ZSRS 487: Film, Culture, History, Myth
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FILMOGRAPHY
READINGS
 
 
UNIT I: Overview of Course: Models of Analysis
Schedule Wk One/Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Wk 2/Day 4 Day 5  
Day May 28 May 29 May 30 Weekend June 4 June 5  
Films Missing (1978, Costa-Gavras Selected clips Obstinate Memory (1999, Guzman) Film from list  

Presentations

 

  
Readings

 

 

Phillips, Ch. 3 (99-115); Ch. 8 (all)

Handouts on Missing (dramatic structure)

Lull handout excerpts Ch. 2 (13-17, 24-32) & Ch. 3 (48-59)

Parenti, Ch. 1 (1-12)

Parenti Ch. 11 (177-193) & Ch. 2 (13-55)

"That's Militainment" Wednesday May 22, 2002
The Guardian

"That's Militainment: The war on terror gets the Cops treatment...
February 25, 2002. CNN, On Politics

Missing, excerpt from book by Thomas Hauser (3-36).

  

 

Declassified State Dept. documents on Horman released 10/18/99

The National Security Archives: Chile Documentation Project (classified govt. documents; see especially "Chile Acknowledges Ties . . . ")

Institute for Public Accuracy news release 2/15/00

CNN Chatroom discussion with Joyce Horman on 6/18/00.

Phillips, Ch. 9 (299-316),

Joel Andreas, Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism

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Topics

Overview of course: Film, Culture, History, Myth

Course requirements: Films, readings, journal/discussion questions, WebCT, group presentations, final paper

 Reading film "texts": Dramatic Structure (plot outlines); Cinema Language

Film as Ideology; film genres; political economy of film and television

 

 

Reading film "contexts"; historical representation

 

Presentations: dramatic structure, film language, and ideology

Final paper discussion

Intro to WebCT

  
Assignment Start discussion questions.      

Discussion questions due

WebCT posts for Unit I are due

 Select film clip and discuss in relationship to class topics; form groups  
 
UNIT II: The Gangster Film: Bank Robbers vs. Bank Owners
Schedule Wk 2/Day 6   Wk 3/Day 7 Day 8 Day 9   Wk 4/Day 10
Day June 6 Weekend June 11 June 12 June 13 Weekend June 18
Film/s Little Caesar (1930, LeRoy)

Goodfellas (1995, Scorcese) OR Bonnie and Clyde (1969, Penn)

 Godfather Part II (1974, Coppola)

The Sopranos (1999, David Kelley)

Selections

 Presentations    
Readings

Warshow, "The Gangster as Tragic Hero"

Cawelti, "Chinatown and Generic Transformation"

Judith Hess Wright, "Genre Films and the Status Quo"

Phillips, Ch. 9 (esp. 373-398)

  

Cawelti, Bonnie and Clyde article

John Hess, "A Deal Coppola Couldn't Refuse"

Elayne Rapping, "American Family & American Dream"

Altman, "A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre"

Keeton, "The Sopranos and Genre Transformation"

      
Topics The Gangster film: reading film contexts   Genre transformation: melodrama & gangster film Continuation Library Research; Final paper  

Conferences on Final Paper

In-class peer editing
Assignment

Start discussion questions for Unit 2

Terminology Exam

First Journal Reading

   Response to Unit I posts on WebCT  

Discussion questions due

Web CT posts for Unit 2 are due

   Final Paper: Part I due: Analysis of Dramatic Structure and Cinema Language
               
 
UNIT III: Melodrama, The Crime Film, and the Politics of Representation
Schedule Wk 4/Day11 Day12 Week 5/Day 13 Day 14 Day 15
Day June 19 June 20 Weekend June 25 June 26 June 27
Film/s Fight Club (1999, Finch)

Norma Rae (1978, Ritt)

 Erin Brockavich (2000, Soderbergh) OR The Full Monty (1997, Cattaneo)

Selections

   Presentations  
Readings

Article on Fight Club

 

 

Article on Norma Rae

Article on Melodrama

Article on event film is based on

Erin Brockavich article about Academy Award to screenwriter

 

     
Topics

 

Alienation, the crime film.

The film industry

 Melodrama, gender and sexual politics   Continuation; Peer Editing      
Assignment Start discussion questions  

 

Response to Unit 2 posts on WebCT

Draft of paper due

Discussion questions due

Web CT posts for Unit 3 are due

 All work due: Final Paper, Journals (with discussion questions).