Essays on Ebert

Walt Disney Pictures released the 3D animated Zootopia in 2016 (IMDb). Directed by Rick Moore and Byron Howard, the film takes place in a city occupied by animals that act and speak like humans. While directed toward children, the film also has adult humor; for instance, while doing a math problem, Judy Hopp states, “I mean, I am just a dumb bunny, but we are good at multiplying.” Regardless of the humor and juvenile presentation, the timely theme of Zootopia is racial prejudice. The plot of the movie is the partnership between a con artist red fox and a ...

Walt Disney Pictures released the 3D animated Zootopia in 2016 (IMDb). Directed by Rick Moore and Byron Howard, the film takes place in a city occupied by animals that act and speak like humans. While directed toward children, the film also has adult humor; for instance, while doing a math problem, Judy Hopp states, “I mean, I am just a dumb bunny, but we are good at multiplying.” Regardless of the humor and juvenile presentation, the timely theme of Zootopia is racial prejudice. The plot of the movie is the partnership between a con artist red fox and a ...

Executive Summary

South Korea is one of the vibrant democracies and leading economies in Asia. The country is heavily populated, and the majority of the citizens show active involvement in both the new and traditional media. It is essential to mention that the South Korean constitution protects and promotes the freedom of the media, and this explains why the country is one of the media-rich countries in the world. The South Korean press and mass media enjoy the freedom of expression. In essence, the South Korean communication system is vast. There are multiple national television networks and radio stations, telephone facilities, ...

Introduction

Oedipus Rex (c. 430 BC) of Sophocles is the story of the supremacy of the gods who command the fate of men, no matter their station in life. Oedipus, son of King Laios, who was abandoned by his father after having his feet nailed hearing a prophecy that he would die from his son, returns too Thebes to rule in the land which had just lost its King. He had killed an old man while on his way and manages to outwit the Sphinx with her cryptic riddles to enter the Theban walls where he is hailed King and ...

Angel Heart is a psychological thriller and crime mystery that was filmed in 1987, and based on a book titled Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg. After first viewing the film Angel Heart, i didn't think it was so interesting at first. I'll admit i was a little confused, the plot of the film was a little puzzling to me, but eventually i caught on to what was really happening in the movie. I thought the movie was actually very cool to watch. The input of the voodoo scenery and all the extra subjugations added a controversial curiosity to the ...

Ang Lee is director of wide range of films, and each of them provokes controversy and interest among the audience and critiques. In every taken film the sequences are combined in a unique narrative with its questions and much less answers. Lee is a representative of so called independent genre, meanwhile it should be noted that his films could hardly be titled by any kind of clichés (Siraganian 1). Nevertheless, having in mind the alternative, not common point of view and the craft of directing, all his films are definitely independent. The core essence of Ang’s style ...

The movie “The Patriot’, presents a fiction war film, which shows the life of an American man, who was forced to join the American Revolutionary War, upon the threats issued to his family. In the movie, various activities took place, which posed a significant danger to the lives of the American militia and the British soldiers as well. The fighting process claimed a large number of lives, of those who were in the war and those who were not even involved in the war. The movie shows various negative things which the British soldiers undergo. They lose the fight ...

Nazi, was a name mostly used to refer to Germany during the dictatorship periods of Adolf Hitler. This was from 1933 to 1945 where Hitler joined the Nazi party and became the leader (Levine 1). It was therefore during this period that the economy in the region was under severe stretch. Hitler himself had contributed much to this as he had engaged in racial segregation where he divided German’s based on their ethnic status. Therefore, after the Nazi party was created, there were several terms that were stated by the proponents. First, the requirement for one to belong ...

There are different periods in the history of countries that play more or less significance roles. No doubt that First and Second World Wars immensely influenced the life and political situations almost in every country. These were the most disastrous event and their aftermaths were often disastrous too. In spite of these tremendous periods in the world’s history there were no less and maybe, according to some views, more important period in the history of America in the twentieth century. The period of the 60s is treated now as the time of innovations in culture, science, music and ...

A time to kill is an American drama film produced in 1996 by Arnon Milchan, John Grisham, Michael Nathanson and Hunt Lowry (Ebert 1).it depicts how racial discrimination affected social life in America. It is based on the novel ‘A time to Kill’, written by John Grisham in 1989. The film revolves around a black family, father and daughter who are living in Mississippi, and two white men who are racists. Tonya the black young girl is aged ten years. She was seized by Doug Hutchinson and Nicky Katt who raped her in turns. The men also beat ...

