Film Review Discussion Guidelines
Please read the guidelines below before you view the film. That will help you know what to look for and how to take notes as you are watching.
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Here are the guidelines for your report.
Film analysis involves a great deal more than expressing positive or negative opinions about movies. In film analysis, the viewer observes patterns and interprets them with reference to aspects of actual life.
There are several different approaches to this type of analysis. I’m asking you to follow an approach that is known as textual analysis of films and books — an approach that focuses on aspects of the story itself (or the narrative, if the film or book is a documentary) and how the film or book helps us to better understand something about a specific society and culture.1
When you are writing your report, please differentiate clearly among the main themes of your report – for example, “main theme”, “interesting details:, “principal weaknesses”.
Your essay should be 6 pages long.
The first section of your essay should summarize the main theme, (or themes, if there are several) of the film, this section the particular distinctive features of a specific culture and society that stand out for you in the movie should be spelled out.
Each of the remaining sections should address one of the questions below:
1. Thinking analytically about the movie, tell us what culture, politics, economics and/or globalization has to do with the main issues that are discussed in the film or book.
2. How did the film make you see something about the specific culture in a different way than before?
3. What did you learn through this film that you didn’t know earlier? Did it show you something important about culture, society or social change? What? What was it about the film that made it an especially effective vehicle for increasing your understanding? What did you find especially interesting, unique, and enlightening about the film?
4. Did the film lead you to reassess or to change any of your ideas, perspectives and beliefs related to subjects we have taken up in this course? If so, how?
5. Did the film lead your thoughts down new paths – help you see connections that you hadn’t seen before, or stimulate new ideas that you hadn’t considered before?
6. Did the film elicit a powerful emotional response? If so, how was that effect achieved? Did this aspect of the film give it greater or less credibility? Did it increase or diminish the film’s value? (Remember that your central focus is on a specific culture and society.)
7. Did the film’s technical aspects (e.g., cinematography, lighting, costuming, editing, ) enhance the film’s impact? How did these aspects contribute to the film’s overall effectiveness? (Again, remember that your central focus is on the country’s culture and society.)
Possible areas for evaluation for the film:
10. What was skimmed over more briefly than you would have liked? Explain.
11. Where could the filmmaker go from here – in another film, perhaps, on a related theme that somehow extends the ideas in this film?
12. Do you recommend this movie for its insights regarding the specific culture and society? Why or why not?
13. Overall, you should think of your writing as serving to illustrate that you’ve thought about your topic analytically. We’ll be looking for an indication that you’ve thought carefully about each subject. Please don’t just talk off the top of your head. Make it clear that you know more about the subject than you’d know if you weren’t taking this course.
I hope you enjoy this assignment!