Looper
The science fiction film Looper is innovative and unique, drawing upon genre conventions in a compelling way. Although the use of time travel in science fiction films is anything but original, the ionic detachment and visceral loathing gives this film an advanced, innovative plot.
The imagined world created in Looper gives free play to the imagination. The futuristic composition of this made up world gives the feeling that the normal balance of nature can be altered, with time travel, telekinetic abilities given to people, and highly advanced technology. The narrative structure of this film makes the main character, Joe, the protagonist. His objective in this movie is to do his job by killing whoever is sent back to him from the future.
…show more content…
The narrative in this film proposes an objective, that objective being if Joe wants to live the lavish criminal life as a looper, he will have to kill his future self, thus “closing his loop”. The big turning point of this film, following the narrative, is that in the future a mastermind called the Rainmaker is killing all the loopers.
We come to the turning point of the film, where the future Joe goes back in time to stop the Rainmaker. Joe’s turning point takes place when he doesn’t kill his loop like he is supposed to. With the people he works for after him, the resolution of this film unfolds when Joe has to kill his loop, before his loop kills every kid he believes is the Rainmaker. The world this film creates takes place in the future, with run down cities and horrible economic issues, where criminals rule the world. They present this world by depicting a difference between the upper class and the lower class all within a single shot. In the beginning of the movie a high class “looper”, or paid killer who’s named Seth, is on a dark alley with a motor vehicle that resembles that of the current day motorcycle. Only this is no ordinary 21st century motorcycle, it obviously can only be afforded by the rich citizens of this remade, futuristic world. A man dressed in drags starts to walk up to Seth. He automatically demands him to stay back, and pulls out his gun issued to him by the people he works with, further showing he is one of the wealthy criminals in this made up society. …show more content…
This scene alone shows the difference in social classes and how they’re mixed together on this grimy city street where everyone is forced to live, whether you have money or not. The lighting during the scenes that take place in the city are dark and gloomy, showing a morbid sense of emotion. Another scene that presents this mise-en-scene takes place moments later when the protagonist Joe, and his friend Seth are driving in a red sports car down a filthy street, lined up with people dressed poorly and obviously in poverty. Joe swerves his car around a beat up bus that was unloading supplies in the middle of the street, right as a man living in the grimes steals a box from the unloading bus, and starts running down the road. The man in charge of unloading casually takes out a gun and shoots him in front of everyone, including kids and families, showing the state of turmoil this imagined world is in and giving a sense of recklessness and a lack of control. At the beginning of the film a disturbing feeling takes place as the protagonist, Joe, shoots a man in a sunny field.
The opening scene shows this isn’t the first time Joe has done this, he acts much too casual, giving an emotion of familiarity. These emotions were activated with the lighting, instead of being gloomy and representing death, its daylight. This also corresponds to the film genre. It’s easier to accept shooting someone in broad daylight is admissible behavior given this is a science fiction film. There is uncertainty of what is tolerable in this made up world before this opening scene. As the plot unfolds the style of mise-en-scene fits the genre of this film. The lighting while Joe is in a building in the city is always low, and harsh. This gives a sense of how Joe feels, awaiting the day he closes his loop, counting down the bodies until he can retire and move to France. Whenever he is in the field waiting for the person he is supposed to kill, it’s daylight. The dead plants and grass add to the feeling of demise, however the daylight adds to the emotion that is felt by Joe, laid back and casual. After he shoots someone Joe usually ends up in a diner. He practices French to the waiter, the feeling is light and comfortable. The lighting is bright, the colors are vibrant. This represents what he feels about leaving for France. Later on in the film we see our protagonist trying to escape the city, what he’s wanted to do for a long time only now he is running
for his life. It’s night, bringing a sense of urgency. Towards the resolution Joe ends up on a farm. For the majority of the time he is there the lighting is bright, unlike in the city, giving feeling of comfort. The colors are also more visible and bright, so when there is tension between Joe and the girl who lives on the farm it feels for romantic than dangerous. The conflict in this film is one that is typical of the science fiction genre. Looper addresses the conflict of people versus technology, showing the potential consequences of time travel, a scientific innovation. The whole plot is made up of how time travel and telekinetic power has put criminals in charge of this made up world. There are multiple forms of man versus technology throughout Looper. This is in the norm for movies that are based off futuristic worlds and a futuristic reality. The forms of man versus technology extends from man versus time travel to man versus the technology in the movie, such as the looper guns. The protagonist Joe is faced with always having to rely on the inaccuracy of his gun. The looper guns can only hit a target 15 feet away. This ends up being a huge problem towards the ending of the movie, when he cannot have an efficient gun fight and ends up having to shoot himself to stop future Joe from killing the Rainmakers mom, which would doom the kid to grow up lonely and angry, eventually fulfilling his doomed destiny of becoming the futures worst criminal. Then there is the conflict between man and time machine, which threw this fictional futuristic world into turmoil in the first place. This evidence supports my argument, that this film is innovative while drawing upon the science fiction genre convention. Like I stated in my previous argument, Looper is a science fiction film that does follow the genre convention, supporting the man versus technology conflict. However the way the film is organized and its narrative structure is anything but ordinary and boring.
