...I LOVE YOU 1 An Analysis of P.S. I Love You Tammy McDaniel ENG 225 Jonathan Beller August 15, 2011 P.S. I Love You 2 An Analysis of P.S. I Love You The 2007 film, P.S. I Love You, is a film about learning to let go and move on with your life after the death of a spouse. The Film stars Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby and Gerard Butler, 300. It also stars Lisa Kudrow as Denise, Gina Gershon as Sharon, James Marsters as John, Kathy Bates as Patricia (Holly's mom), Nellie McKay as Ciara (Holly's sister), Harry Connick Jr. as Daniel, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as William. This paper will critique the film, 'P.S. I Love You,' through textual and formal analysis focusing on the following elements.. Storytelling, Acting, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Style and Directing, Societal Impact, Genre, and Film Criticism and Analysis. By examining the films technical elements, you can gain a better understanding of the director's vision of the film. P.S. I Love You is a 2007 American drama directed by Richard LaGavenese. The screenplay by LaGavenese and Steven Rogers is based on the 2004 novel P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern. This film was shot on locations in New York City and county Wicklow, Ireland.(Imdb.com) In this film, P.S. I Love You, Hilary Swank plays Holly, an American who marries an Irishman,Gerry (played by Gerard Butler). Gerry is Holly's soul mate, the love of her life. A few weeks shy of her 30th birthday Gerry...
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...ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE PRECIOUS The movie Precious is based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, which was written in 1996. The main character is Claireece Precious Jones called Precious. She is an overweight teenage girl, who lives with her mom in a tenement in the slum of New York, the Bronx. Precious suffers from both psychically and sexual abuse from both her father and mother, and she has had two children, both with her father at the age of 16. At home Precious mom beats her, and treats her terribly, but Precious is also having a hard time at school. She is stuck at 9th grade when she actually should be in 12th grade. After all Precious still has dreams for her life. She is fantasising about being a singer, model or just being a famous celebrity. During the movie, you see small clips of Precious imagination. The clips are very bright, happy and colourful compared to the rest of the movie. I believe these fantasies, and the light setting in them are a symbols for Precious hope for the future. But at the same time the happy bright dreams is a reflection of Precious true personality, hidden behind all of her anger and sadness. She is desperately hoping that one day someone will break trough to her, or she will break trough to someone. Her life is grey and sad, and these dreams are her way of holding on. When something bad happens, she dreams herself away to a better place, because the truth is too hard to handle. One of the times Precious dreams herself away is during...
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...meaning and origin. But to look closely in it superficial level, one audience or viewer would conclude that the movie, Transcendence, is about technology and how devastating it would be to human race if not regulate its usage and functions. On the other hand, looking in its deeper level, we can say that the movie is about finding treatment to all the sickness, diseases and problems in the world. The flow of my paper would be First, using the lens of Heidegger in discussing the film and some scenes in it. Second, using the ideas of Sartre, particularly facticity, transcendence and bad faith, in analyzing the movie and lastly, combining the thoughts of Heidegger and Sartre. I. Heidegger A. “The being of Dasein means ahead-of-itself-already-in (the-world) as being-alongside (entities encountered within-the-world)” This notion of Heidegger is clearly seen in the first part of movie. As we can see, the pattern of the movie is that Max, from the present state, somewhat rekindle everything (and the story starts) from the start until the couple died, back to the present again and somewhat gives a glimpse of the future. Although the pattern use by Heidegger is ordered as future, past and present, the pattern in the movie is present, past, present and future. This would be the plot of the movie as the director and the writers intended to do; yet in a deeper analysis, we can see also the care structure of Heidegger. In the middle of the story, Max has his “projection”, to use...
