Movie Review : Top Gun

American Sniper is a 2014 movie about Chris Kyle, a Navy Seal Sniper who served 4 tours of duty in Iraq, and credited with being the most lethal United States Sniper of all time. The movie follows Kyle’s life from the attacks of 9/11, the impetus for joining the military, through his 4 combat tours as a sniper in Iraq, and the years after his military service, including the event that led to his death in 2013. Much of the film shows Kyle’s combat experience, the actions he took, and consequently the turmoil that results from those actions. The movie was not only a commercial success, it was also a catalyst for debate on the morality of war, and how it affects those who fight wars. The first review I read was

Ah, The Sandlot. A movie full of fifth and sixth grade boys playing baseball in the Summer. If you think it sounds boring, you're wrong. This is an excellent movie. It starts with a boy, named Scotty (Tom Guiry) who needs friends. He needed friends so bad that his mom was even concerned about him being cooped up in the house for a quarter of the summer. One day, he wanders to a baseball field and his want to have friends and be a part of something comes true. He even got a nickname, "Smalls". The boys did everything together, even got into and out of trouble together. But the number one important thing all nine of the boys did, was meet at the baseball field every single day.

Justin Cook is a student at Stanton College Preparatory who is currently in the eleventh grade. Cook is enrolled in an AP Psychology and takes a great interest in connecting the work he does in the class to the work in his other current classes. In this essay, Cook presents his argument on why homosexuals should be permitted to serve in the American Armed Forces primarily from a psychological standpoint. Cook is an active advocate for human rights and the equality of homosexuals. He is also an active supporter of The Trevor Project which is the only American non-profit organization that runs a 24/7 suicide and crisis prevention helpline for gay and questioning youth.

The author argues the “combat masculine-warrior paradigm is the essence of military culture. This paradigm persists today even with the presence of “others” (e.g. women and gays) who do not fit the stereotypical image of combatant or masculine warrior.” In a 5-paragraph essay, discuss how the presence of women or gays will cause the military culture to change.

 The film looks at masculinity through numerous stereotypes involving athleticism, careers, crime, medias, intimacy, and bullying. Newsom effectively delivers her message through interviewing a variety of people. Not only through professionals like psychologists, pediatricians, educators, sociologists, political scientist, psychiatrists, athletes, actors, and writers. But also through community

The movie surveyed a wide array of the troubles faced by boys and men as they try to navigate the realm of masculinity. A common theme was the command “be a man” and the cultural baggage that comes with living up to that ideal. To “be a man” means to not cry, to not be sensitive, to not let people mess with you, to respond with violence, to be angry, to drink, to womanize.

During the Vietnam War in the 1970s, hard drugs, especially heroin and cocaine, became a major source of crime and, therefore, police and legal system involvement. Was this involvement always a good thing though? The 2007 movie, American Gangster, addresses this very question by looking at law enforcement agencies during the 1970s, along with the corruption involved with police departments at this point in history. The particular corrupted agency focused on in the film is the New York Police Department, of which dirty detective, Nick Trupo, is a part of. The short clip shown from this movie makes the argument that although not all cops during this time became involved in the very crime they were supposed to be stopping, a large percentage of them did, which hindered the true “good guys,” like detective Richie Roberts, from keeping cities clean.

In several cases, the desire to kill the queer self also occurs when it seems impossible to move forward without fully accepting and presenting oneself as queer. When this idea is seen on television it is presented in both the interpersonal and introspective forms. For example, the characters that attempt suicide, such as the eight queer women characters between 2001 and 2016, are illustrating the introspective act of assassinating the queer self by killing themselves. In contrast the interpersonal aspect derives from the idea of identity as zero-sum and therefore the queer characters who do not cover present a threat to the stability and validity of gay characters on screen. This paper will specifically investigate how the interpersonal side of "assassinating the queer selves" plays out on screen as a way to reinforce the importance of

In Rear Window, Hitchcock uses visuals in order to capture the perfect cinematic film and experience. We as the viewers identify with Jeff because much like how he is watching his neighbors, we are also speculating his life as a film. Our hero, L.B. Jeffries or “Jeff”, out of boredom creates an outdoor theater for himself by spying on his the people outside his window. Hitchcock uses “murder-as-entertainment” and the idea of watching a cinematic film as ways to captivate the viewers and make us subconsciously take part in intruding on someone else’s life. Hitchcock then punishes Jeff and the viewers for being “peeping toms” and casting our unwanted voyeurism on other people’s private lives. Through fear and embarrassment, Hitchcock puts our actions into perspective as we become self-conscious of our indecent objectification toward human lives.

