Summer Wars

Summer Wars Film Analysis

Summer Wars is an animation directed by Mamoru Hosoda caught my attention to the tradition of Japan. The story start from a high school student, Kenji Koiso get a part time job as his senior, Natsuki boyfriend. They went back to Ueda for her great-grandmother birthday. Kenji is a gifted talent on mathematic and also before Natsuki invite him to work with her, he is a part time moderator in the computer system named OZ. First day of his part time job as Natsuki boyfriend, on the night, he receive a weird message with codes. He solve the codes till morning and send back to the sender. The next day big things happens around the world. OZ system break down, and many more chaos happen in the country.

Natsuki uncle, Wabisuke actually is the one who break the OZ system. He used Kanji to solve the codes and use his account to control the whole system. As the system break down, Natsuki grandmother sickness is unable to detect and inform the doctor to take consciousness. Therefore, she pass away on her birthday. On the other hand, the system, Love Machine is getting strong and strong which Kenji and Kazuma, King Kazma can’t defeat. Later on, the whole family of Natsuki helps and defeat the Love Machine and succeeded to save the family and the world.

  Obviously, Summer Wars genres was around myth and fantasy which also shows many technology that people taking for granted to relay them in life nowadays. Summer Wars also bring awareness for the people who only see the good side of technology but didn’t not concern on the bad side of technology. Thus, technology can be scary or harmful towards human and society need to be more careful on technology.

Tradition of Japan such as games can be seen in Summer Wars. Koi-Koi which is a traditional games that popular among the Japanese. Also, their transform the battlefield from fighting to Koi-Koi games. Natsuki avatar also wearing Kimono during the final battle.

Out of traditions, cultural hybridity are also found in Summer Wars. Through OZ system, many foreigner seem to be involve by give Natsuki their avatars to fight for the battle, many languages pop up the screen for cheering Natsuki in the battle and show shots of different people in the foreign country. However, Japan animator still make this foreign characters “ Japanese-ed” and the languages also translated immediately to make their Japanese audiences understand.

Last but not least, along the setting of Summer Wars, future are unpredictable which things that are unexpected will may happen in our life. Such as the OZ system brings convenience to the peoples and everyone using the same system to manage the things in life. In real life, Facebook is kind of a OZ system, however Facebook have not that much function as OZ, but I believe things can possible happens and technology will bring us to the stage like how Summer Wars imagined.

Malaysia Film: Bunohan Film Analysis

Bunohan is a story of brotherhood and a kickboxing movie directed by Dain Said. In the story, 3 brothers are fighting for his father property and end up killing each other. 3 of this brothers has different identities, Adil is a kickboxer, Ilham a hired killer and Bakar a school teacher. 3 of them have different personalities and background; therefore the audience will discover the conflict between them is possible by the faults of their greedy and arrogant heart.

The story begins with Adil one of the brothers, was having kickboxing competition but losing in the competition. His friends drag him of from the stage and the promoter gets angry because he run away for the fight to death competition, therefore he hired Ilham to kill Adil which also Adil elder brother.  Both of them go back to their hometown, as Adil is running away for the killer and Ilham is hunting his brother, Adil. While, Bakar went back home also to help his father, Pok Eng. Bakar secretly want to take over his father property, a big piece of land under his father name to build a resort. Along the secret plan, Adil and Ilham find out they are stepbrother which lead the story to a more complicated stage.

Bunohan put pretty much focus on the masculinity of each 3 different characters and less female character appear in the film. Adil appearance is more likely to gangster and fierce but among the brothers, his heart was the softest and weakest. He was dissatisfies because he is constantly neglected and been bullied by his stepbrother and stepmother. His father gives him the heritage to overcome his hatred toward him and he accepts the heritage from his father.  He rejects Bakar deal to sell the land away, because of his father memories of his mother. In this moment, he show himself as a nostalgic person and warm hearted man who thinks about his father feeling. He rejects the deal of selling the land as he knows the place means a lot to Ilham, yet Ilham is trying to murder him.

