Gwl3 essay

1. Reece Mechan
GWL3 essay
The film narrative are split into two different kinds of structures; a linear structure and a non-linear
structure. A linear narrative is when all the events are presented to the audience in chronological
order.A non-linearnarrative iswhenall the eventsare presentedtothe audience isjumbledupand
appears in non-chronological order.
The first film we analysed was “Silence of the Lambs” the film was made in 1991 and directed by
JohnathanDemme.JohnathanDemmehasbuiltaname forhimself withinthe thrillergenrewithfilms
such as; Devil in A Blue Dress (1995), The Truth about Charlie (2002), The Manchurian Candidate
(2004). Silence of the Lambs is about a young FBI trainee being sentto a well-known cannibal to try
and gethimtohelpthe FBIcatch serial killerBuffaloBill.The filmfollowsalinearnarrativeandcanbe
described as the most well-known thriller of the 90s.
The code and conventions of the thriller genre are;
 Protagonist vs antagonist
 Shadows
 Quick cuts to build tension
 Black & White shots
 Non-diegetic sound of breathing to build tension
 Cross cutting to build tension
 Changing angle shots
Silence of the Lambs follows a lot of these codes and conventions. The
first convention it follows is the protagonist vs antagonist battle, even
thoughthe filmadherestothisconventionitalsobreaksitbecause the
protagonist is usually male but in Silence of the Lambs the protagonist
is Clarice, played by Jodie Foster. The film has a very exciting plot
because as a whole it sounds interesting but when you watch it there
are that many clues to who Buffalo Bill is and what his motives are it
keeps you on the edge of your seat to see if you are right. Low key
lighting is used a lot in the film but the most memorable two scenes is
the storage room scene where Clarice is looking for reasons why
Hannibal sent her there and then she finds a head, the second
memorable scene where lowkeylightingisusedisinBuffaloBillshouse
where the lights go out and then we see him wearing night vision
goggleslookingather.Crosscuttingisusedatthe climax of the film whereBuffaloBillisrevealedand
boththe FBIand Clarice are walkingupto differenthousesandwe don’tknow whichone isrightand
which is wrong. Non-diegetic sound of breathing is used throughout the scene of the main battle
betweenprotagonistandantagonist,thisisusedtobuildsuspense.The iconographyof athrilleristhe
FBI or Police and some sort of weapon both of these are used in the film.
One of Europe’s greatest philosophers Todorovwrote about the structure of the any text in ‘Genres
of Discourse” the five transformation through which a form of text can pass are;
1. A state of equilibrium – all is in order
2. A disruption of the ordered state of equilibrium by an event
3. A recognition that a disruption has taken place

2. Reece Mechan
GWL3 essay
4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
5. A return to a new equilibrium
The state of equilibrium in Silence of the Lambs is at the very beginning where Clarice is training on
the FBI course. The disruption of the ordered state of equilibrium by an event is when we find out
about buffalo bill in Jack Crawford’s office. I would say the recognition that a disruption has taken
place is whenCatherine iskidnappedbyBuffaloBill.The attemptto repairthe damage of disruption
is whenClarice showsupat BuffaloBill’shouse andtriestorescue Catherine andkill BuffaloBill.The
return to a new equilibrium is when Clarice graduates from the FBI.
The three-act structure is shown below;
The setup/expositionof Silence of the Lambs is whenwe are introducedtothe fourmain characters;
Clarice Starling, Hannibal Lecter, Jack Crawford, and Buffalo Bill. We don’t meet Buffalo Bill in act 1
but we do learn about him from when Jack Crawford is telling Clarice and when Clarice reads the
articlesonthe wall of Jack Crawford’soffice.Iwouldsaythe plot pointforact 1 iswhenClarice issat
across from Hannibal Lecter’s cell and he tells her about the storage room. The confrontation/rising
actionof Silence of the LambsiswhenCatherine getskidnappedbyBuffaloBillandwhenwe findout
that Clarice is going to have to prove herself to her fellow colleagues. Act 2 changes the direction of
where the protagonistisheadingandIwouldsay the scene thatdoesthisis whenClarice goestothe
first victim’s house. The resolution/falling action of Silence of the Lambs is the fight betweenour
protagonist and antagonist. The denouement of the film was; when we realise that Hannibal isn’t
goingto hurt Clarice,whenClarice graduates,andfinallywhenwe seethatClarice hasprovedherself
in the male dominated FBI.
The next theory is from Vladimir Propp which was named the ‘Morphology of the Folktale’ and it
coversthe character structure of writtentextandnarrative.VladimirPropprealisedthatall folk-tales
follow the same sort of characters in their stories,the theory is that the characters have a narrative
role inthe text.These charactersare the same in film, beloware the 8 charactersand theirfunctions:
 The hero – the character who seeks something
 The villain – the character who opposes or blocks the hero’s quest
 The donor – the character who provides an object which has magic property
 The dispatcher – the character who sends the hero on his/her way by providing a message

