"The Gun, the Pen, and the Cannoli: Orality and Writing in The Godfather, Part 1

The Godfather is an infamous movie, known for its one-liner's, violence, and the Corleone family. David Sutton, from Southern Illinois University, and Peter Wogan, from Wilmetter University wrote an article entitled "The Gun, the Pen, and the Cannoli: Orality and Writing in The Godfather, Part 1 which analyzes The Godfather using many different approaches, including nationalism, formalism, and ideologically. I will focus on the nationalism perspective, and how the Corleone family operates differently from the U.S. government.
The authors mention how many people have discussed how The Godfather deals with capitalism. These authors agree, and will examine capitalism using " 'orality,' which stands for the gift economy, and 'writing,' which stands for capitalism and its legal arm." They use three scenes to defend their claim. The first scene is the wedding scene, which is the beginning of the movie.
The opening sentence examining the wedding scene states, "In the opening wedding scene, the symbolism of writing and food establishes a stark contrast between American and Sicilian society." The American society is exemplified through the writing aspect, where as Sicilian society is represented through orality. One example used is the way the FBI agents are writing down license plate numbers on notepads, and use their FBI identification cards as authority. Another major example the authors mention from the wedding scene of the movie is when Michael Corleone tells his girlfriend the story about the Don making a bandleader "an offer he can't refuse." It is explained how a written contract is used to trap the Don's singing star godson, but a gun held to his head by Luca Brasi over rules the contract. This is a direct contrast between writing and orality. To clarify, the authors state, "Moreover, his style of power is different. Whereas the state's power is abstract (based on laws), mediated (communicated through writing, not through face to face interaction), and supposedly inflexible (tied to the letter of the law), the Don's power is physical (the gun tot he head), personal (the Godfather-godson relationship), and flexible (allows for changes in circumstances)."
Other example from the wedding scene are seen in the Godfather's office, and how he "forms bonds with his supporters." His two guests, the undertaker, and the baker are compared as one follows American society and the other Sicilian society. Bonasera is explained to represent American society because when he asks a favor of the Don, he doesn't approach him as a friend, and offers money for the Godfather's service, where as the baker represents Sicilian society because he approaches the Godfather as as a friend, and offers a favor and friendship to the Don in return for a favor from him. The baker says "and wait till you see the beautiful wedding cake I made for your daughter," which is a friend to friend favor rather than a service, according to Wogan and Sutton. Don Corleone appreciates the baker's friendly gesture and treats him kindly, but scolds the undertaker saying "You don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married and you, uh, ask me to do murder, for money." The authors relate the orality is related to cake, and friendship between the Don and the baker, whereas the writing is aspect that the money acts a contract between the Don and the undertaker. The undertaker is also said to be related to American society because his first line, and the first line of the movie for that matter is "I believe in America."
I agree with the claims these authors are making and see the relationships relating the American and Sicilian society. However, think the terms orality and writing are misleading, and don't classify all of the examples the authors are mentioning. Two more scenes are examined by the author which are Michael's Murder scene and the Moe Green Casino scene. Each gives similar examples to defend the contrasting claims about American and Sicilian society.

"Hero" Critical Article that covers almost all the perspectives

I found this article in the journal Film Quarterly. Everyone should have access-just click on the PDF link or PDF Plus.

This article touches on almost all the different perspectives when it comes to writing about film and how they are portrayed in Hero. There is slight auteur analysis in the introduction of the article followed by a detailed summary on the plot. The remainder of the article analyzes Hero through the formalist, ideological, national, and historical perspective.

The formalist approach studies the infamous color use in Hero. It describes how the characters are each seen in a different colored lighting, for example, the author notes, "In the entire film, the king is the only character presented in a bluish tone." The meaning of the colors is then discussed, such as the blue possibly meaning profundity. Other than colors, certain symbols are analyzed, such as the sword hanging behind the emperor which is "indicating that is his wisdom is troubled by conflicts." The author also points out certain long shots and pays special attention to the films last shot with the sun and The Great Wall.