Ilham is a very manly and cruel character which is a hired assassin. But Adil identity stops him and confuses him rather to complete his mission to kill his brother or deny his mission. Ilham is lonely and being alone for a long time that train him to be strong and tough. He is independent because of the background his has faced.

Bakar has the characteristic of a “silence killer” which play an important role of the story and also the character that twist the story to a surprise ending. Bakar character is the most peaceful and less violence appearance, however secretly he plans to kill all the brothers and also his father for the property. The dual faces of Bakar portray that people in the society nowadays are having two faces and the corruption of the society is scariest of all.

The father of this 3 brother, Pok Eng , a father that full of failure on manage his relationship with his beloved family. He also made a mistake to neglect his family members that need his care and love. However, his mistakes lead him and his family to deaths and his mistake is never be overcome as the brothers wounds and hatred are deeply implant in their heart.

3 of the brother show their differences and their masculinity image in the film. Bunohan successfully portray the egoistic and arrogant of a human that desperate for fame and wealth. Bunohan also reflect the dark side of the society by using the characters dark personalities and characteristics. Also, Bunohan film sequence caught the audience attention to follow the story of the 3 brothers by putting the ending on the beginning of the story. Interestingly, the complexity of the plot confuses the audiences but bring out the excitement to continue the story. While, audiences might start to think who will take over the heritage, the land and who is the big winner among the characters.   

Malaysia Film: Selubung Film Analysis

         

         Selubung directed by Datuk Paduka Shuhaimi Baba, a female director, which started a story about a bunch of students that study abroad in Perth. The story started with them watching some documentary about Palestine war. Each one of them chooses their paths after watching the incidents of wars. As the protagonists, Mastura came back to Malaysia and work as a volunteer in an organisation name as RESCAID. Her friend, E.J decided to quit her college and marry to an Islamic religious leader. Mastura has run the organisation well, while at the same time she met Kamal, her long time crush on an accident which made them fall in love with each other. Later on, Mastura faced a big tragic that almost took her life. In the end, she survived in the disaster and she had successfully completed her campaign of helping the victims of war.

Woman identities during the 90’s of Malaysia are captured in Selubung. Malaysian female muslins have difficulties to balance their values and identities during that period western culture are popular and influence the Malaysia society. The film has portrayed the situation by using 2 converse woman characters in the film to show the conflict between modern and traditional of Malaysian woman.  The first character is Mastura, her appearance and costumes are more modern compare to the traditional malay woman that wearing tudung and baju kurung. Her dressing is more stylish and more on the trend of 90’s fashion. Somehow, she still follows the traditional values as some shots she’s wearing baju kurung and hijab. Also, her choice to finish her study and work as a independent woman shows she break the traditional norm of woman should stay home and take care the family. She also manages to handle her career and love life with Kamal, her ability and status is much more important in the male dominated country on that period.

In contrast, the second character, E.J in Selubung plays the role as a traditional muslin woman. Her appearance and thoughts is more conservatism. She has less confidence and usually follows her husband, Brother Musa decision without any doubt. Even she is a good scholar in school, she decided to listens her leader to quit her studies in Perth and marry the leader for the preparation of her after life to embrace heaven.  She accepts the concept of polygamy as she became Brother Musa second wife. Her mind set on woman should be lower status than man and be obedient to marriage. After she lost her baby which Brother Musa first wife, Hani kill the baby, she lost hope and depress on life. Mastura help her overcome the tragic happened to her and gain her confidence back to continue her life in Malaysia. She find out that she’s misunderstood on Mastura has betray her Islamic identity as she saw her helping the victims in the Middle East and without changing her habits on the traditional custom. Also, she decided to forget her past and continue her life while she join Mastura organisation to help the victims in the Middle East.

