Easy Rider screen shot

Essay 1

Length and Due Date

Length: 5-6 pages (excluding screenshots), formatted as described in the “Essays” portion of the syllabus
Optional In-Class Workshop: Thursday, May 10; bring two hard copies of work-in-progress (draft, outline, list of ideas, mind-map, etc.)
Due: Friday, May 11, by noon via Canvas

Assignment

For the essay, you will write on one of the following topics. In your essay, you will present a claim about the significance of the film’s style, representation, politicizing effects or engagement with genre, and you will develop this claim by analyzing the film’s formal elements (mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, sound), narrative, themes, or ideological stance. You will also reference at least one critical course reading to support your analysis..

1. Examine how one of the following films engages, recasts, and/or subverts genre conventions: Dead Man, Far From Heaven, My Own Private Idaho, Poison, or Pulp Fiction. Note that you should identify the genre(s) and salient genre conventions your selected film employs as you analyze its relationship with its genre(s). Genres we’ve discussed in class have included the Western, melodrama, road movie, gangster film, television sitcom and horror film.

2. Investigate how Dead Man, Do the Right Thing, My Own Private Idaho, Mysterious Skin, or Poison uses visual, sound and/or narrative form for politicizing effects. In your essay, you must define the film’s politicizing effect(s) in addition to examining how the film uses formal elements to achieve these effects.

3.Although we’ve read about techniques of color scoring in relation to Far From Heaven, one could argue that Do the Right Thing and My Own Private Idaho also employ color motifs and punctuation. Analyze how one of these films uses color scoring for particular purposes or effects.

4. Critic B. Ruby Rich defined the early work of Todd Haynes, Gus van Sant, and Gregg Araki as “New Queer Cinema.” Examine how My Own Private Idaho, Mysterious Skin, or Poison use film narrative, visuals and/or sound to offer a “new” representation of queer sexuality. Why does your selected film engage the issue of sexuality in the manner it does?

5. Examine the representation of masculinity in Dead Man, Do the Right Thing, Far From Heaven, My Own Private Idaho, Mysterious Skin, Poison, or Pulp Fiction. What tensions or conflict exist around notions of masculinity in your selected films? How does masculinity intersect with other aspects of identity such as race, class, or sexuality?

Guidelines

1. Although I’ve provided topics, you must formulate a workable approach by narrowing the prompt. For example, one could approach the genre question by analyzing how an “outsider” character in Dead Man functions to critique ideologies of race or masculinity in the Western, or one could examine My Own Private Idaho’s recasting of the road film’s buddy relationship along homoerotic lines. Alternately, one could analyze either film’s subversion of the genre’s “hero” role via Blake’s and Mike’s trips into unconsciousness.

2.Your essay must pose and develop a clear, substantive, defendable claim about your selected film. Rather than listing observations on the film’s narrative, ideologies, genre, themes, visuals and/or sound, the essay will evaluate the purpose and significance of these elements. Consider what your argument can contribute to the class’s understanding of the topic and film.

3. Although the essay examines a large-scale question, close textual analysis will serve as your main source of evidence. In supporting your argument, you will need to pay attention to how the film or films address the topic through narrative and/or cinematic techniques. Focus on specific shots or scenes and the cinematic codes at work in those shots or scenes.

4. You are also required to reference at least one critical course reading that helps you advance your analysis. Critical readings offer interpretations of specific films, genres, representational strategies, film styles or cinematic techniques. When you quote, summarize, or paraphrase a source, please use MLA format. Also include a works cited list that provides bibliographic information for the film and reading referenced in your essay.

5. Remember that you are writing to an audience who has already viewed the film and read Bordwell and Thompson’s descriptions of cinematic techniques. Therefore, your essay should not offer plot summaries. Instead, any reference to the films—dialogue quotations, scene descriptions, explanations of camera movement or shot distance, etc.—should support your analysis. Moreover, you need not define film terminology; simply apply it accurately.

6.Do not forget the arguments posed in class discussion, during group presentations or on the electronic film response area. A review of class notes, lecture/presentation slides, and postings on a particular film may help you to ask key questions and shape your analysis. You will, of course, cite specific words and interpretations borrowed from classmates.

7.You may incorporate screen shots into your analysis. However, you must explicate the image within the body of the essay rather than using screen shots as decorations. Identify and discuss the visual details that illustrate your claim about the films. When using screen shots, caption each image (for example, “Figure 1: Smiley selling photos of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X”) and reference the figure number in your text (for example, “Smiley holds a photograph of the two civil rights leaders Lee quotes at the films’ conclusion: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X (see Figure 1).”)

8. When describing a film's plot or stylistic techniques, use the present tense (for example, "Carol meets Raymond in the train station," or "the opening scene of My Own Private Idaho cuts from a shot of Mike lying on the road to a shot of clouds parting to reveal a snowy mountain”).

9. If you’re having difficulty devising an approach to the essay, or if you want to discuss ideas-in-progress, come to my office hours or email me to set up an appointment.

Grading

I will use an eighty-point grading rubric to evaluate this essay. Late essays will receive a 10-point deduction per day late, including weekends and holidays. I will make exceptions to the lateness policy only in cases of documented illness or family emergency. Please note that technology glitches do not constitute an excuse for lateness.

Additional Materials


Follow the links below to access restricted additional resources via our course Canvas site:

  • Bibliography for online course readings [Word :: PDF]
    The bibliography contains original citation information for all online course packet readings. Since you are accessing the readings from our Canvas site, course packet article citations on your Works Cited list should include all bibliographic information through the page numbers and end with the words, "English 345 Canvas Site. PDF file."
  • Clips from Essay 1 films
  • Screenshots from Essay 1 films
  • Sample student essays
    Note that although last year's class wrote on similar topics, they had to compare/contrast two films.