Paper Assignment

I'm posting it here but with the added favor of IMDB links. You all love me, I know, you don't have to say it.

Paper One – Film Review

For your first paper, I want you to review one of the films listed below and, in a 3-5 page paper, discuss the components of deviance presented in it. I am intending for this to be quite open ended, so I’m hesitant to give too many specific examples, but things such as the types of deviance portrayed, how “society” (as represented by the film) perceives and reacts to such deviances, whether behaviors are rewarded or punished, etc. I highly encourage you to use sources outside of the textbook to strengthen your views, but I am not going to require that you do.

And yes, I am being a jerk and telling you what movies to pick from. I simply don’t have the time to know if you’re pulling my leg and making stuff up on a movie I’ve never seen. But I have exquisite taste, so you shouldn’t complain (too much). The list follows:

American Psycho
Apocalypse Now (original or Redux versions are fine, but I say pick the shorter one)
Brazil
A Clockwork Orange
Crash
The Devils *
Falling Down
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fight Club
Hedwig and the Angry Itch
Maitresse*
The Piano Teacher*
Putney Swope *
Rent
Salo *
Secretary
Seven
The Silence of the Lambs
Taxi Driver
Thirteen

Movies noted with a * are ones that are not easily available via rental or even purchase. For those reasons, I’ll be willing to provide the class with copies (for educational use only) to view. I strongly encourage you to check IMDB.com for brief summaries of movies, as some of them are quite disturbing and/or graphic.

You are welcome to watch the movies together and discuss them amongst yourselves, but I expect each person’s paper to be substantively different and that no direct copying taking place. This is an individual assignment, and cheating will be punished by death. If I am unable to get approval from the dean of the school of criminal justice to institute that penalty, I will at the very least give you a zero for the assignment, and public humiliation is an option.