Critically analyze the films, references to social and historical contexts

Published: 2019-06-05
Critically analyze the films, references to social and historical contexts
Type of paper:  Essay
Categories:  Education Sociology Research
Pages: 4
Wordcount: 878 words
8 min read
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A league of their own is a comedy drama movie produced in 1992 about an all-girls baseball team. Though it is fictional, the core plot is based on a true story about a 1942 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The story starts when a group of wealthy baseball teams investors decide to start a women team. They are motivated when they see the league crashing due to World War II, and they choose to inspire people. They go to the rural areas to look for raw talent that they find in plenty, they also pick a few players in the city. After picking the players, their primary challenge of forging them into a professional national team starts. At first investors and the coach are pessimistic on whether it would work but later after a player does an incredible stunt her photo is featured in the magazine. This gives the coach hope and also motivates the team.

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42 is a movie about baseball major league teams racial integration. This is depicted by the experiences Robinson, who is the main actor, experiences. The story starts with him playing for the Montreal Royals whereby one day on their way to a game they stop over at a gas station and he is denied entry to the washroom. This sparks quite an argument, but the issue settles down. He later moves to the Brooklyn Dodgers where despite being one of the best players he still battles racism issues. However, he soldiers on and rises to become a legend in the field of baseball.

Give references to film techniques used, and your writing skills.

The directors of both films use flashbacks as a method to link up past and present and also to explain the plot of the movie. However, the director of A League of Their Own goes further to update the audience on where the actors after the professional life forty years later are.

The paper should compare aspects of the films such as characterization and themes, and film techniques such as cinematography and editing.

Cinematography is the science of focusing or omitting light on various objects so as to create dark shades or various abstracts of images in a movie. Editing is the art of synchronizing various motion pictures into one film by deducting and merging different clips. Usually, a producer shoots a very long film that is later deducted and fused into a more refined movie.

In this case, both films have adopted a similar approach or technique in cinematography. The films took a vintage theme because the storylines were events that happened in the middle of the twentieth century. Due to this aspect the producer needed to age the movie to portray a more authentic approach because the cameras used to film with those specs. The producer uses this technique in both films to produce movies that have gray shades and a little bit dark for authenticity. The producer edits the movie A League of their Own to show two different timelines in the same movie. They are when the ladies were baseball players and forty years later; this is to provide continuity and closure to viewers. However, in the movie 42 the director and producer do not embrace this technique. They use a more direct approach as in the movie plot is continuous from the beginning to the end.

Do the directors seem to have the same approach to their general topic (i.e., expanding sport to include women and athletes of color)? How do their films get these points across?

Both movies show segregation in America was a huge social issue, women were not allowed to join major league teams, and colored people were also discouraged to do the same. However, they show how a few visionary people who could see past these vices started a movement that over the years has grown and converted the US into a tolerant and all-inclusive country.

If it is the case that the films were produced in different eras, how come this fact is this reflected in the films? How is sport depicted as a part of the American Dream in each?

Both movies storylines are of the same era that is the 1940s, due to this their cinematographic approach or technique is the same so as to project an ideal and authentic experience of the period. In both movies sports have been portrayed as a unifying and motivational tool. For example in the movie A League of their own, the movie depicts how people spirits were low, and the league was crushing so they decided to take a new approach by starting a new team with new aspirations to boost others spirit.

Also, sports are being used to sell the American Dream idea by showing how players from the countryside with poor background came to town and joined a major league to attain their dreams and become legends. This shows how anyone determined can achieve his goals.

In conclusion the writers and directors of these two movies have used various techniques and stunts to highlight how someone can recreate a particular environment and make it authentic. Also the movies highlight where the American people have come from and some of the positive changes they made along the way to be all inclusive.

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