Essays on Film

Introduction

Grave of Fireflies, or ‘Hotaru no haka’ in Japanese, is a powerful and compelling animated film which was released in 1988 (Ebert). This 88 minutes long film was directed by Isao Takahata with the animation being done by Studio Ghibli, which has created a name for itself for producing quality and acclaimed animations. The movie’s story line is modeled on a novel bearing the same title, written in 1967 by Akiyuki Nosaka. Apparently, the author had undergone an experience comparable to that of Seita, the protagonist in both the film and the autobiography.
Grave of Fireflies has a

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Aliens Films (1979-1997)

What is the significance of events in films? Are all the bits and pieces in films intentionally included by directors? These are some of the questions I asked myself as I set out on a comprehensive analysis of the audience message in the Aliens Films (1979-1997). According to film analyst Greg Smith, different events in films are not to be treated as accidental encounters of random occurrence and spontaneity. They are instead purposefully planned series of events with cause and effect and with nothing left to chance (Greg 128). Greg explains that Hollywood films are inadvertently one of the

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The documentary film spellbound represents an American dream; it is a documentary that has a lot of warmth and it progresses through the story of children with open sincerity. By following the story of each student, one gets the picture of ups and downs that they undergo as well as one will be able to understand what drives them to study for several hours.
The documentary film, Spellbound, produced by Jeff Blitz is an examination of a regional spelling bee competitions. The film introduces only eight out of the approximately two hundred contestants in the national spelling Bee. The

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Films are made to pottery some of the social issues in the societies. A film is defined as the components of motion pictures that are recorded with the camera. Since films depict some aspect of any culture, so it does not affect the cultures both in positive and negative way. Films are considered the best media to convey a social message. So most of the films these days show violence, and it has an adverse effect on society even on small children. Wars movies are the best examples of this. The more violence that is showed in movies, the

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Works of fiction are often used to examine more complex societal concerns as scene in the graphic novel and popular film “V for Vendetta”. “V for Vendetta” asks the question what exactly is the expectations of society? This topic is explored by using a fictional dystopian world to expand upon the known and possible aspects that make up society and its ideologies. Humans have an ever burning desire to explore and learn thus always changing what we understand about humanity and how one can better society. Because of this desire,”science fiction works, such as “V for Vendetta” is

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Discussion Leader: Film Editing

Imagine the world without television, cinema, and theatres? Isn’t it dull to fathom the absence of visual entertainment? Nowadays, it is apparently obvious that humanity is dependent upon the digital technology. In fact, the trends in the cinematography and moving pictures are quite fast paced in terms of advancement and progress.
So how did the world of film industry started? The film history can’t be credited to one person. It is founded by a lot of people contributing to the discoveries of motion picture. Thomas Edison is given credit for the invention of motion picture camera in

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The Broke Back Mountain story by Annie Proulx and Ang Lee’s 2005 film Broke Back Mountain are about the love story that emerged in 1963 about two characters, Ennis and Jack, who turn out to be gay. The story and the film illustrate the traditional American masculinity with their gay sexuality. In the story and even in the movie, Ennis is depicted as a man who is eager to continue a very familiar tradition of masculinity. He is portrayed as a responsible, hardworking, ethical, and a physically adept person. Accordingly, Jack is depicted as a young man who

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Introduction

Social injustices such as prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, and aggression manifest themselves in almost all communities in the world. The injustices are often very complicated in places inhabited by multiethnic and multiracial communities. Although, racial prejudice and discrimination has been largely minimized, there still exist some social injustices based on other factors such as gender, age, ethnicity, nationality among other divisive lines. Many times these incidents can be explained using social psychology theories. Regina Rose’s 1957 film Twelve Angry Men perfectly captures issues about prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, and aggression through the eyes of a jury, in a homicide trial.

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The business environment is very dynamic. A product that is popular may not be popular tomorrow. Technology has a very high rate of change and products tend to become obsolete quickly. All managers are tasked with the responsibility of making sure that the products they handle are on demand. The changing external conditions may make a product or service decline in terms of popularity within a very short time. The dynamic business environment introduces factors like competition, technological advancement, the changing needs and preferences of the consumers, economic conditions, legal issues and the social welfare of the population.
The

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The flow of the story and activities of characters have both similarities and differences from thy way the author presents them in the book, in relation to the screenplay of the story. The aspects of comparison and contrast are well elaborated by the way characters behaved and the language used in the book. Some stories in the book were difficult to portray in the movie leading to distortion of the message to some extent in the movie. The development of characters is also influenced by the presentation of the movie as opposed to the story line in the book.

