Assignment 26.1

Introduction

The films that I have chosen to analyse are The Shining and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The Shining was made in the 1980 in the US. It was both directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick and currently has a certificate of 15 meaning that it contains strong violence and language. The target audiences for the film are people of ages 15 and over as the certificate suggests. Also it could be fans of horror. On top of that it can be fans of the actors present in the film as well as fans of the book with the identical name. Sweeney Todd the British-American film was made in 2007 and directed by Tim Burton. It was also produced by Richard D. Zanuck, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and John Logan. The film has an 18 certificate as it contains strong bloody violence as well as some strong language. The target audiences for this film are fans of musicals as well as horror genre films. Target audiences could also include fans of Tim Burton’s films or actors that are present in the film, similar to The Shining.

I intend to apply genre analysis where I will analyse genre conventions of my chosen films as well as including sub genres and hybrid genres if those are present. I will also analyse in terms of the narrative including the plot of the films, characters, settings, point of view and themes present in the films. I will relate this to different theorists. I will then analyse both films in terms of their content focusing on the language used, text translations, music and special effects. I will then conclude my findings. I will do this through looking at reviews that were given in relation to the narrative as well as giving my own personal opinion and recommendations for both films.

            Synopsis

Benjamin Barker is a barber from Britain who has been sentenced to life in Australia by Judge Turpin who was highly corrupt and going after Barker’s wife Lucy, hence wrongly accusing him. At the beginning of the film he is seen returning back to London with Anthony a sailor that is accompanying him. He also goes under a new pseudonym of Sweeney Todd instead of Benjamin Barker.

 He finds out that the judge has raped his wife and is now acting very affectionate towards Barker’s daughter Johanna. In order to get his revenge, he opens his barber shop at Fleet Street again where Judge Turpin soon visits him without knowing Todd’s true identity. His plan on killing him backfires when Anthony barges into the shop and enrages the judge. This causes Sweeney Todd to go into a fit and vent his anger out on his clients by killing all of them with Ms Lovett becoming his accomplice and disposing of the bodies by making them into pies for her own shop.

This all led to an insane beggar woman in the area to pester Lovett and Todd about the shop. Towards the end she made her way into the shop claiming that she knew Sweeney Todd. During the next few scenes the judge can be heard calling Todd so he quickly slits the beggar’s throat and also sends her flying through the trap door. As Turpin comes to the shop, Todd also kills him and sends him though the trap door.

All of this leads Lovett to scream in the basement which in turn makes Todd go there to investigate what’s going on. When he arrives he soon realises that the beggar woman is indeed his wife Lucy that he had just killed. The film finally ends with the young boy Toby grabbing a razor and killing Sweeney Todd.

 

In The Shining, Jack Torrance is a recovering alcoholic who interviews for a job at the Overlook Hotel in hopes of restoring the life he has led before. He is warned by the manager, Mr. Stuart Ullman that his family will be snowed in for majority of the winter and that there have been cases of previous caretakers going crazy and ending up killing their families.

He arrives at the hotel with his family, son by the name Danny and wife Wendy. The child plays a huge part as from the beginning of the film he is seen having visions as well as being telepathic.

Just like the manager warned, Jack’s mental health slowly starts to deteriorate throughout the film once he and his family are left alone at the Overlook hotel. This is witnessed later in the film when Jack screams in the lounge as he has had a nightmare about killing his family with an axe.

The whole film centres around Room 237 where the previous killing appeared to happen as when Jack enters the room he sees a young, naked woman walking around. However, as he looks in the mirror all he can see is a rotting corpse causing him to run out and lock the room right after in fear. When he talks to his wife he lies about the room being fine. This is the point where his mental state is highly deteriorated as he has a fit at Wendy over their son and the fact that he has an obligation to stay in the hotel, hence why they can’t leave to go and visit a doctor for their son’s sake.

With no contact to anyone else due to poor weather conditions Wendy can only rely on herself causing her to grab a baseball bat to defend herself from Jack as she is scared that he might harm her in some way.