3. Reece Mechan
GWL3 essay
 The false hero– the characterwhodisruptsthe hero’shopeof rewardbypressingfalse claims
 The helper – the character who aids the hero
 The princess– the character whoactsas a rewardforthe heroandasthe objectof the villains
scheming
 Her father – the character who acts to reward the hero for their efforts
If we apply this theory to Silence of the Lambs we can easily distinguish the rolesof the characters.
After applying the theory this is what the list now looks like:
 The hero– Clarice Starling–Clarice isthe herobecause she seekstofindBuffaloBill andsave
Catherine
 The villain– BuffaloBill –BuffaloBill hasbeensetasthe villainbecause he isthe personwho
the hero is looking for.
 The donor – Hannibal Lecter – Hannibal Lecter has been set as the donor because he gives
Clarice Starling clues to who Buffalo Bill is and his motives for killing his victims
 The dispatcher – Jack Crawford – Jack Crawfordhas beensetas the dispatcherbecause he is
the person who has set Clarice Starling the mission to find Buffalo Bill.
 The false hero–Dr Chilton –DrChiltonisthe false herobecausehe tellsHannibal Lecterabout
the false deal Clarice Starling made him, also because he tapes Clarice’s meetings with
Hannibal and he tries to stop Clarice seeing Hannibal to receive more clues.
 The helper – Hannibal Lecter – Hannibal Lecter has also been set as the helper because he
givesClarice cluestowhoBuffaloBill isandhismotivesforkilling,alsohe givesJackCrawford
false information so Clarice gets the villain instead of him.
 The princess– Katherine –Katherine isthe princessbecauseshe isthe victimwhoBuffaloBill
has captured and Clarice is trying to rescue.
 Her father – Jack Crawford – Jack Crawford has also been casted as the father because he
rewarded Clarice for saving Katherine, the reward is her graduating.
Gender representation happens in all forms of media such as; music, magazines, televisionand film.
These media sectors have unitedly brainwashed us into thinking of women as being emotional,
insecure andvulnerable.Aswellasmakingusthinkthatwomenshouldcontainthesetraitstheyhave
alsoaffectedsociety’sideaof beautyandgaveusaverynarrow mindedsense of theword.Eachmedia
platformhasgiven usadifferentideaof whatawomenshouldlooklike;musicantelevisionhasmade
usbelievethatif youhaven’tgotrecognisablecurvesandbigbumyouaren’tbeautiful,filmhasshown
us that if you don’thave big boobs,longblonde hairanda slimwaistyouaren’tbeautiful,andfinally
magazines have shownus that if you aren’t a size 6 you aren’t beautiful. Granted things are starting
to change in big Hollywood movies but you can still see a negative representation of women.
Hollywood seems to not like to portray strong, independent,feminist women and if theyare shown
in a film they are either labelled as the crazy cat lady or it is shown that they are going to spend the
rest of theirlivesalone.Eventhough Silence of the Lambs is from24 yearsago, false representations
of women are still massively used in all forms of media, recentlythe Hollywood pay gap was made
common knowledge when Oscar winning actress Jennifer Lawrence wrote a very open letter about
the film American Hustle. The film starred Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale who were both payed
more than Jenniferandfemaleco-starAmyAdams.Everybodyfeltoutragedwhentheyheardorread
the letterbecause JenniferLawrence wasthe onlystarfromthe filmwhowasnominatedandwonan
Oscar for her role in the production.
The film Silence of the Lambs doesn’t follow any of the gender representations of women, in fact it
actually sends out a powerful message of how women in a male dominated profession have to feel

