Exploring How Genre and Narrative Features Create Meaning and Generate Audience Response in Twelve Monkeys

Films are a large part of our lives here in America where we depend on them to do when we’re bored with nothing to do, or when the snow or rain is falling. We all use movies as a common way to go on dates and be with friends. However, there has become an abundance amount of movies that we can all enjoy throughout our lives. Although not all movies are interesting to all viewers depending on their personality and what they like to watch. I can say for myself that a film that I really enjoy would be “Mean Girls”. In the two thousand four film “Mean Girls” there is a sense of entertainment that helps in combining all the aspects found in a classical film. Classical films having a entertaining and dramatic plot, and a excellent cast.

It is an experience of a lifetime to read a story in a book and watch the movie. The book and movie, The Outsiders, share many similarities and differ in equally many ways. S. E. Hinton narrated the Outsiders, and this high-quality narration was equally translated to the movie (2). However, they seem to vary in so many ways. This write-up examines the similarities and differences between the book and movie, The Outsiders, in terms of the plot, characters, setting, style, and theme.

W.W Jacobs uses many different techniques in The Monkey's Paw to build up an atmosphere of suspense and uneasiness. One way this is done is by Jacob's description of the White family's location, a bleak,

For most people, movies are made for entertainment. However, there are also movies that go beyond merely entertaining its audience. There are films that have been created making use of psychological principles, which enrich the movie-viewing experience of audiences. This paper will focus on the movie Shrek, which was released in 2001, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson.

The movie that I choose to watch is “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. In class we learned that primates have different categories. The categories include; movement, reproduction, intelligence and behavior patterns. In the movie, the main ape, Caesar, as well as the other primates in the movie shows examples of these categories. Although, like most modern day movies, some behaviors and characteristics are not true and do not relate to the material that we studied in class.

Although the best reasons for “going to the movies” are to be entertained and eat popcorn, understanding a film is actually quite complex. Movies are not only a reflection of life, they also have the capability of shaping our norms, values, attitudes, and perception of life. Through the media of film, one can find stories of practically anything imaginable and some things unimaginable. Movie-makers use their art to entertain, to promote political agendas, to educate, and to present life as it is, was, or could be. They can present truth, truth as they interpret it, or simply ignore truth altogether. A movie can be a work of fiction, non-fiction, or anything in-between. A film is an artist’s interpretation. What one takes away from a film depends upon how one interprets what has been seen and heard. Understanding film is indeed difficult.

According to Wikipedia, spider monkeys tend to live in medium sized groups of around two or three dozen individuals called troops, averaging at about 15 to 25 individuals in a group. The group will break up into smaller bands on occasion, like to split up to forage for food resources or if there are not enough resources to support the entire group to increase their chances of survival. They are typically found in large, unoccupied areas in the upper layer of the rainforests of Central and South America but can also be found in Mexico. They are primarily arboreal, meaning the spend most of their time swinging from trees, using their prehensile tails to move around. They use their tail as a fifth hand using it to help them

Thinking about O’Connor writing this, leaves me to imagine him wanting his readers to go back and actually realize that he used the character of a monkey. It’s obvious to tell in the tone of O’Connor that since the children ran toward the monkey, it is rare for people to have one as a pet. It’s the opposite of a dog in the sense that when people see a dog they don’t chase after it usually they just walk up and pet

John Jurgensen’s article asks us an interesting question: how many TV series can our brains take? As television series expand to grandiose levels, it gets harder to follow what is happening: who people are, and what their place in the overall story is hard to follow for a large number of viewers. Jurgensen attempts to address this within his article, and it has some interesting points.

“The most powerful way to reach an audience is through the characters' emotions” (Alderson). Sometimes a producer’s toughest job is to appeal to his or her audience to gain their interest in a film. Two of the movies we watched in class came to mind when I think of this. ‘Three Idiots’ along with ‘A Bronx Tale’ are fantastic examples of how a producer can reach the emotions of an audience. However, I felt that one film was more powerful than the other. Although ‘A Bronx tale’ is a well written story with talented actors, the feel for the viewer throughout the movie is almost a sort of low key melancholy as the drama unfolds. ‘A Bronx Tale’ deals with more complex issues such as the mafia, murder and even racism but the producer almost always gives us what we expect next. Conversely, the lower budget film ‘Three idiots’ with little know actors leads the audience through

During Buck’s trip to the north after his struggle with the strangers he just met, he has been put into a cage.

    Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.

Movies can be dark. They can be devastating. They can be tragically sad, painfully colorful. Bright, burning, scarring. Yet, despite all that a movie can illustrate, movies made for the masses have boundaries on tragedy. They cannot show child rape; they cannot show a girl’s limbs being hacked off by a young boy. These images, while understood as descriptive writing in books, mark the edge of what viewers can subject themselves to in film. Film images can be ingrained in minds forever, while our imagination of similar scenes often remains a hazy, shifting, jumble of movements and face. As director of Beasts of No Nation, Cary Joji Fukunaga chose to make changes to the book through the inclusion of small additional scenes before the war, the added character of a big brother, and an additional final scene, to illustrate a version of Agu unseen in the book and in turn make the story more palatable to the average moviegoer. These changes, while they do not alter the general plot, give the story a more appealing trajectory.

The producers will develop a test and the audience will tell the producers whether it is something they want to see or they are not going to see. This can affect the next text to be produced in an attempt to conform to the audience demands. Looking at the development of different types of genres and the development of films within the same genre, it’s possible to look at similarities and differences and identify changes in society and audience ideologies and tastes.

According to film theorist Thomas Schatz, “a genre approach (to film) provides the most effective means for understanding, analyzing, and appreciating the Hollywood cinema (Schatz vii).” His approach to film is strongly supported by theorist Edward Branigan’s and the narrative representation of character interaction (Branigan), and André Bazin’s arguments that the objective reality pressed against audience interpretation.