preview

Essay about Tension in David Lean's Great Expectations

Decent Essays

Tension in David Lean's Great Expectations

In this essay I will be analysing the opening scene of David Lean's version of 'Great Expectations' to see how tension is brought to the screen. Great Expectations is a novel wrote by Charles Dickens in 1861 but set in 1812. The film version I will be analysing was produced in 1945.

In the scene I will be analysing, it shows a young boy, Pip visiting the grave of his parents. While Pip is in the graveyard an escaped convict grabs him and questions Pip and when he finds out that he is living with a blacksmith he demands Pip to get him a file so he can free himself and some "whittles" which are scraps of food. The scene ends with Pip running off home. …show more content…

From the appearance the viewer would think that he is a nice boy due to him being all clean, tidy and smartly dressed. This contrasts to the convict who looks dirty and wears dirty clothes and has a scary facial expression, this makes the convict seem frightening. The weather added to the rundown look of the graveyard, Pips actions in the graveyard as well as the appearance of the convict sets the scene and makes you know something is going to happen.

The second area I will be analysing is camera angles, camera angles can change the way you perceive a scene, for instance if a low angle shot is used then it creates a feeling of power to the person or object it is being used on. In this scene lots of P.O.V shots are used. P.O.V shots are point of view shots; they show you what the character is seeing through their eyes. This helps you too see how scary the place is looking from hi eyes it is the way the director, David Lean, makes you feel sorry for Pip. At the start of the scene there is a long shot of Pip running to the graveyard it looks very dismal and very bleak. This adds to the impression of it being a bad place. When Pip meets Magwitch lots of low angle and high angle camera shots are used to show the power difference between the two characters. The camera never goes above Pips height in this scene this shows the dominance Magwitch has

Get Access