FILM INDUSTRY

Running head: FILM TEXT 1

FILM TEXT 8

Topic: Film Text

Student Name

Institution

Introduction

Movie has become an integral part of our daily lives-apart from entertaining us; it is source of livelihood for many people. As a multi-billion industry, it easily becomes one of the largest tax payers and as such a key pillar of world economy. Watching movie has now become a culture in the western world and in the developing world as well. Film text refers to the structure of a movie-the characters, design and how the information has been presented in the plot. The notion of film text is borrowed from the idea that reading a book is same as watching a film in many ways. As such, some of the things we are familiar with about a book can be applied to a film or some things about a book can be applied in watching a film. The two are intertwined such that the line of difference is so thin that you might not know while crossing it. In this assignment, I will present persuasive arguments about three movie texts whereby I shall be interpreting them. I am going to consider the film texts of the following films-Deep Impact, Independence Day and inception (Eather, 1998). 

Film overview

Deep impact is a science-fiction film, which revolves around a comet in the space discovered by a young astronaut Elijah. The comet was heading to earth and has an impact of mass extinction on the planet. However, the fragment comet is destroyed where it lands on Atlantic Ocean causing a big Tsunami impact along New York coast. This film remains one of the greatest disaster films in history. Independence Day, is a disaster movie that is remembered for its spectacular effects. The unthinkable happens, the skies ignite and terror runs through world major cities. The alien invasion of the earth and in particular white house is spectacular in many ways. The movie is great despite some criticism. Inception is an interesting exploration of dream world and theft that occurs in the world. It shows us how our real world can be manipulated to our disadvantage while we sleep at night (Eather, 1998). 

Interpreting Deep Impact and Independence Day movies

Deep impact starts with the American president addressing the citizens about an impending danger of a comet on collision course with the mother planet earth. The same happens with the movie, Independence Day, where the president is seen addressing the citizens about an impending annihilation by a strange phenomenon appearing in the sky. According to him, for them to survive there is need to front a united front among themselves and the rest of the world. It is a struggle once again-this time not from oppression but to avert an impending annihilation from the forces of nature. The third film is a strange infusion of dream and reality. The thread running through the first movie is that the president is addressing the people of an impending disaster. This underlines the enormous duty bestowed on the American president-to protect the citizenry.

The president therefore is supposed to lead the people in times of crises-we see in the Independence Day that he is encouraging people to stay in Unity this time of adversary-they have to forget their petty differences, which for a long time they have come between them. From this the movie is reflecting on the small differences that have hindered human kind from uniting. A good case in point is racial discrimination, a ghost which has consumed the American society since its inception. Since then, many people-brilliant minds have died in the American society due to racial struggle between the blacks and their white counterparts. Religious differences (another petty difference among the human kind) today have gone so toxic that it is fueling evils such as terrorism. It is understood that terrorism is informed by the religious struggle between the Muslims and the Christians. The movie advices we leave behind the petty differences and unite on a common and worthy course such as fighting diseases such as Ebola, poverty and ignorance. This way world would be a better place to live and be proud of-it would be peaceful because useless wars driven by county egos would be a thing of the past. If we continue to be guided by our narrow interests, the world would not know of any meaningful unity, peace and tranquility. As human kind we would have failed in the divine call of protecting the nature (Kallay, 2013). 

Another underlying theme of the two movies is that of the duty of the leadership to provide direction in times of crises. We see the president taking charge and offering direction in the two situations.

“I wish... No, wishing is wrong. It's the wrong word right now. That's not what I mean. What I mean is, I believe in God. I know a lot of you don't, but I would like to offer a prayer for our survival, mine included. Because I believe that God, whomever you hold that to be hears all prayers, even if sometimes the answer is no. So may the Lord bless you, May the Lord keep you, may the Lord lift his divine countenance upon you, and give you peace…”

The president is trying to urge the people to stay calm in the face of this natural calamity-a comet that is about to hit the earth. It has defied all human diversion tricks and now is headed to earth. The same case is happening in the Independence Day were the president is calling people to unite against the disaster of unusual phenomenon. In the same manner world leaders should take it upon themselves during adversarial times such against terrorism. The fact that the two movies are on natural calamities is indeed significant in our present world. Global warming is a disaster in waiting-we have been told that sea and ocean levels are rising not to mention changing rain patterns owing to the same phenomenon of global warming. How and where the issue of nature change takes us depends on the leaders we have. If the leaders galvanize us towards saving Mother Nature then we have a change of reversing the effects of global warming. On the other hand, if leadership fails on this matter, then our goose are cooked-we inevitably have to face slow but sure calamity of global warming (Wartenberg & Curran, 2005). 

Interpreting inception

To begin with, this movie is ambiguous by the sheer fact that it runs from dream to reality world without necessarily giving us where the line is drawn. Therefore, the interpretation you want to give it will work as long as you defend and illustrate it from the movie. My interpretation is going to take the route of one of the increasingly becoming a headache in the business world and other spheres of life today-computer hacking. In the movie we see Cobb working as a freelance extractor; he shares dreams with his team of becoming wealthy individuals with a lot of power at their disposal. This is motivates him to find and open safes and vaults containing secrets, which he sells to his clients (Eather, 1998). 

This scenario is replete in the cyber world today-hacking indeed is a multibillion business today. People are getting into banking systems and swindling money from people accounts without the knowledge of the organizations. Even worse is the fact that organizations are sponsoring commercial espionage on their competitors where hackers go hack the competitor systems, steal and sell the information to their competitors. Competition has gone to the extent of organizations sabotaging others through cyber. Governments are not being left behind as they appear to have taken war to the cyber. A recent case in point is the interview film, which pitted United States against North Korea. The Koreans were accusing the United States for masterminding the movie-it is understood that United States was behind the internet shut down in North Korea (Wartenberg & Curran, 2005). 

Just as Cobb who has become a fugitive and hence the most wanted person in the world most hackers become fugitives and hence subjects of pursuit by Interpol police. He however does not stop his behavior as most of them in real world do. He continues to steal ideas from people by hacking their ideas and selling them to willing buyers. This today constitute a big copyright war where people ideas are being stolen, sold and implemented long before they can patent them. Such challenges would continue if the authorities do not take charge and pass legislations to curb the scenario (Eather, 1998). 

The three movies have captured events, which are very live in the world today. For instance, the world is facing the eminent danger from the very nature than ever before. There are more comets falling off the universe and missing the earth by whiskers than ever before. Strange incidences are happening- you hear of earth opening and swallowing objects. Global warming is not an “allegation” any more rather reality-sea levels are rising. The issue of cyber crime is very pertinent because people are carrying out commercial espionage on organizations if not defrauding them of their money. The movies have managed to relate their content with real life issues. As such, apart from entertaining, they are as well passing information to people- for instance to take care of their environment (Wartenberg & Curran, 2005). 

The plot and the characters have brought up these themes very well. Cobb in the inception represents a contemporary hacker in real life; they usually work in a syndicate. The style in which these movies have been presented is captivating for they have color audacious color effects. The story line is equally captivating to listen and to follow because it takes you from light moments to more serious issues about life. The movies have contributed a great deal to the movie industry in terms of improving the style of presentation and cinematography (Kallay, 2013). 

References

Kallay, J. (2013). Gaming film: How games are reshaping contemporary cinema. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Eather, G. (1998). In focus: Reading and viewing film and video texts. Port Melbourne: Heinemann

Wartenberg, T. E., & Curran, A. (2005). The philosophy of film: Introductory text and readings. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Pub.