Penny Marshall has directed six films in her career: "The Preachers Wife"(1996), "Renaissance Man"(1994), "A League of Their Own"(1992), "Awakenings"(1990), "Big"(1998), and "Jumpin' Jack Flash"(1986). We know Penny best from her stint in Laverne and Shirley (1976-1983) as the hilarious Laverne De Fazio. After the series was cancelled Laverne appeared in some pictures until her directorial debut in "Jumpin' Jack Flash". This film was pretty much a bomb and Penny gained credibility as a director in "Big". Tom Hanks received a nomination for Best Actor in this picture.
Marshall's best directorial accomplishment had to be in "Awakenings" starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams. This film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Robert DeNiro), and for Best Adapted Screenplay. Penny Marshall's style is classical. "Awakenings" and "Big" in particular are based upon a three-act structure. "A League of their Own" and "Big" are tall tales, strongly centered on plot. There exists good and bad people, and characters that are changed by their experiences (Dr.
Malcolm Sayer, Josh Baskin). Character actors are prominent in her films and certainly used to reflect the persona of the star as well as to draw people to the movie. In films such as "Big" Penny places a high emphasis on setting which are highly selective in detail.Penny Marshall's typical choice of genre is comedy probably because of her comedic background, but she did direct "Awakenings" which is a drama. Her films tend to deal with contemporary issues in society such as coming of age ("Big"), oppression of the mentally handicapped ("Awakenings"), and women's accomplishment ("A League of their Own").
Penny Marshall's films are not multi million dollar movies which are filled with special effects and fancy camera action rather they are simple pictures which let the actors convey the messages. Penny does not attempt to use film as an art form; rather she uses film to tell a story. Penny Marshall's story sources consist of original and adapted screenplays. "Big" was written by Gary Ross who is best known for writing and producing "Pleasantville", and Anne Spielberg who wrote "Toy Story". "Awakenings" was adapted from a book of the same title by Oliver Sacks and written for the screen by Steven Zaillian who wrote "Schindler's List" and "A Civil Action" to name but a few.
From these two films it is presumed that Penny uses a variety of sources.In "Awakenings" and "Big" Penny's style is classicism.
Intertextuality is the reference to another text within another text and is a vital element of postmodernist films, which are films made a significant time before the present. We find a variety of examples within the film Pleasantville such as: links to visual art, literature, religion and Harper lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (a book written in the 1950’s set in the 1930’s) to express ideas of change and ways to deal with it. Pleasantville was a film made in 1998 and directed by American director, Gary Ross. It consists of brother and sister David (Tobey Magurie) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) becoming stuck in a 1950’s sitcom by a strange TV Repairman’s (Don Knotts) magical remote.
The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person; in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier as she struggles to find her identity. Edna knows that she cannot be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own life. However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life.
First I will be introducing Mary Armstrong 91 years old, who now lives in Houston Texas at 3326 Pierce Ave. also known as Aunt Mary, was born in St. Louis. Her mother whose name was Siby, belonged to Old William Cleveland and his wife Old Polly Cleveland. The Cleveland’s were known to be very hard on their slaves, always beating their slaves. Polly Cleveland beat Aunt Mary’s baby sisters to death at the very young age of nine months because the baby would not stop crying. Aunt Mary mentioned that, “She came and took the diaper offen my little sister and whipped till the blood jes’ ran” Polly Cleveland did this while Aunt Mary was in the same room, Mary had to witness her baby sister be beaten to death at the age of four and there was nothing she could do to stop it. After seeing this Aunt Mary had a name she called Polly Cleveland, it was
Who would have thought that a brilliant career in filmmaking could have originated with a modest jar of Skippy Peanut Butter smeared on a neighbor’s window in a tiny Cincinnati suburb? One might not think that such an average boyhood prank could evolve a boy into a man who would become the most financially successful film director in history. Well, that is exactly where Leah Spielberg, Steven Spielberg’s mother, would trace her son’s initial entry into becoming one of our nation’s most creative storytellers. “His badness was so original,” she recalls (Stein 3).
Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism throughout his short story Young Goodman Brown to impact and clarify the theme of good people sometimes doing bad things. Hawthorne uses a variety of light and dark imagery, names, and people to illustrate irony and different translations. Young Goodman Brown is a story about a man who comes to terms with the reality that people are imperfect and flawed and then dies a bitter death from the enlightenment of his journey through the woods. Images of darkness, symbolic representations of names and people and the journey through the woods all attribute to Hawthorne's theme of good people sometimes doing bad things.
