PR3: Critical Responses to Media Products

In this article, I shall be looking at how audiences responds to specific media products. There are multiple media texts which I shall use media products which I shall be analyzing for this report. The films I shall be using are Leon, The Professional (1994, Directed by Luc Besson), Pulp Fiction (1994, directed by Quentin Tarantino), Deadpool (2016, directed by Tim Miller) and Snatch (2000, directed by Guy Ritchie). We as an audience can respond to many different media products in many different ways. Some of the ways that we respond to a certain product can come down to the following 4 things:

• Genre • Narrative • Semiotics • Representation

A theorist called Nick Lacey has basically defined in his book “Narrative and Genre: Key Concepts in Media Studies, (Palgrave, Macmillan) the five elements which define a media products genre. Lacey said that the 5 genre elements are:

• Setting • Character • Narrative Events • Iconography • Style (Technical and Audio codes)

I shall now apply the following theory to the 1994 film Leon: The Professional.Leon: The Professional was released in 1994 and this movie starred Jean Reno (Leon), Gary Oldman (Stansfield), Natalie Portman (Mathilda) and Danny Aiello (Tony). This movie was directed by Luc Besson and Produced by Patrice Ledoux. This film is about an Italian hitman (he refers to himself as a cleaner) called Leon (Jean Reno). He is highly skilled and his jobs come from a Mafioso who is called Tony (Danny Aiello). One day, Leon sees a girl called Mathilda (Natalie Portman) at the top of the stairs in his apartment building and notices she has a black eye which probably came from her abusive father. After this, the corrupt D.E.A storm Mathilda’s house after they accuse her father of stealing cocaine for his own use. They give him a warning and say they will be back in 24 hours. The next day, they come back and Stansfield (Gary Oldman) decides it would be best if he shot everyone in Mathilda’s family, apart from her as she was out shopping. She comes back to see the dead family, so she knocks on Leon’s door and he takes her in. After this happens, he teaches Mathilda the art of “cleaning” so one day she can become a professional cleaner. At the end, it’s a massive war between Stansfield with the police against Leon. Leon ends up killing Stansfield by blowing himself up with several frag grenades. After this, the movie ends. Setting in Leon: In Lacey’s book, he talks about setting being a big factor of the genre of a film, in Leon, the setting for this movie is New York City. This is an iconic location as most people can recognize the skyline and the surrounding areas because this is where the majority of Hollywood blockbusters are set here. More specifically, the movie is based in a place called Little

Italy. Throughout the place, there are a lot of black and red colour schemes. This suggests that this place is dangerous and blood will be spilled. In order to establish a proper setting, 3 different places are shown within seconds of each other. This is to show the audience where the film will be set and to get them use to their surroundings. At the beginning of the movie, Leon is sent to eliminate someone. In one particular shot, he hides with darkness behind him. This suggests that he had danger behind him and that he does not realize what is going to happen. Also, when Leon goes back to his apartment later in the scene, he has a very dark apartment. This suggests that he lives a dark and mysterious life as his living space is mostly dark.

Characters in Leon: In Leon, there are multiple characters within this film who all play different roles. First of all, you have the main character in this film which is Leon. His appearance is a black trench coat with black shoes and black jeans. He also wears a hat and sunglasses so he can hide his identity. They are also black. The majority of his outfit is black to reflect his life back to the audience. The fact that it is very mysterious and dark. Then he wears a white shirt, the only clothing item on him which isn’t black. This could suggest that despite his dark and mysterious outside, on the inside he is a nice guy and his actions are for the greater good. For the genre of the movie, he is a very stereotypical male role model as he is violent, strong, and a leader.

Next we have Mathilda. When we first see Mathilda, she is wearing a striped sweater and behind a railing, this suggests to us that she is living an imprisoned life as her outfit and the fact she’s behind bars makes the stereotype her reality, later in the film, we see that she is imprisoned with abusive parents and a sister who slaps her regularly. She is also smoking a cigarette; this makes her seem a lot older than her actual age which is 12. As we see later in the film, this statement is true as she shown natural maternal instincts with her younger brother as she is more of a mother to him than her actual mother. Mathilda also buys all the food and drink for her sibling as she is shown to be far more mature than her age suggests. For a 12-year-old, her attitude makes her seem very depressed because she is very different from the children you see in other movies who appear happy and free. She really is not a stereotypical 12-year-old girl. She is very maternal for her age as she looks after her brother better than the mother, she smokes and is brave. Usually, 12-year-olds are very dependent on others and are often scared and very fragile. So she opposes the usual stereotypes.

