A Sample Research Paper:
(From Harbrace Handbook, 13th Ed. , 517-39)
(See MLA Page (other pages may have more detailed help))
Research: Using and Citing Sources

Comments

 1. The identification, double-spaced, begins one inch from the top of the page and flush with the left margin.  A doublespaced line precedes the centered title of the paper.  A margin of one inch is provided at the left, right, and bottom.
 2. Double-space between the title and the first line of the text. (A title consisting of two or more lines is double-spaced, and each line is centered.)
 3. All pages (including the first one) are numbered with Arabic numerals in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top.  The page number is preceded by the author's last name.  Notice that no period follows the page numbers.
 

** Please note that all papers using MLA format must be double spaced.   This is single spaced because of the possibility of different formats used by different servers.  **
Frushour 1
Katie Frushour
Professor Thompson
English 200, Section 5
8 May 1997
 Using Cinematic Techniques to Emphasize Theme: Olivier's and Loncraine's Richard III
        Shakespeare's plays are popular targets for film adaptations, and Richard III is no exception.  With his 1995 release of Richard III, Richard Loncraine is the newest addition to the field of Shakespearean directors, joining Laurence Olivier, who directed a version of the same play in 1955.  While the films are true to the play's central theme of tyranny, the cinematic techniques of the two versions of Richard III are dramatically different.  In order to demonstrate the tyranny of Richard, Olivier uses more traditional techniques, such as a cyclical theme, artful use of the shadow, and a careful film adaptation, while Loncraine relies on an unusual setting, clever casting, and creative film adaptation.  Therefore, although different methods are employed to illuminate the common theme of tyranny, they are utilized effectively so as to emphasize the cinematic appeal of both films.
      Olivier's traditional cinematic methods, which were groundbreaking in his time, bring the complexity of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to life by highlighting his malice and desire to control the crown of England.  Olivier cleverly uses the cyclical theme of the crown being handed from king to king to symbolize
Research: Using and Citing Sources

Comments

 1. All three quotations in paragraph 2 are cited with only a page number because the authors' names are included in the text.
 2. The second reference to Jorgens includes both a direct quotation and a paraphrase.  Both are cited with a reference to page 137.
 3. Notice how Frushour integrates the information from Jorgens into her own analysis.
 4. Frushour uses her own viewing of Olivier's film for this information, and so nothing need be cited (paragraph 3).
 

 

Frushour 2
the rise and fall of Richard III, what Constance Brown justly calls "the central device of coherence" (133).  Jack Jorgens concurs with Brown's assertion as he states that there "is no question that the theme of the crown is important to the film, (137).  Jorgens identifies the theme of the film as the "fall and rise of state, and argues that the fall and rise are represented by the image of the crown (137).  The film opens with the crowning of Edward IV, after which the audience learns of Richard's self-serving lust for the throne.  The audience increasingly becomes a party to Richard's malevolent actions and his growing tyranny in his quest for power, which culminates in his possession of the crown of England.  Soon after obtaining the throne, however, Richard's tyrannical methods lead to his death and the surrender of the crown to Richmond, the rightful heir.  This common cycle of events creates a sense of balance in the film, which is both central to the theme and cinematically appealing.
     Another cinematic technique employed by Olivier is the artful use of the shadow.  As Richard confides his plots to kill Clarence and to marry Lady Anne, his shadow slowly grows until it consumes the whole screen.  This use of shadow symbolizes Richard's dominance and his growing tyranny.  Likewise, while the audience watches Clarence describe the horrible nightmare that he sees through the window of his cell in the Tower, the camera
Research: Using and Citing Sources

Comments

 1. Because the quotation from Jorgens in paragraph 3 is brief, it can be run in with the text instead of being indented.
 2. In paragraph 4, Frushour identifies McKellen's dual roles in the film-as main character and as the writer of the screenplay.