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...African American Stereotypes in Movies Media Research Methods CO 455 November 20, 2012 African American Stereotypes in Movies Introduction There once was a time when everyone expected the black man to be the first actor to die in every movie that possessed a black man in its cast. However, over time the assumption of the black man being the first to die has changed. Currently in the year 2012, there are progressively more movies in which black men portray leading roles. This change in black men as leading characters in movies is a welcome change. In the past, supporting or backup roles were considered the best role a black man could achieve. In this paper, the researcher will conduct information by means of content analysis. Content analysis is the most commonly used methodology because of its ability to measure human behavior, assuming that the verbal behavior is a form of behavior. This study will examine specific media products and define these products by determining smaller elements that complement these products. This document will address a wide view of concerns regarding the African American culture, and will provide assumptions on how this issue can be addressed in the future. The stereotype of African Americans in movies today, is the topic of this research paper. Why do African Americans face stereotypes in the media? Why do black actors and actresses have difficulty obtaining roles that are not stereotypical...
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...Eyes Were Watching God tells a story about a young woman going through life and finding her voice, the movie made by Oprah Winfrey flips the story and its characters making the main character and everyone in the story different. Oprah does a wonderful job at completely destroying the morals of the time period, and the symbols shown in the book. The movie changes relationships making the main character stronger and more independent. The beautiful love story shown by Oprah became a ridiculous rendition of Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel missing key elements from the book. Oprah Winfrey completely disregards the moral fiber of the time period. In the movie some scenes got extremely graphic with the kissing and love making. These scenes...
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...Spring Quarter Movie Analysis – Juno By: Hope Schabel Juno is a movie that came out in 2007 written by Diablo Cody, and directed by Jason Reitman. Juno is based on a young girl who gets pregnant at sixteen years old and has to make some hard decisions about how to proceed regarding her unexpected pregnancy. Juno first goes to an abortion clinic but then decides to have her baby and put the baby up for adoption because she realizes she is too young for the responsibility of taking care of a baby. Juno goes to the baby’s father, Paulie, to tell him she is pregnant and see how he feels about giving the baby up. Paulie agrees with Juno. The rest of the movie takes us through Juno’s experience finding an adoptive family, her pregnancy, the internal battles she is facing with finding the right family, having to give her baby up, and trying to maneuver through an adult situation being only a teenager and understand it all. In the end Juno does give the baby up for adoption and even though difficult she begins to learn to move on and live her life again as a teenager knowing her baby is in the very capable, loving hands of Vanessa, the adoptive mother. During the course of this communication analysis paper the two key comminution elements of Juno that will be focused on will be, the exchange theory (cost/reward) and artifacts. Juno is an excellent movie that can teach us how important it is to have good communication skills, which can help us navigate through life during some of...
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...ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE PRECIOUS The movie Precious is based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, which was written in 1996. The main character is Claireece Precious Jones called Precious. She is an overweight teenage girl, who lives with her mom in a tenement in the slum of New York, the Bronx. Precious suffers from both psychically and sexual abuse from both her father and mother, and she has had two children, both with her father at the age of 16. At home Precious mom beats her, and treats her terribly, but Precious is also having a hard time at school. She is stuck at 9th grade when she actually should be in 12th grade. After all Precious still has dreams for her life. She is fantasising about being a singer, model or just being a famous celebrity. During the movie, you see small clips of Precious imagination. The clips are very bright, happy and colourful compared to the rest of the movie. I believe these fantasies, and the light setting in them are a symbols for Precious hope for the future. But at the same time the happy bright dreams is a reflection of Precious true personality, hidden behind all of her anger and sadness. She is desperately hoping that one day someone will break trough to her, or she will break trough to someone. Her life is grey and sad, and these dreams are her way of holding on. When something bad happens, she dreams herself away to a better place, because the truth is too hard to handle. One of the times Precious dreams herself away is during...
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...“American Violet” Critical Analysis Ashley ReBarker SOCI 3025 Dr. Sitawa Kimuna The “American Violet” sparks up a lot of issues that we see today in our society. These issues are very important as they deal with equality among our citizens but they may often be overlooked. The issue I am going to discuss in this critical analysis is Racial Prejudice in the Criminal Justice System. Racial prejudice happens every day and may never completely end, but one would think that it would not take place in a professional, uniform place such as the Criminal Justice System. After watching this movie, I have been taken back by the actions of the people in charge of this system. The 14th Amendment states that “ no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; no shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (U.S Constitution). The individuals in this film were not treated equally compared to the whites in this town and this was the result of racial prejudice. Dee, the main character of the movie, is a mom to four kids in a small town in Texas. The movie starts out with the SWAT team/policemen raiding the “projects” where Dee lives. At this time Dee is at work at a local café where they eventually find her at and arrest right on the spot. Not once do they tell her what she is being arrested...
