In the film Harry Brown, we see Adorno’s theory of repetition of realism and sameness illustrated many times throughout the film. A key example of the realism in the film is the real life locations used such as the Aylesbury Estate and Regent’s Canal in London. Filming in these locations which would be recognisable to the audience makes the film seem more realistic and gritty. The young people in the film are presented through their clothing, manner and speech to be stereotypical troublesome teenagers that the audience would recognise from real life. Presenting the fictional young people in this way makes it harder for the audience to distinguish the representation of young people in the film from young people in real life. The riot scenes found in Harry Brown were later reinforced through the real life coverage on the London riots. Despite the riots in Harry Brown being fictional and several years before the real London riots, a number of parallels can be drawn between the ways the two riots were presented on screen to audiences. For example, the acts of young people seemingly out of control wearing hoodies, setting cars on fire and throwing glass and fire at the police as well as the whole riot sequence being shown to us from the point of view of the dominant ideology (the police/Harry Brown himself).
Cohen’s theory of folk devils is also shown throughout the film primarily through the representation of young people. In the opening sequence, an extreme scene in which a group of young people are shown taking drugs then speeding around on bikes in a park before killing an innocent mother by shooting her in the head, young people are clearly established as the folk devils. The young people are seen as the villains in this film and everything is blamed on them, despite the police doing nothing for a long time and no one taking responsibility for why the young people are like that in the first place. The extreme acts of violence and crime that the young people commit all throughout the film makes them easy to blame, once the young people are killed the estate that Harry lives on is seen to be a safe place again. This shows that the films central idea is that young people are what is wrong with society and that without them everything would be ok. While this is obviously untrue, the representation of young people in this film does provide strong evidence for Cohen’s theory of folk devils.
Cohen’s theory of folk devils is also shown throughout the film primarily through the representation of young people. In the opening sequence, an extreme scene in which a group of young people are shown taking drugs then speeding around on bikes in a park before killing an innocent mother by shooting her in the head, young people are clearly established as the folk devils. The young people are seen as the villains in this film and everything is blamed on them, despite the police doing nothing for a long time and no one taking responsibility for why the young people are like that in the first place. The extreme acts of violence and crime that the young people commit all throughout the film makes them easy to blame, once the young people are killed the estate that Harry lives on is seen to be a safe place again. This shows that the films central idea is that young people are what is wrong with society and that without them everything would be ok. While this is obviously untrue, the representation of young people in this film does provide strong evidence for Cohen’s theory of folk devils.
Excellent - really very good indeed. The theory is explained and applied to the film. To improve a little further I would suggest including a little more in the way of specific terminology in your examples from the film. For example when you are comparing the riot sequences from the film and the london riot coverage I would like to see you refer to the shot type and camera movement to explain how we are positioned as an audience member. But generally this is excellent.
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