The Movie That Changed Your Life

Course Description

The specific focus of this course is to help the student become familiar with, and understand, the means by which a powerful film may cause the viewer to undergo a potentially life-altering emotional experience, by employing methods and techniques unique to the cinematic art form as well as by employing means available to other story-telling or picture-rich media.  To gain such familiarity and understanding, they will study the color-illustrated text, Understanding Movies, as well as one text that explores archetypal story structure, The Writer’s Journey, and will read selections in another text that applies archetypal analysis to several films, Myth and the Movies.  To help them see how to write effective papers focusing on films, they will read selections in A Short Guide to Writing about Film. . To help them make the necessary corrections and revisions to their papers, and to help them build your corrections journal, they will consult The New Century Handbook or St. Martin’s Handbook.