4. Reece Mechan
GWL3 essay
the needto hide theirfemininitybecause theywon’tbe takenseriously. We are shownthisthrough
the characterof Clarice where she hidesherfeministby;the wayshe wearsovergrown,brownblazers
so nobodycansee herfigure,the wayshe neverengagesinflirting,the wayshe nevershowsemotion
in front of men and she waits till she is on her own, and finally the way she stands up to men when
theytry to flirtwithherorwhentheyignore hercommand.We notice fromthe firstscene thatshe is
determined to prove herself in the male orientated FBI, we are shown this because she’s running
through the obstacle course on her own so she’s either going at her own pace or she’s doing it
optionallyandisjust trainingto improve herself.The nextscene thatspeaksa lot in termsof gender
representationisthe scene where she isinthe liftbyherself withagroupof men,eventhoughthere
is noaudioin thisscene it saysa lot,the scene showsthe audience thattheydon’ttake her seriously
enoughto speakto heror evenacknowledge her.Inthisscene itis the firsttime we see Clarice look
vulnerable and weak so that is how the men could see her as being. Throughout the film Clarice is
flirtedwithespeciallybyDrChiltonwhowhengetsrejectedbyClarice he turnsverysourtowardsher
we see him go sour twice whenwithClarice once whenhe isrejectedbyher and the secondis when
she tellshimaboutwhatcollege she graduatedfrom.Ipersonallythinkthathe wentsourafterbeing
told this because he doesn’t see it as being right that women should be graduates and be more
successful than the man.
Pulp Fiction (QuentinTarantino,1994) usespostmodernismfeaturessuchas
intertextuality. Intertextuality means that the media text makes references
to other media texts; for example the scene where Vincent Vega and Mia
Wallace are taking part in the dance competitionismakingreference tothe
dance scene from Saturday Night Fever (John Bedham, 1977), another
example of intertextuality is the scene with the Marilyn Monroe lookalike is
stoodwithherdressblowingupthisismakingreferencetothe famousscene
from The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder, 1955), another scene that uses
intertextualityiswhenVincentVegaandMiaWallace is outside the dinerthis
scene is making reference to Grease (Randal Kleiser, 1978). Another
postmodern feature used is bricolage which was invented by Badrillard.
Bricolage iswhena mediatextreferencestoa mix of genres/historical eraswithinone shotorscene.
The scene thatusesbricolage isduringthe panningshotin the dinerthe setlookslike a stereotypical
50s diner but the costume and the hair is very much from the 1990s. Another thing that shows
somethingverypopularfromthe 1990s and that is the opendrug taking inthe diner’stoilets. Some
other postmodern features that the film includes are pastiche, reflexivity, parody, and self-
referentiality.Self-referentialityiswhenaproducerof amediatextoractormakesdirectreferenceto
previouswork,the scene thatusesself-referentialityisthe dance scene inJackRabbitSlimthismakes
reference toJohnTravolta’s1977 dance film Saturday NightFever.Reflexivityiswhenthe filmmaker
refersto the filmmakingprocesswithinthe mise enscene ornarrative,breakingthe illusionthatthe
filmorTV showisnotreal.The scene that includesthisiswhenVince andMiaare outside JackRabbit
Slims and Mia draws a rectangle and the outline goes with it.
PulpFictionisan alternative filmwhich meansthatithaseitherbeenproducedmostlyorcompletely
outside of a major film studio. The film also follows a non-linear narrative so unlike Silence of the
Lambs the film is all jumbled up, this type of narrative isn’t to every audience’s preference but
personally I think it keeps you more interested because it isn’t all lay out for you.
Different kinds of analysis can help audiences develop more of an understanding for the
themes/characters/genre of the film.PersonallyIhave foundthatafter learningthe differenttheories

5. Reece Mechan
GWL3 essay
I have developed more of an understanding of film and I can recommend a film a lot better than I
could. It is also a lot easier to identify the different theories in each film I watch. For these reasonsI
have realisedhowmuchtheycanhelpaudiencesunderstandthe themes/characters/genreof the film
they are watching.