Section A & C

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

The opening scenes in ‘Get Carter’ and ‘Bullet Boy are very alike. This is shown through the use of cinematography when the main characters are travelling from one place to another. In Bullet Boy it seems to switch between points of views with a mid-shot of Curtis in the boot of the car, bathed in darkness. This closed in shot tells the audience that he is trapped. This can be seen as him being trapped by the expectations of his family and the peer pressure of others around him causing him to take a possibly dangerous trip down the wrong path to criminal actions. This cuts to a wide shot of his elder brother, Ricky, in a prison cell using a ‘frame-within a-frame’ format using the cell door window, showing the P.O.V of the police officer. The frame within a frame gives the impression that the character is trapped and isolated, both literally as he is trapped in prison but also within his own mind. This shared connotations that is shown with both brothers causes the audience to tell that there is a definite link that is instantly formed between them, causing them to appear to be the same person, Ricky being the older version of Curtis and the person that he could become if he went down the wrong path in the fork of the road.

The opening of ‘Get Carter’ is very similar to ‘Bullet Boy’ in that it shows the main character ‘Carter’ travelling from one place to another going from a good place, Countryside, to a place of danger, crime and death, the city. The city is what represents the ‘North’ of England where the odd-balls and the social rejects dwell showing the crime as unorganized compared to the sophisticated crime of the ‘South’. The ‘south’ is indicated by the green fields and the blue, sunny skies, which slowly deteriorate to the grey skies and grey, cold and industrial metal buildings of the city, indicating the cross from the ‘Good South’ to the ‘Neanderthal North’.

The opening of these films both show their values and key messages. For example they show that women are not meant to be extremely active or have a direct impact on the events that take place in the film. In the opening of ‘Bullet Boy’ no women are even present, the only reason that you know that women are in their lives is the fact that Ricky questions Curtis on his task to investigate and monitor Shea’s phone, instantly putting the impression that he is controlling over her and is possibly jealous of her possible lovers.

In ‘Get Carter’ the only woman shown in the opening sequence is the character Anna, who is sitting, clearly uncomfortable while a majority of the male character from the south sat around drinking and looking at pornographic images of women. This instantly puts them in a sexual and vulnerable position to the male characters and to the audience. Anna is also ‘fetishised’ in this scene, showing only parts of her body, her legs, her chest, which also makes her seem to be little more than a sexual image for the audience and other characters to fantasise over.

Section C - 'Films always reflect the times and places in which they are made.' How far is this true of the American films you have studied for this topic?

The films which I studied are in the genre of 'Sci-Fi' which give the producers, writers and directors the ability to play on the 'What if?' theory, allowing them to explore real problems and fears which are present in their own society while hiding it behind fictional plots and story lines.

One of the American films I have studied in this topic are 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' which, on the outside, seems to be no more than a story following the life of Miles who with his friend, Becky, tries to attempts to undo the damage caused by the Pod-People, aliens, who are trying to infiltrate society by taking over the lives of the citizens of a small town. However, by looking a bit more deeply, and taking notice of the time in which it was made – 1950's – we can tell that there is a lot more going on beneath the surface of this film. This film seems to be a reflection of our own world at the time, the time of Communism and the Red Scare which swept across America in the 50's. At the time, the American nation were scared that Communists would try and cause them to take on their beliefs and ideologies, essentially taking over their country. This is when McCarthy came in and began persecuting them and making people believe that they were the enemy and 'Un-American'. This is what the film seems to represent. Upon realising that it reflects this social issue it can be seen as from two different points of view. The first is that the pod-people are communists trying to worm their way into the American society and turn it into a communist driven nation. This is what McCarthy's followers saw it as, making it look as they were the American heroes who would save the country from the 'outsiders'. However the other view is that the pod people are McCarthy's followers, trying to make everyone else see their point of view and see communists as evil and manipulating un-Americans.

The other American film I have studied in this topic is 'War of the Worlds' from 2005. the difference in the ideologies and beliefs between this film and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' is immense and the reason is that they are from different times. Most important is their position in time in relation to a major event which took place in America in 2001. 9/11 was an immense strike against America which caused the view towards foreigners and terrorist movements to change drastically for the worst. 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' took place before 9/11 whereas 'war of the worlds' took post in the 'post-9/11' era. This caused a lot, if not all, of the ideologies and 'fears' of the current society to be different. Therefore in the beginning of the film, after the initial attack and appearance of the Tripod, Rachel asks “is it the terrorists” showing that it had been built into the people after the attack to assume that the terrorists are the cause of attacks. This plays on the 'Fear of others' as they are suspicious of anyone that they don't know as 'American'. Another fear that is played upon is the 'Fear of annihilation' in the Tripod's ability to vapourise a human being in the blink of an eye. This was present in the 1950's society as well as the threat of a nuclear war was imminent and it was known that the world would not survive the nuclear fallout. Many events and elements which are included in 'War of the Worlds' link back to 9/11 including the after effect of a person being 'vapourised' which is reminiscent to the clouds of debris left from the collapsing of the north and south towers. The use of a person using a video camera/camera phone to capture the footage is taken straight from 9/11 in which most of the original footage was taken by pedestrians watching as the planes crashed into the towers.