Comparative Research Paper- Annotated Bibliography

In my comparative research paper, I will be comparing the films of Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai with John Lassester and Andrew Staton's A Bug's Life.

These two films have a common core of cultural identity and parallel story lines that I will be writing on.  I will touch on the transnational idea of loss of static national identity from the perspectives of the main characters to the prospectives of the intended audience.  

Annotated Bibliography

Bazin, André, and Bert Cardullo. (2015). Bazin on Global Cinema, 1948-1958. Austin: U of Texas.

This book is on the works of the film critic André Bazin and translated and edited by Bert Cardullo. In it are chapters on essays and book reviews, film reviews and criticism, and illustrations. I selected this book for its review and dissection of Akira Kurosawa’s film ‘The Seven Samurai’. The book also has chapters dealing with a wide variety of cinematic subjects, including history, function of cinema, film criticism, and global cinema.

Richie, Donald. (1970). The Seven Samurai a film by Akira Kurosawa. Simon and Schuster, New York

Another book regarding the Seven Samurai translated and introduced by Donald Richie.  I selected this book for the background history and techniques of the film and director Akira Kurosawa.  It also has a full copy of the script included.  This may not be useful to my research, but is interesting to see.

Weiland, K. M. "A Bug's Life - Story Structure Analysis." Helping Writers Become Authors. N.p., n.d. Mar. 2017.

This is from a website that writes about books and movies plot points.  The lists the plot points of ‘A Bugs Life’ in the order of inciting events, first plot point, first pinch point, midpoint, second pitch point, third plot point, climax, climatic moment, and resolution.  After reading these points, I see many useful ties to my comparative film, ‘The Seven Samurai.”

Marciniak, K. and B. Bennett (2016). Teaching transnational cinema : politics and pedagogy. New York, Routledge.

I wanted a book that touched down on the subject of transnationalism in cinema.  This book uses collected essays on a global range of films to speak on subjects in transnationalism cinema.  My hope is to better understand the underlining principles of transnationalism for my research paper.

Radović, M. (2014). Transnational cinema and ideology : representing religion, identity and cultural myths. New York ; London, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

In this book by Milja Radovic, she writes on the relations of transnational cinema and ideology.  I thought this book sounded interesting, but I was most intrigued by the chapters that touched down on subjects that I covered in my prospectus, including identity, class, and nationhood.  I am hoping by reading the chapters, on these subjects, that I will better be able to discuss these when writing on my selected films.