Wes Anderson Anthropology

The Star Wars franchise has been considered a staple of the cinematic universe for forty years, due to its popularity and ability to connect with its viewers. It also has one of the largest fan-bases in cinema, with fans clamoring to watch the latest films and elevating the actors in said films to instant stardom. The question that normally follows this understanding is how the space “epic” became so popular; how a relatively low-budget film would go on to gross over $750 million at the box office. This may be attributed to the “universal” themes found in its narrative, which creator George Lucas had in mind during inception. In this sense, the “universal” themes can be attributed from religious motifs found in many belief systems. The 1st film in the original trilogy, A New Hope, follows the hero Luke Skywalker and his friends as they help the Rebel Alliance defeat the Galactic Empire. Embedded in the film are religious concepts such as the battle between good and evil, heroic calling, and an omnipresent essence found everywhere. The religious themes found in A New Hope may be the answer for the film’s extreme popularity.

For over 80 years, Americans have been entertained by Hollywood productions on the big screen. Movies and films have always been a favorite pass time of the country. As a result of the fact that so many Americans turn to the big screen for fun, there is a lot of influence potential carried with the films or the movies that Hollywood produced. With increased ability to disseminate information comes the responsibility of presenting images that are accurate and factual. The influence and perception that Hollywood created was not always positive. There were multiple groups that were marginalized in film through stereotypes. Native Americans were one of the groups that were negatively

Hollywood is a very powerful modern day institution, where a star's image can characterize, shape and circulate societal myths and ideologies. The construction of a star's image as a commodity of their societal myths and ideologies has the extraordinary power to exert messages so that even the smallest details become significant yet not overtly obvious. How a star's image is produced and then consumed can justify a society's relationship with that image and therefore aid in explaining the social construction of what society deems as their 'reality'. A star's image is created through a range of representations churned out by Hollywood. Capitalism from the commercialization of these images has made Hollywood the dominant force it is

Tyler Perry’s films frequently contain a Christian message, thus appealing a market that puts religious content and the target market and/or audience as whole ahead of influential people. Perry’s films, specifically those we watched in class, feature prostitutes, drug dealers, domestic violence disputes, and adulterers who happen to find their souls by coming to Jesus and those family members surrounding Christianity. One work that exemplifies this ideology, is Perry’s, Diary of a Mad Black Woman—Brian tells Helen that it isn’t good “to hold on to the things God is trying to tear apart,” but the most vivid reminder of Christianity for me was when Helen’s mother told her that, “God is a jealous God,” which took place during a conversation she and Helen had about Charles and how he was her entire life, rather than God being the center of Helen’s life.

Biocultural anthropology looks at the relationships between human biology and culture. In the movie Avatar, the Na’vi are humanoids species native to Pandora, standing 6 feet tall with blue skin and a long tail; But one of the characters, Parker Selfridge from the human world, a selfish and greedy man, refers the Na’vi as “blue monkeys” and “savages”. The Na’vi natives are very spiritual believers and they believe all living beings in Pandora lives in unity. Every living creature that is born on Pandora has “neural connection fibers.” Not only Humanoids and animals have these “neural connection fibers” but also trees which allows all breathing creatures to “plug in” to each other’s neural system network. This lets them feel each other’s thoughts and emotions. In the movie, Jake Sully, a human man, is connected to the Na’vi world by a computer-generated machine that links his mind with his avatar body which could interact with the natives of Pandora. He finds himself feeling more connected with himself in his avatar body than his actual body in the real world; For the reason that in the real world, he is paralyzed and can’t walk so he feels handicapped. In his avatar body, he could be normal again and do the things he couldn’t do in real life like run on his two feet. Also, humans didn’t know how to connect with each other’s feelings and he was able to connect and feel the spirits and emotions with the Na’vi of the Pandora world.

