Essay On Norms And Rules Picture Hunter Peace
Adena Wikel
What did our ancestors do with these newfound efficiencies? When comparing the time-allocation patterns of the great apes with modern hunter-gatherers, it becomes clear that, with the advent of hunting and gathering, the human working day was cut nearly in half compared with that of chimpanzees, who must keep moving and chewing for eight hours per day. But hunter-gatherers perform their work in short order, and then return to camp. Even with the foraging done, there is still work at camp: food processing, cooking and housekeeping. And in a camp protected by fire and friends and family, we can socialise and rest in peace.
This epic blockbuster stars Charlton Heston in the title role of a rebellious Israelite who takes on the RomanEmpire during the time of Christ. Featuring one of the most famous action sequences of all time -- thebreathtaking chariot race -- the film was a remake of the impressive silent version released in 1925.Co-starring Stephen Boyd as Judah Ben-Hur's onetime best friend and later rival, it also featured notableperformances by Hugh Griffith and Jack Hawkins. Directed by Oscar-winner William Wyler, who found success with"Mrs. Miniver" "The Best Years of Our Lives" and others, "Ben-Hur" broke awards records, winning 11 Oscars,including best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, and score. Famed stuntman Yakima Canutt was broughtin to coordinate all the chariot race stunt work and train the driver The race scene alone cost is reported tohave cost about $4 million, or about a fourth of the entire budget, and took 10 weeks to shoot.
Expanded essayby Gabriel Miller (PDF, 499KB)
This taming of the Oregon Trail saga comes alive thanks to the majestic sweep afforded by the experimentalGrandeur wide-screen process developed by the Fox Film Corporation. Audiences marveled at the sheer scope of thepanoramic scenes before them and delighted in the beauty of the vast landscapes. Hollywood legend has it thatdirector Raoul Walsh was seeking a male lead for a new Western and asked his friend John Ford for advice. Fordrecommended an unknown actor named John Wayne because he "liked the looks of this new kid with a funny walk --like he owned the world." When Wayne professed inexperience, Walsh told him to just "sit good on a horse andpoint."Wayne's starring role in "The Big Trail" did not catapult him to stardom, and he languished in low-budgetpictures until John Ford cast him in the 1939 classic "Stagecoach."
Expandedessay by Marilyn Ann Moss (PDF, 375KB)
This landmark of American motion pictures is the story of two families during the Civil War and Reconstruction.Director D.W. Griffith's depiction of the Ku Klux Klan as heroes stirred controversy that continues to thepresent day. But the director's groundbreaking camera technique and narrative style advanced the art offilmmaking by leaps and bounds. Profoundly impacted by the novel "The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the KuKlux Klan," Griffith hired its author Thomas F. Dixon Jr. to adapt it as a screenplay. At the heart of the storyare two pairs of star-crossed lovers on either side of the conflict: Southerner Henry B. Walthall courtsNortherner Lillian Gish, and the couple's siblings, played by Elmer Clifton and Miriam Cooper, are also in love.The ravages of war and the chaos of reconstruction take their toll on both families. The racist and simplisticdepictions of blacks in the film is difficult to overlook, but underneath the distasteful sentiment lies visualgenius.
Expandedessay by Dave Kehr (PDF, 599KB)
Movie poster
This swashbuckling tour-de-force by Douglas Fairbanks, king of silent action adventure pictures, is mostsignificant for having been filmed entirely in two-strip Technicolor, a process still being perfected at thetime, and the precursor to Technicolor processes that would become commonplace by the 1950s. Fairbanks plays anobleman who has vowed to avenge the death of his father at the hands of pirates, and once upon the pirates'vessel, protects a damsel in distress (Bessie Love)taken hostage by the band of thieves. Fairbanks wrote theoriginal story under a pseudonym, and Albert Parker directed.
Expandedessay by Tracey Goessel (PDF, 356 KB)
Billed as a "sociological photodrama, "Bread" tells the story of a naïve young woman in a narrow-minded town whojourneys to New York to become a star but faces disillusionment when she learns that sex is demanded as theprice for fame. Ida May Park, director and scenarist of "Bread," was among more than a half-dozen prolific womendirectors working at the Universal Film Manufacturing Company during the period in which Los Angeles became thehome of America's movie industry. Park directed 14 feature-length films between 1917 and 1920, and her career asa scenarist lasted until 1931. She reasoned that because the majority of movie fans were women, "it follows thata member of the sex is best able to gauge their wants in the form of stories and plays." In an essay Parkcontributed to the book "Careers for Women," she stated that women were advantaged as motion picture directorsbecause of "the superiority of their emotional and imaginative faculties." In the two surviving reels of"Bread," one of only three films Park directed that are currently known to exist, she displays an accomplishedability to knowingly vivify her protagonist's plight as she fends off an attacker and places her frail hopes ina misshapen loaf of bread that has come to symbolize for her the good things in life.
