Dramatic Structure
To Sir, with Love embodies a conventional three-act structure. However, the protagonist, Mark Thackeray, is faced with multiple active antagonists. The first act introduces Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) as a Communications engineer who, after many unsuccessful attempts to find employment in his field, takes a teaching position at the North Quay Secondary School. Once he has arrived, Thackeray is informed of the rebellious nature of his assigned students, who mostly come from underprivileged backgrounds. The students created such conflict that the previous teacher couldn’t manage. Led by Bert Denham (Christian Roberts) and Pamela Dare (Judy Geeson), they are the antagonists of Poitier’s character. This creates a static yet dynamic relationship between Thackeray and his students throughout the film as Thackeray attempts to understand and connect with his students while keeping within the rules of the academic environment. Thackeray’s is caught in a dilemma when his teaching strategies are proved ineffective as his students display childish behavior and play disrespectful pranks upon him each day. The turning point of the film is marked by the students burning a sanitary pad in the classroom one morning. Thackeray seems to have given up on the kids when he rushes out of the room in frustration, but he returns once he figures out that it’s the sense of being mistreated that has caused the students to rebel. Act 2 is established when he comes back into the classroom. Thackeray is motivated with a new strategy and lays out a set of rules that change the way the students will learn and live.
Over the course of time his students transform, except for Bert. The students find out that Thackeray’s past has remarkable ...
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...ocusing too much on the details of what occurred during the trip.
The film opens with a distinct song that plays over the multiple establishing shots of the impoverished Docklands district of London, England which makes the viewer fill in the blanks for themselves about the film’s peculiar time period and socio-geographic setting. The music also gives the viewer a sense of the tonality but at its ambiguous lyrics make the audience question what the music is foreshadowing about the story. The soft, slow melody and the lyrics, which express the singer’s deep gratitude to someone, work together to suggest the desire for an emotional connection and understanding that Thackeray’s students have for him.
It’s clear that Clavell chose to portray the conventional story through subtle and simple techniques that drive the narrative and the emotional aspects of the film.
The way perspectives of composers and the cultural paradigms that they are influenced by are of a peculiar and often hidden nature. Through thorough textual analysis, the possibility of revealing these cultural values is enhanced, allowing the observation and appreciation of the how different ways of thinking have developed over time. Cultural values that deal with topics of gender inequalities, racial and social status prejudices and the result of societal dynamic are often hidden in texts from the Victorian Era, and this is absolutely true of Vanity Fair by William Thackeray as well as Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. The two texts hold many areas of diversification and commonality which provide a basis of characters and their ways of thinking, in turn exposing attitudes towards certain cultural values.
When the “decently dressed” Lengel tried to tell the girls to be “decently dressed” because the girls were wearing “bathing suits”, the girls first argued they “are decent” and left because the girls thought what they were doing was not wrong since they have different perspective than Lengel. The result of feeling empathy for the younger generation in "Railway Club Blues" is that the older generation saw the younger generation as themselves and the protagonist mentioned that teens were the “Strange children of the simple punks we were”. Also, despite of the younger teens “clothes are odd [and] their attitudes obscure”, the protagonist saw their faces that gave him “a kindred memory” of how the teens “repeat the ancient dance”. Ultimately, because the two generations were able to enjoyed a small jazz performance together, the protagonist felt “all cardboard boundaries are erased.”. Both authors used contrast to show the results of feeling empathy for the younger generation, and in “A&P”, the result of Lengel feeling empathy for the teenagers is that he was rejected by the youth due to their contrasting perspectives. When the protagonist from “Railway Club Blues” felt the “boundaries are erased” when the music began to play, this demonstrates how the the protagonist felt how everyone shared the same feelings and empathize the teens despite
...olours of the opening scenes combines with the horrid lifestyle of Vaughn and Lena, whilst the greens and clouded with droplets of rain as they drive over the range brings in the ideas of hope and a future for both of the characters. The vital role the changing images that surrounds the pair gives insight into the influence of settings on plot and character development.
The director weaved a captivating emotional tapestry by playing on the audience’s previous knowledge of Gallipoli, with a manipulation of people’s sense of injustice, a taste of hatred at the idiocy of war, he pulled this together by superb screen play to leave the heart pumping of every viewer. This movie affected teenagers by exploiting the harsh reality of what really happened during Gallipoli by the use of music, for causing a slowing effect as the viewer takes in the full meaning of the scene along with close ups to exaggerate the theme of courage. Peter Weir tied these techniques along with dialogue and tracking shots to reenact the horrible way lives were lost in Gallipoli during 1914-1915. AN important message for teenagers was clearly showing throughout the film on a young man who lost his life, while fighting bravely for what he believed in. Teenagers communicate this message of the importance of fighting and being brave when standing up for yourself and your goals and appreciating everything we have, as it one day may be
The film has many redemptive moments and looks and feels a little creepy because of some of the songs they sang. Some of the memorable songs such as ‘’I smell children” and ‘’Come out my children’’ reveal the objectionable content of this movie. The movie includes very mild scares, and occasional rude language. The thematic content affects the experience and interpretation because it is similar to a theme and this is very important in a movie. If the theme is not well written then it will cause people to dislike the movie. Formal techniques do forward the thematic content by carrying out a specific task for the
up an overall idea of the theme of the scene. The scene is quite long,
The most enduring and alluring part of the film is the live footage of Holiday performing, either in a band with one of her idols, Louis Armstrong, or in her first film role as a maid, or in her later televised performances in the fifties. It was not Lady’s vocal talent that made her what she was. It was her delivery, performance style, charisma, and impeccably beautiful dramatization of even the most banal little number that made an impression on audiences. The footage of her singing the song “Strange Fruit” is one of the most amazing and alarming things in the film. As the audience looking in, we feel every word she sings, with a bit of awe, tinged with the horrid reality of what the song is about.
