textual analysis - Emmanuel Olobio

Phone Booth is a thriller directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Larry Cohen. It follows the sub genres of mystery and psychological thriller. There are two main characters within the first 40 minutes that i have analyse and indicate a clear protagonist and antagonist. We are introduced to the main character 'Stu' a New York publicist who is confident, intelligent and arrogant. These things are established in the opening minutes of the film. The plot revolves around a man in a phone booth who is on the phone to the intimidator who has him in his sniper rifle scope in one of the apartments above although this is not known to passers by. The cocky obnoxious protagonist draws sympathy from the audience as he is framed for killing a pimp who co-indecently wanted to use the phone booth. The protagonist has been committing adultery against his wife Pam and this seems to be why if any, reason he is held hostage in the booth.

As the police are called, it appears to them that he killed the pimp although as he is being held hostage he is unable to leave the booth. The enigma around the caller begins to increase as we do not know any information about him, or why he is holding him hostage. This shows how the film has followed the main convention of a psychological thriller. Stu confesses his bad sins to the crowd, telling his unpaid assistant, Adam, who looks up to Stu, not to become a publicist and admitting his 2,000 dollar watch is a fake, like himself.

The short shots adds to the high suspense of this psychological action thriller , and it successfully keeps the audience at the edge of their seats for the majority of the time. Also the anticipation of the protagonist getting caught is even more intriguing as more and more you sympathise with the main character 'Stu'.

Like most thrillers there are many close up shots on the main character this is to convey there emotions. The twist at the end shows that like many thrillers this has changed antagonist as the shooter gets away.