Film analysis

There are different ways to analyse a film, i will use genre analysis which means analysis between

different types of films such as horror, crime, war etc. I shall go into detail about the Acton thriller

genre and the film i shall be looking at is pulp fiction. I shall also be looking into auteur theory; this is

the theory in which a director is an auteur the way of doing this is if the director has put his own

stamp of the film or breaks the codes of conventions of a film. I will be using Quentin Tarentino as

the auteur of my choice. With his films that have broke codes and conventions such as pulp fiction

and Resivour dogs. As Quentin Tarention directed pulp fiction but made a change to the usual

gangster movie such as smart suits and the back room of a restaurant to blood stained clothes that

are messed up but still keeping the iconic black suit, and also he puts the end of the film at the start

and cut and changed through the characters timelines. This makes him an Auteur and he is a very

iconic Auteur.

There are 7 key factors in analysing a film; there are Codes and conventions,

setting, character, themes, narrative, iconography, ideological message.

Codes and conventions are what that certain genre uses to tell the story for

example with a horror film it would use a haunted house that could be

anything from a spaceship to the sea for example jaws, and then there

would be the first teens to die usually the ones who are the most attractive

and stupid, and the geeky girl would live to the end and survive, another

code and convention is the murders weapon as it is usually a knife or

chainsaw etc, to represent the male genital, these codes and conventions

apply to a horror film and there are different ones for different genres. The

setting of a genre is the environment so for a teen film it would be mostly

likely a school for example the breakfast club as it is all filmed in the school, this is different to every

genre as in action films its most likely to be in a hostile country or jungle. The character of the film

would be analysed on the different genre for example James bond in the 007 films is a spy who is

physically strong and wares suits to a different genre such as horror the insane killer would be

deformed, the theme of the film is the storyline behind it as with the different genres there are

different themes as with a war film it shows dead and disturbing scenes and then with a romantic

film it shows messages of love. The narrative is how the director tells the story and different

directors tell the story in different ways as it is out of their eye. The iconography for the film is how

the film is iconic as with James Bond the viewer expects action and a massive fight, and an

ideological message is when the director puts a message across using the film for example a war film

would show a strong anti war message. You can see all the in pulp fiction as Quentin uses he

gangsters in black suits but he breaks them and makes the gangsters look different in appearance

and the language they use as in to other gangster films such as the godfather where there all smartly

dressed and take respectable. The setting of the film is in a city and there are many different

characters all with different personalities, the theme and narrative is set as a gangster film and the

narrative is all over the place, and the ideological message i got from the film was don’t trust bad

people.

The action thriller genre for James Bond Quantum of Solace starts off with a

chase scene where James is being chased in an Aston Martin which is iconic to

him being English and the smart suit he wears and the guns shows this is going

to be an action thriller, also when he talks it is a very British accent. This is

similar to Leon as Leon is a hitman and it starts off with him killing a group of

gangsters and then leaving the main guy, this is similar to James bond as the

main bad guy gets away, Leon is dressed completely different to James as

James has the smart suit and Leon dresses scruffily and untidy but has the iconic

sunglasses and hat, this shows he is an iconic character as is hitman the main

character has a barcode on his head so all the main characters have something iconic to them. This

shows how the director of Leon Luc Besson is an Auteur as he uses Leon as a hitman but hitmen are

suppose to dress smart and with Leon he is not. Also during the film it becomes more of a romance

which is strange in an action thriller. So i would say that Luc Besson is an Auteur.

Quentin Tarinteno is the Auteur director i have picked as his work is original and also he is a famous

Auteur director who puts the art of his films before the amount of views he gets. With pulp fiction

he changed the narrative so it made no sense but it was a brilliant film. Also he acted in Reservoir

dogs and directed it at the same time so that also makes him very different from other directors. In

Reservoir dogs he never told us who the rat was at the beginning and cut from the beginning to the

end and missed the heist out, and also he added comedy to violence were the police officer gets his

ear cut off and petrol poured over him and the psychopath is singing and dancing along to the song.

I think that Quentin Tarinteno is a brilliant Auteur director.

On the other hand i don’t think that Jon Favreau is an Auteur director with

cowboys and aliens as the film has been done before just with a different

name and instead of cowboys there were police officers. This was called Alien

nation and it has aliens fighting the police. Also there was nothing that really

stood out to me about the film to make him an Auteur. Also it was a book

before it was a film and i think that the director is not an Auteur.

A good first draft Adam. Please refer to my comments to push your grade higher; it can easily

achieve a high MERIT/Distinction if you follow my guidance

PASS