The setting of the film has portrayed Malaysia is getting more modernise and capitalize. They choose to film Selubung in Kuala Lumpur which is a big city in Malaysia with much structure of buildings and westernise appearance of the citizens. For example, they use western instrument on the concert. On the other hand, they also film some flashback of Mastura childhood which her grandpa and the people in the village playing drums at Terengganu. Many traditional Malaysia culture involves in the shots at Terengganu such as traditional instruments, costumes and architectural and it shows the contrast and the differences of the modern city and traditional village. The director also uses butterfly as the symbol of hope and luck. At the last part of the movie, Mastura stays coma in the hospital because of the tragic happen, the shots of butterflies flying around her ward in the hospital shows us hopes and indicate the good sign of her overcome the injuries that almost took her life. After that, she wakes up and Kamal hold her hand lovely and led the film to a happy ending.

Selubung focus on feminise and Malaysian woman identity which the main idea to let the audience to recognize their identities and their abilities is equal to man abilities in the society. Mastura is a good example of representing the masculinity of woman and her independent bring her to success. E.J represents the traditional woman that is not courage enough to run her life by herself in the society which ruins her path on education and career. Malaysian woman need to stands out and be confidences to dreams without worries the traditional norms that limit them to gain their achievement in the society. Also, the film gives us a message to the audiences not to look down on woman abilities and strengths, thereby not to forget their religious beliefs and values.

  

Chungking Express

Chungking Express

Chungking Express is a French New Wave film that delivers the love story of four persons.  In the first story, cop 223 (Qiwu) broke up with his girlfriend, May on 1 April. His birthday is on 1 May so he decided to wait for her a month. Each day he will buy a can of pineapple that expires on 1 May. As days goes by, he feels that if their relationship are unable to move on, the relationship will be forever expired.  On the other hand, a mysterious woman with a blonde wig that wear raincoat and sunglasses every days and nights is surviving in the drugs underworld. On 1 May, Qiwu is seeking for love in a bar and he approaches the mysterious woman. The second story started with cop 663 has dumped by his ex-girlfriend. He meets a new girl in the snacks bar named as Faye. Faye fall in love with him, therefore she did something insane such as breaks in to his house and help him to clean his house. 663 caught her doing that and wanted to dates her as he is also interested on her. But, Faye didn’t come to the dates because she wants to discover her dreams in California.

Mostly, Hong Kong pictures are related with gangsters and cops that have some mafia kind of genres. Martial arts are also used a lot in the Hong Kong cinema. Somehow, Chungking Express directed by Wong Kar Wai has an outstanding style that presents romance and the daily lives of Hong Kong society around Hong Kong’s Chung King Mansions, the area of some shabby hostels, bar, club, and also the area that gather up many illegal immigrants.   

Hong Kong is a British colony from 1841 to 1997. Therefore, Western cultures have change and influence the culture of Hong Kong. In Chungking Express, the setting and location such as bar, club and fast food store are related with western culture. When Wu and blonde wig lady in the hotel with westernize interior, Wu ordered foods and eat it while he is watching Chinese classic movie, shown the mixture of culture. The character of blonde wig drug dealer, costume is similarly like the fashion in the 50’s of western where remind me of Marilyn Monroe , the American actress. Many English songs are used in the film and the multi-cultural aspects are emphasized by speaking many different languages in the film. The blonde wig lady speak English with the Indians drug smuggler and Wu speak multiple languages such as Japanese, English, Mandarin and Cantonese.  

Furthermore, the blonde wig lady which is a drug dealer are arranging drug trafficking with the Indians shows the dark side of Hong Kong where is some illegal activity happening. Human and drug trafficking is running around the area, this illegal immigrates are known as “cheap labor” where is hard to support the living expenses in Hong Kong, they are force to corrupt in drug trafficking due to their hardness on living in Hong Kong. On the other side, Faye snacks store has employed many Indian workers which shows us this foreign workers salary is lesser than the local workers. Also Faye cousin can’t find a local worker to work in front the counter so he hired Faye, show us now there are less local people willing to work in the lower position such as cleaner, kitchen staff and more.  In the film, they also show how the local communication and interact with the foreigner. Mostly they have to use English for communication and sometimes the foreign language is hard to understand by the local. As the blonde wig lady feels hardly to speak with them.

