Thursday 30 May 2013

Eastern Icon, Western Mystery - Looking back at Chow Yun-Fat


Like Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat is best known in the west for a few of terrible films such as Bullet Proof Monk and The Replacement Killers. Unlike Jackie Chan, he rarely graces our shores to show the other side to his character. This means many Westerners will simply see him as an irrelevant footnote to their cinematic viewing. Few know the man who once said: “Working in front of the camera keeps me alive. I couldn't care less about actors' trailers and food on sets and stuff like that - I just want to act".

It may be a shock for Western audiences to find that Chow Yun-Fat is one of the most popular actors working in film today. He is one of the most respected actors in the whole Asian territory and has millions of fans who worship him like a deity.

He was always a popular actor in Hong Kong, starting out playing non-demanding heart-throb roles in various TV programmes and films. But after his excellent 1983 performance in gangster movie, Shang ha tan xu ji his star began to rise dramatically.

Only a couple of years later in 1985 he won two best actor awards for his role in Dang doi lai ming (Hong Kong 1941 in the UK). The film follows the story of three friends as they try to escape Hong Kong during the Japanese takeover. It was with this role that Yun-Fat came to the attention of the then up and coming director John Woo. Woo, who until this point had been making films prolifically in a number of genre’s cast him in the role of Mark in A Better Tomorrow in 1986. The movie would go on to become one of the most highly acclaimed pictures in Hong Kong cinema history and be a massive commercial success.

After the success of the movie John Woo decided to focus on the hard edged gangster thrillers and ‘Heroic bloodshed’ movies with which he would gain his reputation. The role catapulted Chow Yun-Fat to super stardom and marked him out as a style icon for any young male. The sales of the thick woollen coat his character wore in the film shot through the roof (remarkable considering Hong Kong’s humid climate). The East finally had another star the size of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan to follow.

From here on, the two formed a legendary partnership. More commercial success followed for the pair with A Better Tomorrow 2 in 1987, but it was 1989 film The Killer that began to get them world wide attention. For Woo it meant a phone call from Hollywood and an invitation to the US. For Yun-Fat it created a character that would go on to influence many western movies.

The figure of the tragic assassin Jeffrey in his white suit is an image that almost any eastern movie fan will know. The obvious reference in western cinema comes in Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown. Here Samuel L Jackson’s character Ordell tells Louis that every person wants the gun the killer used, even though it’s unreliable and jams. He also mentions them all wanting to buy “two guns” which refers to the double pistol touting characters that Yun-Fat plays.

Ironically, though the film helped both Woo and his acting muse gain cult status in the US, it didn’t do particularly well in China. This was due to a number of references to the Tiananmen Square massacre. The film also ran into other problems with the studio not wanting the film to be made. Producer Tsui Hark hated it and wanted it completely re-cut and told from the point of view of the police officer. Luckily due to a tight release schedule nothing was changed.

John Woo may have got his invitation to Hollywood, but before leaving he made two more films with Yun-Fat. The first was Once a Thief in 1991, which turned out to be a decent action packed caper movie. The second film was 1992 bullet ballet Hard Boiled. This would be the last time the two worked together in the film industry and they made sure everything ended with a bang. Hard Boiled would go on to be one of the most important and influential movies in Asian cinema history and was responsible for breaking eastern cinema in the West.

The film, clocking in at a body count of three-hundred and seven, puts Chow in the role of iconic police inspector ‘Tequila’. It is amazing the film holds together so well, as it was besieged with script, time and money problems. It is rumoured that the entire script was re-written only a week before shooting began with the plot being changed dramatically.

Both Yun-Fat and co-star Tony Leung almost didn’t make it through the film in one piece either. Leung was hit in the eye by flying glass during one of the shoot out scenes (you can see him cover his face if you look closely) and Yun-Fat was almost blown up. Woo apparently didn’t think the explosions were good enough so insisted on having the trigger himself. He pressed the button too soon and when he went to apologise found that the back of Yun-Fat’s hair and coat were singed.

Luckily for us the film did get finished and turned out to be one of the greatest action movies of all time. Its influence can be seen in The Matrix where many of the shootouts and the action style is a watered down version of its Hong Kong cousin. With their legacy complete the two parted company. John Woo never came close to emulating the success he had in Hong Kong in Hollywood. Some films such as Face Off and Broken Arrow were fairly profitable but the critics never took to him well. Two of his most high profile films, Paycheck and Mission Impossible 2 are universally derided.

Chow Yun-Fat, now having reached almost God like status, stayed in the East for a few more years before finally making his Hollywood debut in 1998’s The Replacement Killers. Much like Woo he found critical success hard to come by, partly due to him being continually miscast in light weight action roles where he seemed disinterested. He broke the stereotype with his touching role in Anna and the King (1999) and this seemed to restore his love for the screen.

He returned to the East and followed his more serious role with an astounding performance in the amazing (and Oscar winning) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in 2000. Finally Yun-Fat had made it onto western cinema screens in a role that really fitted him. The film was a massive critical and commercial success and started a second wave of Western love for Eastern cinema.

It went on not only to influence western action cinema for years to come, but also led to a whole new genre breaking through in the East. Suddenly historical fantasy folklore tales were springing up everywhere such as Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Fearless. All of which gained western cinema releases due to Crouching Tiger’s success.

Audiences may have known the film but few people still really knew who he was. He decided to take another crack at the Hollywood movie in 2003, but again ended up terribly miscast in goofy comedy Bullet Proof Monk. It seemed Yun-Fat was never going to get a role he deserved. Once more he returned to the East to take up more serious roles. Curse of the Golden Flowers in 2006 brought him back to the West but unfortunately coincided with a down turn in interest in Eastern cinema. The film received a tepid reception as the popularity of the historical fantasy epic passed.

All was not lost however. 2007 would see a massive revival in Yun-Fat’s career. Not only did he get the chance to work with John Woo again on the computer game Strangle Hold (a sort of follow up to Hard Boiled). He also got the call to play Captain Sao Feng in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The film went on to be the highest grossing picture of all time and the character of Sao Feng lit up the screen. For a short period everyone wanted to know about him, and he loved it.

Yun-Fat once said of Western audiences that they “think I am a stereotyped action star, or that I always play hitmen or killers.” That may still be true to some extent but at least now people are taking an interest in his other work. He went on to say, “In Hong Kong, I did a lot of comedy, many dramatic films, and most of all, romantic roles, lots of love stories. I was like a romance novel hero.” It is great that people are finally beginning to realise this.

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Ramblings about 'Trance'

So where to start with Trance? It's certainly a strange one. The premise (which I won't spoil here), is certainly unique and the twist on subverting audience expectations should also be applauded. The cast are all strong, music is good and used creatively and the overall technical craft on display is excellent. So why then doesn't it entirely succeed?

The weak point is the third act which presents a resolution that just feels unfulfilling. It's hard to go into without spoiling but the crux of it lies in script genre and audience expectation.

We like stories about 'a guy who'. Someone we can follow and see through the eyes of. This is the first problem we encounter when the events of act 3 unfold. The second issue is that the film tries to merge script genres. It's part fleece and part whydunnit? Both these genres have clear and very different signifiers and when they blur here it leaves a weak story resolution.

Trance is still a decent film and well worth seeing. It's also hard to see how it could be fixed as it is not a lazy decision or poor craft which has caused the problem. Danny Boyle has tried something new here and the problem may well just be what we are programmed on a sub-conscious level to expect from our stories.

Monday 11 March 2013

Using Vampires to Mirror Societies Fears: Conclusion

In conclusion I would say that that the four films I have looked at show a clear development of how the vampire myth has become a representation of society’s fears and taboos. From the classical vampire figure of Dracula representing the tragic, lone figure endlessly searching for peace, we then have a distinct change when looking at the other film texts. While various theorists have argued that Bram Stoker’s Dracula puts across more than just this idea of a tragic Romantic figure I just cannot see any way whereby these concerns outweigh the film’s love story narrative. Simply, the character of Dracula is too easy to identify with, too easy to feel sorry for and sympathise with for it to represent any fear in society.
   
