Today I will be analysing the film Schindler’s List made in 1994 while looking at the social and cultural contexts of the movie’s production. By looking into these contexts, the mise en scéne, colour palette, genre and style plays a big role in analysing a film. Schindler’s List (1994)is in the genre of Biography, drama and history while it tells the true story about an industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becoming concerned for the Jewish work force during World War II in Poland while being invaded by the German Nazis. The film is based between 1939 to 1945 showing how hard it got for Jews in Poland and how Oskar Schindler battled with protecting his work force from the Nazis. 

Looking at the style of shots in Schindler’s List (1994),they use a lot of shooting styles that film noir involves. Even though film noir is typically a Hollywood crime style from the 1940’s and 1950’s which uses lowkey lighting and black-and-white visuals that started in German Expressionist cinematography. Throughout the film it is completely filmed in black-and-white except a scene which I will mention later on. It was said that the directors wanted to create a timeless feel in the film with black-and-white. Also, Spielberg want to use it to match the real footage from that era. A shot from film noir that they use constantly is having a single light shining through window blinds onto the characters. The use of this creates a build of tension and uneasiness which reflex the situation they were going through. It’s quite interesting how they have used a detective style of filming for a war history film. Film noir was introduced in 1946 but wasn’t recognised till the 1970’s. This is why it is a weird choice to use film noir as it didn’t come about till after the war but has been used so well that it creates a cold and empty feeling in the shots which I assume is how people felt during the war. 

Like I mentioned before, the colour palette was black-and-white but featured a scene of a really young Jewish girl, in a red coat, walking down the street while Nazis are rounding up all of the Jews in the street. As well as this, they were stuffing then into trucks while other Jews are getting shot while the little girl is walking passed. The scene continues to the child running away unseen to hide under a bed in the house to get away from the Nazis. I believe this use of a single use of colour has multiple meanings. Firstly, I see the red coat as making it stand out in the shot, so the audience can see what Oskar Schindler was looking out and also making it memorable for later on in the film. I think for Oskar to see this young Jewish girl nearly getting shot down her own street made him upset to watch and see her body later seemed to be another trigger for him to help the Jews even more. Another way, I saw the red coat as a symbol of hope and courage while she’s trying to get to safety but once she’s under the bed, the colour is gone showing that she’s scared. For Oskar seeing the red coat in a pile of dead bodies is the courage he needs to try and save more people. 

As Schindler’s List (1994) is based on a true story and looks at the social issues that was going on during the war. The biggest issue that the film speaks on is the discrimination Jews had to go through and suffer from the Nazis. At the beginning it shows the process that Jews went through where they were forced out of their homes and to give up their processions which was either stolen or burned. The Nazis continuously kept moving the Jews and forcing them into small rooms while sharing with many other people. As well as this, they were all made to work for the Nazi’s and continued to them being put into concentration camps. Even through everything that has been taken away from the Jews, they showed a lot of hope from them when saying “The worst is over” a few times through the film but sadly things did get worse. It was good that they showed the hope that some Jews still had to get out of that situation. These glimpses of hope showed the audience that they still saw them getting through it. An intense part of the film was very graphic shootings constantly. 

War films in the past before Schindler’s List (1994) didn’t seem to show as much horrific scenes and the reality that Jews had to deal with for so many years. By using a true story, this film has shown the harsh graphic scenes the Nazis inflicted on the Jews. By showing the Jews being forced to run around naked to be picked for who is healthy enough to work while women cut their fingers to rub blood into their faces to look healthy or they would be killed for not being strong enough to work. Jews would get beaten up by the Nazis on a daily basis and shot dead if they even took a break from working. Life was extremely bad from them and Schindler’s List (1994) helps to show the truth to the audience while films before were asked to decrease the intensity of death as it wasn’t allowed. Not many people knew the length it had gotten so a film like this has been able to educate and make awareness of what Jews went through.  We only really saw the truth of how hard it got for Jews in The Pianist (2002) and in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008). Even so, these two films bring up the subject of the holocaust but didn’t so much show the gruesome scenes that really happened.Schindler’s list(1993) seems to be the only film at that time teaching the reality to the public.  

