Film and Media Studies Commons^™

"If You Want To Be The Man, You've Got To Beat The Man": Masculinity And The Rise Of Professional Wrestling In The 1990'S, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

This paper traces the relationship between the shifting representations of masculinity in professional wrestling programs of the 1990s and the contemporaneous shifts in conceptions of masculinity, examining the ways each of these shifts impacted the other. Most important among these was a growing sense that the biggest enemy in wrestling and in day-to-day life is one’s boss. Moreover, the corporate corruption theme continues to underscore the WWE’s on-screen and off-screen coverage, well into the second decade of the twenty-first century. Thus, the paper provides a template for considering a widely consumed popular cultural form in ways that challenge the determinism …

"No Innocent Victim"?: Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During The Holocaust As Trope In Zeugin Aus Der Hölle, Kerstin Steitz

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

This essay addresses how in the film Zeugin aus der Hölle, (1965, Witness out of hell) fictional sexualized violence against a female Jewish Holocaust survivor functions as a trope that exposes and rejects patriarchal and misogynist discourses of victimhood, perpetration, survivor shame, and guilt, which reviewers and scholars rightly have critiqued for such discourses’ re-victimizing and re-traumatizing effects upon victims. I argue that as a filmic trope sexualized violence served specific functions for its contemporaneous audience—Germans in the postwar 1960s. By means of the trope of sexualized violence, Zeugin aus der Hölle confronted contemporaneous West German audiences with gender-specific …

"Fragmegration" Of Identity In Laurent Cantet's Ressources Humaines And L'Emploi Du Temps, Peter Schulman

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

As James Rosenau has written, localization and globalization came crashing together at the turn of the 20^th century in a type of oxymoronic chaos he labels "fragmegration" that characterizes the confusion people have as to their role in society. It is this identity confusion that Laurent Cantet portrays in his landmark films Ressources humaines (1999) and L'emploi du temps (2001). Cantet's protagonists seek their place in society as they cope with the sudden destabilization of their local, national, and globalized identities.

Love Story Of A Lovely Tomboy, Oji Nguyễn (Director)

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Can a Tomboy every find acceptance or even love? Surprises await at every corner.

'Do You, Andy?' [Taiwan], Portico Media Productions

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Andy, a cute Taiwanese guy, about to propose to his boyfriend Jeffrey of "four years eight months and ten days" before his parents walk into the restaurant, throwing his plans off entirely. Together, the four end up eating together and in the end, after much awkwardness on Andy's part, his parents let him know they accept him and his boyfriend Jeffrey.

[Review Of The Book Mismatched Women: The Siren's Song Through The Machine], Najmeh Moradiyan-Rizi

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

New Media Configurations And Socio-Cultural Dynamics In Asia And The Arab World, Najmeh Moradiyan-Rizi

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Acoustic Screen: The Dynamics Of The Female Look And Voice In Abbas Kiarostami's Shirin, Najmeh Moradiyan-Rizi

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the representation of women in post-revolutionary Iranian cinema has been one of the main concerns of Iranian officials. This concern caused the enforcement of cinematic restrictions on Iranian cinema in 1982, known as the Islamic Codes of Modesty. The prohibition of the close-ups of women’s faces was one of these cinematic limitations. Since then, Iranian filmmakers have used a great amount of creativity in their films to not only represent Iranian women on the screen, but also to criticize the gender-segregated laws of Iran. Their creativity and efforts have gradually challenged and changed …

Apportioned Commodity Fetishism And The Transformative Power Of Game Studies, Ken S. Mcallister, Chris Hanson, Judd Ethan Ruggill, Carly A. Kocurek, Tobias Conradi, Kevin A. Moberly, Steven Conway, Randy Nichols, Jennifer Dewinter, Marc A. Oullette

English Faculty Publications

This chapter explores the ways in which the field of Game Studies helps shape popular understandings of player, play, and game, and specifically how the field alters the conceptual, linguistic, and discursive apparatuses that gamers use to contextualize, describe, and make sense of their experiences. The chapter deploys the concept of apportioned commodity fetishism to analyze the phenomena of discourse as practice, persona, and vagaries of game design, recursion, lexical formation, institutionalization, systems of self-effectiveness, theory as anti-theory, and commodification.

[Review Of The Book New Voices In Arab Cinema], Najmeh Moradiyan-Rizi

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding Tony Scott: Authorship And Post-Classical Hollywood, Robert Arnett

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

The article offers criticism to several films directed by the British motion picture director Tony Scott, including the films "Man on Fire," starring Dakota Fanning, Denzel Washington and Christopher Walken, "Domino," starring Mo’Nique and "Déjà vu," starring Jim Caviezel and Denzel Washington. Particular focus is given to his authorship and film production as a post-classical director in Hollywood, California.

Edwin Rousby: Un Misterio Desvelado, Luis Guadaño

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

En este trabajo se aclaran las dudas e incógnitas que hasta ahora han existido sobre la vida y actividad professional de Edwin Rousby (1856-1927) quien llevó a cabo, adelantándose a los hermanos Lumière, las primeras exhibiciones cinematográficas como negocio en España y Portugal.

