Both wars have similar qualities, as they were focused around liberty and equality. America was fighting for freedom from the overpowering British Empire, while the French were rebelling against the French monarchy in hopes to create a better government. Although the wars were similar, under further analysis, differences can be found within the principles behind each revolution. During the 18th century, many changes were happing with the people of Europe and North America. These changes included the understanding of new sciences in the surrounding physical world and advances in human thinking as science was applied to thought.
Compare and contrast the opening of Blade runner (1982) and The Matrix (1999). How are they examples of a convectional or unconventional fiction film opening? Blade Runner (first released in 1982) and The Matrix (first released in 1999), are both films science fiction films which follow the techniques and generic expectations of science fiction to obtain such a generic title (that of a science fiction film). For any film production corporation/team, the pressure is on for the initial opening sequence to not only grab the viewer’s attention, but to also conform to the general expectations that are considered when judging a film’s convectional or unconventional suitability to the genre. I have analysed many factors that affect this contrast of convection and unconventional suitability to the genre by looking into the mise-en-scéne, generic convections (such as plot, themes, setting, characters and special effects) and camerawork (such as oblique, long shots, point of view shots, medium shots, close-ups, panning, etc).
The arms race began in 1945 when the US dropped their atomic bomb on Japan. Not only did this demonstrate the power of the USA but was the catalyst for an age of rapid weapon development, the arms race. This ended with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963, an event that bought the superpowers dangerously close nuclear war. A number of factors other than the accumulating advancements in weaponry lead to the Cuban missile crisis, the personalities of the leaders and the national interests of each country all effected how the arms race developed, leading to the inevitable situation where the USA and USSR were left hovering over the trigger. The main aspect that lead to the Cuban missile crisis was the arms development between 1945-1963.
“Gojira”, directed by Ishiro Honda, was created in the realm of this era, sending a message to the world regarding the buildup of nuclear arms. Many different debatable interpretations of this film exists, each implying a unique moral that Honda intended to incorporate into his film. However, each scenario supports the fact that it was envisioned as an anti war film by it’s creators. One common interpretation for the film is that Godzilla himself represents the United States atomic bombs. According to Roberto, there are two distinct pieces of evidence that lead the audience to see this light.
Invasion of The Body Snatchers Invasion of The Body Snatchers is a classic science fiction film from the 1950’s. This movie is one among the litter of films and media that addressed invasions from foreign creatures and evil aliens during the 1950’s and 1960’s. On television there were Twilight Zone episodes that featured this theme. And on Radio an earlier broadcast of “War of The Worlds” from 1938, focused around alien invasions too. This invasion theme started to make way in the 1920’s and for reasons based in world political events.
The degradation of dialect reveals how it is almost entirely impossible to object to the Party’s core beliefs. Through the protagonist character of Winston Smith, the importance of individualism is advocated through critical thinking. Firstly, the text illustrates how language and power can be used as a mechanism of control by discouraging an individual from expressing their true emotion. The controlled language, Newspeak, was created by the totalitarian state as a tool of power, its sole purpose being to restrict the people’s understanding of the real world. The gradually declining dialect limits the ideas that individuals have the potential of formulating and expressing, promoting a narrowing of thoughts and awareness to their system of control.
More importantly, is there such thing as ‘American’ culture? In Randolph Bourne’s “Trans-National America” he rejects the concept of a cultural ‘melting pot’ intended to fuse together aspects of various cultures to form an inherently American one. In Puwat Chaukamnoetkanok's “Triply Identity: My Experience as an Immigrant in America”, Chaukamnoetkanok in part suffers an identity crisis upon arriving in the United States and finds himself filled with feelings of frustration and isolation. By contrasting these two papers, one can see similarities between Bourne’s reasons for the melting pot’s failure and Chaukamnoetkanok’s actual experiences. Yet through further comparison, one can also find subtle differences between the two author’s views about assimilation.
The plot forces the audience to question whether humans can control the technology they create and if our desire to continually make advancements in technology might be to humanity’s detriment. The novel, ‘Black Hole’, written by Geraldine Stowe, is set on a star colony called ‘Estra’ in the year 2305 where technology has become so advanced that nearly anything is possible. The social comment reminds the audience that even though we live in world full of advanced technology, our negative traits remain the same. This is presented through Dante and what he is forced to go through abuse just because he is different from his society Examples of futuristic and advanced technology are interspersed throughout, ‘I, Robot’, placing the film easily in the science fiction genre. Detective Del Spooner is employed to investigate the apparent suicide of Dr Alfred Lanning who “practically invented robotics.” During Spooner’s quest to uncover the truth, he stumbles upon Lanning’s “unique” creation, Sonny.
Values and morals evolved with the times and the individual had to redefine his sense of power in society. Despite the seemingly empowering events of the postmodern world, the effect on the common man was the opposite. The individuality, or power, of a person was disintegrated by conformity, materialism and a system based contemporary world. Ray Bradbury wrote “The Pedestrian” depicting the postmodern individual through Leonard Mead, an isolated figure set against the back drop of a homogenous suburban society. In “Mugging,” Allen Ginsberg portrays the disempowered individual through a solitary man and his experience in a poor urban neighborhood of New York City.
This is the duty of filmmakers. As such, a filmmaker can not ignore the status of sexuality and violence as major influences on our world. For a government to step in and hold back an artist from following through with his responsibilities to society is not a protection of values, but a forced and artificial ignorance. The changes in the past century that have led