Film Studies Essays Goodfellas

Film Studies Essays Goodfellas Critical analysis of American crime film Goodfellas. Focusing on the attitudes towards criminality and law suggested in this film. American cinema seems to have always had a preoccupation with crime and criminals, which is a testament not just to the proliferation of the crime genre, but to the quality of its luminaries.   Of course it helps that James Cagney and the gangster flicks of the thirties and forties were drawing in crowds at the same time as one of America’s greatest crime writers, Raymond Chandler, was creating private eye masterpieces such as The Big Sleep, and adapting other works such as Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) for the screen.   One of the largest audience drawing genre types of the forties behind melodrama and musical, it’s not hard to see how Bogart Bacall, Chandler, Wilder, Cagney, Spillane and Aldrich could go on to influence both mainstream an alternative cinema for over half a century. Of course this is not to diminish the overseas influence on the crime genre (and of course its many sub-genres), and in particular of Godard and Truffaut and Melville’s French new wave, the nouvelle vague, and its flagship text A Bout De Souffle (Godard, 1960), whose acknowledgement of cinematic technique tied up in the very act of telling a cinematic tall tale can be seen as a direct precursor to Tarantino’s post-modern technique of actively referencing other films in his own work (see the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction [1994] which references the uranium filled briefcase in Kiss Me, Deadly [Aldrich, 1955]). So we can see that cinema has had an active preoccupation with criminality for the best part of seventy years.   Whilst film noir and the gangster films of the thirties tend to focus on the structure of good versus bad and the devolution of the good, Tarantino’s earlier works fuse together conventional cinematic notions of crime and criminality with the comic-realistic spanner-in-the-works of occupational mishaps (e.g. killing of a victim and the ensuing difficulty in covering up the mess, or a consideration of how long it actually takes an abdominal gun-shot wound to kill a man).   In this essay I shall be considering how Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) presents ideas of crime and its relation to violence. One of the few Scorsese films post-Raging Bull (1980) to receive much critical acclaim (along with most recent outing The Aviator, 2004), Goodfellas maintains the ambivalent attitude toward violence that we can also see in Raging Bull and Taxi Driver (1976), although it is a far less visually brutal film.   Instead the brutality comes through the constant underlying pressure of impending violence, which exists throughout like a drum track pounding out the rhythm in every scene.   Similar also to these two other films, and to Mean Streets, there is a tension that exists is his work between the repellent nature of his characters’ violent outbursts, and our sympathy with, for instance, Travis’ loneliness and isolation, Jake’s feelings of betrayal and the cultural limitations laid upon his masculinity, or Henry’s drive for success and his relative restraint compared to his associates.   Steve Neale and Murray Smith state that: â€Å"This ambivalent attitude to its protagonist is what makes Taxi Driver a great film. It is a film fuelled by the tension of sympathising with Travis’ loneliness while being repelled by his violent, anti-social behaviour. This is echoed in the tension between the reality of the street scenes and the lavish and seductive cinematography (by Michael Chapman) and music (by Bernard Herrmann).† There is a similar relationship between the visual and aural aesthetics in Goodfellas and the constant simmering presence of violence.   Far more than these previous dealings with violence, crime and masculinity, Goodfellas is a visually pleasing film, all bright colours and smooth camera work, and even the scenes of violence are not nearly as vividly potent as Travis’ shoot-out in the finale to Taxi Driver.   Whereas in Mean Streets the aural gleefulness of the soul soundtrack was tempered and contrasted by the verite starkness and of its imagery (the proliferation of hand-held camera work, the red-light tainted nightclub scene, the natural light in Harvey Keitel’s apartment), in Goodfellas the up-tempo soundtrack is accompanied by a camera which prowls smoothly on cranes and dollies, and lighting which brings out the colours of his characters’ expensive and brash clothing and houses.   More than his earlier works, the aesthetic of Goodfellas is typically cinematic – there is none of the gritty, subversive, nouveau vague inspired imagery. The relevance of this is in Scorsese’s sympathetic response to Henry’s preoccupation with the trappings of power and prestige that his violent ways have afforded him.   Even at the climax of the film, when Henry is released into the safe anonymity of the witness protection programme, and surrounded by suburban comfort, he can’t help but miss the privileges and excitement of ‘the life’.   