History & Film Course Blog

How does Fury both meet our expectations for what we expect in a combat war film and subvert them? I maintained that it is difficult to see any of the crew reintegrating back into normal society other than Norman. Do you agree?  Why or why not? How would you describe the relationship between Wardaddy and Norman? Is it paternal, or something different? How did you feel watching the scene with the German women?

Why did Steve McQueen take time to show the natural beauty of the south? Alfre Woodard’s character, “Harriet Shaw,” is prophetic. What warning does she give and what truth telling does she employ for the audience? Why was the scene with the Indians important to the story? The painful scene of Patsy being whipped by Solomon puts the audience in the scene with Patsy and Solomon. Why was it important for the filmmaker to show this scene in this manner? Women have a prominent place in the story, yet women are marginalized. How are the women in the film (black and white) victims of the system of oppression? Does the film represent a complete departure from earlier racial stereotypes? Why or why not?

"Now I know it really happened." Schindler's List is the most influential film about the Holocaust produced thus far. It reaches far more people than books or documentaries. Your blog should address the positive and negative legacy of this fact.  Consider the following questions: 1. Steven Spielberg wanted to make the film look like a documentary because to him the film was "history on screen." What are the limits of this approach? 2. For a film about the Holocaust, the only well-rounded characters are German. Do you think this detracts from the film's message? How are Jews represented on screen? Do you agree with Bartov that some of representation is actually antisemitic? 3. Why did Spielberg hold back from "showing" the killing process?  Do you think he was right to not actually show the gas chambers?  Why has this taboo finally been broken? 4. By focusing on story of Schindler did Spielberg give a "happy ending" ...

You don't have to answer all of these, but pick the few that interest you the most: “Seven Samurai” is set in a very foreign environment – both in terms of place and of historical period. Did you have trouble relating to this film because it was so “foreign”? By the end of the film, did you feel more comfortable with this environment? What did Kurosawa do to help audiences connect better to this film? A writer on Japanese film has said that the great Japanese filmmakers have “the knack of capturing mood and atmosphere, of presenting the environment as an extension of man.” Do you find this is true of Kurosawa in this film?  “Seven Samurai” is also very much a war movie. Like most war films it treats the efforts of different types of people, different segments of society, to pull together and fight a common enemy. Another aspect of the war film is that it tends, like most action films, to use weapons symbolically: each kind of weapon has special connotations attached to it, c...