The Searchers Film Themes Essay Example for Free

The Searchers Film Themes Essay The Searchers (1956, John Ford) explores themes of family, community, and morality on the edge of the uncivilized Western frontier. The story takes place several years after the end of the Civil War in a remote region of Texas, where the Comanche are a constant and mortal threat to the few settlers on the thinly populated frontier. The film uses the conventions of the Western genre, but employs notable exceptions to the traditional components of the genre to reshape the audience’s perception of reality. The film begins with a masterpiece sequence of auteur filmmaking, using location, cinematography, evocative music, and nuanced acting to shape the audience’s perception of the story’s universe. The audience observes Ethan Edwards, a nomadic, renegade ex-warrior with a clouded past, returning to the comparative safety and comfort of his family home. His brother is emotionally reserved at Ethan’s return, but there clearly are unspoken and muted emotions between his brother’s wife, Martha, and Ethan, hinting at a hidden past. In one revealing scene of auteur style that confirms Martha and Ethan’s past, Martha takes Ethans greatcoat and privately and lovingly folds it and places it in a chest. The three Edward’s children are excited by Ethan’s return, but clearly do not remember much about him. Ethan is generous to them, giving gifts, including giving his cavalry saber to his nephew, some sort of military medal (as jewelry) to his niece, and giving his brother a small fortune in gold, avoiding his brother’s questions about how he got it. When his brother’s adopted son arrives, Ethan’s demeanor changes and the theme of racism is first introduced in the story. Teenaged Marty is half-white and half-Indian and his very presence evokes a degree of hatred and resentment in Ethan. This is complicated when the audience is told that it was Ethan who found Marty as an infant abandoned on the frontier and rescued him. When Ethan’s brother and his wife and two of his children are murdered and the youngest daughter kidnapped by raiding Comanche, the plot kicks into high gear. Ethan swears to find his niece and goes on a five-year chase, with young Marty, to find her. Their subsequent search and companionship explores the theme of Ethan’s hatred towards all things Indian. Traditional Westerns juxtapose opposites, usually featuring a good guy protagonist and a villainous nemesis, a good community or group preyed upon by social or cultural outlaws. There are horse chases, violent gunplay, and a happy ending with the villains receiving justice and the heroes triumphant. The Searchers deviates from some of these conventions in ways that transform the genre and elevate the film. While it is something of a traditional morality story, the protagonist is a dark, brooding character, full of hate, who has been estranged from his family and community. The wildness of the Monument Valley location is juxtaposed by the comfort and affection Ethan find’s in his brother and Martha’s home. Ethan’s racial bias towards the native Americans is juxtaposed with his growing trust of Marty. Eventually, Ethan   even makes Marty the beneficiary of his will. The drama of the revenge plot is juxtaposed with the humor of the wedding subplot. Perhaps the greatest shock to the audience’s expectations of the film as a genre Western comes when they realize that Ethan doesn’t mean to rescue Debbie from the Comanche, he means to kill her. Later, when he changes his mind, it is a relief when the audience sees that he has grown and has changed his mind about killing Debbie. The opening scene of Ethan being welcomed by his family in the opening scene is juxtaposed with his exclusion in the final scene. All of these simple and clear polarities are hallmarks of the traditional Western that have been transformed by an auteur director to create a unique work of film art. One of The Searcher’s profound deviations from the simplicity of the traditional genre Western is in the complexity of it’s cast of characters. Among these is a character that represents civilization’s key elements of law and order, and religion. He’s both a Texas Ranger Captain and a Reverend named Sam Clayton (Ward Bond), and he has very complicated mixed feelings towards Ethan, suspicious that he may be a fugitive criminal, but respectful of his abilities as a fighter and frontiersman. Another key supporting character, partially comic relief, is Mose Harper (Hank Worden), who had been kidnapped by the Comanche and feigned being crazy to escape. He is apparently actually crazy, but is embraced and cared for by the frontier families. He does, however, ride with the Rangers, Ethan, and Marty, to rescue Debbie and seems to be a fully capable member of the posse. These two characters are examples of the artistic auteur touch of John Ford that elevates this movie above the standard genre. The Searchers reality mode is very different from a fantasy mode such as in The Wizard of Oz. For instance, it uses character differently from Oz. While both films rely on characterization to establish and advance theme, The Searchers is populated by recognizable, realistic genre characters, where as Oz is populated by expressionistic characters, not meant to be perceived as realistic. Oz uses black and white film and color, sound, an exotic cast (oh, the little people!) and a fantasy journey, while The Searchers uses a realistic, if stylized, environment, authentic characters, and other realistic and conventional genre elements to tell it’s story.   We’re asked to define and describe modes of screen reality, which I would define as the cinematic manipulation of screen time, the framing of scenes, the direction of character behavior, and the purposeful craft of camera and sound to create the illusion of reality in which a story unfolds. All genres and many non-traditional film types utilize familiar representational realities, each of which is a sort of short-hand means of clueing in the audience to which movie formula (in the broadest sense) to expect. Movie modes can be reality based – i.e. plausable, such as Saving Private Ryan, expressionistic – i.e. manipulative of conventional film elements such as Psycho, fantasy – i.e. metaphoric, or fantastic – i.e. metaphoric and implausable such as Edward Scissorhands, or cinematic self-reflexive – a creation by internal logic only, such as Animal Crackers.

