Film Analysis: The Coen Brother's Films

In chapter two of The Cultures of American Film, the main focus is the establishment of studios. As demand for films rose in the early 1900’s, production companies needed to expand; this lead to the creation of large scale studios.

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.

In Will Wilkinson's Country Music, Openness to Experience, and the Psychology of Culture War, he argues that country music itself is an ideology. He achieves this by explaining how country music's supporters and listeners are primarily conservative individuals whose happiness comes from the “enchantment of everyday life” lives depend on and is a “bulwark against cultural change’.

It is always a challenge for filmmakers to take a beloved character from literature and bring him or her to life. There is not enough time to do an adequate amount of characterization, which is why many films fail to accurately portray a character. The Cohen Brother’s film True Grit, an adaptation of the novel by Charles Portis, created a better portrayal of the character of Mattie Ross, the feisty, head strong, and tough young girl. Through costume and set design, as well as the narrative choices the directors chose to take, the resilient, no-nonsense, bratty young girl was brought to life.

With that of culture comes our identity through music. The “death of the blues” serves as an example in how culture is put up to the challenge of change. Melody, Chinatown, and Big Mat represent “the loss of folk culture which accompanied the Great Migration of Black people from the rural South to the industrial North” (Waldron 58). As we begin to read, we are able to interpret their lives and identity in the South through Melody’s music. This

Folk is a musical style that is very lyrical and meaningful to the listener. Folk music is meant to be shared with a community and bring people together which is exactly what this program aims to do with our American Music Series. Folk music is set apart from other genres because it is not written for a profit but instead it is written to make the audience think about the life experience. Folk music often has very lyrical phrases that can sometimes

Folk music was shaped and influenced by segregation during the Great Depression between blacks and whites, which led to divergent forms of African-American folk music in isolated towns where black music could evolve from its African origins. Even before the Great Depression, earlier African American music styles have influenced the folk music of southern Appalachia. The banjo is one of the most important musical instruments playing in Appalachia folk music, and it is a little known fact that this instrument was introduced by African Americans, as well as African work songs and chants to this region.1 This paper will address how segregation between blacks and whites have influenced folk music, if at all, and if racial tensions

The folk singer Josh Tillman exemplifies the power of culture on the cultivation of an artist. Exploring the persona and myth of his alter ego, Father John Misty, I recognize Raymond Williams’ established parallels to his three definitions of culture. This essay outlines how Williams’ theory of the ideal, the documentary, and the social, correlate with Tillman’s expression of music through his ideas, values, and experience, which define his albums and achieve what he perceives as perfectionism. In addition, I examine the historical and societal influences behind his material, and how his image and aesthetic impact his audience.

“Hillbilly music is an American popular music that was commercially broadcast and recorded between 1922 and 1942 and that eventually evolved into modern country music and the regional genres of western swing, honky-tonk, and bluegrass”( Huber 19). Southern textile workers played a significant role in the evolution of this genre of America’s popular music. Examining the vital role of Piedmont textile workers in the creation of hillbilly music offers new understanding of this music. Writers have long portrayed hillbilly musicians as tradition-bound rural southerners who came of age in the country-side and mountain-hollows, often isolated from or less influenced by the main currents of modern urban life and mass culture. People were so use to this music that they remembered this music by

Almost everyone in the old days, as everyone says, used to own a now outdated piece of technology known as the boombox, or the portable radio. Only the best of the best would be featured among the songs that disc jockeys would play on radio stations that broadcasted around the town, city, state, or the country. Entire careers would be made with just one song being broadcasted to millions of live listeners. However, as time continued to advance, the popular music that was beloved by almost everyone, evolved through decades, as new artists, each with their own individual sound, dominated the public radio system and the mainstream genre of music.

To understand whether an ‘American’ music emerged out of traditions in the turn of the 20th century, we need to focus on the term ‘American’ and what musical genres fall under that category. For one, America, in a cultural sense, is seen as one huge ‘melting pot’, an amalgamation of cultures, ethnic traditions, beliefs and styles of music. It is very difficult to label one genre under the category of American music, as a vast amount of styles, in historical terms, have come about from a mixture of styles such as Jazz and Country music. Influences from a variety of ethnic backgrounds provided the chance for the growth and commercialism of genres and made them more mainstream. With the focus being on jazz and Country, it is made clear that

By its definition, folk music technically refers to indigenous forms of music created by local, regional or native populations as a way of engaging in cultural expression. This means that at its core, folk music is not intended to command a commercial value nor is it necessarily folk music by definition once a form has been co-opted by an outside culture. However, this is also a definition for folk which has long been rendered obsolete by the aesthetic and vocal qualities that listeners tend to associate with the genre today. This is because the most historically significant instances in which folk music converged with the commercial zeitgeist would come to produce a highly distinctive set of sounds.

Music has played a vital role in human culture and evidence based on archaeological sites can date it back to prehistoric times. It can be traced through almost all civilizations in one form or another. As time has progressed so has the music and the influences it has on people. Music is an important part of popular culture throughout the world, but it is especially popular in the United States. The music industry here is, and has been, a multi-million dollar business that continues to play an important role in American popular culture. This is also a art form and business that is forever changing as the times and more importantly, technology changes. Technology has changed the way music is made as well as how it is produced,

Music and technology aid one another. In a way a person can capture music they love through technology and then the electronic companies flourish due to the sale and popularity of these electronic devices. If a person wants to listen to music they can turn on a stereo or TV, choose a CD or DVD to play, or listen to a songs downloaded in ITunes. All of these devices are proof to show how technology is used to record, play, and change the way music is heard. A look through history will show how far society has come in music alone. The development of technology has changed the way the music industry operates and the way society hears and purchases music today.

In this paper, I will write about “Thelma and Louise” (1991) movie. I choose a last scene of the movie which the police came to arrest them in the Grand Canyon (from 122 to 125 minutes).