Writing for an Academic Discussion The most influential film of all time and why? - revised -

Considering the vast array of cinematic works, which movie do you believe is the most influential of all time and why?

 

 

☆Let’s Think

1.        List up the vocabulary Laura and Luke use to describe the movie of their choices.

2.        Think of the movies that fit the descriptions that you listed up in Question 1.

3.        What is the movie of your choice?

 

 

☆Hints for Points

1.        “The Wizard of Oz” teaches that courage and believing in yourself will get you out of the world of deception, which is relevant in making a difference.

2.        “The Matrix” transformed how we see today’s world.

3.        Such war movies as “Apocalypse Now”, “El Salbador”, “Platoon”, “The Deer Hunter”, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, and “Dankirk” show you the real of war.

4.        “Dr. Strangelove” instills us with the horror of an accidental nuclear war that ends our times.

 

 

☆Responses for Ideas and Expressions

Michael Moore blockbusters have all caused seismic shifts in our awareness and understanding of the current world dominated by the capitalist American empire, from his debut film “Roger & Me” on the corporate greed and his deteriorating Ford hometown, Flint, to Academy Award-winning “Bowling for Columbine” on school-shootings and the American society founded on violence and oppression, to anti-war masterpiece “Fahrenheit 9/11”, in which he reported the corruption of the George W. Bush administration going to the Iraq War and the suffering of the people in Iraq and the U.S. soldiers and their families, to “SiCKO” on the endemic American healthcare system, to “Capitalism: A Love Story”, which proved that capitalism is a sin, to “Fahrenheit 11/9” about America ending with a clown like Donald Trump and hope fond in the struggle of the people, to “Where to Invade Next”, about the countries thriving with socialist ideas, to the latest “Planet of the Humans”, which showed the deception of renewable energies and corruption of the leaders of the environmental movements. But I think “Roger & Me” is the most significant because it changed the image of documentaries. It never bored the audience with a textbook-like teaching even though it’s backed by academic knowledge. In other words, it made documentaries an entertainment. It also featured a style in which the director and narrator goes to see VIPs without appointment or any other preparation, which provoked thrills and the spirit of rebels. Last but not least, Michael Moore’s character, his dialogue-like monologue, and unexpected turnouts gave the content reality. These radical and courageous approaches to expressions recreated documentaries as a genre. (269 words)

 

“Barbie” is the most influential ever because it will change our awareness about ourselves and the world. Boys must go see it if they want girls to like them. It relentlessly satirizes the shortcomings of men like childishness, narcissism, excessive masculinity, desire for dominance, dependent mentality, ego, misogyny, violence, and contentment with patriarchy, but it does so with humor and in style, which makes women laugh out loud, transcending their bags of spite towards men, and men realize these shortcomings of theirs without anger. The movie also satirizes a trap that independent single women fall into by showing unrealistic Barbie Land, or female-dominated world, which is seemingly a women’s utopia but actually a totalitarian dystopia controlled by lookism, capitalism, consumerism, and fascism. Moreover, this movie gives girls and young women a guideline on how to get a life as a woman in today’s world. In the beginning of the plot, little girls go through the dawn of woman and change from a baby feeder into a woman by destroying their babydolls after seeing a Barbie doll as an icon of a fashionable and independent young adult woman, completely in sync with the famous scene “ The Dawn of Man” in the classic “2001: A Space Odyssey”, but in the end a stereotypical Barbie doll chooses to leave Barbie Land and live as a human for the sweet pain and joy of motherhood and the true beauty of womanhood even though she is informed of the oppression of women in the patriarchal real world, being free from the feminism mantra and reactionism. This plot―a doll gets heart and becomes a human woman―is woven into radical satire of patriarchy and feminism and perfect parodies to make both men and women see themselves from a viewpoint above themselves for reflection and real feminism. Therefore, “Barbie” will certainly be the most influential. (312 words)

 

 

☆Response plan

【Thesis】

【Supporting Details】

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