Social Problems - Essay Example

The Films The Hellcats of the Navy shown in 1957 is about a submarine commander whose mission is to retrieve revolutionary Japanese mine to be able to be studied. The main conflict of the story is related to the sacrifice made by one man to be able to achieve the safety of the whole group. It is justifying the action of the main character to leave one member as the proper thing to do. Thus the main character Abbott struggles against the outcome of his decision. Although this is the case, there is another conflict with regards to the romantic interest of the fallen and sacrificed man towards the leading female character.

The story is set in the time of the World War II starring Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Davies. There is significant level of violence shown in the movie but it was not censored due to reasons on the role of violence in films. Basically it can be considered that in any movies in the action genre which is related to military and war, the depiction and use of violence is inevitable. Saving Private Ryan is another movie known for the violent scenes. It is about the invasion of Normandy during the World War II.

The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and was released in 1998. The film had been noted due to the first 20 minutes which is full of intensity and violence. It depicted the Omaha event but focused on finding a paratrooper named Private Ryan who is the last surviving brother of 3 servicemen. Based on analysis of the movie it was noted that Saving Private Ryan was a well made film which used violence as a tool to gain and to stress the message it wants to convey specifically in relation to the aspects of aesthetics and moral design.

The director employed innovative techniques in cinematography that highlighted the importance of violence in the story to depict the level of sacrifice of the heroes in Omaha Beach (Prince, 2003, p.287). In this movie then it can be considered that the war scenes were realistically presented without excuses and concerns on the audience based on the fact that war is really violent (Hantke, 2010, p.707). Analysis The two movies are representations of different points in history in cinema. Based on the subject of violence they also represented different levels of depiction and purpose of violent scenes.

Based on a reference, violence in films in Hollywood for example had been first noted around 1930s thus the Production Code Administration which approves scripts prior to filming and production. Prior to 1930s violence has already been an issue. For example in 1909, the period of silent films, violence became a way of expressing emotions in films since the manners of depicting stories were limited. During that time, the New York Board of Censorship made a move to establish a policy to hinder violent and gruesome scenes which will not help the message of the story in any way.

Also, the actions that may lead to committing crimes such as ‘picking a lock or holding up a person’ were also prohibited (Prince, 2003, p.11). Although this is the case, violence still continued. With the advent of the sound technology in films, the effects of violent scenes became more realistic. Violence in movies had been very evident in the period represented by the two films. Between 1960s to 1970s the period when the Hellcats of the Navy was produced the