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Reader Response Its just a Movie...

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1 Professor Andrea Casals Introduction to Literary Studies 23 May 2019 It’s Not Just a Movie In Chapter 1; “It’s just a movie”, from the text “What Media Classes Really Want to Discuss” by Greg Smith, the author proposes that movies and tv series are meant to be analyzed, and that every interpretation of any given work is valuable. Smith uses questions that were brought up in a lecture he did in his introductory media class, to guide you along the reading. He states that “Hollywood films and television networks are some of the most highly scrutinized, carefully constructed, least random works imaginable” (Smith, 1), meaning that, every detail in a movie or tv series was put in there for a reason. Whether you take it upon yourself to interpret it, is your choice. Just consider that if a whole team of producers and editors decide to include a scene where a character does not say anything for 5 minutes, then it probably serves a purpose in the film. “You can trust that if something is in a movie, it’s there for a reason” (Smith, 3).

Smith mentions that “A movie usually asks us to get caught up in the story being told (…) not to be aware of the behind-the-scenes effort that brought this us this story” (Smith, 2). Consequently, to this, we become unaware of the process that goes into creating a scene for a movie or a tv show. This quote made a lot of sense to me. Mainly because when watching a movie, for me it can go two ways; either I become so compelled with the main plot and storylines that I completely forget about the work that has been put into its creative process and feel some sort of guilt regarding the effort that was put into this work, or; I feel completely disconnected from the storyline and start analyzing the movie superficially in terms of, clothing, choice of words, music, lighting, camera angles, etc. This text connected me deeply with my childhood. When I was smaller, I wanted to become a famous screenwriter/director/actress (pretty ambitious for a 9-year-old child), and the way this text explained and emphasized on the importance of the role these contributors have in a movie, or a tv show,

2 sparked a feeling of excitement in me that I forgot I had for this topic. Smith delimits that; “A movie’s meaning does not lie solely within the film itself, but in the interaction of the film and the audience” (Smith, 6). This was when I realized that the main reason why I still enjoyed moviemaking so much, was because of how the big screen becomes a pathway for a direct film-audience interaction. This interaction to me, is the essence of filmmaking. It is the ability to effectively leave hints for the audience to catch on and interpret and how this makes the audience a part of the movie that appeals to me as interesting. Nowadays, I believe that some movies can be overlooked without receiving further analysis. One may think that a superhero movie such as “Avengers: Endgame” does not deserve a deep interpretation, but the truth is that, no matter how long, short, good, bad, old or recent, a film or tv show is, they are all worthy of analysis. Smith uses an example that illustrates this issue perfectly; “Why is it okay to analyze Shakespeare and not Evil Dead 2 or Everybody Loves Raymond?” (Smith, 8), question to which he answers that; “It has much to do with the social status of these works” (Smith, 8). So, the issue here is with society, and how their views over a certain piece can affect the perspective each one of us has over it. Works shouldn’t be classified, one can analyze whatever he or she feels like analyzing, it should not be up for society to decide.

Finally, what I learned from this text is mainly how to analyze movies and tv series critically, while still achieving a sense of entertainment when watching these works. The way the author offered this information was very easy to follow because he used inquiries made by his own students to resemble a classroom environment. This setting is shown when Smith catches your attention with the use of casual “class-like” interruptions, such as; “But those audiences are just reading things into the movie, right?” (Smith, 6), assimilating that one of his students just raised his hand and asked him this. Overall, I really enjoyed the text. The main theme discussed was very appealing to me and the way the author portrays it was also very enticing. I would enjoy attending one of his lectures or maybe looking further on more of his works on similar subjects, as I found his way of sharing information was

3 very effortless and straightforward. The environment he creates, even through text, makes you feel very comfortable, so I can only imagine how that would be in a live lecture.

4 Works Cited Smith, Greg M. What Media Really Wants to Discuss. Routledge, 2010....