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For your final project, you must complete what is effectively a 'heightened' version of your midterm. You must select a film NOT SCREENED IN THIS CLASS and craft an argumentative thesis engaging AT LEAST THREE CONCEPTS from Silkov, Mulvey, and/or hooks. You must come up with your topic, argument, thesis, and evidence. In addition to crafting this paper, you must include AT LEAST FOUR OUTSIDE CRITICAL SOURCES from peer-reviewed databases such as JSTOR or the Library Website. You must also complete a competently formatted Annotated Bibliography consisting of AT LEAST FOUR CRITICAL OUTSIDE SOURCES. Your analysis should be detailed, organized, and should articulate a specific 'point' or argument to the audience.

A critical analysis of a film involves research, critical thinking, and analysis, and may just as well be about a movie you disliked, as one that you enjoyed. It avoids a lengthy reprise of the plot except where it is necessary to remind the reader of important themes or elements. The film essay supports a clearly articulated argument (your thesis) by looking closely at some features of the film and will often situate the work in the context of other critical writing about the film. It may examine various aspects of the film's elements and consider the film's production history and context, the film's reception and consumption by audiences, or issues of the film's distribution (where/how it was made available for audiences to see).

Word count: 1,250 - 1,500

MLA formatting is required.

Your goal in this film analysis is to determine the messages and meanings in the film, so your readers may see the film's cultural/societal relevance.

Make a claim about what you believe the message to be, back that claim up by analyzing examples from the text, and guarantee you use a 1:1 ratio of example to interpretation.

As you prepare your analysis, according to "Writing About Film," consider five steps:

1. "Start by clarifying your thesis: What claim will you be making about how something functions in the film; the film's interpretations;...its place in or interaction with the spirit of the times; or, whatever other point of interest about the film that you have decided is worth investigating?"
2. "Conduct a segmentation of the film: This is a form of documenting the sequence of scenes in a film, so that you can track both the development of the story, but also the way in which this narrative is put together."
3. "If you are writing about particular scenes, conduct a shot-by-shot analysis. This annotation allows you to deconstruct how the director builds a scene to create a certain mood, meaning, character development, or style."
4. "Seek out other critical writing on your film."
5. "Examine your assumptions No matter what approach you employ as you write your film essay, wherever possible interrogate your own underlying assumptions." A "film reveals an unmediated picture of a given time, place or event [...and as] it is told from a particular point of view," it "may reflect prevailing beliefs or be shaped by...concerns that are not immediately apparent. What tacit background information are you using to introduce or assess an aspect of your chosen film?" ("Writing About Film")

With these considerations in mind, there are three main areas to focus on in your analysis...

Introduction

The introduction presents the relevance/importance of the work you have chosen, and may:

• Offer a brief background of the film,
  • Name of film
  • Year of release
  • Topic details (director / actor / producer / genre / historical context / other interesting facts-not summary/biography-simply details to anchor your topic in the larger context of Film)
• Offer a brief summary of the entire film.
• Offer your thesis (the claim you are focusing on/the direction you are taking/the argument you are making = your topic + how it affects a viewer / viewers / society / humanity)

Body

The body is the heart of the analysis, and must consider some variation of:

• the narrative form
• how details work in the film
• how the film reflects or examines cultural themes
• how the film's genre exemplifies or challenges expectations
• how history affects the film / how the film affects history

The analysis must also:

• Present general and specific examples from the film and discuss their meaning to illustrate and back up your thesis
• Analyze the work in terms of questions it poses / arguments it makes
• Incorporate ideas from at least four outside sources of critical analysis (JSTOR, for example) to back up your claims about the film

Conclusion

The conclusion is where you can place the work into the larger genre/context of film and society, so you should discuss what specifically makes the film canonical (somehow briefly but clearly answer the question: "Why is this film worth studying?")

Of course, your interest will spark your topic choice, and the introduction of the film, the development of the essay, and the conclusion you draw will be based on your interpretation of the film.Show the connection between the film and your interpretation of the film. An analysis fails when the connection between film and interpretation is not clearly made.

ANALYSIS STRUCTURE

To succeed with this type of writing, you must have a strong thesis statement. A strong thesis statement contains a subject and a focused predicate. You would not want to make an argument of this sort:

The Matrix explores the idea of "freedom."

That doesn't say anything-it's a fact and hardly debatable.

A better thesis would be this:

The Matrix explores the idea that even though people may understand the difference between fate and free will, they are still, at best, trapped within a cycle of faith and doubt.

That is debatable.

Then, you must argue for acceptance of your claim, using examples from the film to back it up. These examples are simply elements of the film that illustrate your point.

You must also make good use of examples to back up your thesis. These examples are simply elements of the work that illustrate your point.

There are three general ways you may approach the essays:

• through explicationthe unfolding of meaning through interpretation of a specific section of the film (one part illustrates the whole [thesis])
• through analysisthe process of separating the film into parts to better understand the whole (many similar parts illustrate the whole [thesis])
• through comparison & contrastthe study of two or more elements in the film (related, similar elements share meaning [thesis])

Keep in mind that you may combine any of these approaches!

ANALYSIS REQUIREMENTS

The analysis must:

• focus on only one film
• determine the messages and meanings in the film, so your readers may see the film's cultural/societal relevance
• interpret rather than summarize, always
• write from the third person point of view (he/she/it/they), NOT the first person (I) or the second-person (you). NEVER address the audience directly.
• make good use of limited direct quotation, summary, or paraphrase, as necessary
• have a representative title (though you may include the italicized title of the film you are analyzing, do not use only that title)
• Incorporate ideas from outside sources of critical analysis. Think of research as "back-up"-you come up with the points you want to analyze, and then include others' viewpoints to strengthen your own. Don't rely solely upon others' opinions, but do include them to show that your ideas are valid. If you have a great idea, and someone else before you had the same great idea, you must be on the right track in your analytic process!)
• avoid plagiarism when you borrow others' ideas
• follow all MLA formatting guidelines
• document your sources (using signal phrases and parenthetical citation) following MLA citation guidelines.