please make sure you watch the film first
FIlm Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t3Xv70vkY8&t=3145
Matter of Life and Death by its writers/directors/producers Michael Powell and
Emeric Pressburger. For the United States release the Hollywood studio thought
the word “death” in the title too ‘down’ for marketing and they renamed the
film Stairway to Heaven. (There is a
spectacular stairway in the film which leads up to another realm.)
I. First
discuss how the original title A Matter
of Life and Death fits the film and then how the US title Stairway to Heaven fits the film (1
page).
II. Then
in about 8 pages [regular margins, double-spaced, pages numbered] write an
analysis of the film which addresses the following questions:
1. How is death represented in the film?
2. What kind of judgment is represented in the film?
3. How does this film echo ideas of heaven, hell, and
judgment which we’ve considered in the course? And how does it reshape or
differ from these texts and images?
Compare several specific texts and several specific
images. Touch directly on Inanna, the
Egyptian “Feather of Maat, ” Revelation,
The Odyssey, Last Judgments, Dante, Milton’s Paradise Lost and Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven & Hell among
your choices.
Devote at least one page to comparing & contrasting the film to the Milton and Blake
texts.
Your paper is 40% of your
grade so you should spend time thinking and writing and editing for succinct,
insightful prose. You’re graded on how well you interpret the film and how well
and accurately you look at it in relation to other texts and images. Be
specific, remembering Blake’s line “To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To
Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit.”