Presentational Devices Used in Films
In traditional fairy tales, ogres are man-eating beasts. The Prince
usually rescues the Princess; they marry and live happily ever after.
How do the makers of Shrek use presentational devices to reverse this
tradition, to reveal the ogre as good, and the Prince as evil?
In this essay, I am going to analyse the characters of Shrek and Lord
Farquaad, and write about how the filmmakers use different
presentational devices to create an unusual fairy tale.
In traditional fairy tales ogres and giants are horrific, man-eating
beasts who grind bones and rips flesh. In 'Jack and the Beanstalk' the
ogre tries to kill Jack, with a giant club, and he intends on eating
jack once he has killed him. Also, Princes are always conceived to be
good, majestic, and always rescues the princess with his noble steed,
and end up getting married and sharing their first romantic encounter
with each other. In 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the prince
awakes snow white with 'loves first kiss', closely followed by the two
getting wed, and living happily ever after.
Language is an important device, and I am going to write about how
language can create the impression that good and evil is present in
both characters and in films. The film 'Shrek' opens like a
traditional fairy tale, using the well-known beginning, 'Once upon a
time there was a beautiful princess…' Pages of a story book is focused
on, with pictures and words, also narrated by a mystery person, which
is a frequent start in most conventional fairy tales. When the last
page is shown, and the last caption is read, the narrator says 'Like
that's ever goin...
... middle of paper ...
... has friends, he rescues the
princess, finds true love and gets married. This shows he is different
from a typical ogre. Equally, Lord Farquaad looks like a noble Lord,
but is very different to one. He has an evil nature; as he tortures
people, he steals, makes other people do his fighting. He is also
cruel, and has no feelings for others, shown by the rejection of the
princess, and his false claims to be a king. The story of 'Shrek' uses
presentational devices to reverse our expectations, so that the end of
the film sees Shrek as the good character, and Lord Farquaad is seen
as the evil character. The makers of 'Shrek' have successfully managed
to reverse this fairy tale and to make it appeal to younger viewers by
making it more amusing, but still put across an important message of
you can't judge a book by its cover.
Rolf de Herr’s 2002 film The Tracker represented some human beings in the past who have been extremely naïve, barbarous, and bigoted when it came to dealing with Indigenous Australians. This film portrayed white racism in the characters of the Fanatic, the Veteran, and at first the Recruit until he becomes stronger and eventually changes his demeanor towards the Aboriginal people. Even though the Tracker experiences immense hardship throughout the movie he was always two steps ahead of his bosses since he was very familiar with the land and was also able to outsmart his superior officers. The Tracker is a gloomy film which presents the dark past of Australia that must never be forgotten.
The following essay will be an explanation of how Shrek and the fairytale creature’s freedom of rights were violated. Although most people might not realize there were many violations executed by lord Farquaad against most of the characters in the movie. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is very important because it provides justice and protection for every human individual. Shrek is an ogre who just wanted to be left alone but his swamp was invaded by the rest of the fairytale creatures. He goes on a quest to save Princess Fiona for Lord Farquaad. Along his journey he has to overcome many obstacles despite his rights being violated every step of the way. Lord Farquaad was an unjust ruler; he violates fundamental freedoms, Democratic
At the time Hammer Film was making five films a year, no one at the
A fairy tale story can easily establish rhetoric devices in order to enhance its storyline or give some character development. The movie Shrek is about an ogre named Shrek and a donkey named Donkey who is ordered by a prince named Farquaad to rescue a princess named Fiona so he can get his swamp back, but Shrek ends up falling in love with the princess himself (Adamson, Jenson, 2001). The movie Shrek breaks the norms of a typical fairy tales, reversing the role of who would be the hero and who would be the villain. This film adopts rhetoric devices like the four cognitive schemata to construe the perception of the characters towards Shrek, the Social Penetration Theory to show the growing relationships Shrek has with Donkey and Fiona, and verbal
Fairy tales today are commonly viewed as fantastical stories - often with magical characters or elements - aimed to entertain children. Moreover, they frequently contain lessons or principles to be instilled in youths, promoting the morality of future generations. The values associated with a certain fairy tale can be identified quite easily these days, especially with the more prominent and well-known stories. For instance, the modern version of Beauty and the Beast schools readers to look past the exterior of others, for true beauty is measured by one's character. However, contemporary fairy tales have often been subject to censorship and revision from their origins in order to facilitate their presentation of these ideals. Oftentimes, the essence of these ideas in the original works is not so clear-cut. In Giovanni Franesco Straparola‘s “The Pig King”, though a happy ending is eventually reached, the path taken is one filled with wrong turns.
Everyone remembers the nasty villains that terrorize the happy people in fairy tales. Indeed, many of these fairy tales are defined by their clearly defined good and bad archetypes, using clichéd physical stereotypes. What is noteworthy is that these fairy tales are predominately either old themselves or based on stories of antiquity. Modern stories and epics do not offer these clear definitions; they force the reader to continually redefine the definitions of morality to the hero that is not fully good and the villain that is not so despicable. From Dante’s Inferno, through the winding mental visions in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, spiraling through the labyrinth in Kafka’s The Trial, and culminating in Joyce’s abstract realization of morality in “The Dead,” authors grapple with this development. In the literary progression to the modern world, the increasing abstraction of evil from its classic archetype to a foreign, supernatural entity without bounds or cure is strongly suggestive of the pugnacious assault on individualism in the face of literature’s dualistic, thematically oligopolistic heritage.
