Analysis Of The MovieTaxi Driver, And Apocalypse Now

The rambunctious behavior of the soldier’s triumphant victory is a strong message visually for the viewer. These soldiers struggle to find their identity and once the war ends, the identity they’ve build at war vanishes, (McCutcheon, 2007). As a result, they essentially lose a part of them selves, (McCutcheon, 2007). When they return home, many soldiers struggle with psychological issues that prevent them from resuming their once regular lives, (McCutcheon, 2007). The images of soldiers celebrating at the end of war give the viewer a taste of this problem. This also allows the viewer insight to the deeper issues surrounding an American soldier’s mental stability and mentality. Through this image, along with many others throughout the film, the viewer is able to dig deeper and truly analyze what they are seeing.

For more than fifty years, Clint Eastwood has been actively defining and redefining cinema as an art form. His experiences as an actor on television and in film have greatly influenced his directing style. Across his films, Eastwood incorporates several issues and techniques that help the audience to identify said films with Eastwood's directorial style. Eastwood's aim in his films is to tell stories of the human experience. Francois Truffaut and Andrew Sarris have aimed to define the qualities that make a director an auteur whose works stand out above the rest. The qualities defined by Truffaut and Sarris can be seen in Eastwood films including Unforgiven (1992), Million Dollar Baby (2004), and Changeling (2008) and help to establish Eastwood as an auteur.

John Ford built a standard that many future directors would follow with his classic 1939 film “Stagecoach”. Although there were a plethora of western films made before 1939, the film “Stagecoach” revolutionized the western genre by elevating the genre from a “B” film into a more serious genre. The film challenged not only western stereotypes but also class divisions in society. Utilizing specific aspects of mise-en-scène and cinematography, John Ford displays his views of society.

In order to illustrate the devastating affects of war, Kurt Vonnegut afflicted Billy Pilgrim with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which caused him to become “unstuck in time” in the novel. Billy Pilgrim illustrates many symptoms of PTSD throughout the story. Vonnegut uses these Slaughterhouse Five negative examples to illustrate the horrible and devastating examples of war. The examples from the book are parallel to real life experiences of war veterans, including Vonnegut’s, and culminate in a very effective anti-war novel.

In the film Green Mile, different sociological theories and concepts can be useful in considering how societies rule our behaviors in life within different cultural places and times. A theory developed by sociologist Emile Durkheim known as the functionalist perspective profoundly applies through out the film. Concepts that are also seen in the film includes: human agency, norms, folkways, mores, and master status with a few theories and concepts of deviance.

Requiem for Detroit? is a historical documentary, released in 2010 and directed by Julien Temple, about the decline and collapse of Detroit, one of America’s largest cities. It chronicles Detroit’s journey through its success in the automobile industry all the way through its urban decay and industrial collapse to the present day. As the film draws a close, Temple also suggests some ways forward for Detroit. He presents possibilities and clearly shows which he thinks is most likely through his use of interviews with subjects and visual representations of these offered opinions. The intended reading that Temple offers viewers is a complex one, with many anti-consumerist and anti-corporate ideas and leanings. Despite the ‘doom-laden’ feel of much of the text, Temple paints optimism for the potential for a progressive and productive future for Detroit. Throughout the documentary he clearly expresses this intended reading through effective use of motifs, shown by visual and sound techniques, music and interviews with both privileged and non-privileged characters.

In the movie Hitch. Dir. Andy Tennant. Perf. Will Smith, Eva Mendes, and Kevin James Sony Pictures, 2005. Dvd. The movie Hitch is about Alex Hitchens who plays “The date doctor” or a consultant as he calls himself. When Alex Hitchens was younger he fell head over heels over Cressida he came on a little strong that led her to another man’s arms. That experience taught him so much that Alex decided to coach other men in avoiding the same mistakes he made to get them to the woman of their dreams. While coaching one of his clients, Albert Brennaman, who is secretly in love with a client of his investment firm, celebrity Allegra Cole, Hitch finds himself falling for Sara Melas she is a gossip columnist whom after her best friend had a one night stand with a gentleman that said that he was the date doctors “client” Sara Melas decided to write a column to expose the “The date doctor” unknowingly that the person she will be exposing would be Alex Hitchens the person she is slowly falling for. Albert and Allegra’s relationship continues to progress while “The date doctor” realizes that none of his own methods are working for him while pursuing a relationship with Sara. At the end of Sara’s investigation she finally finds out the identity behind the much talked about “date doctor” that leads to her break up with Alex. She proceeds to write and publish her story knowing the damage that would cause for his clients and for Hitch reputation the expose article caused Albert and Allegra to