 

Frushour 3
slowly reveals the shadow of Richard on the cell door.  Through this action, Anthony Davies suggests, the audience becomes an accomplice to Richard's eavesdropping and thus a confidant to his plotting (70).  This action is cinematically advantageous because it involves the audience in the film, while developing Richard's tyranny.  Finally, the shadow is used to emphasize the intertwining of Richard with the Duke of Buckingham, a vital alliance in Richard's quest for the crown.  Jorgens describes this powerful scene: 'Buckingham's shadow merges with Richard's . . . and the shadow of the murderers falls upon the crucifix in Clarence's cell as they enter to kill him" (146).  The shadows of both men are shown side by side as they exit a room after plotting to meet the young Prince of Wales' escort.  This visual representation of the alliance of Richard and Buckingham reinforces their ties to one another and provides a strong contrast centered on Richard's tyranny when he and Buckingham are estranged.  Therefore, through the clever and inventive use of the shadow, Olivier is able to emphasize the theme of his film, while making it cinematically appealing at the same time.
     Perhaps the most important of Olivier's cinematic techniques is his adaptation of the play.  Shakespeare plays are never performed in their entirety, as actor/screenwriter Ian McKellen states in the "Production Notes" of Loncraine's version of Richard III.  Olivier
Research: Using and Citing Sources

Comments

 1. The citation to Wilson's article, (83-84), at the end of Paragraph 4 indicates that the summarized information appears on two pages.
 2. Because Robert Wilson engages in a lengthy discussion about the archetypal clichés in Richard III, a summary of the remainder of his thesis is included in the notes and is indicated by a superscript numeral.  The discussion is not included in the text because it is not directly relevant to Frushour's analysis.
 3. The long quotation in paragraph 5 from Magill's Survey of Cinema is set off as a block, indented one inch from the left margin, because it is longer than four typed lines.  Brackets indicate that the information enclosed is not part of the quotation.  The ellipsis points that appear at the end of the quotation indicate that the remainder of the quoted sentence is omitted.
 4. No page number is cited in the parentheses because Magill's
 Survey of Cinema is an electronic source and has no pages.  Instead, the quotation can be found by searching for a distinctive phrase.
5.  When using an anonymous source such as Magill's Survey of Cinema, use a shortened version of the title.  Frushour uses the title of the article in the work:  "Richard III."
6.  The reference to Brown in paragraph 6 includes Brown's name because the name is not mentioned in the text immediately preceding the reference.
 

Frushour 4
generally uses traditional methods of adaptation, such as cutting characters and occasionally dialogue, which serve to clarify the plot by eliminating minor characters.  He also maintains the stereotypes of the characters that were defined by Shakespeare.  Robert Wilson points out that Olivier uses Shakespeare's archetypal clichés of Lady Anne and Richard III (83-84).'
     However, Olivier also adds scenes to the 5 film that are not in the play.  One of these key additions is described in Magill's Survey of Cinema:
 [Olivier] interpolated the coronation of Edward IV from the end of Henry VI, Part 3 (the play that preceded Richard III in Shakespeare's history cycle) into the Beginning of the film.  This accomplished two things:  it gave the audience a bit of welcome background to the action commencing on screen, and it also gave Olivier a framing device to use.  ("Richard III")
     This adaptation is important to the theme of the film because it adds an insight into the events that lead to Richard's coronation, and it provides the cyclical theme of the three crownings, which is important to the film both thematically and cinematically.  Olivier also adds Mistress Shore to the opening scenes.  her presence at the coronation and brief interaction with Edward IV emphasize Edward's lasciviousness (Brown 14), which
Research: Using and Citing Sources

Comments

 1. The reference to Stark in paragraph 7 acknowledges that Frushour got the idea that there is renewed interest in Shakespeare because of Branagh's productions from Stark's article.  No page is cited because Frushour used the online version of the source.
 2. Kauffmann's complaints about the film are given in a footnote because they are not directly relevant to Frushour's analysis.
 3. In paragraph 7, ellipsis points in the quotation from Kersey and from Kroll (see original text below) show that nonessential information is omitted.
Source: Kroll, Jack.  "Richard III-My Kingdom for a Movie." Newsweek 29 Jan. 1996: 58.
Loncraine gives you true movie visuals and rhythms as Richard rises to power, polishing off all the men, women, and children in his way, in an England of art deco and prewar tensions.
4. The citation to Kersey in paragraph 7 refers to a Newsgroup posting for which no page number is available.  The Works Cited list, however, gives the full electronic address for the source.

