The Road Movie In Outer Space Analysis

John Ford built a standard that many future directors would follow with his classic 1939 film “Stagecoach”. Although there were a plethora of western films made before 1939, the film “Stagecoach” revolutionized the western genre by elevating the genre from a “B” film into a more serious genre. The film challenged not only western stereotypes but also class divisions in society. Utilizing specific aspects of mise-en-scène and cinematography, John Ford displays his views of society.

The Australian cinema in the 1960’s failed to communicate with the audience due to their lack of promotional messages that weren’t disseminated. Media is formed by cultural, political, economic and social conditions. These influenced or even directed its characteristics and its intended meaning. After a devastating blow to the film industry in the 1960’s, filmmakers of Australia had stopped creating and making quality Australian films. However, the Australian New Wave brought a revival of the Australian film industry during the 70's, 80's and 90’s. It introduced Australian qualities into film, including larrikinism, mateship and a classless social hierarchy. The Castle and Gallipoli confirm, promote and explore features of Australian identity

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.

“Some of the features that are to become key elements of the genre are to be found in early silent Westerns from the late 1890s and early 1900s” (Westerns). Since this time, many of the famous films have become household names. For some people, the reason they have been introduced to this film genre is because of their grandparents or parents. For others, they may have a genuine interest to understand this culture that has transformed itself to fit with a new era of time. Although these films have been able to generate great amounts of revenue, they are full of underlying elements that show the cultural issues of that time period. Moreover, some of these elements may not be noticeable to everyone at first, but that is where the satire and parody come into play.

Aside from being a source of entertainment and pleasure, films have also taken on a new role, that is, to make visible and critique the different ideologies that are present in society. The word ideology is defined as “a relatively coherent system of values, beliefs, or ideas shared by some social group and often taken for granted as natural or inherently true.” (Bordwell and Thompson, p.503). Ideologies help us to better understand films and their influence on society. They also reveal much about the society from which they originated. In this essay, I will explore the different ideological messages conveyed in films with reference to All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955).

Cinema grants the possibility for an average citizen to escape their mundane life, and delve into a realm of fantasy. However, the film industry fails to act as an instrument in societal progression by instilling superficial ideologies. In this article “Dear Canadian filmmakers…”, Cameron Bailey suggests that Canadian filmmakers ought to shift their perspective by looking more outwards than inwards. As Bailey's emphasizes the significance of producing content that appropriately depicts contemporary Canada. Baileys draws attention to the fact that both, the audience, and the critics have a preference for “drama of real life” based films as opposed to fiction based films. Furthermore, he discusses how filmmakers tend to turn the blind eye to

The question is whether No Country for Old Men and Stagecoach provide adequate examples of the decline in American moral values. From my perspective of today’s world and my interpretation of No Country for Old Men and Stagecoach, I can see how the argument could be made that they have declined or haven’t changed at all. I see a difference between the relationship of Ringo and Dallas vs other members of their traveling group compared to Sheriff Bell vs Chigurh. These relationships, in my opinion, explains a lot about the development of moral values, or lack of, in the western United States. In this paper, I will describe the moral values that are represented in each movie and I will also try to describe my understanding of why American moral values may have declined between No Country for Old Men and Stagecoach.

A brilliant director, Ford’s films express the unique experiences of the American people and their endorsement of their common unity of purpose (Russell 62). Although his heroes appear to be loners and outsiders who speak more through actions, their conflict with the society reflect the larger American experience, a profound esthetic awareness for the American history as well as the frontier spirit. Ford’s compositions bring into perspective the people as well as their typical settings beautifully put into contrast (Russell 62). These features are even more so evident in the Stagecoach, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and The Grapes of Wrath.

In both Rear Window and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul give a contrasting view of gender roles in relationships to the social norm and give different forms of women in society. With the readings of Hillary Neroni’s The Feminist Theory Julio Garcia Espinosa’s For an Imperfect Cinema and Sergei Eisenstein's Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, I’ll be examining the gender roles within the films of Rear Window and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.

Media, including movies has been an outlet for many directors and screenwriters to express both their opinions and to illustrate the social temperature in which they lived while injecting their own views into their work. Media 'fossils' like The Lost Boys directed by Joel Schumacher not only provide a thrilling tale for viewers, but also critiques, comments, and upholds different social norms in an amusing manner as an outlet for often controversial subjects such as peer pressure amongst young people. The Lost Boys may be a gory film, but to ignore the film's social context would be to ignore the complexity of the movie itself. Many young people today as well as in the eighties were under a siege of pressure from their peers to conform to the group's expectations. When the older brother Michael first goes into David and his friends' tomb, he is blatantly pressured into drinking and performing dangerous acts that he wouldn't normally do.

“The Mission” is a film that gives a historically accurate depiction of the events that took place in South America around 1750, displaying the jesuit missions and their attempt at expanding missionary ventures in the area. These missions foresaw the Jesuits going to uncharted areas of the jungle inhabited by the Guarani people, demonstrating the significance assimilating the Guarani people meant to the Jesuits. Additionally, the Guarani people were accurately displayed as a self-sustained society where basic components such as: productivity, protection, justice regulations and a form of a leader was evident in the form of their King. Nonetheless, the Guarani were an isolated group of individuals who were secluded to the outside world; their only contact with outside personnelles were slave traders who would put them into forced slavery for personal benefits. Not to mention the “Treaty of Madrid”, which resulted in the social and political disputes between the, Portuguese, Spanish and Catholic community; manifesting in the form of territorial conflicts and misunderstandings amongst the three vigorous societies, where each have a different purpose for the Guarani people.

Since the 1940’s, movies have predominately portrayed women as sex symbols. Beginning in the 1940’s and continuing though the 1980’s, women did not have major roles in movies. When they did have a leading role the women was either pretreated as unintelligent and beautiful, or as conniving and beautiful: But she was always beautiful. Before the 1990’s, men alone, wrote and directed all the movies, and the movies were written for men. In comparison, movies of the 90’s are not only written and directed by women, but leading roles are also held by older and unattractive women. In this paper I will show the variations and growth of women’s roles in movies from the 1940’s though the 1990’s.

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.

Genre is a reflection of society. Film noir is a genre that has a distinctive relationship with the American society from 1941 - 1958 because it reflects America’s fears and concerns from when they experienced major upheaval after The Great Depression and during World War I. In particular, the unstable atmosphere from the aftermath of World War 1 as Bruce Crowther, author of the book ‘Film Noir: Reflections in a Dark Mirror’, elaborates on how Film Noir films produce “a dark quality that derived as much from the character's depiction as from the cinematographer’s art.” These dark moods are transparent through the key features of the femme fatale, the film techniques and the impact of the Hay’s code on American film and American society.