Furthermore, the very notion that Dracula must represent a fear in society must set up, in some respects at least, the idea that the audience will be repelled or afraid of Dracula himself and this simply does not happen anywhere within the text. The main reason we are neither afraid of nor repelled by Dracula is because everything he does is validated through his search for true love, the most righteous cause to exist, especially in the realm of cinema. Therefore, anybody doing anything at all in the name of real true love will always escape any idea that what he or she is doing is wrong or evil in any way. However hard you look, and no matter how cynical you are it would be near impossible to describe the idea of true love as evil.

The Lost Boys shows how the vampire can be manipulated to fit in with the society of the time in order to sell itself to an audience. We can clearly see a step away from the idea of the lone figure, as we are now presented with a gang. Through the characters and events in the film we then perceive a number of things occurring. First of all we are presented with a dangerous gang, thus we are given a challenge to the dominant order of society. However, with the ideas of true love removed from the text, the audience will not be able to justify siding with the vampire gang for very long. This is because any acts carried out by the gang are not justified in any way; they just do it because they want to.

This representation of the vampire through the gang allows what I believe is the dominant message of the film to come through. The audience, like the character Michael in the text, is allowed at first to consider the idea of rebelling and moving over to the vampire lifestyle.  However, like Michael, the audience is likely to realise that the vampire gang’s life style is just too extreme and unacceptable to warrant moving away from the dominant ideology of forming the family unit. Instead it is likely to enforce an idea of a close escape from falling into danger, and so we must be careful not to do this in our own lives, rather than enforcing the idea that we should consider the vampire gang’s lifestyle as a realistic alternative to the dominant ideological view. 

Blade then acts not only to remove all elements of romance and love from the narrative but also the identity of ‘the vampire’ as well. What we are presented with is the complete marginalization of the vampire through the ideas of science. The text is putting across the message that in a technologically advanced society, there is simply no room for the mythological and mysterious vampire to exist. Sooner or later science will find a way to explain any mystery away and once this has occurred any attraction towards the vampire lifestyle is removed. We are shown  a ‘defective’ rather that an ‘alternative’ lifestyle neither as something dangerous nor appealing.

Blade completely reverses any notions of the vampire that we are shown in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. From being a lone, highly Romanticised, love driven figure, the vampire idea has developed into a many part, faceless parasite. The Tragic figure would not be able to raise the same level of fear around issues in society as a large, seemingly incredibly evil mass that just grows and grows like a plague. The message coming from the film is to embrace technology and science, another complete move away from the Romantic ideals of the character of Dracula.

However, Cyber City Oedo 808:The Vampire Case acts as a ray of light for the tragic vampire figure. What we are shown is a highly developed technological society that has simply gone too far, too quickly, without thinking about the consequences of its actions. What we see is that while Blade’s scientific premise is eager to completely destroy the vampire, if you follow the idea of progressing technology through, it simply ends up creating another form of vampire. Therefore, you could say that no matter what happens the tragic Dracula-like figure will always exist. The form may be changed but in the end something will always be created to replace it. Simply put, it is impossible to kill a vampire when they are searching for peace and their motivation is love because ‘true love never dies’.

Filmography

Blade (Norrington, US, 1998)

Bram Stokers Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1993)

Cyber City Oedo 808:The vampire case (Kawajiri, Japan, 1990)

Hunger, The (Scott, UK, 1993)

Lost Boys, The (Schumacher, US, 1987)

Bibliography

Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin (Film art an introduction, fifth edition, University of Wisconsin, US, 1997)

Crane, Jonathan Lake (Terror and everyday life, Sage publications, inc, 1994)

Dika, Vera (Games of Terror, Associated University Presses 1990)

Gelder, Ken (Reading the Vampire, London Routledge, UK, 1994)

Gordon, John and Hollinger, Veronica (Blood Read, The VAMPIRE as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, US, 1997)

Grant, Barry K (Planks of reason, N.J./London, the scarecrow press, UK, 1984)

Jordan, John. J (Vampire Cyborgs and Scientific Imperialism, 1999)

Pearce, Lynne and Wisker, Gina (Fatal attractions, Re-scripting Romance in contemporary literature and film, London, Pluto Press, UK, 1998)

Silver, Alain and Ursini, James (The Vampire Film, from Nosferatu to Interview with the Vampire, Third edition, Proscenium Publishers Inc, New York, US, 1997)

Stoker, Bram (Dracula, Penguin, first published in 1897)

Storey, John (An Introductory Guide to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, Hemel Hempstead, UK 1993)

Storey, John (Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, A Reader, Hemel Hempstead, UK, 1994)

Twitchell, James (Dreadful Pleasures, Oxford, Oxford University Press, UK, 1985)

Wexham, Virginia Wright (Creating the couple, Love, Marriage and Hollywood performance, Princeton, Princeton University press 1993)

 

Thursday 7 March 2013

Using the Vampire to Mirror Societies Fears Part 3: Everything Comes to an End Sometime?

Using the film Blade (Norrington, USA, 1998) and to a lesser extent the Japanese Anime Cyber City Oedo 808: The Vampire Case (Kawajiri, Japan, 1990) I will show how the vampire has changed from being the idea of a transgressive gang, as seen in The Lost Boys (Schumacher, US, 1987) and also how Blade acts to almost dismiss the notion of the vampire as a tragic romantic figure as shown in Bram Stokers Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1992). Furthermore, the films show the idea of vampirism now being viewed as a disease while also setting up juxtapositions between the areas of both science and vampire mythology and also addressing issues surrounding fears around technology.

John J. Jordan argues that in Blade we are presented with the idea of the evil vampires representing everything that is based in mythology and superstition. (Vampire Cyborgs and Scientific Imperialism pages 4-15) My argument - surrounding Blade in regards to technology, is similar to Jordan’s. However, while Jordan sets the character of Blade up as a form of cyborg vampire, my argument does not take the idea of technology so far. Rather than suggesting that the character of Blade has become a scientific weapon, my viewpoint looks at Blade in representing the use of new technology in the fight against the vampires and what they represent, not the character of Blade becoming technology itself.

The mythological stand point of the vampires sets up a contrast with the good characters in the film who represent the idea of progress and technology, embodying the idea that the human race must keep evolving and moving forward in order to survive. For instance, all the weapons used in Bram Stoker's Dracula that are based in superstition are no longer effective against the vampire enemy within Blade. We are told that crosses and holy water are useless - weapons clearly based in the idea of religion and superstition rather than any realms of science.

Weapons that do work are presented to us in scientific terms, for instance the vampires’ intolerance to sunlight is explained as a reaction to ultra violet rays, while garlic is presented through its scientific name, “ allium setivum” and said to cause the vampires to go into shock. These things all help to position the viewer to see technology as the ‘good’ force and mythology as either ineffective or ‘evil’.

Throughout the narrative of Blade we are given constant positive enforcements of the idea of progressing technology. The most prominent example of this unsurprisingly comes at the very end of the film where we have the final showdown with Deacon Frost and Blade. As John J. Jordan’s piece highlights we have the ultimate weapon of the un-scientific force in the Blood God La Magra that comes up against Blade’s high-tech weaponry. However, all of Blade’s weapons are ineffective, arguably because they are all linked in some way to the superstitions of the vampire myth of the past. The fact that it is the new weapon developed by Doctor Karen Jenson which defeats the Blood God is the biggest enforcement in the film that science and technological advancement is nothing to be feared.  It is needed for the survival of the human race, and thus we must destroy fears in our minds that rely on superstition and myth, in this case represented by the vampires.

Apart from Blade’s high-tech vampire killing weaponry there is also the serum that he must take in order to keep his vampire instincts suppressed. The idea of being able to keep these instincts at bay by using science shows two things to us. First of all we have an enforcement of science as being ‘good’ as without it Blade would be just like the other vampires. Secondly we are being shown that the idea of the vampire as something mystical and unexplainable is being overthrown. Instead, with the evolution of science we are now presented with the vampire, or more specifically vampirism at this point in the text, as nothing more than an incurable disease.