The Australian film institute has been seeking recommendations on what Australian film should be included in an international Australian Film festival in late 2016. The inclusion of the film Red Dog should be definite and I am here to persuade you why. Released in 2011, Red dog is the retold story of the Pilbara wanderer. However this wanderer was not a human, he was a Kelpie that touched the hearts of many throughout Western Australia. Director Kriv Stenders has taken the true story of Red Dog and recreated it into a heart jerking film. During the film viewers are exposed to the history,
Rolf de Herr’s 2002 film The Tracker represented some human beings in the past who have been extremely naïve, barbarous, and bigoted when it came to dealing with Indigenous Australians. This film portrayed white racism in the characters of the Fanatic, the Veteran, and at first the Recruit until he becomes stronger and eventually changes his demeanor towards the Aboriginal people. Even though the Tracker experiences immense hardship throughout the movie he was always two steps ahead of his bosses since he was very familiar with the land and was also able to outsmart his superior officers. The Tracker is a gloomy film which presents the dark past of Australia that must never be forgotten.
In his documentary Classified X, Martin Van Peebles describes three areas where African-Americans could be receive some sanctuary from the racism that pervaded almost all Hollywood films. These three places were: the Hollywood version of an all-Black film, the church, and entertainment. Black culture and music is prominent in mainstream society, but the people behind this culture don’t always receive recognition and respect for their creations. Mainstream White pop culture excitedly consumes and appropriates Black culture, but disrespects the source.
of the car,” which is a grey Mercedes Benz - a rare sight to see in the area. Moreover, the police officer “has been trained to see an unshaven man in blue jeans as a potential thief,” further proving the point of how he made his decision based on stereotyping. Consequently, Valgardson’s use of dramatic irony informs the reader of the police officer’s rash judgements, while leaving the protagonist unaware of his situation, which allows him to effectively develop the aforementioned theme. Following the dramatic irony of the story, the use of situational irony occurs on two accounts: first, between the protagonist and a group of intimidating young men, and second, between the protagonist and the police officer. As the protagonist approaches the store, he is daunted by a group of men dressed in “fringed leather vests,” judging them based on their rough exterior. In the face of what he assumes is danger, the protagonist hopes his appearance will “provide immunity” and prevent confrontation with the men. In addition, the protagonist even devises an escape plan in the event that he is accosted, “slip[ing] a ten-dollar bill into his back pocket.” Ironically, the real danger is behind
The movie starts with a slow shot of a gas station. A car drives up, and the cashier working there is shoved in the store as three gunshots ring out. It then goes to a shot of Rico and Joe in a diner talking about a successful gangster named Pete Montana. They decide to move to the city. There, Rico wants to be like Pete, and Joe wants find a girl he loves and be a dancer after his time with the gang. Rico doesn’t like this idea of Joe’s and dismisses it saying tit wasn’t important.