[This article sheds new light on the unknown professional and personal life of Edwin Rousby (1856-1927), the first to carry out public film exhibitions in Spain and Portugal ahead of the Lumière Brothers.]

Carlos Saura Y La Relativización De La Historia Y La Memoria Antes De La Transición, Luis Guadaño

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) La idea principal del presente trabajo es la de intentar darle una nueva perspectiva a tres películas de Saura- El jardín de las delicias (1970), La prima Angélica (1973) y Cría cuervos (1975)- que las pondría en relación con el espíritu de la transición y no solamente con la oposición política al regimen de Franco. La crítica ha analizado estas películas principalmente desde una perspectiva que hace referencia al context histórico-político específico de su aparición dentro de la dictadura de Franco. Así, por ejemplo, se han interpretado como los últimos coletazos críticos al Régimen poco antes de su …

Veronica Mars Kickstarter And Crowd Funding, Bertha Chin, Bethan Jones, Myles Mcnutt, Luke Pebler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

This conversation among Bertha Chin, Bethan Jones, Myles McNutt, and Luke Pebler about the Veronica Mars (2004–7) Kickstarter campaign to fund a film assesses the implications of crowd sourcing and fan labor.

From Fandom To Franchise: Generational Discourse Among Fans And Producers, Nicholas C. Benson

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

Generational discourse surrounding fandom has been an understudied area of media studies. Using Disney's TRON franchise as a case study, this thesis looks at that discourse as it exists in two areas. The first chapter draws on interviews with several actual TRON fans and looks at how the concept of generation is imagined within the TRON fan community. The second chapter draws from promotional interviews done with TRON creator Steven Lisberger to analyze the way the concept of generation functions within the decision making practices and formation of career capital within Hollywood. Ultimately, this paper concludes that the concept of …

Plight Of The Gameur : Inhibitors To Empathic Connection With Representation Of Suffering In Outreach Games, Kristopher John Purzycki

English Theses & Dissertations

The field of serious game studies, while growing, is still working through the variables that create the conditions for a discernible effect towards real-world player behavior. One branch of serious games I refer to as outreach games aim at informing and prompting the player to take further real-world action. However, a significant impediment to this appeal is the relationship between the player and the game. Referring to the role of the flaneur in post-colonial literature, I describe how the relationship between whom I refer to as the gameur and the outreach game is similar to the urban wanderer, eavesdropping on …

Zombies As A Generational Metaphor: Connections Between George A. Romero, Zombies And Fandom -- A Critical Study, Alfredo Torres

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

Since the creation of the modern day zombie by George A. Romero in his directorial debut with the genre altering film Night of the Living Dead in 1968, zombie have been associated with becoming a metaphoric representation of social and cultural issues surrounding the times these films were released, with Romero's films being at the forefront of this phenomenon. A review of Romero's career including his influences was examined as well as the film history of the zombie subgenre, the connections it has to its fans and how the fans influenced the development of the genre. A survey was connected …

Introduction: A Game's Study Manifesto, Jason C. Thompson, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

In the epigraph to this collection, we return to a foundational text of the western literary canon, Homer’s Odyssey, and see in Penelope’s “bow contest” an illustrative moment in the history of game culture. Having fought in the Trojan War and having survived his ten-year trek home, the weary Odysseus cannot simply show up—the returning hero must rout the odious suitors whom Penelope has forestalled. In order to buy more time for vengeance, Odysseus disguises himself as an old beggar; in order to buy more time for deferral, Penelope creates an unwinnable game: she will marry the suitor able …

Gay For Play: Theorizing Lgbtq Characters In Game Studies, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Despite, and perhaps because of, popular press reactions to stereotypical depictions of beefy boys and busty babes in video games, the realm of gender, sex, and sexuality remains a lacuna in the emerging field of game studies. Of particular interest is the notion of performance and the ways this impacts both on gender and on game play. The combination might be expected to offer a very interesting way of approaching LGBTQ characters in digital games, especially given the recent inclusion of such characters in some popular and well-studied game franchises, including Grand Theft Auto (Rockstar 1997-present), Jade Empire (BioWare 2005-08) …

Gaming Matters: Art, Science Magic And The Computer Game Medium [Book Review], Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

The singular—maybe more aptly put as the pre-eminent—image that occurs when reading Gaming Matters is that of duelling dualisms. While this is a tried-and-true method of covering a topic, from the dissoi logoi to “The Owl and the Nightingale” and beyond, it is the site and the subject of these apposites that makes for an intriguing if (intentionally) unsettling read. The very title of the book makes the exercise of reading (and likely of writing) a part of and apart from this process. Gaming Matters stands as both call and catalogue. Gaming matters, most certainly, in terms of its audience, …

"We Should Have Brought The Tank": Hypermediated Interactivity In Red Vs. Blue, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Machinima, the practice of adapting recorded video game play into short films, highlights an often unacknowledged but significant shift in the consumption of video games and represents a key and underexplored intersection between the two leading theoretical camps. Considering the landmark series Red vs. Blue through the lens of Bolter and Grusin's propositions about "new" media's relationships with other forms offers an entry point for theorizing not only machinima but also the intersections between the ludology and narratology positions in games studies.

