Genre and Narrative Establishment in the Opening of Pulp Fiction, The Krays and Goodfellas
In this piece of coursework I am going to study, compare and evaluate
three films in order to show how the genre and narrative are
established in the opening five minutes of each. The three films I
have chosen to study are 'Pulp Fiction', 'The Krays' and 'Goodfellas'.
Pulp Fiction was released in 1995, it was written and directed by
Quentin Tarantino and was star studded with the likes of John Travolta
(Vincent Vega), Uma Thurman (Mia Wallace), Samuel L Jackson (Jules)
and Bruce Willis (Butch). Pulp Fiction has a non-linear narrative; the
film follows Vincent's life and the scenarios he transpires within
just a few days. Along with him you meet Jules, Mia, Marcellus and
Butch.
Martin Scorsese directed the second film I chose to study.
'Goodfellas' was released in 1999. The film's main stars are Ray
Liotta (Henry Hill), Robert De Niro (Jimmy Conway) and Joe Pesci
(Tommy Devito). The film follows Henry's mafia life, from when he was
15 and just making drinks for the gangsters until he is a true
gangster himself with a wife and family, having kids make drinks for
him. The film's tag line is 'Three Decades of life in the Mafia',
without even watching the film you can tell by this that the genre of
the film will be gangster. The enigma behind this slogan also gives
you an insight to the narrative as you, the audience, think, who has
spent three decades in the mafia?
The final film I decided to study was 'The Krays'; Peter Madak
directed this film. This film is autobiographical and is focused
around the lives of the infamous Kray twins. Ro...
... middle of paper ...
...and why they are as ruthless, brutal and
cold-blooded as they are.
The iconography in the films showing the guns, wealth and costumes
sets up the genre as well as the standard conventions of a gangster
film such as murders, crimes and violence which also appears in all
three. The dialogue in Pulp Fiction and Goodfellas also establishes
the narrative because it sets the scene of the story. The final thing
that adds to defining the narrative and genre during the first five
minutes of the three films are the colours used. All three films have
black and white credits, which is a classic convention of a gangster
film, also the juxtaposition of the red blood and white sheets tells
you a lot about the narrative and what the twins are going to bring
into the world and all the trouble they are going to cause in The
Krays.
The characters in these films were savvy, secretive and wealthy unlike the gangsters seen in Little Caesar and Scarface: The Shame of the Nation. Brian De Palma’s Scarface (1983) payed homage to the original, and although they follow roughly the same storyline, De Palma’s remake is more reminiscent of The Godfather films than its predecessor. Tony Montana (Al Pacino), the film’s main character, worked his way up from poverty by selling drugs and committing horrifying acts of violence in order to attain the power, wealth and woman he so desired. In his 1983 review of Scarface, Pulitzer prize winner, Roger Ebert states “Al Pacino does not make Montana into a sympathetic character, but he does make him into somebody we can identify with, in a horrified way, if only because of his perfectly understandable motivations” (RogerEbert.com). More than fifty years later, Ebert expresses similar thoughts to those of Robert Warshow, esteemed film critic and author of “The Gangster as a Tragic Hero.” “…We [the audience] gain the double satisfaction of participating vicariously in the gangster’s sadism and then seeing it turned against the gangster himself.” (Warshow) These sentiments are exactly what the censorship of the 1932 version intended to prevent, yet Scarface (1983) did not receive the same scrutiny. Despite the mixed reviews that Howard Hawk’s original Scarface: Shame of the Nation and Brian De Palma’s
The only real way to truly understand a story is to understand all aspects of a story and their meanings. The same goes for movies, as they are all just stories being acted out. In Thomas Foster's book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, Foster explains in detail the numerous ingredients of a story. He discusses almost everything that can be found in any given piece of literature. The devices discussed in Foster's book can be found in most movies as well, including in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, “Pulp Fiction”. This movie is a complicated tale that follows numerous characters involved in intertwining stories. Tarantino utilizes many devices to make “Pulp Fiction” into an excellent film. In this essay, I will demonstrate how several literary devices described in Foster's book are put to use in Tarantino’s film, “Pulp Fiction”, including quests, archetypes, food, and violence.
