Munich (Steven Spielberg, 2005)
Film Language
The use of diegetic and non diegetic sound is used to create
the tesion of the scene. The dialogue in the first shot is very quite and almost
seems to echo in the head over the man. When the men are getting ready they
speak in a foreign language, this often promotes fear of the unknown in
American movies and so creates the feel that these are the antagonists. At this
point the non-diegetic sound steadily crescendos as the action gets more fast
paced and the tension build. This is further anchored by the shouting that now
occurs as the men are taken hostage. After this the news reports are layered
over the top of many different shots. They carefully explain every detail of
the goings on creating a large amount of tension and key phrases are often said
louder to emphasis and make the audience identify with the characters.
Mise en scene thought-out connotes the personas of the
character the antagonist are shown wearing dark clothing this is contrasted
with the victims who are scene wearing very bright white shirts and shorts and
are taken hostage. This is further highlighted by the low key lighting they are
shown in at the start then once inside the lighting becomes bright strip
lighting with white walls connoting how they are out of place. The gun conform
to the violence of the genre and create further tension as the threat of human
life is created. Both the guns and the clothes the antagonist were wear or
using connote how they were prepare for this and it the premeditated nature and
the urban locations that creates the verisimilitude for the audience to react
to.
The camera techniques
are very conventional in the large amount of close up shots limiting the
audience from viewing the situation, this is further highlighted by the use of
character blocking and long shots which prevent you from seeing the whole
picture in detail. The use of handy cam during the action scenes adds to the
tension and the obvious confusion from the victims. low angle over the shoulder
shots are used to show the position of authority that the antagonists have due
to the possession of a gun this is very conventional as guns are often shown as
the game changer in film plots.
Editing is used to anchor the pace of the narrative. Slow
paced editing is used at the beginning to further highlight the slow increase
in tension. As the tone of the interaction between characters becomes more
violent the editing pace becomes faster until it becomes a montage edit of
different news reports. This juxtaposing is very conventional to the genre as
it creates the physiological aspect.
Media Audience
The film would appeal to a more niche audience of a high intellectual
stance due to the political themes of the movie. The certificate of the movie
identifies the target audience. This further reinforces the idea of a older age
group. It forms conventions to the genre
of historical dramas. This means that people are more likely to watch the film
if they know of the event or wish to. Audience who know of the event will know the plot and so suspense may be difficult to
create so they will need to create tension through the fascination and verisimilitude
of the film and yet if someone does not
know of the event they could find it very interesting as the plot unfolds.
The dominant hegemonic reading for the audience is that they
should feel the sorrow of the event and how it was a tragedy. This positioning
of the audience helps to connect them to the characters and so making the
audience care for the well-being of the characters. Although the plot is very
basic the historical aspect allows the film to get away with the lack of
interesting characters. Secondly although based on a true story artistic license
will be used and so the ideologies of the production company will come across.
True verisimilitude will be reached through the research of the event and
getting the right will be crucial to attracting the target audience as any
major flaws may cause the film to lose it legitimacy and not be taken seriously
by the art house audience
Institutional Context
The guns and almost action like feel to the film would
attract a pronominally male audience and so the way in which advertisement
would take place would very much likely to use traditional promotional
techniques. With Actor such as Daniel Craig who later became James Bond further
identifies the audience as male.
Directed by Steven Spielberg a very famous director the film
will have a very good reputation even before it release on January 27 2006.
Also produced by Universal it is a mainstream institutional movie and so the
marketing budget will be very high, usually 50% on top of the budget. With a
wide release they were able to reach mass audiences this combined with the
marketing budget is a likely cause of their box office takings of £47.4 million.
It was a success and although would be suspected to mostly attract a art-house
audience it was recognised by the mass audience and with key elements such as director
it is clear that they got the film right.
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