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Movie review: This film is not yet rated

Movie makers make movies with the purpose of exploring people’s talents and also for entertainment purposes. To many people, movies are a source of entertainment especially after a long day of work (Manchel 435). While others may prefer to go to the cinema and watch a certain movie, others will just wait for the movie to be on Blu-ray disk. Then, they can purchase the disk and watch the movie in the comfort of their sofa back at home. In a nutshell, movies are a source of flexible entertainment, which one can enjoy, in whatever style they wish

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‘A Story of Floating Weeds’ was a film produced in 1934. The film was directed by Yasujiro Ozu and was later replayed in the year, 1954. The 86 minutes long film creates an atmosphere filled with strong and deep emotions. Much of the running time of this film is used up on routine activities, but every scene serves its own purpose in bringing out the themes of this film.
The story is about a travelling troupe of Kabuki actors and their leader Komajuro. It explores on the relationships of Komajuro with his troupe, former mistress, and his unknowing son.

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Background

“Black Swan” is about Nina Sayers, an aspiring ballerina, who had to deal with the pressure of her career, discordant relationship with her mother, and sexual advances from her mentor. Nina wants nothing more than to play lead in the New York City ballet company’s upcoming “Swan Lake” production. Her chance came when Thomas Leroy, the director, dismissed Beth, the lead, and subsequently chose Nina to take her place. Throughout the film, Nina’s psychoses surface on account of her experiences with his sexually aggressive mentor, Thomas, who also puts the most pressure on Nina to perform better,

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Film studies: What dreams may come

‘What dreams may come’ is a melodramatic film by Ron Bass with Robbie Williams in a lead role of Christy as a main character, featuring the whole set of themes including love, father-son relationships, death, madness and Heaven and Hell as religious notions.
The first thing a spectator’s attention is turned to is the problem of death and afterlife. The story conveys the author’s view of what Heaven and Hell look like. Basically, it can be divided into two logical parts – time when Christy explores his new home and the period when he goes for a rescue

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Early cinema was interestingly preoccupied with race; many of the great early films, for better or worse, addressed the conflict that occurred between people of different ethnicities, and their relationship to the greater whole of society. D.W. Griffith’s controversial The Birth of a Nation and Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer were no exceptions; both have problematic depictions of African-Americans, but while The Birth of a Nation provides no subversion to its unironic endorsement of the KKK, The Jazz Singer manages to use its depiction of blackface as a greater metaphor for the shirking of one’s cultural

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I. Andrew Higson, “The Concept of National Cinema” (written 1989)
1.
According to Andrew Higson, the author of “The Concept of National Cinema” (written in 1989), four criteria can be defined to measure a country’s production of its “national cinema”, such as following:
- Economic based criterion. It is related to “defining cinema in economic terms” (132) concerning dominating and expanding film products to the domestic and international market.
- Content based criterion. It is related to regarding the concept through its content (texts, characters, scripts, etc.)
- Consumption based criterion. It is related to defining the concept

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Introduction

Management of organizations in current environment poses many challenges due to advancement in technology and global challenges. Management is a process of organizing people in order to get things done. Modern approaches to management have overshadowed traditional methods making old organizations lose to the emerging firms. Mangers who demonstrate quality planning, organizing, leading, and controlling operations in their companies always achieve higher performances (Toelken, 2011, p. 61). Some organizations like Eastman Kodak that were well known during the 1960s have now lost their market to new companies like Fujifilm. The following discussion provides an analysis of Kodak and Fujifilm.

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The Written Garment: Fashion and Fiction

Communication in life happens through various means and methods that convey different meaning to different people. Communication it is asserted can be either verbal or non-verbal. Language is the medium through which various ideas and messages are conveyed in the process of communication. In the field of arts and architecture, communication happens in a different way that in most cases does not convey a message or idea directly as with the other cases in most situations. In many occasions, it requires an in depth analysis that has been termed by others as the ‘‘third eye’’ that can enable one

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Introduction

Film editing has been revolutionized over the years due to a number of factors including changes in viewing behavior and technological advancement amongst others. However, there has been a more or less consistent industry trend as far and film editing is concerned. The Hollywood style of editing is the most dominant in the market and has since minimized the business scope of other film editing companies like French New Wave and Soviet Montage. This is because mod American media like commercials, music videos and televisions still follow the Hollywood style of editing. This paper discusses the various reasons why

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In the Apocalypse Now (movie 1979), Captain Willard played the role of the protagonist in this film. He was a passive character. The main target of was to kill Kurtz. He spent of most of his time in the film watching keenly and internalizing the activities taking place in the jungle. Captain helps to bring out the ironical perspectives of war while at the same time incorporating the theme of morality in the film. His observant nature enabled him to become alert on absurdities of the war and the darkness of the human nature. He clearly brought out how