He kills his father after slapping the cornflakes out of his hands just like his father did to him. While the hit man is in his twenties having fun, his mother is in the hospital dying of cancer. The fact that T.C Boyle puts the line “The priest wears black. So does the hit man.” means something. It means that both life and death or good and bad are both sides of the same coin. Both of them go hand and hand. They’re both messengers of something greater. The hit man’s first job, which we don’t find out till later, was to kill this one guy’s cousin. He then tells us he doesn’t like peas which was a foreshadowing of the waitress’s death. The hit man then attends a talk show which is really him talking to god and his angels. The whole description of the place and how the pediatrician has to deal with all the children (which is us) made it seem to be like god talking to death. The pun at the end, “Tell me - I’ve always wanted to know – what does it feel like to hit someone?” was just to make it funny. Later on when the hit man gave a wino $1800 then killed him meant that the wino used all his money on drugs which killed him. The hit man getting married, having a kid, going to work, and greeting his neighbors is all part of creating the sense of humanity in him. The fire, the 3 headed dog, and getting a gilded scythe is all part of making him seem like the reaper or something of that nature. At the end when he’s
For several years now, Disney seems to be determined not to offend anyone in order to keep its audience; indeed we are confronted with animation films full of compromises; they are not as degrading for women as Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), but they are nonetheless still filled with clichés. Films such as The Princess and The Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Wreck-it Ralph (2012), have in common the sense of being progressive and however we can notice the resurgence of harmful gendered stereotypes on the subjects of the social scale, women’s role in society, or the status quo. Frozen comes in and turns out to be no exception. Though it includes several encouraging and gratifying elements, it contributes insidiously to spread numerous
... themes or ideation in the film. When he is consumed by consumption he blow up financial institutions. When he is over powered by nihilism he finds a purpose for life. Lastly when he destroys his prized possessions and forms his brother hood there is a sense of liberation. Mr. Durden seems to create a new society. It is almost as if he is rewriting the American dream. His American dream is the complete opposite a family, pet, and white picket fence. Instead Mr. Durden’s American dream focuses on masculinity, being fearless, and non-materialistic.
Fincher established a “nemesis trope” by figuratively expressing the inescapable agent of the unnamed narrator’s downfall through another character, Tyler Durden. The unnamed narrator is presumed to be the protagonist antihero of the film, Jack. Jack, who is portrayed in the earlier scenes of the film as a typical consumer is later “saved” by Tyler; an anti-consumerist who takes it upon himself to destroy all of Jack’s belongings. Durden strongly believes that the things you own, end up owning you, and that it is only after you've lost everything that you are free to do anything. It is through Tyler’s act of salvation that Jack is lead to his impending doom. Tyler helps Jack live his life through “fight club”, a place where men can figuratively liberate themselves from the consumerist culture by fighting each other. The ideas of fight club escalate into a national “gang” of radical men, who take it upon themselves to free the rest of the nation through crime. Jack begins to hate the person Tyler has turned him into, and attempts to terminate the grand radical scheme. Through this attempt Tyler ultimately becomes Jack’s nemesis trope.
Joe is considered an average man with big dreams before arriving at the town. After taking control as mayor his whole demeanor changed. Using a banker as inspiration Joe becomes someone solely focused on image and being above the other people in the town. The life he claims as is own is nothing but a façade with Janie as an ornament. Joes view on what Janies role was going to be was clear from the beginning he believed that a “pretty baby-doll lak you is made to sit on de front porch” making it clear that Janie is a valuable thing not a person (Hurston 29). Joe’s continues the show he is giving the town until Janie tires of them and embarrasses him on the stage he has built in front of his entire audience. The destruction of the façade that has been created over the years causes him to self-destruct, literally. His image is everything to him and once it is ruined he has nothing to live for anymore. The people he believed were below him now laugh at and no longer take him seriously. His life solely depended on keeping him self above the other people in his community without that ability he no longer had anything to live for. As shown in Larsen’s novel living with this idea of classism sometimes goes hand in hand with a struggle with
thought a world like the one depicted would be unlikely to ever occur. But, this film may mimic today’s world, offering an eerie glimpse at the course of self-destruction humanity paves with its obsession for technology. As technology progresses, the gap between worlds, the Matrix and reality, draws ominously close.
Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is now one of the top sci-fi movies and a perfect standard of the neo-noir genre. The visual Los Angeles is an astonishing sight and immense in detail. The action on an extensive proportion is truly ingenious. Ridley Scott is a substantial director in film history who doesn’t hold back in his movies. Blade Runner is a very exciting sci-fi film noir combination with a suspenseful and tense story that runs so deep in its conflict has led to cults. Overall, Blade Runner is a movie that will keep on your toes and force you to think about your humanity in an interesting yet confusing way.
you hate to the return to present day world. This film dazzles it’s viewers by
I chose to analyze Despicable Me, an animated film geared towards a younger audience, because I was interested in examining underlying theories and messages that this film would be relaying to its viewers. Often times, when watching animated films, children are not aware of these messages, as they are absorbed by the characters, special effects, and humor. But as we have learned throughout this semester, our brains are subconsciously primed by the various surroundings we are exposed to. Since we also studied the impacts of entertainment, such as television and video games, on children, I wanted to see how a popular children’s film might also affect them.
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is a Steven Spielberg science fiction drama film, which conveys the story of a younger generation robot, David, who yearns for his human mother’s love. David’s character stimulates the mind-body question. What is the connection between our “minds” and our bodies?