Contagion And Motorcycle Diaries : Movie Analysis

This movie explores issues of greed, human relationships, betrayal and redemption, personal innocence and responsibility as well as the effects on the human mind

Certain films evoke an emotion in you. Whether it being happy, sad, scared or even angry – movies have a way of teaching us new things about ourselves and even the world. I, myself, often find myself trying to piece together what types of roles individuals play within society, regardless of if it is a film or real life. We all have these roles and functions that determine how we will act, what we will do, how we will react, and who we will interact with. These are all things that we want to know about someone, not only out of curiosity but so we can predict how others that do the same will also react. The movie, Divergent, which is based on the three-novel series by Veronica Roth is one that showed me how society functions from a

1. What are the main themes, politically and socially, that are portrayed in the film?

One of the themes that stand out the most in the film is the struggle to overcome adversity and push through problems in one’s life that could otherwise get in the way from achieving goals. In the film, many

Q.1. What do you think is the main messages this movie is trying to deliver?

This movie is a great example of social groups, leadership, culture, norms, society, nature and nurture, and social lives. This movie represents how the American culture chooses our social class in society. Some sociologists believed that lifestyle choices are an important influence on our social class position (Giddens, 209). Our class position is the way we dress, where we eat, where we sleep, and how we relax (Giddens,

Geraldine Brook’s novel, Year of Wonders is based on a true story which recounts a 17th Century Plague, which struck the English village of Eyam and put many in strife. The story revolves around the protagonist, Anna Frith as she develops strength throughout the novel from being a maid in the beginning of the novel and eventually becomes a midwife. Similarly, Steven Soderbergh’s Film, Contagion is set in 21st Century America, which narrates the epidemic of the MEV1 virus, which causes dispute amongst many characters and has a manipulative effect on the characters in the film. In both the text and the novel, Diseases not only attack individuals but also causes the breakdown in society. Diseases cause the greed and the want for money in some characters, which has a huge impact on society as a whole. Similarly, diseases cause the need for self-preservation in order to survive. On the other hand, diseases cause characters to lose faith.

Movies have the ability to transport people to different times and places and distract them from ordinary everyday reality. They allow for a range of emotions to be experienced. At their core, movies examine the human condition. There are plenty of deeper truths woven into screenplays and plenty of lessons to be learned, even when an individual is solely seeking entertainment.

2) What are some of the themes that are central to the film? How have they been communicated?

Some of the most common themes in contemporary biographical films revolve around social life as well as the accompanying problems that living in today's society entails. By making connections to individual personal lives, these films help most people make sense of the world in which they live. In this regard, this paper focuses on the film, The Pursuit of Happyness outlining various cultural issues as well as problems faced by the starring; Will Smith playing Chris Gardner in the movie. Moreover, the paper discusses how such factual films reflect and create popular ideas about social problems.

The portrayal of people being sickly creatures has been used in Hollywood film for a very long time. This has been in the endeavor of putting the viewing public in the shoes of the patient and entertain them with over the top portrayals of disease. For patients that are women in particular this has been achieved by defining them along the lines of vague terms such as them being over emotional and unstable. Despite the advancement experienced by the society, women have not yet fully seen the goal of equality realize fruition. With the expansion of the psychiatric and psychological terminologies, there now additional ways via which mental illness can be ascribed as a weakness for men and women portrayed in Hollywood film. This is best

The political elements of the movie are shown through the politics of violence. The movie focuses on masculinity, violence and gender. It resembles the pathology of individual and institutional violence that fills America, ranging from hate crimes to criminal subcultures. Violence functions mostly through the politics of denial, insulation, disinterest and inability to criticize with self-consiousness. This is the violence that represents society today.

Mental health is a heavy topic of conversation in general. People still struggle with grasping a real understanding of what mental health is and how it effects a person in their daily life. Due to the already limited understanding of mental health, it is often glamorized or portrayed in an over-exaggerated manner with heavy influence on the close ups and different kinds of camera angles in order to express the insanity of a particular character or characters. The films My Friend Dahmer and The Fire Within, a French film directed by Louis Malle, introduce characters with mental illnesses in different eras of Hollywood media. The two films utilize cinematography and narrative to express the mental health issues impeding the two protagonists.

What is all about life if an individual can’t be able to enjoy, relate well and have fun within his or her social boundaries? The social aspect is what makes a person to expound on the other aspects of life such as the economy, technology, and politics with minimal barriers. Movies connect the living generation with real-life situations, giving ideas on how to embrace it and live well when subjected to such circumstances.

1. What is the true subject or the theme of the film, and What kind of statement, if any, does the film make about the subject? Which elements and which themes contributed most to addressing the theme of the film?