Taken is a film which was written by Luc Besson Mark Kamen, directed by Pierre Morel and released in 2008. This thriller is a movie with the sub genres of action crime and drama.
Our main character is a Decorated and highly-skilled CIA Special Activities Division officer Bryan Mills. In the film the director portrays to the audience that he has a teenage daughter who travels to paris and gets capered hence the title of the film taken. Our main protagonist uses his experience and skills from his work to locate his daughter; he does this through recording conversations with his daughter. The films action is based around his battle with the people who were involved in the kidnapping. Eventually he finds his daughter being prostituted to a pimp, the combat then continues as the kidnappers try to hide our protagonist’s daughter from him.
The film has an element of suspense as the director shows us the audience many clues and answers to questions that would have been asked within the film. This literally gives the audience an affect that a pantomime has. For example if the protagonist is walking in a wrong direction or walking into danger, the audience would literally be saying go the other way, or shaking their heads cause they know something that the protagonist doesn’t.
The Director portrays our protagonist as someone that the audience could relate to, as there are many sides to him. He has a daughter that is now lost, he is divorced from his daughters mother and a very lonely man. Our protagonist is also seen to be secluded form the outside world as he is often in his dark apartments looking at photos of his daughter. Moreover the audience also synthesizes with our protagonist, especially in the part of the film where he goes to his daughter’s party where he is not wanted. The rejection on the faces of those at the party makes the audience synthesize with him.
When it comes down to the action of the film our protagonist has very little weaknesses due to his past experience with his old profession, however this contrasts with his softer sides. The main weakness our protagonist has is how much he actually loves his daughter. Therefore the kidnappers of his daughter know how to hurt him, and they do this through his daughter, and mentally scar our protagonist. This means he is hurt a lot while trying to fight off the kidnappers.
An enigma was created around the character from the beginning of the film as he spoke to his daughter’s capturer he says, “I have a various set of skills that I have acquired from a long career”. These skills that our protagonist talks and boasts about are later revealed later on in the film when he uses his special forensic skills to locate his daughter, with this the director successfully portrays to the audience a man that is not that of normal human intelligence.
Another mystery that arises in the film would be his divorce to his wife. The audience is left wondering why they broke up as every time they came across each other she looks at him in a resentful way, This gives the audience the suspicion that he did something wrong to her. We then later on learn that he sacrificed his marriage for his government career, which then leads to him being able to rescue his daughter. But amongst all this is another mystery, why did our protagonist stop working for the government. This too is answered later on through the film when he states that the reason he left is because he desired a better relationship with his daughter and that he missed his daughter.
Kim is also another main character and her aesthetics is very important in the telling the audience about her. She at first seems to be a normal, innocent girl because she wears a lot of girly colors and natural makeup. We find out she is loving towards her dad but also secretive as she lies about where she is going. Younger views could easily identify with this character, a rebel girl who often lies about where she is going, in addition to a hard life with the separation of her parents. Her main weakness would be the fact that she is easily lead on, as we can see that she is lead on my a French man called peter who gives her an invitation to a fake party.
In the form of this event the audience is left wondering if the character of Kim will be okay, and what the plot is going to be. Clues from this question arise as the jacket of Kim is found; moreover clues from other prostitutes are also given. At the end as we know she was found eventually, answering the question that arises.
Throughout this film the degree of suspense has been lifted and decreased by the music. As in most thrillers the music is a massive tool in adding tension f=to the film and decreasing the tension from the film. One example of where the music is used to add tension is where brain kicked down each door and sees a dying prostitute, this leaves the audience on the edge of their seats wondering if he will kick down the door and see his daughter there. The audience feels as if he is about to find her but in fact he does not find her in any of the rooms and therefore the buildup ends anti-climatically. . It is common in thriller that there is a lot of buildup of tension which end anti-climatically until the final build up when something exciting happens; this is usually the aspect of the thriller genre that keeps the audience interested.
This of course leads to another enigma. Is Kim dead already? It also reveals to the audience that his friend who is supposedly meant to be helping him is indeed involved in his downfall. The use of dramatic irony creates a sense of danger which his doesn’t realize until he discovers that Jean-Claude, head of security for France, is betraying him. Information regarding the whole film is made during the experiences on Brian. This is done through his struggle to get back him daughter from the kidnappers that took her. We know at the end that his main priority which would be to amend his relationship with his family is amended when Lenny’s new husband says that Brian is always welcome to anything he needs.
In conclusion I do feel that the film fit perfectly into the genre of a thriller, but I do feel the film can be long winded at times but it does create the suspense, tension and action of a thriller.
