Choose one of the movies below to analyze. This paper should focus on 1) the strategies the main characters
used to attempt to achieve their goals and 2) the obstacles they overcame or that overcame them.
Choose 2 or maybe 3 characters in the movie to discuss. Comparing and contrasting would be a good
framework for a paper like this. Evaluate their success and describe why what they did worked or did not work.
IMPORTANT: Connect these individuals to their larger societal and historical context. No person exists in a
vacuum. All of our lives are shaped by larger forces. Make sure to describe what is going on with them. This is
where your outside sources and textbook will be necessary.
As you write, you should also call out instances in the movie that are not historically accurate. This will be
another place where you will want to cite your outside sources.
NUTS AND BOLTS: Write at least 1000 words (roughly 4 pages, double spaced). Use at least two scholarly
sources (Links to an external site.). One can be a textbook. (Remember to cite your sources - including the
movie - using a standard format such as MLA)
Movie options
Blazing Saddles (classic 1974 Mel Brooks spoof of western cliches, race relations, and more)
Dances with Wolves (from 1990, now a classic, one of the earliest authentic portrayals of the Plains Indians,
through the eyes of a white Union Soldier played by Kevin Costner)
Geronimo: An American Legend (story of Geronimo, obviously!)
Little Big Man (Dustin Hoffman plays a white orphan raised by natives who has a foot in both worlds and sees
all the key historic events of the last years of the Indian Wars out west)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Brad Pitt plays Jesse James in the last few
months of his life)
The Ballad of Little Jo (a woman on the run in the west passes as a man)
True Grit (the Jeff Bridges one from 2010, a young girl hires Rooster Cogburn to avenge her murdered father)
Sample Solution