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Rhetorical Analysis Of John Carpenter 's ' The Thing '

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John Carpenter is one of the 21st century most original directors and cinematographers. Carpenter is known as the master of horror narrative, but he offers the viewer more than a good scare. Carpenter leaves his audience questioning their beliefs and identifying with the characters he personifies. Carpenters use of allusion in his films plants direct messages into our subconscious. Carpenter has a particular flare for slaying the innocent in his films and playing on the irony of the lease guilty or least likely person tragically dying. In Assault on Precinct 13, the little girl getting ice cream laying slain next to the ice cream truck man was not done by accident. Carpenter is deliberate in his approach to that scene and even pays close …show more content…

Carpenter received critical acclaim for Assault in Precinct 13. From the introduction of the film, we are given settle warnings about the events to come. Carpenter captures many street scenes with signs that said “no parking”, “do not enter” and “no seating”. Interestingly enough these signs would appear right before or after a scene of devastation. Carpenter uses color to convey symbolic messages as well. The color blue is used on the African American officer tie to convey patriotism and civil service. On-the-other-hand the color red is used in the brae of one of gang members and stands out on all of the warning signs to symbolize danger (bad guys). Even more symbolic is the dart board which is hung in the police station, which had two blue darts and a red bulls eye- reinforcing the conflict between “good guys” vs. “bad buys” consequently as the movie plots envelopes, we find ourselves catching the settle details along the way.

John Carpenters career began while he was still studying in college. He launched his career with the makings of short films in 1962. Carpenter experienced success early in his career, going on to win his first academy award in 1970. In 1974 Carpenter released sci-fi comedy, “Dark Star”. “Dark Star” was an independent film by Carpenter and only had a budget of about $60,000. “Dark Star” has been mentioned as one of the Top 10 space movies of all time and has good reason to. “Dark Star” as a black comedy does a

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