The pivotal moment is Danny, the son barging into Wendy’s room in a trace and chanting ‘redrum’ over and over as well as writing it down. This is where the sound of Jack approaching can be heard as he holds an axe in his hands. He then chops through the door as Wendy and Danny run to the bathroom to hide. When he manages to enter she cuts him with a knife which startles Jack thus giving her time to run away. As she’s running through the hotel she witnesses the different ghosts as well as grotesque sights that completely horrify her. Finally, she ends up in the outside maze along with Danny then striving to run away from Jack. As they make their way out and to the snow cat, Jack essentially freezes to death being lost in the maze.

Right at the end a shot can be seen of a wall full of pictures showing the hotel’s vast history. With this a picture of a slightly younger Jack can be seen along with other people in the photograph with the caption “Overlook Hotel, Jul 4^th Ball, 1921.”

Genre Analysis 

            Genre essentially means a certain type that can be identified through conventions. In terms of film it is the grouping of films that are distinguishable from each other. There are several key elements that help identify the genre within a film. These elements include: character, mise-en-scene, props, themes and narrative or settings. There are also genre conventions which act as a basic framework for a film. However, they are not always followed closely and in fact, have developed and changed though time. Within a main genre group there are likely to be smaller groups call sub-genres. There can also be hybrid genres where two or more sets of generic conventions are used. Genre can then help the audience to have recognition and have a pre-existing set of expectation about films.

When looking at genre, ‘The Shining’ can be generally described as being a horror film. The same can also be said for the film ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’. One of the conventions of horror is the films being set in isolated places. This is the case with this film as the characters move to The Overlook Hotel with a warning that they might get showed in and won’t have a way out of the hotel. Often the places that the main characters end up in tend to have a dark history or be haunted. This is the case with ‘The Shining’ as appearances of ghosts can be seen throughout the film. In terms of dark history, Jack Torrance is told about there being a murder that previously happened at the hotel.  From the scenes shown below it can be seen that there is a strong horror element in terms of setting within the film.

 

Although the setting in ‘Sweeney Todd’ is not isolated it can still be identified as having a dark history due to mentions in the film of it being haunted. Also the general absence of furniture portrays that the barber shop has been abandoned which is another typical setting of horror films. The cracks on the walls further confirm it being an abandoned place thus giving it a more eerie atmosphere.

 

In the horror genre there are usually several types of characters that can be identified. This is the main protagonist in this case being Danny the little boy. There is also villain, who turns out to be Jack Torrance as well as the ghosts of those that were killed in The Overlook Hotel.

In ‘Sweeney Todd’ several characters can also be identified. However, they do not specifically follow the idea of there being a clear protagonist and a villain. It can be argued that Benjamin Barker is the protagonist whereas his new persona, Sweeney Todd is the villain since he kills many of his clients at the barber shop.  It can also be argued that Sweeney Todd is both the protagonist and the villain at the same time. This is because he thinks that he is doing the right thing, whereas the people around him like the mental homeless lady knows that he is up to no good and therefore is a villain.

            Horror films have a wide variety of themes within the genre including good versus evil, religion, revenge, supernatural, zombie apocalypse, nightmares, insanity, envy and more. In the case with ‘The Shining’ the main themes are insanity/madness and supernatural.  Insanity closely link to Jack mostly being evident in the scene where Wendy finds all the work that he has written. However, when she looks at the work it turns out to be the same phrase repeated over and over in various ways.

In Sweeney Todd the main themes can be identified as being good versus evil, madness and envy in terms of Todd wanting to get revenge on the judge. Madness is generally shown through both Todd’s and Lovett’s characters as they don’t think twice before using people as meat for Ms Lovett’s pies. The good versus evil is a general theme an example being the young sailor Anthony striving to find ways to save Johanna.

Certain props tend to be associated with horror films depending on the character. For example, weapons such as machetes, guns, knives and chainsaws are all associated with tools that can be sued by the villain. This is highly evident in ‘The Shining’ since Jack uses an axe as a weapon to tear down a door as well as try and kill his family with it.

