Lights, cameras, action; is all in which a movie is processed when viewed my others through millions of pixels of film. The critical evaluation of the movie is only seen through the eyes of those who think deep within the overall picture. District 9 is the perfect movie to correlate to the readings that is comprised to be read in American Cultural Studies. There are readings throughout the assigned book Rereading America that will relate to scenes in the film District 9. It will inform, as printed on the cover, how the readings and scenes provide a substance for cultural contexts for critical thinking and writing. For instance, some of the scenes from the movie form a relationship with race, social class and gender sections of the book. Despite …show more content…
As the nations continuously argued over what to do with the aliens, patience became very thin and rioting was formed by the aggravations of the American people. The government became so fed up they tried to remove all the aliens from the township. Referring back, MNU was a company only about the grossed wealth for themselves; their objective was to figure out a way to make the alien’s weaponry work. They are the second largest weapon manufacturer in the world. Some say because of humanitarian reasons but hustling guns from aliens is not humanitarian to me. In result of the weapons, if usable, the company would receive an outstanding enhancement on its revenue. The weapons are only active to the sense of an aliens DNA. For 20 years the corporation has failed to manage the complicated …show more content…
While Vikus was experimenting and recording documentary footage on the prawns he learned how to accept other races. At first when he started working with them sending off eviction notices he was prejudice of the prawns. One in the process of the film, Wikus van der Merwe caught a strange virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly develops in the most sought man in the world by the government, but the most valuable man by the Nigerians as well. Others didn’t like the fact that he was getting to close to these aliens but unknowingly that his body was going to a drastic change. The image of his body was unjust to all. Like Aaron H. Devor in Becoming Member of Society: Learning the Social of Gender “Gender is the most transparent of all social categories: we acquire so early in life and so thoroughly that it’s hard to see them as result of lessons taught and Learned” Since his DNA made a sudden transformation and he started to turn into a prawn, many believed he was the key to unlocking the secrets of the alien technology. Not accepted and disliked, Wikus has nowhere to hide but the diverse streets of District 9. The question remains still, is Vikus man or
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
Birth of a Nation uses its histrionic plot to show how tangled destinies of a southern and northern family before and after the Civil War. It willingly portrays southern blacks as spiteful and uncivil, the northern whites as crafty, dishonest, and conceited, and the film’s southern whites as anguish recurrent radical and erotic mortifications at the hands of white northerners and black southerners before factually being saved by the thoughtful, Ku Klux Klan. The film is divided to show the different aspects of those two sides during this historical time. During this time Africans were coming to America and it started the reconstruction on our country. D.W. Griffith made this film to show us the reality of racism at this point in time.
A huge part of being able to critically think is expanding horizons and going outside of comfort zones. Each person has a bias based on their walk of life. Which, is why each individual sees the world differently. Being born outside of the United States has definitely given me a different lens through which I see the world than my native peers. Growing up in a conservative Mexican household my customs and traditions have definitely shaped my thinking process. I was raised to believe the woman is submissive to the man, and her duty was to cater to his each and every need. It wasn't until I came to America when that ideology began to be a point of challenge. A shift in my thinking was made when I saw the power and abilities the independent American
...l change how we envision them and us. When Aliens are no longer popular and there isn’t a continued paradigm of fear, the integration of the different peoples will no longer be a hot topic and this need to write about the segregation of American society will no longer be necessary and this essay can be thrown out.
The Birth of a Nation (1915) is one of the most controversial movies ever made in Hollywood, some people even consider it the most controversial movie in the long history of Hollywood. Birth of a Nation focuses on the Stoneman family and their friendship with the Cameron’s which is put into question due to the Civil War, and both families being on different sides. The whole dysfunction between the families is carried out through important political events such as: Lincoln’s assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Kan. D.W. Griffith is the director of the movie, and him being born into a confederate family in the South, the movie portrays the South as noble and righteous men, who are fighting against the evil Yankees from the North, who have black union soldiers among them, whom overtake the town of Piedmont, which leads the KKK to take action and according to the movie become the savior of white supremacy. During this essay, I would focus on the themes of racial inequality, racism, and the archetypical portrayal of black people in the movie, which are significant especially during the era when the film was released.
