked, “her eyes lift, her face glows, and her voice becomes rich and...
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