Who you want to win... who you want to win...

[Bob Impact]

So Sarah has this project in her American film class, she has to pick a decade, and then choose for films from that decade to write papers about. The films must fall into the following categories, Art, Business, Social and Technological. She decided on the 70s because there is such a wide range of great movies to choose from. The question is, what would your list be given that criteria. Remember this is not a list of your favorite movies from these categories, but ones that you could write a good paper on.

Here's mine:

Business: Star Wars (77)
Technology: Alien(79)
Art: The Deer Hunter (78)
Social: Apocalypse Now (79)

Now I skew heavily towards the end of the decade, and Deer Hunter is holding onto it's spot by the skin of it's teeth.

Notable Runner ups for that spot are One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Taxi Driver, Salo, and Chinatown.

[Fat_Sunny]

F_S Agrees WIth The 70's, But Why Star Wars For Business? Is She Writing About The Theme/Plot Of The Movie, Or ABout The Whole Eneterprise, Including The Making Of The Movie?

Assuming It Is Just About The Movie's Plot/Theme, F_S Would Recommend For Business: Network.

[Bob Impact]

F_S Agrees WIth The 70's, But Why Star Wars For Business? Is She Writing About The Theme/Plot Of The Movie, Or ABout The Whole Eneterprise, Including The Making Of The Movie?

Assuming It Is Just About The Movie's Plot/Theme, F_S Would Recommend For Business: Network.

Sorry, its about the intersection between the movies and reality there, in other words, the business category is there to write about blockbusters, or movies that went on to do a lot of business.

[Fat_Sunny]

Sorry, its about the intersection between the movies and reality there, in other words, the business category is there to write about blockbusters, or movies that went on to do a lot of business.

Got It! Star Wars Is A Good Choice Then.

[epo]

Alright....I'll bite. I'm assuming these categories don't have too much depth based on the previous conversation but are:

Business: The Intersection between the film & the business aspects of the film.
Technology: The effects the film had on technology
Art: The artist & the creation of the artist film
Social: The social commentary of the film.

That being said .... with the 70's as a base I would recommend:

Business: The Exorcist (1973)
Technology: Star Wars (1977)
Art: Being There (1979)
Social: Dirty Harry (1971)

[torker]

Business:
http://www.shadowsonthewall.co.uk/images/swextter.jpg
Technology:
http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimemedia/images/robocop.jpg
Art:
http://www.claudiocolombo.net/FotoDVD/shining1.jpg
Social:
http://img.search.com/thumb/d/d1/Phoebe_Cates_Fast_Times.jpg/250px-Phoebe_Cates_Fast_Times.jpg

[SatCam]

Notable Runner ups for that spot are One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Taxi Driver, Salo, and Chinatown.

I would put cuckoos nest and taxi driver in social too

[Yerdaddy]

So Sarah has this project in her American film class, she has to pick a decade, and then choose for films from that decade to write papers about. The films must fall into the following categories, Art, Business, Social and Technological. She decided on the 70s because there is such a wide range of great movies to choose from. The question is, what would your list be given that criteria. Remember this is not a list of your favorite movies from these categories, but ones that you could write a good paper on.

Here's mine:

Business: Star Wars (77)
Technology: Alien(79)
Art: The Deer Hunter (78)
Social: Apocalypse Now (79)

Now I skew heavily towards the end of the decade, and Deer Hunter is holding onto it's spot by the skin of it's teeth.

Notable Runner ups for that spot are One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Taxi Driver, Salo, and Chinatown.

The 70s is the best decade for sure. You've got good choices except I don't understand The Deer Hunter for art. Granted the art category is a difficult one to pick.

Here's my thoughts:

Star Wars would be perfect for both business or technology - business because it revolutionized crossover marketing for better or worse - with Star Wars toys, games, clothing, cereal, video games, Underoos, etc. It also revolutionized movie special effects, but if you have to pick one "money" is probably the most interesting even if it would require more research than just watching the movie. Too bad there's not a choice for "movies with acting one hit wonders" or Star Wars would be perfect.

