Unstoppable
The movie I will be doing my oral on is the movie called Unstoppable. Unstoppable, directed by Tony Scott, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine is about a runaway train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals. Pits an engineer and his conductor in a race against time. They're chasing the runaway train in a separate locomotive and need to bring it under control before it derails on a curve and causes a toxic spill that will decimate a town. First I will be talking about the genre of this movie and the intended audience.
- What tradition or genre is it in? This movie is an action, drama, and suspense movie, but mostly action and suspense. This is a action movie because througout the whole movie Frank and Will try to chase and stop a run away train. It is a suspense genre because the audience is always on their feet because they don't know if the actors will stop the train in time before it decimates a town. For example there is this one scene where we see a train with kids and the audiences is scared that the runaway train might crash into the train with the kids. The whole time, this movie was suspenseful.
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| Kids screaming on the train created suspense. |
- What are the features determining genre? The cinemetography determines the genre of action, because the shots have lots of different angles. As the train would move the cinemetography would be shaky. The cinemetography also determines that the genre is suspenseful, because there is different angles of shots that make the audience know what is coming next. This movie has a little drama in it because Will and Frank have family issues. The features that determine the genre of drama is when Frank and his daughter had a fight. Another feature that determines the genre of drama is the actor's emotions in the scene. For example, Will was telling Frank about his problem with his family. As sitting in the audience, the viewers feel like they are listening to him speak to them. It was very emotional.
- What other work might it be connected to? Run-away Train is a 1985 film about two escaped convicts and a female train worker who are stuck on a runaway train as it barrels through snowy desolate Alaska. This connects to Unstoppable because there is also a run-away train. Both movies have two people that try to save the train from people. Both movies have emergency alert so people won't get hurt on the train track.
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| Frank on top of the train going between 50- 100 m/p/h |
- Who made this? Why? Tony Scott made this movie and he made it because he wanted to shoot the movie in a real setting. He did this to show that the train is the "beast". Scott wanted the movie to be in actual real setting. In the begining of the movie, the train was going 50 m/p/h and at the end of the movie the train was going 100 m/p/h. He wanted the actors to actually be on top of the train while it was moving. He trained the actors, so his movie would be realistic. He also wanted to have the story line in the movie as the actor were on the train. He said it was "dangerous". He wanted to make this movie more realistic because he wanted the viewers to always be off the edges of their seats.
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| Will with his family after stopping the train |
- What can we tell about its' creators? I can tell that the creators of this movie wanted a real life setting of the whole movie. Even when the actor was on top of the train, the train was moving in real life. The creators also wanted the audience to stay on the edge of their feet because the whole movie, you don't now what is going to come up next. The creators didn't also want real action, but they wanted to show the background or personalities of Frank and Will. Since the movie was about the train, the creators gave us the best way to learn about the actors. For example, before Will gets the train job, the audience sees that he has trouble with his wife and son. The same ting with Frank, he has a fight with his daughter. The creators wanted the audience to see the action of the train, and the emotions of the actors.
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| train footage |
- How does it fit within the director's other work? Does it share significant narrative or thematic concerns? Does it share particular visual or technical elements? In Unstoppable, Scott had good cinemetography. The actors faces were in exreme close ups, and the train footage is very in depth, because the audiences sees everything as they were watching it in person. In another movie he made called "The Hunger" had good cinemetography beecause he added his own style. Another movie that relates to this movie is Man on Fire" because it is an action movie based on a real story. He shares lots of narrative concerns because he made movies about trains, cars, and about pilots. He liked to have action movies. The most common actor he casts is Denzel Washington.
- What is the film's theme? The theme of this movie is that life can run out of your hands when making the wrong choices. For example, Frank had a fight in the morning before the run-away train begins. The same thing with Will, he wanted to see his family but his wife didn't let him. These two characters made mistakes, and they didn't think about the rest of the day. They could of been killed trying to stop the train. That very same day, they had fights with their loved ones. This shows that the theme of the movie is to not make a msitake you will regret, because you don't know what is going to happen to you or that loved one.
- What is the target audience? How does it adress its audience? This movie is PG-13. The target audience would be for teenagers from 14- 17 years old, to maybe 20-23 years old. This movie has lots of action and it is about trains. Lots of teenagers like to watch action movies. The targeted audience would be for people who like trains or run away trains. This movie addresses the audience by making the audience stay on the edge of their seat. This movie makes the audience suspenseful about the next shot.
Bibliography
Unstoppable
Nice work on developing each section. The images and links help. When referencing features that determine genre, consider the film's development of character, conflict and setting. Yes cinematography is relevant, but it's not always the dominant feature, it's complimentary. In action thrillers, you'll see that much of the film analysis will focus on style of camera, edit and fx.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up!