When Henry asks Karen to hide his gun for him, having witnessed him viciously beat a young man who came on too strong, she was not repelled by his violent masculinity, but admits that â€Å"it turned me on†.   In a film of such explosive violence and derogatory machismo, perhaps the most shocking violent outburst comes in the first act when the young Henry is struck by his father for skipping school.   What is most shocking is the casual manner in which Henry as narrator recalls this domestic abuse – he recalls he had to â€Å"take a few beatin gs†, but in the long run he stills feels it was well worth it.   Henry, like Karen, is intoxicated by the power, money and lavish material gains that ‘the life’ can afford him and his family.   The constant presence of violence made erratic by ego, and the need to carry out vile deeds such as burying a foul smelling corpse, or to go through violent domestic abuse, are merely the downsides of the job – like back pain to a construction worker, or knee damage to a sportsman, and it is this tension, this acceptance of violence as an everyday occurrence, which Scorsese explores.   Like Henry, who is more sensitive than Tommy and Jimmy, the audience experience the pleasurable excesses and comforts alongside the brutal and repellent nature of the work, and neither is solely celebrated or derided in isolation.   Neale and Smith state: â€Å"Scorsese [does not want] to completely distance himself from Travis in order to make an explicitly polemical film against vigilantism and everything else unpleasant about the character. This is the type of film perhaps Robert Altman or Stanley Kubrick would have made. But Scorsese rarely wants this kind of distance from his characters, and his films contain a dynamism few others achieve because of this.† The film is famous for the manner in which its violence explodes out of seemingly innocuous situations, and we can see this reflected in the way Tommy lashes out at the poor young waiter who can’t keep a tight enough hold on his mouth, shooting him in the foot and then later killing him.   In this instance, it is the unavoidable flaws in the characteristics of these men that escalate into bloody violence, and this is a theme which is continued throughout – more often that not, it is the characters inability to avoid their own greed or their own machismo which leads to their downfall.   The young waiter thinks Tommy is too big for his boots, and can’t help but keep adding a little smart line under his breath, even though he knows he is pushing it with a dangerous man.   In the same way as Tommy, he refuses to let someone steal whatever level of dominance and respect he may have, however little, even if it increases the threat of injury, or even death.   Li kewise Tommy’s downfall comes in his inability to get comfortable in his station, to tone down his tough-little-guy, bull-in-a-china-shop persona, until he finally realises his mistake with a quiet â€Å"Oh no† as he heads off not to become a made-man, but to be shot in the head.   It is this terminal ambition, this tendency to always want more – more power, more money, more cocaine, more respect – which instigates the violence.   So then we can see not just in Goodfellas but throughout Scorsese’s work, there exists tempered a consideration of the repellent nature of violent crime tangled up in a close study of character, and the forces that drive these criminals to their acts of criminality.   For all its set pieces and murders, the most memorable aspect of Goodfellas is the way in which the flaws in these characters personalities and the overtly masculine posturing nature of their world always instigate and escalate the violence, and ultimately bring about their own downfall – Tommy’s slaying of a made man is brought on by the man’s big mouth and his desire to have the last word, as well as Tommy’s indignation at someone trying to confirm his seniority over him.   Like many of the scenes in the film, it starts off banal and escalates through both characters’ inability to calm the situation until one of them is dead.   At the heart of this is Tommy’s diss atisfaction with his status – he has some respect, but he wants more.   Likewise Jimmy has some power and a big share of their Lufthansa cash, but he wants more.   Henry and Karen want more cocaine, more time, a more casual lifestyle.   Scorsese seems to be suggesting that crime does pay, just not enough. BIBLIOGRAPHY: John Belton, American Cinema/American Culture, McGraw/Hill, 1994 John Belton, Movies and Mass Culture, Athlone Press, 1996 Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark, Screening The Male, Routledge, 1993 Steve Neale and Murray Smith, Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, Routledge, 1998 Robert Warshow, The gangster as tragic hero in The Immediate Experience, Harvard Press, 1962 Robin Wood, Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan, Columbia, 1986 Justin Wyatt, High Concept, University of Texas, 1994

