Write a brief synopsis of the film. (1-2 paragraphs)
• Critically evaluate how the film presents other cultures, for example:
- Evaluate the extent to which the film is trying to present a given culture as real and true. Is it meant to
represent the group realistically or are they being used as “cartoon supervillians?” - What are you supposed to feel about this group?
- How does Edward Said’s ideas about the relationship between power and how a group is represented speak
to how the target culture is presented in the film? - How would you characterize the target culture’s place in the film: a central character, background, one
dimensional plot element? - How are various cultural institutions represented in the film
- What does the presentation of the other say about the filmmaker and his audience (i.e., US culture)?
- Why did the filmmaker choose to present the aspects of culture that were presented? Why those? Why not
others? How are they important to the development of the story? - If all you had as background information on the target culture was this film, what would you “know” about it?
• Compare the movie presentation to how the culture is presented in scholarly form (books, articles). This will
require that you find and read 2 scholarly sources. How does this information differ from the information
presented in the film? Would what you knew about the target culture from the film be helpful, harmful, or
neutral if you found yourself dropped into the middle of that group?
• Reflect on the idea that much of what we know of other cultures is from films. The question is, how reliable a
source of information are cinematic films? And even if we realize they are not reliable, how much do they
influence our view of culture, humanity, or a particular culture?
Sample Solution
