exam prep

Section B – Living with Crime

How far do the opening sequences of the films you have studied for this topic introduce their key messages and values?

The two films that I have studied for this topic are Get Carter, a film set in the early 70s, and Bullet Boy which is a much more modern film made in 2004. The openings of both of these films are similar in that they both show a gradual change in location and use this idea to represent their key messages and values.

In Get Carter, the film begins with an extreme wide shot of Jack Carter stood in a window; when the camera pans in we see that there is a woman, who we know as Anna, sat on the couch. This use of levels shows that Carter has power over Anna and represents the idea of men being dominant over women during the early 70s. The main reason for this was because of the “swinging sixties” which mainly occurred due to the invention of the contraceptive pill which was supposed to liberate women, however Get Carter shows how it only made men feel threatened by women and made them more controlling.

Next, the camera films a small sitting room filled with mostly men and one woman, Anna. In the sitting room, we see that the men are watching porn and finding it humorous in front of Anna which we as the audience find very disrespectful, this shows how men had no care for the thoughts and feelings of women in the early 70s and shows how women were seen as objects to men rather than real people.

Later on, the camera begins to film Anna and focus on her more, however the camera begins filming from her legs and fetishises her as it works its way up her body. This shot represents the point of view of Carter and therefore men in this society in general showing how men were disrespectful of women and seen them as sex objects. When the camera reaches Anna’s face we see that she has a very uncomfortable expression as she feels objectified by the men in the room showing the negatives of “free love” and liberty for women that the swinging sixties brought. Also, from the outfit that Anna is wearing we can see that she is a prostitute and this suggests how women who were independent and earned their own money were still actually involved in a business run by a man.

Representation of location is shown in the opening sequence on Get Carter when Carter takes a train from London to his birthplace up North, Newcastle. Whilst Carter is on the train we see how the lighting becomes lower key and how the scenery outside the window gradually gets more industrial as the train draws nearer to Newcastle. This representation of Newcastle portrays the idea that it is grim up North and represents the issue of the North/South divide during this time because of Thatcher’s England. Furthermore, it shows how the myth of the swinging sixties only seemed to be present in central London, however nowhere else in England.

Bullet Boy, as I mentioned earlier, is a much more modern film and represents key messages and values in society today. This film opens with Wisdom (Ricky’s best friend) and Curtis (Ricky’s younger brother) picking Ricky up from jail and taking him back to his hometown Hackney, London. This film opening is similar to get Get Carter in that the mise-en-scene makes the setting much more industrial and claustrophobic and Ricky draws nearer to home. Once Ricky reaches Hackney, framing is used to block out the sky from the frame by using a close up on the camera, because of this all we can see is large buildings and high rise flats in the frame. These high rise buildings represent a wall around Hackney and create the idea that Ricky has become trapped once again into this small world of crime in the middle of London. From this, the audience can relate to Ricky as they begin to understand that he does not want to be part of the crime world anymore however it is necessary to be involved in order to earn respect and loyalty in Hackney’s society.

After several shots of Ricky entering Hackney, we are shown a scene where Wisdom accidentally smashes a car belonging to a rival named Godfrey. In this scene, Wisdom refuses to pay for the damage as he would be left with the risk of many losing respect for him in the world of crime. Because of this, Godfrey brings a violent dog to the scene to threaten Ricky and Wisdom. The use of an aggressive dog in this scene represents crime and shows how Ricky is taken straight back into the world of crime as soon as he enters Hackney showing how location affects the decisions that people like Ricky make. This film was made in 2004 when the crime rates were rising in areas such as Hackney in London and Toxteth in Liverpool and several young black men were brought to their death due to being a part of the criminal world and making wrong decisions because of the location that they were brought up in. Because of this, the audience could relate very easily and feared for Ricky in the opening sequence of Bullet Boy when he was dragged straight back into the criminal world.

In conclusion, I think that both films very strongly represent the key messages and values of society in the times that these films were made through the representation of men, location and for Get Carter the representation of women also.