Frushour 5
parallels Richard's lust for power.  These brief scenes work to enforce the image of Richard as tyrant and are an important part of the cinematic beauty of Laurence Olivier's Richard III.
     Loncraine's release of Richard III in 1995 takes a more contemporary approach to Shakespeare.  Fueled by a renewed interest in Shakespeare resulting from Kenneth Branagh's success in bringing the playwright to the big screen (Stark), the film sparked a controversy concerning Loncraine's choice of setting.  Loncraine uses a fictional, fascist, art deco London circa 1930 for the setting of his film, which adds to its cinematic capabilities.  Although critics such as Stanley Kauffmann complain that Loncraine's setting is unbelievable,2 Jack Kroll states in his article concerning the recent release, "Loncraine gives you true movie visuals and rhythms as Richard rises to power . .. in an England of art deco and prewar tensions" (58).  The setting parallels the tyranny of Richard.  It becomes more militaristic as his obsession for the crown drives him to greater tyranny.  Richard's tyranny fuels his rise to power, which "parallels Nazi Germany . .. with his introduction at a Nuremberg-style rally just prior to his coronation" (Kersey).  Ben Brantley further stresses the effectiveness of Loncraine's setting as a device to emphasize the image of tyranny.  He says:
Research: Using and Citing Sources

Comments

 1. Notice that the page number for the blocked quotation from Brantley in paragraph 7 comes after the final period, whereas for quotations that are run into the text, such as Kroll's, the page number comes before the period.
 2. Newspapers are cited by giving both the page number and the section in which the article appears. (Sime 1C) in paragraph 8 is an example.
 3. Brackets in the blocked quotation in paragraph 9 indicate that the production notes include only the actor's surname.
 

Frushour 6
Setting the work in Fascist Europe, with Richard's Black Shirt presence playing on memories of Oswald Mosley and Edward VII's alleged Nazi sympathies, always made a certain sense.  It immediately set up echoes of what is still perceived as the greatest historical example of evil in the 20th century: Hitler's Third Reich. (1)
     This setting, complete with "a wild boar on the flags instead of a swastika" (Kersey) and modeled from the modern image of tyranny and fascism--Hitler's Germany, intensifies the audience's perception of Richard III's rule.  The altered setting makes the film more appealing to audiences with a strong mental picture of Hitler's rule.  McKellan states, "We weren't trying to bring the play Richard III to as many people as possible, but trying to make a film . . .  that would appeal to as many people as possible" (Sime 1C).  the audience relates Richard to Hitler through the cinematic images Loncraine creates, enforcing both the theme and the cinematic appeal of the film.
     From a cinematic standpoint, Loncraine also makes a few casting decisions that relate the plot (and in turn the theme) of the film to the audience.  The "Production Notes" from Richard III explain: 
[Robert] Downey [Jr.] and Annette Bening play Americans.  Their casting
Research: Using and Citing Sources

Comments

 1. No page number is necessary for the blocked quotation in paragraph 9 because it is a citation to a Web page.  In this instance, a paragraph number is given instead, according to advice (rather than a requirement) in the MLA Style Manual.   However, the full electronic address appears in the Works Cited.

 2. The citations in paragraph 10 refer to the two identically authored and titled films.  The director's name is included to distinguish one version from the other.

