Film Journal – A film that represents American Cinema.

Film Journal | Representing American Cinema with One Film

Imagine that you are teaching International Cinema in a different country, and the U.S. is one of the countries you have to cover. Choose one English-language American movie and explain in complete sentences at least 3 reasons you chose it to represent all of American cinema, being clear about why those reasons are relevant to the task at hand. Then, explain at least 3 of its limitations as an example of American cinema, again being clear on why these limitations are relevant to the task at hand. Be sure to put the name of the movie in italics, state the year it came out and the person who directed it. 300 to 500 typed, double-spaced words, in PDF or DOC formats only.

For example:

“My choice for an American film would be Hell or High Water from 2016, directed by David Mackenzie. There are 3 reasons why I chose this film. First, it focuses on contemporary problems in American life, like generational debt and chronic poverty, a lack of meaningful economic opportunity, and the predatory nature of institutions like banks. In my opinion, a film that engages real-world issues of the country in question qualifies as a relevant reason this film could be chosen. Second, this film features a lot of gun violence, which is typical both in American life and in American films, making this issue relevant as well. Finally, Hell or High Water also features an array of racially insensitive language coming from a white character to a character of both indigenous and Latine heritage and in that sense it reflects the enduring racism that plagues American society. On the other hand, there are limits to having Hell or High Water as an example of American cinema. First, despite having big stars (Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine) it’s not a big budget film made by a major studio, and the stars only have one scene together at the very end. That is a- typical for an American film. Second, the movie is critical of capitalism, and technically the robbers ‘win’ as they achieve their goal and law enforcement fails to stop them. That is very unusual for American cinema, which usually upholds the pillars of American society, like capitalism, law enforcement, the church, etc. Finally, Hell or High Water depicts violence tragically rather than heroically, and that is uncommon in American cinema. In many American films violence is the solution to the problem and the narratives go to great lengths justifying the use of violence by white men in particular. That’s not really the case for the main characters in Hell or High Water, and each side experiences a loss due to gun violence, which makes that violence tragic in ways it typically is not in American films. Hell or High Water shows that American films can challenge the status quo, question elements of the establishment, and upend expectations people have of American cinema. On the other hand, it is so a-typical that if it were the only example we saw, it might make the American film industry look more complex in its approach to certain subjects than it usually is.” (399 words)