Movies have always been a brilliant reflection of reality. Many directors all over the world have done their best to create masterpieces, which would catch a person and would not leave him until the end of the movie. Undoubtedly, cinematography has always been a perfect tool to express the feelings and emotions of people by reflecting hem in the movies. It should be stated that thrillers and dramas are the genres of movies, which don’t but reflect all the aforesaid in a more vivid and bright way. Not only do these genres cover topics, which have always worried the society, but also reveal a horrible reality of the inside of many people. The things we are afraid to talk or even think about appear on the screen of our TV.
There is an abundance of topics, which directors love to touch in dramas and movies. Usually, a movie which touches the very reality, all the ins and outs of our life, is destined to success. Good vs. Evil is the very topic which has always been extremely popular among directors, playwrights and writers. The explanation of such popularity is more than simple – Good vs. Evil is something each and everyone has inside, these are the feelings and emotions, which have always been a characteristic of the mankind of all the times. Good powers have been always struggling with the bad, evil powers. That’s the very explanation why we have hell and heaven in almost all the religions – a fight of good and evil has never stopped.
That’s the reason why this topic has been always so widely used in different fields of art – either t is literature or cinematography – an idea is common, to teach a reader that evil has always been punished by good. This analysis is devoted to the topic Good vs. Evil in three movies: The Virgin Suicides, Run Lola Run and Strangers on a Train. At first glance these three movies seem to be completely different: not only are they from different times, but of different directors, stories and genres in general. Nonetheless, if we take a better look at these three movies, we will understand that a topic of Good vs. Evil is reflected in all of them.
Before the analysis itself it should be stated that the topic Good vs. Evil is not the main one in all the stories, it serves as a background in the movies to attract the attention of the audience – throughout all the movies the audience comes to understand the real message of the movie through a real fight of Good and Evil, either it is obvious or hidden. The reason for such turn can be explained by a ‘black and white’ theory – a person should see both colors to understand what white is and what black is, to see the difference. The same is used in the cinematography – to understand the good, the audience is to see the evil first.
The most obvious reflection of Good vs. Evil can be seen in the first movie: Strangers on a Train. A movie, shot by Alfred Hitchcock is one of the best movies ever. Not only does it keep the audience on edge from the very beginning, but it also gives a perfect understanding of what good and bad are. Each and every person, who has at least once watched the movie, would forever understand the ingenuity of Alfred Hitchcock. Each and every aspect of the movie: lights, sound, motions, all the trifles are soaked through with mystery. The audience is not left alone throughout the movie – Alfred does all possible and impossible to catch the attention of every human being. The whole idea of a ‘carrousel’ spins each and everyone around – the main heroes and the audience.
The idea itself is typical to the stories of Agatha Christie, nonetheless, unique at the same time. Good vs. Evil is implemented in the main heroes of the movie: Guy Haines, an amateur tennis star, and Bruno Anthony, a stranger, who is trying to push the main hero, Guy, to the edge of evil. From their first meeting we understand that the Evil has paved its way to the good and is ready to aboard the ‘ship of the good’. From the first scenes the audience feels no sympathy to Bruna, as he is soaked through with the evil – it can be seen in his manners, in his impudence, in his way of speaking. All these trifles build a full picture. Alfred is not simply antagonizing the audience against Bruno, he wants us understand what kind of person he really is, to unearth the truth and come up to conclusion.
Bruno offers Guy a deal – a ‘cross-murder’, where Bruno kills Guy’s wife, and Guy kills Bruno’s father. We see that Guy is against such deal, while Bruno seems to be determined in his idea and fulfills his part of a deal. Later on we see a struggle between Bruno and Guy, of God vs. Evil, where finally the Good wins. The final fight at the carrousel is more than dramatic for the whole movie, as the whole movie seems to be a carrousel itself.
Another movie, Run Lola run, shot by the German director Tom Tykwer is telling us a story of these days. This movie has the greatest difference from the two other ones, as it is also combined with a bit of fantasy in it. Nonetheless, this fantasy is used as an allegory, a form of allusion to show the audience the reality through a concrete image. If in Strangers on Train the image of carrousel was used as a means of interpretation, in Run Lola Run, we can see the idea of three lives, which can compared to a computer game.
The idea is that Lola is to help her boyfriend find money, which he lost. Otherwise, if she fails to help him, he will be killed. That’s why Lola, throughout the story is trying three different options : in the first run Lola causes an accident, and robs the shop to help her boyfriend, what leads to her death; the second run Lola robs her father’s bank, and in the end her boyfriend Manni dies, being run over by the ambulance. The third and the last one comes to be the best one as well: she decides to enter a casino and wins enough money to help Manni, at the same time Manni finds the tramp, who stole his bag and returns money back. The idea of Good and Evil is uncovered here in the deeds of Lola – as soon as she decided to do each and everything correctly, the destiny turned out to be grateful to them and the story finished up with a happy end. The first two runs showed that when Lola was doing something evil, it did not but lead to unpredictable consequences, and only when she decided to deliver herself over into the hands of Providence, the story finished happily for each and everyone.
The last movie, but it is important to admit, to my mind, the best one, also reflects an idea of Good vs. Evil. Nonetheless, I think that it is also covering much deeper topics, but for this one: upbringing, society, and understanding. However, I think that in this very story the Evil defeats the good, as the main protagonists finally commit suicide. The whole movie is a fight of the girls against the principles of their parents – they lead a completely isolated way of life, what is completely aggravated by the suicide of the youngest daughter.
We can see the girls trying to fight these principles, however, each and everything seems to be completely in vain. The only way out they seem to find for them is to commit a group suicide. However, it remains unclear what these girls wanted to achieve: either to teach their parents or to teach the whole society. Their death shocked the whole neighborhood, leaving a shade of mystery over the story. We can see the triumph of the Evil in the end of the movie –their parents, having lost all their daughters seem to be absolutely indifferent to it, as after their flee from the neighborhood they returned to a happy and normal life, leaving the audience with a feeling that these suicides were the very thing they longed for.
