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Essay Assignment 1, HRS 181: Contemporary Directions in Film Be sure to post it in MS Word

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Essay Assignment 1, HRS 181: Contemporary Directions in Film

Be sure to post it in MS Word. You may send it to me on Canvas e-mail as well for back up reasons, and you may also cut and paste. But you *must* attach it in MS Word. If it won’t open, it will receive a 0.  

Format: DS, Times New Roman or Calibri 12 font, 4-6 pages, 1” margins. Give your essay a descriptive title and italicize film and book titles.

 

Assignment: Write a 4-6 page essay (see format, above) on one of our class films made between 1960 and 1989 and compare and/or contrast with a classic Hollywood film (one made prior to 1960) of your choice, such as My Man Godfrey or Singin’ in the Rain. You should be supporting your discussion with material from lecture and the reading as well as from the films themselves.

 

Possible approaches—choose ONE:

 

Narrative: Compare and/or contrast the storytelling of the two films: how do the two compare/contrast in terms of the changes in storytelling between the classic Hollywood of 1917-1960 and your period?

 

Technological: Compare and/or contrast the technological elements of the two films: what technological elements made your two films possible? What changes allowed your post-1960 film to be different from the pre-1960 film you choose? You might consider changes between the two as well.

 

Social: Compare and/or contrast the social milieu of the two films: how does the contemporary film continue or move away from the social context of the earlier film? What social concerns are evident in one or both? Does the later film have more or less social awareness and why?

 

Thematic: How does a particular strand of meaning show itself in both your films? For instance, the social commentary of My Man Godfrey and the motif of the idle rich followed by the theme of the dehumanization of the poor—does your film have a similar examination of socioeconomic class? Another example would be the subject of masculinity: how does, say, My Man Godfrey treat the representation of masculinity as compared/contrasted with your more contemporary film?

 

All of these essays should place the films within their American context as discussed in Contemporary American Cinema. You should cite our readings and show that you, most basically, have done the reading and watched the films in totem (i.e. completely). Any research done, and this includes our readings, should be cited both in the text of your essay and at the end in a Works Cited page. (MLA format will be used. See MLA formatting and style guide at the OWL of Purdue University.) This includes director commentary, websites, other textbooks, scholarly essays, etc. (You should use only good critical sources.)

 

Important Notes:

Your essay is not a summary of either film, though you certainly can reference the plot.

You must engage in critical analysis, i.e. thoughtful commentary not evident from just watching the film.