Video games Essay -- Government, Censoring Video Games

Do videogames really need to be censored by the United States’ Government? Over the past several years there has been a controversial court case under discussion to censor videogames. This case is trying to get the United States’ Government to prohibit the selling of all videogames that may include graphic violence, virtual sex, violent and gory scenes, partial or full nudity, portrayal of criminal behavior or other provocative and objectionable material (Mears, Para 1). There are numerous arguments why videogames should or should not be censored. Videogames should not be censored because parents should show responsibility in raising their children, it is unconstitutional, videogame companies take enough steps to already censor their products already, and censorship would impact the videogame industry tremendously. During the past years there has been the first ever videogame court case called Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association, trying to pass a law against selling or renting violent games to minors (Scholssman, Para 1). This case has been going on for several years and has recently escalated all the way to the Supreme Court. The morning of November 2, 2010, the United States Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments for this case. During the oral arguments; both sides gave their reasons of why they thought the bill should be approved or thrown out. During the oral arguments of the Californian Representative; Justice Scalia brought up the point that even Grimm’s Fairy Tales, a series of German household and children fairy tales, are violent and could these be excluded by the law. This brought up instant argument weather or not could this be broadened to just video games or all sources of entertainme... ...ame Votes Network say â€Å"government regulation based on games’ content will stifle creativity, and will have a chilling effect on game publishers who may feel the need to dilute content due to the threat of government action and fines† (2010, Para 2). These regulations will put vast limitations on videogame producers that producers of other forms of media don’t face. This case is still going on and under dispute in the Supreme Court. The fact that Entertainment Merchants Association has won all of the cases in the lower courts gives them a huge advantage in the Supreme Court ruling. They are expecting to hear a ruling in late February or early March of 2011, but in June at the latest because that is when this term of the Supreme Court ends. When a ruling is made there will be no warnings and once the ruling is dropped everyone will have to go from there.

