In the film Harry Brown, we see many areas which apply to different theories.
Firstly, Adorno's theory about realism and sameness uses real things in order to make the audience believe that what they are seeing is true and really happens to that extent. The use of the Aylesbury Estate is really important as it is a place known for being violent and quite dodgy, therefore the setting of it there makes the actions a lot more realistic and believable, almost as if it's based on real events. Also, Regents Canal in Islington played a big part for the exact same reason, it also becomes something that the viewers can identify with because they know the place therefore they create this connection with it, it's placed there so that when they pass the area they remember the film and feel scared or shaken by the area because they subconsciously believe that what happened in the film is what happens in real life. This creates a view about teenagers by the people who watch this, which are adult males statistically, this also gets carried on into other forms of media by the dominant ideology because they think of it to be true. This reflects negatively on the young people of today.
Secondly, Cohen's theories about Moral Panic and Folk Devils.
In the ending sequences we see a lot of rioting by the young people, it is very violent and dangerous, we also see the police squad struggling to keep control, this creates a sense fo moral panic to the viewers as they think that teenagers are out of control criminals who can attack them at any moment, and the police will be too weak to protect them, this is really bad as it suggests that the teens need to be stopped and controlled. however, this behaviour was set up from the beginning scene of the film in which a group of teens go out and shoot an innocent mother as a fun joke. This sets the teens up in the film as Folk Devils, it also creates a normal behaviour for the youths which we then expect to see from them throughout the film, this also allows Harry Brown's character to look humane and like a hero even though he is doing violent things, because he's doing them for a reason and the teens were not.
This is generally very good. A couple of things to watch though: People outside London wouldn't necessarily know anything about the Aylesbury estate but they would recognise the stereotypical associations with run-down council estates and so would develop ideas about behaviours associated with people who live there. So try not to talk specifically about both locations by saying 'people would recognise' as most wouldn't as named locations in London. But what they would do is associate behaviours with certain locations such as isolated canal paths.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are writing about the sequences from the film you need to use terminology to describe the shot types and camera movement etc. This will be a useful revision aide for you and is well written.