Benjamin Syn is a Masters Candidate in Rhetoric and the Teaching of Writing. He has a B.A. in Psychology and English with an emphasis in Film Studies from the University of Colorado Denver. He is also an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church and the Church of the SubGenius, as well as a Chaplain for the Paratheoanametamystichood of Eris Esoteric, and has performed three weddings and a funeral.

FILM THEORY & CRITICISM

The Story in History: Examining Apocalypse Now by looking at The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien says, "A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes the blast, but it's a killer grenade and everybody dies anyway. Before they die though, one of the dead guys says, 'The fuck you do that for?' and the jumper says, 'Story of my life, man,' and the other guy starts to smile but he's dead. That's a true war story that never happened" (83-4). Read on...

FILM THEORY & CRITICISM

Everybody Comes to Rick's

It's the 23rd of January 1943. The evening paper mentions that Sergei Eisenstein celebrates his 45th birthday today, The Duke Ellington Carnegie Hall Concerts record is released, and allied forces led by General Montgomery capture Tripoli ("On This Day," "Carnegie Hall Concerts, January 1943," and "WWII Combat Chronology"). The movie Casablanca also opens throughout US theaters today; however, this film premiered in New York two months earlier on the 26th of November 1942. Read on...