...What Aspects Of Your Chosen Horror Film Make It Horrific? In the following essay I will focus on the horror genre as well as horror aspects from the film, "An American Werewolf In London," (D. John Landis 1981). Whilst "An American Werewolf..." isn't one of the most horrific films made, and is at heart a black comedy, it still includes a lot of codes and conventions of the horror genre which makes it not only a horrific film, but one of the most memorable werewolf films in movie history. Using special effects and filled with bloody gore, "An American Werewolf" still looks as horrifyingly real as it did 27 years ago. Opening on the eerie Yorkshire moors, "An American Werewolf" centers around two American backpackers who are attacked by a werewolf after leaving a small village in the middle of nowhere. Having been warned by mysterious locals not to leave the road or go onto the moors, the two ignore the warnings and pay for it when one of them is killed and the other bitten by the wolf. In these opening fifteen minutes, the follows many codes and conventions used throughout the horror/monster genre. The first convention is the gothic setting of the opening that is the yorkshire moors. Typically of the horror genre, the setting is shown to be damp, cold, dark and full of mist. Preying on the audience's fears of being alone in the middle of the wilderness the film displays the truly horrific nature of isolation. Like any typical horror film, the setting for...
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...The film depicts the main character, Rocky Balboa, in a lower class neighborhood of Philadelphia, highlighting his surrounding environment, occupational value, friends and peers as impoverished. The first important part of the early exposition is the scenes showing Balboa at work, as a loan shark for a larger operation. This job requires Balboa to confront and physically assault debted customers if unable to make their respective payment. This lays the groundwork for the journey of achieving the “American Dream”. Balboa working such a low-end, odd job just to make ends meet symbolizes the working class, more specifically the lower class. This gives insight to the struggles these people face everyday, not only through Balboa’s work as a loan shark, but the dock worker in a dirty environment who is unable to pay his loan in the same scene. Many signs throughout the early exposition align with the reasoning within the rhetorical framework. For example, Rocky attempts to go to the boxing gym but because of his lack of success and low amount of money, Mick gives Rocky’s locker to...
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...Analysis American culture value through the film The Pursuit of Happiness The reason why the Hollywood films are popular, besides its wonderful plots, the characters in the films could always reflect the special American cultural values to audiences. The American spirit such as individualism, heroism, religious and pursuit of freedom are all reflect in the Hollywood films. However, the American dream is a unique American culture and has inspired many Americans to rely on personal struggle to make their dreams come true. Films from different culture have their different cultural values, in turn, the different cultures have reflect and strengthen their own culture values in their films, so that audiences could get to know the mainstream American culture values from Hollywood films. Hollywood as the largest American film media has created many motivation films to express the importance values of American dreams to the world. The film The Pursuit of Happiness (2006) by Gabriele Muccino is a very classical Hollywood biographical film which is based on Chris Gardner’s life story. The film talks about how a homeless man success from the hardship and finally became a famous investment expert through his struggle step by step. The narrative of the main character Chris’s story refers to the key aspect of American Dream which is the equity opportunity of everyone in the society. It has showed the thought that happiness will come to everyone as long as we do not give up and make unremitting...
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...in America since its birth. From the day African Americans were introduced to this country they have endured hardship after hardship. The African American equals rights movement is a big part of American history along the way we have seen prominent leaders arise in the fight for racial equality including Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Throughout this fight we see many people arise in trying to make this country a greater place. People like Jackie Robinson also helped make an impacted in achieving equality. Robinson didn’t use speeches and politic realms to do this but he used baseball, an American pastime, to bring together our country. The film 42 is a depiction of how one baseball player took strides to not only unite a team but an entire country. In the film Remember the Titans a group of high school boys both white and black are forced to come together to be the best team they can be. This film shows how overcoming adversity can be accomplished by anyone who believes in the cause enough. Over the past century African Americans have made great strides in overcoming racial adversity, and gaining most of the same freedoms of white Americans. These films both address and attract viewer support for the equality of African Americans. However, the film 42 does a better job at attracting viewer support because of the historical accuracy, the larger audience it appeals to and its’ stronger historical significance. The film 42 is about Jackie Robison’s journey in the major...
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...When looking back at films in Hollywood, we often believe that the African Americans, the Jews, or the Chinese have been portrayed the worst however, when it comes to the Native Americans there is no comparison on how hateful and unwholesome the movie industry has been to them. Not only through films has this group been deteriorated but also throughout history, the Americans have fully taken over everything that they had from their land to their culture and reinvented it in a way in which we pleased. The white people of Europe and the United States of America have always been against the “Red faces” throughout time and film has been the pivotal way in which the world sees this. Native Americans in film have been represented as the bad people whether it is in Disney animations or in documentaries and in each film it ends with the American white colonialized people taking over. The world started loving the Indian’s when film showed everybody that they were free spirited people who acted as mythological human beings because they come off to the audience as people who have magical powers and speak very rarely. Films would show Indian men riding and fighting while horse back riding and this was something that the average white person was not accustomed to, neither be the Native Americans. People that were not ethnic would go to films and watch as these silent films with Indians acting as heroes and it made being Native American something that the white man wanted to be. This...
