Film Analysis: A Civil Action

With Film Analysis comes the analyzation of films and movies that depict narrative structure, cultural context, the evaluation of discourse, and many other approaches. The film, “Friday” (1995), is a comedy and drama that displays the relationship between two childhood friends growing up in an impoverished neighborhood. These two friends became affiliated with a neighborhoods drug dealer, and were startled and clueless as to how they were going to come up with the money they owed him by the end of the night! The characterization, setting, and conflicts are the three main elements, in which are portrayed can indicate the analyzation of contributing a larger meaning of this particular film.

After viewing the first part of Legacies of Social Change: 100 Years of Professional Social Work in the United States, it seems evident that history continues to be presented from the view of those with power and does not acknowledge the downfalls of these movements. History, especially in the United States, is centered toward European and Western civilization and whatever benefits these groups. This film perpetuates this one-sided account of the history social work that worked to only help white people, while diminishing the challenges and progress people of color faced during this period. While one can argue that this film is dated, this is still occurring all throughout our history and has repercussions today. This can be seen with any

A League of Their Own (Marshall, 1992) explicitly characterizes an American era when a woman’s place was in the home. Even our modern perspective implicitly follows suit. Although women have gained rights and freedoms since the 1930’s, sexism remains prevalent in America. This film offers an illustration when men went to war and big business men utilized women as temporary replacements in factories, sports, and so on. Here, course concepts, such as gender socialization, gender expressions, role stereotypes, emotion expressions, and language, correspond to the film’s characters and themes.

#1 A Civil Action is a tragic movie informing viewers about a case that should have more light on it. A Civil ACtion is based on the Woburn Toxic Trial, Anne Anderson et al. v. W.R. Grace & Co. et al. It takes place in 1982, in the town of Woburn, Massachusetts and it about eight families. The major partie in the trial and movie include the plaintiffs who were a group of eight families that lived in a part of town served by the two municipal wells. The defendants who were W.R. Grace & Co., owner of the Cryovac Plant, UniFirst Corporation, owner of Interstate Uniform Services, and Beatrice Foods, Inc., owner of the John Riley Tannery (kennedy). Six people were treated for died from leukemia, a form of blood cancer. The jury deliberated

The movie a Civil Action covers the Woburn Case which was Anne Anderson and other small families who decided to sue the companies Beatrice Foods and W.R. Grace. The reason for Anderson and the other families to decide to sue was because they believe the companies dumping of poisonous chemicals was the reason to their children’s leukemia deaths. However, when they reached out to Jan Schlichtmann to handle their case he was not the most positive on wanting to help them, “Ms. Anderson, our firm is very small, three attorneys that's it, which means we can only take on so many cases at once and we have to be very careful on the ones we do take because we can't afford to lose, our clients pay nothing, we pay everything, and the only we get paid back

I’ll lie when I must, and I have contempt for no one. I wasn’t the one who invented lying. It grew out of a society divided into classes, and each one of us has inherited it form birth. We shall not abolish lying by refusing to tell lies, but by using every mean at hand to abolish classes. (as cited in Bok ,1999, p 165-166).

In the film, “A Civil Action,” the attorney on the side of the plaintiff's, Jan Schlichtmann, is defending the families, including the Andersons, who lost their beloved children to Leukemia. In the court case, “Anderson and all vs. Beatrice foods and Grace,” the plaintiff’s believed the contaminated drinking water from the city wells was the root cause of the leukemia. At first, Mr. Schlichtmann did not want to take the case, stating there was no value to it. He even stated, “The odds of a plaintiff’s lawyer winning in civil court are two to one against,” (1). Nonetheless, he later discovered the true value the case withheld. In the case, Jan simply wanted compensation for the victims of the contaminated drinking water. Grace and Beatrice,