Most people are born with good hearts, but as they grow up they learn prejudices. “Crash” is a movie that brings out bigotry and racial stereotypes. The movie is set in Los Angeles, a city with a cultural mix of every nationality. The story begins when several people are involved in a multi-car accident. Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a mischief younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his wife, a racist cop and his younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife, a Persian immigrant father, a Hispanic locksmith and his young

appears as a war commentator attempting to direct the actions of the soldier fighting before him. When looking at the movie from this angle Apocalypse Now is similar to a style which I associate with Oliver Stone's latter movies, JFK and Natural Born Killers.

“Iron Road” has successfully shown why Chinese workers came to Canada in the 1880s as well as the challenges they confronted. Most of the film’s storyline occurs in China, where it uses the point of view of a Chinese peasant called Little Tiger, to display the daily struggles of the Chinese. The setting is full of war and destruction, thus destroying many farms resulting in famine and poverty. This has resulted in peasants having insufficient funds to support themselves and making them live in unsanitary living spaces. As a result, this gave the workers more reason to move to Canada as there was also better income and resources there. However, once they arrived in Canada, they discover that the conditions there weren’t as good as they thought. Although they had a better income than they did in China, there was a lot of discrimination, dangerous working conditions and horrible living spaces. There was worse pay for the Chinese workers and they had to do the most life-threatening jobs like working with explosives as well as working on the side of a cliff with no harnesses. Throughout the film, “Iron Road” has used the setting, characters and point of view of a Chinese peasant to show that there were horrible conditions and chaos in China, as well as the racism, dangerous working conditions and poor living space the peasants faced in Canada.

For many veterans overcoming the mind scaring scenes, and memories of war when they return home can be more of the battle than actually fighting on the frontline. In this movie the main character suffers from PTSD, and there is one extremely captivating scene where he is sitting on the couch staring at blankTV, hearing gunshot and explosion sounds. Even if the viewer has no experience with war, the vivid sounds used by the producer in this film bring them to understand some of the pain felt by soldiers suffering from

This paper will be discussing the two movies The Green Berets (1968) and Apocalypse Now (1978), and argue how The Green Berets is a propagandist pro-war film depicting the unrealities of the Vietnam War while Apocalypse Now is an ambiguous anti-war film that shows the social and political absurdities of the Vietnam War.

The horrors of war were depicted by the constant threats to the characters lives, the brutal conditions of the bad weather, hunger and combat. Soldiers had to battle the enemy along with nature. Soldiers would become stressed, paranoid and start losing their personalities. As Captain Miller says, “I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.” This quote shows the mental toll on these soldiers.

Heart of Darkness and "Apocalypse Now" both embody the theme of madness and insanity. In Heart of Darkness madness and insanity come as a result of imperialism, Africa is responsible for mental disintegration as well as for physical illness. Madness, in Heart of Darkness, is the result of being removed from ones normal environment and how each person adapts and then re-adapts to society. The same theme of madness and insanity can be seen in Coppola's "Apocalypse Now." Many of the soldier's are just kids, barely 18 or 19, and have little mental stability, since being thrown into a context that is so foreign to them, where their life is on the line every minute. Men like Chef and Lance are ready to snap at any moment because of the shock and realization of where they are, what they are doing, and the fear of not knowing where they are headed. Coppola confronts the insanity of war through Kurtz and the other young men, he is able to depict what it was like for these men, and why so many men after serving in Vietnam suffered Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan has been credited as being the most accurate war recreation film in history. It is the winner of five Academy Awards including Best Director for Steven Spielberg. Like Jaws, the opening scene has perfect equilibrium, calm at both the beginning and the end. Another thing this opening scene has in common with Jaws is the under water camera, and there are also shots from the killer’s point of view – in this case, the shooters’. In addition to this, they both end with calm water; a common theme in Spielberg’s openings. At the beginning of the scene, there is a long shot of a war cemetery; this drives home the seriousness of the war and just how many people died as it is very easy to forget the sheer number of people who were murdered during the war. The extreme close up on the eye of an old Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) gives the audience a feeling of connection with the character and lets them know he is going to have an important role within the film. During the fight scene the camera angles are wild movements and a handheld camera is used to give the effect of a person running as though it is from one of the soldiers’ point of view as this is likely to be something like what they would have seen and experienced. There are many visual effects such as one boat being set on fire with the soldiers still