Oskar Schindler is seen as the protagonist in the film due to him being the main focus from beginning to end while other short stories are being told as well. Oskar is shown as a Nazi by seeing him throwing expensive parties and sending presents to make friends with other Nazis high up in the army. However, we see him slowly showing sympathy to the Jews in many scenes and we can see how his compassion builds for them. We first see this when Oskar hires a Jewish accountant called Itzhak Stern. To start with Itzhak Stern did not like Oskar due to us seeing Itzhak answering him very bluntly and not excepting to have a toast of a drink with him. Even so, Oskar found Itzhak very important to his company and saved him on a few occasions while built their relationship. One of the first moments we see this is when Oskar is informed that Itzhak has been stuffed into a train to be shipped of with other Jews, but Oskar blackmails the guards into stopping the train or they would lose their job. Itzhak slowly sees his importance to Oskar even though he thinks it’s only to make more money. Later on, their friendship becomes even clearer when Oskar Schindler gambles all he can with multiple failed attempts to get him out of one of the camps. 

Oskar Schindler wasn’t all good. He cheated on his wife multiple times, drank excessively and spied for Abwehr. In the beginning Oskar was a selfish man who just wanted to make lots of money anyway he could. Although, it led him to using his money-making ideas for good. His sympathy for the Jews was seen more when they were forced into train carriages, cramped together in the boiling heat, and Oskar went out of his way to find multiple hoses to connect to spray water into every carriage to cool them down. He also made guards pass out water bottles to each carriage. This angered Amon Geoth, the commandant of Krakow-Plaszow concentration camp, as one of laws was not to comfy with the Jews. Amon arrested Oskar to give him a warning for his actions. Oskar Schindler didn’t give up but spent millions to collect over 1,000 Jews to work back at his factor to keep them out of the camps and lessen the chance of them being killed. He even would spend his own money to give them clothes and bought food on the black market to feed the workers as the Nazis were inflicting starvation. He really went against what was expected of you as a Nazi by saving so many lives. 

When looking at the antagonist of the film, Amon Geoth, brings in all the horrible discrimination Jews went through. He would wake up in the morning and shoot Jews from his balcony as if it was entertainment or a sport. He is the antagonist in Schindler’s List(1994)due to the quiet rivalry he has with Oskar. This is because of their different views on how Jews should be treated. They both know each other’s views but never discuss it as it would lead to Oskar being arrested or even killed for protecting them. The hatred he had for Jews was so viscous he shot a lady who was only informing them of construction problems. He ended up shooting her and following her instructions anyway. Amon Geoth did not like the Jews being an equal to him so would always find a way to minimise them. 

However, Amon kept the religion of his maid secret, who was a Jew, because he was attracted to her. In a scene where he is confronting the maid about how he felt, he beat her violently for making him have those feelings for a Jew. Like I mentioned before, Amon felt disrespected and threated by Oskar for the way he was being nice to the Jews. In the end Amon excepted Oskar’s deal of buying over 1,000 Jews from Amon’s camp to work for him. Amon Geoth is definitely an opposite to Oskar by the way they see and treat Jews. Amon seemed to always have a slight wariness of Oskar as he was so generous to everyone and didn’t treat the Jews the same way they were disgusted by them.

To conclude, now looking back at the analysing of the social and cultural context in Schindler’s List (1994), you can see the film widely discusses discrimination of Jews and the involvement of Oskar Schindler and Amon Geoth. The directors express the timeline by using a film noir style shooting with black-and-white to get the audience into the feel of the film. As well as this, they focused on true stories of holocaust survivors to show how bad things got for them. A criticism the film got was that thy were focusing on a Nazi and making him seem like a hero. However, they just wanted to show the real truth which was portrayed very well to create awareness. They cleverly used a small piece of colour which tried to show the realisation Oskar had for how hard the situation was becoming. As well as this, looking at the protagonist and antagonist is showing the battle these characters had and how brained washed and cruel their actions were. The Directors were very smart with their casting and helping the audience to build relationships with the accountant and Oskar Schindler but also teaching the graphic truth of the crimes that occurred. 

