Secondhand Lions Film Techniques

In the film, ‘Secondhand Lions’, the director uses multiple film techniques to show how much Walter has come to trust others throughout the movie. The movie is about a young boy named Walter, going to live with his two uncles and learning to trust as the movie progresses. There are many film techniques to show how Walter came to trust his uncles. Dialogue, character placement and music are included in the movie. Character placement is clearly visible in the first paragraph.

At the start of the film, Walter is very untrusting and doubtful. This can be seen in various scenes. The first scene is when Walter and his mother are talking. He is begging her to let him come with her instead of his two uncles. The director used the film technique ‘dialogue’ to show how scared and untrusting he is to his two uncles. The second example is when Walter, Garth and Hub are sitting on the verandah. The director’s use of character placement showed that Walter was sitting on one side while his uncles are sitting on the other side. This was done to show the gap between them; however, this is not the case furthermore in the movie.

Toward the middle, Walter starts to build trust and friendship with his two uncles.

The first clear example is when the relatives, Walter and his uncles are sitting on the verandah. The director used character placement to show how the relatives and the uncles are apart. Walter however, is not in the middle; to show that he is on neither side. But instead, he is with his uncles. This was done to show that Walter is trusting his uncle. Another example is when the director used music to show how Walter feels when he is around his uncles. The happy country music shows to the audience that he has fun and he enjoys being around his

uncles.

As the movie reaches its finale, there are some clear examples that prove to the audience that Walter's trust journey is coming to an end. When May and Stan are trying to pursue Walter into believing their lies, the director used dialogue to show how Walter does not believe his lying mother and her boyfriend; He instead believes his two uncles; In other words, he has learned to trust. In the second clear example, the director used the film technique ‘storyline’ to show how Walter has become a trusting person. On the way to Las Vegas, Walter risks his life in order to stay with his uncles. He jumps out of the moving car; Proving he does not want to go with his mother and trusts that his uncles will keep him safe and him a good home. These scenes are a perfect example of the end of Walter’s trust journey.

In the film ‘Secondhand Lions’, the director used several film techniques to show how Walter came to trust others. Character placement, dialogue and music were some of the main ones he used to prove his point. The trust journey of Walter started when came to his two uncle's’ house and it ended when chose them over his mother, and proves to the audience that he finally has learned to trust.