Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to critically watch and review a movie with popular culture themes/symbols in terms of the sociological perspective and cultural theories.
Many say art imitates life, and we see a reflection of our society and its values in art and entertainment. Others say life imitates are many of our behaviors and values are modeled after what we see in art and entertainment. Either way, you will find examples of popular culture in the movies.
Instructions:
1) Select a movie: For this assignment, you will need to select one movie. Even if it is a movie you have seen before, you need to re-watch the movie with a critical eye towards the social construction of reality and illustrations of other sociological/cultural concepts.
Suggested Movie Options:
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Hotel Rwanda
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Brazil
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Million Dollar Baby
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Office Space
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Gandhi
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Boys Don't Cry
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The Village
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Cape Fear (deNiro version)
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Mystic River
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Last Samurai
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Mothman Prophecies
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Traffic
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The Wall
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Glory
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Stepford Wives
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Pretty in Pink
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Hoop Dreams
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The Terminal
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The Breakfast Club
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It's a Wonderful Life
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Bowling for Columbine
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Grapes of Wrath
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Pretty Woman
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The Hours
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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Citizen Kane
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Cabin Fever
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Clockwork Orange
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Fight Club
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Radio
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Crash
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Nosferatu
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Titanic
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The Gods Must be Crazy
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Taxi Driver
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Coming to America
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American History X
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Roger & Me
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Fight Club
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Inherit the Wind
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Dead Poet's Society
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Mona Lisa's Smile
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Bullworth
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Life is Beautiful
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American Beauty
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Lord of the Flies
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The Truman Show
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The Matrix
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With Honors
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Affluenza
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Erin Brokovich
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Working Girl
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Risky Business
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Baby Boom
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Rain Man
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Philadelphia
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Dogma
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Chocolat
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Parenthood
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Shawshank Redemption
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Last Castle
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Witness
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Meet Joe Black
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2) Analyze the movie: After watching the movie, you will write a 4-6 page review, consisting of:
a) intro paragraph noting the relevance of the movie to the course
b) one page description/summary of the contents of the film
-How was the story presented?
-i.e. flashbacks, sequential, from a particular character's point of view, etc.
-What was the intention of the film and/or filmmaker?
-Was this intention fulfilled or met?
-Did the way the movie was produced and presented affect the content?
-Were there specific scenes or occurrences, which stood out as being essential to the development of the story and/or to your understanding of it?
-Major substantive points of the movie?
-Any secondary points made?
-Any 'unintentional' results of the movie?
c) 0.5-1 page in which you discuss how popular culture themes were constructed in the movie use at least 3 examples
d) 1-2 pages in which you use at least 4 sociological/pop cultural concepts covered in this course to analyze the movie (cite class materials as you do so)
e) Analyze which issues emerged as the strongest...as the weakest?
f) Briefly compare the popular culture themes in the movie you watched for this assignment to another movie you have previously seen that had similar themes.
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.