A person clad in a ratty bathrobe and dark sunglasses shuffles up to a cash register to write a $0.69 check for a carton of Half & Half. This was the first glimpse the world would see of this person, actually a man, who would set fire to mixed reviews. In March 1998, viewers of the film nationwide labeled him a slacker, bum, nihilist, deadbeat, etc. He was a man who lived off necessity not want. His home was a small condo. He dressed in worn out, baggy clothes with shower sandals regularly. He had a thick goatee and long shaggy hair. His employment status was unemployed… actively. He drove a rusted out car with no concern for its aesthetic appeal. His daily plans were full of White Russians, marijuana, and bowling. His cares in life seemed …show more content…
Many critics of the movie looked superficially at the character of the Dude and saw him only as a slacker, or as New York Magazine critic David Denby asserted "a sad-sack hero." One can look at a certain number of scenes in the film to see this surface level understanding of what the Dude stands for in the movie. Take, for example, the scene where the Dude meets the wealthy capitalist of the film Jeffrey Lebowski (the other Lebowski) after two guys broke into the Dude’s house and "micturated" on The Dude's …show more content…
The majority of critics and casual viewers do not see the underlying meaning in the Dude's persona. Critics who disapprove of The Big Lebowski see it as an "Uneven, screwball comedy—a disjointed and half-hearted attempt by the Coen Brothers" as claimed by Jeff Vice of Deseret News out of Salt Lake City. Even casual fans who like the movie do not understand the Dude to the full extent; fans claim the movie to be a stoner movie, one of the greatest comedies of all time, etc., which they understand the film to the comedic level. For the longest time, I felt the same. The Big Lebowski is a hilarious movie with fantastic acting, but it took some time before I looked past the White Russians and haze of marijuana smoke to see more than a hippie in the Dude's eyes. Many critics and casual viewers of the Big Lebowski see the film as being an obscure comedy about a stoner who talks about himself in third person and his haphazard adventures to solve a kidnapping. But yeah, well, that's just, like uh, their opinion, man. However, closer analysis reveals that The Dude is not just a stoner, but also alters and redefines stereotypes of what it means to be a
“I’d rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after the birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mocking bird.” Atticus Finch recites these lines to his two children, Jem and Scout after he gives them air-rifles for Christmas. Scout is curious, as this is the first time that she has ever heard her father refer to anything as a sin, Scout asks Miss Maude what Atticus meant by this. Miss Maude tells Scout that mocking birds don’t rip up people’s garden’s or annoy them in any way, all they do is play beautiful music for us to listen to.
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is a satiric comedy about the quest of King Arthur. The movie starts out with Arthur, King of the Britons, looking for knights to sit with him at Camelot. He finds many knights including Sir Galahad the pure, Sir Lancelot the brave, the quiet Sir Bedevere, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Lancelot. Through satire and parody of certain events in history (witch trials, the black plague) they find Camelot, but after literally a quick song and dance they decide that they do not want to go there. While walking away, God (who seems to be grumpy) come to them from a cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail. They agree and begin their search. While they search for the Grail, scenes of the knight's tales appear and the reasons behind their names. Throughout their search, they meet interesting people and knights along the way. Most of the characters die; some through a killer rabbit (which they defeat with the holy hand grenade), others from not answering a question right from the bridge of Death, or die some other ridiculous way. In the end, King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are left and find the Castle Arrrghhh where the Holy Grail is. They are met by some French soldiers who taunted them earlier in the film and were not able to get into the castle. The movie ends with both King Arthur and Sir Bedevere being arrested for killing a real-life man who was a historian.
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee sheds light upon the controversy of racism and justice in his classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The notion of equality in accordance with the law and the pursuit of justice are hindered by racial discrimination. The essence of human nature is pondered. Are we inclined to be good or in the wrath of evil? The novel reflects on the contrasting nature of appearance versus reality.
Within the German Democratic Republic, there was a secret police force known as the Stasi, which was responsible for state surveillance, attempting to permeate every facet of life. Agents within and informants tied to the Stasi were both feared and hated, as there was no true semblance of privacy for most citizens. Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the movie The Lives of Others follows one particular Stasi agent as he carries out his mission to spy on a well-known writer and his lover. As the film progresses, the audience is able to see the moral transformation of Stasi Captain Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler primarily through the director 's use of the script, colors and lighting, and music.