Blade acts to completely marginalize any ideas of mystery or notions of seeing the vampire as an exciting alternative to the normality of society as is presented within  The Lost Boys. The ‘attraction’ of the vampire is completely taken away by the way science is used to sterilise and categorise everything within the text. For instance, in looking at Bram Stoker’s Dracula we see a text that shows the vampire as something ‘other’ and unexplainable, whereas in Blade the vampires are represented to us as nothing more than as described by Karen Jenson, a  ‘Genetic defect’. This line clearly situates the representation of the vampire in the area of disease. This idea of the vampire being shown so blatantly as representing disease sets Blade apart from both Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Lost Boy, where the links between the vampire and disease are both subtle and certainly questionable.

The vampire being used to represent disease also acts to enforce the underlying message of the film that science is necessary for the progression and survival of the human race. We are presented first with a ‘disease’ in the vampires, which is being spread by those contaminated with it. Furthermore, at the start of the film there is no apparent cure to this spreading disease. Even the character of Blade who the audience may see as a possible cure is shown to be fighting a losing battle; (a point again highlighted by John J. Jordan). This is enforced in the final sequence of the film where his weapons and his level of scientific development are not enough to defeat La Magra.

The enforcement of science as a positive force in terms of where the vampire as disease is concerned, comes in the form of Doctor Karen Jensen and the vaccine she develops to eliminate the ‘disease’ from the bloodstream. I would argue that this vaccine represents to the audience the notion of science bringing hope in the future. It suggests that though a disease may be incurable at the present time, a virus such as AIDS for instance, will be cured in the future if you look to the advancement of technology instead of superstitious beliefs not based in science.

It is the constant marginalizing of the vampires through science that sets the film apart from both The Lost Boys and Bram Stokers Dracula. In both Ford Coppola’s and Schumacher’s film the vampires are presented in a totally different way to in Blade. First of all the fact that we have the character of Blade being a vampire and also the clear cut hero, positions the audience firmly behind him and what he is representing within the text, and alienating us from any points which may make the lifestyle of Frost and his gang attractive. This is not true in the other two films. For instance, with the character of Dracula it is possible to view him as the ‘hero’ of the film and thus it can be argued that the audience can identify with his character.

The same notions can be argued in The Lost Boys with the vampire gang. Though we may not be able to identify with any individual in the gang, the gang does represent the notion of teenage rebellion and puts forward a number of attractions or positive aspects of the vampire lifestyle. This simply is not present with any of the vampire characters in Blade, even the character of Blade is shown as a mostly cold and inhuman character, simple concerned with destroying the threat of the ‘evil’ vampires with his array of scientific weapons. With Blade being shown as such a cold character and the arrival of Doctor Jensen into the text, Frost’s group of vampires are marginalized away from being anything more than a problem that science has to solve. Any individuality is removed from the vampire group just as all emotion is removed from the hero Blade. What this leads to is the enforcement of the idea that the text is showing us the concept of pure, cold science being developed and used to eliminate a faceless, characterless threat to the human race, whether that be disease or the belief in superstition over science. As the vampires are not believable in the realms of science they are merely removed from the human race’s field of vision.  Science deems them either to be ridiculous or old fashioned to be able to exist in a technologically progressive society.

Another major thing that Blade does through its clinical approach to the vampire myth is to change completely and separate the modern vampire from the Romantic image of the tragic figure portrayed in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Though The Lost Boys lessens the idea of the vampire and his search for love and to be at peace, Blade fails to even acknowledge any notion of this aspect of vampire mythology. I would argue that a possible reason for this is the idea that a tragic figure would represent something also unexplainable in the realms of science, that being the idea of true love. The film is so heavy with the ideas of science and everything being created to have a function that any themes of love just have no place in the text.

However, I would suggests this creates an uneasy situation within the film. What this suggests within the context of Blade is that love not only does not exist, but furthermore could possibly be read to be something evil. I say this because ‘good’ is wholly represented in the film by Blade and his allies, who in turn enforce science as the only thing that is truly righteous. Therefore, if these characters do not represent any form of the concepts of true love during the text, then not only does this marginalize love along with the vampires, I would argue it also suggests that love can be seen as dangerous as it transgresses the ideas of science so vigorously put forward to us.

Cyber City Oedo 808: The Vampire Case also deals with the same themes as Blade. However, what is put across is an almost completely different message. While Blade is putting forward ideas of technology and science as being the force of good needed to eliminate any threat to humanity, Cyber City turns this idea around and shows technology and science as the creators of the threats to humanity, rather than being humanity’s saviour. For instance, vampirism in both Blade and Cyber City is presented as a disease. However, while Blade shows technology as being needed to ‘cure’ the vampire disease, Cyber City presents the notion that it is technology that has created the disease of vampirism through experimentation with the aim to find a way of creating everlasting life.

Furthermore, whereas in Blade we see the absence of the Dracula-like tragic vampire figure, we have one very prominent example in Cyber city in the form of the girl Remi Masuda. At the start of the film we see a flash back of her first encounter with cyber police officer Ben-Ten started with a hand full of rose petals that float away on the wind. This sets the scene for a conversation where they talk about the alignment and beauty of stars and the star light. The scene ends when Remi states how ‘terrible it would be, to go on forever’ and then disappears after Ben-Ten responds ‘no, nothing goes on forever, everything has to end, even the light’. This conversation immediately raises the same sort of themes apparent in Bram Stoker’s Dracula around ideas of Romanticism and the idea of a tragic lone figure. However, the difference is, while Dracula becomes tragic by renouncing God, Remi is turned into a tragic figure by the same ideas of advancing technology that Blade sites as the saviour of mankind, which have been forced upon her.

What Cyber City uses the vampire characters within it to do is to portray a warning about taking technology too far without stopping to think about the consequences, a message that is not touched upon in Blade. What the two films show is that the vampire can be easily manipulated to represent whichever fear is most dominant at the time of the films’ creation. Thereby we can acquire two different texts both using vampires to represent different sides to the same argument. However, certain things must be removed from the vampire legend in order for this to occur. I would argue that if all the vampires in Blade where seen as tragic figures, then possibly the audience would turn against the technological side of the film. Instead the vampires must be made to seem even more inhuman than science itself in order that we find no grounds with which to identify with Frost’s gang.

To conclude I would say that what both Cyber City and Blade show is that in order to represent certain fears in society or put certain messages across, the vampire and the vampire legend must be made to evolve and change in order for it to still be effective. I would argue that the reason Blade removes all the ideas of tragedy from its text is because at the present time, and the time the film was released, the idea of the vampire being tragic and misunderstood rather than evil would be more prominent in the audience’s mind, due to the films which had preceded it. Therefore, the myth of the vampire has to be changed in order to get a response from the audience and give justification to Blade’s actions. But what the two films show most of all is that though vampires can be made to represent both the notions, disease and fears surrounding technology, they are so complex that it is not easy to see which side is the right side to be on, the vampires or those who set out to destroy them.

Monday 4 March 2013

Using the Vampire to Mirror Societies Fears Part 2: It's Fun To Be a Vampire

Using The Lost Boys (Schumacher, US, 1987) I will look at how the idea of what the vampire represents has changed from the lone tragic Romantic figure into a group or gang of vampires and what message these now multiple vampires are putting across to us.

Compared to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1992), The Lost Boys presents us with both a different presentation style of the film itself and a different presentation of the vampire. Obviously, there is a large difference between Transylvania and California but it is the style of the film that mainly sets it apart from Dracula. Where as a very Gothic and Romantic setting is apparent in Dracula, and the story which is centred on notions of everlasting love focused into what is basically a tragic love story, it is clear the same mechanics are not at work in The Lost Boys.

Instead, notions of the Gothic and Romantic are replaced with the bright and sunny surroundings of Santa Carla. The darkness is replaced with images of late night parties, music, and various forms of the style of the eighties. Basically, the film is aimed at a completely different audience to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Lost Boys is undoubtedly a teen film and as such tries to tap into what the teenage generation of the time wanted to see on the screen - and also what ideology should be presented to them through the text. While the film is definitely a commercial Hollywood product, produced to make money out of the MTV generation, this does not mean of course that certain enforcements of dominant ideology cannot be read into the text.

