Portrayal Of The Ocean In Documentaries Compared To Hollywood Film

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The Portrayal of the Ocean in Documentaries Compared to Hollywood Films The purpose of this montage is to showcase how the portrayal of the ocean in documentaries and Hollywood films is markedly different. “Ocean,” in this case, refers to any large body of water and the living creatures it. Also, “Hollywood” as used here does not strictly refer to filming location. Rather, “Hollywood” means films made in the Classical Hollywood Cinema style, which typically means usage of straightforward cause and effect narratives and continuity editing. In other words, films which target the masses. Most Hollywood films, including some of the most famous films of all time, utilize the ocean as a violent and destructive antagonist. Contrarily, ocean documentaries portray the ocean as a gorgeous part of nature, maintaining beauty and life rather than wiping it out. The real ocean, as documentaries show, can be a beautiful place. Ocean documentaries attempt to educate their audiences about a specific oceanic …show more content…

Storms on the ocean are more formidable than those on land because there is less cover available. The character in the storm is simply at its mercy with little means of escaping. In The Truman Show, the protagonist’s final obstacle is braving an artificial but vicious storm in a tiny sailboat. In The Life of Pi, a massive ocean storm acts as the initial obstacle of the film, separating the protagonist from his family and stranding him on a boat with a hungry tiger. Additionally, ocean storms serve as a follow up or precursor to giant tsunamis in several of the aforementioned disaster films. Whereas a tsunami typically serves as the climax or inciting incident in a film, storms often perform as a long-lasting force, creating more suspense, sadness, and/or long-term terror than a tsunami does. But the actual water is not the only method of turning the ocean into an antagonist in Hollywood

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