An author of a book plays a crucial part in the novel’s creation. The book tells you a little a bit about the author, his or her creativity and lastly their intellectual capacity. The author of the book The Princess Bride is William Goldman. Goldman was born August 12, 1931 in Chicago, Illionis, U.S. Goldman is a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He got his BA degree at Oberlin College in 1952 and his MA degree at Columbia University in 1956. William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway prior to writing his screenplays. Two of his notable works include his novel Marathon Man and comedy-fantasy novel The Princess Bride, both of which Goldman converted to film. William Goldman has been an influence to other authors such as: Stephanie Meyer, Dean Koontz, and Joesph Finder. People who were an influence to Goldman were: Irwin Shaw, Ingmar Bergman, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Jeffrey Lebowski is highly successful, a war veteran, and disabled. He is around sixty years old, with a wife in her twenties. His entire life is based off of hard work and taking care of business himself. Mr. Lebowski is a conservative. He believes in a certain set of rules and will not hesitate to discipline those who disagree with those rules. Even before we meet Mr. Lebowski, we learn about his life from his assistant, Brandt (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). After The Dude gets his prized rug, Brandt is giving The Dude a tour of the Lebowski estate, the camera pans over Mr. Lebowski’s wall of fame. It is covered in pictures of Mr. Lebowski posing with various political celebrities, a key to the city, as well as a photo showcasing the group of inner city children Mr. Lebowski supports; otherwise known as The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers. The title of this charity tells us Mr. Lebowski is more interested in giving himself a good name rather than helping the children. Finally, Mr. Lebowski emerges from the bowels of his home and reprimands The Dude for asking for compensation for his rug. He bestows his life philosophy upon The Dude, “I hope that my wife will someday learn to live on her allowance, which is ample, but if she doesn't, sir, that will be her problem, not mine, just as your rug is your problem, just as every bum's lot in life is his own responsibility regardless of whom he chooses to blame. I didn't blame anyone for the loss of my legs, some chinaman in Korea
It is likely for one to assume that a classic piece of literature set in a fantasy oriented stage will have no merits to the youths of today. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, however, with its crafty of usage symbolism, displays its relevance to issues that often trouble teens. As the story progresses from a children’s tale to an epic, the main character Bilbo undergoes a series of development, his experiences often overlapping with ordinary people. Reading the Hobbit will provide teens with opportunities of exploring the importance of several common but serious topics. People may encounter many of the themes presented in the book elsewhere repeatedly, but it’s possible that they never appreciated the applications it might have on themselves. When teens read the Hobbit, they perceive it as a simple fiction of adventure. Under proper guiding, they will be able to recognize and utilize the lessons of the Hobbit, and improve their attitudes and ideas about life.
In this novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Victor Hugo talks about the life of his characters in the city of Paris. This story takes place in the late-fourteenth century. With inequality all around it was hard for a person to gain respect without good looks or social status. In this paper I will mainly discuss the story of Quasimodoe Esmeralda, and their struggle in this story Quasimodoe`s mother was a gypsy.
I spent a lot of time considering what movie I would watch to write this essay. I listed off the movies that I would like to watch again, and then I decided on The Notebook. I didn’t really think I could write about adolescence or children, so I thought that, maybe, I could write about the elderly. The love story that The Notebook tells is truly amazing. I love watching this movie, although I cry every time I watch it. The Notebook is about an elderly man that tells the story of his life with the one he loves the most, his wife. He is telling the story to his wife, who has Alzheimer’s Disease, which is a degenerative disease that affects a person’s memory. She has no recollection of him or their life together, or even her own children. She wrote the story of their love herself, so that when he read the story to her, she would come back to him. There are three things that I would like to discuss about this movie. First, I would like to discuss their stage of life and the theory that I believe describes their stage of life the best. Second, I would like to discuss Alzheimer’s DIsease and its affect on the main character who has it and her family. Third, I would like to discuss how at the end of the movie, they died together. I know it is a movie, but I do know that it is known that elderly people who have been together for a long time, usually die not to far apart from one another.
If there's two genres that director Quentin Tarantino excels at, it's crime and western. So when he had announced that his 8th film, The Hateful Eight, was going to be a mystery-crime-western combo, many people already knew that his film was going to be great. Once it finally did premiere on December 25th, it did not disappoint.
In the media, prisons have always been depicted as a horrible place. The film, The Shawshank Redemption, is a prime example that supports the media 's suggestions about prison life. In the film we are familiarized with Andy Dufresne, who is a banker that is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. While trying to both remain discreet and find his prison identity, he assists Ellis Boyd 'Red ' Redding, a peddler, and Brooks Hatlen. In his attempt to fit into the rough prison subculture, Andy strategically starts a business relationship with the captain Captain Bryon Hadley and Samuel Norton. The film gives an insider 's look at various aspects of prison life. These aspects include prison culture; explicitly, guard subculture and inmate subculture.
The film that is being used for the movie analysis is “Enough”, this movie was chosen due to the fact that it is based on domestic violence towards women. The movie begins with in Los Angeles diner were a waitress named slim works with her best friend Ginny (Kazan, 2002). While working her shift slim has a customer that starts harassing her over the name she has, but the companion of the annoying customer defends slim, which in turn starts a romance, later to become a marriage between the two (Kazan, 2002). The couple is later blessed with a daughter they name Gracie, and at the beginning the marriage seems to be a fairy tale out of a story book (Kazan, 2002). The fairy tale becomes a nightmare as time moves forwards for the couple,
Since the movie came out in 2006, “ The Pursuit of Happyness” has been one of my favorite movies. A non-fiction movie based on a true story, of a man called Chris Gardner and his son Christopher Gardner Jr. Both these roles are played by the famous actors Will Smith, and his real life son Jaden Smith. In this very inspirational movie, directed by Gabriele Muccino, Will smith plays out Chris Gardner when he was struggling to start as a stockbroker while being a father in need of money. This movie takes place at San Francisco in 1981, and has always meant a great deal to me. Inspiring me to always work my hardest in order to be successful in life. On this movie that is the message it holds, to inspire people to dream big, and to not let anyone
Willy Loman's character does adhere to the tragic hero guidelines to a certain extent. Rather than being a man who is a representative of a society, he represents society. His allegorical name of 'Loman' or 'Low-man' allowed Miller to twist the formula somewhat. He is true to type in that he dreams the American Dream, and subscribes to the desire for money and material possessions in capitalist society. Whether Willy is a 'good' man is debatable; his affair would indicate that he is not, his wife dotes on him, and Biff is crushed by the discovery of the mistress, so much so that he loses all faith in his fa...
Willy is a symbolic icon of the failing American; he represents those that have striven for success in society, but, in struggling to do so, have instead achieved failure in the most bitter form.