Capstone / WA 3

In this project my purpose is to analyze the changes that have taken place in the film portrayals of Batman between the original Batman: The Movie feature from 1966 and the trilogy that was directed by Christopher Nolan, which ended with The Dark Knight Rises. My major question was whether or not the shift in tone from campy to dark and introspective was a sign of shifts in American culture. The subquestions included such inquiries as whether or not the movies’ success tracked with their ability to mirror the slow darkening in the cultural mood and whether the writing ...

In the English-speaking cinematography, 1995 was the year of Jane Austen. As if trying to celebrate the 220th anniversary of the writer, who since the 20th century became to some extent even a cult figure, the filmmakers created just three versions of her novels “Sense and Sensibility”, “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma”. I like the Jane Austen’s creativity and read almost all her books. I saw a lot of different adaptations of the book “Pride and Prejudice”, and by and large I like all of them. After seeing the film adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility”, directed by Ang ...

The Chinese epic “Farewell My Concubine” by Chen Kaige is a cinematic masterpiece. It is a spectacle of action, history, culture, views of social and political landscapes that all intertwine in a love story that spans 52 years. It won the top prize in the 1993 Cannes International Film Festival and several other accolades in its time (Canby). The movie is vastly entertaining and enthralling. It is easy to get lost in the richness of the story – consider it a cultural achievement. This is an epic that covers years 1925 through 1977 in Beijing (formerly Peking), China. It showcases ...

(Student’s Full Name) Classism and its Connection to Consumption as explored and presented in the Disney Films The Lion King and The Princess and the Frog Classism and its Connection to Consumption as Explored and Presented in the Disney Films The Lion King and The Princess and the Frog

Introduction

Giroux (1999) notes that the power structure created by Disney allows children to relinquish “their roles as critical subjects for the passive role of consuming subjects” (Giroux, 1999, p. 23). This desire to consume has caused many to see the necessity to consume media as pointed out by Dafna ...

The film “Lost in Translation” is really about the difficulties in translation, but not so much in the linguistic sense, as in the human, - translation of others’ feelings ("Lost In Translation (2003)"). The film is not so much the words as the information, the mood and emotions are not concluded just in words. This is perhaps one of the few movies, where the characters’ silence can be comfortable and talk about many things. A slow, as it might seem, dragged action is not the lack of pictures – that's the essence of the whole atmosphere of loneliness – the characters ...

While the films in the Batman cycle speak powerfully for themselves, the reception of the films – and the resulting commentary – go a long way toward showing the different culture in which the movies were made, and which they reflect. In 1965, when the original Batman: The Movie came out, the focus was on action and humor. A review from the time (Variety Staff) indicated that the film is “packed with action, clever sight gags, interesting complications and goes all out on bat with batmania” (Variety Staff, web). The reviewers also noticed that the “script retrieves every trick from the ...

Shattered Glass

On a scale of 1 to 10(10 being excellent) how do you rate the film? Explain your answer. Shattered Glass, a movie directed by Billy Ray and released in the year 2003, is a movie which traces the life of young writer Stephen Glass who created headlines for making up all the articles which he had written for several well-known publications. The movie can be given a rating of 8 out of 10. The biggest positive point about the movie is that it creates a realistic vision of the world of journalism and the ambitions of journalists to ...

Question 1

One of the most conspicuous thematic elements of the films made in the Asian region is the conflict between the individuals and the social influences or practices. Many directors hailing from different Asian cultures have come forward to make films dealing with such themes. These films have also gained much critical acclamation and popularity all over the world as they are very aptly made to reach out to the emotions and aesthetic sense of the masses. If one explores a few iconic films of Asia, it would become very clear how the makers have inserted elements of dichotomy in ...

I would like to see the movie "The Great Gatsby", filmed in 1974 by the director named Jack Clayton from the standpoint of psychoanalysis ("The Great Gatsby (1974)"). I will consider the film through the prism of the basic tenets of the theory, developed by the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. I will make out a few key points that define psychoanalysis as a theory and show how these postulates are related to the main character of the book by Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Jack Clayton’s film, Jay Gatsby. Immediately, it should be noted that this film is not ...

Art has long become an integral part of our lives. At the present stage of the social development cinematography occupies a special place, as for the representatives of mankind it’s the most affordable and favorite kind of art. The great advantage of the art, including cinematography, consists in the fact that it can give people some special feelings and emotional experiences that they cannot or simply fear to experience in the real life. The world of cinema has become valuable for all people - starting from a mischievous child and ending with old car mechanic. Moreover, there is ...