Management Information Systems Assignment Report

115. 107 Management Information Systems Assignment Report Contents Part 1 – ER Diagram2 Part 2 – Tables and Keys3 Part 3 – Queries4 Part 4: Spreadsheet filters and pivot tables7 List of Figures Figure 1 – ER diagram for event management system of hotel2 Figure 2 – Query 1 QBE for staff allocation4 Figure 3 – Query 1 output for staff allocation4 Figure 4 – Query 2 QBE for scheduled events beginning of October5 Figure 5 – Query 2 output for scheduled events beginning of October5 Figure 6 – Query 2 database report for scheduled events beginning of October6Figure 7 – Query 3 QBE for total number of registered participants6 Figure 8 – Query 3 output for total number of registered participants7 Figure 9 – Spreadsheet data with no filers or conditional formatting applied7 Figure 10 – Spreadsheet with the â€Å"show only events commencing after 15th October filter applied7 Figure 11 – Spreadshe et with the ‘show only events commencing after 1st November as underlined' conditional formatting applied8 Figure 12 – Pivot table8 Figure 13 – Pivot table as a bar chart8 List of TablesTable 1 – Attributes for ER diagram for event management system of hotel2 Table 2 – Attributes for ER diagram for event management system of hotel3 Part 1 – ER Diagram StaffMember Venue Event Registration Attendee Reserved for Manages Accept Makes Applies to 1.. * 1.. * 1 1 1 0.. * 0.. * 0.. * 0.. * Payment Accept 0.. * 0.. * 1 Gains entry Client System Presents 0.. * Record Details 1 0.. * Inputs 1.. * 1.. * Figure [ 1 ] – ER diagram for event management system of hotel Table [ 1 ] – Attributes for ER diagram for event management system of hotel Entity Type| Attributes| Key attribute|Venue| venueID, venueCapacity, venueDescription| venueID| Event| eventID, eventName, eventType, startDate, endDate, startTime, endTime, availableSpaces, eventFee| e ventide| StaffMember| staffID, firstName, lastName, jobTitle | staffID| Registration | registrationID, registrationDate, eventID | registrationID| Attendee| attendeeID, firstName, lastName, title, companyName, contactAddress, phoneNo | attendeeID| Payment| paymentAmount, paymentDate, paymentType, paymentCredit, creditcardID, creditcardName, creditcardExpiry| paymentID| Client| clientName, companyName, contactAddress, contactPhone, clientIndustry, clientNeeds| clientID| System| systemClient, systemAttendee, systemVenues, systemInvoice, | systemID| Part 2 – Tables and Keys Table [ 2 ] – Attributes for ER diagram for event management system of hotel Table| Column| Primary Key| Comments|VenueTbl| venueID, venueCapacity, venueDescription| venueID| | EventTbl| eventID, eventName, eventType, startDate, endDate, startTime, endTime, availableSpaces, eventFee, staffID| eventID| staffID is a foreign key into StaffMemberTbl. | StaffMemberTbl| staffID, firstName, lastName, jobTitle | staffID| | RegistrationTbl| registrationID, registrationDate ,eventID, attendeeID| registrationID| eventID is a foreign key into EventTbl while attendeeID is a foreign key into AttendeeTbl| AttendeeTbl| attendeeID, firstName, lastName, title, companyName, contactAddress, phoneNo, eventID, registrationID| attendeeID| RegistrationID is a foreign key into RegistrationTbl while event ID is a foreign key into EventTbl. ReservedforTbl| eventID, venueID, attendeeID, | reserveID| eventID is a foreign key into EventTbl while attendeeID is a foreign key into AttendeeTbl| Part 3 – Queries Query 1 -StaffAllocation Figure [ 2 ] – Query 1 QBE for staff allocation Figure [ 3 ] – Query 1 output for staff allocation Query 2 – YearEndSchedule Figure [ 4 ] – Query 2 QBE for scheduled events beginning of October Figure [ 5 ] – Query 2 output for scheduled events beginning of October **For unknown reasons, event 9, 16 & 17 is not listed in the search result e ven when the date falls within the range as set out in the criteria. I have attempted to modify the criteria selection to cover between the date range of 30/09/2011 – 01/01/2050 etc but it has still failed to come up. Query 2 – Year End ReportFigure [ 6 ] – Query 2 database report for scheduled events beginning of October Query 3 – Registration Numbers Figure [ 7 ] – Query 3 QBE for total number of registered participants Figure [ 8 ] – Query 3 output for total number of registered participants Part 4: Spreadsheet filters and pivot tables Figure [ 9 ] – Spreadsheet data with no filTers or conditional formatting applied Figure [ 10 ] – Spreadsheet with the show only events commencing after 15th October filter applied Figure [ 11 ] – Spreadsheet with the ‘show only events commencing after 1st November as underlined' conditional formatting applied Figure [ 12 ] – Pivot table Figure [ 13 ] – Pivot table a s a bar chart

The French Revolution First Popularized The Words ...

Whereas the French Revolution first popularized the words ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’, its contemporary understanding differs from its revolutionary meaning in 1794. The serious economic difficulties, the threat of foreign invasions and the social structure of the French government are some of the causes that led to the fall of the monarchy in August 1792. Left without a constitution for almost three years and at the hands of a revolutionary government, the reign of terror suggests an example to future states in oppressing their populations. The revolutionary government asserted its sovereignty and power through punitive violence, such as surveillance, mobilization, and executions. The massive political, economic, and social changes†¦show more content†¦His military ambitions and conception of international peace, notably in opposition to Britain, soon engender its downfall. By 1814, the Bourbon monarchy is restored despite its unpopularity among th e population. Within a generation, the desire to call for a revolution that once started in Paris reemerge. But this time, the revolution would not end there. Assassinations and European Revolutions From the 14th to the 19th century, European empires originate their authority from God and the ‘divine right of rule’. The French Revolution has undermined the legitimacy and sovereignty of European monarchies by injecting Universalist ideas through the continent. Small revolutionary groups progressively evolve disseminating radical political theories and politically awakening the regimes. The use of terrorism translates into two theoretical ideas: political identity and political philosophy. Thus, terrorism as a specific form of violence becomes systematically use for political and ideological aims. The resentment towards old regimes and their economic repression gradually results in the uprising of workers. As the nineteenth century progressed, workers get unified and mobilized to pressure governments for greater representation, free speech and press, and national unity. The industrial revolution inducingShow MoreRelatedTerrorism is not a derogatory moral classification; rather, it is a mode of warfare1600 Words   |  7 PagesTerrorism is not a derogatory moral classification; rather, it is a mode of warfare. Terrorism is a tactic, yet it is a term used derogatorily to describe a certain group of people because of events in the recent past. Because of a sweeping generalizations about those that commit act of terrorism, terrorism has been turned into a â€Å"dirty† word to describe people, instead of the act that the word actually defines. Why do people decide to use terrorism as a derogatory moral classification? What causesRead MoreThe Media And Its Impact On The World2278 Words   |  10 Pagesturmoil in societies such as those in the Arabic culture. 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