I have chosen the genre of crime films to study and make connections with. The texts that helped me to make these connections were Witness directed by Peter Weir, Out of the blue directed by Robert Sarkies, Shawshank redemption directed by Frank Darabont and for my final film I chose The bank job directed by Roger Donaldson. The significant two connections that I made using these texts were the theme of unexpected that was in the Witness and Out of the blue. I also saw the theme violence that was shown in the film Shawshank redemption and the film The bank job. I also saw a connection through the aspect of mass murder what was shown in Out of the blue and The bank job.
A connection that I have been able to make between my texts was the idea unexpected, I saw this connection in Witness and Out of the blue. The reason these two films connect is because both times the crime happened it was very unexpected. You didn’t think that a crime would happen when it did. In Witness it all of a sudden happens in a bathroom when a little boy goes to the toilet. In the Witness it goes to a close up shot on Samuel’s face to show how shocked and scared he is, the director also used music to show the audience it was all going fine and then unexpectedly the music changed and was quite scary music which shows us something bad is happening. This text could reflect the values of society because people don’t think about keeping careful when you go to the bathroom, people should keep an eye out and always at least be a little careful as awful things can happen when you go to the bathroom in public. The director’s purpose of making this unexpected is to hook the audience and to get them surprised and want to watch the film as it is interesting and anything could happen at anytime. In Out of the blue he all of sudden shoots a man and a girl who he was living next to for years and years. In Out of the blue they used a low angle shot, this was to show David being more powerful than Gary. They also used dialogue such as “Don’t go near my girls” which Gary said and then David lost it and yelled “F**k you Gary” and then got his gun out and shot him which was very unexpected. This text could reflect the values of society as people who do struggle from mental illnesses can do crazy things and there are many people who do struggle from mental illnesses and need help as they could do something like David Gray did. Unexpected crime is a thing in today’s world, In America there are many massacres and most the time it’s someone with a mental illness, it is also usually always unexpected as they don’t tell anyone or people can’t tell they are going through problems.
Another connection that I have been able to make between my texts was the idea violence, I saw this connection in Shawshank redemption and The bank job. The reason these two films connect is because they both show violent scenes in the film. In Shawshank redemption the violence was when ‘the sisters’ raped Andy, we didn’t see it happen but we knew what they did to him. In Shawshank Redemption they used dialogue to show that something violent is going to happen. As we didn’t see what actually happened, the dialogue in the scene showed us what was about to happen. This happens in society all the time, you are always hearing of murders and people getting raped. So this links in with society as we see this happening all the time and is shown on TV and social media sites. The director’s purpose is to show the viewer that bad violent things can happen wherever you are. Doesn’t matter if you are in prison there can always be bad stuff that can happen to you. It also makes the storyline more interesting as you are wondering what is going to happen next. Another film that had the theme violence in it was The bank job, this was shown when Dave was shot. The cops took Dave as a hostage to try make Terry scared but it didn’t so they ended up shooting Dave in the head. The violence is shown by a close up on Dave’s face showing that he is scared and then you see him get shot on a close up on his face. This also links in with society as you see people holding people hostage and killing them. You see this on TV and social media sites on a day to day basis. The director’s purpose is to get the audience’s attention, when something serious happens like a death people tend to start focusing more on the film as you want to see what will happen next. It hooks the audience into watching the movie very closely.
A significant connection that I have made between some of my chosen texts is the characters have similar characteristics of characterisation. This is common in the texts because these characters show us things about this particular genre, such as the police officers in Witness and in The bank job. For example both police officers are very down to earth kind men. They are both trying to keep peace and for everything to be worked out in the best way possible. Both officers are not the normal cop you see in the movies where they are bad and usually not the characters you like, they are very likeable and try and keep the peace about everything. In Witness John just wants everyone in the Amish family to be fine and not scared and that is the same in The bank job as the cop is trying to keep everything at peace between the two groups who are fighting. This proves to the reader that having these characteristics can be a good thing as it shows us that not all cops are bad, and that they are there to try help everyone. In most movies that have police officers the cops are usually bad and not the characters you like but in these two films the cop is the nice guy who everyone likes.
In conclusion, I made two significant connections between four texts about unexpected crime what was shown in Witness and Out of the blue and also violent crime that is shown in Shawshank Redemption and The bank job. I think that in all of these texts the director was trying to get the audience to be focused on the film by a crime scene. It gets the audience more focused on the film and gets there attention.
williamorewa 