TEXTUAL ANALYSISDOMINIC BENJAMIN

How are the protagonists represented in Hot Fuzz [2007] and Rush Hour 3 [2007]?

In this essay, I will be exploring the ways the protagonists in action-comedy films Rush Hour 3 and Hot Fuzz are represented through the use of micro and macro elements. Hot Fuzz was released in 2007, certificate 18 and is a British action-comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and produced by Studio Canal, the film’s main stars are Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

The narrative is about an exceptional London police officer who is involuntarily transferred to a quiet rural village named Sandford and where he is then paired with a witless partner, the protagonists start to suspect a sinister conspiracy is amongst all the villagers, due to a heap of unexplainable deaths that have been occurring over the course of the film, it is up to the protagonists to solve the deaths that have been happening and to restore the equilibrium.

The narrative supports Roland Barthes: Enigma Code as at first we’re not aware of who is causing the all the deaths in the village, it is a mystery to us as at the beginning of the film when we’re first introduced to the village, the village is presented as peaceful and crime free. It only becomes clear to us, the audience, towards the end of the film who’s causing all these mysterious deaths, this is how closure is achieved.

The main theme conveyed by the director in this film is Friendship. The protagonists have different representations in the film, Nicholas Angel the protagonist from Hot Fuzz is presented as a perfectionist who is faultless in his work and superior to his bumbling partner Danny Butterman as we see in the opening scene, when shots from Nicholas’ perspective are at a low angle to emphasise his superiority and at a high angle for Danny to show how inferior he is.

The opening scene shows Nicholas Angel in a long shot walking towards to the camera in a vigorous manner and then shoves his police badge in the face of the camera with power, the long shot reveals Nicholas’ surroundings, a police station, thus revealing to the audience what the film is going to be about, an action packed montage subsequently follows showcasing Nicholas’ achievements and him prevailing in all crime-fighting situations.

The continuity editing in the montage makes Nicholas look powerful and superior and suggests that there is possibly more to be seen of this character as the film progresses. During the montage the production music playing is Adam Ant – Goody Two Shoes, this is used deliberately by the editor/director to present Nicholas as the stereotypical exceptional law abiding police officer.

In contrast his partner Danny is presented as a weak protagonist which is how the director intends the audience to view him as so we think highly of his superior partner Nicholas, the cinematography adds to this, with the use of high angles and close-ups.

This can be seen in the next scene, it includes both characters but the whole scene is from Danny’s perspective where the audience view the scene through a point of view shot at a high angle, he is looking up at Nicholas emphasise his inferiority and too add to his partner’s superiority, this is an indication that he is not the highly skilled police officer we would expect him to be and perhaps undeserving of his role in the police force.

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At this point of the film, the protagonist is represented as weak as he is under scrutiny by the other characters in the film. Analysing the mise-en-scene we can see that Nicholas Angel is the main protagonist firstly due to his costume, Nicholas is wearing his stab vest and has his walky-talky equipped which shows that the director has chosen to present him as someone who takes their job very seriously, he is positioned directly in the centre of everyone sitting and at the end of the table alone shown through a wide shot at the opening of the pub scene it presents him as confined as trapped, the light flashing against his face from the window indicates to us that he is main character amongst the rest.

The protagonist is represented as flawless and highly vigilant, this is shown in the action chase when he is in high pursuit of a supermarket shoplifter, he is successful in catching the shoplifter and then places the handcuffs on him, the over the shoulder shot shows the protagonist pose in a heroic way to show that he has brought the shoplifter to justice in some style, and a low angle is used when handcuffing the shoplifter to emphasise the protagonists superiority.

In the penultimate and final scenes the protagonists Danny and Nicholas are represented as heroes when they achieve closure, they have found out and brought down the antagonists behind all the mysterious deaths and are now represented as heroes, which contrastive to how we first viewed Danny in particular as witless and idiotic, the full shot reveals Nicholas on a horse with weapons on his back then being viewed at a low angle, the use of the full shot to show the horse indicates that Nicholas is the saviour on a form of transport that makes us view him as a knight/warrior.

The second film, Rush Hour 3 released in 2007 is an American action-comedy film, certificate 12 directed by Brett Ratner, the main stars are Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. The particular protagonist I will be analyzing is Carter [Chris Tucker], I will be analysing the way this character was represented by the director and through aspects of cinematography and making several comparisons to the protagonists from Hot Fuzz, Nicholas Angel and Danny Butterman.

The film follows Todorov’s narrative theory – at first there’s an equilibrium, Carter is a traffic cop and Lee is Ambassador Han’s personal guard, then there’s a disruption of the equilibrium, an assassination is attempted on Ambassador Han, the protagonists go to France to take down the antagonist [assassin] in an attempt to restore the equilibrium and in the final scene the protagonists defeat the antagonist thus restoring the equilibrium.

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In Rush Hour 3 the protagonist Carter is represented as aggressive and clumsy, which is contrastive to the Hot Fuzz protagonist Nicholas Angel. This is shown in the scene where the protagonists travel to France to track down the antagonists, they jump into a taxi and Carter becomes offended by the taxi driver, Carter pulls out a gun and point it at the taxi driver’s head, his aggressiveness is emphasised through a close up shot at an eye level angle, through the close up we can see that the protagonists anger has heightened from the last scene to show that he is now not in a good mood. Whereas his partner Detective Inspector Lee is presented as assertive and thoughtful, a close-up shot shows a look concern for the taxi driver’s life on his face and suggests that Lee is effected by any form of violence though he is a police officer, this presents him as slightly weak in comparison to his aggressive partner Carter.

Lee and Carter travel to the martial arts studio to pick up information from a locker, whilst Carter goes looking for the locker he runs into a giant in a closet, the closet scene has been edited with dark lighting, then Carter is pulled into the closet and a light shines against his face, the low-key lighting is reflective of Carter’s current mood he is frustrated of constantly having to work, this is contrastive to the protagonist from Hot Fuzz Nicholas Angel who is the stereotypical exceptional police officer. His facial expression suggests he is fearful of this particular antagonist. The high angle from the giant’s perspective presents the protagonist Carter as inferior, weak and clumsy as due to his aggressiveness and eagerness he got him and his partner into a difficult scenario.

In the next scene the dramatic non-diegetic music playing creates suspense as the protagonists realise that danger looms, the shot reverse shot between Lee and the giant during the fight scene emphasises Lee’s fear of this antagonist. This represents the protagonist to be weak, which is similar to that of Danny Butterman one of the protagonist’s in Hot Fuzz.

Through my film analysis, I feel that the protagonists from both films are represented similarly – as brave and heroic. The editing and shots help convey the protagonists’ power throughout the film. In both Rush Hour 3 and Hot Fuzz Friendship is a theme used by the directors, it shows the protagonists go on a journey from them once being represented as clumsy and clueless to them being presented as heroic through each other’s help. Through my analysis I have found out that the American film, Rush Hour 3 is unrealistic in comparison to Hot Fuzz, it shows the protagonists defeating the antagonists in a way that seems too exaggerated to be true, in contrast to Hot Fuzz, the British film that shows the protagonists succeeding in a simplistic manner making it seem more realistic than Rush Hour 3.Also the mise-en-scene elements such as character positioning and editing help us distinguish who the main characters are and their importance in the film. From the analysis of the films I have realised that the protagonists attempt to resolve the equilibrium differently either heroically

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or clumsily to convey the way director intended on presenting them as.

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