Frushour 7
 . . . grew out of the fact that in the play Queen Elizabeth and her brother, Earl Rivers, are outsiders.  They are not members of the aristocracy and Loncraine and McKellen wanted to find a twentieth-century equivalent. (Paragraph 15)
Loncraine's choice to cast two Americans in the small but important roles of Queen Elizabeth and her brother emphasize the role of both characters as Outsiders by equating their exclusion from the aristocracy to an average American's exclusion from royalty in Britain today.  Thus, a seemingly minor part of the cinematic production, casting, enables Loncraine to demonstrate a crucial element of the plot, further enhancing the film's theme and cinematic appeal.
     Finally, like Olivier's film, the most important technique emphasizing the theme of Loncraine's film while making it cinematically favorable is adaptation.  Ian McKellen, who wrote the screenplay in addition to playing Richard, makes numerous character cuts, rearranges or drops lines, and combines scenes to adapt Shakespeare's play.  Characters like Lords Dorset, Grey, and Northumberland and Queen Margaret are eliminated, and their lines are given to other characters in the play.  To increase the pace of the film, McKellen combines two scenes between Richard and Lady Anne (Loncraine, Richard III), so that she is successfully wooed in one scene rather than two (Olivier, Richard III).  This reduction in
Research: Using and Citing Sources

Comment

 1. The citation in paragraph 10 to the interview with McKellen includes the title to avoid confusion with other electron 'c sources that quote McKellen.  Since the reference is to a Web page, there is no page number.
 

Frushour 8
scenes emphasizes the power that Richard has over Anne and allows the audience to compare it to the power he acquires as the movie gains momentum.  This scene is so powerful that even in his negative review of Loncraine's film, Kauffmann describes the scene between Anne and Richard as intrinsically interesting (30).  Yet, despite the major alterations that McKellen makes to reduce the four-hour play to just under one hundred minutes, he insists on preserving the spirit of Shakespeare.  He says, in an on-line interview, "I will not betray his words.,, McKellen emphasize the fact that although the characters are changed, lines rearranged, and scenes added or dropped, the words remain true and convey the proper image to the audience ("Richard III: Interview with Sir Ian McKellan").  This dedication to the spirit of Shakespeare's Richard III, while making cinematically advantageous alterations to the text, enables Loncraine to focus on the tyranny of Richard.
     Forty years allows for numerous cinematic improvements, yet in Olivier's version of the play, Richard's tyranny is stressed using traditional methods that are just as cinematically appealing today as they were in 1955.  Likewise, Loncrain'e's Richard III introduces a dramatic twist to the film, opening it for cinematic reinterpretation while preseving the tyrannical theme.  Therefore, it is this artful and careful presentation of the films that allows both
Research: Using and Citing Sources

 Comments

 I- Notes are usually put at the end of the text and titled Notes.   They are coordinated with their location in the text by a superscript number that comes before the indented first line of the note and also at the appropriate location in the text.
 2. Footnotes fell out of general use because of the difficulty of arranging text around them.  Rather, the information was placed on a separate page at the end of the text, which has the additional advantage of making it easy for a reader to set the notes side-by-side with the page being read.  In-text citation is even easier to manage, and in an electronic source, a hypertext link (which generally offers fuller information) often accomplishes the same purpose as a note.

Frushour 9
directors to successfully emphasize the tyranny of Richard III while employing vastly different, yet equally effective, cinematic techniques.

Frushour 10
Notes
      'Wilson states that Lady Anne continues to represent the angel image that is set in opposition to the devil image represented by the character of Richard III (83-84).  He further explains that as the angel, Lady Anne's assigned duty is to reform the fallen man, Richard III.  Richard III, the devil, is defined by his symbolic rape of the weakened
victim, Lady Anne. 
     2Kauffmann argues that by changing the setting to Fascist times, Loncraine succeeds only in creating an unbelievable story line and distorts Shakespeare's original intentions.  Kauffmann says, "Are we to believe that this power-greedy homicidal malcontent was a fascist?  Nonsense.  He had nothing in his head except schemes for personal advancement" (30).
Research: Using and Citing Sources

