HUMA4, Film Studies: Paper Topic Ideas

In this work, Edward Buscombe explores the ways in which 'Unforgiven', sticking surprisingly close to the original script by David Webb Peoples, moves between the requirements of the traditional Western, with its generic conventions of revenge and male bravado, and more modern sensitivities.

Dead Man, with its dark and unconventional treatment of violence, racism and capitalism, may be Jarmusch's finest work to date.

Deepens an audience's understanding of the genre's most important works, including Shane, Stagecoach, The Searchers, Unforgiven, and Kill Bill Contains numerous illustrations of the films and issues discussed.

the revelatory story behind the classic movie High Noon and the toxic political climate in which it was created.

. Representations of morality and masculinity are also foregrounded in consideration of the genre's major stars John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, and such films as Shane, Rio Bravo, The Wild Bunch, and Unforgiven.

In 2005, Cormac McCarthy's novel, No Country for Old Men, was published to wide acclaim, and in 2007, Ethan and Joel Coen brought their adaptation of McCarthy's novel to the screen.

How did a low-key prison movie which was considered a box-office flop on its original release become one of the most popular movies of all time?

Dana Polan sets out to unlock the style and technique of 'Pulp Fiction'.

Manohla Dargis explores the careers of director Curtis Hanson and writer James Ellroy, based on interviews with both men, to dig deep into the film's obsession with the twinned, equally troubled histories of the Hollywood studio system and the city of Los Angeles.

When they floored their Thunderbird off a cliff rather than surrender to the law, Thelma and Louise became icons of female rebellion, provoking strong reactions from viewers who felt either empowered or outraged by the duo's transgressions of women's traditional roles.

Thelma and Louise (1991) sparked a remarkable public discussion about feminism, violence, and the representation of women in cinema.

A heist thriller with a dazzling twist in the tail, The Usual Suspects has seen its reputation grow until it is now a major cult movie.

In 1984 Joel and Ethan Coen burst onto the art-house film scene with their neo-noir Blood Simple and ever since then they have sharpened the cutting edge of independent film.

close, detailed, comparative discussion of the short story and the film in relation to ways of understanding masculinity and love between men in American culture.

Each chapter discusses the idea of impossibility in one of Lynch's films, including the critically acclaimed Blue Velvet and The Elephant Man; the densely plotted Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive; the cult favorite Eraserhead; and the commercially unsuccessful Dune.

chapters focus on individual films in the Scorsese canon, including Mean Streets, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Age of Innocence, Bringing out the Dead, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. Nyce's close attention to the details within each of these films will satisfy fans and students alike, especially those who share a passion for Scorsese's artistry and an appreciation for the craft of his filmmaking. Illustrated with photos.

While this volume offers new perspectives on some established classics--usual suspects like Little Caesar, Bonnie and Clyde, and The Godfather Part II--Phillips also calls attention to some of the unheralded but no less worthy films and filmmakers that represent the genre. Expanding the viewer's notion of what constitutes a gangster film, Phillips offers such unusual choices as You Only Live Once, Key Largo, The Lady from Shanghai, and even the 1949 version of The Great Gatsby. Also included in this examination are more recent ventures, such as modern classics The Grifters and Martin Scorsese's The Departed.

Factory child, 1970-1976 (Eraserhead) -- Burden of flesh, 1976-1980 (the elephant man) -- Golden sands, heavy heart, 1980-1984 (dune) -- Night town, 1984-1986 (Blue Velvet) -- Buzz saw, 1986-1990 (Twin Peaks, season 1) -- Burning love, 1990 (wild at heart) -- Our schoolgirl of the sorrows, 1990-1992 (Twin Peaks, season 2 and Twin Peaks: fire walk with me) -- Head like a house on fire, 1992-1997 (lost highway) -- Autumn afternoon, 1997-2000 (the straight story) -- Road to Dreamsville, 2000-2001 (Mulholland Drive) -- Man of the world, 2001-2007 (DavidLynch.com, INLAND EMPIRE).

From box office flop to one of the most successful cult films of all time,The Big Lebowskihas spawned a multicity festival, college-level courses, and its own religion.

The focus on a fairly small number of landmark films allows detailed attention to genuinely original movies, including: Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Robocop, The Abyss, Independence Day, and The Matrix.

In 1995, James Cameron began work on a story that would, more than a decade later, evolve into Avatar, the blockbuster of 2009 and no less than the movie event of the decade.

Joshua Clover undertakes the task of decoding the film.

Empire of Dreams is the first definitive look at all of the science fiction (SF), fantasy, and horror films directed by Steven Spielberg, one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the world today.

The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded is a collection of critical essays on the massive phenomenon that is the three Matrix films, including the subsequent Web sites, computer games and The Animatrix films.

Future Imperfect is the only work to examine the cinematic adaptations of Dick's work in their entirety.

The 1992 release of the "Director's Cut" only confirmed what the international film cognoscenti have know all along: Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's brilliant and troubling SF novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, still rules as the most visually dense, thematically challenging, and influential SF film ever made.

Much more than a successful film trilogy, Lord of the Rings has become an unparalleled media phenomenon.

Made on a low budget, "The Terminator" was one of the most influential films of the 1980s. This text places the film in the context of exploitation films, and argues that it is compelling because it deals with the darker, more visceral pleasures of movie-going.

Since its release in 1982, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, has remained a cult classic through its depiction of a futuristic Los Angeles; its complex, enigmatic plot; and its underlying questions about the nature of human identity.

In 1977, Star Wars blazed across the screen to become one of the highest grossing and most beloved movies of all time.

Immerse yourself in the world of Denis Villeneuve's Dune and discover the incredible creative journey that brought Frank Herbert's iconic novel to the big screen.

This is the first book to analyze Ridley Scott's film Gladiator from historical, cultural, and cinematic perspectives.

Michel Chion traces the connections to Malick's earlier work: a complicated sense of 'paradise on earth', an intensely questioning sensibility, characters whose disembodied voices yearn for new knowledge and truth. He links The Thin Red Line not only to James Jones's novel on which it is loosely based, but also to a tradition of American thought (Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman). More than that, Chion pays minute attention to the substance of the film itself - the images, sounds, faces, landscapes and words which combine to create a magnificent reflection on the beauty, inexplicability and tragedy of people's co-existence with each other and with the world.

Schindler's List not only afforded director Steven Spielberg a cinematic vehicle loaded with Hollywood-hardware to create his master narrative about the Holocaust, the film also invited a renewed scholarly and intellectual discussion about racism, "historical voyeurism" and the "limits of representation."

James Cameron's Titanic  chronicles the cinematic re-creation of the most legendary ocean disaster of all time as seen through the eyes of a master storyteller.