Cinema and Drama

In the 2000 film Billy Elliott, the character of Michael is 11-year-old Billy’s closest friend, who also happens to be gay, and quite open about it – almost certainly an anomaly in the lower-income...

An artificial man created by an eccentric inventor, who died before he completed his work, Edward Scissorhands, nevertheless, exhibits more humane sympathies than humans. For, his innocence and...

Miss Wilkinson's "Swan Lake" story is significant for a couple of reasons. The first is that it establishes an artistic frontier for Billy. In exploring the Swan Lake story, she is able to...

My favorite reality show is Survivor. It is a well known fact that the winner gets paid a million dollars. It took me a while to figure out, but the rest of the people get paid as well. The...

Besides the two excellent examples provided, a third theme for The Blind Side is the feeling of being an outsider. Michael Oher is an outsider in every conceivable way imaginable. He is black among...

In the film Psycho, director Alfred Hitchcock uses several innovative film techniques to maintain the audience’s sense of suspense and tension. We are introduced to Marion Crane, the primary female...

If I were to defend the quote given from Dead Poets Society, I would note the separation between the affairs of man and the affairs of the heart and mind. "Medicine, law, business, engineering" are...

I am so glad you asked this question, as this movie was one of my favorites not only because of the subject matter but also because of the acting involved. Quite simply, YES, Sam was a good dad...

As Kevin Costner, directing from Michael Blake's screenplay, opens his film Dances with Wolves, the character of Lt. John Dunbar, played by Costner, is lying on a table in a crude Army field...

This is a great question. Edward Sissorhands is a remarkable movie that exposes the human heart in a very clever way. The protagonist of the movie is a boy, Edward, whose creator died before...

One distinct way in which Sam's relationship with Lucy is a healthy one is the open way she is able to communicate with her father. For example, the relationship that both of them share is open...

The two big leader figures in The Breakfast Club are Mr. Vernon, the assistant principal assigned to check in on the students in detention, and John Bender, the delinquent student. Mr. Vernon...

I would like to suggest the John Huston film version of The Maltese Falcon because it is a classic as a film and because it is so closely tied to the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett....

To a great extent, Jacob's struggles derive from being unable to make peace with anything around him. Jacob's entire world is filled with hallucinations, visions, death, and terror. None of these...

Well, the enjoyment of this film is greatly enhanced by the atmosphere and mood that is created by the action that we see depicted as we meet the various passengers on the supposedly unsinkable...

In terms of communication between Sam and Brad, there is no real or definable difference between the way that both speak with one another. The intent is to communicate how Sam and Brad both have...

In The Patriot starring Mel Gibson, General Cornwallis is based on a real character of the same name, from The American Revolution. The real-life Cornwallis was admired by his men for his bravery...

I think that there are several aspects of significance to the Scorsese film. One such aspect is how the film displays the corrupting element in materialism. Belfort and his firm of Stratton-...

One of the strongest symbols that represents Simon Birch's purpose in life is granite. Simon's father owns the Birch granite company and, as the narrator states, has the personality of granite as...

The primary themes of the film involve trust and betrayal. The movie was really quite good in bringing a new angle to this depiction. The idea of the outsider attempting to infiltrate the inner...

The debate in The Patriot begins with an impassioned opening made by Colonel Harry Burwell, played by Chris Cooper. He is acting as the spokesman for the Continental Congress, urging South Carolina...

Part of what exactly is eating at Gilbert Grape is seeing his family besieged with so much in way of risks and little in terms of buffers. The risks that the Grape family face cut a wide swath in...

It should be noted that the lawyer, Rita, ends up solidifying her relationship with her son. However, prior to her interactions with Sam, Rita's relationship with her son is unhealthy for a couple...

The initial premise of Billy Elliot is one where the passion of dance faces formidable challenge. The family setting in which Billy lives is one where this challenge is evident. Billy's father...

The initial setting in Saving Private Ryan is Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. D- Day is the setting for the first 30 minutes of the film. The idea of showing Normandy reflecting the intensity...