The loneliness and isolation may be the theme of the film. The characters are all insecure and confuse on their feeling. A lovesick cop, a lonely drug dealer, a heartbreak cop and a snack bar worker, four different characters are living in the big city in Hong Kong. The rush and busy city have lose the time of building friendships and bonds with each other. All of them are desire for love than lived. Both of the cops are still recover for their heart breaking relationship while they meet the two female characters. When Wu meet the blonde wig lady, he first question is “Do you like Pineapple?”, means he is still missing his ex-girlfriend and concern about the next girl have the characteristic of his ex- girlfriend. 663 talk with the non-living things and treat them like person have shown he have no one to talk with and integrating his sadness to all the non-living things. People are hard to express their feeling which they need to hide themselves.  Many monologues have used frequent in the film as to express all the lonely people run around to city. Wu hide his feeling, he refuse to cry so he would like to use his method to recover his sadness by jogging to sweat out all the tears. The blonde wig lady cover herself with a pair of sunglasses and rain coat, she feels afraid, insecure and conscious in the city. She feels harmful and threatens by the big crowd city. Faye is the opposite of the lady in blonde wig which is active, young and naïve. Her crazy idea of breaking in to 663 house has shown her naïve and cheeky personality. She hope and want to travel to California, but also miserable about her future.

There are shots I personally find it interesting that how there takes it in the film. When Wu and 663 talks about their ex-girlfriends in the snack store, they cover the screen and left a narrow space of themselves that show how insecure and narrow their feeling it. 

Chungking Express is a successful film to show the period of Hong Kong citizen feeling. British are going to let China to handover Hong Kong at the period of the film releasing , whereby Hong Kong citizens feels fear and insecure about the huge changes that will manipulate the whole Hong Kong. They are unable to find their identity and there is confusion of their identity.

Wong Kar Wai has successfully to portray the unique mixture of different culture in Hong Kong through Chungking Express. Chungking Express storyline are related to everyone feeling of love, dedication, worries and hope with an open ending that let the audiences to imagine and think about the destiny of each character. 

References:

http://www.wongfaye.org/cke1.htm

http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/film/Chungking%20Express.pdf

Film Analysis 3 - 3 Idiots

Film Analysis 3 - 3 Idiots

The story starts with 3 engineering students, Farhan Qureshi, Raju Rastogi and Rancchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad studying in Imperial College of Engineering, the best school in India. Three of them became roommate and best friends. They have different personalities, backgrounds and social status. Raju is the poorest among them that has low income and support of their family. Farhan comes from a middle income family, but his has a dream to become a wildlife photographer instead of an engineer. Rancho is the richest kid that with a mysterious and unknown background. Their collage director, Mr. Virus is an extremely strict person that will pressure the students. Rancho challenges Mr. Virus in many ways to change Mr. Virus perspective of education. However, Mr. Virus stubbornness and competitive personalities have ignores Rancho advices, He also tries to destroy Rancho, Raju and Farhan friendship by using his position to writes warning letters and send it to their family. Raju starts to ignore Rancho and Farhan because he is afraid of getting in troubles until Rancho save his father live, He regret to treat Rancho and Farhan in a harsh way. Their friendship became stronger and unites. Rancho falls in love with Mr. Virus daughter, Pia on Pia sister’s, Mona wedding dinner which build a bigger conflict with Mr. Virus. Their conflict ends on the day Rancho helps Mona to give birth and save Mr. Virus grandchildren and Mona. Mr. Virus gives Rancho the astronaut pen as a reward or a sign of surrender. Chatur always want to win Rancho and became a rival of Rancho. Chatur bet with Rancho on their rate of success in their future cheers. 

Ten years later, Farhan heard the news of Rancho going back to the college. Four of them, Farhan, Raju, Pia and Chatur begins the journey to find Rancho and discover his untold identity. Chatus lost his bet over Rancho cheer because Chatus need to pursue him to be in his company. Finally, Pia and Rancho intimate relationship start again and Farhan and Raju friendship reconnected.