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In F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, particularly the period of the film in which Orlok terrorizes the crew of the ship he is smuggling himself upon, the character of Count Orlok (Max Schreck) is seen to have a supernatural effect on people. By looking at this scene from both descriptive, evaluative and interpretive lenses, the editing and shot composition of the film showcases the film’s desire to show Orlok as a supernatural and hypnotic figure.
There is then a cut to a wide shot of captain walking up the stairs, then cut to the other hold, where there is

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What is/are the central message(s) of this documentary/fictional film?

The central message of this film was to show the existence of slavery even after it was constitutionally banned in the U.S. This was shown by the fact that African-American were arrested illegally and forced to work in the plantations without payments. The blacks were convicted of crimes they never committed. The movie shows that slavery continued for several years in secret even after it was constitutionally abolished in 1865.The evidence used was the letters written by slaves in servitude and prisons. The states governments were paid for the labor provided by the prisoners. The blacks were convicted of

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The archetypal hero’s journey has taken many forms throughout history; in contemporary film, it often requires the main characters to step outside their cynical, grounded physical worlds and enter new realms of imagination. In the case of two classic films from the 1990s, Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King and the Wachowski Brothers’ The Matrix , three archetypes of the hero’s journey(the hero, the mentor, and the monster) are found, contextualizing these modern science fiction and fantasy films as modern hero’s journeys. The three characters from each of these films that fit these archetypes are adapted

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[Institution’s Name]

Marketing department is one of the most important and effective departments from the standpoint of an organization and no organization can increase its financial belongings without having effective marketing department in particular. The world of marketing has been with numerous concepts and among them; the name of Consumer Behavior is one of them. Consumer behavior is the name of analyzing the behavior of the consumer in particular. There are number of authors who have identified regarding the consumer behavior stance and its effectiveness in particular.
There is a case study attached with this assignment, which is

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The film “Gattaca” for more than fifteen years of its existence (created in 1997) has already acquired the status of an “iconic piece of art”. The director's chair and at the same time the place of a screenwriter was taken by the legendary Andrew Niccol.
Fascinating story glorifying human willpower and spirit embodied by young talents such as Ethan Hawke (Vincent), Uma Turma (Irene) and Jude Law (Jerome). Let the movie be considered by many as a fairy tale, but “Gattaca”, in my book, is one of the most inspiring pictures showing the way of a person hitching his

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Matchstick Men (2003) Ridley Scott

Section 1

The film Matchstick Men (2003) by Ridley Scott is about two professional con artists, Roy and Frank. The main character Roy has some emotional problems such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Agoraphobia and Mysophobia. Frank is his ambitious apprentice, and they are really good partners in any swindling activity. Roy and Frank swindle people’s money by selling water filtration systems for $700 that could be bought for $50 at any hardware store. In addition, they also swindle people’s money through package vacations, prizes and tax refunds. Since Roy has OCD that becomes more

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The idea of love is always evolving. In our relationships with our families, friends, and significant others, love is always changing. What we do not think about is the impact external factors have on how we view love. Images we see of how love is conveyed can sometimes change our conceptions of what it is to show emotion. Take Hollywood for example: older movies showed love and affection in a much different way than movies do today. This shift in imagery may be having an impact on the way we show love.
Romeo and Juliet, though made into a

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Response to Stan Brakhage's Metaphors on Vision

The viewer of the film the Metaphors of vision in most cases find it more daunting and more to it a little puzzling. The visual approach that Brakhage makes the understanding a little difficult to the audience and thus it is a big obstacle toward the appreciation of the film. In the film and his writing Brakhage referred his film aesthetics as “imagine adventure in perception”. In his ways, he attracts the movie viewer and makes us an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective How many colors are there in a field of grass to a baby unaware

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Any time I watch Hoops Dreams I always conclude that this is the best documentary of all times. It is a film that is rich of heart breakings, complexities and ultimately deep rewarding ending. The co-director who also sums up as the producer, Steve James, brilliantly uses high school hoops to explore societal issues affecting the African-Americans such as class, race and access to quality education in the modern America. The storyline for this film is so theatrical and captivating to the point of appearing to be crafted from fiction. It follows the careers of two high school boys,

