In the past years, movies marked as “based on real events” appear more often. Moreover, some of the researchers, as well as ordinary viewers claim that almost every movie is based on real events. The point is that sometimes directors as well as screen play writers tend to exaggerate the importance and cruelty of some events. In the most cases, it happens in horror movies or some documentaries. The point is that the main idea of every documentary is to convince people in something. This essay is devoted to the issue of veracity of the events in three movies: Troll hunter, Jaws, Super size me. I this essay I will claim that all the movies mentioned above describe situations from one point of view and it has negative impact on human perception. The main idea of the essay is to show that realism is not the aim of directors, regardless whether it is a documentary or a horror movie.
Troll hunter is a Norwegian pseudo-documentary shot it 2010. In the beginning and at the end of the movie the narrator tells that all the participant disappeared, however, their films were found and admitted to be true. On the other hand, every viewer realizes that trolls do not exist. Hence, the movie is called to be pseudo-documentary. However, it is worth to mention that the director tried to make it as much real as possible.
In my opinion, the plot of the movie is rather ordinary. A group of three students making a documentary about the mysterious murders bears in the Norwegian woods. In poaching suspect a man named Hans, who leads a solitary life and moved to a trailer. When students try to interview him, he replied reluctantly and chased guys away, but they continued to go after him. Hans went after night in the woods, students could hear a terrible roar and met Hans, who ran back to his car shouting “Troll!”. They sit in the Hans’ car and saw their car overturned and the tires were gone. Hans said that he was the only troll hunter in the country and killed only those trolls that crossed the borders of their territory. He allowed students to follow him in the hunt and shoot. However, he provided the students with restrictions and instructions what they should do and do not. The next night hunters lure of huge forest three head troll that Hans irradiates a special spotlight, bringing troll turned to stone, which Hans exploded afterwards. The pint is that Hans’ colleague used to bring a bear corpse on the place of troll death so people thought it had been a bear that killed. A few days later, students shoot another massacre of troll bait that served as a sheep on the bridge. The group then moved to another location and attacked on the trail of a flock of trolls living in a cave. Trolls people discover and pursue them, resulting in the operator killed, but the rest (with camera) are saved and invite new operator. Hans and students went into the mountains, where there should have been the largest troll. Previously, Hans managed to take a blood sample from a troll on the bridge, and he reported that it was infected with rabies. Hans believed that it is the latter, a huge troll, and infection was the culprit other trolls. After preparing a large spotlight, Hans meets a 50-meter troll and shines on it, but the troll stands this light, although weaker. Hans and students by car make troll chasing them, exhausting it. Finally, Hans finishes already barely alive troll that turned to stone and crumbles. Hans goes to the mountains. There are government cars. Students flee from them. This was the final episode.
On the one hand, it is not difficult to believe the story. The director tried to make the movie as real as possible. For this purpose he used several film techniques. First, he gave camera to one of the participants of the student group. Secondly, the movie is shot as a video diary. Such technique is frequently used to show characters’ attitude to the situation and make all the events more real. Directors of horror movies tend to use such technique to show how scared people are. In this case, Andre Ovredal used the technique of video diary to show that it was the documentary. On the contrary, it is difficult to believe that the movie Troll hunter is a real documentary because trolls are characters from Norwegian mythology. Pseudo-documentary movies, such as Troll hunter are based on unreal events, however, the were shot as if the events were real.
On the contrary to the movie Troll hunter, there is a movie Super size me. This movie was shot in 2004 and is considered a real documentary. The movie reveals a sharp problem that exists in modern society of the United States of America – obesity caused by fast food. The main idea was to show that even a healthy person could get serious health problems when eating fast food three times a day. The movie can be divided into two parts: the first part is the experiment itself and the second part is the explanations of doctors, lawyers, government representatives and interviews with average people. The good thing is that the movie contains much data information, which is reliable. Hence, one may not doubt the veracity of the facts. On the other hand, I my opinion, the author of the movie tended to exaggerate all the facts. The point is that he overstates the importance of fast food in the United States of America. It is no doubt that most of the Americans are fat and tend to eat fast food every day. However, there are no Americans who do not cook and eat only fast food three times a day.
