Help with Great Film Project for College

[seabterry]

My wife has this project for school and is looking for ideas. She is hoping that you guys can help with films and topics. I am also hoping that whatever gets picked, I get to buy on Blu-ray if I don't already own it.

The project is that you must pick a movie and a topic within that movie to compare or contrast. One example that was given was the movie Full Metal Jacket. The student spent his entire paper on whether the drill sergeant's uniform was accurate. I gave a few examples myself. End of Watch and actual police training and maneuvers. There Will Be Blood and oil drilling at the turn of the century. Another idea is The Exorcist and how to the film portrays an exorcism v/s a real exorcism.

Hopefully, these examples were enough. I would love to see some great ones from the movie minds here.

Ready? Set? Go!

[sycro]

Citizen Kane and William Hearst.

[roguescribner]

Back to the Future Part II and whether or not we'll have flying cars in the next 2 years.


Okay, non-joke one:

Compare and contrast institutionalized child violence in the movies Battle Royale and The Hunger Games.

[Rich65]

The Right Stuff or Apollo 13 and the Real NASA and Space Program

[vader4]

2001: A Space Odyssey and the reliance on technology as well as it's effects on society, research, and general human development.

Atleast that's what I would do it on. I hope this helps and it's not too esoteric.

[Germanicus]

Gangs of New York -history of Five Points and the gangs that ran them during the mid 19th century.
Shakespeare In Love- theatre and life during the mid 16th century.

[toddly6666]

Signs and crop circles

[Tony208]

Gattaca and human genetic engineering. NASA says it is the most plausible sci-fi film ever.

[blu-mike]

Accepted

[octagon]

If she's at all interested in history there are a lot of great movies based on historical events/non-fiction books. Three of my favorites are...

All the President's Men
Zodiac
GoodFellas

Network is a great film with two really interesting discussion angles - everybody (quite reasonably) loves to talk about how prescient it was. That's one angle: corporate ownership of news outlets, news shows becoming more and more sensational and fluffy in order to chase ratings and the degree to which that is commonplace today. The other angle is the degree to which that was already happening when the film was made. Lumet and company weren't predicting the future, they were documenting the present.

She could take a literary approach with something like Rebecca and talk about whether and to what extent the film is true to the novel. One very interesting (to me, anyway) aspect has to do with the resolution.

[Show spoiler]It's eventually revealed in the novel that during a heated argument Max Dewinter shot and killed his first wife Rebecca. The Hollywood production code in place when the film was made didn't allow characters to get away with murdering their spouses so in the film Rebecca accidentally died while arguing with Max.

This could lead into a pretty cool discussion of the production code, changing moral climates, changing views as to film's proper role, who should decide what films may and may not show, a comparison between that code and the current rating system and so forth and so on.

[seabterry]

These are all good, but I should add the list that was handed out of movies she is not allowed to use.

Glory
Apollo 13
Saving Private Ryan
Braveheart
Rosewood
Remember the Titans
League of their Own
300
Philadelphia
As Good as it Gets
Titanic
Pocahontas

[Mahatma]

Being one of my absolute favourites,consider comparing Apocalypse now with the book it's loosly based on:Heart of darkness.

Blade runner and the book it's based on is also an interesting approach if you ask me since they are very different,and is considered hugely influential in both genres (Dick's writing in general that is).

Abnother idea which have puzzled me:Is Get shorty a documentary about a movie being made?

[CYMBOL]

Saving Private Ryan - real life efforts made to bring back sole surviving sons of families, amounts of men brought home due to this rule, etc.

[CoolRanch]

A Beautiful Mind - accuracy of the story vs. entertainment value.

[seabterry]

Originally Posted by CYMBOL

Saving Private Ryan - real life efforts made to bring back sole surviving sons of families, amounts of men brought home due to this rule, etc.

Yes, but as I stated above, this film is considered "off limits" for being too easy to research.

[ZooTv]

The Hurt Locker

You could explore the tactical/uniform/gear inaccuracies in the film vs. those taught/given to our actual armed forces.

[seabterry]

Originally Posted by ZooTv

The Hurt Locker

You could explore the tactical/uniform/gear inaccuracies in the film vs. those taught/given to our actual armed forces.

I like this one. My wife does not like this film, but that shouldn't matter. I was happy to see it win Best Picture that year.