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…
“Holiday Inn” was a very popular film when released in 1942. The musical was written by Irving Berlin who featured in his film many stars of the decade. Actor-singer Bing Crosby stars as Jim Hardy and features his hit song “White Christmas.” Actor-dancer Fred Astaire stars as Ted Hanover who thrills the crowd with his…
Glory captures the heroism of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the first black regiment in the Civil War, the Massachusetts “Fighting” Fifty-fourth. An extremely talented cast and crew earned three Academy Awards (cinematography, sound and supporting actor) and five nominations for their work in Glory. The outstanding cinematography, sound, score and acting recreate the events…
A Nightmare on Elm Street was written and directed by Wes Craven. The movie was released in 1984 and challenged the typical slasher genre film of the time in many aspects. The movie begins with the haunting children’s song, “One, two Freddy’s coming for you /Three, four, better lock your door / Five, six grab…
In studying and understanding the politics and artistic ideologies of film not in the popular “Hollywood” tradition, films of different cultures must be examined to explore the political and social history of the struggles for cultural identity. The film becomes a means of consciousness raising and of creating political awareness. Films of revolution and social…
Myths are created for the purpose of conveying a message with an interesting medium with which to do so. Many cultures use myths to teach their young about the past. Through time, however, these myths become impractical due to discovery. This is when a new myth must be introduced to take the place of the…
Television has become a mirror to the cultural aspects of daily life. It influences everyone in some way. The media’s images tell us where to shop, what shampoo to use, and what brand of soda to drink. Sitcoms have become increasingly popular through the ’90s. Sitcoms have such a large audience because they are easy…
The French composer Erik Satie was born on May 17, 1866, and died on July 1, 1925, was the son of an English mother and a Parisian music publisher. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1879 but failed to benefit from academic education, which he embarked on again only in his 40th year, when he…
Internationally, Al Gilbert Graded Dance Examinations, have a wide and far-reaching scope. The Gilbert tap syllabus has touched the lives of a wide variety of people, for many years. The Gilbert Syllabus has become a closely integrated part of tap, and its levels, from Primary to Grade Eight are universal tap monuments. From Primary to…
The construction of a national political community in India has always been undermined by the absence of homogenous social foundations within its separate nation states. “Public identity” has never ceased to be polysemous; this plurality is grounded in religion, ethnicity, caste, language, gender, and culture. Partha Chatterjee defines “inner” and “outer” as a separation of…
The Mosquito Coast depicts the story of an unstable, antisocial individual whose unsubstantial paranoia causes him to dramatically alter the courses of his and other people’s lives. The man’s continual fear of a nuclear invasion by an irate, immoral country eventually this man to move himself and his family to a remote jungle area of…
The Italian mafia and all that it glorifies have been scrutinized through film since the beginning of the twentieth-century. The images that the masses have come to know and accept as the Italian mafia were created from the beginning stereotypes in Italy. Even before many Italians arrived in the United States, it was understood that…
India is a strong example of a developing nation where, because of resentment and resistance to the social impact of economic change, fundamentalism has been strongly fed as entire cultural and religious groups have become marginalized. Patterns of resentment and resistance among these marginalized groups have led to a situation where, paradoxically, the national government…
The Movie “Erin Brockovich” was reviewed by several professional critics on their thoughts about the film. Even though this movie was very good, it still received some negative comments and reviews by some critics. The three professional critics I chose to critique the film are Christopher Null, MaryAnn Johanson, and Amy Taubin. By reviewing the…
Trifles is a play about the death of a woman’s spirit. She is overpowered by her dominating husband and in the end, killed him for suffocating her spirit. Glaspell characterizes male characters differently than females. The men of this play act towards their wives like a man would in 1916. The men are dominating and…