When talk about Bollywood, musics have act as an important role to express the narratives. Outstanding Hindi musical with significance rhythm and sequences enrich the specialties of indian culture in the film language. The control between songs and scenes are cooperated with exaggerate transition. Hence, without missing the mob dancing and singing part of the crowds. In 3 idiots, Rancho is talking about helping Joy to develop the camera drone, the scene changes to the bathrooms and loud musics coming in and the characters start to dances and sings.

Besides, censorships in India contain a huge control of portraying the narrative of indian film, especially on showing the part of romance in the film. In Bollywood films, some physical contacts on both male and female characters are forbidden. Most of the actors and actresses will keep their face closer the each other without touching and with exaggerated body language to replaces the forbidden and became as the norm. Ranccho and Pia carry on the romances part of the film which using the musical to show the fantastic feeling of love and passion of their desire.

Match of music and choreography in Indian cinema would be the basics of creating a Bollywood film. Therefore, playback is used in Bollywood film. The characters will do lip-sync and not really singing the song. Sometimes, directors are allowed to choose the professional singers to sing the song and the actors and actresses will take parts to dance and lip-sync. Rancho and Pia participate on the musical lip-sync and dancing during they fall in love with each other’s.

Bollywood not only have the characteristic on musical and theater, but also performances and settings. Actors and Actresses exaggerated their acting and huge emotional floats to express the atmosphere of the scene. Their overstated actions bring out the colours of the characters and fulfill the narrative of the film. Raju house has become a very relevant example of the exaggerated setting to emerge Raju current financial situation. Raju house was straight out of a 50’s black and white film, a small and dingy house, a paralyzed father, a coughing mother, an unmarried sister, a 24 hours leaking roof, a sofa sprouting springs. The extreme setting of the scene shows Raju pressure on family and studies.

The way of introducing Mr. Virus character and behavior had exaggerated too. He writes with both hands, the power napping system and his tricks to save time by “hooking” his necktie instead of tying it to avoid unproductive time. Mr. Virus aggressiveness and arrogant shows in the scene with exaggerated action. 

Bollywood also present the Indian society, social status, traditional, culture and perspectives. 3 idiots have shown us the education system in India. The pressure of study but not the fun of study, cases and problems like student suicide and parents expectation on the children education, all of the social issues have portray in the film. They studies based on examinations and marks made them to lose the excitement of studies. Joy and Raju committed suicide because of problems and stress in studies. Farhan parents expected Farhan to be an engineer without following Farhan interests. Also, Farhan father narrow minded on specific jobs such as engineer earn more money and photographer cannot feed a meal has explain the stereotype on jobs of the Indian society. Furthermore, the kid, Millimeter  that works in the hostel can’t afford the study in school also states out the leak of education system in India.

Raju, Farhan and Rancho have three different backgrounds which is poor, middle-income and super rich. The contrasts between poor and rich characters in the film have represents Indian social status. When Mr. Virus meet Raju and Farhan in his room and explaining their different between them and Rancho on comparing their monthly income, the surrealism of separation hierarchy and classes in the society of India have portray on the act of Mr. Virus.

Moreover, the traditions of marriage in India which is bride have to pay or give the groom cashes or properties as their sincerity toward their marriage has also shown in Raju sister tragically unmarried because of low income to hold a wedding. Gender inequality has happened in India, thus the older the woman who is unmarried, the worthless the woman will be in the society. Just like Raju sister has become a burden to the family. In addition, Pia gives up waiting Rancho for five years and marrying to another guy. However, Pia decides to turn down the wedding and goes back to the relationship with Rancho.

Bollywood have a specific and unique genre that is created to a certain plots such as an evil landlord cruelly is ruling a town or a broken up family and not reuniting until years later. These particular genres also named as lost and found genre. 3 idiots have the quality of the lost and found genre, as the story begins with Rancho friends finding after ten years pasted.

