Entering a Conversation, Teaching The Academic Essay

In addition to the standard course requirements for Intro to Film and Critical Approaches to Cinema, my honors students must complete two essay projects: one formalist, one ideological (on onscreen representations of gender, sexuality, race, or class). For the Formalist Critique, due next Friday, students are asked to:

1. select and screen one of their favorite films, which they also own on DVD
2. submit a thesis statement via email that explains the overall argument of the essay
3. submit a brief via email that details the major sections of the essay (full intro and thesis, sections/reasons, key pieces of evidence). A separate handout explains the brief in full.
4. write a 4-6-page essay that demonstrates how THREE stylistic elements in the first five minutes of their film affect the meaning and impact of the entire work. In other words, students should ask themselves how the mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and/or sound in the film’s beginning prepare them for the remainder of the picture. At least two full paragraphs should be devoted to each element. To achieve this, students will obviously need to view the entire film.

As is typically the case, the Fall 2010 honors students have selected a wide range of films that represents both their cinematic and personal interests: He’s Just Not That Into You, American Beauty, Men Who Stare at Goats, (500) Days of Summer, Return of the King, Fried Green Tomatoes, There Will Be Blood, 300, The Believer, and Requiem for a Dream. At this point, I have seen all of the students’ thesis statements and briefs, and will report that the thesis statements were solid overall: arguable, able to be supported with evidence from the films, and clearly stated. The introductions, on the other hand…well. In short, it’s when the students begin to craft their introductions that things usually go awry, e.g., their quotes are not integrated properly, most sentences contain nothing but fluff, there is no flow or clear organization from one statement to the next. NOTE: This happens EVERY semester, not just with my current (great, hard-working!) honors students.

I blame some of these problems on high-school writing “rules,” e.g., don’t employ first person, search only for secondary sources that support (rather than refute) your argument, five-paragraph essays are the norm. But mostly I’ve found that writing an introduction for an academic essay proves difficult for my students because ostensibly they are not taught that academic writing “calls upon writers not simply to express their ideas, but to do so as a response to what others have said” (They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing). In other words, most of my students, whether honors or otherwise, are seemingly never taught that with argumentative essays, they need to “enter a conversation,” using what other people say as a springboard for their own ideas/thesis.

I explain this concept of “entering a conversation” on the sample briefs, but it still usually takes roughly 3-6 drafts, which the students and I rework together, before they completely grasp the concept. At this point, most of my students have revised their introductions to something with which we’re both pleased, so I thought I’d post a few of them below. As they’ve discovered through frustrating emails, multiple drafts, and my relentless prodding (!), academic writing can be hard work, and it takes practice to learn the craft. Still, as these intros suggest, the process is worth it in the end. I just hope my students feel the same way after they submit their final drafts! (NOTE: A couple of the intros are still “in progress.”)

American Beauty

About American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999), Roger Ebert writes: “The movie is about a man who fears growing older, losing the hope of true love and not being respected by those who know him best.” (par. 2). Indeed, Kevin Spacey’s Lester Burnham feels unloved and disrespected by his family. For example, he confides to the viewer, “Both my wife and daughter think I’m this gigantic loser. And they’re right.” As well, Lester informs us that his “highpoint of the day” will consist of “jerking off in the shower”; after that, he claims, “It’s all downhill.” This reversal of a typical, happy suburban family conveys how apathy and social expectations have ruined Lester’s American dream. We see this mindset not only throughout the bulk of the film, but even in the first five minutes. Specifically, through voice-over narration, strong establishing shots, and flash-forward editing, Sam Mendes communicates a story about a man whose dreams of happiness are unfulfilled because of social expectations and, as Ebert points out, because his family no longer values him as a father or a husband. It is these aspects of the film that this essay will consider.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

“It’s hard to resist a satire, even when it wobbles, that insists the most unbelievable parts are the most true” (Rolling Stone par. 1). This is Peter Travers’s overarching view of Grant Heslov’s satire, The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009). Travers is correct here; after all, Goats‘ opening title card, which reads “More of this is real than you would believe,” humorously teases the viewer that some of the film’s most “unbelievable parts” will, in fact, offer the most truth. We experience this specifically via Bill Wilson’s (Ewan McGregor) interview of a ex “psy-ops” soldier, when Wilson’s life spirals out of control, and as eccentric General Hopgood (insert name) runs into walls — all far-fetched actions that actually represent ___, ___, and ___, respectively. But again, it is the film’s opening — specifically its setting, camera movements and angles, dialogue, effects, and ambient noise — that sets the foundation for an unbelievably realistic satire.

Fried Green Tomatoes

About Kathy Bates’s character (Evelyn Couch) in Fried Green Tomatoes (Avnet 1991), Roger Ebert writes, “[She's] dowdy, unhappily married, [and] dripping with low self-esteem” (par. ??). True, Evelyn possesses these negative qualities (and more) throughout much of the narrative. However, when she meets Ninny (Jessica Tandy), a feisty old lady who narrates an engaging story about two southern women in the 1930s, Evelyn changes her ways, ultimately discovering that her unhappiness stems from her conformity to traditional southern societal pressures (e.g., list suffocating pressures here and here). Specifically, by taking inspiration from Ninny’s story, Evelyn undergoes a transformation from a housewife who seeks validation through her marriage to her husband Ed (Gailard Sartain) to a confident, assertive working woman. Although much of this modification takes place near the end of the film, the props, dialogue, and flashbacks in the first five minutes of Fried Green Tomatoes set up Evelyn’s subdued sense of self as well as her longing and curiosity for self-confidence and self-expression. It is these aspects of the Fried Green Tomatoes that I’d like to consider.

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Roger Ebert claims that audience members who haven’t seen the first two Lord of the Rings films (Peter Jackson, 2001, 2002) will likely “be adrift during the early passages of [the third] film’s 200 minutes.” But then again, Ebert continues, “to be adrift occasionally during this nine-hour saga comes with the territory” (par. 3). I understand why Ebert would make this claim; after all, uninformed viewers would potentially be lost during Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) as  ____, ____, and ____. However, this third installment opens with a flashback intended to familiarize new spectators about what happened in the previous two films. Within these five minutes, the audience discovers how Gollum (Andy Serkis) came to be corrupt and that the Ring he finds is a destructive power. Additionally here, the film’s seemingly happy tone violently changes after Gollum’s murder of his friend and uncovering of the Ring. The viewer, therefore, will not necessarily be “adrift,” as Ebert claims, since the lighting, setting, [list specific editing techniques and specific types of sound] in the opening of The Return of the King show the lighter, more peaceful world before the ring, compared to the darker, more sinister world after the ring.

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