Similarly, in ‘Sweeney Todd’ Todd’s main prop is the razor blade which he eventually uses as a weapon to kill his clients.

Mise-en-scene is very important to consider when looking at genre. This generally includes things such as colour and lighting, costumes and can also include props.  In horror films dim lighting and dark colours are often used to give a more sinister feel. In terms of colours these most commonly are black and red as they are closely linked to evil and blood as well as danger. Darker lighting gives the scenes an appearance of later times of day which tends to be more dangerous. Lighting can also be used to create dark and dramatic shadows in order to further demonstrate the atmosphere of the film. ‘Sweeney Todd’ is a very good example as most scenes can be seen as being extremely dark. Many are also filmed during darker times of the day giving it a more eerie feeling.

In the case of ‘The Shining’ the lighting is actually unconventional to that of a horror film as it appears to be quite natural in the majority of the scenes. Only towards the end of the film the lighting starts to change simply due to the time of the day as it is dark outside. This could be linked to Jack and his every growing madness and as it hits its’ peak it can be argued that’s when the lighting and mood changes.

Narrative Analysis

            Narrative is the way in which a certain story is told. This can include both fictional and non-fictional media texts. Vladimir Propp, a Russian critic and literary theorist analysed over 100 Russian fairy tales in the 1920s. This led him onto proposing that it was possible to classify characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions. These roles included the hero that seeks something, the villain that opposes the hero, the donor that helps the hero by proving a magic object, the dispatcher who sends the hero on his way, the false hero that falsely assumes the role of the hero, the helper who gives the hero support, the princess who is the reward for the hero and finally the princess’ father. Although this model is useful, when applying it to more recent films it tends to be quite inaccurate. If ‘The Shining’ is taken as an example, then there is the villain who is Jack. However, there is no specific hero that seeks something meaning that there would also be no donor, dispatcher, false hero, helper, the princess or the father.

Similarly, in ‘Sweeney Todd’ the film doesn’t follow the roles completely. It can be argued that Sweeney Todd is the hero as he seeks revenge on Judge Turpin thus also making the judge to be the villain. The donor can be Ms Lovett as he is the one who has kept the razor blades and therefore gives it to Sweeney Todd. There is no dispatcher or false hero. However, there is also a helper which could once again be Ms Lovett as she becomes his accomplice in killing and disposing of the bodies. The ultimate reward or the princess is Todd’s daughter, Johanna since she also needs protection from the villain. The father also can’t be identified as no one really takes on that role.

      Another aspect of narrative is the story structure. Tzvetan Todorov who is a Bulgarian literary theorist suggests that most narrative start with a state of equilibrium meaning that the life of the characters is normal and that they are happy. He then claims that this state of normality is disrupted by an outside force, the villain and therefore it has to be fought in order to restore the state of equilibrium. The model has three parts which are equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. Unlike Propp’s model, this can be applied to a wider variety of films.

 In ‘The Shining’ the equilibrium can be seen when the family first arrives into The Overlook Hotel. This is then followed by disequilibrium where Jack is the main reason for it and in order to overcome him the rest of the family runs away. New Equilibrium is reached when Wendy and Danny successfully run away from Jack as well as him freezing in the cold. In ‘Sweeney Todd’ equilibrium can be seen when Todd first arrives back to London. However, this is then disturbed when he is recognised as Benjamin Barker and not Sweeney Todd. This triggers him to kill his clients thus becoming another reason for disequilibrium. The way that this is solved is at the end of the film when Sweeney Todd allows himself get killed by Toby, the little boy.

