In the introduction to Film Theory Goes to the Movies, co-editors Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins make the following observation regarding the treatment of film in contemporary culture:
The analysis of contemporary movies has, for the most part, been left to the
world of popular reviewing – a system that is based on sound-bite value
judgments, which precludes consideration of the cultural significance of
these texts. Public discussion about the broader implications of movies is
usually framed in apocalyptic terms by cultural conservatives on both the left
and the right who are eager to see them only as symptoms of an all-purpose
moral and intellectual decay. The end result is an especially unfortunate
situation in which those texts that have the most powerful impact on how we
envision ourselves and each other, on how we imagine our present, past and
future – in short, those movies for which there is the most pressing need for
intensive critical analysis – are the ones most often evaluated in terms of
thumbs, popcorn boxes, stars, hankies, and Armageddon (1).
In light of the quote above, examine any three of the films we have screened this
term with respect to their impact on society as a whole. That is, what do you
consider to be their social and/or cultural significance? Their message?