Nationalism is mentioned as well as historical. The historical perspective is interesting because the author researched and notes the only true, historical figure from the movie is the King of Qin, however, this movie is most likely not representing him properly. The events in Hero are also noted as being fictional. However, the majority of this analyses is through the formalist approach, as the others aren't examined as thouroghly.

Wikipedia information about Zhang Yimou and his films

Wikipedia offers some basic information about director Zhang Yimou such as birth date, birth place, and what he is famous for. They also include a really cute picture of Yimou in some Hawaiian gear :). This is all followed by information about his early career, the many film's Yimou has made ordered by the decade they were released and popular themes in his movies. The main theme seen across all Zhang's movies "is a celebration of the resilience, even the stubbornness, of Chinese people in face of hardships and adversities." Yimou is also known for his use of color in his films, for example, in "Raise the Red Lantern." It is also interesting to know that Yimou has not only directed but also been the cinematographer for his movies, as well as acted in a couple of movies. Most of Yimou's movie's aren't very well known, but a couple of recent film's, such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers are quite popular, hinting that we will probably be seeing more of Zhang Yimou in the future. Wikipedia also offers links to more article's on Yimou for those who are interested.

Jump Cut-"Three Kings" Neocolonial Arab representation

Jump Cut begins this article about Three Kings by giving a brief overview of relations between the Middle East and America. The Persian Gulf War, and the present war against Iraq are mentioned, as well as the stereotypes of Arab's and the Middle East. This historical background is followed by giving a short summary of the movie, such as that it is based off of the end of the Persian Gulf War. How the movie relates to the reality of Middle Eastern relations is continuously discussed throughout the article. The author, Lila Kitaeff, discusses how in Three Kings the soldiers realize that America is not doing its job in helping the refugee's like they should be. Kitaeff also Brings to attention that Three Kings is a remake of Kelly's Heroes, a WWII film. So does this mean that the U.S. has been ignoring their responsibilities during wars since then? This critical article is very helpful in the fact that it analyzes the movie both ideologically, historically, and nationally.

Tony Kaye

This article is about the "director" of American History X, Tony Kaye, and was found on Wikipedia. The funny thing about Tony Kaye is that he doesn't want to be known as the director of American History X, and didn't even want the movie released. However, after all the fighting with The Directors Guild, and other organizations, the movie came out with his name down as director. Kaye doesn't have much directing experience, but has a couple of movies that will be coming out soon. Wikipedia touches on the the ontroversy behind him, among other things.

LARGE Glossary of Film Terms

This website has a ton of film terms!! It;s a long A-Z list of film terms and you should be able to find almost any that you don't understand. It's by Joel Schlemowitz through New School Film Production. A very credible and useful website to understand film terminology in your articles, as well as analyze your movie yourself and write your paper.

Film Terms from Corrigan

I actually found a Corrigan website with film terms, abbreviations, and actualy pictures to help understand any film terms. The class is obviously supposed to have Corrigan's book, but if you don't, this site should be helpful. It is also nice to see actual picture's to help explain some film terms, such as close-up. This a great site to look at when you just want to look at the pure definitions and main points in Corrigan's book as well.

American History X

This article, entitled American History X, Morrison's Song of Solomon, and the Psychological intersections of race, class, and place in contemporary America, discusses both the movie American History X, and also the book Song of Solomon. It starts by giving a short introduction of the main character of each text, and goes directly into discussing Derek Vinyard, the main character from American History X, in depth. The main point this article hits on is the unbelievable change Derek makes in becoming a neo-Nazi, and then completely straying away from his neo-Nazi ways. This point helps develop other, smaller points, illustrations, and evaluations, such as what led up to Derek's leadership in the Skinheads, the control another skinhead leader, Cameron, had on him, and the events in jail that made him disown the skinheads. After the section about American History X in the article, Song of Solomon is discussed, and the two are both finally concluded on in the final paragraph.

