The lyrical, slow-moving opening sequence is a dazzling combination of cinematography, music and hallucinatory images from the brutal and destructive war in Vietnam
The lyrical, slow-moving opening sequence is a dazzling combination of cinematography, music and hallucinatory images from the brutal and destructive war in Vietnam. [There are no traditional opening credits or titles. The title of the film appears as graffiti toward the end of the film in the complex presided over by Kurtz.] The sounds of the war chopper blades (chuk-chuk-chuk) are heard and flaming sights of war are seen at the edge of a green-canopied jungle of palm trees as napalm is dropped. The mind-altering, mournful words of the soundtrack from The End: "This is the end..." (sung by burned out 60s rock star Jim Morrison of the Doors) play over nightmarish memories of the war. Dust swirls and golden napalm fill the air. In 1968, debauched, moody, divorced Army Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) of US Army Intelligence (505th Batallion, 173rd Airborne), lies in a sleazy, dingy, sepia-toned Saigon hotel room, isolated, alienated, sweat-bathed and recovering from battle fatigue. (At first, his inverted face is superimposed over the left half of the screen.) There are panning shots of his dog tag, a pile of bills, his wallet, a woman's picture, an opened letter and envelope, cigarettes, a glass and Cordon Bleu bottle, and a gun lying next to his pillow. He is drinking and deliberately closed off from the outside world, haunted by his liquor-induced memories of the
Compare the way cultural difference is represented in two films (East is East and Crash).
Kirandeep Dhillon Compare the way cultural difference is represented in two films ('East is East' and 'Crash'). The two films, 'East is East' and 'Crash', display cultural differences within society in different manners. 'East is East' portrays cultural differences as a quite comical issue and this makes the film a comedy and this can be seen throughout the film from analysing the media techniques the creators have incorporated. However, 'Crash' shows racism and cultural differences to be a more serious matter as 'Crash' is a drama and this can be seen through out the film also due to the media techniques used. 'East is East' is set in Salford in Manchester, England in 1971. The area is a working class area and this can be seen from the terraced housing in the first scene. Manchester at that time was pre-dominantly white and thus this causes culture clashes. 'Crash' is set at a more recent date as it was made in 2005. It is set in modern day Los Angeles in the USA. This time is post-9/11 and this influences some of the racism seen in the film. Los Angeles at that time had a lot of cultural difference due to a high crime rate from gangs and violence between different races. The name 'Crash' could perhaps connote the collision of many different cultures and races and thus is metaphorical or it may connote devastation caused due to racism. The title 'East is East' may connote
How are good and evil characters presented in The Fellowship of the Ring?
How are good and evil characters presented in the Lord of the Rings? The Lord of the Rings, written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in the 1950s, is regarded widely throughout the world as one of the most imaginative pieces of the fiction in the 20th century, if not the whole of English literature, and a masterpiece of epic high fantasy. Tolkien almost created a whole new genre, greatly influencing popular culture for decades, and inspiring books and video games. One of the main themes of the Lord of the Rings is the epic war between good and evil, the characters in LOTR were originally written by Tolkien to be easily distinguishable from each other in terms of their goodness and capacity for love in the view of the reader. Tolkien mainly achieved by constructing the characters to possess very archetypical characteristics, in such a way that many characters and races described in LOTR wouldn't look out of place in a classic fairytales. In the film The Fellowship of the Ring, a cinematic depiction of the first volume of the LOTR trilogy, Peter Jackson (the director) along with his film crew accurately portrays the races of Middle-Earth through a mixture of various techniques such as music, clothing, camera angles and much more. Hobbits It is the spectacular personality of Hobbits that makes them probably the most loved characters of Tolkien's massive legendarium, and
Analyse the ways that the director builds up suspense and scares the audience in Jaws.
