Help with Film Essay!

Hey guys and gals,

I am in desperate need of help on a five paragraph compare and contrast essay on anything that has to deal with film. Examples would be Robert DeNiro versus Al Pacino, 8 1/2 versus La Strada, Bergman versus Fellini, or duo versus duo; Scorsese/DeNiro versus Fellini/Mastroianna.

I'm just throwing examples out there. It can really be whatever, as long as it has to due with film. Even comparing and contrasting lenses would work. Only thing is, I really have no idea what to choose. My mind is killing me right now and I have been having a mental block for sometime now.

I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could just name a few topics for this five paragraph essay that I could use.

Thanks alot!

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"All the confusion of my life... has been a reflection of myself! Myself as I am, not as I'd like to be." - Guido, 8 1/2

What about Hollywood/Independent or thematic/formal?

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I was thinking about Hollywood versus Independant but for a five paragraph essay, I feel that topic would be too broad. Plus, the Indie movies I have seen tend to make it to the big screen eventually, so I couldn't really compare a big budget blockbuster and an extremely independant independant that garners just as much status as the blockbuster if I haven't seen the indie.

You can't come up with a subject for a five-paragraph "essay"? What's it going to be like when you shoot your first full-length film?

Haha, ever heard of writers block? I have shot films, many, and full-length. I have written 5 screenplays, sold 3 of them. I have gone to Darfur, Lebanon, and Ireland for journalism, and much more.

I am very qualified to write, but the biggest fear and plague of a writer is writers block. And it can harass the hell outta your brain even for a simple introductory sentence.

...Save the sarcasm. I really do need help on what to write on.

And if this comes off as snooty, unnecessary, and/or just plain mean, I apologize. I have alot of **** weighing me down right now and this past month has been one of the worst months of my life. All I can focus on right now is this stupid essay while I smoke this joint and listen to Pink Floyd. I just have to get this essay done and for some reason unknown to me, I simply can't.

Well, I don't know all of what films you've seen and would be able to discuss, even in just five paragraphs, but...

• The depiction of and attitudes toward nature in the films of Terrence Malick and Werner Herzog
• The Western Hero of John Ford and Sam Peckinpah
• The surreal and fantastic in the works of Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton
• J. Lee Thompson and Martin Scorsese's Cape Fears (1962 & 1991)
• Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows and Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven (2002)
• The space aliens of Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and War of the Worlds (2005)
• The use of overlapping dialogue in Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday (1940) and Robert Altman's M*A*S*H (1970)
• The drawn world to live-action in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy and Rodriguez & Miller's SIN CITY
• The sexual nightmare odysseys in New York of Scorsese's After Hours and Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut
• The opium den endings for the characters in Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America
• Jane Russell's rack in The Outlaw (1943) and Sharon Stone's snatch in Basic Instinct (1992)

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Yeah, I've only written professionally for 30 years now--what would I know about writer's block? Except that I've never yet failed to turn in an assignment.


Wait a minute, we may be getting near the root of your problem.

Typical herb jab .......My advice to you: inform yourself. And do me a favor, leave the thread if you dont have any advice to offer. And please oh please don't begin a debate about marijuana with me and how, you being a medical doctor of course, know its harmful effects.

And simply because I'm having trouble writing an essay doesn't mean I am going to fail to turn it in. Plus, I seriously doubt you have been a professional writer for 30 years if you have never failed to turn something in.

No, no, please. No thanks are necessary.

Hey Holden, sorry about that. Thanks for your recommendations, however, I don't think I will use any of those topics. I'm leaning more towards a topic dealing with foriegn classics rather than post-classic era American films.

But damnitt if those topics you listed aren't great. Unfortunately I haven't seen those films enough times to write an essay on them.

Thanks though Holden, not many people could have come up with more engaging and intricate topics than those.

I reread your initial post. How about how Fellini turned from neorealism to surrealism? Somewhere during 8 1/2? If you're that familiar with Fellini's work before and after 8 1/2, that sounds like a goodie. Especially if you've seen I Vitteloni, La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vida, Juliet of the Spirits, Satyricon, Amarcord, etc.

Best of luck.

I didn't comment before because Holden covered lots of wonderful topics, but, as he said, he didn't know what movies you've seen.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

You could take a case study (Eastern Promises against INLAND EMPIRE- personally think would fascinating, two auteurs coming from different financial directions), plus even if an indie hits the big screen, doesn't change the context of it's production, just it's distribution so at it would still be an independent film.

I still think there's dissertation-level research to be done on the Russell/Stone bits I mentioned above. And the visual aids would be fantastic.