References:

Liebner, W., 2005. Schindler’s Lists [online]. Available from: https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/0126_Schindlers-lists.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwh472BRAGEiwAvHVfGhNuDZHNLa9y0JoTh0Fgrqq8Yj_KStP2s_thmZxEPEVWnmLiBoVOSBoC7_MQAvD_BwE[Accessed 20^thMay 2020]. 

Waxman, O., 2018. ‘He Was Sent by God to Take Care of Us’: Inside the Real Story Behind Schindler’s List [online]. Available from: https://time.com/5470613/schindlers-list-true-story/[Accessed 20^thMay 2020]. 

Anderson, S., 2014. Oskar Schindler: The Untold Story [online]. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2014/03/19/oskar-schindler-the-untold-story-3/#521c33995537[Accessed 20^thMay 2020]. 

Hutchinson, S., 2018. 15 Fascinating Facts About Schindler’s List [online]. Available from: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/69150/14-fascinating-facts-about-schindlers-list[Accessed 20th May 2020]. 

Hutchinson, P., 2018. Schindler’s List at 25: looking back on Spielberg’s defining Holocaust drama [online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/06/schindlers-list-25th-anniversary-steven-spielberg-holocaust[Accessed 20th May 2020]. 

Today I will be exploring how the genre of romance is used differently in Five Feet Apart and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I am going to be looking at how this has been shown in each film and what effect they have on the audience. I will also be looking at the similarities in each film even though they are very different types of romance movies. I wanted to compare these two films as they have an opposite take on love in films and how they portray it through storyline, character types and even the conclusion on the film and how this makes the audience feel.

I will first be looking into the film Five Feet Apart directed by Justin Baldoni and was released in 2019. It follows the story of two teenager’s hospital bound as they are suffering from cystic fibrosis, which is a type of lung disease that makes it very hard to breathe because of the build-up of thick sticky mucus that collects in the lungs, digestive system and other organs. One main problem with this disease is cross contamination between two patients with CF and can cause each of them to pass over bacteria to each other that would be harmless who don’t have cystic fibrosis but can severally harm people with the disease and will potentially cause death.

 This is where the six feet apart rule comes in which is used in the film between the two teenagers to be able to spend time with each other without making each other’s illness worse. The film Five Feet Apart shows how these two teenagers, Stella and Will, fight through this illness together and begin to fall in love with each and trying to make it work without endangering one another. This film battles with lose and the deadliness of cystic fibrosis. It is definitely a movie which pulls on your heart strings as an audience and roots for their love story. 

The other film I will be looking at and comparing to Five Feet Apart is Scott Pilgrim vs the World directed by Edgar Wright, made in 2010, based on the comic books written my Bryan Lee O’Malley called the Scott Pilgrim series. The movie is about Scott Pilgrim who is a 23-year-old bass guitarist who starts of by dating a 17-year-old high school girl called Knives Chau but ends up falling in love with Ramona Flowers. Ramona moved to Toronto from New York to escape her past which Scott will later encounter upon. 

To make Ramona his new girlfriend, Scott has to prove himself by fighting and defeating the league of her seven evil exes who control who enters her love life before becoming her official boyfriend before the game is over. Each ex becomes much harder to defeat the further down the list. During this journey he is also faced with the heart break and return of his ex-girlfriend but ends up killing her new boyfriend who is one of the seven exes. The whole film is based in a video game to win Ramona. You can see this in the pop-up graphics and second chances he gets to complete levels. Scott is even faced with his ex Knives Chau trying to kill Ramona Flowers for “stealing” her boyfriend. 