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...and not judge them based on their race. There is a Bavarian saying that they live by “Mia San Mia” which stands for we are who we are and they live their lives by that and respect each other. That’s something that is not seen in the United States. Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind, Burn!, and Spartacus are a good representation of how America’s view on slavery and the mixing of races changed over time. Birth of a Nation was made in 1915 when segregation was still huge in American society. Burn! was made in 1969 which was right after the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed. It’s a big time frame to look at but it gave a good understanding on how viewpoints changed over time. The films Birth of a Nation and Gone with the wind were made 25 years apart and mainly took place during the reconstruction period after the civil war. But they both presented different viewpoints on the issues. The first main theme brought up in Birth of a Nation was the mixing of races. In the opening scene the film African-Americans are coming to America and being sold to whites as slaves. During that scene a text...
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...Gojira remains as a film that is a worldly illustrative of the 1950's, and the danger of atomic fighting. With the memories of Hiroshima Nagasaki still crisp in executive Ishiro Honda's mind, the story of a monster made from the works of war decimate the very society that created its disfigurement. This unleashed monster is an agreeable illustration for the atomic gadgets that fell upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, wreaking destruction that would keep going for quite a long time to come. Japanese opening of the film was a first after war film to gather addition a global success. Gojira is a science-fiction/horror film around a mutant animal from the Jurassic period with atomic forces, brought to life as an after-effect of the nuclear blast and close-by atomic bomb testing. In 1956, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, also directed by Ishiro Honda, was discharged in the United States as an American rendition of the first Japanese film. This variant was intensely altered with English dubbing and the deletion of many different scenes. These changes occurred deliberately in a political manner for the American audience and appeared as another creature film. While Gojira metaphorically portrays Japan's after war injury, for example, the nuclear bombings, decimation, and annihilation, the depiction of such pivotal messages are lost in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The original Japanese motion picture sends a solid messages of atomic attacks and teaches the onlookers of commitments to use new...
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...present predominant press, there exists an unmistakable absence of Asian American portrayal. When they are given parts in film and TV, those parts regularly keep up the cliché belief system which has been predominant for quite a long time. Asian American generalizations in these media go from dedicated and servile to the bosses of the hand to hand fighting and regularly set forth a confused or misrepresented impression of what Asian Americans resemble as a gathering. I contend that these cliché portrayals of Asian Americans show themselves in watchers' psyches and influence the way they see the minority gather far after controlling the television. These generalizations are tested when a singular Asian American develops and don't fit...
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...Argo or the Canadian Caper? Is it Argo or the Canadian Caper? Were they a suspicious group at the airport or just another film crew? Are all Iranians fanatic evil-doers, or is there more behind the scenes? The 2012 film sensation Argo, directed by Ben Affleck, starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman brings to light all of these controversial questions. This academy award winning film is based on the declassified true story following the extraction of six American embassy employees who managed to escape the building when the Iranians took over, keeping 52 other hostages. The movie opens with clear chaos in the streets, American flags burning, protestors chanting, and eventually one Iranian man climbs the gates of the embassy, followed by the rest. It is the start of a revolution, with men and women alike carrying guns and protesting for the return of their former dictator, so he can be tried and executed there in Tehran. The six Americans who escape seek refuge at the home of the Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor, who welcomes them in as “Houseguests”. Back in America, the CIA has gotten word of their escape, and devises a plan to get them out. The elaborate plan is to pretend the six Americans, along with Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), their make-up artist (John Goodman) and their producer (Alan Arkin) are scouting for a location to film their upcoming movie, “Argo”. They do not have much time, for it will not be long until the Iranians realize that the six...
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...Question 1 Why have American films been so successful over the last half century? Outline what you consider to be key success factors for a film (type of story and genre; actors; directors, pace, music, and so on). Was the fascination for the American culture and way of life the prominent reason for that success? What was the contribution of the American melting pot with its huge diversity of migrants’ origins to the creativity and global outlook of the American movie industry? There are several reasons for the success of American movies: the budget, the Hollywood brand, the directors and the universal themes that appeal to a broad public. When the production can cover most of its costs by the local profit, it allows for a relatively low selling price to the foreign distributors. A large budget also makes it possible to use expensive actors with a recognized name that attracts visitors, as well as developing an efficient distribution system. The US has the most prominent country-brand equity in the world, which has without a doubt contributed to the Hollywood success. Therefore one might say that the fascination for American culture has helped their movie industry, but there are too many other factors to say that this is the main reason for its success. Several of the well renowned Hollywood directors have origins outside of the US. This knowledge of more than one culture might have contributed to a more international touch to their films, appealing to many different cultures...
