Research Proposal

What is my current topic?

The criteria in determining which movie is a masterpiece and which is not.

My final essay will be about my own standards in evaluating movies and the reasons and example movies to explain them. For example, I will explain about the movies that I thought were masterpieces but were assessed not as good by critics and the movies I thought were illogical and stupid but were assessed excellently and got awards; the movies I thought were underrated and overrated(ex.Mister Nobody and Frozen, Pieta).
I also want to distinguish real masterpieces and kind of fake masterpiece that just makes viewers think that they are not that sentimental to understand this great movie.

What are my guiding questions?

The criterion in art is inevitably subjective to some extent, but it is also inevitably true that there are films that everyone agree are masterpieces. Therefore, I am curious if there are any criteria to determine which movie could be qualified to be called as a masterpiece.

Why the films that critics call masterpieces are always hard to understand for non-critics? Should masterpieces be difficult?

What are my current thoughts?

I think that masterpieces are not the ones that is too obvious or just target for a popular appeal. Sometimes the obvious ones could be great but I think they should be more subtle and lead viewers to understand by themselves. Therefore, I want to persuade people to try to accept the movies that don't explain everything to them.

What is the opposition?

My opponents will be people who disagree with my criteria or people that denies the definition of criteria in art itself. The former will say that my criteria are wrong because they think differently.The latter will say that there is no such thing as criterion in evaluating movies because movies are art and art cannot be objectively defined or criticized because it depends on person who appreciate them. Therefore, my essay is going to be more general than individual opinions.