The film is set up so that it acts to portray the attractions of why perhaps certain groups of people would choose what is represented in this instance as the vampire lifestyle, but in a wider context can be seen as the wilder or more rebellious party lifestyle of the younger generation. However, as I intend to show, the film acts to only let the viewer have a passing interest in the ‘vampire lifestyle’ and presses upon them the idea that there is a need to mature and turn towards the dominant ideological set up of the heterosexual family unit.

In some ways this can be seen as a representation of Gramsci’s idea of hegemony, by which a ‘dominate class leads a society through the exertion of moral and intellectual leadership’ (Introductory Guide to Cultural theory and Popular Culture pg 118-123) In this instance we have the Hollywood system exerting moral leadership, and the presence of the vampires creating an oppositional or rebellious force against this. As such, when the vampires are slain the audience is shown that Hollywood’s morality is the ‘right’ morality.

One point that comes up when looking at films containing vampires is the idea of the vampire as a metaphor for AIDS. As Nicola Nixon states The Lost Boys ‘surfaced in a climate of AIDS paranoia’ (Blood Read pg115-128) It is not unreasonable to assume that a comment about AIDS is apparent within the text, and indeed Michael does become infected with the vampire disease after drinking David’s (Keifer Sutherland) blood. However, I would suggest that there are a number of key factors that undermine the idea that the film is showing us a warning about AIDS. First of all, and most obviously, at the end of the film Michael is cured of his vampire disease. I would say if the film were directly about concerns about AIDS Michael's survival would not have been possible.

Secondly, if Michael becomes a vampire, he is immortal, he will stay young forever and keep all of the strengths of youth, all be it only at night, but again if the film was directly about AIDS showing Michael in this way would not be suitable. If this was the aim I would suggest that themes surrounding  becoming weaker after taking blood such as present in The Hunger (Scott, UK, 1983) would be apparent. Though this works on a literal level, I would agree this does become problematic if looking at the film from a metaphorical point of view. On a metaphorical level Michael would not need to die in order for a message about AIDS to be prominent in the text. Especially as the film works within the mechanics of Hollywood, where it is more common for the idea of a ‘happy ending’ and return to the ‘normal’ order to take prominence over reality.

However, I believe the biggest thing that enforces the idea that the film is not about AIDS comes when Michael drinks David’s blood and begins to hallucinate, this coupled with a huge picture of Jim Morrison on the back wall of the vampire gang’s cave would suggest to me that what is being shown is more a warning about drugs and excess than any direct warning about diseases transmitted through the blood.

Certain other factors help to focus the film around themes concerning the use of drugs. For instance, after taking the blood, Michael gains the power to fly, and the notion of ‘flying’ after taking various drugs, most notable LSD, is certainly not a foreign concept. Furthermore, the head vampire, Max I would suggest can be read as a sort of drug dealer - he is the initial source of infection, which leads the vampires to be addicted to blood, he is the key corrupter in the text if you will. So it stands to reason that once the source of the addiction is cut off, anyone who has been ‘infected’ or who has become ‘addicted’ now without a source to get their metaphorical drugs from, will return to normal. As indeed Michael, Star and Laddie do.
   
Another reading of the text relates to Michael’s adolescence. There comes a point in the text where Michael must make a choice between turning into a full vampire or resisting this change. It has been suggested by Ken Gelder in commenting on Elaine Showalters brief account of the film that this is a choice between Michael turning towards homosexuality or heterosexuality. (Reading the Vampire 103-107) However, I would suggest that the choice can be more prominently read as a choice between accepting the world of wild excess and everlasting parties of David’s gang, or choosing Star and in doing so accepting the idea that it is ‘family’ that is the right decision, basically choosing between staying young forever or becoming, in the eyes of the dominant ideology, more mature. Furthermore, choosing Star is not only showing us that Michael has turned his back on the vampire lifestyle but also the idea of vampire ‘reproduction’ and creating future generations of Lost Boys.

However, I would suggest that this choice is complicated owing to the simple fact that even when Michael realises which choice he wants to make he cannot break free from his half vampire status, possible suggesting in a wider context that while he knows what is ‘right’ or the enforced choice, he is still unwilling to give in completely to the idea of maturity and notions of the family. This leads to the main focus of the film. By the end of the film we have, as Nixon suggests, two opposite families. A dysfunctional vampire family, and also a slightly more functional, human family. Thus in the closing stages of the film, Michael’s fight becomes a fight for the whole family. I would say this could be read as showing that with the support of a good strong family unit Michael will be able to break free from his addiction to a wild life style.

Further emphasis comes in the form of the pre-adolescent boys in the text and also Michael’s grandfather, all of which are not affected by notions of adolescence. The children represent a sort of innocence within the text. They are concerned with comic books and protecting the human family from the vampires, ideas of wild excess never enter into their consciousness throughout the film. Thus, because of their innocence and immunity to the vampire gang’s ‘charms’ they become an effective weapon against them and have a large part to play in saving Michael from the clutches of vampirism. There is however an exception to this, that being the child vampire Laddie. I would suggest that the fact that Laddie is dressed in a sergeant pepper outfit distances him from the rest of the pre-adolescents in the text. It shows us that he is part of the darker excessive vampire culture and not the more innocent comic book reading culture of the others, unable to regain his innocence until he is given a father figure, which appears in the form of Michael.

However, the character that actually saves the day is the grandfather figure. While the children may be immune to the lure of vampirism they are also shown to be powerless against the patriarchal figure of the head vampire Max. We are shown how powerless they are during the scene where Max is invited round for dinner; everything the children try in order to exposes Max as a vampire fails. Therefore, the only likely source who can rid Santa Carla of the vampire menace is the older patriarch. The grandfather figure as we find out at the end of the film is fully aware of the threat of vampires in Santa Carla, However, he is immune to them not only because he is past adolescence, but also, being older and wiser, he seems to have accepted that their lifestyle is not for him and thus, the vampires pose no real threat to him and seem more of an irritation rather than anything that poses any real danger and thus they can be easily dismissed.

Rob Latham raises another possible reading of The Lost Boys, and in doing so shows up another reason why it is the Grandfather that eventually saves the day (Blood Read 129-167). Latham looks at the possibility of the vampires as representing something that consumes youth, and in The Lost Boys there are instances where it is definitely possible to read this. Most notably, we have the head vampire Max. He owns a video store, and as such anybody who rents a film from him can be seen as then inviting him into his or her home. Thus Max is set up as a metaphor for capitalism and big business, feeding off the young generation. The idea of the video shop is important in terms of the Grandfather for one very clear reason at the start of the film we are told that he does not have a television. Thus the grandfather has not invited Max, or possibly capitalism, into his home. This can be read to show us why it is the Grandfather that saves the day - he is completely removed from the society where ‘vampires’ exist.

The idea of the vampire or Capitalism as feeding on youth can further be seen in David’s vampire gang itself. First of all the gang only seems to feed on teenagers, enforcing an idea of feeding on a youth market. Secondly, the gang is put across as the idea of eighties cool. Dressing in leather jackets and riding motorcycles  was an effective way of reaching out to the youth market also.

Although the film may be perceived to warn against falling for this capitalist life style there is one huge flaw in this argument. The film itself is a mainstream product of the eighties. It is a planned film, styled towards a certain audience for its consumption. The look of the film coupled with the constant references to MTV and style of music within the film itself along with the tag line ‘Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.’, I would say would lead a youth market viewer to more or less embrace rather than reject the dangerous and excessive life style of the vampire. While I admit it is fairly unlikely that the film would have the same effect in the nineties and the new millennium due to even more stylish films being produced, in the eighties The Lost Boys had a much greater impact on youth culture.

Another point about The Lost Boys I would suggest is that Max and his video store can possible be read to show an attack on the romanticised notion of the cinema system itself. Whereas in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, we have the characters framed in front of a film screen to enforce an idea of Romanticism, The Lost Boys message would seem to be, ‘who needs the cinema when you can just go to the video shop?’ This idea is of course problematic as The Lost Boys was shown in the cinema, and as such would both be enforcing and attacking the idea of cinema at the same time, which would just set the film in a very messy area of self-contradiction.

