Sub-Genres of Thriller Films

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Ideologies presented in Pulp Fiction

Ideologies presented in Pulp Fiction

 "Ideology is usually defined as a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. The term is generally associated with politics and party platforms, but it can also mean a given set of values that are implicit in any human enterprise -- including filmmaking.”

In Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino tells the story of four characters whose lives all intertwine at different points of the film. When making the film, Tarantino wanted to show redemption by allowing the character to make their own moral judgment in difficult situations, and their choices would result in either reward or retribution. The character that this is shown best through is Butch Coolidge, played by Bruce Willis. To begin with, the character lacks any sort of morals, getting himself out of bad situations using violence, and this reaches a peak when he steals Marsellus Wallace's money. The point of the film where Butch's moral stance changes is when he has faced the choice of fleeing a dangerous situation or staying and help Marsellus escape two rapists. Butch makes the decision to stay and help Marsellus, which leads to him being rewarded by Marsellus, who clears his debt and helps Butch to regain the respect of his peers.

Tarantino also addresses drug use and religion in the film through the other main characters. Mia Wallace, played by Uma Thurman, and Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta, are shown casually and recreationally using hardcore drugs like heroin and cocaine throughout the film, but the horrifying scene of Mia's overdose allows us as an audience to make our own judgment about how we feel about the character's drug use. Tarantino uses hitman Jules Winnfield, played by Samuel L. Jackson to show strong religious messages, particularly in two scenes of the film. One where Jules claims he has a new belief in 'divine intervention' after a near death experience, and once again when he makes his extremely famous Ezekiel 25:17 to the men that they have been ordered to kill by Marsellus. 

By showing the audience the idea of the American Dream through such a negative situation, particularly getting rich through illegal activity, it lets us as the audience to think about the reality of the American Dream and leaves us thinking about how far we would go ourselves to ultimately achieve the 'American Dream' 

Director Case Study: Alfred Hitchcock

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Mise-en-scene in the opening sequence of The Silence of The Lambs

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9 Key Screenshots from We Need To Talk About Kevin

Title Sequence of Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs Title Sequence  

             

In the title sequence of Reservoir Dogs, it follows the familiar formula of Quentin Tarantino's films, where the credits are in a yellow and either on the top of the scene or on a black background. This makes the film instantly recognisable to people who are fans of him. Like his other films, his name is the first thing shown on the screen, reading "A film by Quentin Tarantino". This is then followed by all the main actors names and the name of the film.

The scene starts with non-diegetic sound of narration from one of the characters, but it isn't made clear to us which character is speaking. The scene then transitions to a black screen with Tarantino's name, and with this, the music changes to a face paced soundtrack, which has connotations of the crime thriller genre behind it.

As the men walk along the pathway in slow motion, we get an extreme close up of each character. When the camera zooms in on them, the actors name flashes up in yellow font underneath. This is a way of the audience being able to tell who is played by who, and make us aware of any huge Hollywood stars in the film, like Steve Buscemi. We also see Tim Roth, who is recognisable to any fans of Tarantino's film. The majority of the men are dressed in suits, with one dressed in a polo shirt and the other in a shell suit jacket.

As we see the men walk into the distance, the word "are" appears beneath their feet, showing that these are the main characters of the film. This is then followed by "Reservoir Dogs" appearing in yellow across the screen, rising up from the bottom and stopping at the stop, similar to Pulp Fiction.

After this, the screen goes black and the names of people like the producers and editors appears on the screen in yellow, and the music continues in the background. This then fades to black and the name of the lead producer appears on the screen and the screen once again fades to black.

Analyisis of the opening of Shutter Island

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