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...perhaps longer, decade timespan causing it to become synonymously associated with suburbia. Both, Lívia Szélpál’s “Images of the American Suburbia” (2012) and Timotheus Vermeulen’s “Introduction: Scenes from the Suburbs” (2014) attempt to address and examine the significant role media imparts on the public’s perception of suburbia-- by observing how the suburbs are, both, the underlying components of and portrayed in narratives. Szélpál’s article examines films from the past six decades, whereas, Vermeulen’s book focuses on suburbia in late twentieth and early twenty-first-century films and television shows. Whether six or sixty years old, the films examined all portray the suburbs inaccurately and, in the...
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...follow the two main characters George and Lennie’s attempt to fulfil The American Dream doing The Great Depression. The fame of the book has lead to the making of a film based on the book. The film is very similar to the book, however some things have been omitted. This is one of the main focuses of this analysis along with a comment on The American Dream as a theme. The filmatisation of “Of Mice and Men” leans close up to its book. Many times films are often twisted a lot and new scenes are added. However, after reading the book and watching the film this is not the case here. While you watch the film, you remember a lot of the quotes from the book, which are often said word by word. The director has, however, chosen to change the order of some of the scenes though they are the still same. This gives a different dynamic to the story in the film compared to the book. The scene with the girl in the red dress who cries out loud about Lennie, and forces him and George to run away, is an example(p 42-43.). A few more incidents happen before that specific scene in the book, but it is one of the first ones in the film. There is one very characteristic scene in the book where Lennie has run away and starts to hallucinate. He believes his dead Aunt Clara emerges from the bushes along with talking rabbits, which are also a huge symbol in the book, but it is all in his head. Lennie is mentally ill, which makes him act and share the same morals as a five-year-old (p. 9, l. 3-5 and p...
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...American History X is a strong and powerful movie. This controversial film was written by David McKenna and directed by Tony Faye (who is also the cinematographer) making his directors debut. With a starring cast of Edward Norton who plays an intelligent super-neo-Nazi-skinhead, named Derek Vinyard and his younger brother Danny played by Edward Furlong, who idolizes Derek and wants to follow in his footstep, but lack the intelligence like Derek. Their family also plays a role in the films storyline. Their mother who is always chronically sick, they also have a sister who Derek fights with a lot, bu. T in the end they have a powerful scene of tough family love. However, it is their father a firefighter, as well as the leader of a neo-Nazi gang who is the main reason as to why these boys are the way they were. The film’s story is defined by racism the embracement of Nazi antics of the lives of two brothers Derek and Danny who grow up in Venice, California. Their firefighter father (who was a skinhead) was killed trying to fight a fire in a black neighborhood. This is where Derek’s life started to head down the wrong path and Derek became the leader of the neo-Nazi gang after his father. One night Derek spots two black men breaking into his car; he shoots them killing them both, and is sentenced to three years in prison leaving Danny to follow his brother’s footsteps. Derek was faced with many obstacles while in prison. The fact was no matter what race you are everyone...
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...Argo or the Canadian Caper? Is it Argo or the Canadian Caper? Were they a suspicious group at the airport or just another film crew? Are all Iranians fanatic evil-doers, or is there more behind the scenes? The 2012 film sensation Argo, directed by Ben Affleck, starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman brings to light all of these controversial questions. This academy award winning film is based on the declassified true story following the extraction of six American embassy employees who managed to escape the building when the Iranians took over, keeping 52 other hostages. The movie opens with clear chaos in the streets, American flags burning, protestors chanting, and eventually one Iranian man climbs the gates of the embassy, followed by the rest. It is the start of a revolution, with men and women alike carrying guns and protesting for the return of their former dictator, so he can be tried and executed there in Tehran. The six Americans who escape seek refuge at the home of the Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor, who welcomes them in as “Houseguests”. Back in America, the CIA has gotten word of their escape, and devises a plan to get them out. The elaborate plan is to pretend the six Americans, along with Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), their make-up artist (John Goodman) and their producer (Alan Arkin) are scouting for a location to film their upcoming movie, “Argo”. They do not have much time, for it will not be long until the Iranians realize that the six...
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...Film i Engelsk Bilag 1a FILM ANALYSIS – an introduction (Source: http://www.filmeducation.org) – bearbejdet af Mi og LK, Favrskov Gymnasium Reading a film is just like reading a book, except that instead of looking at a written page we are looking at the cinema screen. Reading a film works in exactly the same way as a written text, or a picture, except that the tools that are used to create meaning are different. We call these tools film language. The opening sequence From the moment we first start watching a film, we begin to get involved. The first few minutes of a film (the opening sequence) are very important to us as they give us lots of clues about the film: 1) what will the film be about (conflicts/themes); 2) who are the most important characters (hero, villain, love interest); 3); what is the setting of the film (time and place); 4) the genre; and finally, 5) what sort of film language characterizes the film? We look at all these elements and begin to put them into context. Based on their environment, how they look, what they say and what we see them do, we make assumptions about the characters, their roles in the film and their relationship to each other. We also recognize so-called genre markers (things we associate with one particular genre) which tell us if we are watching a Western or a Sc-Fi film and, thus, form specific expectations about what is going to happen during the rest of the film. At the same time, we listen to the sounds and the music...
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