英文影视赏析——后天thedayaftertomorrow

1、  课 程 论 文 题 目： The Day After Tomorrow 学生姓名 指导教师 二级学院外国语学院 专 业 英 语 班级 学号 课程名称 英文影视赏析 得 分 2010 年 11 月 14 日The Day after Tomorrow1. IntroductionThe Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extrem

2、e weather events that usher in a new ice age. It did well at the box office, grossing $542,771,772 internationally. Domestically, it is the sixth highest grossing movie not to be number 1 in the US box office (behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Alvin and the Chipmunks and its sequel, Sherlock Holmes,

3、and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs), but worldwide, it is third behind only Ice Age 3 and Casino Royale. The movie was filmed in Montreal, and is the highest grossing Hollywood film in history to be filmed in Canada (if adjusted for inflation).2. Plot Jack Hall is a paleoclimatologist who is on an e

4、xpedition in Antarctica with two colleagues, Frank and Jason , drilling for ice core samples on the Larsen Ice Shelf for the NOAA when the ice shelf breaks off from the rest of the continent, and Jack almost falls to his death. Jack presents his findings on global warming at a United Nations confere

5、nce in New Delhi where diplomats, including the Vice President of the United States are unconvinced by Jack's theory.However, Jack's concerns resonate with Professor Terry Rawson of the Hedland Climate Research Centre in Scotland. Two buoys in the North Atlantic simultaneously show a massive

6、 drop in the ocean temperature, and Rawson concludes that melting of the polar ice has begun disrupting the North Atlantic current. He contacts Jack, whose paleoclimatological weather model holds reconstruction data of the climate change that caused the first Ice Age, to predict what will happen. Ja

7、ck believed that the events would not happen for a hundred or a thousand years, but he, Frank, Jason, and NASA's meteorologist Janet Tonkawa (Tamlyn Tomita) build a forecast model with his, Rawson's, and Tonkawa's data.Across the world, violent weather causes mass destruction, including

8、a snowstorm greatly impacting New Delhi, a hailstorm ultimately destroying Tokyo, Japan, and a large outbreak of tornadoes wrecking Los Angeles. The U.S. President authorizes the FAA to suspend air traffic over the United States due to severe turbulence. The situation worsens when three massive hurr

9、icane-like blizzard super storms begin to form over the northern hemisphere, with their eyes pulling down super-cooled air that causes anything in contact with it to instantly freeze, thus heralding the predicted ice age in seven to ten days.Meanwhile, Jack's son, Sam, (Jake Gyllenhaal) is in Ne

10、w York City for an academic competition with his friends Brian and Laura (Arjay Smith and Emmy Rossum), where they also befriend a student named J.D. On the flight over, there is severe turbulence, and Sam grabs Laura's hand in fright. During the competition, the weather becomes massively violen

11、t with intense winds and flooding rains. Sam calls his father, making a promise to be on the next train home. Unfortunately, the storm worsens, forcing subways and Grand Central Terminal to close. As the storm worsens in Manhattan, Sam and his friends seek refuge in the New York Public Library, burn

12、ing books to stay alive. While the survivors in the northern United States are forced to stay inside due to the storm, the President orders to evacuate the southern half of the country. Jack sets off for Manhattan to find his son, accompanied by Frank and Jason. Their truck crashes into a snow-cover

13、ed tractor-trailer just past Philadelphia, so the group continues on snowshoes. During the journey, Frank falls through the glass roof of a snowbound shopping mall. As Jason and Jack try to pull Frank up, the glass under them continues to crack; Frank sacrifices himself by cutting the rope. In anoth

14、er incident, the U.S. President's motorcade is fatally caught in the superstorm, leaving the U.S. Vice President in charge.In the library, Sam warns everyone to stay indoors, but few listen. The small group that remains breaks the vending machine for food. Laura is afflicted with blood poisoning

15、, so Sam, Brian, and J.D. must search for penicillin in a Russian cargo ship that drifted inland, and are attacked by escaped wolves from the New York Zoo. The eye of the super storm begins to pass over the city with its 150 °F (101 °C) temperatures, and the entire New York City

16、skyline begins to freeze. The three return to the library with medicine, food, and supplies, making it to safety.During the deep freeze, Jack and Jason take shelter in an abandoned Wendy's restaurant, then resume their journey after the storm dissipates, finally arriving in New York City. They f

17、ind the library buried in snow, but find Sam's group alive and are rescued by Chinook helicopters. The new President orders search and rescue teams to look for other survivors, having been given hope by the survival of Sam's group. The movie concludes with two astronauts looking down at Eart

18、h from the International Space Station, showing most of the northern hemisphere covered in ice, and a major reduction in pollution.3. Opinions3.1 ReceptionThe movie generated mixed reviews from both the science and entertainment communities. The online entertainment guide, Rotten Tomatoes, rated the

19、 movie at 45%, with an average rating of 5.3/10. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, praised the film's special effects, giving the film three stars out of four. Environmental activist and Guardian columnist George Monbiot called The Day After Tomorrow a great movie and lousy science." I

20、n a USA Today editorial by Patrick J. Michaels, a Research Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia and global warming skeptic, Michaels called the movie "propaganda," noting, "As a scientist, I bristle when lies dressed up as 'science' are used to inf

21、luence political discourse." In a Space Daily editorial by Joseph Gutheinz, a college instructor and retired NASA Office of Inspector General, Senior Special Agent, Gutheinz called the movie "a cheap thrill ride, which many weak-minded people will jump on and stay on for the rest of their

22、lives." Pale climatologist William Hyde of Duke University was asked, on rec.arts.sf.written, whether he would be seeing the film; he responded that he would not unless someone was to offer him $100. Other readers of the newsgroup took this as a challenge, and (despite Hyde's protests) rais

23、ed the necessary funds. Hyde's review, which criticized the film's portrayal of weather phenomena that stopped at national borders, and finished by saying that it was "to climate science as Frankenstein is to heart transplant surgery", was quoted in New Scientist.In 2008, Yahoo! Mo

24、vies listed The Day After Tomorrow as one of Top 10 Scientifically Inaccurate Movies. The film was criticized for depicting several different meteorological phenomena occurring over the course of hours, instead of the possible time frame of several decades or centuries. Over its four-day Memorial Da

25、y opening, the film grossed $85,807,341; however, it still ranked #2 for the weekend, behind Shrek 2's $95,578,365 4-day tally, however The Day After Tomorrow led the per-theater average chart with a 4-day average of $25,053, compared to Shrek 2's 4-day average of $22,633. At the end of its

26、box office run, it grossed $186,740,799. Its worldwide gross was $542,771,772. 3.2 CriticismThere was some controversy regarding the casting of Kenneth Welsh as the Vice-President of the United States due to his striking physical resemblance to then Vice-President Dick Cheney. Roland Emmerich later

27、confirmed that he deliberately chose Welsh for that very reason. Emmerich stated that the characters of the President and Vice-President in the film were intended to be a not-so-subtle criticism of the environmental policies of the Presidency of George W. Bush. The White House did not respond to req

28、uests for comment on the film. In response to accusations of insensitivity by including scenes of New York City being destroyed less than three years after the September 11th attacks, Emmerich claims that it was necessary to depict the event as a means to showcase the increased unity people now have

29、 when facing a disaster, because of 9/11. A number of scientists were critical of the scientific aspects of the film:Daniel P. Schrag, a paleoclimatologist and professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University, expressed both support and concern about the film, stating that "On the one hand, I'm glad that there's a big-budget movie about something as critical as climate change. On the other, I'm conc