As the years went by instead of detribalizing, film beholds the power to bring people together and unite them. Instead of extending space, movies

In anthropology, there are studies of racism and how different ethnicities act towards each other. People’s thoughts and assumptions about someone are based on their skin color, or where you are from, and how this type group acts, and people judged based on that assumption. This is something called rationalization where you categorize a person into a specific group of people. In anthropology, there is something called “white privilege” where based on your skin color, you have more or less rights as a person. This is presented in the movie “The Crash” which takes a look at the way race plays a role in American lives every day, in our modern society.

What role does religion play in the film? Describe the use of different religious symbols, elements or terms.

Hollywood cinema also produces its own realities on the big screen. As Cecil B. De Mille. Goldfish and Samuel Goldfish claimed during the production of the first motion picture, “when real life doesn’t fit a preconceived image, create another reality” (xi). Since that 1913 statement, Hollywood has fostered this type of reality-making that results into an escape for its audiences. Aside from the physical escape of traveling to the movies or Blockbuster in order to view these films, audiences are also invested in the characters they view on screen. However, Webb informs the public that “what appears on the screen is a stylized version of real life (or a plausible vision of imaginary worlds) that is made possible by the prolonged collaborative effort of hundreds, working in support of a celebrated few” (3). The “reality” of the cinema lies in producers, directors, actors, back-lots, etc. involved in its creation rather

Development and adaptation of the western genre has occurred throughout the twentieth century in relation to the shift in context, this is still relevant. Stereotypes of a western genre and the context are determined by the time in which the film is being produced. The time in which they were produced determine how social construction, gender ideas, values and attitudes, the setting and SWAT codes are demonstrated. I have chosen to present this speech by looking at the film studied in class, and a film of my choice and how the difference in context has changed in the tie of these two films.

Ever since I was a young kid I have always been interested in movies. My grandma, who was full of the wise the life experience left, always knew about my interest in movies. She feed my vain for the art. Even though her religion, she professed Adventist of seven-day religion, didn't let her go to the cinema, she always found the way to took me to the cinema. She and I enjoyed watch movies. We used to sit in the darkness room, with our faces illuminated from the reflection of the light which rebooted from the screen, both absorbs in the plot of the movie which made us laughed or cried. After the movie, while we went back to her home, she started to talk about the movie. She had a particular point of view where the main story

The movie creates an analogy similar to that of the Allegory of the cave. Within the Allegory it exemplifies humanity’s ignorance of truth and what is beyond the caves walls. Similar to that of The Truman Show, the show is the cave in which Truman has to escape the limitations that has been created for him. He manages to escape the actors, creator, and the events that work in one to keep him isolated from the real world. The movie compels us as the audience, and teaches us that the premise of the movie is to send a message to the audience that no matter how hard our elite try to construct a reality for us, our morals and souls will guide and direct us in the path that is meant for our personal

    Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.

Humans have the tendency to become obsessed, regardless of how strange the person or thing may seem. From sporting teams to musicians or restaurants to films, people love having something to call “theirs.” It comes as no surprise that moviegoers attach themselves to movies and invest their time and money into supporting it. The term, cult-following, has changed from a negative connotation of drinking the Kool-Aid to an aspiration for film-makers. Without knowing it, Ethan and Joel Coen created a foundation on which fans could build and expand upon their experience with The Big Lebowski (Coen, 1998).

The notion that film functions rhetorically is hardly novel, and, indeed, there is a long tradition of film criticism within rhetorical studies.5 Historically, the rhetorical criticism of film has tended to focus on the representational aspects of cinema, attending to how films compel audiences at a cognitive rather than corporeal level. But more recently, scholars in an array of fields (Kennedy, 2000; MacDougall, 2006; Massumi, 2002; Shaviro, 1993; Sobchack, 1995, 2004) have begun to consider how cinema appeals directly to the senses, how it sways viewers somatically as well as symbolically. Attention to the body corresponds closely to the affective (re)turn in rhetorical studies,6 for conceptualizing rhetoric as embodied necessarily “reflects a merger of reason and emotion” (McKerrow, 1998, p. 322; see also Johnson, 2007). Rhetorical