Ten of America’s producers, directors, and screenwriters sat before the House of Un-American Activities Committee in October of 1974. They were questioned of speculations of being communist. The Hollywood Ten consisted of; Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr, John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo. As known the Hollywood ten did not cooperate with the investigation.…
Everyone knows about the American movie business. Millions of dollars go into financing big movie projects just to entertain ourselves away from the real world, and millions of dollars are sent back in tickets to go see these films. Certainly, this business has been booming for the past one-hundred years, and we keep on fueling the fire. Movies aren’t just about entertainment only. Many films have become part of the American culture, and many films from the US show how Americans think and feel about certain trends or ideas.…
After hanging up from talking to my mother, I decided to take her advice. If I have to watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show for class that it would the best if I was to actually experience the show, this culture, this step into the past, instead of just watching the musical on my laptop and thinking this is the strangest musical in the world. I looked up if there was even any showings still of this musical, and lucky there was one this the Nuart Theater, of course the midnight showing. The price was only $11, a price I luckily could afford as a poor college student. I called up a few friends, family members, and my roommate…
April 29th 1996, Broadway’s Nederland theatre is sold out to capacity and the audience is gritting their teeth with excitement, but an overture is nowhere to be heard, the curtains are missing and the haphazardly placed lighting rigs have not yet dimmed. All at once, the stage erupts with cast members running in-between and out of the industrial themed set, a strum of a guitar is heard and a critically acclaimed overnight sensation is born in the image of Jonathon Larson. Adapted from the popular opera La Bohème, Rent the musical was created in the hopes of representing the minute bohemian culture of New York City at the end of the 20 century who were confronted with impoverishment, HIV and homosexuality. Going against traditional musical theatre…
Sitcoms In moments when we need a distraction from reality or a voice of guidance. Television became a norm during the 1950’s and continues to be a part of the daily routine for a majority. Sitcoms in particular have taken a role in molding and influencing the public. It has greatly impacted our society for decades now.…
Casablanca is a classic film released in 1942 at the start of World War II and went on to become a large successus. Its remembered as being a romance drama war film. But why is this? Before discussing what genre umbrella Casablanca falls into, one must comprehend what a genre is, and the classifications of the different genres. Is the genre of a film based the subject matter and content or is it based on the effect it has on the audience?…
Although the Hollywood view point of voodoo is bad it is making people a lot of people rich. Many people open shops claiming that they are selling authentic voodoo dolls and other useless fake things. They went with the Hollywood belief of voodoo and are now making money from those who do not know the truth of its origins. Although it is interesting, it is wrong and should not be done. We need to stop slandering and fearing the unknown if we do not know the truth.…
The purpose of this film is to inform and educate the audience about their music group and it's history. This film being a documentary, narration is used all throughout the film. The narrator gives descriptions and details to convey the story and give a short excerpt on what is going to be talked about next in the film. The narrator of the whole film talks in third person because he was not involved in what happened, he talks about other people. When the artists, who were involved in The Funk Brothers, narrate their stories they talk in first person, past tense.…
Throughout the films I have watched this semester, American Indians have been constructed and represented in many different ways. Different films in different eras have led to stereotyping American Indians and poorly portraying the construction of American Indian life. At the beginning of this semester, films portrayed American Indians as savages who could not kill a Cowboy, but at the end of the semester, that stereotype changed into American Indians represented as helpless people who cannot be rescued from the alcoholism and distress found on reservations. The ways the American Indians are portrayed in these films create an image that Americans see in today's society. In the first films viewed in class, Americans were entertained through…
Sydney McMurray Mrs. Mihalik Honors English 9 1 December 2017 “Fight The Power” Seventy percent of the world’s population is made up of people of ethnicity. Caucasians are a minority when compared to the rest of the world. So why is it that groups of people speak out about “white supremacy”? The color of a person’s skin creates a fantastical division of power.…
Meta-fiction is a huge part of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, really the whole book is meta-fictional. Thompson is telling the story of a trip he took at a different time, with a lot of imagined details thrown in. In the text there are countless examples of different meta-fictions, but perhaps the most important one is the illustrations throughout the book. Again, pretty much every illustration is it’s own meta-fiction, but one in particular stands out in my mind, the one with the caption that reads “As your attorney I advise you to slow down- I can’t keep up man!” This image, like all images in the book is drawn in a very cartoonlike manner, which is important because it helps to distort reality even farther.…
The video, The Dream Pioneers: Visionaries of Science Fiction, is about young men who pioneered the Los Angeles Science Fiction League, which is a program that encourages visionary young people to openly share thought provoking ideas of exploring the solar system, extraterrestrials and other fantasies. These young people went on to change the world by inspiring one another to let their dreams run free. The film goes on to tell about some of these great men who contributed to the creation of science fictions writings and films. Forrest J. Ackerman is the fist man talked about in the video. He made his first contact with the Los Angeles Science Fiction League around 1935 to 1936.…
Poe’s Usher Edgar Allen Poe is known for his Gothic and macabre stories. I chose The Fall of the House of Usher because it is not one of his best known stories or one I had read before. The Raven, Tell-Tale Heart, Cask of Amontillado, and Pit and the Pendulum are all read at different times in high school, but I had never read Usher. In the classic, dreary Poe fashion, the story begins with a narrative point of view in the story. For most of his stories the narrator tells the story in first person, but for Usher, Poe chose a different perspective.…
Recently, I watched the movie Philadelphia, which was directed by Jonathan Demme in 1993. Mr. Demme has won an oscar, directed over fifty films, including Silence of the Lambs. He also was/is a big proponent of informing citizens about gay rights and the effects of HIV/AIDS. This movie is about a lawyer (named Andrew Beckett), who is gay and has HIV. In the beginning of the storyline he does all that he can to hide these aspects about himself, but a colleague of his notices the one symptom of HIV (lesions), and Andrew is promptly fired (through told it was because of mishandling of paperwork).…
Horror films are movies that seek to bring your fears and nightmares to life. They to scare with the morbid and grotesque while entertaining also. They often involve an evil entity, event or person. Horror films feature supernatural creatures like werewolves, ghosts, vampires, witches, and zombies. They also dive into fears of death, of the unknown and loss of identity.…