If children or adults think of the great classical fairy tales today, be it Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella, they will think Walt Disney. Their first and perhaps lasting impression of these tales and others will have emanated from Disney film, book, or artefacts (Zipes 72)
Through his portrayal of characters and unorthodox style of writing throughout the fairy tale, Goldman pokes fun at the literary process and ordinary fairy tales. Through his fairy tale, The Princess Bride, Goldman ridicules numerous tropes of fairy tales and simultaneously critiques overdone expositions. Every character represents an archetype of a common fairy tale, but they all have glaring flaws that directly contradict how they are supposed to act. William Goldman sets forth his satirical theme that the literary industry’s rigid rules reflect its inability to adapt in an ever changing society.
The evolution of film technology, has given anthropologists the ability to employ films to present ethnographic data. Although this privilege has contributed immensely to the collection of anthropological knowledge we have today, it has increased the issues with regards to misinterpretation. Both films expose the fact that it is common for an untrained individual to misinterpret the epistemological assumptions made by the films’ authors and that, frequently, a sense of cultural superiority can form. In many cases, anthropological films may authorize uncertainties with regards to the other. Additionally, they may, unintentionally, confirm negative stereotypes or expectations that other media has implanted into the minds of the untrained student. Because of the presence of an incongruity between the filmmaker and the audience, studying the factors that contribute to the contradictions would be advantageous.
Every typical fairy tale includes a gorgeous princess, a tower guarded by a dragon, and of course a handsome prince. "Shrek” (2001) however, is very different from all the typical fairy-tale clichés. The directors, Vicky Jenson and Andrew Adamson display the hero, Shrek (Mike Myers), as a giant green, grumpy ogre with trumpet-shaped ears who lives alone in a swamp. The local government, Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow), has requested that to preserve the "perfection" of his town Duloc, all fairy-tale creatures must be rounded up and restricted to the swamp where Shrek lives.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are known around the world for their creative collection of fairy tales for children. The most common folk tales include Snow White, Rapunzel, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. However, many people are unaware that the Grimm brothers originally filled their folk tales with shocking scenes that would be too mature for children’s literature; they never intended to interest an audience of children. The first editions of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” were intellectual writings with many footnotes and no graphics. As younger readers started to take an interest in these tales, more than adults, they took out the horrific events. With the Grimm Brother’s revising their material to make it more fitting for children’s
A typical fairy tale consists of a princess, a prince, and an evil queen. A characteristic like what was previously mentioned is the basis for many Disney movies (A good example would be Snow White.). A recent cinematic work that has received critical acclamation, Frozen, follows the fairy tale model. Through out the plot twists and climatic scenes in the movie, there are various myths that reflect today’s culture and current issues that are relatively opposing thousand-year-old traditional views. Using the story of Frozen and various genres of mythology, this paper will specifically discuss the importance of magical powers, the roles of the characters, the meaning of true love, heroism,
The integration of technology into curriculum and instructional practices in P-12 education has been gaining momentum in classroom reform across the nation (Mowre-Popiel, Pollard, & Pollard, 1994). Interactive and digital technologies are now recognized as tools by which educators can bring unique resources into the classroom (Schutte, 1998; Wise, 2002) and engage students in dynamic, self-constructed learning (Branzburg, 2001). The use of technology as a tool that supports instruction and learning is transforming the traditional way of teaching; both digital and geographically located resources now offer an enriched content that was not available to earlier generations (Branzburg, 2001). As a result, many authors and researchers believe that the use of technology within educational settings will serve to motivate students to learn more, both with and without teacher assistance, effectively promoting increased cognitive development (Gernstein, 2000; Wise, 2002). While there are many projects involving the utilization of interactive and digital technologies in classroom instruction (Buckle, 1995; Gernstein, 2000; Warner, 1999; Petersen, 1998), there is limited scientific evidence of its effectiveness in improving teaching and learning when compared to traditional instruction. In addition, there exists almost no literature that illustrates the impact of the combined effect of both digital and video resources.
In addition to her manly behavior, Fiona also rejects Farquaad’s marriage proposal and choose to stay with Shrek instead because she rejects the conventional life she has been told to have. She wants to marry whoever she loves and to take control of her life, showing her independence. This shows that being different from the Disney princesses choosing to live “happily ever after” with a prince, Fiona defies society’s expectations and stereotypes of a ‘’good’’ woman who is thought to be submissive and domesticated but not rebellious or independent (Barker 317). Undeniably, fairy tales are so important that they facilitate children's imagination, but on the other hand, they limit their ways of thinking and somehow set gender stereotypes in youngsters’
“X-rays were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Roentgen, a professor who was working on emissions from electric currents in vacuums. While working, he discovered a glow from the barium platinocyanide coated screen. He continued to experiment and landed the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901” (Bansal, 2006). Over the years, many improvements have been made to Roentgen’s discovery and radiography is offered in every hospital around the world.