Analyse the ways that the director builds up suspense and scares the audience in "Jaws." The film is called JAWS and is successfully Directed by Steven Spielberg. I will be analyzing how Spielberg builds up suspense and scares the audience throughout this film, considering how camera shots, music and characters reactions help to build this effect. The film is purposely named Jaws as it is about a supernatural predator that killed many people with his deadly Jaws. It is masterful, and realistic, tapping into the most primal of human fear. The film Jaws is an example of Classical Narrative structure. It has the three basic elements of the classical structure: setup, confrontation, and resolution. It is set in 1975 on a fictional island called Amity in America; now known as Long Island which is more precisely in the state of New England. The film Jaws is about Chief Brody, who moves to Amity Island from New York. During his first summer, Brody is faced with shark attacks. His first reaction is to close the beaches, but the Mayor (Murray Hilton) will not let him do that. Chief Brody (Roy Scheider), along with marine biologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and shark hunter Quint(Robert Shaw), go out onto the water and hunt the shark. The story Jaws reflects the story of Moby Dick. In the story of Moby Dick, Captain Ahab is searching for one specific whale; Moby Dick, a white
How Steven Spielberg was able to convery the true horror of WWII in "Saving Private Ryan"
Saving Private Ryan - Essay India Rose 10X1 "The last thing I wanted to do in this picture was to use the war as a springboard for action-adventure. I was looking for realism the whole time" said Steven Spielberg, the director of the film "Saving Private Ryan" Spielberg's foremost aim was to bring a realism to the film and really convey the true horrors of World War II. He used many different kinds of methods including the varied camera work, the sound used and all the background research into D-day to try and give the audience a true insight into what exactly the initial 24 minute battle sequence was depicting. Spielberg had to consider the way in which he was going to bring the knowledge he had gained from researching the battle of Omaha Beach onto the screen. One of our main focuses for study was looking into the different camera work. The first scene we are shown screen is the one in which Private Ryan, now an elderly man, is visiting the World War II memorial in Normandy, France. The very first shot is of the American flag. As the military music begins to fade out we start hearing the wind and the flag flapping around. We hear all this before any action takes place on screen. I think this was supposed to give this particular scene a certain patriotic feel before it had even begun. The first action of the opening sequence begins with the camera focusing on Ryan's feet
The film I will be discussing is Dracula. The director of Dracula is Francis Ford Coppola;
Dracula Gothic horror can be very appealing to many people. People may like to watch these films for various different reasons such as the graphical nature which can make it look extremely realistic. The blood, guts and gore effects make the film very entertaining as well as alarming; also the thrills these horror films give to the audience can be very appealing. Mainly in horror films there is always good v evil and the audience will almost always want to see the good defeat the evil and this will always happen. It will always be expected. The film I will be discussing is Dracula. The director of Dracula is Francis Ford Coppola; he is a very talented director and had six Oscars by the time he was 36. Astonishingly, he had won many more awards after that as well. This shows that the director would have been exceptionally famous and this would have made the film very popular indeed. The actors that participated in the film 'Dracula' were; Garry Oldham who played Dracula, Winona Ryder who played Mina Murray & Elizabetha, Anthony Hopkins who played Professor Abraham Van Helsing and Keanu Reeves who played Jonathan Harker. Personally, I think they all did a fantastically good job. In this essay the devices I will mainly be focusing on are; the signifiers of genre, the camera angles, the characters, the sound effects, the lighting techniques and the setting. I will explain
To what extent does or is it possible for television to continue to act as a 'voice for the nation'? Discuss with reference to specific TV texts.
