Film Analysis 2nd draft

The first film I have chosen is the 2006 R rated “The Omen”. This film was shot in Prague and Czech Republic. This film was written by David Seltzer and was directed by John Moore. The target audience for this film is most likely over 18 year olds, that enjoy mildly scary horrors.

This film is about a man (president’s godson) and his wife’s child. However, the farther is told that the child didn’t survive birth and that the hospital has a healthy baby that has been abandoned. The man is told that the best thing to do is raise this child as his own and leave his wife to believe that this is their baby. However, due to strange happenings such as the boys Nanny hanging her-self at the boy’s party and how he acts, the mother suspects that there is something not quite right with this child. Eventually the dad is confronted first by a priest that tells him the boy must be killed as he’s the devil, and then a reporter that can see streaks of light in his photos of people before they die. The boys new nanny kills the man’s wife and the farther finally tries to kill the boy as finds out that his child didn’t die at birth but was instead killed so that this devil could obtain a position of power to take over but the farther fails. Ending with a scene of the boy holding hands with another man who will presumably take care of the boy.

The genre of this film is a horror/drama. This is due to the occasional jump scares featured in the film and the earie feel and dark scenes throughout. There are many depictions of the devil and references to hell in which he came from. This film also features many close u shots of the boy, showing his vacant facial expression and intense eyes. This is done as a form of foreshadowing as you can tell something is going to happen.

The narrative in this film follows a specific timeline starting from before the chid is born, and once the child is born, the timeline jumps to when the boy is around 6 years of age. The story then stays in this time, it doesn’t feature any more jumps, but instead follows these few months with the boy. This narrative gives a very real feel and makes the story very easy for the viewer to follow. 

The language used in the beginning of this film is very true the time this was set in. the priest use good English and use words and quotes from the bible. The photographer uses poorer English, that of a cockney and this is to show the difference in upbringing and societal class between both the main character (the presidents right hand man) and the photographer.

This film does not feature much special effects, it instead stays realistic and simple as far as effects go. It does however feature CGI meteorite in the beginning as the priest’s view it through a telescope. The film is about 1% CGI.

The music through-out this film was composed by Marco Beltrami. The music at the very beginning features a basic two note riff played by cellos and has a similar sound to the main theme from “Jaws”. There is then a different riff playing over the top of that by other string instruments. They contrast well to make a soundtrack that really builds tension.

The second film I am going to be reviewing is Shawshank Redemption, written and directed by Frank Darabont in 1994.  This film is about a Lawyer who is wrongly accused of killing his wife and her lover, who then ends up at an extremely rough prison with a double life sentence. He soon befriends a group of inmates and eventually ends up doing the wardens tax fraud and too stop the warden getting caught for it he puts the account in a made- up man’s name, eventually when he could not take any more of it, he escapes through the sewage and uses that fake to transact all the money in that account and lives the remainder of his days in Mexico with his fellow inmate. I like the ending to this film as; simple as it is, you feel extremely happy for both inmates.

This film was filmed in Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. Serving as the fictional Shawshank state penitentiary. This film is R rated and would come under crime/drama.  I think this as there is heavy violence in parts, it must be crime as its based in a prison and drama since the film is quite tense and keeps you on your toes.

The narrative is complex as it features many flash backs throughout the film. There is a back story in the beginning which tells you about why Andy (the main character) ended up in the prison in the first place and features flash backs towards the end of the film, there is also a flash back at the end depicting how Andy managed to escape.

There is a narration throughout by Morgan Freeman who plays Andy’s closest friend in prison, this worked well as some extremely violent scenes panned away so you didn’t see them but the narration told you what happened. This film was based in a time where a lot of police men and prison officers were very corrupt and could get away with what they wanted to, this was good as in the end Andy got the work out to the newspapers that the warden murdered an inmate and about the brutality that occurred inside. The overall theme was friends ship as its friendship that can get you through a situation like that and in the end where both the main characters are out of prison the special thing isn’t that they are both out, what’s most special, is that they are out together and can life the remainder of their lives together as free men. There is strong language throughout and this reminds you that they are in a violent and hostile place. There isn’t any special effects, its kept as realistic as possible, as though to make you feel as though you are with them in their predicament and there is a recurring piece of music in this film played by strings and is a powerful piece that adds to the tense situation.