Proctor versus Dimmesdale in Millers The Crucible :: Essay on The Crucible

Proctor vs Dimmesdale In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the characters John Proctor and Arthur Dimmesdale are victims of the puritan ethics of Moderation and Unvarying Faith. These ethics are reflected in the way that they are forced to act like everyone else, resulting in a feeling of being trapped, as well as internal and physical torture, which led to their eventual demise. Hawthorne’s character Arthur Dimmesdale is the epitome of what a puritan should be. He is a minister—a man of God— yet despite his position, this perfect man has one dark secret: he is an adulterer and the father of an illegitimate child. This one sin is more than he can bear, for although he has many times repented, he feels he is not entirely forgiven. His sin is such that if it were to be found, his reputation would be torn apart. After many years of hiding his secret and being burdened by it he can no longer hold it inside. This is the reason he goes to the scaffold one night: in hopes to alleviate his guilt by â€Å"publicly† showing that he has committed a crime. His remorse is so deep and constant, that it has actually changed him. At nights he whips himself, hoping to gain salvation again, but in his mind he gains nothing. â€Å"Crime is for the iron-nerved, who have their choice their choice either to endure it, or, if it press too hard, to exert their fierce and savage strength for a good purpose, and fling it off at once! This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do neither, yet continually did one thing or another which intertwined, in the same inextricable knot, the agony of heaven-defying guilt and vain repentance.† (Hawthorne, 134.) And although it seems his remorse cannot go deeper than it already is, Dimmesdale begins to realize how his parishioners must see him. He is supposed to be an honest man, but in hiding his sin, he begins to see himself as a hypocrite. â€Å"What can a ruined soul, like mine, effect towards the redemption of other souls?—or a polluted soul towards their purification? And as for the peoples reverence, would that it were turned to scorn and hatred!† (Hawthorne, 172.) Clearly Dimmesdale is worried about the reaction of the congregation if they were to discover his sin. This is a perfect example of Moderation, everyone has to act holy, without sins and mistakes, otherwise be condemned to the scaffold and public humiliation†¦or worse.

Exploitation in Nigeria

â€Å"Nigeria’s oil production reached 2. 1 million barrels per day in 2010. † Nigeria is currently the sixth largest crude oil producer and it is the top oil producer in Africa. Similar to Bougainville Island, Nigeria is being exploited by many western countries and their multinational corporations because of their rich natural resource. Oil wasn’t the first thing that was exploited in Nigeria; in 1471 Portuguese traders landed near the Niger Delta, the southern tip of Nigeria, and started trading with the local king. The Portuguese travellers traded â€Å"coral beads; textile imports from India; European-manufactured articles, including tools and weapons; and manillas (brass and bronze bracelets that were used as currency and also were melted down for objects d'art)† for slaves. Slavery was extremely abundant and the one the best source of income for many Nigerians. Back wealth was measure by the size of your estate and the number of slaves. Because of the large number of slaves going through the ports of Nigeria, namely Badagry, many slaves were bought by many wealthy local Nigerians. Many slaves were also sold to America in the transatlantic slave trade where slaves were captured in Africa and sent to America to work on plantations and as servants in return for manufactured goods from developed European countries. Western countries exploited many countries in Africa, including Nigeria, for the abundant supply of slaves. These slaves were extremely useful for slave labor and as servants because of the low cost and the inhumane living conditions they could put them in. For hundreds of years, the people of Africa, including Nigeria, were exploited for slaves. In 1938 the Nigerian government at that time granted Shell, a multinational oil company, a concession to explore and drill for oil in Nigeria. For almost two decades, Shell didn’t take any action in Nigeria but in 1938, Shell surveyed the area near the Niger Delta and eventually found lots of extremely rich and abundant crude oil deposits.