Belinda Clarke Student No: 9505215 To what extent does or is it possible for television to continue to act as a 'voice for the nation'? Discuss with reference to specific TV texts. Throughout the world both commercial and public service broadcasting has been active in the construction of national identities. In Britain for example, the state sponsored BBC has been most closely associated with being a 'voice of the nation'. Lord Reith the first director general of the BBC established its central role of fostering national identity from its outset in the 1920s, and by the establishment of the BBC's television service in 1936 the corporation was, as Reith put it, committed to "making the nation as one man". (Goodwin & Whannel, 1990, p.23) To this day the BBC still subscribes to this philosophy, and much of its output still reflects this commitment. However, since Reith's departure, the television industry has undergone dramatic change because in recent years the world has been becoming increasingly organised by globalisation. Television is now broadcast on a global scale which it is theorised is having consequences on the formation of collective identities. It is for this reason that I will use the BBC to illustrate how television acts as a 'voice for the nation', and also to show the effects that global television has had on this role and in turn national
Media Studies: Magazine Evaluation
Media Magazine Essay. Dear team leader, For my project, I was told by my employers, make and develop a new car magazine called Speed, I was given the status of director, so I ran the project, along with my colleague Humza Sharif. I chose to give the magazine the name speed because the name gives the audience an idea of what the game is about, i.e on the shelf if they see the name speed they would directly link it to automobiles, and if this is their interest they are more likely to buy it, in contrast if the magazine was called 'supreme superstars' people would think it was about wrestling, and not cars, and would be more likely to not buy to it due to confusion. The idea for the magazine was influenced by other car magazines like dub and top gear magazine, but we saw a gap in the market, what I mean is; we saw that our rival magazines didn't have articles where they focused on the lifestyle of celebrities while mixing this with cars our readership would want to see, i.e. Cars that they would probably never be able to afford, but are fast and luxurious owned by celebrities, our magazine's unique selling point is it offers to fulfill the satisfaction needed by curious people, who want to know about the lives of celebrities while they're interested in fast and expensive cars. Looking at the already successful car magazines like Dub, auto-trader and Top gear magazine we were
Why in your opinion has Star Wars: A New Hope become such an iconic film?
Why in your opinion has Star Wars: A New Hope become such an iconic film? Lucas had the idea of Star Wars: A New Hope whilst directing his first full-feature film, THX 1138. Lucas started writing Star Wars: A New Hope in 1973 however it wasn't until 1977 that it was released. Lucas spent these 4 years changing and modifying the characters and script. There were many minor changes such as Luke Starkiller being renamed as Luke Skywalker. There were many big changes such as the death of Obi Wan Kenobi after George Lucas realized that he no longer served a purpose to the story line. Joseph Campbell's A Hero with a thousand faces inspired Lucas. Lucas read this book whilst he was choosing the characters that helped make Star Wars: A New Hope so iconic. Star Wars: A New Hope was an unexpected huge hit. It has now evolved from just a film aimed at children to numerous types of media and is now multi-media. There is a lot of merchandise that has been made for Star Wars: A New Hope. The film is now a television series, animated film, videogame and in addition there has been a lot of merchandise produced. There have been many toys made based on the characters in Star Wars: A New Hope. Lightsabers have also been recreated in different colours. The lightsabers bear a resemblance to swords; this signifies heroism and bravery as characters such as saint
Shrek.This film completely reinvents the original fairy tale story; In this film you see the prince as the bad guy instead of the good guy for once.
Media Coursework- Shrek Introduction Set in a strange, colourful land populated by fairy tale characters, Shrek is a hilarious comedy about a fearsome green ogre living in isolation in his own cosy little swamp. He is not receptive to visitors, and fends off the occasional party of torch-wielding villagers with ease. But when the power-hungry Lord Farquaad turns Shrek's swamp into a relocation camp for dozens of banished fairy-tale characters Shrek's quiet, introverted life is ruined. Joined by the talkative Donkey, Shrek makes his way to Farquaad's realm of Duloc, where the Lord makes Shrek an offer: He will rid Shrek's land of the unwanted visitors if Shrek will go on a simple quest to free Princess Fiona from her remote, dragon-guarded castle and convince her to marry Farquaad. On their quest, Shrek and Donkey run into a number of bizarre situations, and Shrek finds himself realizing that he isn't quite the fearsome monster he has always made himself out to be. He unexpectedly finds himself falling in love with Princess Fiona, and realises that they have more in common than Shrek thought, when he finds out that she is also an Ogre. Princess Fiona is waiting for "true love's first kiss" to break the curse, and finds out that beauty is more than skin deep when she is still an ogre after she kisses Shrek. This film completely reinvents the original fairy tale story; In this
