Analyse and comment on the success Essay Example for Free

Analyse and comment on the success Essay Analyse and comment on the success of the title sequence of Baz Luhrmanns 1997 film adaptation of Romeo Juliet  The 1997 adaptation of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann was attempting to reach out to a younger audience by modernising the old play with new ideas, even though the old text was kept. Set in modern times with modern things that a young audience could relate to, Luhrmann successfully hauled Shakespeares text from 16th century Verona, Italy to late 20th century Miami, USA. The purpose of this essay is to review, analyse and comment on the use of Luhrmanns background to help him in making the movie, the success of the film but most importantly the cinematic success of the title scene. The location was specifically chosen to represent modern times. America was the most modern country available. Although Luhrmann wanted to shoot the film in Miami, it was seen by the mayor of Miami as unrealistic to put the city on hold while they shot the movie; Mexicos capital city, Mexico City was used instead. It had everything the crew needed, it had a typical city milieu; it was perfect. As the movie was going to be originally set in Miami, the characters had to at least look like they were from Miami. The Montague household wore very casual Hawaiian t-shirts, which were not buttoned up but hung loosely on the wearer. The Capulets wore very serious, cool clothes, mostly dark colours like black and grey. The choices of clothes used were to symbolise gangsters and mob mentality. from ancient grudge break to new mutiny were being portrayed by Luhrmann, as two rival gangs. Casting was very much a big thing in Luhrmanns version. He had to pick actors that young people could relate to. It was hard finding such actors, as the young and popular ones had problems reading Shakespeares diverse and complicated old English text. Luhrmann knew that Leonardo Di Caprio would be perfect for Romeo, as he was a heartthrob worldwide, and would bring in the young girls, who adored him. Throughout the movie we are shown images of power. These images are more abundant in the opening title scene. Images of guns, violence and police are shown to create an atmosphere of chaos and anarchy. The guns are used, again to create a modernised version of the old play. The guns represent the swords used by the people in the sixteenth century, and they are referred to as swords by the actors, put up thy swords. Religion is one of the main themes in the play, and Luhrmann uses many powerful images to show this in the opening title scene. Two statues of Jesus are filmed round about either side of the city. The statues are opposite each other with their faces facing inwards, as if looking over the people of Verona and keeping guard. Also the Christian crucifix is used to replace some of the Ts in the scripture which occasionally flash between the montage of images of police, violent riots and arrests; the scripture is repeating the important parts of the sonnet that opens the play. Cinematography is used to great effect in the opening scene. Zooming and panning left and right all help to create the effect of disorder and chaos. Before the title of the movie is actually shown there is a montage of images; each clip lasts only for a split second. Each clip is taken from the movie to show the audience that it isnt an old fashioned soppy love story, but a violent, tragic blockbuster. Using the scenes of gun fights and violence the montage really creates an adrenalin rush. The music and the backing track for the title scene really goes with the visual picture on the screen. Fast tempo gets the blood pumping and again it helps to cause chaos. It has real power as it builds up towards the end of the title scene; during the montage of images it speeds up and the power of it envelops you. Then finally we see the title of the movie and the music stops after a few seconds after the title falls into view and the audience is left in silence. In conclusion, considering all the areas of the title scene, Baz Luhrmann has successfully given birth to a fantastic opening to Romeo and Juliet. The title scene underlines key aspects of the sonnet which opens the play, to help the people in the audience who dont understand Shakespeare and even the ones who do. He introduces the principle characters, again to stop the audience from getting confused. The use of exciting images, such as the gun and the images of police and violence makes certain people in the audience stay and not walk out because they may believe it to be boring; many teenagers would believe Shakespeare to be boring. The opening scene had a very strong effect on me personally. It really made me want to see the movie again, even though I had already seen it about three times. The scene gripped me and not many title scenes have done that to me. Baz Luhrmanns version of Romeo and Juliet was a complete success.