As well as these characters, you have Stansfield. Stansfield is a corrupt police officer who creates crimes and doesn’t do his job properly. Before he does any crimes, he appears to take a yellow and green pill. After he does this, you see his personality and his actions change, also the setting becomes a blend of the colour of the pill he took as his sanity is surrounding the air he is breathing. When we first meet Stansfield, he immediately starts to smell Mathilda’s dad. This automatically suggests that he is a psychopath as no sane human being would go smelling people. Before Stansfield is revealed, his co-worker says to Mathilda’s dad “He’s good at sniffing out the liars”. This can be taken in 2 different ways, and both ways are shown on screen as he smells the man, then makes him out to be a liar. After he kills Mathilda’s family, someone turns round and asks “What do we do when the cops show up?” To which Stansfield replies with “We’re just doing our job”. This finally reveals he is the police force; it shows that he can get away with any crimes he’s committed because he’s in charge of the police force. I feel like he is the stereotypical villain as he is evil, sick and twisted. His sole mission is to take out the hero (Leon) and make him leader. But the fact that he already is in charge of the police force does counter the stereotypical villain trait as they usually try and take over the land, but he already owns it. So I guess there are elements of stereotypes and not with this character.

Iconography: There is a lot of iconography used within Leon. The first use of iconography used is the first establishing shot. This establishing shot shows the skyline of New York City. This is a very iconic shot as a lot of Hollywood blockbuster movies are filmed in New York City, so most people should recognize this place. Within New York City, you can see lots of yellow cabs. This is very iconic of New York City as they are world famous for being a trademark of NYC. So if somebody missed the establishing shot, they will know where the movie is set thanks to the yellow cab. Further in the opening scene, we come to a town called Little Italy which is infamous for mafia based movies and gangsters, so people can tell it’s a gangster movie when they see the Little Italy sign. Style: During the first few shots, a non-diegetic music bed is used with some very calming and mysterious music. This could suggest that the movie is going to be very mysterious and calming. Or this could be a metaphor for the main character of the movie as Leon as he is always

calm as well as a very mysterious character. The first use of dialogue is used here, it appears to be in a foreign language and it is a conversation exchanged between 2 characters. The fact that this conversation is happening accompanied with extreme close ups makes the audience feel uncomfortable as they have no idea who they are, what they are saying as well as having no sense of identity as they have no idea what they look like. After this scene takes place, there is a high action scene which shows Leon taking a load of people out. The final shot shows Leon with a knife around a man’s throat, but the positioning of the frame is amazing. If you could place a line down the middle, you have on one side Leon holding a phone. On the other side you have this guy begging for his life and with a knife round his throat. It is a powerful shot as this shows that on one side of the screen shows his death with the knife, and on the other you can see his lifeline with the phone which Leon is holding. In the form of structure, this move follows a clear linear structure:

- Act 1 (Exposition/Inciting Incident) shows the setting of the movie (New York City), shows us the main characters (Leon, Mathilda, Stansfield, Tony) as well as the Inciting Incident which is this movie is Stansfield shooting Mathilda’s family, after this has happened, the plot of the movie is established and the movie moves on to Act 2.

- Act 2 (Rising Action/Climax) is where the majority of the movie is based. This is the part where Leon spends most of his time trying trying to train Mathilda to be an assassin, after this Leon tracks down Stansfield’s henchmen and eliminates them one by one. Then the climax of the movie happens and continues into act 3.

- Act 3 (Falling action/Denouement) is the ending of the movie, after the battle of the apartment block and after Leon and Stansfield are found dead, Mathilda takes Leon’s plant and plants it in the ground, showing that Leon still can be a part of this world, the final shot shows a tilting shot which reveals the New York City skyline.

I shall now apply the same analysis and theory to the 2000 film Snatch. Snatch (2000) Snatch is a 2000 British film starring Brad Pitt and Jason Statham, this movie is directed by Guy Ritchie. This has 2 storylines happening all at the same time.

