Essay on Film

*MAKE CERTAIN TO SIGNIFICANTLY CITE SOURCES, with extra credit
consideration a distinct probability for citations from significant
other readings. Lack of, or scant
citations, will result in a far poorer grade, regardless of your writing
proficiency.
Include a cover sheet
containing an essay title, your name, course number and date.
Number your pages (bottom
center preferred).
Make certain to
avoid the following pitfalls:
1.
Do not write plot summaries. (Elements of the story or the plot of a film
should be used as specifically brief details to explain or discuss the ideas of
the film, and its relation/significance to our course topics.)
2.
Avoid vague and
unnecessary evaluative terms like “beautiful photography,” “superb acting,” or
“tight direction.”
3.
Always support general arguments with specific film examples
described as accurately as possible.
4.
Use the characters’ names–not
the actors’–when discussing the film but give the actor’s name in parentheses
on first use.
5.
Underline or italicize film titles. Do not place them “in quotes.”
6.
DO NOT indulge in loose and careless use of terms like symbolism or
foreshadowing; indeed, you would probably be better off avoiding them
altogether. So too, DO NOT use the phrases “throughout the film…” or “…gives
the feeling of…,” for they invariably get absurdly repetitive. Do not refer to the viewer or audience
or use expressions like “we see” or “you hear” as these also
become woefully, nauseatingly repetitious.
7.
Do not describe
the film using first person (I/we) or second person (you) pronouns. Comments like “we see Baby and Johnny
together for the first time . . .” would be better written as “Baby and Johnny
are together for the first time . . ..”
8.
Do not mix your
tenses and always keep your verbiage in the present tense! (i.e., “The character IS /
DOES / HAS” rather than was, did and had.)
9.
Properly,
indeed meticulously, PROOF & EDIT
your work before submitting. Grades drop
precipitously with each instance of poorly proofed errors.

Employ any of these as a springboard by which to approach your interim and final essay analyses of the unique style of mise-en-scene and thematics in class screenings and any or as many of the films provided in our Blackboard Course Documents page of Supplemental Screenings.
*Any of these prompts are pre-approved. Topics other than these must be granted prior approval.

HAWKS Essay Prompt D:

Certainly a ‘genre director,’ Hawks specialized in
the Western and the “Screwball Comedy.”
Three of his screwballs are included in our syllabus, while other
directors’ are in our Course Documents Supplements file.
When you have recovered from the laughter jags, you
may wish to explore this genre and its tropes, from the ditsy leads to the
ditsier secondary characters, the conflicts therein, and their sharp insights
into the human condition, especially as it pertains to the sexes and societal
mores of the day (or any day, for that matter.)

HAWKS Essay Prompt E:

Yet another notable Hawks genre is that which
studies the male relationships in the professional realm, such as ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, THE BIG SLEEP and TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT. When
exploring this prompt, you would be well advised to compare these to the relationships
in his Westerns as well, along with an eye to male-female dynamics as opposed
to their screwball counterparts. A
director’s thematic and stylistic thumb is imprinted on all films, regardless
of genre, particularly in Hawks’ case.

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