Super size me is not the movie with action or adventures. On the other hand, it is unlike all the documentary movies that were shot before. This movie has a feature that makes it special and not boring, as other documentaries – there is an experiment. The author of the movie decided to prove on his own example that eating at McDonalds was unhealthy and might cause different health problems. When watching a documentary, it may become boring to listen to all the data and watch all the graphics or charts. In this documentary, every viewer will stay until the end to see what will have happened to the author. The author on his own example showed that fast food might cause such health problems as:
- Problems with liver;
- Problems with kidneys;
- Problems with further sexual life;
- Danger of heart diseases;
- Constant headaches;
- Depressions;
- Obesity.
During the experiment, the viewer sees how Morgan Spurlock, the author of the movie, becomes fatter, how he gets sicker every day with every new meal.
The main idea of the movie is to shock people by showing them horrible consequences of eating junk food every day. Morgan Spurlock presented several shocking facts:
- Most of junior school students cannot recognize Jesus Christ but easily recognize Ronald McDonald;
- Some adults are unable to recall the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America but can easily sing out a McDonald’s slogan;
- Most of people tend to order super size;
- Children are served fast food even at schools;
- There is a governmental group that lobbies laws that support fast food.
Another aspect of the problem, considered in the movie, is children lunches at schools. Morgan Spurlock visited several schools and checked eating plan for children. It is significant to mention that schools may get food from commercial organization or from governmental ones. Besides, there are different kinds of governmental programs. In a school that is served by a commercial organization, children tend to eat fast food, such as chips, chocolate for lunch. In the movie, Morgan Spurlock visited a school that is maintained by government and saw that children there are served cooked half-finished products. It is not healthy as well because children, as well as cooks and parents, do not know what products their lunch is made of. The last school that was visited was a school for difficult children. Children had healthy food for lunch: vegetables and no meat. The good thing is that children became healthier, they study better, are more concentrated and the amount of discipline violence decreased. Morgan Spurlock showed the usefulness of eating healthy food on the example of these children. Moreover, children who eat healthy lunches look better; they are slimmer.
On the other hand, I must admit that the author of the movie pays too much attention on fast food and its significance in lives of Americans. The point is that only smaller part of citizens eat junk food that often. Most of the Americans become fat not only because of fast food they eat, but also because they prefer to get a taxi rather than walk. While watching the movie, it seemed to me that Morgan Spurlock tends to overstate the reality. The documentary appeared to be rather informative and not boring, unlike other, however, it did not influence sub consciousness of Americans: those who used to eat fast food would continue eating eat and those who held healthy way of life would continue doing this. Moreover, people who prefer eating junk food will now have a good excuse not to begin eating healthy: Morgan Spurlock proved that fast food contain elements that make people addicted.
The last movie that is to be analyzed is one of the most famous movies of Steven Spielberg: Jaws. There is nothing worse than uncertainty. Even if there is a dismembered body in front of you, on which the larvae crawl, it is a fact that is much easier to take than what is not seen, not heard, but that can be very close What frightens people the most is in their own imagination, it is inside their heads. The ocean is full of surprises. This is an incredible unimaginable abyss, unexplored only on 10%, which is fraught with the dangers of not less than even less unexplored space. The difference is that ocean is much closer to us than space. And God knows what there is under the cute white horses running to the shore - a cramp, a tiny poisonous octopus-murderer or cold lifeless eyes of a fierce and ruthless white shark, huge jaws of which are prepared to bite one’s spine with a crunching bite, whenever you enter the ocean. A person cannot breathe underwater; deep pressure exceeds what the human body can withstand this stranger, alien, hostile environment, which is fraught with mane dangers. And there, in the "Big Blue", in these boundless spaces of salt, we, the people are only the uninvited guests, small, trembling, letting bubbles aliens who are waited and if, then only as an appetizer, and they they are kings, gods, decisive whether we should live or die.
