Six Approaches to Writing About Film

One of my weaknesses as a writer is finding a focus. My first draft is usually all over the place.  I thought this chapter was particularly interesting and helpful because we are going to be doing a book review on a film next week and will need to be familiar with different approaches to writing about film. This chapter indicated the advantages as well as disadvantages of looking at a movie as part as a national cinema, it also described the difference between the auteurist  approach and a generic approach to a movie. Lastly, it gave some tips on the ways an ideological approach can be used in writing about film. 

Historical Approach

One of the most widely used methods in film criticism is the historical approach, which I think I would be most likely to use when writing about film.  One of the reasons I think that the historical approach is so popular is because it is easy to organize. Films can be related back to their place in a historical context. Historical film writers utilize techniques such as compare and contrast, make connections between conditions of productions, and make connections between U.S. films and the film trends during those years. 

Ideology

It is also an option to write about ideologies in films. The text uses an example of The Godfather II. A writer sensitive to the ideological values in The Godfather II may see this as a film concerned with the business of capitalism, and critisize the movie based on those ideologies.