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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An 8 page research paper/essay that analyzes Woody Allen's film Manhattan. The writer contrasts and compares this film's vision of American character and experience with the one presented in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. The writer argues that Manhattan is informative of the problems of modernity in regards to relationships and what signifies the meaning of life in the modern age and American culture. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khwaman.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
associated with fast-paced life in an age where conventions and societal institutions have frequently been in a state of flux. However, as Graeme Turner points out, it is
also true that "Film does not reflect or even record reality; like any other medium of representation it constructs and re-presents its pictures of reality by ways of codes, conventions,
myths and ideologies of its culture as well as by way of the specific signifying practices of the medium" (152). In this regard, examination of Woods Allens film Manhattan
is, nevertheless, informative of the problems of modernity in regards to relationships and what signifies the meaning of life in the modern age. The central character in Allens Manhattan
is Isaac (played by Allen), whose overriding concern is with the question of what makes life worth living (Chances 66). Ultimately, over the course of the film, Isaac (or
Ike, as he is often called in the film) comes to the conclusion that lifes meaning exists in beauty, that it is intrinsic to the details of everyday life (Chances
66). What makes life worth living? Ike states that it is "Groucho Marx, Willie Mays, the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony, Louis Armstrong, Swedish movies, Flauberts Sentimental Education, Marlon
Brando, the apples and pears of Cezanne...and Tracys face" (Chances 66). Throughout the film, Ike professes his belief that "It is very important to have some kind of personal integrity"
(Chances 66), which is a philosophy that is often relates to his own behavior in a decidedly ambiguous manner. However, this factor, that is, Ikes growing realization of
what constitutes meaning in life connects Manhattan with previous visions of alienation in modern life, such as Frank Capras Its a Wonderful Life. Patrick Deneen points out that it
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