Writing About the Representation of Place in Film

I would appreciate some suggestions of good films/directors, particular genres, books/essays, websites, or new themes to add to the list. I'm preparing this for teaching in the fall:

Writing About the Representation of Place in Films
ENG 101—Fall 2004
Instructor: Michael Benton

A) In his essay, “Manufacturing the Ghetto: Anti-urbanism and the Spatialization of Race,” Michael Bennett argues that anti-urban ideology ”has underwritten the resegregation of the United States” and that this
ideology “is evident in popular culture” (172). Essentially, Bennett believes that the way inner city environments are portrayed and described in popular culture effects how people view both the place and the people who inhabit that place. For this option, you may choose to analyze a film of your choice to explore Bennett’s statement. You might want to study a movie like the recently released Training Day. Study your film carefully-what images are you given of inner cities? Who is portrayed as living there? How are these individuals described? Think about whether or not you agree with Bennett. Then, make an argument about the way inner cities are portrayed in your chosen film, making sure to use specific examples of scenes and dialogue from the film to back up what you say. Perhaps you might want to further explore Mike Davis’ ideas in his chapter “Fortress, Los Angeles” about the militarization of urban space and his statement that ”democratic space is virtually extinct” (292). You might also find this in
movies like Gangs of New York, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Boyz in the Hood, Colors, King of New York, Slam ...

B) On the other hand you might want to explore the cinematic depictions of rural life (positive or negative). Older movies like Gone With the Wind, East of Eden, and The Grapes of Wrath are powerful portrayals of the importance of home, family, and place (farm/land). Likewise newer movies such as A River Runs Through It, Legends of the Fall, The Deer Humter, Sweet Home Alabama, Field of Dreams, Deliverance, and so on, are also good examples.

C) Horror movies are always playing with the sense of place and the horror of its safety being invaded by foreign entities. Think of the movie Jaws where the monstrous shark invades the serene beaches of vacationing tourists. Or the Alientrilogy in which the monster always threatens the safety of a sealed environment (Ships, Prisons, etc...), the Predator series is also a good example of this trend. How about the various haunted house movies in which the sanctity and safety of the home is threatened by a monstrous force. There is also a whole tradition of horror movies in which humans are pitted against nature (there is a low-budget movie Trees about killer redwood trees).

D) You could explore cinematic depictions of genderized spaces ... the ways in which women and men use space differently. Right now two older movies come to mind: Rock Hudson’s Pillow Talk which depicts the ‘playboy’ pad as a manufactured environment of seduction and Breakfast at Tifanny’s which depicts the environment of a young, single girl. Or the struggles to break down strict place-based gender roles, a good recent example would be Bend It Like Beckham or But I’m a Cheerleader. There are many newer movies that also depict the restrictions, taboos and rules of genderized places.

E) Think of the depictions of the ‘politics of place’ in the work environment. Maid in Manhattan, Office Space, Nine to Five, Bread and Roses, The Good Girl, Clockwatchers, M.A.S.H. ...

F) Or fantastic, futurist or utopian/dystopian places. Examples Matrix, Fight Club, What Dreams May Come, Little Mermaid, Pochahontas, Lord of the Rings, Existenz, Videodrome, Vanilla Sky, Metropolis, Contact, Jacob’s Ladder ... You may have to be a little more creative with your
interpretation of place in this grouping ...

G) Or you could explore institutional place ... movies about prisons American Me, The Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke, Papillon ... about schools Breakfast Club, Higher Learning, School Daze, I87, The Substitute, The Principal... about hospitals/asylums One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest,
Girl Interrupted, But I’m a Cheerleader ... military boot camps Full Metal Jacket ... if you choose this theme talk to me about Michel Foucault’s theory of the “Panopticon” (briefly mentioned in both Mike Davis’ and Susan Willis’ essays).

H) Military Invasion/Control of Place: Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Mission, In The Fields of the Lord, Bridge on the River Kwai, U-571, and various other movies about imperial expansion and colonial occupation,

I) Foreign Places and the Alien Other: Casablanca, The Piano, The Ghost and the Darkness

J) Class/Labor and Place: Bread and Roses, Matewan, Clockwatchers … many more films.

K) Places that are occupied/appropriated by the outcasts of society. Requiem for a Dream, My Own Private Idaho, many more possibilities (including a some of the films already listed above) ...

L) Suburbia?Over the Edge, American Beauty, Ghost World

M) Family and the Home: Royal Tennenbaums, Soul Food, etc…

Southern Roots: Autobiography and Heritage
Link

The Junkyard Theory
Link

To Own the Bad Blood
Link

Huge Collection of Student Writings on Rhetoric of Place
Link

Film and the Impact of “Place” on Social Class and Personal Identity
Link

The Politics of Family Photography
Link