To conclude, I would say The Lost Boys puts forward dominant ideological ideas surrounding the importance of a functional family. It also definitely raises a few questions surrounding areas of the idea of the consumption of youth by capitalism. However, I feel the biggest message coming from the text is a definite warning of the excess of adolescent teens and the danger of drug addiction, with other issues being secondary. However, above all things The Lost Boys always will be, and always has been, a film that was made to make as much money as possible, and a film that is clearly trying to attract the youth market by showing an alternative and dangerous life style and as such, any reading of the text criticising capitalism are extremely contradictory and problematic. What this means of course is that while Bram Stokers Dracula is of course a commercial film produced to make money, it does not do this by exploiting the idea of the vampire. Instead it is sold primarily on the premise of being a love story and on the concept of romance.  In The Lost Boys, it is vampires that are used above all to sell the film through the way they are presented as youthful rebels and it is this that sells the film to its audience.

Monday 25 February 2013

Using the Vampire to Mirror Societies Fears Part 1: Love Never Dies?

By using Bram Stokers Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1992) I intend to show how the vampire can be seen as a Romantic figure, as opposed to the idea that the vampire represents something evil, destructive or horrifying.

The film Bram Stokers Dracula is a perfect example of the vampire being represented to the audience as something other than simply a horrifying monster that must be vanquished by a heroic figure in order to save the day. In fact I would argue that Coppola’s film completely reverses the idea of good and evil within the text. By this I mean that the film is set up in such a way that the audience wants Dracula to win the girl instead of Jonathan Harker. This is achieved through a number of key factors which point the audience to the side of Dracula and show us that he is the true romantic figure in the film and not Harker, who at first appears to be the character with whom the viewer is expected to side.

First of all the film starts by laying out why Dracula becomes the incarnation of supposed evil he is later in the film. We are shown how his true love kills herself after hearing news that he himself has been killed in battle, this in turn then leading to him renouncing Christ. This can be read in a number of ways. On the one hand we have the idea that Dracula has now become nothing but a servant of the devil in renouncing God, thus lending weight to the argument that he is nothing more than pure evil. However, I would argue that killing his soul, which he effectively does, in the name of everlasting love is too classically noble a cause to just dismiss the character as evil.

Indeed, I would suggest that it even lifts Dracula above the other characters in the film. The loss of everything in the name of love sets him up as a very tragic romantic figure arguably equal to that of any Shakespeare tragedy. In comparison, the emotions of the other characters do not seem to make any form of serious impact upon the narrative of the film. Instead they just add to the idea that the film is focusing on Dracula’s pain of losing his true love, rather than Harker’s anxiety of trying to ‘rescue’ Mina from Dracula’s power.


Furthermore, in one scene we see Mina and the Count behind the screen in the cinematograph, situated so the screen frames them. Also it is in this scene where Mina finally begins to give in to the count, again focusing our attentions on the idea of cinema as romantic, as well as presenting Dracula to us as the cinematic figure set to sweep Mina off her feet, and in turn Mina’s surrender to the cinema and Count, setting us up with the classic Hollywood romance narrative.


By the classic Hollywood narrative I am referring to the structure whereby the narrative is primarily driven by the actions of ‘individual characters as casual agents’ (Bordwell and Thomson 1997: 108-110). In most films in order for the narrative to proceed it is driven by the characters desire for something. The desire sets up the goal that the character wishes to achieve. In a romantic narrative this would centre on the hero getting the girl. In Dracula this goal would seem to be centred around Jonathan Harker. His goal is to marry Mina, thus he would get the girl. The narrative would then centre on the character progressing to achieve that goal. Or in Dracula, Harker taking on the job of the Count’s affairs so he can earn enough money to marry Mina.

However, the classic Hollywood romantic narrative raises problems around the idea of Harker as the hero who needs to win back the girl. The main problem being the film is set up so we are clearly shown that Mina is not Harker’s girl to rescue in the first place. We are shown right at the very start of the film that it is Dracula who loses his true love. And thus it is Dracula not Harker who drives the narrative in order to get the girl back.

The idea of Dracula moving the narrative is confirmed throughout the film. It is always Dracula that moves first. He contacts the law firm to deal with his affairs, he comes to England to find Mina. It is always the other characters within the film that are following Dracula and Dracula always stays one step ahead. Furthermore, at the end of the film it is Dracula whose goal is achieved and not Jonathan Harker's.

Robin wood in ‘An introduction to the American Horror film’ helps to put Bram Stoker’s Dracula apart from other vampire films. This is done by Wood looking at the vampire in terms of folk law and myth. Wood's argument says that it is no longer useful to use Dracula in terms of today’s society, because vampires deal with folklore, which is often transferred to film, and this is no longer useful in terms of looking at the world we live in. Wood’s argument also centres on the fact that the vampire is not a romantic figure but a monster. This helps to distinguish Dracula from other vampire films, as I would argue that at no point during the film to we see Dracula as a monstrosity. Indeed he does commit horrific acts but it is always in a differing form than that of the charming Count, allowing us to distance his actions from his human form. Thus Dracula does not fit into Woods argument or idea of the vampire as a monster.

Vera Dika in ‘Games of Terror’ agrees in part with my argument that  Dracula deals with the vampire as a Romantic figure. She says that the film is more of a fairy tale or a love story than a horror film. Furthermore, she reinforces the idea that we do not find the monster horrific and that the film is positive and connotes life, which I also agree with. However, Dika puts forward the idea that the film is concerned primarily with the idea of the vampire as spreading disease, and centre's on the idea of passing on a disease because you love somebody or loving somebody after death in terms of issues surroundings AIDS.

While clearly a film that focuses so heavily on the idea of transferring blood is open to reading about the spread of disease I would still say that this is not the primary idea within the text. I say this because Mina is more awakened than infected by contact with Dracula. Indeed by the end of the film Mina has become stronger than any of the male characters that surround her, if the film was focusing on disease I would suggest that Mina would have become weaker throughout the text not stronger. Then you have Dracula himself: while in many vampire films, the vampires are set up as non-caring creatures that seem to ‘infect’ without recourse, here we have a character that questions what he is doing. We see this in the scene where Dracula will not allow his blood to be tasted by Mina as he dose not want her to experience the tragedy of how he is. Thus, if Dracula is representing disease itself this becomes problematic. A disease would not stop and think about what it is doing it would just spread indiscriminately.

The idea of Dracula infecting Mina with a disease because they love each other can also be seen as problematic. First of all in the same scene where Dracula does not want Mina to taste his blood, Mina says, ‘Take me away from all this death’. I would argue that if the tasting of Dracula’s blood were meant to be seen as a disease that infects Mina, a disease, which she is willing to accept because she loves the Count, then this line would not exist. I would argue that the Count represents more of an ever-lasting love than representing a disease. If Mina tastes the Count’s blood, she will not die, just as the Count does not die. What it means is that the two of them can experience true love for all eternity. Mina will become removed from society and all its concerns, a society that is shown to rely upon money and class, where love dose not seem to have a place. Here we have two characters that want to love, but the only way they can love is to become removed from the society around them and I would argue that that concern outweighs the idea of disease.

Furthermore, the end scene would also suggest the focus of the film is away from that of disease. Mina saves the Count by killing him in front of the altar. Again, I accept that the idea of Dracula finally finding peace can be read as a release from a disease. However, first of all the mood of the scene strongly suggests that it is the true love of Mina that allows him to be saved, rather than him just dying because the disease has taken him over. Furthermore, the scene contains a lot of blood, if the film was focusing on the notion that Dracula’s blood spreading disease then surely either the blood would become absent from the final scene or more likely Mina would carry the ‘vampire’ virus with her after her true love’s death. This would indeed strengthen the argument that the film is dealing with an incurable disease or the notion of having a disease passed to you because you loved somebody. Instead Mina is presented as being in normal health to us, suffering no ill effects of contact with Dracula’s blood. It is the couple’s true love that is for-fronted as the determining factor in Dracula’s salvation not the idea that he has escaped from a disease. Again, this is focused on by the fact that before he dies he changes back to how he looked at the very beginning of the film, bringing the film in a circle so it finishes with the same Dracula who first loved at the beginning of the film.

