On the Waterfront Film Techniques

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Margaret

For Year 11 students studying AOS1 Unit 2 Reading and Comparing Texts, the film On the Waterfront with the play The Crucible. It is important to note the film techniques in On the Waterfront when you write your analytical essays.

Significant Film Techniques from the film On the Waterfront

Film style = black & white, realistic documentary style (film noir)

Mise en scene = setting – not a set but the actual docks of Hoboken New Jersey

Landscape = cinematography – fog, smoke, mist, clouds, smoky grey sky, nature uncivilised & uncontrollable

Lighting = use of dark to represent evil & light goodness like Edie

Sounds & music = diegetic ie. music, soundtrack, non-diegetic ie. sounds like machinery, ships horn, whistles

Costumes = poor clothes for longshoremen, pseudo-business attire of Johnny Friendly & his gang to draw attention to a certain air of respectability that defies and conceals the extent of their entrenched corruption

Camera angles = deep focus, point of view close up shots, low angle to high suggests power, two-shot 2 people at mid-range, low angled single shot of Terry after his beating in last scene Related image Settings & Visual Style in Detail

On the Waterfront is a black and white film that represented a 1950’s gritty documentary style with a morally ambiguous (film noir) crime film of the period. Kazan’s use of setting is intended to register the oppression and destruction rife on Hoboken Docks.

Boris Kaufman’s camera distils a skyscape which is menacing, insular, if not claustrophobic. Dark settings emphasise not only the dream and danger the residents face, but also the labyrinth network of corruption. The workers exhibit ill at ease, slouched postures in conjunction with the deep and dark urban underbelly. The shrouded light of day is diffused by cloudy skies and thick fog. It highlights the uncertainty in relation to obtaining work and also fear. Kazan’s endeavour was to create disquiet in viewers emphasising the danger and fear that the longshoremen live under and therefore creating tension amongst the viewers.

The dark and seedy interiors, such as the bar, reinforce Johnny Friendly’s power and aggression, while the dingy, shabby and cramped apartments highlight the workers’ desperation. Pa Doyle is one of the most desperate of the workers, caught because of his desire to support Edie’s education. He like many others are psychologically imprisoned by the “deaf and dumb code”. Anyone who breaks the code or is suspected of dubious loyalty is unlikely to receive a work token.

The competitive fight for the tokens on the Hoboken wharf literally shows the “dog eat dog” environment that belittles and dehumanises the men. Kazan uses circus-like music to reinforce their animal-like behaviour as they become play-things of the bosses.

The rooftop symbolises Joey’s attraction to the birds; he becomes one of many pigeons outplayed by the hawks. The pigeon cages reflect the longshoremen’s inability to break out of their prison-like oppressive conditions on the wharf and their basic preoccupation with survival and existence. The hawks symbolically represent Johnny Friendly and his gang. The hawks ‘go down on pigeons’, which reflects the bosses’ philosophy of looking after their own interests.

Landscape / Fog & Smoke in Detail

The location of the docks and the landscape were used by cinematographer Boris Kaufman to make the most of the fog and smoke that were part of the freezing January landscape but also used deep focus to position the characters within the landscape and to emphasise the ever-present connection between the individual and the group. Depicting the waterfront society connected to the society of the time is a reminder that individuals in this world are locked into a complicated set of relationships with their fellow workers and the powerful people they work for.

Day time scenes the smoke and mist express the mood of uncertainty that prevails in the film. The constant mist and smoke characterise the mise en scene of the film as a visual clue of the moral choices that people make. The freezing January is a symbolic power in the scenes on the roof where the character’s desire is to rise above the murky waterfront world below is cast into doubt by the rising mist and the billowing smoke from the chimneys and smoke stacks.

In the majority of the scenes that take place at night, the smoky pale grey daytime look gives way to a highly stylised use of light and dark. The use of dramatic lighting stresses the claustrophobic nature of the character’s world. In the scene where Terry and Edie are chased down by a truck driven by Friendly’s henchmen, the lighting creates the impression that Edie and Terry are caught in a narrow tunnel with no way of escape.

Sounds and Music in Detail

One of the memorable aspects of the film is the ambient or background noise. Sound is used to great effect in the scene where Father Barry persuades Terry to tell Edie about his involvement with Joey’s murder. The jarring mechanical rhythm of the machinery in the background contributes to our growing awareness that Terry is just one small element of a much larger world over which he has little control. In a very dramatic moment, the horn of a ship drowns out the conversation between Terry and Edie.