Like I mentioned before, both films involve the storyline of love and romance, but each film has a very different way of showing it. Five Feet Apart is a very typical film using a similar story line to what nearly all romances use. It normally begins with a steady start of not knowing each other very well or even having little bickers to where they fall deep in love with each other and are inseparable. In this part of the storyline the scenes are occasionally a montage or just showing the two characters extremely happy with one another. This begins to make the audience fall for their romance as well. While the audience is hooked, the storyline normally brings in a tragedy that tests their love and even gives the idea of them not being able to work through it. However, the ending is hard to judge where it might go. Sometimes a romance storyline ends very happy with the couple staying together and living happily ever after with the audience feeling fulfilled or the story ends with a sad tone of one of the characters passing away or just going their separate ways. 

Although, even with this sad ending in a romance, it still makes the audience feel for them as it ends giving the impression that they will both still live a happy life. this is exactly the storyline that Five Feet Apart portrays. The audience got to follow the ups and downs of their love to later have them separate in the end but still feel as if they were both going to do great things. This is a very strong way in which romance films entice their audience and get them emotionally involved. 

Scott Pilgrim vs the World used their theme of romance very differently. For this film romance wasn’t the main genre as they focused the film being more an action-comedy. Even though romance is a part of the genre, they have very cleverly taken away the soppy side of it by making it comedic with a lot of action in it which is what makes the audience root for the main character of Scott Pilgrim. The storyline has a continuous up and down feel where some scenes the characters of Scott and Ramona are getting along very well or are arguing. Even some scenes where they have broken up. However, the action of Scott having to fight her exes continues throughout the movie to win her over.

 This keeps the audience on their toes about if the two characters will get through it all and even the game together. As each fight with the exes give off a bigger impression that Scott may not win the game, it made it hard to tell how the film will end. As we can see that Scott Pilgrim vs the World has a very different style of storytelling it still includes the key theme in romance films of a giant struggle which will conclude their future. The scene that presents this is when Ramona takes back Gideon instead of staying with Scott and Scott debates whether to keep fighting for Ramona or to except her decision. Even the ending of the film is similar to how a romance would finish with them ending up together after all of the struggles they got through. 

Looking at the characters themselves have a few similarities and differences. In the film Five Feet Apart, the character of Stella is very confident and out spoken. You can see this in her energy in the way she speaks and walks around the hospital. You can also see her this in the way she is in her YouTube videos that she posts while being very open about her treatments and her illness which is normally a private thing but does it to help other people around the world with the same disease.

 As well as this, when it comes to meeting new people, like the character of Will, Stella found it very easy to speak to him and confront her concerns about him managing his own treatments. Looking at Ramona in Scott Pilgrim vs the World had the similar trait of having a quite confident stance and spoke very clearly when being spoken to. However, Ramona is quite a quiet person even though she makes others feel intimidated to speak to her. When Ramona is spoken to, she finds it very easy to reply and know what to say like how Stella is in Five Feet Apart. I would say Stella is more sociably confident while Ramona keeps to herself but isn’t afraid to say what is on her mind. 

Now looking at the male main characters in each film. Starting with Will from Five Feet Apart, he begins quite confident by running after Stella and by trying to talk to her as much as possible even though they aren’t allowed. Will still seems quite a sad and angry character at the beginning while he seems to not care about his treats him. It is only when Stella starts to motivate him to focus on getting better is when he begins to become happier. Looking at Scott compared to Will they are very different characters when it comes to the way they act and their personalities. Scott is a very socially awkward individual who finds it very hard to speak to girls and to hold a casual conversation which is completely opposite to Will in Five Feet Apart and most romance films as it is usually the male character to be confident in romance films. 

In Five Feet Apart they do a very clever thing where they slightly change the temperature and colour palettes of scenes depending on the mood of the story in that scene. Whereas in Scott vs the World the colour palette mostly doesn’t change as it is representing a video game which doesn’t change in emotion if you fail or lose a life. The colouring in Five Feet Apart really shows the realism in the film whilst the other uses bright neon colours to represent how video games was back in the 90’s when the film was set. 