Another argument which is prominent when it comes to the idea of the vampire, is the notion raised by James Twitchell in ‘Dreadful Pleasures (pages 104-110’) that the vampire represents an attack on Christianity. Twitchell brings forward points relating to various vampire films where the vampire would either take his revenge by trying to capture the daughter or girlfriend of a churchman or corrupting an innocent Christian girl. Another issue Twitchell raises is the idea that the vampire could not be killed due to the hero’s faith not being strong enough. While this idea may be prominent in many vampire films, especially those coming from the Hammer studios, I would say that the idea of an attack on Christianity is not prominent in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. While it is true that Dracula does renounce God at the start of the film, at no point during the narrative does he make a conscious attack upon Christianity. There is no attack on priests or churchmen, nor does he attempt to bewitch any innocent Christian girls. In fact there are moments where he appears to even respect the values of Christianity. For instance when Mina tells Dracula she is married, Dracula seems to cease his pursuit of her. It is only when she continues to talk to the Count that he carries on in his quest to make her love him.

While the conventional crosses and holy water persist throughout the narrative, it comes across more that while Dracula may be perceived as unholy, he is not attacking any form of religion in the narrative. In fact if anything Dracula acts to reinforce Christianity by the end of film. The scene where Dracula is laid to rest and seemingly is forgiven by God can be read as showing to the audience that he has seen that God did not take his true love away from him. I would suggest that you could even say that the way Dracula is guided to Mina can be read as showing to us his journey back to God and his being saved by Mina in front of the cross shows to us that he never truly gave up on God. For instance, if he were set up to attack Christianity why would there be a holy cross in his castle anyway? Not only does this show us that Dracula is not just an embodiment of evil it also enforces the idea that he is redeemed by love through the narrative by putting forward the idea that why he may have renounced God, the very fact he is saved shows that maybe even God understood why he did it.

To conclude this chapter, I would say that while it is clear that there are numerous vampire films which portray vampires as nothing but satanic embodiments of evil, this is not true in the case of Dracula. The film does an amiable job of showing us the struggle to find true love no matter the odds, and this message is so powerful throughout the narrative that any other issues are just set in the background. After all any film with the tag line ‘love never dies’ does not suggest the idea of a horrifically evil monster.

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Using the Vampire to Mirror Societies Fears : Introduction

The purpose of this dissertation is to tackle issues surrounding how notions of the vampire and vampire mythology are treated by the filmmakers that manipulate them, and put them in front of an audience on the screen. I will look at issues that arise from the vampire being present within a text using four key films, Bram Stokers Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1993), The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, US, 1987) Blade (Norrington, US, 1998) and Cyber City Oedo 808: The Vampire Case (Kawajiri, Japan, 1990). I will track the progress of what the vampire is seen to represent to different audiences, and what fears are both being brought to the front of public consciousness and also what fears in society are being reflected by the vampire.

I will explore the vampire myth and its representation within three chapters. First of all I will look at  Dracula. I will show the character is presented to us as a lone, tragic vampire figure. I will explore issues raised by a number of theorists such as Ken Gelder whose argument surrounding Dracula enforces the idea of a tragic, Romantic character. Also I will look at how the narrative of  Dracula can be seen to have similarities with Bordwell and Thomson’s idea of a classic Hollywood romance narrative and how the audience can use this definition in order to side with the character of Dracula instead of the supposed band of heroes present in the text.

With other issues surrounding the film I will look at and consider the relevance of Vera Dika’s notion that we can read the text as a metaphorical representation of Disease;  and also James Twitchell’s argument surrounding ideas of the film presenting an attack on the concepts of Christianity. I will consider both these arguments and position them in terms of what I believe the primary concern of the text is and how these ideas relate to it.

In the second chapter using the film The Lost Boys I will be looking at ideas the arise from the change of the vampire character from a lone figure into a gang along with a change in style from gothic surroundings and themes to a more commercial and contemporary surrounding, and how this changes our perception of the vampire. Also, I will explore issues which arise surrounding ideas of sexuality and how and what message the film is putting across is reflected in the dominant ideology of society in eighty’s culture, including how relevant Gramsci’s theory of hegemony is to this concept.

Other theories I will look at include Nicola Nixon’s ideas, which situate the film again, like in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in realms of representing disease. I will discuss this and how plausible these ideas are in relation to the text.  Rob Latham’s theories concerning ideas surrounding the consumption of youth through product are also explored. These along with my own concept that it is possible to read the film in terms of representing the idea of taking drugs will be used to see how far the vampires in this film differ from the classic Dracula figure and what they are now used to present to us.

For the final chapter using the films Blade and Cyber City Oedo 808:The Vampire Case, I will consider how the influence of science and its advancement has come to bare on how the vampire is presented to us. With reference to John J. Jordan’s discussion of the film and using my own observations I will show the different ways that the two films set up the idea of the vampire and science as being directly in opposition with one another. I intend to show that while the films set this opposition up, both the vampire and also science and progressing technology can be seen as being on the side of either good or evil depending on how they are presented to the audience.

In considering how both science and vampires are placed together I will look at the notions of the vampire as a disease that must be cured by science. In doing so I will show how the vampire is completely marginalized by science and turned into something outdated and something that is no longer believable whose acts relieve fears around the idea of advancing technology. Furthermore, I will show how the idea of the vampire as disease can be reversed so that it is the idea of technology that becomes the representation for disease, causing fear surrounding science rather than enforcing it as something that is necessary for the survival of humanity.

Friday 15 February 2013

Drive Script Breakdown

Dir- Nicolas Winding Refn
Year – 2011
Running Time – 100 Mins
Screen writing Genre – Whydunnit (Noir)

The Film


Drive, based on the novel of the same name is a visually visceral film set in the neon glitz of LA. The visual style and iconic soundtrack help to elevate a stunning performance from Ryan Gosling as he makes his way through a dark and dangerous Noir world by working as a stunt driver in the day, and a getaway man at night.

What’s in a name?

The title doesn’t give us much to go on. It hints at the cheap and nasty Noir novels of old but gives very little away about anything else. The name like the film contains a large amount of mystery (Our hero is never named throughout). The poster line of “Get in. Get Out. Get Away” hints at the no nonsense and somewhat blunt nature of the movies tone and style.

What makes it great?

In a word – style. The music used is unique in that it creates a new wave synth soundtrack that hints at the eighties. The slow electro blends beautifully with the high definition neon tinged visuals to create a rich and vibrant colour palette. Drive is a feast for the eyes and ears and leaves many memorable images. If you want to work with sound, light and image in film then you need to study this closely.

The Performances of Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan are also exceptional. The understated, often quiet, approach is used to masterful effect throughout. Gosling often juxtaposes scenes of immense calm that are broken by shocking and loud violence. This all helps to keep the audience hooked and tension high from start to finish. Every scene is handled perfectly so that it never becomes self-indulgent.

Drive as a (Noir) Whydunnit? Movie

Though not set in the classic noir period Drive is every bit the Neo Noir film. Only this time the bright neon only exists to cast the shadowy reflections of corrupt and dangerous character that inhabit the world.

The Driver is a classic broken gumshoe in that he is damaged goods and has the fault of being capable of extreme violence. This is made apparent when our hero changes and takes his ‘Dark Turn’ (after the botched heist), which is one of the key ingredients of any noir. As the Driver loses his cool he abandons his strict set of rules which have seen him through until this point. As the Driver searches for who set him up and why, he gradually ‘Turns over cards’ which will lead him to what he seeks.

Noir films also need a mystery and in this instance the mystery is about why has our hero been setup to take the fall at the robbery?

We also have our femme fatale, though in classic neo noir style she is cleverly subverted and merged with the Noir stock character of the innocent girl. It is in fact the relative innocence of Carey Mulligan’s character that draws our broken hero to her. The merging of the two characters is nicely illustrated in scene where Driver visits her at work and she is wearing a uniform consisting of the white of the innocent girl and the red of the femme fatale.


Time Line


 Opening Image – There are effectively two starts to the film. The first mini prologue section to set the mood and then the after credit sequence. We open on a neon lit LA. Our driver is introduced to us, we know within minutes that he means business.

