How far do the
American films you have studied convey key themes in similar ways?
Paranoia:
IOTBS (0:00 – 0:13) - http://youtu.be/Q4DczfLhTM8
This scene involves Miles and Becky; they are hiding in an
office together alone as they do not want to be seen by the others. Whilst they
sit hiding the phone rings, Becky goes to answer but Miles tells her not as it
wouldn’t be anyone they could trust. So they both sit there and do nothing
about it because they are too paranoid it maybe one of the pods.
Fear of others:
IOTBS (0:45 – 1:30) - http://youtu.be/WLsjlmrQ6Mw?t=45s
In this scene Miles goes into the green house to find a pod
on the floor opening up and making strange noises. The camera shows a CU of his
face as he look confused and completely terrified as he is unsure what it is or
what to do. He screams out for Jack and
the others and they too panic.
After the phone has rang Miles looks out the window, he sees
what he describes as “just like any Saturday morning”. Miles names different
people he has seen and says “People I have known my entire life” but yet he is
hiding from them? As the scene continues the phone rings again with no answer,
people begin to gather round as vans arrive with pods on the back and people
begin to take them.
WofW (0:00 – 2:12) - http://youtu.be/kytDzjuBGJI?list=PL5E3748EC1F803E4C
This scene begins with a low angle shot of the tripod as it
towers over the people on the streets, as it makes a loud sound people panic
and hide behind cars, etc. Others stare at the pod as they are unsure what to
do but are also scared due to them not knowing what the pod is. Different shots
show peoples faces, as they are clearly scared, this highlights the fear of the
unknown and others.
The young girl in this scene is hiding behind a fence like
wall whilst watching the aliens from a safe enough distance. The camera shows a
shot of her eyes looking through a gap in the wall, as she doesn’t want to be
seen by the aliens. The camera shows a POV shot of the girls view on the aliens
as they hear a noise they look around and the camera moves down to signify the
girl moving, as she doesn’t want to be seen. The scene involves a section where
by Tom Cruise’s character is wrestling with another character that has a gun
and wants to kill the aliens, this shows that Cruise’s character is too scared
to fight, as he doesn’t want to suffer the consequences.
Fear of annihilation:
WofW (0:00 – 2:10) - http://youtu.be/_kopi8gT9KE
This scene Involves Tom Cruise’s
character Ray trying to find his daughter who is abducted by the aliens, the
scene begins with a shot of Ray looking out from the top of a hill as he sees blood
covering the ground for miles. This highlights the fear of annihilation, as Ray
is unsure on what to do as his world is being destroyed around him and he and
his daughter could be killed and the planet destroyed.
Extermination (WofW):
WofW (0:00 – 2:40) - http://youtu.be/rYGWG2_PB_Q?t=47s
This scene is when the first tripod comes out of the ground
and people are cowering around it. The Pod begins to stand above everyone and
looks down on them; it makes a loud echoing noise before it begins to shoot
people with its rays as they turns into dust. This scene is basically just a
complete extermination of humans by the aliens and shows the fear people have
at the time.
In this scene the tripod attacks a boat full of people as
they jump into the water to try and escape from the tripods. The pod pushes the
boat over and the people on board are flung into the water and are killed by
the tripod.
Annihilation (IOTBS):
IOTBS(0:00- 1:57) - http://youtu.be/KpNdzSxXw-I
In this scene the pod people find Miles and Becky. The pod
people explain how they are going to turn Miles and Becky into pods like them
and explain that they have no choice or way around it. They also explain what
it s to be a pod person with no emotions or feelings.
Narrative/conclusion:
War of the World’s ends with the aliens being killed by
Earths microorganisms and Ray returns his daughter Rachel to her mother. When
he gets there he finds his son Robbie there. A VO from Morgan Freeman
explaining that the Aliens couldn’t cope with Earth and it was things like
Bacteria that killed them rounds off the conclusion of the film. Invasion of
the body snatchers ends up with Miles returning to the present from his
flashback, the doctors still think he is insane until they are informed that he
is not.
War of the Worlds highlights the key theme of terror and the
huge threat of annihilation, which became a massive issue at the time of the
films making due to the attacks on the twin towers during 9/11. This is
highlighted clearly throughout the film, for example the scene with the train
on fire represents how transport can be used as a weapon by the aliens in the
film as the plane was used in 9/11. War of the Worlds highlights the way people
reacted during the time of 9/11, as they wanted to be around family and nothing
other which is shown in the film when Ray choices to protect his son and
daughter rather than try and fight against the tripods.
In Invasion of the Body snatchers the film ends with a open
ended narrative with there being no clear ending and no way of stopping /
understanding the tripods. Invasion of the body snatchers highlights the fear
people would have had during the time of the film with them being scared of
each other. This is due to McCarthy and his accusations of people being communists,
who would destroy their lives that caused people to become extremely paranoid;
this is shown in the film through Miles and Becky living in fear of the pods.
Introduction:
‘9/11 cinema’ is films that have been brought out after the
9/11 disaster and are affected by it, whether it be through the narrative or possibly
something a character says in the film. War of the worlds could be considered
as part of 9/11 cinema as it has elements related to that day, for example 9/11
caused a real fear of others due to the participants of the attack being
unknown which is shown through the aliens in the film who are classed as aliens
because they are unknown and unlabelled.
Communism by definition is a socioeconomic system structured upon the
common ownership of the means of production and characterized by the absence of
social classes, money, and the state. It is the theory of social organization
in which the community owns all property and each person contributes and
receives according to their ability and needs.
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