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Responding to Unit One
Writing Extension: Film Critique
Whether you read online critiques, listen to those by radio or news broadcasters,
or review tweets and posts on social media sites, you most likely seek some outside information to decide whether you wish to see a movie. While often used interchangeably, the terms review and critique have distinct differences. Reviews focus on the plot while critiques focus on specific narrative, interpretive, or compositional elements. Additionally, critiques are academic and discuss a film in a historical, social, or cultural context. A review rates the entertainment value or artistic qualities of the film for a public audience.
Modern authors and filmmakers have reinterpreted Washington Irving’s stories. Using the same skills of evaluation used in your group discussion, individually analyze a modern film of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Write a film critique in which you evaluate how the adaptation reinterprets the characters, the plot, and the setting to appeal to its targeted audience while maintaining the Romantic Gothic elements.
Step 1: Determine your criteria
The purpose of a film critique is to evaluate a film’s adaptation against a set of criteria. Starting with the criteria developed by your group in the “Collaboration” section, determine if you need to any additional criteria to include aspects of Gothic literature.
Step 2: Evaluate against criteria
Watch the film version and take notes about how the adaptation captures the novel’s formal elements: theme characterization, style tone, and plot.
Step 3: Write your thesis
Establish your overall evaluation of the adaptation and its success—or lack thereof— maintaining the elements of Gothic Romanticism while appealing to a modern audience.
Step 4: Outline your critique
Introduction
• • •
Body •
Introduce the film (screenwriter, title, release year, director, primary actors, plot). Briefly describe the kind of film being reviewed (i.e., audience and purpose). State your thesis.
Characters—How are characters interpreted in the film? If they differ, how so? What is the purpose of the changes? How do any changes affect the Gothic elements?