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Film Criticism There are several approaches to the film criticism and each approach provides us with certain information about the movie. Altogether, these approaches allow us to construct a complete characteristic or critique of a film and make it possible to understand better its meaning and its symbolism. In my opinion, semiological approach would be the best in showing information hidden in the movie on that subconscious level, which makes that special impact on the viewer. The word semiology is derived from the Greek section meaning sign. De Saussure argued that this discipline would show what constituted signs and the laws which govern them. Semiology would be part of social psychology and linguistics would fall under semiology.
The construction of a message relies on the use of signs, which stand for something else. A basic system of signs is called a code that is a system of signification. Semiology as the discipline is concerned with the explication of codes: it aims to isolate each code, rank the code on a scale of specificity, measure its degree of generality and investigate how it interacts with other codes. In other words, semiology is the aggregate of all the codes and sub-codes which combine to generate signification or meaning in a medium. In movies, there are many different signs, which indeed are communicative devices between humans.
Therefore, I think that semiological approach is one of the most enlightening ones used to analyze and criticize a film. Any film is mainly about the signs and different images that are delivered to viewers for making some specific decisions about information that has been perceived through watching. The notion of the sign, in effective it one submits it to a healthy reduction in scope and if one confines it to the minimal sense which has been specified has no right to play a more important role in cinematic and film semiotics than in other areas of contemporary semiotics and linguistics. The cinema is seen to reveal index ical characteristics of the photographic image, rather than to signify. This happens mainly due to the concept of natural signs in preference to symbolism and styles rather than codes.
The film image models itself after the patterns of photographic reality and links existentially to the object it depicts. A pure cinema would therefore portray a perfect illusion of reality. The belief that film can exist without distinct signifier's is an obviously dynamically derived de Saussure an semiology, which excludes the role of the interpreter. Where images exist independently of an interpreting mind they cannot be identified, but as soon as they are perceived by an interpreter, they must become signs. The sign cannot be short-circuited - the signifier and signified are not separated in film. Film is unique in this respect for in any traditional work of art, the world that is represented never constitutes a major part of what the author is communicating.
In non-representational art, such as music, it is even missing. When present in literature, its function is merely to introduce the expressed world - the connotative level. In cinema, however, the connotative is linked to the denotative. Signs in the film are both diabetic (self-referring and extra-diabetic (referring to the object). That is, the sign can refer to familiar objects outside the film as well as objects with which the viewer has become familiar within the film. In each case, the sign remains iconic, index ical, symbolic or a mixture of all three.
However, two symbols are determined to have an iconic relation, such as the energy-wave forms of electrovideographic artists, or if two icons are determined to have a symbolic relation. One of the effects of syn aesthetic cinema is to break the hold that the medium has over the viewer. By removing the experience from past conditioning or convention, a movies, as Birth of Nation and Searchers are both able to develop their own syntactical meaning where the semantics of any given image may vary or change in the context of different sequences. This alteration of meanings is brought about by extending the capacity of the paradigmatic axis.
This dimension plays a significant role in that it refers to relations between present and absent units. The greater the number of possible alternatives to choose from, the more subtle and pertinent may be the choice of unit to feed into the syntagma, thus affecting nuance and enriching connotation. In addition, the employment of multiple super-impositions as used by, for example, Birth of a Nation by D. W. Griffith, introduces a new element, which greatly complicates the paradigmatic axis.
In conventional narrative cinema, this axis operates on a digital basis. The use of multiple interacting superimposition's, however, injects additional seconds, which occur simultaneously within the same frame. This serves to transform the digital basis of computation to an analogical one. To meet this change of internal structure, the paradigmatic axis must be redefined to refer to relations not only between present and absent units, but also an unspecified number of simultaneous presents.
Birth of a Nation by D. W. Griffith was a great masterpiece. It was one of the most technologically advanced films ever made for its period. The film paved the way for the great film industry: showing its audiences the longest film they had ever seen and the most eventful. Birth of a Nation had such an impact on the American people that excluding Gone with the Wind it is thought to have the greatest influence on how Americans view that period.
Griffith was able to make such an influentially film by using noteworthy themes, distinct and believable messages and anachronistic cinematic techniques. Birth of a Nation possesses a huge number of signs. This allows criticizing it from both structuralist and semiological approaches. It also contains many new cinematic innovations and refinements, technical effects and artistic advancements, including a color sequence at the end. It became a formative influence on future films and has had a recognized impact on film history and the development of film as art. In addition, at almost three hours in length, it was the longest film to date.
The themes in Birth of a Nation concentrate on race, class, gender, and region, which are all signs that carry information to the viewer. Griffith shows a black court and legislature; both are shown as an outrage. The black men are loud, disorderly and drunk. On the street the stupid and drunk blacks are shown voting in a disrespectful and uncaring way, and the reformed and educated white males are seen not being able to vote. Griffith exaggerates facts about confederate soldiers not being able to participate in the government and courts of the south after the civil war. By doing this, it seems as the south is being taken over by savage blacks who are causing anarchy.
The message that blacks cause anarchy and only want white women are played up even more throughout the film. The black soldiers are seen running through the streets terrorizing women and children and looting anything they can get their hands on. The image of blacks that was brought in the movie was not positive, however, the semiotic technique with which it was delivered to the viewer is amazing. In the end of the movie, Lynch locks Elsie in room with him and physically pursues her. The beautiful and helpless Elsie is then rescued by the heroes of the movie, the KKK. The sign and message conveyed is that the KKK is only trying to protect defenseless women from savage black men, thus returning justice to the south.