At the start of the film, Marker put in this familiar noises of the planes to tell us that it was situated at the airport. Without the use of the sound in this particular scene, it would be just a photo montage whereby the viewers wouldn't probably feel the present of planes. Music helps to establish a sense of the pace at each of the accompanying scene and sometimes overlap voice-over musical score. At the beginning of the film, the images of the war torn Paris was accompanied by some sort of choir music that sounded very depressing and melancholic which then adds to the atmosphere. With the film starting off with this eerie atmosphere could also foreshadow a depressing storyline later on, that the protagonist meets his own death. Furthermore with the deliberate use of music in various part of the film, it kind of foreshadow the tragic ending whereby the fixated image of him as a child watching someone die at the
The time is 1959, the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Welton Academy. Welton is a sort of Ivy League training school. The boys of Welton Academy are dutiful sons, their lives arranged by Mom and Dad like connecting dots. They need only move assuredly from point A, Welton, to point B, Harvard or Oxford, to point C, a prestigious law firm/corporation/band. However, that does not stop their new English teacher from encouraging them to break the pattern. With a contagious passion for verse and a lust for life, Keating exhorts his students to think for themselves. Then avocation that they strip themselves of prejudices, habits and influences.
Although, there are an infinite amount of examples in this story, the young characters adapted their personality, actions and decisions based on the group's approval, rather than what they believe as an individual. The Man in the Well was not just one example but, many of these concepts of transformation are visible in schools, shows and reality itself.
Three discovery songs consist within act one whereby the characters reflect upon the hurdles they have faced and what they have learnt as outcome. (Rosen, 2010). During Little Red’s song, “I Know Things Now”, she learns the difference between “good and nice”, which all children come to learn with time. Red learns that a man (or wolf as Sondheim depicts him) may act nice when they want something from you. Little Red’s melodic theme, as per Figure 1, is repetitive, catchy and similar to a schoolyard. As simple and childlike as it seems, it is a transformation of what her ‘Mother said’ motif as per Figure 2, which has now been planted as a memory far in the distant. (Rosen, 2010). She has finally absorbed what she was informed and applied it as per her own realizations and conclusions. Through the use of this varied motif, Sondheim is showing the audience that she has finally absorbed what she was informed and applied it as per her own realizati...
‘Billy Elliot’ has a range of powerful scenes with different contrasting emotions. This enhances the audiences understanding of the story. An early scene in the film which produced this impact was when Billy was unable to concentrate while doing ballet due to his father in the strike. The blue in the gym matched the strike through the clothes of some men and the helmets of the police officers with blue embedded on them. Sound had a dramatic impact on the audience since the delivery of both scenes was conflicting. When Billy was doing ballet in his dance class; the music was calm and peaceful. The environment was also poised and relaxing. However, when the strike was taking place, the atmosphere was loud and blaring with ear-splitting shouts from all the men. There was a lot of anger and frustration in the tone of their voices as they shouted “STOP!” The classical ballet music was edited in with the loud shouts from the strike to convey the feeling of intensity and power versus tranquillity and serenity. Mrs Wilkinson shouts at Billy while he is practicing because it was obvious that he was “…not concentrating.” This suggested to the audience that Billy is distracted, with his father being in the strike. Another technique which was distinguishable was the tone of Mrs Wilkinson’s voice which developed into a rough and...
With one of the most memorable transitions in the film (the Silent Scream performed by a Japanese Butoh dancer), Baraka makes clear the consequences of modern human life. When increasing production and profit takes priority over valuing human life, civilization eventually destroys itself; the film walks us through scenes of systemic poverty, exploitation, war, and genocide to illustrate this point. Paired with stirring, ominous music, this sequence is the most effective sequence of the film and can stand alone as an indictment of modern civilization. Finally, the story of modern civilization ends with images of the ruins of great ancient civilizations. The takeaway message is clear: just as those civilizations rose and fell, so too will the great civilizations of
The first musical component I will talk about is the vocals heard in the song. In the beginning of this song, a rising sun is being shown on the image track. To give us hints as to where this is taking place, a form of verbal chanting is played in the beginning. This chanting has a tribal feeling to it, which tells us that we are looking at some rural area rather than a metropolitan area. This depicts to the audience the setting for the rest of the song along with the rest of the movie. The chanting is also in a call and response pattern, which can be heard when the other group of voices responds to the one voice. As the song progresses, an African choir can be heard, and when they ...
Ms. Johnson had overcome many challenging obstacles in her life, but had never dealt with the challenges of trying to teach troubled teens. The lyrics of this song are an important factor to the movie, since Ms. Johnson had to learn about her multi-cultured student’s backgrounds in order to better understand them.