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...Viewing/Paper of Sweet Charity Plot Synopsis: The movie Sweet Charity begins with Charity singing through Central Park with her ‘boyfriend’ Charlie. Hopelessly romantic and optimistic, Charity believes they will get married and even has a tattoo of his name on her arm. However, as Charity is about to make a wish, Charlie pushes her off a bridge and steals her entire lifesavings. In denial about what happened Charity returns to her work as a Dance Hall Hostess at the Fandango Ballroom and tries to convince her taxi dancer friends Nickie and Helene that Charlie will be back. Upon leaving work, Charity runs into the famous Italian actor Vittorio Vidal having an argument with his girlfriend Ursula. When Ursula departs in a cab, Vittorio asks a nosy and starstruck Charity to accompany him to a party. At the party Charity finds herself surrounded by luxury and fame and upon leaving the party the two return to Vittorio’s luxurious apartment where Charity is overwhelmed by the sheer extravagance and refers back to her life due to a “fickle finger of fate”. As she thinks back to her taxi dancer friends, she begins in song wishing her friends could only see her now. She then realizes that her friends would never believe her. It is then that Vittorio autographs a picture made out to Charity and givers her a few mementos from his old movies to remember him by and to use as proof. Unfortunately, Ursula unexpectedly shows up causing Vittorio to hide Charity in the closet for the rest of...
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...– Film Critique It takes several people to make a movie, from the Actors to the Directors, Writers and Producers, and to the Production Company, all of which are equally important to making a movie successful. There is a mixture of technical skills, while building strong relationships with trust, and following the personal vision of the director who serves as a master facilitator in editing and on the set. All of these people help the director to form the story in the film. A countless amount of time is put into a film’s analysis which observes the filmmaking techniques, in turn helps the audience to understand the style of the film. A film's style is a dependable on the cinematic methods that include the mise en scène, cinematography, editing, sound, and overall structure (Goodykoontz & Jacobs 2014). Filmmaker’s styles have advanced so much over many years in Hollywood, and they have incorporated many elements of all sorts of technical effects while developing distinctive approaches to making a movie. Director Cameron Crowe offers an inspiring thematic trio in the movie Jerry Maguire, it is filled with drama, comedy, and romance as it relates to a genre film. Cameron Crowe did his homework before he began to develop the character Jerry Maguire. He talked to a businessmen and interviewed him for about a year in order to develop the script for the movie. His role as the director is very important in the making of a movie, he is the storyteller who needs people, equipment...
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...general business plan for a movie theater being established in a sparsely populated locale. The paper offers an organizational plan, a marketing plan and briefly concludes with a financial or “break-even” analysis. Among other things, the paper stresses the importance of careful preparation, wise staff recruitment, the need for the owner to access the company records frequently, and – not least of all – the importance of contemplating any and all possible variables that might impact upon the businesses’ long-term vitality. A Business Plan for the Movie Theater Description/Executive Summary Establishing a new business in any environment can be challenging. This challenge, however, becomes especially daunting when it is a business intended to serve part of an island of four hundred twenty thousand people. In the paper that follows, several factors and prerequisites will be considered and a general outline of the business will be provided. Specifically, this paper will provide an organizational plan (complete with a legal structure) as well as a comprehensive marketing plan. Additionally, this paper will conclude with a brief financial – also known as “break even” – analysis of the business. In closing, it is hoped that this paper will offer some insight into how a successful movie theater can be established in such a densely populated location. Mission Statement “The Movie Theater Corporation is committed to improve the quality of life in the communities in which we...