Louisa May Alcott’s powerfully written story Little Women has been famous for generations. Alcott wrote was about four young women in the March family who struggled against societal norms during the time of the Civil War. Multiple film adaptations have attempted to retain the emotional impact of her material while retelling her story on the big screen. The most recent adaptation, directed by Gillian Armstrong in 1994, was able to capture many hearts with its feminist twist on the classic novel. Armstrong’s film brings the family’s story to life by successfully displaying the personalities in the March family and by portraying the life styles during the time period accurately. However, specific reactions and descriptions had to be expressed in different ways considering the literary devices used by Alcott which could not be shown through elements of film without alteration.
Most kids at an early age are very excited to learn. However, not every young child at the age of three realizes they have the natural gift to teach. Mrs. Sherman was quite the exception. As a youngster she was so intrigued to learn that she attempted to go to school with her older brother. Being unsuccessful, she accidentally ended up in a corn field. Mrs. Sherman just didn't understand why her brother was able to go to school and learn new things, while she couldn't yet do the same. Once she started school, it opened Mrs.Sherman's eyes to a world of endless possibilities.
Cell phones can be our best friends ands our worst enemies.They are our primary form of communication with the outside world.We have all kinds of information about everything and everyone at our fingertips. However,the use of a cell phone while driving can be very dangerous.660,000 drivers a day attempt to use their cell phones while behind the wheel. It is reported that the use of a cell phone while driving leads to about 1.6 million crashes every year. It is said that around 11 teenagers die every day due to the use
This article is made by the mutual contribution and this is the collaborative project of David L. Strayer, Frank A.Drews and Dennis J.Crouch. They all presented their view point that the cell phones distraction creates more accident as compare to the intoxicated drivers. There are some rules made by the companies in this article to make the employees to follow the regulations for the use of cell phones during driving. This concern is going to increase world wide as all of the countries are having these risks factors that are particularly growing. There is the researched data that shows approximately 1.3 million people die and there are approximately 50 million injuries recorded due to the road accident.
Some groups argue that the use of cell phones can be safe for small amounts of time (“Cell” 1). Additionally, it is believed there are many other distractions that are not taken into account, and that there is an unfair focus on cell phones (“Cell” 1). Believers of that may not know that “...texting while driving 55 m.p.h. is similar to driving the length of a football field with one's eyes closed” (Hanes 2). The reason that cell phones are singled out the most is that they are the most distracting, as well as used widespread. Even looking down at a phone for one second can distract you from the road. Not well known, driving while using a phone is just as, and if not more, dangerous than driving intoxicated (Hanes 1). Both cases have the same “reaction speed” (Hanes 1). Drunk driving is well known to be extremely dangerous and profoundly looked down upon. Yet, according to this research, both utilizing a phone and driving drunk are equally as catastrophic. Despite the similarity, many more people use their cell phones while driving than driving drunk (Hanes 1). Some challengers say that research is not strong enough to support the idea that legislation can decrease accident rates. A researching group failed to see a difference in crash rates while comparing states that ban texting while driving and those that do not (Halsey 1). The US Department of Transportation found similar
According to a report made by the National Safety Council, cell phone usage leads up to about 1.6 million vehicle collision yearly. Nearly 200,000 of those accidents are provoked by
“Dreams-they feel real while we’re in them, right?” said Dom Cobb. Yes, Dom, Inception had really convinced us that it is possible to overlap realities and dreams. Thanks Christopher Nolan. We won’t be able to feel the same again in our
Cell phones have made our lives easier and have changed the world in many ways. They are a very useful means of communication. However, phones can be dangerous in the hands of careless drivers, especially if they are texting, talking or checking emails. Research shows that texting while driving increases your chances of crashing by a factor of 8. There are twenty-four thousand (24,000) injuries and nine hundred ninety-five (995) fatalities
Cell phones provide a GPS that is helpful to many drivers trying to find their way. Despite offering this incredible benefit of having a phone, using cell phones while driving has become a major cause of accidents. Drivers that use their cell phones while driving are not giving their full attention to what is happening in front of them; which is not only harmful to them, but the other drivers around them too. While driving and using a cell phone, the driver is operating two machines at once. That puts the driver and surrounding drivers in danger. Distraction takes over everyone at some point, but it should not be while driving a vehicle.
There has been a decrease of fatal crashes in the United States, but at the same time, there has been an increase in fatal crashes from distracted drivers (Lim and Chi 198). A study was done at North Dakota State University where states that banned handheld cellphone usage while driving was compared to its statistics before the ban was implemented, along with other states without the ban (Lim and Chi 199). Lim and Chi say the primary source of their data came from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who keeps track of the annual fatal injuries in motor vehicles across the nation (Lim and Chi 199-200). Lim and Chi also looked at age groups as a category of determining cell phone usage (Lim and Chi 201). The main factors observed for this study were the age distribution of drivers and number of drivers per 100,000 drivers involved in fatal crashes during the year 2010 (Lim and Chi