Submit the assignment under Assignments.
The purpose of this assignment is to critically watch and review a movie with popular culture
themes/symbols in terms of the sociological perspective and cultural theories.
Many say art imitates life, and we see a reflection of our society and its values in art and
entertainment. Others say life imitates are many of our behaviors and values are modeled after
what we see in art and entertainment. Either way, you will find examples of popular culture in
the movies.
1) Select a movie: For this assignment, you will need to select one movie. Even if it is a movie
you have seen before, you need to re-watch the movie with a critical eye towards the social
construction of reality and illustrations of other sociological/cultural concepts.
Suggested Movie Options:
Hotel Rwanda
Office Space
The Village
Last Samurai
The Wall
Pretty in Pink
The Breakfast Club
Grapes of Wrath
To Kill a Mockingbird
Clockwork Orange
Crash
The Gods Must be Crazy
American History X
Inherit the Wind
Bullworth
Lord of the Flies
With Honors
Working Girl
Rain Man
Chocolat
Last Castle
Brazil
Gandhi
Cape Fear (deNiro version)
Mothman Prophecies
Glory
Hoop Dreams
It’s a Wonderful Life
Pretty Woman
Citizen Kane
Fight Club
Nosferatu
Taxi Driver
Roger & Me
Dead Poet’s Society
Life is Beautiful
The Truman Show
Affluenza
Risky Business
Philadelphia
Parenthood
Witness
Million Dollar Baby
Boys Don’t Cry
Mystic River
Traffic
Stepford Wives
The Terminal
Bowling for Columbine
The Hours
Cabin Fever
Radio
Titanic
Coming to America
Fight Club
Mona Lisa’s Smile
American Beauty
The Matrix
Erin Brokovich
Baby Boom
Dogma
Shawshank Redemption
Meet Joe Black
2) Analyze the movie: After watching the movie, you will write a 3-5 page review, consisting of:
a) intro paragraph noting the relevance of the movie to the course
b) one page description/summary of the contents of the film
-How was the story presented?
——-i.e. flashbacks, sequential, from a particular character’s point of view, etc.
-What was the intention of the film and/or filmmaker?
——-Was this intention fulfilled or met?
-Did the way the movie was produced and presented affect the content?
-Were there specific scenes or occurrences which stood out as being essential to
the development of the story and/or to your understanding of it?
-Major substantive points of the movie?
-Any secondary points made?
-Any ‘unintentional’ results of the movie?
c) .5-1 page in which you discuss how popular culture themes were constructed in the
movie use at least 3 examples
d) 1-2 pages in which you use at least 4 sociological/cultural concepts covered in this
course to analyze the movie
e) Analyze which issues emerged as the strongest…as the weakest?
f) Briefly compare the popular culture themes in the movie you watched for this
assignment to another movie you have previously seen that had similar themes.
g) Briefly compare the popular culture themes in the movie you watched to another agent
through which these themes are portrayed/pass on
The paper should be typed, double-spaced, 12-point font, 1” margins. Remember to include a
citation for the movie, in proper APA format, and make sure your name is on your paper.
