Section C Exam Answer

Compare how key messages and values are explored in the two american films you have studied in reflecting the period they were made

Paranoia

Whilst everyone is walking towards to the Hudson River Ferry, the camera focuses on several different groups. They speak about rumours and hear say based on how different parts of America and the rest of the world has been affected by the Tripods. This demonstrates that the everyone is paranoid because they are coming up with stories that describe how brutal the attacks are. At this stage, apart from Ray and his kids, no one has experienced the pods in real life, and so all of the stories are coming from peoples paranoia of it. This is reflective of 9/11 society when initially people where creating ideas about who was responsible for the attacks and what actually happened from their own paranoia, rather than factual evidence

Fear of Others

After Ray comes out of the house he sees a news truck. The team have been following the attack and they have footage of the creatures entering the tripods underground, to which Ray says 'What is that?' He says it in a very fearful tone which shows the people do not have any idea of what the creatures are as they are like something never seen before. This is representative of Post 9/11 society in which people had no idea who the attackers were, and became very fearful of their appearance and anybody that looked like them.

Fear of Annihilation

As the Ray and the children were driving towards the ferry. They got attacked by people wanting a lift in their working car. At one stage, the windscreen of the car gets smashed leaving a small hole. A man jumps on top of the car and starts pulling the hole open with his bare hands, slashing them to pieces. He doesn't show any pain or fear about what he is doing, which demonstrates how fearful the man was of being annihilated by the tripods. This links with the media footage shown after the plane hit the Twin Towers in the 9/11 attacks which show people jumping to their deaths from windows of the towers. They were more fearful of annihilation from the terrorists actions that they were prepared to kill themselves without any fear to control their own death. A similar situation occurred when the lift bridge of the ferry was being lifted and people were flinging themselves at it, with little regard for their safety, purely because of their fear of being annihilated by the tripods.