The opening shot shows 2 of the 7 main characters in the story, Turkish and his partner Tommy. He is talking about diamond and he mentions he is a boxing promoter. The following events happened in the previous week as this scene is also the very end scene. The story starts with 4 people dressed up as stereotypical Jewish people who rob

an 80 carat diamond from Antwerp. The leader of the gang, the American Frankie “Four Fingers” flies to London after getting advice from his friend to get a weapon from Boris “the Blade”.After the robbery, it cuts to Turkish and Tommy are training a fighter when a high end gangster by the name of Brick Top wants to fix the fight to make him money, Turkish agrees to this and off he goes. Later, he wants a new place to run his business and asks Tommy and their boxer “Gorgeous” George to get a new caravan as his caravan is rotted and dirty.It then cuts back to Frankie’s so called friend as this turns out to be a backstabbing after his so called “friend” calls Boris to get him to steal the stone from Frankie for his own benefit. Frankie is then invited into Boris’s home and is told by Boris that he can have a weapon for free, as long as he puts on a bet for the unlicensed boxing match at a specific betting shop. After this, Tommy and George go to the gypsy campsite where Turkish has bought the caravan and this is where we meet Mickey for the first time. After buying the caravan and realizing the wheels are not attached, Tommy and George go back and confront Mickey, which ends up badly as George ends up with a broken jaw and is unable to fight. After this sequence, we meet Vinny who has a bag of gold and is walking a dog which he got from a set of gypsies, he goes to his Pawnbroker shop which he and his mate Sol own. Boris comes in and offers them £50,000 to rob the betting shop where Frankie will place the bet. It then cuts back to Turkish and Tommy who have to tell Brick Top that the fighter he chosen is unable to fight, they suggested they change to the gypsy Mickey and Brick Top has the same conditions. Meanwhile, Sol and Vinny end up robbing the betting shop, but Frankie hasn’t arrived yet and the betting shop had no money, so it was a wasted opportunity. Then out of nowhere, the driver of the vehicle spots Frankie, gets him and shoves him in the car. They go back to the pawnbrokers and Boris walks in, assassinates Frankie and walks out with his arm attached to the briefcase which contains the diamond. Cousin Avi, who was Frankie’s assistant flies to England to look for Frankie along with Doug the Head. After failing to find him, they just go after Boris because he has the diamond. Meanwhile, Mickey disobeyed Brick Top and ended up knocking his opponent out in the first round. Brick Top went mad and warned Turkish if it happened again, all 3 of them (Turkish, Tommy and Mickey) will be killed. In order to regain the money he lost, he asks Mickey to fight again, but he wants to be paid £10,000 to fight, so Turkish made him a bet, which he lost. In order to get him to fight, Brick Top sets fire to Mickeys mums caravan, whilst she was asleep inside it… After this, Brick Top discovers that Sol and Vinny have attempted to rob his betting shop, so he threatens them with death.Sol bargains his way out by saying he will get the stone to him in 48 hours. During this confrontation, Avi has kidnapped Boris with help from a hitman called Bullet Tooth Tony. After this, a car crash sequence happens which starts with Tommy throwing Turkish’s milk out of the window, which happens to blind Tony’s car, which results in them crashing and Boris escaping, which results him getting hit by Sol and Vinny after firing a replica gun to see if it worked. Sol and Vinny retrieve the stone from them and run to Brick Top, only to be stopped by Bullet Tooth Tony. They say its back at the office and they all go back, just for the dog which Vinny brought to the office earlier to eat it and run away.

Finally the second fight comes around and it is contested till the fourth round, but Mickey refused once again and knocked his opponent out. Brick Top goes to shoot them but ends up getting shot by the gypsies who Mickey lives with, they all move away. Turkish and Tommy go to the site where they previously were only to get questioned by the police about why they are here. Then they see the same dog which ran away from Sol and Vinny and they say “just taking the dog for a walk”. The movie ends with the very first scene, but Turkish says “turns out the dog had swallowed a squeaky toy and an 80 carat diamond”. So they went to see Doug the Head and the movie ends.

Setting: The setting for this movie is London, you can only tell this through the dialogue used as there are no establishing shots. The only glimpse of an iconic London symbol is a black taxi turning the taxi sign off when Avi gets into the taxi. The dialogue used is all London slang and everyone has strong cockney accents in order to add to the fact it is set in London.

Characters: There are 5 main characters which I am going to analyze, the first is Turkish. Turkish is the most important character of all as he is the narrator of the story. He is essentially a boxing promoter but also owns a gaming parlor to keep him occupied when there’s no “action” in the ring. His absolute informal style of delivering the story helps the movie to connect to the audience to a great extent. One of the very few good characters in this movie whose personality has no crooked traits whatsoever, a good sense of humour coupled with a tendency to put up a straight face even in the tightest of situations makes Turkish an enjoyable character to watch. His costume is an array of fancy suits in order to show his status and the fact he is a high end person who likes exquisite tastes.

