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Analysis Of The Movie ' Roman Polanski '

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In Knife in the Water, Roman Polanski presents us with three unique characters: Andrzej, a sports columnist; Krystyna, his wife; and a young student whom they stumble upon on their day trip. Polanski, by setting more than half the movie on a sailboat on the water, creates a tense and claustrophobic situation with three opposing personalities. At the end of the story, all three characters have lost something, whether it be their dignity or a physical possession, but the “winner” in this situation has to be the woman. Krystyna can be named a winner in the story because she has gained more benefits from the experience than the two men and she also lost less than the other two protagonists. The older man in the story, Andrzej, recognized a power struggle between himself and the student not long after they met. First the struggle was to find out who was the dominant (alpha) male, the struggle soon turned into a battle for the affections of Krystyna. Being the more successful and older male in the situation, Andrzej attempted to use his knowledge of sailing and his position of wealth to exert his dominance over the student. He boasts of himself as the captain of the boat and laughs when the student cannot drive the boat himself, instead, he makes the boy clean the deck, subjecting him to a demeaning role on the boat. The boy began his day with a simple goal, to hitch a ride to wherever it was he was headed. He was granted a ride, but not to where he was headed. After being

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