Pop Culture Review

Write a 4-5 page (1,250-1,500 words) review of a movie, TV series, video game, novel, art exhibit, or other piece of pop culture that falls loosely under the “Western” genre. If you are unsure about your choice, please email me. In your review, you should succinctly lay out “the basics”: who made it, when was it made, its subject, plot, message, etc., and any other relevant details that someone who is unfamiliar with the work would need to orient themselves. The bulk of your review, however, should critically evaluate the work’s strengths and weaknesses specifically in the context of the Western United States and its history.

Although typical reviews might judge the artistic merits of a work on its own terms (ex. “So-and-so is a brilliant actor” or “The graphics can be clunky and distracting”), your review should focus more narrowly on how those elements relate to some dimension(s) of the American West and its history. What does the work have to say about the region? How (and how well) does it accomplish this? What can we learn from it? Before you write your review, please read K. Austin Collins’s review of The Black Panther. In particular, look at how Collins evaluates the movie specifically in the context of black identity and black politics. Your review will be shorter and more focused, but it should try to do something similar for the American West.

Please submit your review as a Word document emailed to c.blevins@northeastern.edu. Include your full name and page numbers. You do not need to include formal citations unless you draw on outside sources, in which case you should include footnotes with a full reference to the work you are citing. I will be evaluating your review based on the following writing rubric.

This assignment is due Sunday, November 3rd by 11:59PM.