Film experts, need help one more time

Search

New member
Joined
Jul 21, 2006
Messages
12,563
Tokens
Interpersonal comm class gotta write a paper from a movie I watch. Here are the list of movies:


  1. Secondhand Lyons
  2. Office Space
  3. Fiddler on the Roof
  4. Crimson Tide
  5. The Aviator
  6. The Devil Wears Prada
  7. Hitch
  8. The Break-up
  9. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
  10. The Notebook
Here are the concepts in the paper i need to discuss, 7 minimum

  1. Communication Theories (there are more than one but you can choose which you do)
  2. Perception
  3. Culture
  4. Gender
  5. Self-Concept
  6. Self-Disclosure
  7. Listening
  8. Verbal Communication
  9. Nonverbal Communication
  10. Emotions
  11. Conflict
  12. Relationships (family, friends, co-workers, romantic)
Which movie would be the easiest with applying these concepts to a paper?

on this list i have only seen one movie fully, crimson tide. denzel is one of my fave actors and the relationship between him and hackman can cover a lot of the concepts i need to put in the paper.

what would you guys choose
 

New member
Joined
Dec 19, 2008
Messages
1,205
Tokens
My big fat greek wedding, you could knock that paper out asap, no underlying concepts to figure out they're all there on the surface, very straightforward and a pretty funny movie.
 

New member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
7,718
Tokens
The Aviator...a large movie but certainly you can analyze almost EVERY concept in that film.
 

New member
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
2,872
Tokens
I would choose Hitch or My Big Fat Greek Wedding. They are shorter and I think the paper would be easy with either of those. But I always did as little as possible when it came to writing, you might want to dig deeper with a film like The Aviator.
 

New member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
7,718
Tokens
Depending on the level of the comm class, I'd try and separate myself from the ridiculous percentage of students who are going to choose the two shitty, everything-on-the-surface movies. Now, of course if OP only cares about passing and doesn't care about effort, yes, use one of the easy ones.
 

I think I want my money back!
Joined
Mar 29, 2005
Messages
41,267
Tokens
Based off of the concepts THE BREAK-UP is a cake walk.

Those concepts are like a checklist for that movie. Nothing hidden either. It may make the paper too simple, which may not help your grade. But if you are looking for ease go with the Break-Up.
 

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
75,154
Tokens
I know it is a chick flick for the most part but My Big Fat Greek Wedding is probably a good choice for this paper. Office Space while hilarious may be more challenging to define using the parameters of the assignment IMHO. Forget The Aviator - all over the map. Crimson Tide has an excellent cast led by Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington, but it's a submarine movie and way to limited by it's plot. Good luck if you choose the Notebook (another chick flick) but it is a flashback movie with the main character being an old delapadated 200 year old mansion.

Very hard to find criticism with Fiddler on The Roof but it is more of a play than a movie and a musical at that. Devil Wears Prada OK Merly Streep and Ann Hathaway are excellent but the subject matter (the high fashion world) would scare me off. I won't critique the entire list but if it was my assignment I would go with surprise smash hit from 2002 "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"..Has all the qualities you need to complete the paper easily.

Best of luck, wil..
 

New member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
7,718
Tokens
You're joking with The Aviator thing right?


  1. Culture
  2. Gender
  3. Self-Concept
  4. Self-Disclosure


  1. Verbal Communication
  2. Nonverbal Communication
  3. Emotions
  4. Conflict
  5. Relationships (family, friends, co-workers, romantic)
Granted they're not all on the surface but each of these are going to have more legitimate analyses than a lot of the other films on that list. Self-Concept and Self-disclosure alone could hit 3-5 pages with the Aviator whereas you might get a paragraph, at most, out of the one-dimensional characters in most of the other movies.
 

New member
Joined
Jul 21, 2006
Messages
12,563
Tokens
i think another important aspect is picking a movie i think i would enjoy. these comedies you guys are into i am generally not into.

aviator and crimson tide are the two movies on that list that interest me the most

i dont know about secondhand lyons, will have to look that one up.
 

New member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
7,718
Tokens
I still say Aviator. Leo does a fantastic job and it is a Scorsese film, after all. As I said, the shitty comedies might appear easier but the characters are so flat and one-dimensional, you're really only going to get a paragraph worth of comm analysis for each #. It takes a well-rounded character and film to really analyze these things, and honestly, that will make the paper that much quicker and easier to write. The weaker the film, the more shit you have to make up and the harder that will be.
 

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
75,154
Tokens
Everyone is entitled to their own impressions about various films, for those that liked The Aviator, no problem here.

IMO - The Aviator remains one of Scorsese's lessor achievements. Luckily he cast Kate Blanchett in the role of Katherine Hepburn that allows her to steal the film, she is as usual great in every scene she appears in. Leo does well early on as does the film especially while making the most expensive in it's day movie ever made - "Hells Angels".

From then on the movie becomes a herky jerky look at the first half of the life of Howard Huges that never tells us who he really was (if that is even possible). Leo was way to young to pull off the middle aged Hughes in the latter part of the film. I was turned off by the germ phobia that eventually turned Hughes into the most famous recluse in history.

If the movie is about Howard Hughes - IMO it gets lost in a lot of Hollywood lore and half truths. I know the movie was received well by critics but as a glitzy period piece about old Hollywood and then brief looks at Hughes' early demise into madness I wish you good luck making sense out of it all on paper..