Critical Essay about "American History X" and "Apt Pupil"

Robert W. Welkos' article entitled "A Thin Line Between...FEAR and HATE" give a short summary and analyses about two neo-Nazi movies that came out in 1998, "American History X" and "Apt Pupil." He begins his article about comparing these movies to older movies about racism such as "Mississippi Burning" and "Rosewood" and discusses how those movies only mentioned racism in the south, whereas the two newer movies show how racism can be found in "suburban neighborhoods." "American History X" and "Apt Pupil" are compared by Welkos by saying,

"In much the same way that 'Apt Pupil' charts one youth's linear descent into evil and corruption, 'American History X' presents a circular journey that ends with the young man's redemption."

After Welkos gives a quick summary of both movies, the controversy of "American History X's" director's battle to remove his name from the movie is discussed in depth. Through interviews with director Tony Kaye, Welkos discovered the reason Kaye turned his back on the film was that he believed New Line Cinema changed his vision of the movie saying he wanted to use the dialogue to "move[s] things forward, but not in a preachy way, which, unfortunately, a lot of 'American History X' does now." In summary, Welkos gets the point across that how the movie proves that "racism is bad" was the major battle between the sides.

Welkos mentions that New Line Cinema teamed up with a human rights organization, Amnesty International, in order to help market this controversial film, and Amnesty representative Paula Ramsey states that "American History X" gets the major lesson across saying, "Therein lies the lesson: Everyone suffers from hate crimes."

I believe that this lesson is the most important part of the movie, and "American History X" definitely does the job.

Click on the link to read Welkos' full essay from the Los Angeles Times, which is found on the "American History X" web page. There's also another link to the movie Trailer on You Tube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY8s5sooMsI&mode=related&search=

American History X Themes

This Wikipedia article about American History X gives a large summary on the plot of the movie, accentuating on details relating to the theme of racism in the movie. Everytime a character is discussed, their race is mentioned, for example,

"Two white officers soon arrive in a police cruiser, and Derek calmly complies with their orders; dropping his weapon and peacefully surrendering with a smile on his face."

The rest of the synopsis follows this same pattern, and at the bottom, theme's of American History X are listed under Issues. Not only does the summary bring about examples of different themes, but there is also a list entitled Trivia that has interesting facts about how racist idea's were included with out people knowing. One interesting Trivia fact is,

"The shirt worn by Seth Ryan on the basketball court with the numbers "88" on the back is actually a reference to "HH" or "Heil Hitler," "H" being the 8th letter of the alphabet. In a later scene he wears a Skrewdriver T-shirt. The number is also a reference to the 88 Precepts, the 88 rules of conduct by which neo-Nazis live."

This article helps give a good idea on what to expect in American History X, and the major theme's addressed.

Almost Famous Says It All

If you enjoy old rock music, like The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and The Who, then you'll want to live the life of one of the characters in Almost Famous. Cameron Crowe spills his guts in this movie, partially inspired by his life as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone Magazine. By incorporating the lives of the rock stars, the rock writer, and the "band-aids," Crowe leaves a personality for everyone to connect with. If you've dreamed about what it's like to have connections with a rock band, then live out your dream with Almost Famous. Almost Famous gives an in depth look to the 70's , where life seemed safe and carefree. We are not only left with great performances by Frances McDormand and Billy Crudup, but topped off with a Golden Globe winning performance by Kate Hudson. And if you enjoy the movie, you'll love the soundtrack! Check out the trailer for Almost Famous, along with a review from the magazine the movie revolves around, Rolling Stone.
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5947895/review/5947896/almost_famous

American History X Movie Review

This is a movie review for American History X by one of the most known film critics, Roger Ebert. American History X can be evaluated by most of Corrigan's methods and is an unforgettable film. This is an ideal movie for the major paper in English 161, and an interesting movie that you will want to watch over and over again, if you can stomach it.