Assignment 1: Movie Review is due this week. Please keep in mind that you need to use class concepts found in the class learning material and outside sources. If you have any questions or comments about the assignment that may be relevant and of interest to other students, please post them in the Virtual Office> “Assignment 1: “Movie Review” questions and comments” area of the classroom.
There is often some confusion about the major substantive and secondary points vs. sociological concepts that students are expected to use in the Assignment 1: Movie review paper. Major and secondary points are simple themes such as love, friendship, fashion, etc. Sociological/ cultural concepts are the “bigger” ideas, concepts or theories that usually have specific meanings and definitions in sociology such as culture industry, consumerism, gender, high vs. pop culture, critical theory, functionalism, feminism, etc.
In this assignment, for any sources that you reference, you are required to use full citations, including in-text citations.
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to critically watch and review a movie with popular culture themes/symbols in terms of the sociological perspective and cultural theories.
Instructions:
1) Select a movie: For this assignment, you will need to select one movie. Even if it is a movie you have seen before, you need to re-watch the movie with a critical eye towards the social construction of reality and illustrations of other sociological/cultural concepts. If you would like to analyze a movie that is not on the list, please send me a message to clear it with me.
Analyze the movie: After watching the movie, you will write a 2-4 page review, consisting of:
a) introductory paragraph noting the relevance of the movie to the course
b) one-page description/summary of the contents of the film; some questions you could address are:
-Major substantive points of the movie?
-Any secondary points made?
c) 1-2 pages in which you use at least 4 sociological/pop cultural concepts and theories covered in this course to analyze the movie (cite class materials and outside sources as you do so)
General requirements:
Submissions should be typed, double-spaced, 1″ margins, times new roman 12 pt font, and saved as .doc, .docx, .pdf.
Use APA format for citations and references
View the grading rubric so you understand how you will be assessed on this Assignment.
Disclaimer- Originality of attachments will be verified by Turnitin. Both you and your instructor will receive the results.
Suggested Movie Options:
Hotel Rwanda
Brazil
Million Dollar Baby
Office Space
Gandhi
Boys Don’t Cry
The Village
Cape Fear (deNiro version)
Mystic River
Last Samurai
Mothman Prophecies
Traffic
The Wall
Glory
Stepford Wives
Pretty in Pink
Hoop Dreams
The Terminal
The Breakfast Club
It’s a Wonderful Life
Bowling for Columbine
Grapes of Wrath
Pretty Woman
The Hours
To Kill a Mockingbird
Citizen Kane
Cabin Fever
Clockwork Orange
Fight Club
Radio
Crash
Nosferatu
Titanic
The Gods Must be Crazy
Taxi Driver
Coming to America
American History X
Roger & Me
Fight Club
Inherit the Wind
Dead Poet’s Society
Mona Lisa’s Smile
Bullworth
Life is Beautiful
American Beauty
Lord of the Flies
The Truman Show
The Matrix
With Honors
Affluenza
Erin Brokovich
Working Girl
Risky Business
Baby Boom
Rain Man
Philadelphia
Dogma
Chocolat
Parenthood
Shawshank Redemption
I will send you some content
Topics from the course to use
As references as well.