Youtube Videos as Nursing Study Tools

The biggest con would be that It goes Into a lot of unneeded Information when considering my audience Is nursing students. There is a lot of Information that nurses don't necessarily need to know. Imperativeness. (2014, January 3). Oxygenation of the Respiratory System for Nursing [Video file]. Retrieved from http://move. Youth. Com/watch? F92503sXnOLM The videos from this particular user are great for nursing students because this guy is a nursing student. Martin Rexes, the user who uploaded the video, apparently sakes these videos, speaking about what he learned in nursing school that day along with tips on studying.For the nursing student this is great and helpful for studying. They video is short, easy to understand, and summarizes the oxygenation lecture for a nursing school class. The cons are that It Is rather boring, It may be difficult to rely on Information on a subject from an Inexperienced nursing student, and while It summarizes oxygenation very well, it doesn't go into very much depth. Sinking, S. (2014, January 3). U School of Nursing Oxygenation Song [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www. Youth. Mom/watch? FzHatR96cBxw I have a soft spot for these videos that use a song for teaching purposes.We know that every student learns In different ways so by presenting a video using a song to help remember important parts of oxygenation or any other topic is great. They cover important parts about oxygenation with a catchy tune which can help students learn or remember these parts better. It's a fun video so it is a sort of way to take a break while still learning. The cons are that it is really a very poorly made video as far as production value goes. At times it is difficult to hear the song and it is, obviously, a I felt that the first video, from abracadabra, was the best video considering my audience.Yes, it is lengthy, but it is so thorough and tells the viewer everything that they need to know about oxygenation. I felt that the speaker in the vid eo did a great job with visuals as he discussed the information in a clear and concise way. Chapter 41 – Fluid and Electrolytes Youth videos Monoclinic, M. (2014, January 3). Fluid & Electrolyte Basics [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www. Youth. Com/watch? V=subdividing Without a doubt, Megan Monoclinic, the person that uploaded this video has done a antistatic Job here. The video is specifically geared to review the basics of fluid and electrolytes for nursing students.Liners, M. (2014, January 3). Electrolyte Magnesium (Hypo & Hyper) [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www. Youth. Com/watch? V=Japanned As far as content goes for this particular video it isn't the best choice because it only talks about a short topic pertaining to fluid and electrolytes. I chose this video though because of the creator of the video, Michael Liners. He creates videos for nursing students about everything that we need to know to be nurses. The pros are that Michael Liners clearly and easil y discusses topics that make it easy to understand, Mr..Liners specifically created these videos for nursing students, and it's a fun video, I thought that the use of humor and analogies were great. The cons are that, as I fluid and electrolytes. The production value of the video is pretty poor and it's difficult to hear the speaker at times. My favorite video was the near comprehensive one by Megan Monoclinic. The fact that is specifically made to help nursing students understand everything they can about fluid and electrolytes is reason enough to consider it the best of the three, but t is Just really well made and thorough in content.Youth videos as study tools I have found that Youth videos are great for study tools and knowledge generators. As nursing students there are so much material that we much digest and memorize at times. As I mentioned earlier, everyone learns in different styles and it seems that Youth has a video for people who have any of the many different learning styles. As supplemental material these Youth videos are best used. Most of the videos aren't meant to be used as a way to learn everything there is to know bout a certain topic, but to give a person a baseline on a topic of interest.I couldn't think of many cons to using Youth as a study tool. I believe that if something can help you than you should use it. If there is any argument against using Youth as a study tool it's that there isn't anyone to check information to see if it is correct. Anyone can upload a video about anything, spout nonsense and inaccurate information and no one would know. So, as supplemental material to what your teacher is telling you in class these videos can be beneficial, but not as a main source of knowledge.

