Movie Project

Paper Topic

Movie Project

Choose one movie from the following list and answer one of its questions. Your answer must be in essay form, with a minimum of 600 words and two high-quality (peer-reviewed, academic) sources that pertain to the question, NOT the movie. Your essay must contain at least three references to specific scenes in the movie.

Jojo Rabbit

Q1 It has been argued that dehumanization of the enemy is a necessary step in convincing a society to accept killing in war as acceptable, while still believing that killing for other reasons is murder. Use Jojo Rabbit as an example of a fictional account of finding humanity in the enemy to discuss ways that war might be prevented by preventing dehumanization. Discuss the Holocaust or another genocide in terms of dehumanizing the enemy. Also discuss how dehumanizing the enemy works in terms of U.S. and Texas Politics. Have you seen examples of the parties attempting to “dehumanize” each other, or members of any other groups?

Lord of the Rings

Q1 How does the threat of apocalypse constrain the actions of individuals and governments? How is this “threat” utilized during election season in the U.S. and Texas?

Q2 Feminists get a lot of attention in college settings. Is this a movie about maleness? How might the recognition of maleness inform or enhance feminism?

Q3 In what way does individual risk-taking serve to provide a mechanism for advancing society?

Shaun of the Dead

Q1 How do societies organize under conditions of anarchy?

Q2 The power derived from the ability to destroy is obvious in Shaun of the Dead, but the film is also notable for all of the examples it provides of different forms of power, from hierarchy, to authority, to insanity, to knowledge and many others. Use the story to discuss how these forms of power interact, contrast and complement each other.

Star Wars (pick any of them, but don’t talk to me about Ewoks)

Q1 From the invention of the stirrup, to steam power, to atomic weaponry, to biological weapons, history is replete with advances in technology causing drastic alterations to the conduct and context of international politics. What aspects of advances in weaponry make the world more or less secure, particularly in terms of terrorism or other ways in which they alter the ability of the weak or threaten the powerful?

Q2 Use Luke’s home planet to discuss the role of the “fringe”--whether it is defined physically, socially or politically--in enabling creativity and other drivers of change in politics and society.

Q3 Social and ethnic groups often inflict injustices upon one another. At what point or under what circumstances do historical grievances become just that, historical? When are the descendants of the group freed from obligations for reparation or denied the right to demand redress? Consider this in terms of reparations for slavery in the United States; the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the political or economic demands of indigenous peoples; traditional food or resource rights in the face of a need for conservation, land seizures and redistribution, or clog dancing.

V for Vendetta

Q1 What role does the forgiveness of society play in the rehabilitation of criminals? Does an “unforgivable” crime create an unforgivable individual and, hence, a criminal that cannot be rehabilitated?

Q2 Explain how Marx’s concept of false consciousness is inherent in the plot of V for Vendetta.

Q3 In what way does individual risk-taking serve to provide a mechanism for advancing society?

Paper rule

· Each "required" activity must be submitted to earn credit for the course.

· All assignments must have a cover page with the following information: Your name, course and section number, semester of enrollment, a word count and a title indicating the topic of your essay. The word count should reflect your own work (do not include citations, paraphrased information, quotes, the cover page, or the works cited page). Do not repeat the cover page information as a header in the body of your assignment.

· Each student is expected to utilize peer-reviewed articles from academic journals for the writing assignments. There is a tool built into the course to help you obtain quality sources for your writing assignment, it is labeled “research center” on the main menu of the course. For current events related information, use a newspaper, news magazine, news website, a court case or an actual law. The course textbook, Wikipedia, internet search engines, blogs and similar items are examples of unacceptable research sources on the collegiate level.

· Only your own words will count toward the writing requirements. The writing assignments are intended to assess your comprehension of the material. Meaning, cited and paraphrased information should not be in your word counts.

· All assignments are expected to meet college level writing requirements; all answers are to be in essay format and the expectation is for each student to engage the topics using critical analysis. Please do not attempt to provide simplified or elementary answers if you wish to earn credit for your work. Take the time to fully explain your ideas and demonstrate the depth of your understanding to earn the grade you want.

· Failure to identify sources is plagiarism. All sources are to be documented within the body of the assignment and on a works cited page using MLA citation format. Within the essay use parenthetical, in-text citations. Do not use footnotes or endnotes.

· Do not recycle (or self-plagiarize) a paper from another course. Work submitted in other courses cannot be submitted in this course without prior consent from both instructors. Submitting an assignment that has been used in another course, without prior approval, will result in a zero for that activity. Everyone is expected to submit authentic work.

· Do not use first person tones in the writing assignments. The prompts are designed to help you think about the topic, not to generate a direct response. First person tone is inappropriate in a college essay, but may be used in discussion forum activities or assignments that specifically require it.

· The formatting requirements for all assignments are: typed / word processed, double-spaced, size 12 font, Arial or Times New Roman script, 1 inch margins (default setting), and a limited number of grammatical errors.

· All assignments are to be submitted as one electronic file to the appropriately titled online dropbox. Again, all pages of an assignment (cover page, body text, and works cited) are to be submitted together. Assignments will not be accepted via any other delivery method, unless prior approval was obtained.

· Assignments submitted online must be in one of the following file formats: doc, docx, rtf or txt. All other document formats are unacceptable. Files submitted to eCampus that are incomplete, blank, cannot be read by SafeAssign system, opened in Microsoft Word or which are otherwise corrupted will automatically receive a zero as non-submissions. Do not use the “Write Submission” button when submitting assignments in the Dropbox.

There is no credit for partial work. The minimum research criteria and the minimum writing criteria must be satisfied to earn a grade. Incomplete assignments will receive a zero.

Participation and Professionalism

I expect active and informed involvement in class discussions. If you do not participate at all, you will get zero (0) participation points. I will factor student visits to my office or email correspondence on matters germane to the course.