Violence plays a major role in the history of cinema. Both Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino have produced a litany of films that have imagery or plots that include violent acts. However, their different directorial visions and styles make it so that Hitchcock and Tarantino films are nothing alike. This is because Hitchcock's objective was to make the audience feel afraid, tense, and anxious for the protagonist, whereas Tarantino's objective is to illustrate the absurdity of violence by elevating the macabre to the level of humor. Both Hitchcock and Tarantino are brilliant directors who use violence in their films to achieve a desired effect.
These two directors differ in that Hitchcock avoids showing any blood, guts, and gore, whereas Tarantino is determined to show blood, guts, and gore. Alfred Hitchcock's movies rarely if ever show violence in an explicit manner. Violence is only suggested, which has a poignant impact on the viewer. The viewer knows that violence is lurking around the corner; because the viewer does not see anything happen, the fear lingers in the air. This is as true for North By Northwest and Psycho as it is for The Birds. In these films, violence does not happen in an overt way, and yet the audience feels afraid and anxious. Tarantino, on the other hand, does not intend for the audience to feel fear. In films like Pulp Fiction, and the Kill Bill series, Tarantino presents violence completely unhindered. Severed limbs and other overtly gory
From the time we are born, we are immediately introduced to influences that will shape and develop our character for the rest of our lives. Our character can be affected in a positive or a negative way by various influences that we encounter on a daily basis. We need to be aware of how much we absorb and let those influences change our behavior. External influences, such as video games, movies, and television shows impact our everyday lives, even when we are not conscious of them.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980), the “Master of Suspense”, was a English film director, who was well known for his use of suspense and psychological elements to shock and surprise his audience. Hitchcock was known for his use of recurring themes, motifs and plot devices, such as the use of birds, hand motifs, the audience as a voyeur, mothers, blonde women, and sexuality. He was also very technical in his editing, using filming techniques such as deep focus, point of view, close up and wide, tracking shots. Montage was also a technique he used frequently in his films. He believed that by using visuals, he could convey thoughts and emotions just as well as dialogue could.
1. Sobchack’s argument pertaining to on -screen violence that she wrote thirty years ago was that any violent acts portrayed in movies back then was to emphasize the importance of an element in a story, an emphatic way of engaging the viewers and forcing them to feel what the movie was about. It gave them a sense of the substance of the plot which would allow them to feel for the characters and yearn for good to overcome evil. In other words, the effort made to engage audiences through depictions of violence created violence that was artistic and well done, or as Sobchack writes, violence was “aestheticized.” Violence was incorporated into film in a stylistic
Society has been subjected to many violent acts over the course of its history. Although violence is immoral and wrong, somehow people everyday condone and commit violence for countless reasons. Many Hollywood films glorify mindless violence to their advantage and captivate audiences through its entertaining shock value and rake large box office profits. Car chases, crashes and glorified gladiator sword fights are all familiar scenes in which violence is portrayed in an unrealistic glamorised manner.
In his book, More Than a Movie: Ethics in Entertainment, F. Miguel Valenti examines nine “hot buttons” of violence – “creative elements that filmmakers use to manipulate viewers’ reactions to onscreen violence.” (99) These elements, posited by researchers conducting The National Television Violence Study (Valenti, 99) are “choice of perpetrator, choice of victim, presence of consequences, rewards and punishments, the reason for the violence, weapons, realism, use of humor, and prolonged exposure” (Valenti, 100) .
Quentin Tarantino is well known and often criticized for his depiction of violence in his films. Although at times graphic, Tarantino’s violence holds a purpose. This paper will look at two films, Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction, and their depiction of violence and the aesthetics used. It will also look at classic film conventions and ultraviolence aesthetics used by Tarantino.
Indeed, some of our cinematic images of brutality, savagery, and gore are disturbingly psychotic and totally gratuitous in their usage; but are they representative of something other than shadow? Or is it just that this shadow is out of the managerial range of parents, teachers and clergy? Even if we consider the view of von Franz that: "Not all dark impulses lend themselves to redemption; [and we have to be careful not to] accept everything that comes up from the unconscious" (Interpretation
Alfred Hitchcock’s stance in the film business is something to be marveled. His prominent position as the “Master of Suspense” is due in part to the textbook blueprint he created in the thriller genre. His catalogue has many examples, but the two with the most similar psychological depth would be Vertigo and Rear Window. Not only do these two movies thrill on the surface level, but they also thrill from the character’s emotional and psychological stand point. This makes the suspense less abrupt and more of a gradual progression into the classic Hitchcock climax. Hitchcock puts his viewers on a psychological roller coaster due in part to his three useful components: fear, guilt, and redemption.
