Choose 1 (one) movie/documentary from the following list. Alternatively, with my approval, you can select any other movie of your choice. You are expected to analyze this movie from a sociological perspective.
• A movie analysis essay is NOT a summary of the plot, or a review of the movie, or a record of your emotional reactions to the movie, or a report on random associations that were inspired by the movie.
• Rather, a movie analysis essay is a way for you to show me how you can apply ideas and insights from class to understand health-related issues in new and deeper ways.
So, you need to use the ideas, terms, and theories from the textbook and lectures - not just to show that you know what they mean, but to show how they can help you understand health-related issues presented in the video.
Ultimately, you need to discuss how knowledge about health, social epidemiological issues would help you interpret the thoughts, feelings, actions, strategies, interests, and relationships presented in the video.
• Once you have identified the major issue / problem that the movie / documentary addresses, the extended movie paper must also address the following issues:
o Identify the major social forces or social structural conditions that are contributing to the problem and explain the nature of their influence.
o Describe how the problem has been socially constructed, especially by different groups in the society have a stake in the problem and its outcome?
o Do the groups agree on how to define the issue or problem? How do their values and social position influence how they see this issue and what they think should be done about it?
o Examine the issues in a comparative or cross-cultural perspective - that is how is the issue viewed or analyzed in different countries or cultures?
o You may also wish to discuss societal level efforts to address the problem and how social forces or social structural conditions may be making it difficult to make changes to address the problem you identified.
o Discuss the social implications of your observations. What social, policy, or medical responses would be appropriate or are needed to ameliorate the problem you identified?
o What policies or interventions do you think are still needed? What is the likelihood that our society (or the societies you studied, if not the United States) can respond in ways you describe?
o Does the problem presented in the documentary touch on ethics. Does this ethical dilemma reflect broader social conflicts or concerns? How is this ethical dilemma viewed in different countries or among different cultural groups in the U.S.?
• Your analysis will consist of 4 proofread, typewritten pages, and apply different concepts and theories from the readings, lectures, and class discussions.
• My expectation is that you apply ideas, theories, concepts, etc from the course and relate them to real life situations as depicted in the documentary. The more theories and concepts you use, the better.
• Indicate what is missing in the documentary, and how its arguments could be improved. For example, does it cover other vulnerable groups - women and children, aged, etc?
• You should incorporate at least 3-4 additional sources into your paper.
• Documentaries usually include varying characters, behaviors, scenes and relationships. Do not write about all of them. Choose just a few as your focus.
• When referring to characters in your report, please use the proper character name in the movie (e.g. "William Shakespeare"), not the actor's name (e.g. "Joseph Fiennes") or some descriptive shorthand (e.g. "the guy with the long neck").
• Erin Brockovich. 2000. 132 min. Based on the true story of a working-class, divorced mother who successfully organized a legal fight against the large utility company that was poisoning her city's water supply with toxic waste.
• El Norte. 141 min. 1983. Fiction. After their parents are murdered for protesting harsh working conditions, two teenage peasants leave Guatemala and emigrate illegally to the United States. Vividly portrays the health consequences of conditions in poorer nations and the unhealthy conditions faced by many illegal immigrants in this country. Sick Role, Stigma and Illness
• Philadelphia.125 min. 1993. A closeted gay attorney, believing he has been fired from his corporate position because he has AIDS, sues his former employer for job discrimination. Vividly depicts the connections between stigma and illness. Living with Chronic Illnesses
• Passion Fish. 136 min. 1992. Moving and wryly humorous story of a woman's struggles to come to terms with paraplegia.
• Waterdance. 107 min. 1992. Gripping, semi-autobiographical account of a man coming to terms with paraplegia, emphasizing changes in self-concept and in reactions of others. Some explicit material. Mental Illness
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. 129 min. 1975. Fiction. A parable of life in a mental institution, emphasizing mental illness as a social construction and treatment of mental illness as social control.
• A Beautiful Mind. 135 min. 2001. A sympathetic portrayal of the life of a brilliant - and schizophrenic - mathematician. US Health Care System and Need for Reform
• John Q. 116 min. 2002. When his health insurance company refuses to pay for a needed heart transplant for his son, a father holds an emergency medical room team hostage to force them to provide the surgery. Manipulative and simplistic melodrama, but useful for beginning a discussion of managed care and insurance. Alternative Medicine
• Gray's Anatomy. 80 min. 1996. Brilliant monologist Spalding Gray tells how he lost vision in one eye and sought treatment from western doctors, an American Indian healer, and a "psychic surgeon" in the Philippines.