Technology - Aliens is probably as good as any. Too bad 2001 was a couple years too early. You may be able to do something with A Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters, or especially The Conversation. The Exorcist had really great special effects. The Last Picture Show is about change in cinema as well as people. Sleeper would be alot of fun.

My choice for art would be Apocolypse now as a complete re-setting of Conrad's Heart of Darkness to 100 years later, and set in a war that was still fresh in the minds of its audience. I often reccomend the novella, the movie and the Oscar-winning documentary made by Coppola's wife "Hearts of Darkness" about the making of the movie, as a study in converting literature to film. Only drawback might be that she probably won't be the only student to pick this subject.

Social is the easiest category because every movie deals with culture in some way or another. There would be two ways to go on this - a movie that reflected culture or a movie that effected culture. If it were me I'd pick Blazing Saddles. That movie was and still is the most daring movie about racism we've ever had. The premise was simple: make a movie about a couple of guys getting by in a world full of really dumb racists and make it so funny that people will love the movie enough to suspend the initial impulse to be offended by the words used and give some thoughts to what was really being said, which is that racism is stupid. It was really risky but I don't think the movie could have been any better than Mel Brooks made it. Brooks, if I remember correctly had been active in the Civil Rights Movement from early on as well as intimately familiar with the history of anti-semitism, but at the same time he wasn't hypersensitive about racism. The message came second to the funny. He did the same with The Producers in which he was one of the first film makers to make Nazis funny. In the end I think the effect of the movie, (to the degree that any one movie actually effects people), aside from being probably the funniest American movie ever, was that anyone heard saying or doing any of the racist stuff in that movie was seen to be the idiot they really are. It proabably made it much easier for the younger generation - following the Civil Rights Movement - to be empowered to stand up to overt racism, if only by referencing Blazing Saddles.

There's so much you could also say about the decade in which the movie was made - since that is a part of the assignment. Coming right after the Civil Rights Movment's peak decade, they never could have made the movie ten years earlier. I also don't think they could have made the movie ten years later, when America was trying to put race relations behind it as an issue even though it clearly hadn't gone away.

She should have alot of material to work with on it. There's at least one good director's commentary or mini-documentary from Brooks and the producers and writers of the movie on my DVD. And Mel Brooks is always open to talking about his movies so there's got to be articles about it. Wikipedia doesn't have much but the library or Lexus-Nexus would have tons of articles from the period.

It would also be interesting to note that they got Richard Pryor to help write the screenplay - and was first choice to play Bart but he was too unreliable - but he ended up writing most of Mongo's part. Also there's some good quotes from Burton Gilliam (the great airplane mechanic from Fletch) in the DVDs documentary who was a Southerner who really struggled to say the N word in the film.

Ask her if you can post the completed essays on here. I'd like to read them.

[topless_mike]

star wars is the best choice for bidness, and here's why.
when the movie was in the production phase, the movie company wanted rights to the theatre income (sorry if my words are unclear- i gotta poop and somebody's hoggin up the stall).
lucas, realizing the ability for this film to last 30+ years, agreed to fork over the box office share in lieu of all merchandising and licensing rights.
well, thats why lucas is as rich as he is now.

[AJDELAWARE]

A Clockwork Orange would be a good one for Art, in my humblest of opinions. 1971 too.

[Recyclerz]

If predicting the intermediate future were one of the categories you would have to put Network right at the top.

I see a strong case for using it as the business or social case study.

[Yerdaddy]

star wars is the best choice for bidness, and here's why.
when the movie was in the production phase, the movie company wanted rights to the theatre income (sorry if my words are unclear- i gotta poop and somebody's hoggin up the stall).
lucas, realizing the ability for this film to last 30+ years, agreed to fork over the box office share in lieu of all merchandising and licensing rights.
well, thats why lucas is as rich as he is now.

This post would make more sense if you weren't so full of shit?

[Bob Impact]

Yerdaddy was right, I'll be honest, my pick for Deer Hunter was really just so I could watch it again.