The Cult Of True Womanhood Essay examples -- essays research papers

The Cult of True Womanhood The "Cult of True Womanhood" has greatly influenced society throughout all of America's history. This set of standards was first accepted and practiced by all of the European colonies. They were then passed through the generations and, in many cases, still exist. I'll describe the essay, "The Cult of True Womanhood," and discuss my views on it. I'll then illustrate how these standards are still present in today's society. First, I'll discuss the essay. It's easiest to describe this essay if I begin by defining "The Cult of True Womanhood." As I stated the introduction, it is a set of standards. These principles create and have created a strong division between the genders, and therefore, caused tension. Basically, it states that men are to work and make money for the family. A woman's goal was to find a husband and have children. Women were also expected to have four main cardinal virtues - piety, purity, submissiveness, and domestication. Piety is, basically, grace. Women were to expected to always be dainty and lovely. Purity speaks for itself. Women were expected to stay abstinent until marriage. Submissiveness means that the woman should, once married to a man, completely devote herself to him, carrying out his every wish within her power. One very powerful sentence in the essay well represents the woman's goals and values well according to "The Cul...

Doing Gender Essay

One of the most seemingly overlooked topics in the society is the question on sex and gender. In most cases, sex and gender are being taken as related, if not synonymous, insights in the course of sociological context. However, it is aimed in this paper to point out that there are indeed differences between the two concepts, and these differences are significant in contextualizing sex and gender among individuals in the society. Hence, to point out clearly, sex and gender differences are essential in â€Å"doing gender† and assessing it. First and foremost, to do gender is perceived as to act or behave based on what had been the presupposed actions of an individual, depending mostly on his or her sex/gender assignment. There are two main types of the correlative notions of sex and/or gender: to be male or to be female. Following so, it had been long established in most societies that a male individual should do according to the standards of what a male must do. These are behaviors that commonly relate to physical attributions such as strength or power, and are manifested in ordinary actions and preferences like being sports-minded, taking engineering or mathematical courses, and the likes. On the other hand, females are taken in a less important light, that is, by identifying her to be of weaker and of subtler tendencies, such as doing the housework, following what her father says regardless of reason, and so on. It is â€Å"well recognized that the [†¦] household is constituted by a division of labor that defines certain kinds of work as domestic, unpaid, and usually women’s, and other kinds as public, paid, and usually men’s† (Connel, 1987, p. 122). According to West and Zimmerman (1987), â€Å"Sex [†¦] was what was ascribed by biology: anatomy, hormones, and physiology [while] gender [†¦] was an achieved status: that which is constructed through psychological, cultural, and social means† (p. 125). This could be a very simplified difference between sex and gender: It is with how the concepts are distributed in the different fields or aspects. However, it must be understood that the difference is merely that sex is a biological concept and gender is a social concept; â€Å"sex is a determination made through the application of socially agreed upon biological criteria for classifying persons as females or males† (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 127). In this sense, sex may also be taken in a social context, in that it applies several sociological determinants in order to prove or identify it. The categorization of an individual’s sex is determined rather by a common-sensical manner most of the time, in which the observant deduces the sex category to the sex itself of the individual in question, in absence of the more vivid biological justifications of a person’s sex. It is common understanding that there had already been established social norms that contribute to the categorization of a person. The process of categorizing males and females as indigenous identities uses this test: â€Å"if people can be seen as members of relevant categories, then categorize them that way† (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 133). Naturally, people take the identity of a person at face value, unless there is a strong ground that makes them apply certain criteria that will try to test further that person’s sex. Gender, quite relatively, moves on with what the society implores on one’s identity. A male person must be masculine; a female must be feminine. We would like to digress then, that the acceptance of sex and gender merely as concepts does not totally stop here. Gender, in some cases, goes beyond adherence to what is socially acceptable. To do gender is â€Å"not always to live up to normative conceptions of femininity or masculinity; it is to engage in behavior at the risk of gender assessment† (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 136). Therefore, we are taking into consideration the ways in which people could see further than what had merely been established by the society. Doing gender is not just accepting or agreeing to what the society tells us to; it is â€Å"creating differences between girls and boys and women and men, differences that are not natural, essential, or biological† (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 137). The differences that we would like to see revolves not only on shallow aspects but also on how we could integrate these differences into going further down the line and probably initiating actions that will give a new light to the concepts of sex and gender. As what West and Zimmerman (1987) says, â€Å"social change, then, must be pursued both at the institutional and cultural level of sex category and at the interactional level of gender† (p. 147). We can illustrate doing gender in these following scenarios: In a typical neighborhood, the wife was able to get home from work earlier than her husband. She was wearing an old rose blouse, a matching old rose slacks, and high heeled shoes. She went straight home after her classes from the town high school. She has just been recently married with her husband, and they do not have children yet. She then proceeded to do the cooking for their dinner, while at the same time, she quietly took note of her students’ exam papers she still had to check later. When her (engineer) husband came, he greeted his wife and went to the kitchen where they ate their dinner. They talked about work and later agreed that the husband will wash the dishes afterwards. This routine has been in effect since the time that they got married and lived together. In this scenario, it is very clear that there is an â€Å"engendered† division of labor especially inside the household. The productive side is not merely given to the husband since the wife also earns through being a teacher. In a similar manner, the reproductive side is not solely attributed to the wife because they have agreed to share on doing the household chores. The gender roles are not purely associated with what is feminine or what is masculine. Even if washing the dishes may construe the feminine side, the husband still agreed on doing it. At least in this case, the couple was able to manage â€Å"contradictions between relational identification and gender differentiation† (Dryden, 1999, p. 87) in the sense that they both realize not only the essence of marriage as a relationship but also as a matter of gender difference that they could compromise about. Similarly, in the same neighborhood, a little girl points at a blue balloon. She wanted her mother to buy it for her. The old male vendor was looking intently at the girl, commenting that because she is a girl, she should take the pink balloon instead. The little girl shook her head and pointed at the blue balloon. Her mother was able to resolve the situation by buying the blue balloon. Simplistic in nature, this scenario may pose as a very ordinary activity, but a lot of people always see things like the way the vendor did. There are always assignments among boys and girls – that boys should choose blue things and girls should choose pink things. It is almost linearly righteous to take these preferences as normal things, but it must be understood that the identity between a girl and a boy does not merely punctuate from their color or toy preferences. We cannot just assume that just because the girl was a girl, she should have a pink balloon. To do gender is to go outside the confinements of the socially-accepted norms. To do gender means not to reinforce the social norms since these could block the freedom of a person to prefer or to choose what he or she really likes. To be a boy or to be a girl does not follow with how the society must shape him or her. In this case, it is fortunate that the girl’s mother completely understands how to â€Å"engender† her child by not just adhering to the accepted norms in the society. Learning about doing gender is an important part of capacitating oneself in the sense that it makes people understand day-to-day activities of people, male or female alike. Doing gender is vital in assessing the identities of individuals. It not only supersedes from the power of gaining knowledge, but it is more of reinventing how we deal with ourselves and other people in terms of sex and gender. The gender differences may prove to be worthwhile as basis for re-contextualizing and reconstructing the concept of gender.As in West’s book â€Å"Doing Gender, Doing Difference† (2002) gender is â€Å"always a doing† (p. 193). References Connel, R. W. (1987). Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Dryden, C. (1999). Being Married, Doing Gender: A Critical Analysis of Gender Relationships in Marriage. U. K. : Routledge. West, C. (2002). Doing gender, doing difference: inequality, power, and institutional change. U. K. : Routledge. West, C. & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender and Society, 1, 125-148.