“Hollywood usually ends up swallowing people and eating them alive”, are some of the beginning words in the National Geographic docu-series Drugs Inc... The documentary is rightly names “Hollywood high” because of its raw footage. This film is a chilling depiction of drugs and Hollywood. Its uncut material shows the reality of how drugs can affect people of every walk of life. A person doesn’t have to be rich or poor to become drug dependent. The film goes on to say how “fame hungry wannabes” and the “panhandling homeless” are two of the main populations to be affected by Hollywood’s thriving drug trade. Some of the other populations affected by Hollywood’s thriving drug trade are those who want to “stay up” and “be thin”. This film is not only about the populations affected by the thriving Hollywood drug trade but also the drug dealers and doctors who provide the drugs to that population.

While many believe that homosexuality has only been seen in mainstream media for only a few decades, it has actually been with America cinema since the early 1920’s. The portrayal of homosexuality in film and TV has come a very long way since the 1920’s. What viewers see on TV about homosexuality is really just a representation of America’s changing public view on the subject. While we have come to accept the topic of homosexuality in American society more willingly, we have substituted much of our prejudice about gays with the stereotypes that we see on TV constantly. Because as a society we are constantly forced to see these stereotypes, we are being halted in our progression to accept all different kinds of lifestyles.

In 2006 a movie called United 93 was released in theatres all over the world. It was directed by Paul Greengrass, who is from England. The theme is terror and is about what happened to the fourth and final hijacked plane on 9/11. This movie tells the story of both what went on inside the plane with the passengers and the terrorists, and what happened “behind the scenes” in the FAA and in the flight control towers all over USA. Already when the film was produced, some people thought it was too early for a movie on this subject and disrespectful to the families of the victims. But was it really too early after 5 years? I don’t think so. How can it be disrespectful, when he asked for permission to make this film from all the

The movie Gran Torino, is an American film directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars as the main character. The movie was set in Highland Park, Michigan which was a nearby suburb of Detroit. In prior years, Highland Park was populated by white families that had come to the area to work in the Ford car factories, but over time, “the damn chinks” moved into the neighborhood as Walt Kowalski would say. This show was the first American film to show Hmong Americans, which were war refugees that had resettled in the U.S. following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975 (Yuen). The main character, Clint Eastwood is a widowed Korean War veteran who often shows bursts of racism and anger towards people of different race, especially the Asian immigrants in his neighborhood. His neighbor, Thao Vang Lor, a young Hmong teenager becomes a key character in the movie after he gets pressured into stealing Walt’s 1972 Gran Torino in an attempt to be initiated into a Hmong gang in which his cousin is involved with. While attempting to steal the car, Walt catches Thao and is sure to prove a point that he is not going to take any slack from him and or the Hmong gang members.

The movie I selected for this assignment is Forrest Gump, mostly because it is one of the most widely known movies of all time. Instantly quotable and memorizable, and one I have watched a million times over in every way possible. Forrest Gump, of Greenbow, AL, has one of the most historically and culturally significant lives possible, from playing football for the University of Alabama, to serving as an Infantry Sergeant in the Vietnam War. He also played ping-pong, fished for shrimp, and met presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He met other famous people to include a young Elvis, as well as John Lennon while on TV. He ran back and forth across the country for “3 years, 2 months, 14 days, 16 hours” as he put, and became a good father for his son when his lifelong romantic interest died. He does all of this without realizing what he is doing as he is doing it, simply because he is mildly retarded and just goes through life doing simply what he is told or what he feels like doing. This story also contains examples of the concepts of interpersonal communications, which consists of: the transactional nature of communications, self-image, self-esteem, self-concept, online disclosures, and self-fulfilling prophecies, perception, principles of nonverbal communication and personal presentation, and listening.

Three men shivered in the cold, dark spaceship as it floated through space, unsure if they would return to Earth after the first disaster to occur in space. During the early 1960’s, America was fascinated with the Space Race. The United States became the first country to put a man on the moon, and the exploration did not stop there. Apollo 13 tells the story of three astronauts that were supposed to go to the moon. On the journey there, part of the ship exploded, causing the fuel levels to plummet. Now unable to complete the mission, the crew struggled their own disappointments and frustrations as well as the problem of how they would get home. Against the odds, Mission Control and the three crew members overcame multiple life threatening problems and managed to get the men home alive and safe.