Film Analysis Annotated Bibliography

Instructions for Annotated Bibliography:

In preparation for your Film Analysis paper, you must collect at least four reviews of the film. The purpose of this assignment is for you to use the library resources and to consider the difference in perspective between reviewers with informed expertise, and the more general public. You must locate two reviews of the film by authorities on the subject matter (historians, biographers, etc.) and two popular sources (newspaper or magazine reviews). This will enable you to consider the scholarly response to the film versus the popular reception before writing your paper.

You should search the Jackson library catalog, including articles, to identify the scholarly sources. If the publication is not an academic one, you may still use it as your "scholarly" source as long as the writer has expertise on the subject matter. A lot of mainstream magazines, like the New Yorker or The Atlantic, publish reviews of films by informed experts. Then, compare with some reviews from regular film critics and newspapers. Submit four sources with proper citations for each and write a paragraph for each source explaining its assessment of the film. For the scholarly articles, you must explain the scholar's expertise. Choose the four most interesting or insightful reviews you can find.

See the examples below for the format of the citation and summaries. Use the Chicago Style for the bibliographical entries:

Film Sources

1. Breen, Patrick A. “The Birth of a Nation.” Journal of American History 104, no. 1 (June 2017): 309-311. https://doi-org.libproxy.uncg.edu/10.1093/jahist/jax161 (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.).

Patrick Breen is a professor of history at Bowdoin College, who specializes in the history of slavery. In his film review, Breen states that the filmmaker, Nate Parker, used on only one text (Thomas Gray’s Confessions of Nat Turner) to create his story. Parker created back stories for characters that are not supported in historical records, such as the abuse of Turner's wife. Breen uses the marks on a young Nat Turner, his father’s escape from slavery, and even Parker’s story of Turner being hired out to preach to slaves in order to keep them “in line” as examples of Parker’s inventions regarding Turner’s life. Furthermore, Breen states, Parker ignores the fact that the revolt led to attacks on a school and the murders of infants and children—a fact that is well-documented.

2. Cunningham, Vinson. “Ghost Story: Nat Turner’s Rebellion Comes to the Movies.” New Yorker 92, no. 32 (October 2016): 102-105.

Vinson Cunningham, writing for the New Yorker, stated that the potential success for the film was marred by the controversies surrounding Parker (who also played the adult Nat Turner) and the fact that the film did not respect the stories of women who were mistreated at the hands of men. While Cunningham does acknowledge that even telling any part of Turner’s story on an “epic scale” such as Birth of a Nation is important, he later states that the film is “not worth the efforts of its defenders.” The initial excitement and euphoria felt for the film was significantly suppressed by the fact that women and the struggles they endured were severely underrepresented in the film, and were seen as “mere incitements for the wicked deeds and righteous actions of men.”

3. Edelstein, David. “Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation is a Melodramatic Revenge Saga.” New York Media (October 2016). https://login.libproxy.uncg.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.uncg.edu/docview/1900208692?accountid=14604 (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.).

David Edelstein remarks on Parker’s choice to ignore the killings of children by Turner’s revolt. This was done to create the hero the movie needed while also creating a cookie-cutter super-villain, in the shape of character Raymond Cobb, expected in Hollywood movies. Additionally, he criticizes the fact that the plot was predictable and adhered to the “most ruthless Hollywood vigilante template.” The movie was clichéd, Edelstein believes, and “bluntly calculated,” which harmed the historical value of the story. Edelstein further states that the impact of the film on national protests and controversies is lessened when Parker’s controversial past was again unearthed during the film’s promotion.