Comma Before But

Comma Before But Comma Before But Comma Before But By Maeve Maddox This reader’s question illustrates the uncertainty felt by many writers about when to use a comma before the conjunction but: In the following sentence, the secondary clause isn’t truly independent; it lacks a subject, yet it conveys an almost-complete thought: â€Å"I left Susan a message last week but haven’t heard back from her yet.† My question is whether a comma precedes but even though a subject doesn’t follow but. Put another way, is the secondary clause’s implied subject, I ¸ sufficient to require a comma before the coordinating conjunction? There is no â€Å"implied† subject in the sentence â€Å"I left Susan a message last week but haven’t heard back from her yet.† The sentence’s stated subject is I. It’s the subject of both verbs, the one before and the one after the but. The answer, therefore, is that no comma is needed before the but. The rule for but is the same as that for the other six coordinating conjunctions: and, for, or, nor, so, and yet. If the conjunction precedes an independent (main) clause, use a comma: â€Å"Jack tried a new diet, but he still gained weight.† If the but is not followed by an independent clause, no comma is needed: â€Å"Jack tried a new diet but still gained weight.† If a writer finds himself hesitating over a sentence like the one in the example, the easiest way to settle the comma question is to supply another subject for the second verb: â€Å"I left Susan a message last week, but I haven’t heard back from her yet.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Dialogue Dos and Don'tsItalicizing Foreign WordsWhat the Heck are "Peeps"?

Business Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Planning - Essay Example The plan on Brian’s book barn should include young people on its managerial team. The two managers have experience and relevant training but cannot understand the current market perfectly. For example, there is a proposal that the major market for their books and magazines will be children and parents. The plan should also include services from the book barn. The current ones will not appeal to the modern teenager who is interested in modern phenomena. There should be reductions of books and magazines that have less fascinating topics to the contemporary person. There could be improvements if the plan on the book barn had fewer objectives. Fewer objectives for any business plan make businesses more practical because it proves that management can handle the fulfillment of the same objectives. The plan on the salon business could be effective if it were comprehensive in its mention of the capital of the entire business. The management should make research that is more intensive than the one it made on basics of salon business. The research will facilitate better knowledge of salon trends that is necessary for the preparation of a perfect business plan. The plan should also ensure that there is the evident reflection of most of its funding. This will facilitate the easy realization of any aspects that would compromise on the success of the entire salon business. Business plans present relevant summaries of their respective businesses. If people wish to establish businesses, they must hire professional to help them.

The effects of caffeine on sprint performance times in cyclists Literature review

The effects of caffeine on sprint performance times in cyclists - Literature review Example al., 2012). The caffeinated drinks are gaining importance among the sprinters and other sport persons depending on the notion that drinks containing caffeine leads to physical and mental development. Furthermore, the caffeinated drinks are even noted to be increasing strength and endurances among athletes, which actually develops the popularity among the sportspersons to use such drinks. Physiological effects of caffeine are noted to be creating a huge amount of influence on sports person (Zapata & Obispo, 2011). Moreover, many sports persons have even affirmed the fact that the use of caffeine is noted to be creating an influence on the overall development of the physical needs of the players. Additionally, this is creating an impact on their physiological development during the initial days of practice. During the early years of practices, the use of caffeine is creating a huge amount of influence on the overall performances of the players during the initial use of the product. Use of caffeinated supplements during the time of practices has been affecting the overall development of the players. Laboratory reports support the views that the use of the caffeinated supplements increases stamina and strength among the players and develops their capacity to perform better. Positive effect of caffeine is even noted to be enduring performances among sprinter and is often acting to be a positive support for their development (Lee & et. al., 2014). With the positive impact of the product in the lifestyle of the athletes, there has been a change in the quantified use of the same. The caffeinated products support the sprinters with alertness and wakefulness and the same is easily digestible, hence, its acceptance within the different field of sports and other programs are likely to increase. The alarming rate of increase in the use of caffeine with regard to energy drinks are noted to be creating an influence on the