Your goal in this paper (5-7 pgs + map) is to analyze and compare the depictions of a major U.S. city in three Hollywood films and to anchor your analysis in the actual geography of that city. Using a map of the city in question, locate the settings that are pivitol in your three films and assess the meaning that each film ascribes to that location. It will be up to you to choose which city and which films to analyze, but here are some sample questions concerning films about New York, Los Angeles, and Boston that you might conisider as a starting point for your research and analysis: In the film Chinatown, what specific meanings do writer Robert Towne and director Roman Polanski ascribe to L.A.'s original Chinese-American neighborhood? In Gangs of New York, what meaning does Martin Scorcese ascribe to the once infamous Five Points neighborhood (see Google Earth image above) in lower Manhattan? In Good Will Hunting, how does director Gus Van Sant use neighborhoods such as Southie, Bunker Hill, and Harvard Square to depict class differences in Boston and Cambridge?
