Comparison of Three Thrillers
The Fugitive is a blockbusting chase thriller Produced in
1993. The film is about a doctor who goes on the run after being wrongly
convicted of killing his killing his wife; and is pursued by a determined law
man. The film begins by introducing the credits, however this is executed
skilfully as this is the part of the film which is purposely created to lure
the audience into wanting to watch the rest of the film. For example, the
screen fades in to form a black screen. This is done by using the editing
technique cross fade; as the frame then faded from black to a bird’s eye view of
the location where the film is mainly set. This automatically sets the scene of
the film and the audience want to found out more. The dissonant music makes it
a thriller, as this prepares the audience that something dramatic is going to
happen. Furthermore, the audience expect a thriller to create tension.
Therefore in certain parts of the film the tension increases through the music.
For example, the pace of the music quickens when the protagonist is hiding
behind the door. This creates tension because the audience does not want the
protagonist to be found as his life is at risk. Additionally the audience expect
the protagonist is going to survive, which he does.
Similarly, in the dream Thriller ‘Inception’ the
protagonists all survive too. ‘Inception’ is about a Man who is wanted for
alleged murder of his wife. He is offered a chance to return to the U.S and be
with his children is he completes the considered impossible task of inception.
All characters in the film are protagonists. However, in their dreams there are
antagonists but there is only a small minority of them and they are only shown
at certain intervals. Similar to the Fugitive
there is fast paced music when the tension is increasing or there is an action
scene. The audience expect there to be parts like this in the film so that they
can feel the tension and experience the reason the genre of the film is a
thriller. There is a lot of non digetcis
noise such as gun shots to emphasise the situation and make everything appear allot
more dramatic as this will have a larger effect on the audience.
Limitless, a
mystery, sci fi thriller is about a writer who discovers a top-secret drug
which bestows him with super human abilities. However, the drug wears off and
so has to be taken regularly; when he does not have access to the drug anymore
it begins to have dangerous effects on his body and his life. The audience expects there be parts that
shock them; this is expressed through particularly the music and other
technical aspects. For example, the music freezes when something dramatic
happens. This allows the audience to take in and consider what has happened that
moment in the film. The character Edward
can be perceived as either a protagonist or antagonist due to him not being a
murderer by choice; however if the situation arises he will kill someone if
they were attacking him and he needed to use self defence. He also steals but
did help people and at the end of the film he would be considered more of a
protagonist as he was working towards becoming a public speaker and
representing and helping the people of newyork.
