write a Critical Review of the film drawing on all you have learned by viewing the film, responding to and creating questions about it, reading the imdb entry,Roger Ebert's review, and any other online sources you consulted. Follow the guidelines for writing the paper I provided, and use the sample paper I gave you on Batman as a model. That paper is due by Tuesday, May 24, as an e-mail Word attachment.
Writing a Critical Review of a Film
To write an effective critical analysis, you must first be sure that you understand the assignment. Watch the film you select to review, consider how the elements of film (e.g., plot, character, setting, imagery, and visual and special effects), identify its theme and determine how the director develops it while uses music and cinematic devices to enhance its projection to viewers. Answer the questions provided by the instructor, read the review by Roger Ebert, and raise questions of your own about the film. Review these activities, and then try to formulate a rough thesis statement (your "claims") about the quality of the film. Next, try to select those pieces of evidence that you feel you can most convincingly use to support the claims you made. Next, try to formulate a good introduction, that
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names the work discussed and the author.
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provides a very brief plot summary.
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relates some aspect of that plot to the topic you have chosen to address.
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provides a thesis statement.
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indicates the way you plan to develop your argument (support your claim).
Now proceed to introduce and discuss the evidence you mentioned in your introduction, in the order in which you mentioned it. Ensure that you deal with each kind of evidence in a paragraph of its own, and that you introduce the topic of each paragraph with a carefully-focused topic sentence. Also ensure that you end each paragraph with a concluding sentence that sums up the thrust of that paragraph's argument and possibly paves the way for the next piece of evidence to be discussed. (Alternatively, you can begin the next paragraph with a transitional phrase that links the new piece of evidence with the one you have just summarized.)
Finally, write a conclusion that restates your thesis (but using different words), incorporates a brief restatement of your key evidence, and provides a sense of closure. A good closing technique is to somehow link the claim you have made about this particular film and suggest some way in which the topic you have just discussed relates more generally to some aspect of human existence. Film is life!