Harry Brown - Althusser & Adorno

In the film Harry Brown, there are many theories that apply to the whole film. For example, Adorno's theory of the repition of realism and sameness is clear in the film. The estate, which is the location we see the most of in Harry Brown, is a well known estate in South London. The estate in real life is quite run down, and it is shown the same way in the film. For this film, the crew could have decided to film on a fake set, but to make the film seem more real, they used a huge well known estate, so the audience could relate to where it was. The canal scenes are also shot on a real place. Although it is on the other side of London, people watching will definitely identify Regents Canal almost instantly, as somewhere they know or live. This could also make people who walk along the canal a bit more worried about walking around their late at night. What the teenagers were wearing throughout the whole film became a sort of uniform, and they didn't change their style of clothes within the film. The most common item of clothing associated with the youths were their 'hoodies'. The hoodies are usually seen when talking about youths/teenagers in any type of media today, and the film simply reminded audiences that they should be cautious when they see any teenagers wearing them.

Althusser's theory of the ISA (dominant ideology) was also seen in Harry Brown. Harry is a vehicle for the target audience of the film, and he 'gets rid' of the youths in the film in the same way that the audience would. By cleverly giving all of the teenagers what they deserved, plus being a hero and saving someone, and getting away with everything, he is just what the target audience would want to see, and still, the police, who are also a dominant part of society, get the credit at the end of the movie. All the camera work and various scenes encouraged the audience to side with Harry and take his side throughout.