Chemical Attack Essay - 3137 Words

The Chemicals of the Super Bowl Cory Barnett HSM 320: Emergency Response to Terrorism Instructor Kelly George September 2, 2013 The Chemicals of the Super Bowl The Super Bowl, a prime place where thousands of people come to celebrate, party and get together with others for an exceptional good time. All it would take is for one terrorist attack to change all that in the matter of minutes. The amount of mass confusion and mass injuries that could happen would be completely on the terrorist’s side but just how easy would this be to complete? However, there is a plan in place for incidents like this and many more and I will be taking a look at one in particular, a chemical attack at the Super Bowl. The scenario is Hydrogen†¦show more content†¦As more cyanide is absorbed, consciousness is lost, respiration decreases in rate and frequency, and seizures, cessation of breathing, and disturbances in heart rate and rhythm follow. After inhalation of a high concentration of vapor, seizures can occur within 30 seconds, and cessation of breathing and disturbances of cardiac rhythm follow. Death occu rs in 6 to 10 minutes after exposure. (Maniscalco amp; Christen, 2011) Being that the Super Bowl security would be considered a Level 1 national security type of event, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) takes over security of the entire event. (Jessop, 2013) The FBI has operated a central Joint Operations Center (JOC) during the Super Bowl for several years now and it consists of many government agencies all in one center, therefore making communication much easier among all the agencies. Inside, there for many work stations for each agency and wall monitors that show surveillance camera views, television news broadcasts, Law Enforcement Online’s Virtual Command Center website that tracks security incidents and can be accessed remotely by any law enforcement member and other intelligence information. 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