BOL. wil.
 

New member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
7,718
Tokens
I agree with you wil in that I don't put it in the upper echelon of Scorsese's work. That said, simply because of Hughes' personality is the reason I feel the Aviator is perfect for this assignment. There is enough substance there to certainly carry a solid critical analysis paper.
 

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
75,154
Tokens
FWIW and I am done here..

Regarding the difference between Greek Wedding and The Aviator - one was made on a $5M budget that grossed nearly $370M worldwide in 2002/03. The Aviator budgeted at $110M in 2004 and grossed $102M worldwide despite a cast and director that boggles the mind (Blanchett won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role).

Aviator Director - Martin Scorsese
Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio
Cate Blanchett
Kate Beckinsale
John C. Reilly
Alec Baldwin
Alan Alda
Ian Holm
Danny Huston
Gwen Stefani
Jude Law
etc.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Directed by: Joel Zwick
Cast:
Nia Vardalos
Michael Constantine
Christina Eleusiniotis
Kaylee Vieira
John Kalangis
Lainie Kazan
Maria Portokalos
Marita Zouravlioff
Sarah Osman
Petra Wildgoose
Melissa Todd
Bess Meisler
Andrea Martin
Louis Mandylor
Gerry Mendicino
Stavroula Logothettis
etc.

What does this have to do with the assignment you ask - One is a big budget Hollywood production that lost money despite some of the best actors and director in the world in the minds of many. The other a low budget come out of nowhere indy flick that was easily the best comedy of 2002. This fact alone makes Wedding a more attractive subject than Aviator when it comes to the question asked by gtc08 - "Which movie would be the easiest with applying these concepts to a paper"?

Aviator only covers the first half of HH's life which makes describing him completely impossible, while Wedding is about real everyday people set in a real life scenario as opposed to a Hollywood fantasy period piece stretched out over at least two decades, full of larger than life characters such as Ava Gardner, Jean Harlow, Errol Flynn, Hughes himself, and Kathrine Hepburn.

Call me crazy but I have to go with the sleeper hit Greek Wedding over the high budget all star cast Hollywood job - Aviator, simply because of it's basis in the reality of common everyday life.

All of the concepts are easily identifiable in Wedding IMHO.


  1. Communication Theories (there are more than one but you can choose which you do)
  2. Perception
  3. Culture
  4. Gender
  5. Self-Concept
  6. Self-Disclosure
  7. Listening
  8. Verbal Communication
  9. Nonverbal Communication
  10. Emotions
  11. Conflict
  12. Relationships (family, friends, co-workers, romantic)
Which movie is better or even more entertaining is not really a factor..

wil.
 

New member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
7,718
Tokens
Extremely valid points. Go with what he wil says, gtc. That said, if you don't think you can actually sit through the movie, this whole thread is moot, lol
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
Messages
99,709
Tokens
i think another important aspect is picking a movie i think i would enjoy. these comedies you guys are into i am generally not into.

aviator and crimson tide are the two movies on that list that interest me the most

i dont know about secondhand lyons, will have to look that one up.


second hand Lyons was a great movie, but don't think it fits the Bill of what you are looking for.
 

Oh boy!
Joined
Mar 21, 2004
Messages
38,362
Tokens
Based on the assignment, Office Space would be the easiest.

I agree Judge.

Here are some points I would address:


  • Communication Theories
This film is all about lack of communication. For example, Peter has received the memo regarding cover sheets yet his bosses still feel the need to communicate that to him. They feel they haven't communicated well enough this simple concept. To add to the miscommunication, his co-workers have also heard that he is having trouble with his cover sheets.


  • Perception
When Peter goes under hypnosis he comes back to work with a devil-may-care attitude. He is perceived not as a fuckup but as someone who just needs to be motivated. "This guy has upper management written all over him."

In fact, one of the largest premises of this movie is the misperception that happens in the office.

  • Culture
The culture here is the culture of the office. I'm hoping I'm understanding this correctly and that the teacher didn't mean culture as in music and art. The office even has subcultures. In this case it has the subculture of the programmers.


  • Self-Concept
Peter has troubles developing his self-concept and that is why he is struggling and goes to the hypnotist. He really doesn't care for work. Part of his problem is that he hasn't discovered that he really isn't cut out for office work. In the end he finds fulfillment working in construction.


  • Verbal Communication
There is plenty of verbal communication that isn't understood very well. One of my favorite parts is where the consultants ("the Bobs") find out that Milton had been fired years ago and they "fixed the glitch". So Dom assumes that Milton has been fired. Bob Slydell says "Well, just a second there, professor. We, uh, we fixed the *glitch*. So he won't be receiving a paycheck anymore, so it'll just work itself out naturally"

In other words, the Bobs simply fixed the payroll error yet hadn't fired him like Dom thought.

 

New member
Joined
Feb 10, 2009
Messages
149
Tokens
God what a bunch of BS. Drop this class and enroll in "Handicapping Sports 101"
 

Forum statistics

Threads
1,106,770
Messages
13,438,857
Members
99,338
Latest member
chaicoca816
The RX is the sports betting industry's leading information portal for bonuses, picks, and sportsbook reviews. Find the best deals offered by a sportsbook in your state and browse our free picks section.FacebookTwitterInstagramContact Usforum@therx.com