Visualization In Documentary Film

Firstly, it is important to understand how the documentary form is best suited to illustrate the film’s theme. In order to do this, one must have an overview of the documentary style of filmmaking. Documentaries concern themselves with the “exploration of

A documentary is a genre of film that provides a factual report on a particular story, viewpoint, message or experience. In this essay, two documentaries, Bowling for columbine by Michael Moore and Made in Bangladesh by CBC news will be explored to show how persuasive techniques are used to make an audience feel a particular way.

This chapter covers the transition of Mary Anne Bell, of how she changed from being a normal, sweet teenage girl to being one of the Green Berets, filled with enthusiasm for the war and intrigued with the culture of Vietnam. This message is about how the innocence of women is consumed by the war and how once they begin to learn more about it, they are hopelessly entranced by it, far from returning to their usual selves. Rat talks about how, “Anne made you think about those girls back home, how they'll never understand any of this, not in a billion years. Try and tell them about it, they’ll just stare at you with those big round candy eyes. They won't understand zip.”(O’Brien 108), and this shows that women won’t understand what Vietnam really is like, they have to experience it themselves. Women also won’t understand the grueling mental pain that soldiers experience in the war.

The Vietnam War was largely considered a failure, a waste of resources, time and precious lives. It was simply a war that did not need to be fought. But in order to combat the ever prevailing communist forces; the capitalists and in particular, America, decided that Vietnam would be the land where these differences would be disputed. Men were sent in to fight in this war and they came back with very different experiences. As seen in both perspectives held in “A Rumor of War” by Philip Caputo and in “We were soldiers once... and young” by Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway; they explore the varying perspectives and experienced seen and learnt within war. Whereas in “A Rumor of War”, it tackles the consequences of being sent into such harsh warfare, only because Philip Caputo saw the harsh reality firsthand as he was a soldier in the war. The former, “We were soldiers once... and young” tackles the glorification of war because it’s not solely a soldier’s account. A journalist was in company of these men and as such details get skewed for the public’s perception. Regardless, both these books share a telling tale of the war in Vietnam through their radically different views.

This book is a collection of 67 first hand people of the Vietnam war by Americans who were involved. The book begins with an Oss mission to help Ho Chi Minh against the Japanese near the end of World War 2 and ends with the all of a sudden evacuation of Saigon in 1975. The range of people included is immense from grunts in the infantry to gung-ho generals, from anti-war activists visiting North Vietnam to the wives of State Department officials in Saigon. The outcome is a big sweeping sight of the United States ' involvement with Vietnam over thirty years, but at the same time one with the feeling of immediacy that only such personal accounts can offer.

The Vietnam Conflict, spanning from November 1st, 1955 to April 30, 1975, changed the public’s perception on war, politics, and the world as a whole. Living in this time, the grandparents and senior citizens in our communities still keep the time of turmoil and fear alive in their stories. By interviewing men in the service, along with men and women at home, a comprehensive picture of the war and its effect on the United States can be painted. Two of these people graciously allowed themselves to be interviewed. Their roles, experiences, and stories of the war display the effects of the Vietnam war on United States citizens, for better or for worse.

The roles of women and men in the Vietnam War varied greatly due the stereotypical characterizations of society. While women were not included in the draft, protected from its brutality and tragedies, men were forced from their homes, enlisted in the army. In O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, women are portrayed as apathetic towards Vietnam soldiers. They are the homebound sex, too fragile and moral to be aware of the world outside their own, and unable to empathize with the emotional baggage that the soldiers carry. Through The Things They Carried, O’Brien characterizes women as ignorant and thus, insensitive towards the men’s pain in war.

The Vietnam War was a perplexing, unjustified conflict where both historians and the media over-generalized service members’ experiences. They constantly failed to speak for all people with firsthand combat experience and focused solely on the male’s perspective. Lynda Van Devanter, a former member of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps (ANC) and Vietnam veteran was the first woman who educated America on the female’s position during the Vietnam War and systematically destroyed the stereotype of an undamaged, inessential Vietnam nurse. Contrary to popular belief, the Vietnam War distorted the mentality of both men and women who served overseas, according to Devanter. Historians and the media, rather than acknowledging the Vietnam Nurses’ distinct perspective as a key element of the morally ambiguous altercation, they focused solely on male veteran experiences and failed to accurately portray the war. By changing the subject of Vietnam War stories through her forthright memoir, Home Before Morning, Devanter wrote about the fallacious stereotypes nurses

Documentary films in particular have been the preferred channel for the diffusion of propaganda because of its association with ‘a truthful cinema.’ John Grierson, coiner the term documentary, defined it as “the creative treatment of actuality.” However, Hilmar Hoffman talks about film’s illusory power by explaining that what exists to the viewer is only what the camera ‘sees,’ and due to the absence of alternate perspectives, the viewer conventionally perceives the images shown as reality. In this regard, documentary films are able to influence, represent, and create a particular consciousness by doctoring events, thus making it untrustworthy and, ultimately, the ideal medium to communicate

The Vietnam War and Era has been a strange configuration of differing parts. So many differing parts that more often than not Historians struggle to find a way to accurately make sense of this behemoth of history. In an effort to make sense of Vietnam, it must first be segmented. Unlike previous military consumed eras, the Vietnam era has no general consensus for long. It must be fragmented by topic, antiwar, politics, soldier’s perspective, cultural changes on the home front, and military engagements. But then it must also be split based on the years in which change is not occurring.

From November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975, a war raged across many countries with tales of victory, defeat and peace echoing within. People died for freedom, and lived to help another continue on their path of life. This war was known as The Vietnam War. It was one of the longest wars, endless labor and fighting, but it wasn’t just the men helping their armies. On both sides of the war, women were always working, making sure they did their part to help their country win the war.

Documentary Movies: Key types – factual films (present people, places, or processes in straightforward ways meant to entertain and instruct without influencing audiences), instructional films (educate viewers about common interests, rather than persuading them to accept particular ideas), persuasive films (addresses social injustices), propaganda films (systematically disseminate deceptive or distorted information), direct cinema (eschew interviews and even limit the use of narrators).

Deirdre English, ordinary American girl, found out about the war in the museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. She did not have an opportunity to know about it – in school teachers did not talk about the Vietnam war, media did not highlight war issues, but once accidently she saw

Women’s role have evolved over the years. However, this event shouldn’t be forgotten. Women indeed made a huge impact to the Vietnam conflict. They may not have the biggest contribution, however, the small and simple things they did for the soldiers made a valuable remark for the men to continue despite of the war’s

This paper will focus on the film techniques used by Cameron in his three most known movies, Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009), and Terminator series. Mise-en-scene according to John Gibbs is used in film studies in the discussion of visual style. Translated literally it means “To put on stage”, but for the purpose of students, it is defined as the contents of the frame and the way they are organized (p 5). In addition, a director’s style can be identified only through the arrangement and orchestrations of the film’s mise-en-scene (Nelmes, 425).The films Titanic, Avatar, and Terminator series were successful