A rather "fractured fairy-tale" about an artificial man who is not complete because his inventor died before he could create his hands, Edward Scissorhands, nevertheless, has redeeming...

“Lee Daniel’s The Butler” is a fictionalized adaptation of an article published in the Washington Post in 2008 ["A Butler Well Served by This Election,” The Washington Post, November 7, 2008],...

One of the major points behind Arranged is to show that friendship can overcome external barriers that religious fervor and misunderstanding often provides. The film shows that the friendship...

Amistad, of course, was a film, and its writers created several fictitious characters. Theodore Joadson, portrayed in the film by Morgan Freeman, is one example. Joadson is an African American...

Each of the films you describe centers around unusual people who have a supernaturally bizarre trait of some kind. In each case, the characters live on the fringes of society until someone comes...

There is another very excellent scene in Citizen Kane in which Kane's domination of Susan is shown with light and shadow. They are living in an big apartment. Kane has just received an envelope...

While I Am Sam is fundamentally a sentimental movie, there are some essential truths that prevail in the narrative of this film. Certainly, it is a testimony to the power and effectiveness of love...

One distinct theme that both films share is the role of the "outsider." In both films, the outsider is someone who must try to gain social acceptance. The protagonists in both films are the...

There is definitely no direct evidence, either historically or in the film, that those who defended the rights of the kidnapped Africans in the Amistad case acted out of political self-interest....

Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth tells the story of a young girl, 11-year-old Ofelia, the stepdaughter of a ruthless fascist military officer in Francisco Franco’s Spain. Pan’s...

A neutral script is a script that is deliberately vague. Or you might think of it as a blank canvas. The dialogue could fit any number of situations, characters, relationships. Its goal is to...

One reason why Born on the Fourth of July is a strong medical and psychological study of post- traumatic identity destroyed and rebuilt is because it shows how individuals can pivot from self-...

Romanticism was a direct reaction to the Age of Enlightenment, and Guillermo del Toro's 2006 film Pan's Labyrinth reflects the ideals of romanticism as much as a work of art possibly can. As such,...

The main characters in director Tim Burton’s 1990 film Edward Scissorhands are important to the plot precisely because, without these characters, there wouldn’t be a plot. Let’s start with the...

Anyone who has read The Jungle by muckraker Upton Sinclair about the Chicago stockyards and the atrocities committed against the workers or the history of the Teamsters Union or the early histories...

The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson, is a much acclaimed and popular movie which is set during The American Revolution. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that sets and costumes are sensitive...

The protagonist and main focus of the historical film The Conspirator (2011) is Mary Surratt, the first woman ever executed by the United States federal government. The film details the actions,...

In Peter Weir's eerily predictive film about people's desires of voyeurism by means of reality shows, there are several conflicting perspectives. In fact, The Truman Show, made in 1998, forecasts...

One aspect of general analysis offered about Within Our Gates would be how racial identity is a critical aspect in defining modern consciousness. Sylvia Landry has been defined through the lens of...

I think that one of the reasons that the film is a modern tragedy is that it shows how the community terrorizes the individual. In the end, Kim and Edward cannot be together. Even though that...

I would say that one common theme is the complex reality that surrounds something perceived to be evil. In Il Divo, Andreotti embodies the very essence of control and power. Andreotti is shown as...

Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is, in essence, less a criticism of war than it is an invective against bureaucracy in its hypocrisy, obstinacy, and successive ineffectiveness. In a Wall Street...

The battle over the fate of the Africans in Amistad is a microcosm of the growing sectional conflict in the US in two ways. First, the battle shows how there are a diversity of views on slavery,...

To a great extent, the reclamation of Shakespeare's muse at the end of Shakespeare in Love is of vital importance. The narrative opens with Shakespeare suffering from an intense case of writer's...

The experiences of journalist and broadcaster Melba Toliver, who was pressured to conceal her natural hair style because it appeared “too black” and was seen as threatening to white viewers, were...