During the end of the 3rd Century, the Playwright Plautus wrote many of the first Roman comedies. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical comedy film adaptation of Plautus's comedies.Set in ancient Rome, many aspects of Roman theatre, including stock characters, were included in the film’s production. While the film is based off of multiple comedies, Plautus's Pseudolus character Calidorus is nearly identical to the film’s Hero. During the time Pseudolus was written, the Crisis of the Third Century led to up to 25% of Roman population being comprised of slaves(Southern). Of the many stock characters Platus included in his comedies, Calidorus/Hero, the son of Pseudolus’s owner and the stock character adulescens, best

The Frontline film Separate and Unequal discussed about creating a new school system; however, there are opposition by others who wants to maintain the current school system. If we look at the perspectives of the two groups, it is understandable in why there is support and opposition from the people of the city. The supporters of the new system wants a system that can provide better opportunities for their children without any violence. As the film claimed “the school was not teaching and were only babysitting the children”, which was likely a reason why there was a need for a new school system. With the chaotic and uncontrollable situation in the current system, many supporters have push forward the idea of a new system in a new city. From

When we think of social resistance movements and the leaders who operate the movements we often think of men. Many of us think that a man is needed to be to construct, lead and run a social movement so that it can be affective enough to make a significant change. Stereotypical gender roles are the reason that many of us do not often think of women when we think about social resistance movements. However, women, focusing especially on African American women played a vital role in several social movements. The civil rights movement would not have been successful as it was if it was not for the women who ran and operated behind the scenes.

In the movie Spotlight the Catholic Church was being accused of sexual abuse. No one knew about it because the church covered it up very well. The church had all its participants in on the cover-up of the sexual abuse. With many victoms and over 200 priests sexualy abuseing kids, it would be a huge compucaded plan to keep it from the cops and reporters. In the movie the Boston Globe found out about it and were all over it till the day they finally got justice. The Globe was all over the victims and the priests that were sexualy abuse the kids male and female. The only problem was that the Globe was given this info years before and it went over their head and they could have caught these men years before. As this was a huge story being in the press wouldn't be anyone's first choice to have in this story, press have to deal with people either in there saddest moment or there worst memory, it just seems like it would even be stressful for the press or reporters. The press also hide this case from the public as well as the Boston Globe because they knew about it too but didn't pay attention to it

CBS guidelines – The shoot is doing its best to adhere to CBS guidelines. Most obviously, it’s two shorts both of which are under 15 minutes. Nobody is getting paid, although some people are getting a drastically discounted rate for gear and Per Diem. I do have a few professionals on board, but nobody union and since they aren’t getting paid who is to say they are professionals… Hopefully not CBS. As far as using licensed product, ain't nobody got the cash for that, but I can hopefully borrow a tricorder and such from you. All other items will be of original design and not markedly available.

The Minority Report is a film that tries to stop crimes before they happen, with the enlistment of 3 teen pre-cogs. These pre-cogs predict future murders and the authorities swoop in and arrest the would-be murders, before they have the chance of committing the crime. Even thing goes great until Anderton, a cop played by Tom Cruise, is suspected. Written by Philip K. Dick and then turned to film by Steven Spielberg in 2002, the short story to film became a success. Though there are many differences between the book and the movie, one would think Steven Spielberg would not be able to grab audience’s attention, but with his skills, Spielberg went above and beyond all measures. Many times, novels to films end up being either a great hit

Throughout this class, various discussions and blogs have been used to analyze the different elements of films such as theme, cinematic techniques and genre. It is time to bring all of these separate elements together in the analysis of one specific film, according to class text, “analyzing levels of meaning below the surface story can greatly enhance enjoyment as well as understanding of a film” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014. p. 10.03). There are several different approaches to film analysis including formalist, auteurist, and generic or any combination thereof. Utilizing a genre theory lens, the 1956 film The Searchers will be analyzed addressing contextual information, story/plot, aesthetic choices, social/personal impact and how these areas come together to develop the film.

Many live attempting to decipher the riddle of life. What is life? What is the purpose? What makes? Even though we only seek happiness why can’t we ever seem to achieve it? When we do reach happiness why can’t we seem to grasp it and hold it for more than the few short hours that pass like seconds? The question we must answer first is “What makes happiness, true?”