Friday, March 13, 2015

research paper source 1

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/arthur-miller/mccarthyism/484/

This is one of the sources that I plan to use for my research paper. The article, from PBS, provides a brief history about the reasons why McCarthyism became so widespread in the USA from about 1936. this source will help me write my research essay because the McCarthy movement was a very melodramatic way of forcing people to confess to supporting communism. this movement relates to The Blacklist because, in the show, Raymond Reddington plays a part similar to that of Joseph McCarthy; accusing people of heinous crimes; people would otherwise never be convicted of any crime. in this set up, the FBI are like McCarthy's followers, the ones that he "recruits" to find the people on his "blacklist". this is all melodramatic because in both examples, people blindly follow the one person who claims to know all of these things, but has no evidence of his accusations.  

Monday, March 2, 2015

research paper proposal

For my research paper, i want to write about the TV series, The Blacklist. in the show, Elizabeth Keen is an FBI agent, who's branch works with a wanted criminal, Raymond Reddington. i want to write about how Reddington is like a guardian over Elizabeth and it is melodramatic how somehow, he always knows what to do in any situation and somehow has this mysterious "Blacklist", from which he points out criminals one by one, but only providing partial information to the FBI and making them work to find out the rest of the information.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

blog post 2

Peter Brooks describes moral occult as, "that ethics are now determined, not by virtue but by terror. Her argument (about another author) images a world in which God exists still but, no longer as holy mystery . . . "God" has become an interdiction, a primitive force in nature that strikes fear in men's hearts but does not move them to allegiance and worship (Brooks, 18)." This type of scenario is seen in the television series, The Blacklist, where a man, Raymond Redington, an international criminal finds out that his long lost daughter is working for the FBI. he turns himself in and demand that he will only speak to her, Elizabeth Keen, who doesn't know that he is her father at the time. slowly, one by one, Redington uses the FBI to find other international criminals, which the government was not aware of initially. he calls this list of criminals, the "blacklist". Now eve though Redington is no rich man, he still manages to always wear the best of clothing, and live in the most luxurious of homes. He steals and kills, with no remorse and even makes jokes about his killings. the moral occult comes in this show because Redington claims to be a Christian and goes to an abandoned church every Sunday. Redington, although turns himself in to the FBI, ends up becoming a source for them and allows them to find xome of the most disgusting, brutal criminals to ever live. as Raymond Redington continues to work with the government agency, he reveals criminals one by one, but he never gives his "captors" all the information that they need to catch the criminal that he mentions. through his "games" he helps the FBI rid he world of terrible people who Redington feels the need to remove. 

All that Heaven Allows analysis

The music in the melodrama, All That Heaven Allows plays a large role, in that if the music was even a bit different, the mood would be changed. for example, when Cary was confronted by her son about marrying Ron Curby, we could tell easily, even before Cary entered the house, that the mood was becoming even worse than it already was; at the party that she had just left. when Cary enters her home, even though it is known to us to be the same home that she was in before, suddenly the entrance to their mansion is very dark, even though the fire is burning. here, the music becomes louder almost spontaneously as Cary notices her son standing by the fire. sometimes in the melodrama, the music might get so loud that it almost drowns out what the characters are saying, because what the character is about to say is so obvious due to the lighting, the tone, the preceding actions, etc. As David Bordwell said in Narration and Film Form, . . . music, one of the foundations of "melodrama" as classically conceived, communicates characters' connections and attitudes" (Bordwell 2) Bordwell, in his statement about music is exactly right in every aspect when it comes to the film, All that Heaven Allows. After Cary enters her house, she and Ned talk, but no matter what she says to Ned, he does not want to accept that she will move out of the house and marry Ron;the conversation ends with Ned storming out of the house, saying that he will not come home until she changes her mind

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Melodrama:
a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.