FILM 110 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Canada, The Beatles, Quebec
12 Oct 2018
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FILM 110
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Week 14 – The Classic Western
Tutorial Questions:
• How does the combination of both genres affect how the audience views the plot?
o Brokeback Mountain was promoted as a gay western, never a melodrama
▪ B/c the did’t wat to lose the hetero-normative men that would not
see a melodrama
o It does’t correspod to what the tet is actuall doig
o There is sometimes tension
• Could it be said that Ennis represents the western genre & Jack represents the
melodrama?
o Should we think of Ennis as the male & Jack as the female?
o Why is it that Jack falls into melodrama?
▪ Easier for him to be out as a gay man? Easier for him to show his
feelings? Allows Ennis to control the relationship?
• Are the writers/directors/cinematographers thinking consciously about genre when they
are (creatively) developing characters & plots or is this something imposed later by
marketing, the media, & audiences?
o Pictures are made b/c the genre is prescribed
o Pictures are short, genres are effective
o They are not always conscious of what they are doing, though
▪ Sometimes they do it intuitively, more so deliberately
o We do’t iterpret iages i the sae wa that we iterpret laguage, per-say
Questions from the Quizzes
• According to Kitses, & relying on the textbook section on genres, which of the following
generic dynamics best describes Brokeback Mountain?
a) It is a subgenre, like spaghetti Western, but queer Western
b) It is a new hybrid genre: the Western/Melodrama
c) A dae of two geres, wherey they otai & ostrai eah other
a. Although the textbook refers to it being a melodrama, Kitses directly says
that it is a dance
d) It is a political melodrama
• Kitses’ discussion of the sheep in the West points to a tension discussed in the lecture
between:
a) The reel & the real
a. Connections; discussed in the intro & connected w the reading in
order to bring them together
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
b) Effeminate vs. masculine cowboys
c) Stereotypes & cinematic realism
d) Maternal vs. paternal stereotypes
• The iconography of the poster for American Sniper is intended to:
a) Idicate the fil’s gere as a glorified war film
b) Create narrative tension between the image & text
c) “ell the fil as a ati-war fil
a. War messes up & destroys the soldiers that are in it; extension question
d) All of the above
Maifest Destiy
• How do we take land where people are living & justify the taking of it?
o We justify by telling ourselves that we are superior & God promised us this land
▪ He sent us to benefit the people that are already on the land
• Popular paintings in the 1840s
• Conveys some of the values that were implying Manifest Destiny
o Protestant doctrine that believed the land has been given to us to take over, of
milk & honey
o Puritan values, getting the best out of the land
o Shows us the superiority of the people
o About teaching the lesser people how to read & write, to convert them to
Christianity, to bring them forward, to better everyone
o Bringing Capitalism into those places, a market economy
• Allows people to find a home, to make farming, to build cities & to make fortune for
themselves
• Uniquely American concept, but in Canada, we are not entirely free either
o John A. MacDonald:
▪ Responsible for creating the union
▪ Lead Westward expansion w Chinese labour
▪ Issued the order to starve the indigenous people so they are forced to
move into reservations so he could take the land
▪ Father of the residential school system
▪ Task: do research on John A. MacDonald & think about the Canadian
version of Manifest Destiny
The Searchers
• Classical western ft. John Wayne at the height of his career
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
It has become a very expensive art: 46 million production budget, 47 million marketing budget. If we give a product that has similar qualities that people like, we can somewhat guarantee that there will be an audience: ge(cid:374)re fil(cid:373)s share . Week 16 the modern western is going native. Dances with wolves: cost(cid:374)er"s debut as a filmmaker, classic of modern hollywood cinema, our only example of a big production of hollywood film. Can anything be considered original: patter(cid:374)s e(cid:454)ist, (cid:271)ut that does(cid:374)"t (cid:373)ea(cid:374) that origi(cid:374)alit(cid:455) does(cid:374)"t e(cid:454)ist. It is a historical overview: there is no theoretical argument. It talks about italian elements only momentarily: must thi(cid:374)k: (cid:862)what is the arti(cid:272)le doi(cid:374)g? (cid:863) More about dances with wolves: hollywood is full of pre-madonnas, big ego film, he is the director & main character, how does he treat his own character compared to others, most conventional film in this term.