The Magnificent Seven does its share to keep up that trend. Basically, the movie spends the whole time building up to the climatic and the epic fight between Chisolm, and Bogue. The fight does not disappoint in any way, shape or form either. It can feel a tad bit too violent, but it will keep you on the edge of your seat. Aside from the final fight scene, there are plenty of other action packed, and violent scenes to keep you interested like appetizers before the big feast. You could include the early scene where one of Rose Creek is brutally killed by one of Bogue’s henchmen with a tomahawk. It’s a scene that sets the tone for the violence that is to come. This movie isn’t as much about the depth of its story as it is about action and straddling the line of too much violence. It might be best described as one movie critic for Rolling Stone writes “It’s two hours of hardcore, shoot-em-up pow and it’s entertaining as hell.”
Violence against a character is essential in developing a character. Often, violence is portrayed in film through intense chase scenes or messy breakups. In The Apartment, Billy Wilder develops Fran Kubelik and Mr. Sheldrake by using relational violence.
A violent contract killer, a blue-collar welder, and a weary sheriff are all players in the ensemble No Country for Old Men. The Coen Brothers adaptation of the novel written by Cormac McCarthy is a multi-genre, visual buffet about a man’s strength of will and dedication. It’s about death, fate and American violence. It is set in 1980 and centers around the chaos of questionable decision making and killing without a purpose or at the very least killing without ethics. Every Coen Brother movie has utilized violence as a way to enhance realism, entertainment and narrative. Each of their films employ bloodshed in
Violence can trigger powerful emotions in people, whether it be anger, sadness or despair. As a result, violence is often used in visual media to convey a message or evoke a reaction in an audience due to its power. Violent depictions in movies, artwork and news often have lasting and profound effects on an individual making it a powerful tool that can be used to convey ideas.
Most violence in Tarantino’s movies is of shootings, but not in all cases. In Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction the violence consists of graphic, detailed, hard-to-watch gun scenes. These are exceptionally gory, and are usually on-screen. In his Kill Bill series, it is mostly death-by-sword, the weapon of choice for the main character. Inglourious Basterds is a whole different ball field. No pun intended, since a man is beaten to death with a baseball bat in this particular movie. The deaths vary from graphic shootings, with lots of blood splatter, to carving swastikas into men’s heads, to shooting an already-dead man’s face apart in explicit, extremely life-like detail. The twisted mind of Quentin Tarantino allows him to write, direct, and watch these scenes with no sort of cringe, but
In cinematography, as Quentin Tarantino discusses in an interview, the director is the conductor and the audience’s feelings are the instrument that directors utilize to evoke emotion. Directors have many tools they use to evoke the viewer’s emotions and properly captivate the audience. One of the tools directors use to control the audience, in addition to special effects, is dialogue. Dialogue has the power to push an audience to tears when a character dies, or make them laugh at the same scene with different dialogue between the characters. This dialogue is only possible through the creation of a storyworld where absurd dialogue would be deemed appropriate. This is what makes Quentin Tarantino such an effective director, he has mastered the skill of controlling the audience’s emotions through establishing a storyworld, and using dialogue with his horrifying scenes. His mastery of evoking emotion can be seen in many of his films. Most notably in Pulp Fiction, which won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best screenplay. In Pulp Fiction, the viewer finds him or herself in a whirlwind of emotion, laughing in horror at horrendous acts of violence. The emotions that are elicited while watching these intense scenes are possible because of the dialogue Quentin Tarantino uses. He masters the ability to evoke emotion through outrageous scenes in combination with memorable dialogue. The social norms within a storyworld, as well as characters ridiculous interactions with each other,
No matter who a person thinks invented the motion picture camera, whether it was Louis Lumiere or Thomas Edison, I'm sure they had no idea what it would become at the turn of the century. Motion pictures, has become an entertainment medium like no other. From Fred Ott's Sneeze to Psycho to Being John Malkovich, the evolution from moving pictures to a pure art form has been quite amazing. Different steps in filming techniques define eras in one of the most amazing ideas that was ever composed. Silent to Sound. Short to long. Black and white to color. Analog to Digital. All were important marks in the History of Motion Pictures. "It's different than other arts. It had to be invented"