EVALUATION 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?



The most obviously similar character to ours is Bill Foster, played by Michael Douglas in the film Falling Down (1993, Joel Schumacher). His character is, on the outside, an ordinary man. He carries a briefcase, wears a white shirt and tie, and glasses. The idea being that everyday life (traffic jams in the searing heat, an ex-wife who won't let him see his daughter, irritating shopkeepers, bad burgers, pointless roadworks etc) has ground him down to his breaking point.

The fact that Bill is an ordinary man who is under skilled, and has never held a gun before, let alone shot a man; means that the audience sympathise with him much more than the typical "All American Hero" type character presented in other action films such as Die Hard (1988, John McTiernan). Towards the end of the film Bill says "I'm the bad guy? How did that happen?" which sums up perfectly how his character is presented, as the audience - having witnessed his breakdown - is inclined to agree with him.

The character in our film is similar in many ways. He wears glasses, carries a briefcase, and wears a shirt and tie. He looks like an ordinary man on his way home from work. The difference is, that instead of using this to get the audience to sympathise with him, we used it to shock the audience. This works because the idea that anyone you work with could be an emotionless, sadistic torturer is particularly frightening, and I think we pulled this off to great effect.

All things considered, our character is actually much more similar to the character Patrick Bateman, played by Christian Bale in American Psycho (2000, Mary Harron). Like Bill Foster, Patrick wears a shirt and tie and carries a briefcase; however unlike Bill, his shirt and tie are part of an expensive designer suit, while his briefcase is probably considerably more valuable.

The similarities between our character and Patrick lie in the fact that neither character shows any emotion while killing their victims. This is perfectly summed up by one of Bateman's monologues: "I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip."

The idea that our character shows no emotions on the outside and looks like a normal person, who goes to work every day with people who have no idea what he does in his leisure time, is what we wanted to portray. However, our character is more serious and not as tongue-in-cheek as the character portrayed by Bale.

To an extent, similarities can also be drawn between our character and that of Harry Brown in the film of the same name (2009, Daniel Barber). Although he is a much older character, the principal is the same, of an ordinary person driven to breaking point by the youths on the estate, and the deaths of his wife and friend. Again, however, they differ in the fact that Harry Brown is driven to his emotional breaking point whereas our character shows no emotions and we do not see what has driven him to torture his victims.

Overall, I feel that although we only had 2 minutes in which to portray a character, and a limited choice of actors, we achieved the desired effect through the use of costume and through Tom’s non-verbal-communication and role in the film.