Film Research, Writing, and Discussion Preparation I

Movie: Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982) – Watch this movie for the assignment online

Instructions: Research Materials

You will find two critical reviews of the film, following these guidelines:

• Both reviews must be by legitimate, professional critics or other kinds of writers (e.g., film scholars, film festival curators, etc.), and must have been published either in print or online.
• At least one of the reviews must have been published at the time of the films original theatrical release.
• The reviews should be noticeably different, either in their evaluation of the film (e.g., a positive and a negative review) or in the way they approach the film critically.
• These should be critical reviews rather than scholarly or academic texts or historical accounts of the film. They will likely be relatively brief but should still be substantive.

Do not simply select the first two reviews you find. Find multiple reviews, read them carefully, then select two that best meet the above criteria and that are substantive, interesting, and different from one another in meaningful ways.

You will also find one additional reading about the film other than a critical review, following these guidelines:

• This reading might include evaluative commentary about the film but should not just be another film review.
• It might be an article about the film in a newspaper, magazine, film-related website, or a more scholarly account of the film.
• Avoid texts that use confusing academic jargon or that are for a highly specialized, narrow readership.
• The text may be a blog entry as long as the author is a noted critic, scholar, director, film curator, etc. This is easy to determine with a Google search.
• Ideally, this text should be relatively short say, between 4 and 10 pages.

You will download the two critical reviews and the additional text as PDFs and label them like so:

• The critical reviews should be labeled: Film Title Review in Source by Author Last Name (e.g., No Country for Old Men – Review in Washington Post by Hunter.pdf)

The additional reading should be labeled: Author Last Name Title of Text (e.g., Prose All Hell Breaks Loose: No Country for Old Men)

Written Text

Once you have completed the above research, you will write a short essay about the critical reviews and the additional reading. This is NOT simply a report of what each reading says, but a more synthetic account of the readings. Synthetic means that you are drawing together ideas from all three readings to produce your own original take on what they say about the film. What common ideas, criticisms, or references do the readings share? How do they differ? What bigger picture do they paint of the films status as great? Do they agree that the film is great or worthy of a place in the cinema canon? If they do, is it always for the same reasons? If they disagree about the quality of the film, what is the basis for the disagreement?

This essay should be approximately 500 words, or about one full page of single-spaced text assuming standard 12-point font.

At the bottom of the essay, write two questions about the film for us to discuss in class. These should be modeled on the questions I provide on the Screening Guides for each weeks film. These questions are not part of the above-mentioned word count for the essay.

Turning it in

Save your essay, with discussion questions, as a Word doc, labeled: Your Last Name Essay on Film Title (e.g., Walley Essay on The Thin Blue Line). Submit the essay and the three readings you have found in a folder on Google docs. The folder should be named: Your Last Name Film Title. Email me the link to the folder on Google docs; be sure that the Share settings will allow me to access the folder when I click on the link.

The due dates for this assignment are staggered. Your folder should be completed and made available to me by 5:00pm on the Wednesday prior to the screening of your film. For example, if you choose Do the Right Thing, which screens on Wednesday, March 4, your folder will be due by 5:00pm on Wednesday, February 25.

Evaluation

When I evaluate your work on this assignment, I will consider the following:

• That you have completed all portions of the assignment and followed all the instructions (including labelling and submission instructions) in the above prompt.
• That the critical reviews you have submitted follow the guidelines listed above. Were they well chosen? Are they different from one another in meaningful ways? Are they substantive, addressing the film in at least some detail to illustrate and support the critical claims they make?
• That the additional reading is also well chosen, aligns with at least some of the ideas in one or both critical reviews, and offers original and insightful information or ideas about the film.
• That the short essay genuinely addresses all three texts you have found; that is does not merely summarize them but draws their ideas together, offering an original perspective on them (i.e., your own!).
• That the essay has a central idea about the film and the responses to the film you are writing about. This makes for a cohesive piece of writing, and one that goes beyond merely summarizing the readings.
• That the short essay was carefully written and proofread. Pay close attention to grammar, punctuation, and spelling.