sepctator

This essay will focus on Nick Browne’s essay “The Spectator-in-the-Tex: The Rhetoric of Stagecoach”, in terms of the role play by spectator in storytelling by using The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) as an example.
In Browne’s essay, he describes what he calls the “position of the spectator”, and suggests that cinematic techniques can constitute a connection between a given character(s) and the spectator. Browne values less of what David Bordwell believes to be important in narration, the syuzhet (Bordwell 1986). Browne believes the connection between the spectator and the character(s) solidifies less through narrative techniques, the syuzhet, than through cinematic means, for instance, cinematography. The composition of a shot can allow the audience to see over the shoulder of a given character, thus positioning the spectator in the character’s approximate point of view. Likewise, action or dialogue from another character can be shown from the approximate field of vision of the character that is linked with the spectator. (Browne 1986).
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre places the spectator in the position of some of its character through the use of cinematography. Allowing us, the spectator to become a character of the film “in the ways the character ‘see’ each other” (Browne, 102). This occurs centrally through the trio’s action of talking and looking directly to the camera. In the tenting scene, after the gold was divided, the trio shares their plans after cashing the gold. Dobbs as an example, he is framed in a medium shot, delivering his lines directly into the camera as if he is communicating, interacting with the spectator. This particular kind of framing has been given to each of the characters throughout the film. ...

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...old, his greedy soul corrupts and reminds him to obtain more of what he has and do whatever to protect these treasure from taken away. Stepping out from imagining myself being in his character, as a spectator, I do not agree with the actions taken by Dobbs; such as trying to get rid of Curtin by “murdering” him, after Howard’s departure. If Dobbs could maintain harmony with his pals, he could have saved himself from death at the end.
Through cinematography, the spectator is connected with the given character(s) of the story. Through spatial closeness constructed by camera angle, the spectator becomes positioned within the narration through the character, rather than being a passive individual who only watches an unfolding cinematic drama. This is what Browne calls “the position of the spectator;” spectator involves in the narration to interact with the character.