The second scene of the film opens up to Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield drivi...
The Godfather, which is one of the most famous American movies of all time, started out as a book written by Mario Puzo (published March 10th, 1969) and was later directed by Francis Ford Coppla in 1972 with the trilogies following in 1974 and again in 1990. The trilogies are seen as an epic tale of the Corleones, an Italian-American family, and their rise in and around organized crime.
The film stays in line with classic noir in many ways. The usage of dark sets and high contrast lighting, which creates heavy shadows on the actors faces, makes the movie feel like it all happens at night and in dark alley ways. The story focuses on the inhumane parts of human nature. Each of the main characters experiences some kind of tragedy. For Vargas his tragedy was in dealing with Quinlin who has set out to frame him and his wife. For Quinlin his entire life represented a man consumed with darkness who lives his life with a “Touch of Evil.” Menzies was a hopeful man who looked up to Quinlin but was let down. For the viewer, film noir represents truth, even if it is not a truth that all people would like to hear.
There are movies that make you laugh, that make you cry, that blow you away with jaw-dropping, ever-so-satisfying action sequences. And there is Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece, an homage to the old Pulp Magazines and crime novels popular in the 1950s. Known for their incredibly dense and complex dialogue and excessive violence, Tarantino adds his trademark nonlinear chronology and thorough character development to create a movie that celebrates the fact that chance governs all of our lives. The film consists of multiple stories that tell of the criminals, gangsters and outliers of Los Angeles, the underbelly of society. It follows Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield as they embark on their mission to recovering a briefcase that
Looking for an action film with a great soundtrack and amazing characters? Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino 1994) is a must see film, comprised of several different stories. The soundtrack includes upbeat tunes that keep the viewer engaged while the characters are interesting and complex along with amazing action scenes. Throughout the film the audience sees the story of a couple of thieves, two hit men, a mob boss’ wife, and a boxer all join together to create this cinematic masterpiece. The thieves plan to rob a diner while the hitmen are sent to obtain a case for their mob boss whose wife then goes to dinner with one of the hitmen while the boxer is hired by the mob boss to throw a match, but disobeys
The Relavence of the Opening Scene of Mission Impossible Two as an Insight to It's Genre
An Analysis of the Opening of Erin Brockovich Erin Brockovich is a film based on the true story of a poor single mother who becomes a lawyer. The film is basically a comedy drama, although not laugh out loud funny, just ironically funny. Steven Soderbergh directs it, and it is his 12th film after his hugely successful film 'Traffic'. The first scene is in some sort of doctor's office; she is applying for a job.
The Godfather is most notably one of the most prolific films of its time. This "gangster" film displayed many transformations of permeating color to give the viewer observable cues in its mise en scene that drew one right into the movie. The dramatic acting set the tone of the film with a score that lifted the viewer right out of their seat in many scenes. The directing and cinematography made The Godfather ahead of its time. The nostalgic feel of family importance and the danger of revenge lets us into the life of the Mafia. Even though no other techniques would have given the viewer a feeling of inside the mob like the mise en scene of the power the godfather held, the characters are reinforced literally and figuratively because the story views the Mafia from the inside out, and the cinematography of the film gives it a dangerous and nostalgic feel.
The Western film genre is typically set in a secluded village in the middle of the desert, normally in the American West. The setting includes wooden buildings, tumble weed, cacti, trains, horses and carriages. The storyline for western films is usually the same, namely, a hero travels to a remote village, usually on a horse, and brings peace to the warring villagers.
The Fast and Furious franchise has been going on since 2001. Since then there have been seven movies to come out. Fast and Furious 7 may be the last movie in this series. With the actor Paul Walker, Bryan in the movie dead, there may not be any other way to produce another film. With that said, I thought the movie was very good and well thought of when coming to filming the rest of movie without Paul Walker and digitally having his face put in. In some scenes near the end of the movie you can tell that something is off and seems a little weird when looking at Paul’s character but aside from that it was a brilliant job done by the
most effective at this, as it totally left me on the edge of my seat
Above all else it can be said that Noir is a tale of raw human
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...