Category Archives: comparative essay Section A: Task Components (research & analysis)

Filters

Author:
Category:

Narrative Theory in “Baby Driver” 2017 (Dir. Edgar Wright)

THE ORDINARY WORLD – Baby being a getaway driver.

THE CALL TO ADVENTURE – Sees Deborah, then meets her in diner .

REFUSAL OF THE CALL – Knows that she could get hurt if they are together.

MEETING WITH THE MENTOR – Talks with deaf foster father Joseph.

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD – Asks Deborah on a date.

TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES – The heist goes wrong, then crew goes to the diner where Deborah works.

APPROACH – Baby tries to run away but gets caught by heist crew .

THE ORDEAL – Final heist: Baby kills Bats(antagonist) and runs away from police + remaining crew members.

THE REWARD – Baby escapes to find Deborah.

THE ROAD BACK – Deborah is being held captive by Buddy; he has to fight and kill him and run away from police with Deborah.

THE RESURRECTION – Baby sacrifices himself to police in order to save Deborah, ends up serving prison time.

RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR – Baby gets released from prison after serving a short sentence for good behavior and meets Deborah again.

Film Comparative study

The films that I have chosen are Blade Runner (1982 , directed by Ridley Scott ) and The Maltese Falcon (1941 , directed by John Huston). I have chosen these two films because they can both be classified as being part of the film noir , although Blade Runner is neo – noir which was inspired by the classic noir movement which the Maltese Falcon is a part of.

Question : Film noir is heavily influenced by the historical context and the historical context of the original noir movement and the neo – noir movement were vastly different and I am going to examine how the historical context effects the narrative of the films.

  • The Maltese Falcon was released in the year that America entered into the Second World War and the original film noir movement emerged during and immediately after this period and this historical context influenced the films dark subject matter and cynical outlook and it contains many of the well -known elements and archetypes that have come to be associated with the film noir movement e.g. the private eye , the femme fatale and the mystery elements are all narrative devices that are immediately associated with film noir and this film is one of the most famous examples of this and it helped to establish these conventions.
  • Blade Runner was released 41 years after the Maltese Falcon , near the end of the Cold War and the fear of nuclear annihilation gave rise to the neo – noir movement. In addition , Blade Runner is a genre fusion,in this case,it fuses elements of the neo – noir movement with science fiction. This film also contains typical elements of film noir , like a femme fatal and a detective being the main character,but this seems to be a blatant homage to the classic film noir because Blade Runner was inspired by the original film noir movement.

Comparative – Research Question

Area of Film Focus Film 1Film 2 Topic for Comparative Study
Science-fiction genreThe War of the Worlds (dir. Byron Haskin, 1953)The World’s End (dir. Edgar Wright, 2013)The development of the science fiction genre over time

Research Question: To what extent have modern science fiction films changed since the birth of the genre, shown with The War of the Worlds (dir. Byron Haskin, 1953) and The World’s End (dir. Edgar Wright, 2013)?

Comparative study

AREA OF FILM FOCUS Movement/Theory FILM TITLE 1 (INCLUDING DATE/DIRECTOR) FILM TITLE 2 contrasting cultural context to 1 (INCLUDING DATE/DIRECTOR) Possible topic for comparative study
Spaghetti Western The Good, The Bad, and The ugly , Sergio Leone, 1966Terminator 2, James Cameron 1991, has clear parallels with The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly How the sphagetti Western inspires a certain movie narrative format and structure in opposite genres?