Tommy is baby faced, immature and childish. These are the perfect adjectives to describe Turkish’s partner. Short and round faced, he is looked down upon by quite a few of the movie’s characters and has earned the nickname “Turkish’s female friend”. His injudicious actions get him into as much trouble as they do to his partner, as Turkish says, “I try to keep him outta as much trouble as he gets me into.” He is often portrayed with a high angle to make him look less powerful compared to everyone else. Also, he is always in shots with Turkish, which describes his relationship with him and how much he actually needs Turkish to survive. His costume is relatively

the same as Turkish’s as he is his partner, so they have to dress similar in order to share the link.

Mickey is a gypsy (or referred to as a pikey throughout the entire film) who spends his life in a caravan with his mother. A bare-knuckle boxing champion, he is discovered accidentally by Tommy. His heavily accented English/Irish is very difficult to comprehend especially for foreign audiences. He seems to get whatever he wants from Turkish as Turkish cannot afford to lose him. He is a character who needs to be watched with extra care as he is totally unpredictable and you never know what will happen next. He normally has a scruffy attire to show that he has very little wealth. Also he is often talked down to like Tommy because he is branded as a gypsy, and none of these characters seem to like gypsys in this movie because the phrase “I f*****g hate pikeys” is used at least 6 times by 6 different characters.

Brick Top is a big time bookie who is hitting his late 60’s. He is the epitome of cold bloodedness as he is a character who employs a wide range of techniques like strangling, skull smashing, attack dogs, and feeding humans to pigs in order to dispose of people who have wronged him. Brick Top is never lacking in bitter sarcasm as he says multiple phrases which make people laugh, and the fact he is always so serious make him seem even funnier. His influence and power is felt largely as everyone in the film is scared of him. He is often filmed with a low angle in order to establish his dominance over the other characters. Also his outfit consists of elegant coats and extravagant suits in order to add his wealth into the frame of his dominant posture.

Boris The Blade An ex-KGB agent. Sly and conniving he is one character who refuses to die easy as said by Turkish “some say, it’s just impossible to kill the bastard”. Boris is a highly elusive character that can come up with the most unexpected and the

funniest moments of the film. He is described as “bent as the soviet sickle and as hard as the hammer that crosses it” which is very accurate. He always wears the same grey suit which suggests a man of mystery which is a brilliant way to describe him.

Narrative techniques:What makes Snatch a very good movie to watch is the absolute non-linear narrative structure. The whole movie is an extreme visual mosaic. The script element of cause and effect has been used to highlight a decision and then later what becomes of it. The movie has a lot of intricacies and sub-plots that seem to criss-cross and muddle into each other which is probably due to so much action taking place simultaneously. In this movie, the point of attack happens to be a scene from the end of the story. But this has not been shown in the lengthy manner that usually precedes any flashback but instead has the background narrator with him introducing himself and his partners. The back story here is the flashback, which is virtually the whole movie. The entire cocktail of multiple storylines bouncing off each other forms the back story for the point of attack. As many critics put it, this story has more twists and turns than a perm screw. There are unexpected new dimensions from the beginning of the movie itself. Mickey’s very rise as a key character is a totally unexpected dimension and in a manner which changes the course of action for of the key characters. Another instance is the dog swallowing the diamond. The ultimate turning point is when the tables are turned on Brick Top and the manner in which it is presented to the audience heightens the impact.

The narrative is initially from the main character Turkish’s point of view. Once the flash back begins the point shifts to that of the director and keeps wavering between that and Turkish’s point of view till the end where it again shifts to Turkish’s point of view. Due to the extensive use of twists and turns in the story, the audience is always on tenterhooks as to what will happen next. The tension release is done parallel by means of humorous goof-ups which form part of the story. As a result, the element of laughter helps dissipate the tension.

The overall tone of the movie is that of comedy because even though there are a lot of twists and turns and some serious moments, the laughter element dominates. The movie has multiple conflicts and many twists and turns. The conflicts are again dispersed through the movie and hence the movie has a reasonably fast pace.

Theorists: Vladimir Propp was a Soviet folklorist and he created the theory that in every narrative, you get the same characters. An example of this is that in every story, you get a hero. The qualities of a hero include bravery, strong and they are also seeking the love of their love interest (007 in every James Bond film). Some other examples of this theory include the idea of a helper who assists the hero into fulfilling his quest (Han Solo and Obi Wan Kenobi aid Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, a Princess who is the love interest and the reward for our hero (Princess Fiona is Shrek’s princess in the first Shrek film) and the villain who’s mission it is to stop the hero from fulfilling his mission (Robbie Rotten in the TV Show LazyTown and Darth Vader from the film Star Wars)

Levi Strauss was a French theorist who created the theory that every narrative sequence has a binary opposition. Binary oppositions are any opposites you can see in film and TV. Examples include Good vs Evil, Dark vs Light, Men vs Women.

