Cultural Criticism Example

• Introduction
– Interest Arousing Opening
• American views toward death as represented on the
screen generally fall into two categories:
– Death is a natural process occurring in the cycle of life
– Death (in America) is often violent and related to the evils
that percolate through the American scene
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• Rationale
– The study of how death is portrayed in
American film and television may provide
useful insights into how we over-represent the
depiction of violence in American society
• Secondly this violent depiction has the effect of
making us more accepting of violent behavior in
society
Cultural Criticism Example
• Explain the critical approach
– Cultural Criticism is grounded in four assumptions
• A culture is a social group’s system of meanings
• To study culture is to study meanings both
descriptively and normatively
• Members of the group are complicitous in their own
subjugation of meaning systems
• The goal of most culture-centered criticism is
critique
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• Cultural Criticism Preview
– Movies often portray specific cultures within
our society, providing unnatural and unrealistic
portrayals of those groups
– In the movie Witness we can illustrate this
through an examination of the portrayal of two
distinct social groups
Cultural Criticism Example
• Body - overview of the text being analyzed
– Witness - (from Maltin) *** D; Peter Wier
Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Josef Sommer
“A big-city cop on the lam hides out on an Amish
farm, where he and a young widow are
attracted to each other. Entertaining film is
marred by jarring shifts in tone, especially
towards the end”
Cultural Criticism Example
• Explain the critical approach
– “Critics like Maltin failed to recognize that the
shifts in tone in the movie are accomplished for
the purpose of allowing the audience to
contrast two different factions within society.
One faction that depreciates the concept of
using violence and the other that celebrates the
use of violence. It is this shift in tone that makes
the comparison striking for the viewer”
(Messere)
Cultural Criticism Example
• Explain the critical approach
– If a culture is a social group of meanings then
we identify and define two distinct sets of
meanings about violence in American society
– The movie will show that members of the
respective groups are complicitous in their
subjugation of meaning systems
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• Develop ideas embedded in the essay’s
thesis
– Evidence
• Opening scene - pastoral nature of Amish life is
starkly contrasted with American society as it is
portrayed in American police drama
• The boy discovers a duality in the nature of death
– Amish (and religious) Peaceful and ‘god-like’
– Police (and urban) Violent and uncontrolled
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• More evidence
– Harrison Fords retreat to the Amish community
brings this disparate part (urban violence) of
American society to Amish life
– Amish life has impact on Ford at the same time
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• Cultural Criticism Example
– The love interest that develops in Witness is
less of a love story and more of an example of
how the two cultures are separated in ways that
passion cannot overcome
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• Cultural Criticism Example
– The boy illustrates the confusion society has the
way police drama identify and portray good and
evil
• Is Ford ‘good’ despite the fact that he uses violence
in ways that are abhorrent to the Amish?
• Are the Amish ‘good’ even though they choose to
withdraw and not participate in society, perhaps
making it better?
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• Conclusion
– Witness is a film that was misunderstood by the
critics who misjudged its change in mood
• The film was an attempt to portray these disparate
parts within our society to illustrate how violence
permeates our portrayal of police stories
• The film makes a definite statement about the nature
of violence in American cinematography
Cultural Criticism Example