The Queen, Directed by Stephen Frears Essay

The movie “Wild” is based on Cheryl Strayed’s autobiography about her trek along the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995. The story is set on the Pacific crest trail, including a wide variety of climates including: deserts, snow covered mountains, and tropical forests. Along her journey on the trail, the movie flashes back to several traumas that drove her into the wild, in order to reinvent herself as a strong independent woman once again, no longer bound by guilt, shame, and regret. This is a movie that embraces the healing values of nature and how it can help an individual gain a broader perspective on life.

Known as The Golden Age in English history, the 45 year rule of Queen Elizabeth I turned the declining country of England, into one of the most powerful and prosperous countries in the world.

Amadeus begins with an attempted suicide by composer Antonio Salieri, who is overcome with guilt about supposedly killing Mozart. His life is saved by his aids and he is sent to what looks like a mental hospital, where a priest is sent to council him. The whole story is told through the eyes of Salieri on his death bed, confessing to his priest.

Through revealing that actors had in fact portrayed Polley’s family, the film sets out to emphasise the reliability and truthfulness of the documentary as well as the recounts. Without notifying the audience that such archival footage was fake and placing this revelation at the end of the film allows the audience to really consider what the “truth” is. When asked about the making of the film, Harry Gulkin, Polley’s biological father, states that the truth is a subjective narrative, that these “narratives are shaped in part by their relationship to the person who told it to them, and by the events” (Stories We Tell 2012). Additionally, Polley states, “the way her mother’s story changed depended on who was going the telling” (Vulture, 2013). This point is what resonates from the film and its purpose – that the there are different sides to the truth; one truth to one person is false to another.

The movie The Breakfast Club was released in 1985, and is based on a group of five high school students from stereotypical cliques; the popular, jock, nerd and the outcasts, who all wind up stuck together for Saturday detention. Throughout the movie many themes present themselves such as teenage rebellion, peer pressure and family issues as the students get to know each other. The most prominent theme throughout the movie is the student’s placement in the social structure of the school. From the very different reasons why they are in detention to the way that they are all treated differently by the principle, their social placement is evident.

The film, “the Power of One,” followed the life of a boy named P.K. from a small child to a handsome young man. It showed all the hardship and tragedy he had to endure throughout his life. Although the movie could have focused more on the apartheid, it instead portrayed the vulgarity of those times through the eyes of an English boy. As time went on, P.K. slowly began to realize the full severity of the apartheid. It was difficult for a child to comprehend how horribly people could treat one another for no apparent reason.

Lady Macbeth Is A Fiend - Like Queen In William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" the audience sees two very different sides of Lady Macbeth. At the start of the play Lady Macbeth is shown to be ruthless, conniving, fiend-like and remorseless. The phrase fiend-like conjures up an image of a cruel, evil and wicked person. In the play the audience sees that Lady Macbeth has a lust for power.

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.

In the beginning of the film, James begins by using the indirect interview technique with William and Arthur to appeal to ethos. The interviews are conducted in both of the boys homes in order to show the viewers the poor conditions they are living in. The interviews also illustrate the similar backgrounds and culture that both the

Despite having an archetypal storyline, The Princess Bride proves to be anything but predictable. From the moment the title appears onscreen in a font that evokes classic fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty, it is clear the story is going to be rooted in fantasy. Following the appearance of the title comes the sound of a child’s cough as the black screen gives way to the graphics a baseball video game. The camera pans around the room to reveal posters of Chicago Cubs and Bears players, and soon rests on a child, presumably the source of the cough. Thus, the mise-en-scene has introduced to one of our two narrators, the other being the child’s grandfather who comes to read him a story. Though the novel read by the grandfather conveys a hackneyed tale of undying love, the film frames this in a self-aware way with periodic interruption of the story’s narrative by comments from young boy which are cynical at first, by grow to reflect a genuine interest as the movie progresses. This move is self-reflexive in that it reminds the audience that they are, in fact, watching a move; however, this serves to elevate the meaning of the film. Through the use of sound, editing, and mise-en-scene, The Princess Bride emphasizes that even though the concept of true love has saturated society and become cliché, it’s no less potent because of the cultural overplay. I will specifically discuss the utilization of deep focus shots, color, and lighting that caricaturize the traditional fairy tale,

In the movie Wit, English literary scholar Vivian Bearing has spent years translating and interpreting the poetry of John Donne. Unfortunately, she is a person who has cultivated her intellect at the expense of her heart. Both colleagues and students view Bearing as a chilly and unfriendly person lost in her private world of words and mysterious thoughts.

FILM NOTE -- Sarah's Key, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierrot

When you think of the word “poverty” or “poor” what comes to mind? Some think of hunger, minorities, dirty areas, women, and homeless people. What about when you hear the term “abuse”? For most people, abuse means physical; getting beat up or hit. Although abuse can mean getting beat up or hit, there is far more that follows. Abuse can take on many forms like physical, emotional or sexual. The film Precious by Lee Daniels, based on the novel Push by Sapphire, encounters not only the obvious sexual abuse but physical and emotional abuse as well. Precious starts off with Claireece Precious Jones, played by Gabourey Sidibe, at her school in Harlem. She is called to the office because the principal has found out she is pregnant…Again. Kicked

Love changes peoples opinions towards others. I have chosen to explore the theme that love has the potential to change people 's opinions towards each other. This theme is evident in the novel The help by Kathryn Stokett, the poem Let me describe for you her eyes by Glenn Colquhoun and the films The Whale Rider directed by Niki Caro and The Book Thief directed by Brian Percival.

For this reaction paper, I decided to pick the movie that I related to most in the class. Frida is an inspiring, passionate, and informative movie. This movie tells the biography of Frida Kahlo, who was born in 1907 in the city of Coyoacan, Mexico. The film starts with a horrible accident, when Frida was 18 she was on a wooden-bodied bus that collided with a streetcar. She was impaled by a metal pole and she faced challenges from the injury for the rest of her life. I believe that Frida's accident shaped her personality by making her more persistent with everything she does. She never backed down from a challenge, which created a feminist state of mind around her thoughts. She also gained a great deal of independence and didn't rely on anyone. Frida didn't follow into the typical gender roles and norms in their society.