Drama Analysis : Walter Kerr, A Theater And Film Critic

What were Edwin S. Porter's significant contributions to the development of early narrative film? In what sense did Porter build upon the innovations of contemporaneous filmmakers, and for what purposes?

The family’s state of extreme poverty discourages Guy as he is unable to fully provide for his family. The destitute conditions that the family is in is clearly represented through their lifestyle. Sometimes, Little Guy has to sit by the side of the road under the street lamps to study his lines for the play. Also, the people living in the neighborhood must gather around

In the movie Charlie Chaplin plays a tramp who finds a baby that has been abandoned by an unfit mother. At first Chaplin tries to get rid of the baby, but when that fails he decides to take him in as his own. The movie then skips ahead to when the boy is about five years old and shows Chaplin and the kid scamming their neighbors by breaking their windows and then making them pay for Chaplin to fix them. One day the kid gets sick so Chaplin calls a doctor who, after seeing the kid’s living conditions’ calls the police to have the child taken away. The rest of the movie is about Chaplin’s journey to rescue the kid and ends with a dramatic reuniting scene.

The movie “John Q” narrates a story of the financially constrained character John Quincy Archibald who ensures that his nine year old son at the brink of death, secures a heart transplant by any means possible. Throughout the movie, there is a compelling display of the love shared by a family and this is seen in the great lengths John went to save his son, however unlawful. The main characters are John, Michael and Denise Archibald, Rebecca Payne, Doctor Turner and Lt. Grimes.

How did society affect this film (i.e., what currents in society led to the creation of the film)?

Your paper should be organized around a thesis statement that clarifies what you will attempt to accomplish in your paper, and how you will proceed. Additionally, you must conclude with a restatement of the thesis and a conclusion paragraph.

In his attacks on Hollywood and the Federal Theatre Project, Hearst was driven by selfish and possibly personal ulterior motives. Between the Federal Theatre Project, Hollywood, and William Randolph Hearst exists one very crucial connection, Orson Welles (Allen, Carmichael). The “Boy Wonder” entertainer, who at 21 years old directed the groundbreaking play “The Cradle Will Rock”, which criticized public figures just like Hearst. But it isn’t the production of this play that brought young Welles’ ever promising career to an abrupt halt, to this William Randolph Hearst is responsible.

Over the course of approximately one-hundred years there has been a discernible metamorphosis within the realm of African-American cinema. African-Americans have overcome the heavy weight of oppression in forms such as of politics, citizenship and most importantly equal human rights. One of the most evident forms that were withheld from African-Americans came in the structure of the performing arts; specifically film. The common population did not allow blacks to drink from the same water fountain let alone share the same television waves or stage. But over time the strength of the expectant black actors and actresses overwhelmed the majority force to stop blacks from appearing on film. For the longest time the performing arts were

Chaplin affirms that one of the main reasons for his success is that he makes films that portray what an audience wants to see. “Even the most inoffensive of us has sometime or other conceived the grotesque idea of pulling those millionaire whiskers––just a fleeting, absurd idea” (Chaplin 6), states Chaplin. As the audience has an innate desire to see a high-class business man lose their composure and status, they also have a desire to see hope in dire situations. The same

In the film Modern times by Charlie Chaplin it was a film that showed the

Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that that journey is not the same for every individual. For Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), the main character of Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, the path towards riches and a fulfilled life is being well liked. He serves to please others. He strives for that attention. This view cost him his happiness in the end. In this man’s rise and fall through prosperity, Welles shows the futility of striving solely for likeability.

My example that I will be using is Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin. Modern times is a film developed after the industrial revolution. It serves the purpose of critiquing capitalism and the social world. Modern Times begin with a factory worker who starts developing anxiety through the lack of breaks and repetitive work. When the Worker is on break, his boss is always keeping an eye on him and demands him to go back to work due to the loss of production. Soon after, the factory worker goes on lunch break, but is again distracted by his boss due to the desire to try out a new lunch contraption. At first, the new technology seems to work since the factory Worker was being fed. But, after a few seconds the contraption goes haywire and starts hurting the worker. The factory Worker goes back to work, but suddenly starts to mess up. He goes around ruining all his co-workers’ work and even get himself in prison. However, he ends up saving all the cops from the inmates’ revolution and is released early from jail. He does not want to leave since he is treated properly in jail and will be homeless in the outside world. He tries to get himself in prison again, but meets a beautiful woman Gamin who is also homeless and workless. They run off together and commit burglaries to feed themselves, but is soon discovered by the police. They manage to escape and run off to live in a small house by themselves. The factory Worker and the Gamin decides to have lunch together, but finds out that a

This is an agreed conception of film and human life, that man is a being with the possibilities of success or failure. We also see that Schatz’s way of thinking is how film and the settings of the culture are with in the film and what drives the film to its climax for the viewer, but at the end it does due what Schatz’s talks about with gangster films.

     There have been many dramatic plays over the centuries. Many of these plays have died in their time, while others have lived on. What makes these plays endure time and continue to be influential over time? Perhaps it is the storyline or the interesting nature of the play is what makes these dramas last. I think that it is the focus on human nature and its essential truths that keep these plays alive. Most of the plays, still enacted in theaters today, deal with social issues that people can learn from and relate to.

Rituals and theater, which are both cultural performances, have similarities such as serving the purpose of entertaining teaching the audience, belief from audiencce, use of props, use of space, and repesentaion. Since during this time period many commoners did not know how to read, the church had to present these rituals in order to teach them about events in the bible like the Crucification of Jesus Christ. Similaritly, a play will serve the purpose to teach the audience a certain idea that the playwright believes is necessary for the audience members, the audience vary depending on the time this play was written, to learn or understand. Unlike a play, which has no certain time frame to be perform, a ritual is perform during certain time of the liturgical year; for example, the passion of the cross