The musical score was written by Bernstein with the soundtrack foreboding, even military sounding. The opening scene features threatening sounding drums and brass with the fight shots of Friendly met with the sound of a dry saxophone, which foretell not just the murder about to happen, but set the scene for the landscape as one of conflict. Audiences recognise that the men who are exiting the clubhouse are no law-abiding citizens. This is accompanied by rhythmic crashes of timpani which register the enormity of the situations.

The other music themes are the gentler strings that typically accompany scenes between Terry and Edie and indicate hope. In the scene where the mob invade Father Barry’s church, mixed percussion and shrill strings are used to create an atmosphere of confusion and desperation. The final scene is the most powerful in creating suspense and tension with a tone of unresolved chord in the strings, inferring the struggle is not over, manoeuvring audiences to question the fate of the workers.

Gattaca and Nineteen Eighty Four are Social Commentaries

Posted on November 8, 2018 by Margaret

For Year 11 students studying AOS1 Unit 2 Reading and Comparing Texts look carefully at the context of the futuristic dystopian science thriller film Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol and the dystopian totalitarian state novel Nineteen Eighty Four written by George Orwell.

Image result for 1984 images Pay particular attention to the message of the Author/Director when you write your comparative text essays.

Social Commentaries in Context

Both Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol and 1984 written by George Orwell are social commentaries which explore the broad social wrongs of a totalitarian government. Both texts depict a futuristic, dystopian society in which individuality is destroyed in favour of faceless conformity. Protagonist Winston in 1984 cannot understand the rhetoric of the government party and on a similar note, Vincent in Gattaca is trapped, unable to achieve his dreams because of his imperfect genome. Both characters demonstrate individual rebellion against society and explore the significant social injustices of their respective totalitarian states.

Destruction of Individuality

Destruction of individuality is explored by both Niccol and Orwell to expose the broad social wrongs of an oppressive society. In 1984 Winston fights to maintain his individuality in a society that has eliminated “love, friendship or joy of living” by making him hollow. As Winston is tortured in order to be psychologically broken down by O’Brien’s relentless interrogation in Room 101, he is eventually made to accept that 2+2=5 and that he ‘loves’ Big Brother.

Similarly, in Gattaca destruction of individuality and the consequences of an oppressive society are found in close up shots focusing on Vincent’s cleaning process and the constant DNA checks to reinforce how authoritarian societies can demolish all sense of self. As an ‘Invalid’ Vincent must take extreme measures to overcome the prejudices of a genetically controlled society if he is to achieve his dream of joining Gattaca and going into space.

Message of Niccol in Gattaca

Director Andrew Niccol celebrates the power of self-belief in the film Gattaca to inspire individuals to scale the heights of their desires and dreams to motivate them to succeed against the odds.

Message of Orwell in 1984

Writer George Orwell was deeply disturbed by the widespread cruelties and oppression he observed in communist countries and he wrote 1984 as a warning to the West of totalitarian regimes who used powerful measures to control their citizens.

The Most striking differences between Gattaca and 1984

The most striking difference between Gattaca and 1984 is the total victory of the Party over Winston and Julia’s attempts at resistance/rebellion against Big Brother compared with Vincent’s ability to undermine and find the flaw in the Gattaca DNA system to achieve his dreams of going into space. Another important difference is that Winston is broken by the absolute power of the Party to suppress his individual happiness and thoughts of any freedom against the oppression. Whereas, in contrast, Vincent proves that the philosophy underpinning discrimination by DNA is flawed and that his success is determined by other variables that are not within the control of science.

Resistance, courage and determination of Vincent against the regime in Gattaca

Vincent possesses a dream, an ambition and is willing to use courage and determination to do whatever is required to achieve it, even in the face of insurmountable odds. Vincent is able to undermine the discrimination of Gattaca by purchasing his ‘Valid’ status with the use of Jerome’s DNA in order to circumvent the Gattaca system. His metamorphosis into Jerome allows him to join the elite Gattaca space program. Yet he stays true to himself, maintains his vision and integrity to achieve his goal in spite of a society that is designed to ensure he fails in any attempt to better himself. He does use a process of deception to join Gattaca but he does not aspire to be one of them, rather he uses Jerome’s DNA as a tool to achieve his dream of flying in space.

