Film Analysis and its Application

Film today engage us in so many ways, the films I have watched address a wide variety of topics but most often they boil down to what is right and what is wrong. The genre of the films I have watched have mostly been Westerns. Before learning the difference of story and plot, I would not have known the difference. The stories of these Westerns have been about how it was in the West a long time ago, however, as I have found we still deal with much of the same fundamental issues today in modern time. The directors of these films could not have seen into the future but it sure seems to fit. Society still deals with gun control, people of both sexes being hurt or killed by others, people owning others with human trafficking which no government can seem to get a grip on. So, to say I watched Westerns about the old west is an understatement, these movies with a few changes to muse en scene, add some new music and we have a film about modern times. That is sad to be said.
There are so many import rolls in producing a film or movie the director or facilitator, the camera people, sound people and the editor all play such important rolls in creating the cultural and social set for the viewer. Actors who are picked to play certain parts in the movies have a big responsibility to pull off the part they play to make the social statement, or show the cultural resonance of the film.
The modern world of social media has a great impact on film today. Once a film is up for viewing instance reviews are in place. Either by critics or just friends telling others what they thought of a certain movie whether they should waste their time going to see it or whether it is appropriate for children to see or do I want to go see this movie with my children (50 Shades of Grey) for example. We have at our finger tips all the knowledge we need at any time of the day or night.
I will be writing about the film Unforgiven directed and starring Clint Eastwood. Eastwood, auteur director facilitated to film to show a corrupt sheriff, a search for justice and heart breaking moments. The film was released in 1992 a different era from today but the social and cultural resonance could be a film released today, about today?s issues.

The sheriff acting as judge and jury does not address the fact that two cowhands cut the face and breast of a young women, yes, she portrays a prostitute, but the violence committed against her was outrageous. What the sheriff does is repulsive, instead of throwing the two into jail, he charges that whenever it is convenient for the two they should bring some horses to the owner of the brothel. Back in the old west day?s prostitutes were the property of a brothel or tavern owner whichever the case may be. My point here is that the punishment does not fit the crime.
Another social and cultural resonance is when nothing was done to the cowhands on of the lead prostitutes decides to take matters into her own hands and puts a bounty on the two cowhands with a reward. To me this part of the film if watched today, social status of a women standing up for others is still a strong way of life today.

Reference

Unforgiven (1992) Rotten Tomatoes Unforgiven retrieved from
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1041911-unforgiven/

Respond

Week 5 Discussion 2 Penny Hill 1/11/2017 6:02:56 PM

Based on the films you have watched and the ways you have learned to interpret meaning in them, discuss your ideas about how films engage social concerns and have lasting effects on society. Pick a film (or films) as evidence of this dynamic and describe the social and cultural resonance you see.

I just watched the movie Sully It is about an air plane that it is in flight and in-counters birds they loose both there engines and the captain had to decide weather he could make it to the closest airport as the pilot let the air traffic controller know that they had lost both engines. The Captain and his Co-Pilot was performing the plane inspection they realized that were not going to be able to get to the nearest airport and told air traffic control that they were going down in the Hudson river. For many weeks after the plane went down they tried to blame the lose of a multi-million dollar air craft on the captain instead of parsing him for saving the lives of 155 people. There has been very few plane crashes that exactly have and survivors. As the Captain finally got the aviation control inspectors to listen to there last transmission from the cockpit showing that they tried to restart the engines instead the aviation controllers kept saying that their simulation plane shows that they could make it back to the airport. Once they recovered the last engine they were told that the engine had broken blades and burned all the movable parts, The Captain is a Hero. We need more people like that to save lives when it comes to air disasters.