3 idiots are the typical Bollywood films which have many characteristics of the Indian culture and significance musical and sequences. The film carries out the awareness of education system in India to the audiences. Besides, the director hopes to have some changes in the current system and also wish every children in India are able to learn and be educated. Creative teaching also could change the traditional system of teaching to keep the children having the interest toward studies.

References :

https://jillbrary.wordpress.com/.../brief-history-of.../

http://theasiancinemablog.com/cine.../3-idiots-movie-review/
http://learningandcreativity.com/3-idiots-aall-izz-well/ 

Film Analysis 2 - Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run is a film with simple plot and 3 different ending which is the main character Lola is helping her boyfriend to take or earn back the money that her boyfriend lost in the train. The story begins with Lola receive a call from her boyfriend, Manni. Manni tells Lola about the incident of how he lost the 100,000 marks and how his boss trying to kill him if he cannot get back the 100,000 marks. Lola promises him and helps him to get the amount of money as soon as possible. That’s the race between Lola and time begins.

The editing of the film uses graphic relations by repeats the scenes of Lola run out the house and the camera run around her mother, later on showing the animated sequences to indicate that Lola started a new run again.

Also while Lola is running, upbeat and quick background music is used to show rhythmic relations in the scene. They use fast cuts and short shots to make the audience to feel the pressure that Lola feels in the heavy situation. Also, audiences may suspense and curious on Lola runs. Would she or wouldn’t she be success this time on completing her mission? Intensely to build such impact that the audience will experience during watching Run Lola Run.

Besides, the flashback sequence when Lola or Manni dies show their intimate relationship which also let the audiences understands them easily. Also, when the scene Manni call Lola, they put in some flashback to show Manni make a big mistake and Lola also broke her promise to Manni that she will pick him up in the taxi.

The spilt screen that uses frequently when Lola is going to reach Manni shows the distance between Manni and Lola. Also when Lola finds her father while her father going up to a car. When they meet up in the end while the screen join together and shown as they are together.

Lola trying to choose and think about the persons who can help her while the camera turns 360 degree around her with jump cuts of the scene.Lola chooses her father that work in the bank that can help her out in the end. 

There is a form cut on the transition of the phone and the bag of money drop. By combining the shots and overlay the shots of both props.

The mi-se-scene of Run Lola Run involves with pop-culture with the outstanding colors and performances.

The colors in Run Lola Run somehow exaggerate but also a slide of monotone that provide the effect of contrast in the film. The outstanding color pop out in the environment and become the focus point of the film. Such as Lola hair is red and Manni in the telebooth is yellow.

Also, the flashback scene when Lola and Manni together on a bed with the effect of red filter, symbolically representing pop-culture arts. Also the color is bringing out the meaning of caution and danger between them.

The characters have exaggerated performances in acting and action. Lola screams in high pitch can break glasses is so much exaggerated that out of reality. Also, some of the stranger that Lola pass by has intense judging her.   However, some characters are very noble to put out the contrast on it performances.

Props such as glasses represent the fragility of life. When Lola screams and the glass breaks show repeatedly in the film, highlights her panic and power to overcome them. Also, before Manni get hit by the ambulance, the ambulance hit on the huge piece of glass to show caution and danger that later will happen.

The use of animation is probably the most of pop-culture of the film because it combines reality and different dimensions.  Musics are also a part of pop-culture which is loud and fast paced to exaggerate the run.  Also, the settings in Berlin have many of building with similar structure that looks like a maze.

Life is spontaneously like a video game in Run Lola Run. We are able to have chances to win and to choose until it would be happy ending. The different of timing, circumstances and decisions change the ending of your destiny.  Life is unpredictable which can have many possibilities of changes, treats, opportunity and ourselves might affected by others as also the others by our own. 