Introductions for Comparative Texts On the Waterfront and The Crucible

Posted on November 8, 2018 by Margaret

For Year 11 students studying AOS1 Unit 2 Reading and Comparing Texts it is important to be very clear in your Introductions to make your Main Contentions and Message of Author/Message of Director answer the essay prompt.

Image result for pictures of the crucible book cover Please see 3 prompts comparing the film On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan and the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller.

For clarity I have colour coded the Main Contention / Message of Author / Message of Director

Prompt #1 Both The Crucible and On the Waterfront explore how easy it is for one group to control an entire community. Discuss.

Throughout both texts it is fear that enables the mob boss Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront and the judges and court in The Crucible to influence their respective communities and control the majority. Predominantly it is fear of unemployment which leads to poverty that controls the longshoremen making them vulnerable to the power and corruption of Johnny’s mob. However, it is fear of the unknown, in particular the Devil, that enables Deputy Governor Danforth and his court to manipulate and control the Puritans of Salem. The desire for individual freedom stands in stark opposition to the powerful authority of the mob boss and the totalitarian authority of the theocratic state. In both texts those authorities in power are willing to ruthlessly crush any hint of rebellious thinking but underestimate the resolve of a select group of determined individuals who are prepared to stand up rather than bow to the corrupt actions of those in power. In The Crucible it is those characters like John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey who pass the most severe test of all in the ‘crucible’: death; by choosing to maintain their personal integrity and refusing to justify an unjust court to save their lives. On a similar note, in On the Waterfront it is those characters like Joey Doyle and KO Dugan who show moral integrity and courage to stand up to Johnny Friendly and speak out against the corruption on the waterfront, but their murders show the risks for others to see the world in terms of moral choices. In the end it is left to an unlikely character Terry Malloy to abide by his conscience and need for justice to testify against the mob at the Waterfront Crime Commission and stand up for what is right and good.

Prompt #2 Elia Kazan’s film On the Waterfront and Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible tell similar stories when you compare the characters of Terry Malloy and John Proctor. Discuss.

Both texts On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan and The Crucible written by Arthur Miller highlight similar stories with their respective protagonists who are plagued by their sins and desperately seek redemption. Miller’s protagonist John Proctor views himself as a highly flawed man who has sinned against God and man’s laws by his adulterous affair with a teenage servant girl Abigail. As a consequence of his ‘single error’ Proctor is a tormented character, unable to forgive himself for succumbing to temptation and as a result publicly confesses his sin to the court in order to save his wife Elizabeth from going to jail but in doing so damns himself. Miller presents Proctor as a heroic man who maintains his integrity even to the point of death, in the face of a demonstrably corrupt authority. On a similar note, Kazan presents the redemption of his protagonist Terry Malloy and his transformation from a self-confessed “bum” to a symbol of the power an individual can exercise even in the face of seemingly insurmountable corruption. Terry’s journey towards a moral perspective allows him to grapple with questions of loyalty and conscience only to discover that ultimately one’s greatest loyalty must be to what one knows to be right.

Prompt #3 Compare how Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible and Elia Kazan’s film On the Waterfront parallel the McCarthy era of the 1950’s in America.

During the McCarthy era of the 1950s in America, countless individuals, some innocent and some guilty, were subjected to a wide range of injustices and punishments, ranging from ridicule in society to the loss of their lives. Two dramatic works, a play The Crucible, written by playwright Arthur Miller and On the Waterfront, a film directed by Elia Kazan can both be seen as parables that are illustrative of the events of the McCarthy Era itself. The play and film have similarities dealing with power, corruption, executions, fear, hearings and trials. Both texts have their own relative strengths each revealing different facets of McCarthyism in their own unique ways and are representative of the different experiences and reactions of Miller and Kazan to the phenomenon of McCarthyism. In both the play and the film, the protagonists, the environment in which they are placed, and the situations and trials they endure, are closely parallel to the events of 1950s America. Kazan testified before Senator McCarthy’s Committee, naming names and giving details of people he knew were affiliated with the Communist Party and his personification of Terry Malloy was Kazan’s parallel to his own positive interpretation of identifying wrongdoers. In direct contrast Miller viewed Kazan’s testifying as a betrayal and considered the tyrannical judges in Salem to be in parallel with the HUAC. Miller’s personification of John Proctor was a parallel with his own negative interpretation and refusal to slander and black list Communist screenwriters to the McCarthy Committee.

English Tutor Lessons

English Tuition Years 11-12

Monthly Archives: November 2018