Another part of the narrative is the plot. Roland Barthes, a French semiologist suggested that there are five different codes, which essentially help the audience to make sense of the story.  The first code is the enigma code that refers to a mystery within a text. Clues might be given to the audience, but no direct answers will be revealed. This is present in both ‘The Shining’ and ‘Sweeney Todd’. In ‘The Shining’ it is the visions that Danny (the son) has about the twins and gushing blood. However, these visions are not clearly explained to the audience leaving them to interpret these themselves. In ‘Sweeney Todd’ the enigma code is present in terms of the beggar lady as her actual identity is a mystery. This is relevant since she seems to be a character that appears quite often and seem to know a lot about Ms Lovett and Sweeney Todd and what the two are up to.  The audience only finds out right at the end of the film who the beggar woman actually is.

The second code is known as the action code and is referring to when action is used to produce a resolution. An example of the action code in ‘The Shining’ is Wendy and Danny running away from Jack and leaving him all alone at The Overlook Hotel meaning that they have successfully found a resolution of their problem, which was to be safe and get away from Jack.

The third code is known as semantic. This code refers to the parts within the film, which suggest additional meaning. This code is also known as connotation. The fourth code is the symbolic code also known as denotation and is all about the symbolism within the film.  The final code is known as cultural or referential. It mainly serves the purpose of connecting the audience to the reference, thus making them feel like they are a part of the culture.

The final part of narrative is the point of view. Claude Levi Strauss, a social anthropologist focused on this in particular. He studied the myths of tribal culture and examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. These were usually expressed in the form of binary oppositions. These are essentially things such as white versus black, east versus west, weak versus strong, good versus evil etc.

Binary oppositions can be seen both in ‘The Shining’ and ‘Sweeney Todd’. One the main oppositions in ‘The Shining’ is the good versus evil aspect. The good is Wendy and Danny and the evil essentially is Room 217, Jack and the hotel itself. However, there are also cases where binary oppositions are blurred with things such as dead and alive therefore giving the film a surreal atmosphere. Similarly, ‘Sweeney Todd’ has binary oppositions such as the judge who was done wrong and the innocent man (Benjamin Barker). This however, is twisted as the story continues and Barker takes on the persona of Sweeney Todd a serial killer. This was lines between good versus evil are also blurred.

Film Content Analysis 

Film content analysis is the process of measuring a thing such as image, repeated scenes or audio is used in the film on order to analyse its significance within the film. Film content analysis includes the language that is used, text translations, music and special effects within the particular film.

‘Sweeney Todd’ uses music as a way to give significance to certain parts of the film. As it is a musical horror film, the music aspect of it is highly important. Right at the beginning of the film an orchestra can be hear playing with build up to the music becoming more dramatic. The same music is used several times within the movie whenever something significant happens. There is also the distinctive sound of Ms Lovett when she sings, as several times it is the same melody thus securing it as her character’s song. In a similar way in “The Shining’ it is the screeching sounds of violins that eventually signify something dangerous. A scene where Wendy is standing in front of Jack with a bad trying to defend herself from him is where such a sound can be heard.

Conclusion

To sum this up although both films fit into the horror genre, there are distinct features about both. ‘Sweeney Todd’ for example is a musical and ‘The Shining’ presents horror in an unconventional way. It is interesting how Todorov’s model about equilibrium can be perfectly applied to both films. Propp’s model however, fails to do so for both showing that perhaps it is not suited for horror genre films.

On Rotten Tomatoes ‘The Shining’ has an average rating of 4/5 from the audience. The critics describe it as a ‘chilling, often baroque journey into madness’, which is a quite accurate depiction of the film. Personally, although the storyline is captivating and the narrative truly leaves the audience interested, Wendy’s character doesn’t seem convincing to me, but this is simply due to the acting, which spoiled the movie for me to an extent.

‘Sweeney Todd; The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ received a 3.9/5 rating from the audience on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics deem it to be a musical “full of pith and grossness, this macabre musical is perfectly helmed and highly entertaining.” Personally I have enjoyed this film more as gives a more unconventional view of horror films simply by being a musical horror film. The story is also highly interesting with Sweeney Todd doing evil for sake of getting revenge and Ms Lovett doing evil for the sake of gaining Todd’s love.