Section B & Section C Easter Exam Questions

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? (40 marks)

The opening sequences of ‘Get Carter’ and ‘Bullet Boy’ are very similar, particularly in their depiction of the main character’s transition from one environment to another. In Get Carter, this comes from Jack Carter’s transition from the safety of his working environment in London to his hometown of Newcastle, in the north-east of England. This train journey Carter embarks on is a clear visual signifier of the perceived differences between the North and the South of the country, tying into the film’s theme of the North-South divide and the two’s supposed hatred of each other. Beginning in the south, the train travels through what would be considered the idyllic, traditional representation of Britain; blue skies, green fields and sunshine. As Carter travels nearer and nearer up-north and closer to his destination, these qualities quickly dissipate only to be replaced by dark skies, a sense of industry as introduced by the sight of a power plant and a generally bleak environment. This is the antithesis of the traditional view of Britain, or how the south views the country in its stereotypical light. This further escalates the subtle conflict between either ends of the country depicted in the film.

In the opening of Bullet Boy, we are presented with two shots of a similar nature to one another. One is a medium close-up of the character Curtis hidden inside the boot of a car, in darkness, and the other is a long shot of his brother Ricky inside a prison cell. The cell window is a frame within a frame, trapping the character within and signifying that Ricky cannot escape, be it the criminal justice system or other responsibilities in his life. This is also the case with the previous shot of Ricky’s younger brother Curtis, trapped within the boot of a car, suggesting that their lives are entwined and Curtis’ fate is sealed just as his brother’s has been. The shot inside the car boot dissolves into the shot of the prison cell, suggesting they have a definite link.     These two shots immediately introduce the theme of a ‘cycle of violence’, communicating with the audience that the criminal lifestyle which Ricky has been in prison for will be passed on in a cyclical nature; also introducing the idea that the older generation has an influence on the younger generation’s futures.

One of the key messages of Get Carter is in its representation of women, and how their role is defined in the film. The opening sequence is a perfect example of this, introducing the character Anna alongside Carter at a gathering in a penthouse while the men view pornographic images. Carter is framed as a lone figure, staring straight at the camera in a wide shot from outside the penthouse window. His positioning away from the others distances him not only in spatial terms, but also in his views and opinions as a sophisticated man, suggested in a few moments in the train to Newcastle – reading a novel, as the masses read their tabloid newspapers. The character Anna is revealed slowly by the camera, ‘fetishising’ her body for the male audience as more parts of her are revealed. This introduces to the audience that her sole position in this narrative is in her ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ and her sex appeal. She is glamorous and conventionally attractive to the audience, but is presented as quiet, subservient and obedient towards her male ‘betters’. This immediately reinforces the idea that women are submissive and passive, whereas men are dominant in this film and how this positions Carter as he progresses through the rest of the film.

Similar to the opening train sequence in Get Carter, Bullet Boy begins with the main character’s transition from one environment to another. The character Ricky travels with his younger brother Curtis and friend Wisdom by car from prison to London’s inner city. The start of their journey is very much a mirror of the aforementioned blue skies and green fields of Get Carter, before moving into the bleak, concrete streets of Hackney in London. This suggests that the prison and the area surrounding it is a much safer place than these streets, with its wide open spaces and sunshine, as shown in this sequence. One of the key messages of Bullet Boy is fate, and how the criminal lifestyle cannot be escaped from no matter how hard you may try. This is reinforced in the car journey on the streets of London, through the tight medium close-up shot of Ricky inside the car – trapping the character within the claustrophobic frame and visually signifying his entrapment by crime, predicting and foreshadowing the fact that Ricky will not and cannot leave this place.  

SECTION C - US CINEMA

'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? (40 marks)  

The American films I have studied, ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ and ‘War of the Worlds’, are both of the science-fiction genre and alongside many other science-fiction stories could be considered ‘cautionary tales’ about our society. They’re a product of their respective eras and provide a fascinating insight into American society at the time of their releases.

‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ is, on the surface, a film about a small town slowly taken over by ‘pod-people’ – aliens that take the form of a person, almost identical to those inhabiting the town. However, the film is often seen as a statement about the ‘red scare’ and the fear of communism sweeping across America in the 1950s. The accepted reading is that these pod-people represent the people out to catch these hidden communists, HUAC (The House of Un-American Activities Committee) led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, especially in the American film industry. The idea of paranoia, that even if you were not a communist that you could be investigated even by people you knew well, frightened many and led to this film’s use of these ‘pod-people’. A scene in the film has the characters Miles, Becky, Jack and his wife Teddy hiding in their home, as they begin to notice seed-pods growing in the back-garden. This scene suggests that McCarthy and HUAC could be anywhere and even inside your home where you thought you were safe; also tying into the theme of paranoia. 

The 2005 adaptation of the novel War of the Worlds also reflects its time period and the society in which it was produced, reflecting the prevailing fear of terrorism in America after the 9/11 terror attacks in New York. The beginning of the alien attacks in New Jersey in the film is a great example of War of the Worlds’ mirroring of the events on 9/11, specifically in the way we see these attacks. The use of a digital camera recording this attack conjures up the audience’s memories of viewing the 9/11 terror attacks on TV news and even years after it’s still our only way of understanding what happened. This video footage is, as well as in the film, filmed from a low-angle on the street looking up. This perhaps connotes the scale of the events happening in front of them and how insignificant they feel. The low-angle video footage is clear iconography of these attacks in 2001.

There is a scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers featuring the newly-born ‘pod-people’ gathering on the town square and moving in perfect synchronisation, looking visibly human. This scene reflects HUAC’s unorthodox methods towards dealing with those who oppose them through ‘assimilation’, aligning our beliefs with their own and starting a campaign of fear until friends are turned against friends and they all have the same beliefs; especially in the gaining of information on the whereabouts of possible communists. The characters Miles and Becky are, at the time of this scene, being hunted for their lack of co-operation with the pod-people, tying into the idea that rather than invading and using violence against those deemed un-American, HUAC (and the pod-people) would rather sow seeds of hate towards communism and in the case of the pod-people - personal identity – convincing Miles that it’s better this way, that co-operation with these people is an easier, more pleasant experience.

Another iconographic element of the 9/11 terror attacks was the swirling grey clouds of debris left in the wake of the collapse of the Twin Towers, covering New York. This element, as with the use of a digital camera, is reproduced in the first attack sequence in New Jersey and other parts of the film. The effect left after a person has been ‘vapourised’ by the alien tripods closely resembles this cloud of debris, immediately associating the level of devastation here with 21^st century terrorism and specifically the attacks on 9/11. In their attempt to relate the relatively unrealistic scenario of an alien invasion to the real world, the audience associates this iconography with real-world events such as 9/11 and other terrorist threats in order to make sense of the events on-screen and put them in a context they understand.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers features another scene referencing society at the time, specifically the scene when the first pod-grown body is shown to Miles and Becky by Jack Belicec. This body they are shown isn’t fully grown, although it resembles an unformed human body of Jack himself, similar to an unborn foetus. This body closely resembles a person, though it’s a crude representation of anything living as it’s somewhere between plant and human. This scene is in reference to HUAC and McCarthy’s attempts to take away the identity of the American people and to create conformity to their opinions on the supposed ‘communist infiltration’ of America as well as the American film industry, taken literally in this scene by showing an organism that resembles a human but is missing something that you cannot put your finger on, making it ‘the other’ and different to everyone else (at least at the start of the film).