Double Indemnity: The Assignment

When you've finished watching the film, read both Ebert's essay on the film as well as the Studlar essay I handout out in class. (The handout lacks an attribution: it's from Film Analysis: A Norton Reader, eds. Geiger and Rutsky.) The readings should provide you additional insight into the film while also giving you the chance to hear how two writers talk about it.

You're to write a reaction piece on the movie. It's not a review, per se, but a formal argumentative essay of approximately 500 words that analyzes your response to the movie by focusing on three scenes in the film. (Each body paragraph would deal with a particular scene.) You'll want to consider scenes that had an impact on you, scenes that are at the heart of why the film struck you and why the film is successful. You can use the Ebert and Studlar essays as touchstones and reference sources. You might refer to what they say and comment on it. Whether you merely reference them or directly quote them, you still have to cite them properly in the paper. I don't require a bibliography, so it's enough to write something like "(Ebert, p. xx)" or "(Studlar, p. xx)." Cite their ideas, don't plagiarize them.