movie review and analyze

Your assignment is to write a 5 page (double-spaced) movie review of two movies as if they

were a two-part series. The first movie is to be from the “Golden Age” of American cinema

(produced between 1917 and 1960), and the second movie is to be from the contemporary

period.

You will write as if you were writing for a journal called Film and History, and your job is to

analyze how and why representation of a particular culturally-marked group in the United States

(a racial, ethnic, or religious group, a gendered group, a sexual minority, a particular social class,

people with disabilities, immigrants, or any other culturally-marked group) has changed over

time.

To start with, you are to identify how the group you have chosen has been represented in both

films, and how those representations have or have not changed over time. You are to use

concepts both from lectures and from Chapters 1-3 from Sturken and Cartwright’s book in

your discussion. Please focus not only on the cultural stereotypes about the group in question,

but on the entire discursive systems (Chapter 3) that allow such stereotypes to exist in the first

place. This means thinking about the political, economic, and social forces that give rise to those

images – as well as the forces that have (or have not) led to changes in how the group you are

focusing on, has been represented. Where applicable, please supplement your review by concepts

introduced and discussed in lectures as well.

Please remember that this is still a film review – so please write simply and clearly. Generally

speaking, it will be more effective if you do not try to write about too many different aspects, but

rather use one or two topics as focal points for making larger general observations and analyses.

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Chapters 1-3 concepts: http://www.tcnj.edu/~allyn/practices-lookingCH1.pd…