The Importance of Movies

Claude Clay

Rough Draft

English 1

Van Doren

The Importance of Movies

Television shows and movies have really evolved over the period of time that they first came out to today's time. Back in the early 1900's there were only few television shows for people to choose from with low quality and a small tube that produced a picture. Today, we have televisions that can go on the internet, some that are plasma, LEDs and even 3-D television sets a lot has changed since the earlier days. Since then shows and movies have become more intricate in story threads and have more main and supporting roles than ever. After reading the essay "Watching TV Makes You Smarter" by Steven Johnson and seeing the evidence he provides to the reader about different shows heightening your intellect I believe that his idea is correct to an extent. A movie that provides great insight to prove Johnson's essay is the movie Vantage Point. The movie provides complex character story lines, different points of view and the use of flashbacks. After watching the Vantage Point, the movie has shed light onto Johnson's essay because it the movie makes you think while you watch the movie and still be entertained.

In the movie Vantage Point, the movie starts off with a news team reporting live from Spain watching as the president is about to give a speech for political reasons to promote international peace. The first point of view of the president's assassination is of what the news team is seeing and analyst for the news team reports the president has been shot. Then an explosion goes off and soon another and you than see the news anchor dead. Once that is over, the movie does a flashback back to noon and point of view is now from a secret service agent who is recently off of a medical leave. The main character of the movie is Agent Barnes played by Dennis Quaid. Before Agent Barnes goes off to the summit he thanks his partner Agent Taylor for allowing him to get back on board for protecting the president after taking a bullet for him in a past assassination attempt. Agent Barnes watches as the president is struck by a sniper bullet and runs immediately to his aid. Before the president had been struck Barnes saw a curtain fluttering and thought it was an attacker but agents had confirmed it was just a fan causing the curtain to move. After the president has been shot a man runs quickly onto the stage and is tackled by Agent Barnes and then sent to other agents. The man who ran on the stage is actually a police officer for the mayor of Spain and tells the other agents that they need to get of the plaza. After a first explosion Barnes finds a man with a camcorder and looks at the footage. He then sees something says "Oh my god...there's a bo." Soon enough the second explosion goes off. After the second explosion Barnes runs into a news truck the same one that was filming the summit and asks to see their tape. Barnes watches the tape and contacts his partner Agent Taylor as he watches he drops his phone and says "Oh my god.." and the director flashes back to another character. The third vantage point the viewers watch is the one of Enrique who was the police officer who ran across the stage after the president has been shot. From this point you see Enrique walk towards his alleged girlfriend when she