Question 1

It needs to be reckoned that the films made in Asia over the past decades have truly come to excel in the form of cinematic art, and have gained enormous popularity as well as critical acclaim all over the world. If one delves into a few of the iconic Asian films ever made in the history of cinema, it can be comprehended that these films explore the thematic content of the dichotomy between the spirit of emancipation of the individual and the constrictions of the societal norms or the cultural community. A close scrutiny of a few iconic films ...

Questions and Essays

Question #2 It might be argued that the character of Ned Kelly is a Robin Hood-like character. A 19th century outlaw, Carey illustrates him as the conventional bad guy with positive qualities. This is why it can be said that Kelly is a Robin Hood like character, as Robin Hood executed certain aspects that were not necessarily morally correct, or ethically right - but nevertheless allowed for positive outcomes. Much of the novel consists of Ned encountering bad luck and being manipulated and lied to. As such, he is forced into the seemingly bad guy lifestyle ending up in ...

«The City of God» - that is how they call the poor slums of Rio de Janeiro, it is a place where poverty coexist with the highest amount of crime - local kids get guns after they learn how to walk. Since the favelas were built to isolate the city center from the poor neighborhoods, the law eventually eft this place and the local gangs began to rule the streets. The narrator of the story, a guy named Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) tells about three generations of gangs, which lived in the favela. The film starts with a beautifully shot ...

The history of one of the most famous people in the World War I, namely Theodore Lawrence, better known as the leader of the Arab people has been full of events and turning points. Early in his life, very few people liked or even respected him. The habits, which were too unusual for an Englishman, were ridiculed and regarded by the senior management as a sign of incompetent. To somehow involve a not disciplined expert in Arab culture, the generals sent Lawrence to Arabia, where he was instructed to get in touch with the local prince and an overall ...

Racism is a feeling or belief of a particular race being inferior or superior to the other. In this case, the inborn biological characteristics are used to predetermine the moral and social traits of an individual. Racism makes individuals from varying races remain segregated away from each other. Ethnicity is used to refer to groups of people sharing common, language, ideologies, heritage, culture, and religion. When a person belongs to a particular cluster, it brings the realization of ethnicity belonging. According to the lecture notes, race is a group of individuals, and they must have similar physical characteristics like ...

The viewing experience of any one classic film made by director Akira Kurosawa, the influential Japanese filmmaker, can elevate the viewer’s taste for cinema to a whole new level. He had been able to make not merely a couple, but dozens of classic films of high artistic and creative caliber. In an October 06, 1985 interview with Julia Cameron, Akira Kurosawa said that films are something that carry across to many different countries and are seen by many different kinds of people. In this sense, they have a tremendous power of communication (3). His films rarely fall short ...

“The Breakfast Club” is a movie directed by John Hughes. It is a film that was produced in the year 1985, featuring five teenagers. The film is set to portray certain themes, in particular on the issues that concern the youth. The video shows the various challenges that most teenagers go through, where they face the challenge of being understood by the society, their families, as well as themselves. The movie presents the theme of perpetual skirmish of most American teenagers to be followed. The teens face the challenge of societal rejection, as well as being misunderstood. This problem ...

I would like to talk about the movie “Mountain Patrol”, filmed in 2004 by the Chinese director Chuan Lu. The peculiarity of this director's narrative is inherent in all of his films, but here he surpassed himself. Merging in one movie two different approaches – the artistic and documentary one was an unmatched idea. At least, hardly anyone else came across this symbiosis. It really turned out a beautiful picture, in which both actors and documentary were involved. I believe that his film was a key moment in the struggle to save the antelope Chiru, not only in China but ...

Pink Floyd – The Wall was the movie by the then 38-year-old British director Alan Parker. Both positive and negative feedbacks can be heard about this movie. Misunderstanding of this movie is connected with understanding ​​it as a too long video clip or a filmed concert of the Pink Floyd rock band which illustrated the songs through animation. It can be assumed that peculiar style met the resistance of people who were accustomed only to the linear plot and intelligible ideas shown in movies they watched. This Parker`s film, on the contrary, virtually lacks not only dialogues of the ...

Part A:

The case that was tried in “A Civil Action” pertained to a case that was based on events that happened in Woburn, Massachusetts, (A Civil Action). The events that led up to the court case were the fact that six families filed suit against W.R. Grace & Co. due to the fact that their chemical plant that manufactured food-processing equipment had improper disposal of toxic chemicals that polluted the local ground water that flowed to the two local municipal wells, (A Civil Action). This improper disposal of these chemicals was believed to cause leukemia for several local residents, (A Civil ...