Category: Distributor: 20th Century Fox
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Planet of the Apes. Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner. Twentieth Century Fox. 1968.
Representation of Race through Franklin J. Schaffner’s ‘Space’ By 1968 North America had experienced over a decade of significant political uproar about the oppression that African-Americans suffered from, with this being known formally as the Civil Rights Movement. This was also the year that Franklin J. Schaffner’s Planet of the Apes was released. The film extrapolates issues…
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The Revenant . Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu. 20th Century Fox . 2015.
While much of The Revenant’s plot focuses on the quarrels of men and the seeking of revenge, the bear attack scene makes us forget this for a moment. González Iñárritu instead creates a scene that feels authentic using an undramatised style. In doing this he presents the bear not as a monster but as an animal defending…
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Project X. Dir. Jonathan Kaplan . Twentieth Century Fox. 1987.
Project X explores the journey of a chimpanzee named Virgil, taking him from the safety of his home with psychologist Teri Macdonald to an Air Force base where he participates in a secret experiment named Project X that trains chimps as pilots. We learn that Teri has taught Virgil to communicate with humans via American Sign…
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Planet of the Apes. Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner. 20th Century Fox. 1968.
Planet of the Apes (1968), dir. Franklin J. Schaffner It is from the Planet of the Apes’s first encounter with its ‘more or less human’ characters that we are made aware of their muteness; something that shapes the human/animal relations throughout the film. In his ignorance of the subverted hierarchy the film explores, Taylor, the main character,…
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Monkey Business. Dir. Howard Hawks. 20th Century Fox. 1952.
Forever young – what seems to be an unrealistic and silly fantasy to some, is Dr. Barnaby Fulton’s (Cary Grant) everyday life: in Howard Hawk’s screwball comedy Monkey Business (1952), he tries to develop a formula which reverses the ageing process. Even though Barnaby is completely dedicated to his work, he fails. It isn’t until…
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Marley and Me. Dir. David Frankel. 20th Century Fox. 2008.
Synopsis The film Marley and Meis the film version of the correspondent novel by John Grogan, published in 2008. It thematically focuses on a family that learns important and essential life lessons from their often naughty and neurotic dog.
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Fantastic Mr. Fox. Dir. Wes Anderson. 20th Century Fox. 2009.
In his 2009 indie comedy, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson blurs the distinctive boundaries between the real and fictional presence of animals within the film. He creates tension between the real animal he is portraying and the anthropomorphised animal he has created in order to repurpose the way we think about animals. Rather than thinking of…
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Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. 20th Century Fox. 2009.
Set in the year 2154, Avatar (Dir. James Cameron, 2009) follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-marine who is given the opportunity to take part in a program on the distant moon Pandora. Pandora is inhabited by a wealth of creatures and biodiversity, as well as the desirable mineral ‘unobtanium’ which the humans are attempting to…
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Water for Elephants. Dir. Francis Lawrence. 20th Century Fox. 2011.
Water for Elephants (Dir. Francis Lawrence, 2011), based on the novel of the same name, is a story about a young man Jacob (Robert Pattinson) who joins a travelling circus and is unsurprisingly about confinement and freedom. It’s brimming with animals from horses to lions to the star of the show, Rosie the elephant, all of…
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The Black Stallion. Dir. Carroll Ballard. Twentieth Century Fox. 1979.
The Black Stallion (1979) Dir. Carroll Ballard Pulled to the tropical shores of a desert island by a wild Arabian horse following a shipwreck, The Black Stallion follows the narrative of an unbreakable bond between boy and horse, man and beast. The only remnants of the shipwreck that remain are the black stallion (The Black), the boy (Alec)…