A True American Hero In Die Hard

The movie, Die Hard, directed by John McTiernan has a lot more to it than what meets the eye. The full extent of the movie can only be appreciated by digging deeper to reveal the importance of the character, John McClane. While John McClane is the main character and protagonist in the film, the true importance of his role can only be identified by looking at his character's development. Throughout the course of the film, Die Hard, the character John McClane goes through character developments.

To start off, Quentin Tarantino gave much attention to detail in his diegetic sounds. By including crickets chirping, floorboards creaking, bullets ricocheting off multiple surfaces, and, of course, blood splatter, Tarantino truly brings his audience into the old American west. Another example of diegetic sounds in the film is when Dr. Schultz is waiting for Mr. Candie to sign the papers

He is able to use these parts to manipulate the audience’s emotions. The music playing from the car is an on-screen sound. As the man gets attacked, the volume increases. The sound helps intensify the scene that has been created by the film’s visual elements. The audience then subconsciously forms ideas, opinions, and feelings about what they are seeing. The viewers develop scared feelings as the scene intensifies to the happy upbeat tune. The increasing volume of the cheery song reflects the violence and the sinisterness of the scene. The song stops with the slamming of the car’s driver-side door as the man is abducted. There is a moment of silence and then a new song abruptly entered the silent scene. The music is non-diegetic and is an offscreen sound. The song is screechy, high pitched, and jagged sounding at first, continuing the anxious and scared mood. The song shifts into a sort of soulful hymn. The tone shifts along with the song. The audience begins to feel relieved and relaxes to the peaceful song.

Even though the film is essentially a visual experience, the use of sound has become extremely important in modern film. The modern viewer hears a complicated soundtrack that is as meaningful as the image on the screen. Three elements comprise the film's soundtrack: the dialogue, the sound effects, and the musical score. The proper balance and mix of these elements produced the essential emphasis required, which created the desired effects. As explained by Joseph Boggs and Dennis Petrie,

Throughout the scene, the use of non-diegetic sound is used to make the audience feel worried and scared as to where Jasper is taking Charlie and what is going to happen. The deep, dusky scary music played in the background has an effect on the audience, creating a dramatic feel as Charlie did not know what was ahead for him in the shadowy, dark forest, fearing for his life as Jasper Jones is portrayed as a bad person in society because of his skin colour. Furthermore, throughout the scene, non-diegetic sound is used as an additional background sound, intensifying when Jasper and Charlie come near Laura Wishart’s hanging, dead body. As Jasper and Charlie closely creep up to Jaspers property, the music suddenly intensifies, creating a mysterious approach about what is going to happen next.

The dangers frequently endured by soldiers fighting for the United States is immense. Hundreds of men and women are killed daily by terrorists. Many soldiers give up their dreams to fight for their country because they feel endangered every day by extremist groups and other terrorists. The movie American Sniper is based off of the true story of Chris Kyle and his efforts to protect his country. Throughout the movie, Chris Kyle’s struggles demonstrate that war may build courage but also leads to emotional issues.

Editing is a true art form. The editor strives to impart visual variety to the picture by skillful shot selection, arrangement and timing. He recreates rather than reproduces the photographic event to achieve a cumulative effort often greater than all the actions in individual scenes put together. A motion picture is a custom-made jigsaw puzzle in which filmmakers fashion the individual pieces. Each piece requires special attention so that it will merge harmoniously with pieces surrounding it. Many editors prefer to make their cuts on movements so that the actual switch from one shot to another is masked by the action. The editing in Steel Magnolias uses wipes and fades to transition from one scene to the other. The editor uses

Die Hard, a film directed by John McTiernan, successfully utilized several aesthetics, which offered viewers various meanings throughout the duration of the film. Although the diverse meanings grasped by viewers may differ, it was clear to me that McTiernan effectively applied elements of cinematography and mise-en-scene that resulted in viewers being allowed to interpret a range of different meanings or functions of the elements.

Along with background music, sound effects play more of a role on the way we feel than many moviegoers think, and "although the function of sound effects is primarily atmospheric, they can also be precise sources of meaning in film" (Giannetti, 225). When the

When Driver meets his neighbor Irene that emotionless face from the beginning of the film softens up a little. In a small scene where Driver looks out the window of his apartment we see Irene and her son in the distance. So we don’t get the typical close up of the actors. This highlighted the Driver longing to be in a normal world and just how far away from that he felt. Later in the film when Irene and her son goes to the auto body shop where Driver works you can see his face light up like a little boy with a crush. He actually smiles. When Driver gives them a ride we hear what is known to be the film 's main theme. “A Real Hero”, a song with lyrics telling the tale of a man standing up for what’s right even when everything is on the

Most of the actors are wearing darker clothing as well which makes their faces stand out even more. This lighting style also adds to the tension and the mystery of the scene. It makes the audience on edge. The contrast filled lighting of film noir is also effective at bringing out the extremes of emotions and thought. The darkness of the genre makes anything that goes wrong seem less taboo, because the lighting of the genre sets up the norms for the world that the film lives in—and in that world, bad things happen. The lighting of the film helps the audience understand the world that the characters are in.

By offering a shot by shot analysis of a scene that uses diegetic sound the audience can understand why the director used these sound aspects to tell his story. This analysis does not just follow one scene but rather a series of scenes in order of what is relevant. First we are witness to the mother in her apartment washing clothes on the washing board and the camera then cuts to the clock, which is striking time and making an animated noise that brings the audience into this important element of the film. The story then cuts to Elsie being honked at on the street with horns that are overly dramatic in sound, yet another way for the director to use the sound technique. Another way the director uses sound in a dramatic way is when he presents Elsie bouncing her ball down the sidewalk and on the

The music interacts with dialogue in the film; the techno beat is, at times, accompanied by vocals, which correspond with not only what is happening in the scene, but also the internal diegetic dialogue—another important motif.

One would have to say that one of the most notable features of the film would have to be its soundtrack, which incorporates no music but only diegetic sound, from the preliminary noise of the river flowing under the bridge through the even louder sounds of the forthcoming American tanks to the quaking clamors of the ending battle scenes. A prodigious example of sound transpires within the middle of the film. It is when the boys are woken from their cots and called into combat; the sequence features electronically distorted sounds that together equally insinuate the boys’ disorientation as well as the disorientation of the viewers.

The element of sound and audio are very rich areas in the move Saving Private Ryan. The sounds of war are rendered loudly and as realistically as possible. The audio is altered so that when soldiers talk during battle, you can barely hear then screaming. This accentuates the extremities soldiers faced during the war, and how powerful weapons were on both sides. The sounds played during the movie gives an even more realistic portrayal of war. The abundance of disorderly sounds creates the impression of chaos and the senseless combat that occurred between powers during World War