There are several interesting facts about the movie:
- The film is based on the novel by Peter Benchley's Jaws 1974;
- There were several sources used for the story: Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick; Ibsen’s Enemy of the People, the documentary Blue Water, White Death (1971) about the expeditions of the diver Peter Gimble; scientific books by Peter Mattis Blue meridian: Search the great white shark, two classic American horror movies of the 50s: Establishment of the Black Lagoon (1954 ) and The monster swallowed the world ( 1957), the true story that occurred in the summer of 1916 in New York Jersey, where for two weeks as a result of a shark attack killed five people.
- Producers decided to avoid involving superstars to not distract viewers from storytelling and fully focus on sharks and their victims.
- It is the movie Jaws where for the first time an operator technique was used when optically background objects are approaching whereas all that is in foreground does not change.
- This picture brought profit not only to its founders, but also the island of Martha 's Vineyard, because the number of tourists per season until 1975 there was about 5000 people, and after the film's release it increased three times as much;
- There were two versions of the movie ending filmed - when the shark rips head, and when it dies from blood loss due to multiple harpoons. Steven Spielberg was the first option, whereas Peter Benchley - for the second, which is why they had a lot of disagreement about this issue. However, the audience made its choice on the premiere – the first variant was more successful.
- Steven Spielberg did not appear in the director's chair when there was a shot of the last scene of the film, where the shark explodes - he was sure that the crew conspired and planned to throw it into the water after "shot". Since then Spielberg started the tradition of not coming to the shooting of the final scene of each film he directs.
Steven Spielberg took full advantage of his and writer Peter Benchley’s knowledge of human psychology with an average of limited outlook. He used everything he knew about the superstitious fear of old Bang deep sea animals inhabiting them, and fear of the unknown. He directed the film, which is stuck in people's heads so firmly and strongly that will not work, probably as long as there is a boat, a shark and ocean.
Jaws is a film that cemented in the minds of the human image of sharks as cold-blooded killers, led to sharply negative perception of these animals. After this movie shark scaring people fear, panic, disgust. On the one hand, it may be counted as shortcomings on the other hand, every person who has seen this movie cannot help admitting the marvelous director’s work. With this movie Spielberg affected human minds and, although more than thirty five years have passed already, sharks reveal panic and fear in human minds only because of the movie Jaws.
Spielberg managed to make incredibly realistic movies without resorting to artificial, more precisely, reducing its use to an absolute minimum. Spielberg managed to make a movie, ever entered itself in the history of world cinema. There was no more and, most likely, will not. Spielberg managed to take a picture, that for many decades and has become a reference model for other directors.
Production film Jaws ingeniously injects state of anxiety and fear, using all possible means, from shock, impact and always unexpected impact on the psyche of the public - to create a truly nervous situation perception. This certainly help: John Williams’ terrible and scaring music that has already become classic, which seemed warn of approaching danger as the corresponding sounds and noises; purely directorial findings reinforce the oppressive feeling, and defining the rhythm virtuoso installation of Verna Fields.
In my opinion, all three movies do not describe the reality, they only show director’s points of view. The point is that regardless whether it is a horror movie, a documentary or a pseudo-documentary, directors will always will to show their attitude and in some cases exaggerate information. The aim of this essay was to show that directors tend to take only one side and highlight it in movies. It was shown that all the analyzed films are one sided and present information from one point of view; as a consequence, this disturbs viewers’ perception of the reality.
Resources:
Bhattacharya S. Of all my films, Jaws was the hardest to make. Steven Spielberg. 11 March 2013. Web. 06 Dec 2013
Dawson J. Super seize me. N.d. Web. 06 Dec 2013
n.a. Main themes / big ideas in Super size me. N.d. Web. 06 Dec 2013
Reed R. Norwegian sci-fi Trollhunter makes no sense. 06 July 2011. Web. 06 Dec 2013
Wallace L. Myth buffer: with Trollhunter Andre Ovredal modernizes fairy tales. 20 June 2011. Web. 06 Dec 2013
