Thursday, May 26, 2011
China Syndrome
I was also planning on writing about the "David and Goliath" theme in the movie. I plan on focusing on the relationship between Richard and the news station, as well as that between Jack and the people involved in the upper workings of the nuclear plant (his boss/boss' boss/ those in charge of falsifying information etc.)
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Hi, Beth,
ReplyDeleteYes, as we discussed last night, you need just raise the level of specificity here. For a brief, two-page paper, you will want a high level of particularity in terms of what you're looking at. I see two rather rich realms here. One: just take one or the other character and begin to answer the question, "Why does the film position this particular character as the hero?"
Also, I admire that second part of your post, in which you hint at this seemingly neverending hierarchy: the foreman, the plant manager, the TV exec, the CGE exec McCormick, etc. In sketching all those characters in a film, the director runs the risk of confusing us a bit. (Indeed, I can't remember all of those names.) So, why? To what effect? Why that endless chain of bosses of bosses of bosses?
See how that brings you to a wonderfully specific phenomenon for investigation? As a critic of culture, you are constantly judged not just on your interpretive prowess but also your ability to select and engineer meaningful phenomena to investigate. This is a good start, Beth.