The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller that was first produced in 1953, is based on the true story of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Miller wrote the play to parallel the situations in the mid-twentieth century of Alger Hiss, Owen Latimore, Julius and Ethel Rosenburg, and Senator McCarthy, if only suggestively. (Warshow 116)…
Rudolph Diesel was a German engineer who in 1892 created the diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine. He was born on the 18th of March, 1858 in Paris. Rudolph was born into a poor family and was surrounded by poverty almost all of his life, making for a very unhappy childhood. Diesel started…
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, and directed by Robert Weine. It was produced in 1919 by Erich Pommer for Decla-Bioscop. 1919 was a year in which the movie industry was transformed into a giant industry. Although the movie was produced in 1919, it was not released in…
The film Since You Went Away was released in 1944. This epic film attempted to relate to the American audience that was dealing with the war foreclosing and the flux of soldiers coming home at the time. The Hollywood studios were constantly trying to do their part for the war buy making films about the…
The motion picture Dead Man Walking provided a non-fiction insight into the world of crime, justice, and capital punishment. The film cast several characters from different backgrounds and opinion sets in direct conflict with one another. Several small topics and one major topic, capital punishment, were explored over the duration of the movie. While the…
In Cool Hand Luke, the movie begins with the word, VIOLATION, across the screen. The word is from a parking meter and sets the tone for the entire movie. Luke Jackson, the title character, is arrested for cutting off the heads of the town’s parking meters while drunk, or in legal terms, for destroying municipal…
In Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, King Lear, the issue of sight and its relevance to clear vision is a recurring theme. Shakespeare’s principal means of portraying this theme is through the characters of Lear and Gloucester. Although Lear can physically see, he is blind in the sense that he lacks insight, understanding, and direction. In contrast,…
Discuss three comedy techniques which were explained by Rowan Atkinson and then used in Dads army” Comedy is a part of life displayed naturally in daily tasks and professionally in movies and theatres. Comedy has so many types, the most prominent of which is visual comedy. There are various comedy techniques displayed in Dads army,…
This passage is all too true, both in Peter Shaffer’s ‘Amadeus’ and in life in general. However the play is also concerned with the destructive nature of ignorance and naivety. Salieri is jealous not just of Mozart’s talent, but of the fact that God gave the talent to “Mozart … spiteful, sniggering, conceited, infantine Mozart”.…
A character is an elaborate blend of emotions and characteristics. Even though the character’s emotions are significant because they make an individual feel for the character may it be sympathy or anger. The characteristics are very also important because they make the character. They describe the character’s nature even if they are good hearted or…
Thomas Kim The film, “Charlie’s Angels” was a visually motivated movie. This film fit under the genre of action/comedy. The action and camera work moved the story forward while keeping the audience attentive. The primary characters were Dylan, a rebellious tomboy, Natalie, a ditzy encyclopedia, Alex, a no nonsense achiever and Eric Nox, a criminal…
Camila is an Argentinean film set in the mid 19th century, during the Rosas regime. The film focuses on the lives of a young girl, Camila, and her Jesuit priest Ladislao Gutierrez. Camila and Ladisalo fall in love and the film follows their troubles. Through following the events that happen with Camila and Ladisalo, the…
The Great Depression was a period of lowered economic activity and extensive unemployment. In general, times were hard and most people lived in a state of hopelessness. There was a much-needed entertainment that arose during this time, and that was the work of Frank Capra. His dream of goodwill was expressed through his memorable works…
The movie Braveheart is a Scottish tale. It starts off by showing Scottish men and women going into a meeting in a barn to discuss truce amongst the war that they are having with the English. What they didn’t know was that they were being lowered into a trap where they were hung. William as…
Mankind, engaging in war, driven by whatever instincts guide him, seeks to keep the defeats and victories of battle in his memory and on his conscience. To accomplish this men have used paint and canvas, ink and paper, or instrument and song in their effort to communicate the tragedy and glory of war. Never, before…
Baz Luhrmann was made famous by his three films that come under the title of the ‘Red curtain trilogy’. These three films are Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge. Red curtain cinema is a term made up by Luhrmann. It is about breaking cinematic rules and boundaries. It is a refreshingly new and…
Probably the most popular, influential and enduring rock group of all time, the Beatles almost single-handedly reshaped rock ‘n’ roll from a genre of throwaway singles by faceless stars to an artistic medium with memorable images and idols. The Beatles placed the emphasis on a group, rather than a single individual, like Frank Sinatra or…
Until Art Spiegelman arrived on the scene, comics had not truly been acknowledged as art. Never, until Art Spiegelman came along, had anyone won a Guggenheim Fellowship award in order to complete a work of cartoon art. In 1986, Art Spiegelman, hailed by some as the “new Kafka,” published Maus: A Survivors Tale, a graphic-novel…
Balance refers to the distribution of visual weight in a work of art. In painting, it is the visual equilibrium of the elements that causes the total image to appear balanced. Balance can be symmetrical (also referred to as “formal”), and asymmetrical balance (also called “informal balance”). Balance is usually a desirable characteristic of a…
Amistad is a recreation of the true story about an 1839 slave revolt on a small Spanish schooner, La Amistad, ironically the Spanish word for “friendship.” Spielberg does a great job in recreating the Amistad revolt that spurred a series of trials beginning in the lower courts of Connecticut and ultimately ending in the Supreme…