Editor's Introduction: Playing For Keeps: Games And Cultural Resistance [Special Issue], Marc A. Ouellette, Jason Thompson

English Faculty Publications

This edition is as much about Game Studies as it about the games being studied. At its heart there are really two impulses behind the collection of critical thought we have been fortunate enough to gather for this issue of Reconstruction. First, there is the sense that games can’t do anything. Second, there is the sense that games don’t do anything. Their origin (and the underlying biases) makes these sentiments particularly intriguing. In the simplest terms, these premises delineate competing camps, as well. Roger Ebert notoriously asserts that video games will never be art (Ebert). Similarly, and yet quite differently, …

Report From Scms: Friday, Aka Humpday In La, Tim Anderson

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Tim Anderson gives his thoughts on the third day of the 2010 Society for Cinema & Media Studies Conference held in Los Angeles, California.

Remember The Titans, Historical Fact Or Fiction?, Amy S. Tate

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

In the late 1990s, screen writer Gregory A. Howard wrote a screen play called Remember the Titans, based on the true story of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Pictures bought the script based on the fact that it is a true story, but much of the film‟s content is fictional. Gregory Howard admitted to ESPN writer Jeff Merron that “he made some big assumptions when writing his script” (qtd. in Merron 5). Though the film is not entirely historically accurate, it is successful because it appeals to Americans through its intense emotional …

Research Report: Violence In Children’S Films, Ann Wheeler, Kristyn Birkeland

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

The goal of this research is to find out if violence in children’s films has increased within the past five decades. In order to achieve this goal, 22 children’s films were given multiple reviews by college students, who carefully analyzed them using the same questionnaire. Using a simple random sampling method of research, films were chosen within clusters of decades and were analyzed using variables that depict violence. After collectively studying the results of the twenty-two children’s films, we discovered that violence in children’s films has increased over the past five decades.

A Brand New Bond: Shifting Strategies For 007 In The Age Of Conglomeration And Convergence, Katherine C. Skophammer

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Financial success would seem to be the logical goal of the film industry. If the current narrative formula reaps financial rewards for a film franchise there should be no impetus for change. Yet, that is exactly what happened to the James Bond franchise in 2006, with the release of the prequel Casino Royale. Sony Corporation and the Bond film :franchise traversed similar paths. In 2005, Sony purchased MGM, which held the Bond library as well as the rights to future Bond film productions.

Sony's industrial needs differed greatly from MGM's. MGM continually recycled the Bond formula for 20 films …

Feminisms In Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Emily G. Brown

Institute for the Humanities Theses

With Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick examines the causes and conditions in which men are more powerful and men's production, ideas and activities are seen as having greater value and higher status than women's. Eyes Wide Shut's (EWS) renders the tension between Bill (Tom Cruise) and Alice Hartford (Nicole Kidman) in the modem struggle to find balance between the institution of marriage and their autonomous selves visible. As Bill's travels dominate the film, little beyond the first scene of Alice's disrobed body and the last scene highlighting her psychological stability are shown. We follow Bill as he meets several women; …

Casino Royale And Franchise Remix: James Bond As Superhero, Robert P. Arnett

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

The article discusses the role of the film "Casino Royale" in remixing the James Bond franchise. The author believes that the remixed Bond franchise has shifted its genre to a superhero franchise. When Sony acquired MGM in 2004, part of its plan was to transform the 007 franchise at par with "Spiderman." The remixed franchise re-aligns its franchise criteria with those established by superhero films. The author cites "Casino Royale's" narrative structure as an example of the success of the film as franchise remixed for the future. The portrayal of Bond as a superhero by actor Daniel Craig is discussed.

“I Hope You Never See Another Day Like This”: Pedagogy & Allegory In “Post 9/11” Video Games, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Although critics and scholars have considered the extent to which the terror attacks of 11 Sept. 2001 influenced subsequent media productions, video games comprise a largely unexamined form. This oversight also applies to related forms of media production and among those who study video games is in part attributable to the ongoing debate regarding the relationship(s) between narrative and play. Even so, as early as 1997, JC Herz was investigating the role of video games in the military-entertainment complex. That said, the focus of this paper will not be the obvious games which draw settings and plots directly from the …

"Everybody Else Ain't Your Father": Reproducing Masculinity In Cinematic Sports, 1975-2000, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

This essay stems from two cultural strands, which intersect in one cultural form, the sports film. The first of these is the figure of the "star," as opposed to hero, who is interested only in self promotion. The second strand, masculine nurturing, provides a direct counterpoint to the first. Sociologist Robert Connell explains that "In historically recent times, sport has come to be the leading definer of masculinity in mass culture" (54). In North America, sport plays an important and increasing role in our culture. Each of the four major sports leagues added teams in the last decade of the …