 Comments

 1. All works cited as sources in the paper and only those should be included in the list of works cited.
 2. Alphabetize entries according to the author's last name.
 Works with more than one author are alphabetized under the name of whichever writer is listed first in the source itself.
 3- Observe the use and placement of periods and commas, especially in relation to parentheses and quotation marks.  A colon separates a title from a subtitle and the place of publication from the publisher's name.  A colon also precedes page numbers of articles from periodicals.  Use angle brackets to set off an electronic address in citations to electronic sources.
 4. Citations to Usenet news group postings should include the writer's name, a title taken from the subject line and enclosed in quotation marks, the description Online posting, the original date of the posting, the date of access, and the prefix "news" followed by a colon and the newsgroup name, all enclosed in angle brackets.  See the Kersey citation on page  535.
 5. Notice that the citation to the interview with Ian McKellen is anonymous.  Like anonymous print sources, anonymous electronic sources are alphabetized by title.
 

Frushour 11
Works Cited
*Normally, the second line of each entry would be indented five spaces, but because of different browsers, I figured it could look really weird, so I did it this way. Please keep that in mind.  There also should not be an extra space between entries, but, with the first problem, I thought it might hard to distinguish between the different entries otherwise.
Brantley, Ben.  "Mesmerizing Men of Ill Will." New York Times 21 Jan. 1996, late ed.: 1+.

Brown, Constance.  "Olivier's Richard III: A Reevaluation." Focus on Shakespeare Films.  Ed.  Charles W. Eckert.  Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1972. 131-45.

Davies, Anthony. Filming Shakespeare's Plays:  The Adaptations of Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, Peter Brook, and Akira Kurosawa.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988.

Jorgens, Jack J. Shakespeare on Film.  Bloomington:  Indiana UP, 1977.

Kauffmann, Stanley.  "Stanley Kauffmann on Films: Shrinking Shakespeare." New Republic 12 Feb. 1996:  30-31.

Kersey, Alan. "Review:  Richard III (1995)."  Online posting.  6 May 1995.  9 July 1996 <news:  rec.arts.movies.reviews>.

Kroll, Jack.  "Richard III--My Kingdom for a Movie."  Newsweek 29 Jan. 1996:  58.

Richard III.  By William Shakespeare.  Screenplay by Ian McKellen.  Dir. Richard Loncraine.  MGM/United Artists, 1995.

Richard III.  Dir. Laurence Olivier.  British Broadcasting Company, 1955.

"Richard III:  Interview with Sir Ian McKellen."  Richard III Onstage and Off.  20 Dec. 1995. Richard III Society Home Page.  3 July 1996. <http://www.r3.org/mckellen/film/mckell.html>.

 Research: Using and Citing Sources

Comments

1. An anonymous source (such as  Magill's Survey of Cinema or "Richard III: Production Notes") is alphabetized under the first important word in the title.
 2. The citation for "Production Notes" is substantially the same as that for "Interview with Ian McKellen" (p. 535), but notice that the file name (notes.html) is different.  That indicates a different World Wide Web page.
 3. Inclusion of the issue number and date indicates that each issue of the Journal of Popular Film and Television is paged separately.

Frushour 12


"Richard III."  Magill's Survey of Cinema.  CD-ROM.  Salem: Salem, 1996.

"Richard III": Production Notes,"  Richard III Onstage and Off. 20 Dec. 1995.  Richard III Society Home Page. 3 July 1996 <http://www.r3-org/mckellen/film/notes.html>.

Sime, Tom. "Now Is McKellen's Winter of Content: Acclaimed Shakespearean Finally Wins Film Stardom in Richard III."  Dallas Morning News 4 Feb. 1996: 1C.

Stark, Susan.  "His Naked Villainy: Sir Ian McKellen Is No Garden Variety Richard III."  Detroit News 20 Jan. 1996. 3 July 1996 <http://www.detnews.com/menu/stories/32720.htm>.

Wilson, Robert F., Jr. "Shakespeare and  Hollywood: Two Film Clichés." Journal of Popular Film and Television 15.2 (1987):   83-84.

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