The film reinforced the KKK as only wanting to save the south from anarchy without bloodshed. The only blood that will be shed is that of the savage renegades who torment helpless women. This message is played out numerous times. Griffith makes the KKK an honorable and heroic organization. To the American audience the KKK is made very believable and appealing. Griffiths pioneering technical work includes: the special use of subtitles graphically verbalizing imagery, the introduction of night photography, the use of outdoor natural landscapes as backgrounds, the definitive usage of the still-shot, the technique of the camera iris effect (expanding or contracting circular masks to either reveal and open up a scene, or close down and conceal a part of an image, moving, panning camera tracking shots, the use of total-screen close-ups to reveal intimate expressions, the use of vignettes seen in or iris-shots in one portion of a darkened screen, high-angle shots and the abundant use of panoramic long shots).
The dramatization of history in a moving story is an example of an early spectacle or epic film with historical costuming, staged battle scenes with hundreds of extras, extensive crosscutting between two scenes to create excitement and suspense, and the cumulative building of the film to a dramatic climax. This all makes the movie to be full of signs that were made in that special way to make the viewer understand in depth the whole situation. Griffiths semiological cinematic techniques help to make the film seem like actual history, and enthralled the audience, as films had never done before. Griffith uses historical facsimiles by showing an actual photograph, saying that the following is based on the history, and then moving from the picture directly into a scene, without restating that the scene was fictionalized. An example of this is a picture of the black courtroom.
Griffith shows a picture of the courtroom, says that it is a historical facsimile, and then turns from the picture to a scene of black men laughing, drinking, eating fried chicken, and sitting with their feet up and shoes off. This leads the audience to believe that the whole scene is a historical facsimile, when in fact only the picture is historical. Griffith also uses other signs to enthrall the audience. He uses wide-angle shots of battle scenes and crowd scenes unlike other movies of the time. In addition, a complete musical score accompanies the film directing and emotionalizing the audience's views of scenes and characters. Reformist Stoneman is introduced with a pounding cut of music that shows power and wealth.
Music and cinematic techniques are also used in a powerful ending scene. The film ends with a parade of liberators, hundreds of KKK men in white outfits marching down the street reclaiming their land. The scene is accompanied by blaring patriotic music. The camera is able to show all of the men with a wide-angle lens, allowing for an amazing view of a white sea of justice waving American flags. For the American audience such signs as camera angels, music, etc. were very appealing, and made the film enjoyable.
The themes and messages were very believable with historical facsimiles and noteworthy by bending the truth. They made blacks out to be savage anarchists, and allowed the audience to pity the white men who were only trying to gain justice in the country. All of these strategies permitted the American people to be impacted by the films messages and values. These themes, messages, and cinematic techniques had such an impact on Americans that the film changed the way Americans interpreted their history. The Searchers, a film directed by John Ford and filmed in 1956, is one of the great American western classics. Although, at its time, it was unrecognized by critics, today many directors have reflected the film in their works.
The Searchers is the tale of a lone, crusading man, played by John Wayne, who lives his life as a constant journey. Ethan is a lonely, tragic character who is obsessed with hatred and revenge. This film explores the psychology of issues such as racism, feminism, imperialism, and the fallen hero. These issues were brought to the viewer with the help of signs that were intended to cause certain emotions and draw attention. For these reasons Searchers is considered a true masterpiece of American filmmaking. Besides, filled with beautiful images of Monument Valley, its secluded open spaces capture the beauty and the isolating danger of the frontier.
This movie tells the emotionally compelling story of not only a revengeful man in search of his kidnapped nieces but also of his inner battle and discovery of his identity. Sometimes the film causes a feeling that it is too stuffed with different signs that actually reveal the situation in the way they should not have. It makes the movie less interesting. For example, due to various messages sent by the setting to the reader together with story itself it is easy to conclude that Ethan can is a fallen hero. He enters the movie as a lonely, prejudiced man. He causes stress and tension within his family, but when called upon to save his brothers daughter, Ethan becomes a hero as he safely returns his niece to the Jorgensens.
Once his duty is complete, Ethan returns to his loner status. He is fated to wander and cannot live in a civilized, family-based community. Ethan wanders back into the desert wilderness continuing his life long odyssey for self-discovery. Overall, this film has stereotypical Hollywood perception of Indians. They are portrayed as vicious warriors, interested only in scalping and raping the white race. They speak in fragmented sentences with choppy words, giving ridiculous names.
For example, the Indian chief in the film is named Chief Scar. This immediately gives sign to the audience that he is brutal, vicious man. To add to Hollywood's own racial misunderstanding, a white man plays Chief Scars character. The last scene of the movie begins with Ethan lingering outside as the camera pulls back into the darkened inside of the home, the doorway framing the scene. Ethan is fated to wander on into the wild and untamed West. Neurotically split and isolated, he belongs neither to the settlers nor with the Indians.
Ethan turns around for one last longing look then begins walking into the swirling dust back into the desert wilderness, a reversal to how he entered the picture so many years before. This all shows how much symbolism is in the movie. In my opinion, the use of signs in this movie was perfect, because this signification greatly helped the viewer to perceive the movie in the way the director John Ford wanted. Therefore, I consider this movie successful from a structuralist and semiological points of view. Searchers is strongly developed film filled with a plethora of symbolic figures and actions. It touches upon many social and political issues that have plagued out nation for years.
Although it includes many typical Hollywood stereotypes, this is one of the great western classics.
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Research essay sample on D W Griffith Birth Of A Nation