Reference:

https://www.ghc.edu/faculty/llerych/Film_125_Textbook_Chapter_4.pdf

https://fromscreentowords.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/narrative-and-editing-with-run-lola-run/

http://infolab.stanford.edu/~prasanna/dmc/chance.html

Gladiator

Film Analysis 1- Gladiator

Synopsis

Crowe, R. (2000). Gladiator's poster. Retrieved June 27, 2015 from http://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/gladiator/poster/

The story begins with a complex of relationship, social status and power in the Ancient Rome. Marcus Aurelius, the old king who love Maximus as a son. He plans to pass his position to Maximus instead of his identical son, Commodus. Commodus feels mad and depress, therefore he kill his father and claim the position by himself. He also kills Maximus and his family because of his jealousy. However, Maximus escape and run back home to see his family. Unfortunately, his family dies and he had given up surviving. When his is giving up his life, someone took him away as a slave and sell it to a gladiator trainer. He became a gladiator that fights for victory and he win the crowd. After he became famous, he has been transfer to The Colosseum with his fellows. His team needs to fight with other candidates. As usual, he wins the battle and the new king, Commodus would like to grant him for the great battle. Commodus finds out that this incredible gladiator is Maximus. He tries to kill him immediately but the crowd protects him and supports him to be alive. Therefore, Commodus didn’t get a chance to kill him. Commodus set an unfair battle with Maximus to kill him with pride. Maximus defend him and kill him for his revenge and also for the people of Rome. Maximus dies with honour and proof that people is the power of Rome.

Analysis

Props

The mi-se-scene of the film show us the era of Roman period. By using the props to stress up the setting of the film, the narrative used many weapons to show the cruel and bloody moments when the war, fight or battle begins.

They also use animals to show the audience of the hierarchy of nature. To let the audience to feel the pressure of this gladiators. The gladiators need to fight for their life or else they end up become foods for this animals.

Props as Metaphor

By using props as metaphor, these dolls are not only dolls but also represent Maximus family that lives far away for him.

Costumes and make ups

The changes of Maximus dressing

Maximus start from a general to a slave and until the end a gladiator. His costume had pretty much change to show his status in different hierarchy.

The different status shown in costumes

The characters wear differently to classify their social status as upper or lower class in the society.

Settings 

The Colosseum

The Colosseum is where their battle started. This location is the main join of the relationship between Maximus and Commodus. Without The Colosseum, they won’t meet up and the narrative is unable to complete.

The Heaven

In the part of the film, Maximus meet his wife and son on heaven after he dies on the battleground. They use mostly white and blue to present peaceful of heaven.

Performance

The violence action

In war, battleground and fights, cruel and bloody action shows the merciless world.

The relationship of Lucilla and Maximus

The actor’s performance has success to show the narrative of Lucilla and Maximus relationship. Maximus save her and her son by killing Commodus. When they talk on the scene, the distant between Lucilla and Maximus was close together that show the bond between them.

The relationships between Maximus, Commodus and Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius show more love to Maximus by giving Rome to Maximus. Also, he trusted Maximus would be a better emperor to dominate Rome. Commodus turns love to hatred and kill his father. As his father love Maximus and the country more than him. The relationships are shown clearly to the audience with their performance. Their facial expression is well perform to let us feel their feeling toward each other’s.

Lighting

Low-key and high contrast

Majority of the film are used high contrast lighting to show the darkness and struggle of them. Especially Maximus and Commodus, both of their shots have more shadows than lights. 

Different lighting on Maximus journey to his home

When Maximus escape and going back to his family, the dim lighting to show that he is weak and hopeless at the beginning. Afterthat, the shots jump and show the army coming to the village to kill Maximus family. That moment, they use high key lighting and blue sky to show they are happy and thought that Maximus is back. On the other hand, Maximus start to awake and hurry up to go back to his family. The lighting on him starting to be bright until he reach the village and found his family death body the lighting on Maximus get back to dim.  This high and low key lighting shows his emotion changes and the mood of the scene.

Conclusion

A slave can win a king with the support of people.  The destiny of Maximus have shown us power of the people are able to win the power of rights and status. Strength and contributions will be persuasive to the people; Maximus has the power to pursue the people on believing him as the hero. However, Commodus’s obsessed to power until he lost his humanity and destroys himself.