Director James Whale took his success with "Frankenstein," added humor and thus created a cinematic hybrid thatperplexed audiences at first glance but captivated them by picture's end. Joined eventually by a mate (ElsaLanchester), the Frankenstein monster (Boris Karloff reprising his role and investing the character withemotional subtlety) evolves into a touchingly sympathetic character as he gradually becomes more human. ErnestThesiger as Dr. Pretorious is captivatingly bizarre. Many film historians consider "Bride," with its surrealvisuals, superior to the original.
Expandedessay by Richard T. Jameson, (PDF, 672KB) examines "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" in asingle entry.
Movie poster
In this story of a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) and the tramp who makes sacrifices for her (CharlieChaplin), Chaplin deftly combines comedy with pathos. Despite the movie industry's embrace of talking pictures,Chaplin held on to the pantomime style that defined his screen persona, and the film earned great criticalacclaim and box-office profits.
Expandedessay by Jeffrey Vance (PDF, 331 KB)
Charlie Chaplin and others during filming of "CityLights"
Contemporary audiences know director Thomas Ince not for his body of work, but for his infamously mysteriousdeath in 1924 aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht. Ince was, in fact, an accomplished and prolificproducer-director who made more than 150 films in 1913 alone. In his film "Civilization," a once hawkish countbetrays his war-mongering king by suddenly embracing pacifism and drowning himself as a sacrifice to peace.Furious, the king orders his scientists to resurrect the count, but is instead met by Christ, who now inhabitsthe count's body. Christ horrifies the king with graphic visions of war's carnage, and the repentant monarchvows to devote his life to peace. By 1916, most Americans no longer favored isolationism, however, and audiencessentenced the film to death at the box office.
Expandedessay by Brian Taves (PDF, 370KB)
Lobby card
This fourteen-minute black-and-white silent documentary salutes the "good natured Germans or Hollanders" ofCologne, Minnesota as photographed by local amateur filmmakers Esther and Raymond Dowidat. Cologne, population350, is located southwest of Minneapolis in the midst of dairy farms. When "examined more closely, the town isreally quaint and picturesque" we're told by Esther's handwritten "diary" which serve as the film's narration.It stands out not because its subject matter is particularly unique, but because it exhibits a cinematicsophistication and artistry not usually found in home movies, while capturing a distinct flavor of time andplace.
Expanded essayby Scott Simmon for the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) (PDF, 316KB)
View this film at National FilmPreservation Foundation External
Largely forgotten today, actor John Bunny merits significant historical importance as the American filmindustry's earliest comic superstar. A stage actor prior to the start of his film career, Bunny starred in over150 Vitagraph Company productions from 1910 until his death in 1915. Many of his films (affectionately known as"Bunnygraphs") were gentle "domestic" comedies, in which he portrayed a henpecked husband alongside co-starFlora Finch. "A Cure for Pokeritis" exemplifies the genre, as Finch conspires with similarly displeased wives tobreak up their husbands' weekly poker game. When Bunny died in 1915, a New York Times editorial noted that"Thousands who had never heard him speak...recognized him as the living symbol of wholesome merriment." Thepaper presciently commented on the importance of preserving motion pictures and sound recordings for futuregenerations: "His loss will be felt all over the country, and the films, which preserve his humorous personalityin action, may in time have a new value. It is a subject worthy of reflection, the value of a perfect record ofa departed singer's voice, of the photographic films perpetuating the drolleries of a comedian who developedsuch extraordinary capacity for acting before the camera."
Expandedessay by Steve Massa (PDF, 625KB)
B-films during the studio era often resonate decades later because they explore issues and themes not found inhigher-budget pictures. Robert Florey, widely acclaimed as the best director working in major studio B-filmsduring this period, crafted an intriguing, taut thriller. Anna May Wong overcame Hollywood's practice at thetime of casting white actors to play Asian roles and became its first, and a leading, Asian-American movie starin the 1920s through the late 1930s. "Daughter of Shanghai" was more truly Wong's personal vehicle than any ofher other films. In the story she uncovers the smuggling of illegal aliens through San Francisco's Chinatown,cooperating with costar Philip Ahn as the first Asian G-man of the American cinema.
Expanded essay byBrian Taves (PDF, 1024KB)