Man On Fire

Director: Tony Scott
Released: 2004
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Themes: Kidnapping, family, addiction, protection, revenge, rescue.
Starring Denzel Washington and Christopher Walken. This film is a Crime/Thriller remake of a movie by the same name released in 1987 that's based on a novel, also of the same name written by A.J Quinnell.

Mise-en-scene: Probably my favourite feature of the entire film was the Mise-en-scene. Especially the costumes. This is because I could see the change in clothing on the protagonist as his state of mind shifted. For example it started with our protagonist John W. Creasy wearing mostly dark, bland colours, which matched his stale, guarded personality.Image result for Man On Fire movie
But as he slowly opened up to the girl he was assigned to protect, we saw his outfit change to a much lighter, colourful attire. His facial expressions also changed, becoming more varied and happier.Related image
But once he discovered her death, he slowly started becoming more and more like his old, violent self, which converted his outfit back to the serious suits and dark, brooding colours. The props also showed a lot of information and created meaning without having to waste time stating it with forced and unneeded dialogue. For example the first shot of Creasy's client's house showed instantly that this family was rich.

Cinematography: Also used very well to create meaning. The opening establishing shots that showed the scenery, the close up shots to show highly tense and emotional moments, the distorted and multi-shot portions when Creasy was drinking and the wide shots that gave a lot of information all came together to give the audience everything they needed. Using the example from the previous paragraph, the very first shot of the interior of the client's home was a wide shot to give us as good a look at the surroundings as possible. From this, any of the audience could easily deduct that this family was wealthy indeed which contributed to the story, the characters and explained a few things.
In conclusion, this film creates a lot of meaning using the micro-features.

Comments

  1. Can you open with mise en scene? I thought that we started with Genre and Themes, Do not let bad habits or tardiness creep in Adam, you are far more capable than that! What you are writing is great but just not enough, See last post comments.

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