Post Modern Terms Pastiche – Pastiche is defined as an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period. An example of this is the “Weird Al” Yankovic’s video “Smells like Nirvana” in which he imitates the 90’s and the music video to Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=FklUAoZ6KxY

Parody – Parody is defined as an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect. For example, I will be using “Weird Al” Yankovic again, but this time I will use Amish Paradise which is a direct parody of Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise. This is a parody because The Amish are the exact opposite of Gangsters so this makes the song funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg

Intertextuality – Intertextuality is defined as when an actor/actress references other media texts. An example of this is in Deadpool during the opening credits sequence. During this sequence, a Green Lantern card pops up in the midst of all the action. This is intertextuality as Ryan Reynolds (who plays Deadpool) played the Green Lantern as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MjyGL0go60

Reflexivity – Reflexivity is defined as when you can see how the media text is made, it is also known as breaking the Fourth wall. This can be seen in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when Sir Galahad is about to retrieve the grail, he is stopped by Dingo and after a brief encounter, she turns to the camera and asks “Do you think this scene should be cut?” to which a load of other characters tell her to get along with it, even God. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=nMUnbNPCoSw

Self-Referentiality –Self Referentiality is defined as when the director makes a direct reference to a film an actor has previously been in. An example of this is the dancing scene in Pulp Fiction. When John Travolta stands up with Mia Wallace and begins to dance, he is imitating his dancing in Saturday Night Fever as he starred in this movie.

Bricolage – Bricolage is defined as when a media text bases the timing of the text in a different time other than the day it was set. An example of this is the music video Buddy Holly by Weezer. Even though the song came out in 1994, it’s based on the opening title sequence of Happy Days. Everything is based off it, from the character

outfits to the actions of the people in the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4

Pulp Fiction Post Modernism: Within Pulp Fiction, there are various examples of Post-Modernism. Intertextuality is used throughout the Jack Rabbit Slims sequence in the movie. In this scene, Vincent takes Mia Wallace out for a meal in order to keep her entertained. The first bit of Post-Modernism we see is the car scene where you can see John Travolta in the front seat with a girl next to him. They enter Jack Rabbit Slim’s for dinner. It’s a theme restaurant centered on 50s pop culture icons: the host is Ed Sullivan while Ricky Nelson performs on stage and the wait staff consists of Zorro, Marilyn Monroe, Mamie Van Doren and Buddy Holly. The two sit down and Vincent orders the Douglas Sirk Steak. Douglas Sirk was a 50s film director of such melodramas as “Imitation of Life” and “Written on the Wind”. The steak named for him is available “burnt to a crisp or bloody as hell,” perhaps a sly reference to the extreme drama of his films. Mia orders a shake which is available “Martin and Lewis or Amos and Andy.” The reference here is to a white comedy team and a black comedy team. She orders the Martin and Lewis (Dean and Jerry) and receives a vanilla shake. They talk for a while and then Mia goes to the bathroom. When Mia returns from the bathroom, the framing of the scene becomes slightly more conventional. The characters are now dead center in the frame (before they were usually left or right of center). The camera is now a little closer, as well. Before she returns from the bathroom the restaurant scene has only one over-the-shoulder shot, which is over Mia’s shoulder after Vincent offers her his rolled cigarette and a light – a telling first moment of friendliness and implied intimacy. After her return, over-the-shoulder shots putting both characters in frame and thus in placing them in the same physical space are much more frequent. The soundtrack is now the background music playing in the restaurant as opposed to the extra-diegetic (that which is not part of the action of the film) music from before. And the dialogue is spoken in a much more relaxed manner. All this creates the sense that Vincent and Mia are becoming more familiar with one another. After this they dance together in “the world famous twist contest”. This is a direct rip off from Saturday Night Fever which Travolta previously starred in, the dancing and the techniques are copied directly from the movie which is a nice touch of parody and intertextuality.

Production Techniques: Production techniques in the modern era have made it so much easier for media producers to add little homage’s and parodies into current movies. You can see a movie whenever you want thanks to applications such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Due to these services being available, many more films are being seen, therefore producers can add extra “Easter eggs” for the audience to relate to and to discover. With the array of technology there is in the modern era, anyone can find a movie on their smartphone or tablet. This can make film producers put a lot of pastiche or parody moments within the film as most people will understand the references. The fact that you can access videos anywhere now and you can watch anything means that people will understand a lot more. Whereas in the 50’s and 60’s you would have to wait for so long to see a movie so putting any parody’s and pastiche would be pointless.