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...Dances with Wolves Tera Butler ENG225- Introduction to film Professor Daniel Burrello February 8, 2015 Dances with Wolves Westerns are stories of life and adventure in the American West a time period and way of life everyone should reflect on. Dances with Wolves(1990) is one of the most truth brought forward Westerns of our time, as it explores the ending of the Civil war and the embarks on the New Frontier that ultimately changed the way of life for most all Native Americans. This film is compiled with drama, love, loyalty, courage, and racism all with lasting impact on its audience. Directed by Kevin Costner in a simple cinematographic technique that allows the audience to experience the characters every move. This movie was written by Michael Blake and directed by Kevin Costner who also is the lead actor throughout the film. Other actors include Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney Grant, and Floyd Red Crow Westerman. The story starts with a wounded Civil War soldier about to have his foot amputated when he makes an attempt at his life by stealing a horse and running recklessly across the open battlefield nearly getting shot. The build from this scene is that the soldiers fighting see his act of desperation and encouragement and a distraction and use the fact that the enemy is so focused on shooting him off his horse that they never see the final attack coming. The end of this scene Kevin Costner...
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...For my Final paper in this class, I have decided to do a comparative analysis between the movies Higher Learning and Smoke Signals. I will briefly summarize each movie in a few paragraphs and then I will discuss the similarities and differences between the themes in each movie before I discuss overall comparisons between characters, filming techniques used, and racial stereotypes. "Higher Learning" takes place at the fictitious Columbus University, where the producer makes use of a Christopher Columbus statue to suggest a racist atmosphere. Still, he does this effectively during harsh, well-observed opening scenes that capture different attitudes of white and black students on campus. A white students' pep rally is given a frightening intensity. A young white woman clutches her purse tightly when she finds herself in an elevator with a black student. The two groups' different musical tastes present an amusing contrast and a great use of sound design which is described in our textbook American On Film by Benshoff and Griffin. Mr. Singleton creates a lively air of expectation as his half-dozen main characters settle into their dorm rooms and the battle lines are drawn. John Singleton's film, Higher Learning, about the racial and sexual prejudices that color life on a college campus turns out to be an involuntary example of the same small-mindedness it deplores. Everyone here, from beer drinking white fraternity boys to rap-loving, marijuana smoking black students harassed by...
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...‘Salem’s Lot is Stephen King’s second novel; it takes place in Jerusalem’s Lot, a small town in Maine. The story follows Ben Mears, a writer who moves back to ‘Salem’s Lot where he grew up after the death of his wife. ‘Salem’s Lot is victim of a vampire epidemics and Ben tries to stop them. It is imperative that Salem’s Lot is read and its movie adaptations watched in every fiction to film class. This will be argued through analysis of its literary value as well as its cinematographic value. From a literary standpoint, Salem’s Lot has many works to offer which grants the reader a greater understanding of the literary process of Stephen King. Not only is the original novel a classic of the horror genre, but the novel was also followed a sequel...
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...Art in Raw Form The movie industry is for entertainment purposes. For many people, going to the movies is an escape; time to sit back and become someone else. However, once in a rare moment then a movie comes out that is not just foe entertainment and dares to address a controversial issue. “The Blind Side” and “Precious” are two movies that I was very surprised at my reaction to them. My reasons for wanting to see both movies were as different as night and day. I went to see the “Blind Side” because it is based on a true story and Sandra Bullock is the leading lady. Yet, “Precious” doesn’t have a famous leading lady, but the previews were so intense and so realistic that it pulled me in. “The Blind Side” and “Precious” are movies about over-weight, illiterate, poverty stricken African-American teenagers and their struggles to overcome adversity. Have we seen movies like these before? What makes either one of these movies so alike yet so different? Both movies were accused of stereotyping and racism. One movie can be compared to a rag to riches (The Blind Side”) story as the other a phoenix rising (‘Precious”). Unlike “The Blind Side”, “Precious” isn’t afraid of presenting a valuable message to society. Director Lee Daniels has been heavily criticized for his style and script to the extent of being called an “Uncle Tom”. This film was classified by many as a stereotype of all African-Americans. There are those who argued that this movie will only bring the African-American...
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