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John Ford’s 1956 film The Searchers is commonly understood to be one of the finest Westerns of all time; much of that is due to John Ford’s gorgeous cinematography, but the lion’s share of the film’s appeal rests on the captivating nature of John Wayne’s character Ethan Edwards. The dubious nature of Ethan Edwards’ heroism is at the heart of the film - a mysterious stranger who rides into town after a long absence, Ethan’s behavior and attitudes change the other characters around him in an irrevocable fashion. Because of his dry, easy

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Since the day when Hollywood became the centre of American film industry, a system that introduces us to the studio system had to be introduced. The system was duly designed in such a way that it ensures quality and cost of the films that are being produced. The film system is very organized than anywhere else in the world; there is great division of labour ranging from the screenwriter to the producer’s roles being well defined. Nonetheless, the American film industry has been solely enjoying the returns from the film industry since the advent of film industry, but

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Description Claim

The part in question begins on a night when Nina sleepwalks and heads to the terrace where Lucy follows her. Nina points out to Lucy that somebody is coming and that she is obliged to go and meet him in person. We are then taken to another scene at the Bremen harbor where we are shown the Demeter sailing into the port. Reinfield is locked up in a cell at the Sanitorium where he attempts to escape by climbing out through the window. The film is in the form of silent film, and the narrations, and explanations reveal that

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All About My Mother by Pedro Almodóvar is a comedy drama that was produced in 1999. The film addresses intricate issues such as homosexuality, AIDS, Tran sexuality, existentialism, and faith. The central character of the film is known as Manuela. She is a single mother to a teenage boy known as Esteban. Esteban dies after being hit by a car on his 17th birthday. Manuela then quits her job and goes to Barcelona to look for Lola, her dead child’s father. There she meets her old friend Agrado, who is a prostitute and Rosa, her ex-husband’s

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The film, Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price is a documentary that was filmed in the year 2005. It paints a picture of negative business practices perpetrated by Wal-Mart. The film is a compilation of interviews conducted with former employees, the company’s executives and other small business owners. The film was directed by film director named Robert Greenwald. It was produced by Brave New Films. The director makes use of statistics as well as footages containing interviews so as to avail an objective analysis of the impact that Wal-Mart has had on both individuals and the larger

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In her book, Dionne Brand portrays a clear picture of what tags along when one identifies themselves with a certain people from a certain culture. Through her various life experiences we are able to have a clear view of what goes down when people get tangled in others of a different culture from theirs. Some occurrences are sickening as you have to endure doing what probably never crossed your mind. Different cultures trim people differently and the difference may be so crucial as to make those in a foreign culture feel left out or else in the wrong place.

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The event depicted in the film took place on the Tiananmen Square on Chang’an Avenue. It involved a protestor who was tired of the ongoing massacre by the government after the students in country went on the streets to protest against the harsh ruling of the government. The person is seen to go in front a convoy of war tanks, stopping them for a couple of minutes before other protestors emerged. The man is famously known as the Tank Man, his identity has never been known to date. The event emerged after the students of the Republic of

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"Grave of the fireflies" is an animated movie that depicts the life in Japan towards the end of the Second World War. American bombers have just dropped canisters bombs that wrecks havoc across the Japanese cities. It tells the story of a young teenager and his sister in their struggle to survive after the death of their mother. The film is tragic and elicits a lot of emotions and compassion. The bombing event shapes the plot of the entire movie.
Seita, the young teenager and his sister Setsuko have a father who works with the navy. After the death

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In the sociology, there are important concepts used to analyze social phenomena in order to reveal their contingency. Modern sociological concepts are mainly compared to a set of analytical tools. These are in turn used to evaluate epiphenomena in order to reveal underlying forces and categories. Therefore, postmodern concepts can be viewed as a set of special effects used to reveal the contingency of the phenomena. As seen in the special effects of various films, the audience is not asked to believe in the reality of the effect, but they are suspended on the belief in the reality.
The

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2013 was the year that saw F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, “The Great Gatsby”, brought into cinema, for the second time. Whenever a great novel is adapted for the screen, many pedants will try to scrutinize the film to see if there is any nonconformity to the original. The book is often regarded and sacred as consequently; many films often fail to reach the pedestal set by the book. If the audience deems the film to be an effective adaption of the book, the movie will more often than not be successful. The Great Gatsby (2013) is the

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Presentational devises are important components of production. The most commonly used presentational devised in production are; light, camera shots and in some instances computer graphic distortion. Presentational devises mainly strive to make the audience understand a production better. Ideally, there are many elements that cannot be brought to light for the audience without the use of presentational devises.
Light as a presentational devise in production is normally used to help the audience conceptualize and perceive the mood in a house or the mood of a character. Gloomy moods are most commonly depicted through the use of deem light. A

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