In the 1930's Native Americans and women were viewed as inferior races. The films produced during the early part of the 20th century, particularly those starring John Wayne reflected these societal attitudes. The portrayal of minorities in Stagecoach and Fort Apache clearly reflect the views of society at that time. The depiction of the West is similar to that which is found in old history textbooks, em...
Race and discrimination have been an important and popular topic for Hollywood to take on in the film industry. Many movies have been made about the subject using very conventional approaches; however, Alien Nation takes a more unconventional approach to the subject. Even the title of the movie alludes to the bigger meaning behind the film. Alien Nation; alienation. With the use of sound, makeup and costumes, and estrangement of the Newcomers’ characters Alien Nation sheds light on the racists attitude often seen displayed in America.
For many years, African Americans have faced the challenge of being accurately and positively portrayed within mainstream media, such as American made films. They are often represented as people who are inferior to those of the Caucasian race, and are frequently presented with problems that are related to racial discrimination. The portrayal of African Americans in media such as movies has often been considered a large contributing factor to the racial tensions that still exist in our world today (Lemons, 1977). The movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, sheds light on the portrayal of African Americans in movies, and how stereotypes can greatly impact the lives of those who are not of the Caucasian race.
In properly understanding the full meaning of the novel, the readers must first [Democracy in America]
The first social issue portrayed through the film is racial inequality. The audience witnesses the inequality in the film when justice is not properly served to the police officer who executed Oscar Grant. As shown through the film, the ind...
District 9 is a science fiction film produced by Peter Jackson (2009). The story is established through a mix of third person camera and documentary footage that takes place in present time. This is a twist of regular science fiction that typically takes place in the future. The film takes place in a “colony” of alien refugees (Prawns) are forced by humans to live in a South African slum. This is an example of social satire as it presents a critique to the injustice with which we treat those who are different from us. The nature of racism is shown by the metaphors of science fiction with the ideology and discourse to deal with those who are different than us whom we fear or despise. The low budget film has no flair no big budget special effects, casts no name actors and is generally considered an anti-Hollywood film. The story line is that of an extraterrestrial race that ultimately makes contact with Earth and the relationships between these aliens and humans within society.
Appearing in the 1903, The Souls of Black folk had emerged, a collection of 14 proses, written by one of the single most intellectual blacks in America, W. E.B. DuBois (Oxford Companion). This dynamic collection of essays reflect on African American history, sociology, religion, politics, and music. DuBois begins saying “The problem of the 20th century is the color line (5). This quote pronounces DuBois bases for his collection, that is being different form the others (Whites) makes you feel like you are being shut out from their world by a vast veil; hence the color line(8). On the other had we have Birth of a Nation, which comes out later in 1915 (TCM). Ironically it becomes the top selling film in White America during that time, but degrades everything that DuBois and another activist stood for. While DuBois hopes to educate White and Black America on their boundaries, the color line, the film’s director, D.W. Griffith, undermines these ideas. Defiling images of African Americans by distorting the perception of Blacks using stereotypical examples such as the mammies, mulattos, and bucks, Griffith tries to justify that blacks were inferior to Whites. In spite of the many controversies that are expressed in the film, it had become a known as the most innovative, American Epics and was a top seller during its time because of Griffith’s technical breakthrough and format. While comparing and contrasting these two pieces I hope to reveal to you this why this ‘double consciousness’ exist, even todays society as a result of these stereotypes displayed in “The Birth of a Nation.”
In conclusion, after view this film, it is clear that one can see how black youth are being viewed as killers and savages. This is not true. There have been many admirable scholars and scientists who come from the African American culture. This movie, though it depicts what goes on in South America, takes the violence committed by black youth too far. One cannot view a film and take it that this is what a race is like. The filmmakers depicted black youth in a harsher light.
The film, Fruitvale Station, is based upon a true story of a young, unarmed African American male, Oscar, who was shot by a Caucasian BART police officer. The film displays the final twenty-fours of Oscar Grant’s lives going through his struggles, triumphs, and eager search to change his life around. There will be an analysis of the sociological aspects displayed throughout the movie that show racism, prejudice, and discrimination.
In the Following essay I will explore and develop an analysis of how the movie Twelve Years A Slave produces knowledge about the racial discourse. To support my points, I will use “The Poetics and the Politics of Exhibiting Other Cultures” written by Henrietta Lidchi, a Princeton University text “Introduction: Development and the Anthropology of Modernity” and “Can the Subaltern Speak?” by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.