You can see this in Five Feet Apart when Stella is under anaesthetic and she may not survive, the colour palette is a very dark blue and gloomy which represents sadness while in the scene where they go on their first date, the lighting is much brighter and lighter colours to show a happy emotion between the characters. 

In Scott Pilgrim vs the World, like I mentioned before, doesn’t having a change in colour palette but has a large use of graphics and bright neon colours to represent a video games and these are to show the sound effects and health of player. They use a large range of these in every scene of the film like you can see her. 

However, they used a lot of low lighting throughout the film. I think this was used to show how mysterious the character of Ramona is but also to build up the impact of the fights by starting dark before the fight scenes broke out with bright graphics. 

Five Feet Apart used a very common and popular theme which has been used for many years the forbidden love formed with someone terminally sick. An old popular film that used this was Love Story made in 1970 and directed by Arthur Hiller. It’s about two characters who come from different backgrounds. Where Oliver Barrett is a Harvard student whereas Jenny Cavilleri is a middle-class girl studying music and they fall in love, they battle with the controversy from Oliver’s Parents and Jenny’s terminal illness while they fight for their love. This film was seen as one of the greatest films with this genre. However, Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a genre that is newly recognised in the film industry. Even though I did an in-depth search into existing films which use the same style and found near to nothing the same. This really shows how much of an individual idea it was and how it is starting a new type of popular genre. 

After looking all the difference in Five Feet Apart and Scott Pilgrim vs the World, it has become very clear that even though both films involve the genre of romance, even in different amounts, have given some similarities. This is through the use of character development and even a small bit of the story line is similar to a typical romance film. However, Scott Pilgrim vs the World will not cause the audience to tear up but rather cheer along with the fight scenes. 

References:

Mastrapa, G., 2009. Scott Pilgrim Hailed as First Film for ‘Joystick Generation’ [online]. Available from: https://www.wired.com/2009/10/jason-reitman-scott-pilgrim/ [Accessed 14 January 2020]. 

Imdb, [undated]. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) [online]. Available from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/plotsummary [Accessed 14 January 2020].

Cystic Fibrosis Trust, [undated]. What is cystic fibrosis? [online]. Available from: https://www.cysticfibrosis.org.uk/what-is-cystic-fibrosis?gclid=CjwKCAiA6vXwBRBKEiwAYE7iS7lWSDKswoODDjeViRRT45Agp9wUyr9hNv3vZk1zwt0TdCy27h3sVxoCUWcQAvD_BwE [Accessed 14 January 2020].

Cystic Fibrosis Trust, [undated]. Cross-infection [online]. Available from: https://www.cysticfibrosis.org.uk/life-with-cystic-fibrosis/cross-infection [Accessed 14 January 2020]. 

Smith, E., 2019. Five Feet Apart: All The Controversies, Explained [online]. Available from: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/03/227066/five-feet-apart-controversy-cystic-fibrosis-patients-backlash [Accessed 14 January 2020]. 

McCahill, M., 2019. Five Feet Apart review – sickly teen romance mopes to morbid conclusion [online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/22/five-feet-apart-review [Accessed 14 January 2020]. 

Minow, N., 2019. Five Feet Apart [online]. Available from: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/five-feet-apart-2019 [Accessed 14 January 2020]. 

Chakravartula, A., 2017. 17 Best Terminal Illness Movies of All Time [online]. Available from: https://www.thecinemaholic.com/terminal-illness-movies/ [Accessed 14 January 2020]. 

Filmsite, [undated]. Love Story (1970) [online]. Available from: https://www.filmsite.org/love.html [Accessed 14 January 2020]. 

Photos:

https://www.ifc.com/shows/comedy-bang-bang/blog/2015/07/5-reasons-scott-pilgrim-is-the-greatest-gaming-movie-ever-made

https://www.filmcomment.com/article/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-review/

https://www.themoviescene.co.uk/reviews/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world.html

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world/images/21450157/title/scott-pilgrim-movie-screencaps-screencap

Review: Five Feet Apart

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Five-Feet-Apart-Blu-ray/241313/

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