As the titles roll we see our hero moving with little emotion and entering his apartment. Framed against the shadow of his window is an image of him being caged.

Theme Stated – at Minute 12 we see our Driver doubling for the hero of an action movie. This sets our theme into play. Is the Driver a real hero or a fake one? Is there anything he can’t do?

Catalyst – The first elevator meeting with Carey Mulligan starts our hero (unknowingly) on the road to trouble.

Debate – Is mainly internal throughout the film. However, at minute 16 our Driver and Irene talk. In reply to the question of what the Driver does he reply “I Drive”. Irene responds with “Is that dangerous?” This is setting up our hero as he is in daylight and how he is after dark. This distinction will blur and merge before the end.

Set-Up – Finishes late, but by minute 21 our driver has pulled a job and met all the important characters of the film. Things are now in place for our mystery to start.

Break into Two – We break into the upside down world of Drive in minute 26 as the Driver travels along the storm drain with Irene and her child. They stop at the water, the sun is shining, and it is clear there is a link between the two characters here.

B Story – The love story between the Driver and Irene really kicks in as we see them driving together at night and she holds his hand on the gear stick. Irene has now crossed into his night time world and the boundaries have blurred again.

Fun and Games – The Driver plays with the child and also plays at being in a family unit. We know it can’t last.

Midpoint – Comes at minute 46 and is a massive down as Irene’s husband returns to the scene. Our Driver is back in the dark and he has lost his smile.

Bad Guys Close In – A musical change and the Driver being semi-forced into doing a heist in the middle of the day signal bad things are going to happen. Our driver would normally only do this at night but has been seduced by Irene’s innocence and thus is vulnerable. The husband is killed and things are beginning to go wrong. Our Driver’s once pristine appearance is now blood splattered. The beast is coming out of the cage.

All is Lost – At minute 70 we have the lift scene. The Driver loses control and in an act of shocking violence loses everything he has been fighting for.

Dark Night of the Soul – The girl now lost, the Driver screams at Shannon about what has happened. After a heated exchange the Driver knows the only option left is to eliminate everyone connected with him and Irene.

Break into Three – The elevator doors shut and we are back in the Drivers night time world. He is bloodied but in control again and this will only end one way.

Finale – The bad guys begin to fall one by one. There is no stopping the Driver as he executes anyone who is a threat to himself or Irene.

Final image – Our Driver drives away into the night with ‘A Real Hero Playing’ He has sacrificed everything for the girl.

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Aladdin Script Breakdown

Dir- Ron Clements and John Musker
Year – 1992
Running Time – 90 minutes
Screen writing Genre – Out of the Bottle (Angel)

The Film

Aladdin is one of the last great Disney movies and is a nice film that appeals to everyone. It was nominated for Four Oscars and won two of them (Best Original song and best original Score). While the film may not have the added depth of some of Pixar’s later work it certainly has a clear message and it is easy to see why it remains fondly remembered.

What’s in a name?

Fairly straight forward this one. The film being based on the Arabian Nights story of Aladdin which most people are already familiar with means all we need is a simple reference to our main character. It tells us Aladdin is our main man and, as nothing else has been added, we know this is going to be a fairly traditional telling of the tale.

What makes it great?

The real thing that makes Aladdin great is the sense of fun that remains throughout. The animation and music are exception and really set the scene of the time and locations out in the Arabian sands (incidentally, Aladdin is based in the country we now call Jordan). It is also very easy to watch and has a clear structure and some sharp dialogue. The Short running time also means we are never in danger of become bored.


The ‘Angel’ Out of the Bottle Movie

Again, this is fairly straight forward. The notion of letting something out of the bottle is fed into by the original Aladdin story. It requires that a wish is made and something magical happens. Obviously, in this case the genie is let out of the bottle to grant Aladdin wishes. We refer to this story as an ‘Angel’ Out of the Bottle, because in these types of tales a magical being appears, or is sent, to help out our hero and guide them to their goal.


Time Line

Opening Image – Barren sand and a lone merchant singing “Arabian Nights” sets us up for the tale that unfolds.

Theme Stated –Our theme which will be reinforced throughout the film is that “it’s not what is on the outside but what is on the inside that matters” which our helpful merchant tells us right at the start.

A little later we will get a second theme relating to freedom and what it is to be free.

Set-Up – Jafar tries to get the lamp from the cave of wonders but he can’t as he needs the “Diamond in the Rough.”

Catalyst – Aladdin’s confrontation with the prince tells us that he wants more from his life. The prince then meets Jasmine who, after their meeting, sneaks out of the castle which sets the chain of events in motion that will lead Aladdin to the lamp.

Debate – Aladdin and Jasmine discuss their dreams and their problems.

Break into Two – When Aladdin is captured and thrown into the dungeon he has crossed into an unfamiliar world and we are in act two.

B Story – Our B story comes when Aladdin meets the genie. It is with the Genie that our theme(s) will be discussed.

Fun and Games – Aladdin plays with his new magic powers. He also takes on a disguise and new name just like a fool triumphant would. The rules about the magic are stated here and we even get a discussion of the theme when he says the lamp looks “old and worthless”.

Midpoint – Our midpoint is an ‘up’ or false victory after the down of Aladdin being in the dungeon at the break into two. Here Aladdin, now Prince Ali, marches down the street and enters the palace.

Bad Guys Close In – Jafar’s scheme to marry the princess continues and he is also onto Aladdin’s disguise.

All is Lost – Aladdin is dumped into the Ocean and almost drowns (Whiff of Death).

Dark Night of the Soul – At minute 65 Aladdin thinks that he is nothing without the genie. He recovers and realises he has to tell the truth.

Break into Three
– Having had an ‘up’ at the midpoint we about to hit a ‘down' as we break into three with the royal wedding being crashed by Jafar.

Finale – Jafar steals the lamp and now Aladdin must ‘Do without the Magic’ to win the day and show he has it inside him all along. He will also realise that he should have kept his word and let the genie go when he said he would.

Final image – Jafar vanquished, we see Aladdin and Jasmine together in an open star lit sky, both free, both knowing the true worth of the other.

Monday 11 February 2013

‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ if they do, then what could be the consequences for human beings?

The key issue surrounding the notion of whether or not androids dream of electric sheep is the notion of reality. Whether or not the android is a living being, or as living a being as a human, would be a more appropriate way of looking at it. In order for an android to dream it would need to have an idea surrounding its identity in relation to other people, it would also need something to dream about, and that would suggest a goal or something that the android was aiming for. The question of emotion and empathy would also play a part. It is these issues I intend to look at in relation to the question of whether or not androids dream of electric sheep.
   
While the film tends to centre on the idea of identity, the book centres on the notion of empathy. Empathy is set up as a key feature through the use of the ‘Voigt-Kampff’ test to distinguish humans from replicants. What becomes of further importance as the text progresses is the idea that humans are gradually losing their empathy, something raised in chapter four and known as the ‘flattening effect’ this presents to us the fear that exists that the ‘Voigt-Kampff’ test, the test used to determine androids from humans, may soon become obsolete. “A small class of human beings could not pass the Voigt-Kampff scale”

The implications of this shows to the reader that it is not only the replicants that are becoming more like humans, but also humans are becoming more like replicants. The fact shown is that humans and the replicants are becoming similar, and the impression given is that very soon, possibly the next model of nexus, would mean that replicants would be indistinguishable from their human counterparts. “And eventually the association has a type that can’t be distinguished”.So even if androids don’t dream of electric sheep eventually they would.

However, the similarities between the replicants and the humans are apparent even in there current form. For instance, the Rosen organisation programmes the replicants to be human. The humans however rely on a mood organ, and follow a set programme of emotions in their every day lives. This is very similar to being programmed just like the replicants. It also calls into question the idea of true human emotion as people rely on the mood organ so much it would appear feeling anything without it becomes increasingly difficult. “My schedule for today lists a self-accusatory depression,”

This brings up the idea that possibly, at some point in the near future, the replicants will actually feel more natural emotion than the human beings; if this were the case then I would assume that there would be every possibility that an android would be able to dream. However, maybe the android now feeling more emotion and empathy than the humans relying on the mood organ, would dream of real sheep. The humans having lost all empathy would dream of electric sheep, simply because they would be able to relate to the synthetic more than the real.

