Compare the movie Hercules with Mythology by Edith Hamilton, which includes the story of Hercule

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A FILM RESEARCH REPORT

4-5 pages, word processed, double-spaced, submitted on SafeAssign, which will check for plagiarism.

REMINDER: IF ANY PART OF YOUR PAPERS IS PLAGIARIZED, IT IS AN AUTOMATIC ZERO. Whenever you include words written by someone else, USE QUOTATION MARKS AND INCLUDE THE SOURCE IN A WORKS CITED.

Your name, the class, the date and the name of the film should appear at the top.

1. State the film’s name, studio, release date, director, producer, description, running time, featured players.

2. Identify your supplemental work (the book or story that the film is based on, an article in an encyclopedia, biography, history etc.), either in the body of the report or in the “Works Cited” page. Where does this film’s story come from? Do the film credits have a “Based on the book …” statement? We want to find out what is fiction and what is fact, and what parts of the movie are fiction and what parts are fact.

PLEASE NOTE: YOUR SUPPLEMENTAL WORK MUST BE THE ORIGINAL SOURCE, OR AN ACADEMIC DISCUSSION THEREOF. NOT A GRAPHIC NOVEL, NOT AN EARLIER VERSION OF THE FILM SCRIPT. Your book is a source. But really, we are more interested in the actual source documents or academic work. If you are confused about the original source, ask me. Or go to Wikipedia and find out – but you may not use Wikipedia as a source; only to point you towards the actual sources. For example, if you choose to do The Lightning Thief, your source is NOT the graphic novels about Percy Jackson. Your sources should be Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. If you choose to do 300, your source is not graphic novels, but Herodotus’ Histories or some academic article about the battle of Thermopylae. IMDB IS NEVER ACCEPTABLE AS A SOURCE.

3. A brief review (no more than a paragraph) of the film and what it’s about.

4. What does the film tell us about the time and place in which it is set? What are the differences/similarities between the setting of the film and our own time and place?

5. What are the differences between the film and the supplemental work? Why, in your opinion, did the film-maker make these changes? Did the film-maker “get it right”?

6 How does the film-maker use his/her art and production values to comment upon human experience in the film?

7. What historical indicators (art, technology, costume, custom, religion) appear in the film? Are they presented authentically? Are there any historical anomalies (e.g., steel in the stone age, contemporary language or behavior)?

8. What ultimate value does this film have to a Humanities class?

9. Would you recommend this film to a friend? Would you recommend the supplemental work?

10. If you were the film-maker, how could you have improved on the product? To make it more entertaining? More educational? More interesting? More authentic?

11. Does this film help you to understand human nature, behavior, the human experience or your own life any better?

12. Are there any similarities, reminders or relationships between this film and modern life, public figures, or common situations? Are they intentional, in your opinion? Why, or why not?

13. BE SURE TO CITE EVERY SOURCE. If you use anyone else’s words, make sure that you use quotation marks and include a works cited. FAILURE TO CITE CORRECTLY IS TREATED AS PLAGIARISM. DO NOT USE ANYONE ELSE’S WORDS UNLESS YOU CAN CITE THEM.

The goal of this assignment is for you to engage with the ORIGINAL SOURCE MATERIAL that is of interest to a student of Humanities.

If you choose to do a book report, you are expected to read THE ACTUAL BOOK you choose from the list, and your paper should demonstrate (prove) that you read it with your insightful analysis and response.
If you choose to do a film, your paper is a compare/contrast assignment. You are to compare/contrast the film interpretation with the ORIGINAL SOURCE MATERIAL it references. For example, if you choose to do the film 300, you should find out about the ACTUAL battle of Thermopylae, from an authority on the subject, such as Herodotus’ account, or a historian’s academic writings on the subject. Even your textbook is a suitable source. Then find what is historical fact and what is out of the filmmaker’s imagination.

In order to find good sources, you may START at Wikipedia. BUT YOU MAY NOT USE WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE – use it only to find the sources listed on the wikipedia page. YOU MAY NOT USE IMDB AS A SOURCE. WHAT YOU MAY NOT DO is compare/contrast with graphic novels, video games, novelizations of a movie, or earlier versions of the script. The whole point is to discern whether the filmmakers did a historically accurate presentation, or if things were changed. To do so, you must check a source that would actually know.


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