Documentary Video Analysis review Movie Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Documentary Video Analysis - Movie Review Example The time was one of increased curiosity about China in the wider world, and this documentary was no doubt conceived as a way of informing western audiences about the background to the unfolding protests in China. The main message of the film appears to be a to give a linear narrative starting with the end of the old feudal system and the beginning of a new struggle for control in China in the year 1911. The neck and neck battle between Nationalists and Communists is shown, with some quite graphic old black and white moving pictures of what life, and in some cases death, was like for many people. Very early on there is an indication of the ultimate goal of the documentary, which seems to be to explain to the viewer how China â€Å"became the largest communist state on earth.† The dramatic way this is sad, and the deep, male American narrative voice, make this sound like something dramatic, and at the same time somewhat frightening. In fact this pro-American tone is carried on t hroughout the whole documentary and constitutes something of a bias. All of the English language voices which are used to translate the passages in Chinese are very American, and it is an interesting choice on the part of the director to use this kind of speaker and not seek out speakers with more international or Asian sounding voices. The film is very effective at conveying the struggle between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse Dong for the heart of the Chinese people. The trouble for the Western viewer is, however, that there does not seem to be much difference between the nationalist and the communist camps. Both go about their business with quite extreme brutality, making this quite a harrowing film to watch in places. Executions, piles of corpses in the streets, and tales of vicious torture bring home the atrocities carried out by both sides, and the human cost to the ordinary people who made up both the armies and the victims of pillaging across a landscape that is already dreadful ly poor. The film would have benefited from pause from visual narrative, in order to explain some of the ideological differences between the two. Mao is shown writing out some of his greatest works, for example, but there is no indication what it was he was writing about. The analysis of events was not at all sophisticated, and in fact some of the graphics were beyond basic. For a production in the late 1980s, it shows remarkably little sophistication in the maps and visual effects that it uses. Arrows and flags denote troop movements and foreign country involvement, but it is all done on a scale that makes china look like a tiny marginal state. There is no impression of the vastness of the territory, or the great differences in terrain and culture that existed across this whole nation. The best features of the film were a) its use of authentic old silent films, and b) its interviews with eye-witnesses who knew some of the leading figures in China in this period. The son of Chiang K ai-shek is interviewed, for example, presenting a disconcertingly western appearance in his shirt and tie, along with many soldiers and a few women who were involved in the Long March or in some of the Communist or Nationalist youth movements. Several of these interviewees give remarkable testimony to the dangers that they themselves faced, and several pronounce

How to Reduce Environmental Pollution Using Alternative Energy Sources Essay

How to Reduce Environmental Pollution Using Alternative Energy Sources - Essay Example Nature not only exists for humans alone but also for all species and as such, argues Miller et al. (2008 p, 17) there is need to encourage environmentally friendly forms of economic growth and development and discourage earth degrading forms (such as toxic emission from fossil fuels). It is here that the renewable sources of energy come in to help avert the dangers posed to the environment by the fossil fuels. To what level, it should be asked, do alternative energy sources help arrest the situation? And how ‘clean’ are the alternative sources? The benefits of alternative sources are well known, authoritatively asserts Renewable Energy Resources (2007, p, 207). They produce little or no pollution emissions and reduce dependency on the finite resources. The National Atlas of the US website (2012) also confirms this, but is quick to point out that even though the renewable sources are non-polluting, the structures built to harness them are two edged: they impact both posit ively and negatively on the environment. The intensity of the environmental impact or emissions caused by power generation depends on a number of factors such as the electricity generation technology used, how much electricity is generated, air pollution control devices used, the geographical location among other factors( US Environmental Protection Agency ,2012). A closer look at each of the renewable sources in many ways tries to answer the questions asked above. Solar Power Solar power is arguably the best thing going, at least from the environmental perspective. With it there are no acid rains, no urban smog or pollution of any kind (Alternative Energy, 2013). Clean and sustainably energy, that’s how the US Environmental Protection Agency (2012) describes solar power. Solar... As such, environmental impacts differ depending on the conversion and cooling technology applied Hydropower refers to the use of water to produce electricity. The hydroelectric power plants use dams to store water which is released from behind the dam flowing through a turbine. The water then spins the turbine, turning a generator to produce electricity. It is one of the least expensive sources of electricity. Not only does the dams provide power but also other substantial benefits such as recreation opportunities on upstream reservoirs, habitat for aquatic and terrestrial organisms, diversion of water for irrigation and control of destructive flooding. The environmental impacts of dams vary widely, but current regulations and policies have attempted to address the issues. For example, fish migration has been having been addressed with the use of fish ladders and other structures.In conclusion, renewable sources of energy provide a better alternative to the conventional energy source s, at least with the aim of curbing global warming and pollutant emissions. A shift from the fossil fuels to the renewable sources, therefore, promises a healthier environment. However, there seem to be other factors such as economic growth, population, and consumption of the energy and other resources that are proving to be hindrances in this mission of relieving the overburdened Mother Nature. Unless there is a reduction in energy use and other resources, renewable energy alone cannot achieve this mission of combating global warming.