Another key factor within the text is the relation between humans and replicants with real and artificial animals. The main difference between humans and replicants seems to revolve around how animals are seen. Real animals are worshipped as the highest form of status symbol. The richer you are, the better live animal you have. Deckard’s main motivations to make money throughout the text are aimed towards being able to afford real animals. For instance, when he buys his goat it seems to be one of the major decisions of his life. He spends all the money he has earned on it, just so he can have something alive and different that not many other people have. “But I had to do it”

Furthermore, as the text progresses it becomes continually apparent that animals create more emotion from humans than other humans do. Even artificial animals appear to create more empathy and emotion than real people. This sets up a strange contradiction within the human society. Deckard for instance spends everyday hunting down replicants without thinking about it. However, the same artificial life in the form of a sheep, or at the end of the book, a toad means so much more than an artificial human. It could be due to the fact that replicants are regarded as criminals that creates this distinction. However, another argument I would put forward is that the reason replicant animals mean more than replicant humans is that actual humans don’t mean as much to other real people. There is little empathy towards humans throughout the text, but a lot of empathy towards animals. For instance, towards the end of the book Deckard calls Dave Holden at the hospital, not to check on his condition but to get vindication for his actions. “What would Dave Holden say about me now”

In contrast with the humans, the replicants do not appear to have any empathy with living creatures. I say living creatures because apart from the fake owl in the Rosen association the replicants do not come into contact with any replicated animals. The key part of the text which shows that the replicants both don’t care about and also don’t understand animals comes in J.R Isidore’s apartment in chapter eighteen. Isidore overjoyed at finding the live spider shows it to Pris and the others. The replicants don’t care about the spider; they are only interested in why it has so many legs. The confirmation that the replicants don’t understand what the spider means comes when Pris says “Is it worth something?” when Isidore doesn’t want her to hurt it.

The thought that Pris may be destroying the creature never seems to enter her mind as reason that Isidore doesn’t want the spider to be mutilated. This complete misunderstanding and inability to grasp the notion of an ‘animal’ would seem to suggest that it would be extremely improbable for androids to dream of electric sheep. As the whole concept of what a sheep, electric or otherwise actually is does not appear to be comprehended by the replicants. This does not mean of course that they would not be capable of dreaming.

Questions around the replicants identity are raised at certain points throughout the text. One instance is where Rachel reveals she is the same model of replicant as Pris. “Something like that . Identification; there goes I. My god; maybe that’s what’ll happen. In the confusion you’ll retire me, not her.” The chapter underlines that while the replicants may appear real to a point, they are all part of a line and far from individual.

Another moment where the question of identity is raised is when Deckard pretends to be Isidore to enter his apartment. We are given no indication that he has attempted to conceal or change his voice in any way, but the replicants cannot tell the difference between the two humans. If the replicants cannot identify one human from another, then it is fair to say that they cannot identify with humans either. Thus the question of ‘the self’ becomes problematic as the notion of ‘I’ is blurred because if the replicant can’t tell the difference between one human and another, “Roy Batty couldn’t tell me from you; it thought you were at the door” And earlier one model of replicant from another then maybe they cannot tell the difference between themselves ad somebody else. “There is no Pris only Rachel Rosen over and over again”

In which case the idea of dreaming- that being dreams formed from an individual mind also becomes problematic. If the replicants where to dream, they could quite conceivable all dream the same thing. Which would probable mean that it was not a dream at all rather just part of the programme they had been implanted with.

The film ‘Blade Runner the directors cut, Ridley Scott, 1982’ positions the androids differently than in the book. While the replicants in the book do not seem to have any real overall goal, and in fact almost appear to be lost in the situation they find themselves, the replicants in the film have a very clearly defined goal. We are shown very early on that the replicants are trying to find a way to get themselves more life. The fact that they are very apparently aware and even in fear of their own deaths puts them ahead of the replicants represented in the ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ This in turn focuses us on the main difference of the two texts. While in the book the message we seem to be shown is that humans and androids are becoming closer in terms that both appear to be losing their empathy with everything. In the film the message is changed slightly, so that it now showing us the notion that the androids are actually beginning to feel emotion, beginning to become self aware and independent, while the humans in the film continually fall into an emotionless routine which they cannot break away from.

This subtle change in what is being put across has implications for considering if indeed androids do dream of electric sheep. I would argue that while the replicants in the book are attempting simply to exist, the replicants in ‘Blade Runner’ are attempting to live. If an android could not dream I would suggest that it would not be able to understand the idea of living. There would be no reason for the replicants to carry on living if there was nothing that they were attempting to live for. There are several scenes in the film that drive the idea of the replicants as something more than just a ‘fake’ human. First of all It can be argued that Deckard actually falls in love with Rachel. In the book it is made very clear that the idea of genuine love between humans (at this point I’m assuming Deckard is a human) and replicants is impossible, as neither has the ability to truly feel for the other. “But if you think too much, if you reflect on what you’re doing-then you can’t go on”

This concept of real emotion being able to be exchanged between the humans and the replicants would heavily enforce the notion of androids being able to dream, because it would give a ‘need’ to something which is assumed to not want anything. Meaning that the replicant would have moved beyond its programming, so the idea that they would have developed the ability to dream in highly plausible. A further enforcement to the idea of the dreaming replicant comes in the form of Deckard, in scene thirteen of the directors cut, Deckard dreams of a unicorn. This is important as first of all if Deckard is indeed a replicant and he is dreaming of a unicorn then the idea he could dream of an electric sheep is equally plausible.

Furthermore, if Deckard is a replicant, and he doesn’t know it, and no one else knows it either, that could make him as human as any other ‘real’ human. In terms of what that could mean for the other human beings is something, which creates great anxiety. If Deckard is a replicant, then surely is raises the question of whether every other human is also or could also be a replicant? The idea that comes across from the film is that it would be quite possible that anyone or everyone could be a replicant as if they weren’t told then they would never be able to work it out. With that in consideration it would then feasibly be possible to switch the entire system round, how do we know for instance that the replicants are in fact not real humans, and the humans hunting them are not replicants. If everyone was a replicant but didn’t know it, it would be impossible to truly understand what was real and what was artificial.

Another point that comes out of ‘Blade Runner’ is that the replicants are aware of their own identity, especially in case of Roy Batty. Batty knows exactly what he needs to do in order to survive, then when he realises there is nothing that can be done to save him his attitude completely changes. At the end of the film for instance when it appears that Batty is about to allow Deckard to fall to his death, he grabs his hand and pulls him on to the roof top. He then says, “Quite an experience to live in fear isn’t it? That’s what it’s like to be a slave” this statement makes us wonder whether Batty’s intention was just to show Deckard the fear that the replicants feel rather than wanting to take revenge on him.

The scene shows that Batty has found out how precious life is for it just to be extinguished so quickly. Batty seems to realise and understand what is lost if either a human or a replicant dies, something that the humans in the film fail to understand. This idea is supported by the speech that Batty makes on the rooftop at the end of the film. He starts by saying “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe” and ends with the words “all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain, time to die” Batty is showing Deckard he has experienced more than any human could possibly understand or have ever seen, this suggests that Batty may actually be more alive than any of the ‘real’ humans, he just doesn’t live as long. This adds to the argument that the reason Batty is searching for more life, is simple to keep the experiences in his mind and allow himself to experience more things- maybe that he has only dreamed about.

To conclude, I would say the question of whether or not androids dream of electric sheep is complicated. In terms of the book, I would say the concept of dreaming, as a whole is problematic as there are no real emotions, except those put forward by the mood organ. In this case I would say that not only do the androids not dream of electric sheep, or anything else, but the humans do not dream either but both are placed in a sort of emotion and empathy free void, where neither can see anything more than they already experience. In terms of the film I would say that while androids seem capable of dreaming. That they do not dream of electric sheep, it seems far more likely that they dream of life and existing, merely so they can exist to dream of things far greater.



Bibliography

 Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)

Blade Runner the directors cut (Scott, UK, 1982)