Our main character is a Decorated and highly-skilled CIA Special Activities Division officer Bryan Mills. In the film the director portrays to the audience that he has a teenage daughter who travels to paris and gets capered hence the title of the film taken. Our main protagonist uses his experience and skills from his work to locate his daughter; he does this through recording conversations with his daughter. The films action is based around his battle with the people who were involved in the kidnapping. Eventually he finds his daughter being prostituted to a pimp, the combat then continues as the kidnappers try to hide our protagonist’s daughter from him.
The film has an element of suspense as the director shows us the audience many clues and answers to questions that would have been asked within the film. This literally gives the audience an affect that a pantomime has. For example if the protagonist is walking in a wrong direction or walking into danger, the audience would literally be saying go the other way, or shaking their heads cause they know something that the protagonist doesn’t.
The Director portrays our protagonist as someone that the audience could relate to, as there are many sides to him. He has a daughter that is now lost, he is divorced from his daughters mother and a very lonely man. Our protagonist is also seen to be secluded form the outside world as he is often in his dark apartments looking at photos of his daughter. Moreover the audience also synthesizes with our protagonist, especially in the part of the film where he goes to his daughter’s party where he is not wanted. The rejection on the faces of those at the party makes the audience synthesize with him.
When it comes down to the action of the film our protagonist has very little weaknesses due to his past experience with his old profession, however this contrasts with his softer sides. The main weakness our protagonist has is how much he actually loves his daughter. Therefore the kidnappers of his daughter know how to hurt him, and they do this through his daughter, and mentally scar our protagonist. This means he is hurt a lot while trying to fight off the kidnappers.
An enigma was created around the character from the beginning of the film as he spoke to his daughter’s capturer he says, “I have a various set of skills that I have acquired from a long career”. These skills that our protagonist talks and boasts about are later revealed later on in the film when he uses his special forensic skills to locate his daughter, with this the director successfully portrays to the audience a man that is not that of normal human intelligence.
Another mystery that arises in the film would be his divorce to his wife. The audience is left wondering why they broke up as every time they came across each other she looks at him in a resentful way, This gives the audience the suspicion that he did something wrong to her. We then later on learn that he sacrificed his marriage for his government career, which then leads to him being able to rescue his daughter. But amongst all this is another mystery, why did our protagonist stop working for the government. This too is answered later on through the film when he states that the reason he left is because he desired a better relationship with his daughter and that he missed his daughter.
Kim is also another main character and her aesthetics is very important in the telling the audience about her. She at first seems to be a normal, innocent girl because she wears a lot of girly colors and natural makeup. We find out she is loving towards her dad but also secretive as she lies about where she is going. Younger views could easily identify with this character, a rebel girl who often lies about where she is going, in addition to a hard life with the separation of her parents. Her main weakness would be the fact that she is easily lead on, as we can see that she is lead on my a French man called peter who gives her an invitation to a fake party.
In the form of this event the audience is left wondering if the character of Kim will be okay, and what the plot is going to be. Clues from this question arise as the jacket of Kim is found; moreover clues from other prostitutes are also given. At the end as we know she was found eventually, answering the question that arises.
Throughout this film the degree of suspense has been lifted and decreased by the music. As in most thrillers the music is a massive tool in adding tension f=to the film and decreasing the tension from the film. One example of where the music is used to add tension is where brain kicked down each door and sees a dying prostitute, this leaves the audience on the edge of their seats wondering if he will kick down the door and see his daughter there. The audience feels as if he is about to find her but in fact he does not find her in any of the rooms and therefore the buildup ends anti-climatically. . It is common in thriller that there is a lot of buildup of tension which end anti-climatically until the final build up when something exciting happens; this is usually the aspect of the thriller genre that keeps the audience interested.
This of course leads to another enigma. Is Kim dead already? It also reveals to the audience that his friend who is supposedly meant to be helping him is indeed involved in his downfall. The use of dramatic irony creates a sense of danger which his doesn’t realize until he discovers that Jean-Claude, head of security for France, is betraying him. Information regarding the whole film is made during the experiences on Brian. This is done through his struggle to get back him daughter from the kidnappers that took her. We know at the end that his main priority which would be to amend his relationship with his family is amended when Lenny’s new husband says that Brian is always welcome to anything he needs.
In conclusion I do feel that the film fit perfectly into the genre of a thriller, but I do feel the film can be long winded at times but it does create the suspense, tension and action of a thriller.
0 comments:
Post a Comment