In what ways does ‘Taking Lives’ conform to or subvert what you consider to be the forms and conventions of the thriller genre?
Taking Lives conforms to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre by all the techniques used to play with the viewer’s mind without actually showing anything, just letting the imagination of the audience take over.
One of these techniques is creating suspense and tension by playing music which creates tension, like the ‘Jaws’ theme tune for example, when this tune is played the audience automatically start asking questions in their heads, what’s going to happen? What or who is following them? Who’s the murderer? Half the time nothing ever happens, but the human imagination is far too good to notice. Without Suspense and tension thriller movies are not possible, this is why playing music conforms to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre.
Twists can also play a big part in thriller genres; Taking Lives features a big twist which becomes apparent at the end of the film, to make this twist work, a protagonist is used, without one most twists wouldn’t work. By including a protagonist the audience becomes familiar with them, almost as if they know the person face to face, so when the twist is revealed the viewers are shocked. The character of the protagonist in Taking Lives is a normal working class man who lives a relatively normal life that the audience will be able to relate to, this is why he is a good character to be the protagonist to keep the audience guessing throughout the film, revealing little bits at a time.
You could say Angelina Jolie who plays the lead role of Illeana Scott, a top F.B.I agent, is a protagonist at the end of the film too. Although she is a genuine character all the way through the film, she fools the murderer by pretending to be pregnant with his baby however the audience don’t know any better either. She manages so stab the murderer after he stabs her ‘’pregnant’’ tummy, but as he is about to dye she pulls out a rubber pregnant tummy, so in this sense you could say she is a protagonist as well, to create even more of a twist. Without a protagonist of some sort the film would probably be too predictable, which is why twists conform to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre.
Action sequences can help a lot in a thriller genre. Going back to suspense and tension, with an action sequence tension will build in the audience because they won’t know the outcome. Say the action sequence is a fight, or a struggle between two people, or a car chase, if the protagonist is involved, the audience should hopefully, if the film is done well, be sat in their seats glued to the screen hoping that the unsuspecting character won’t get hurt. Action sequences conform to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre.
The whole film is full of puzzles, mysteries, twists and surprises. These help when keeping the audience guessing, as soon as they may think one thing, it immediately becomes apparent that that would be impossible.
About half an hour from the end, the audience finds out who the murderer is, the protagonist who is played by Ethan Hawke, after spending the entire film wondering who the murderer is, they then find out it is the least expecting character, this always has a big impact on thrillers because the suspense builds up in the viewers heads while they’re wondering how the film is going to end. After physically seeing the murderer in action it goes to seven months later which is part of a second twist, Agent Scott devised a plan of pretending to become pregnant, she knew he was watching her the whole time, it was just a case of waiting for him to make an appearance again, however again the audience didn’t know this was going on, they thought that she was genuinely pregnant as she had a one night with the murderer before she knew he was a psycho. This is another way of how taking lives conforms to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre.
To conclude the ways that ‘Taking Lives’ conform to or subvert to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre I would say that with suspense, tension, the use of protagonist’s on more than one occasion and the way that the audience can relate to them, the action sequences and the puzzles the mysteries the twists and surprises, this is what creates a thriller, the right use of each one of these in the right places makes a excellent film, which is exactly what D.J Caruso did in ‘Taking Lives’. He kept the audience guessing almost every step of the way, and revealed the whole story in a very clever manner to make a bigger impact on the audience, so when the film is over they think to themselves that they had no idea that’s how the film was going to end.
Taking Lives conforms to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre by all the techniques used to play with the viewer’s mind without actually showing anything, just letting the imagination of the audience take over.
One of these techniques is creating suspense and tension by playing music which creates tension, like the ‘Jaws’ theme tune for example, when this tune is played the audience automatically start asking questions in their heads, what’s going to happen? What or who is following them? Who’s the murderer? Half the time nothing ever happens, but the human imagination is far too good to notice. Without Suspense and tension thriller movies are not possible, this is why playing music conforms to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre.
Twists can also play a big part in thriller genres; Taking Lives features a big twist which becomes apparent at the end of the film, to make this twist work, a protagonist is used, without one most twists wouldn’t work. By including a protagonist the audience becomes familiar with them, almost as if they know the person face to face, so when the twist is revealed the viewers are shocked. The character of the protagonist in Taking Lives is a normal working class man who lives a relatively normal life that the audience will be able to relate to, this is why he is a good character to be the protagonist to keep the audience guessing throughout the film, revealing little bits at a time.
You could say Angelina Jolie who plays the lead role of Illeana Scott, a top F.B.I agent, is a protagonist at the end of the film too. Although she is a genuine character all the way through the film, she fools the murderer by pretending to be pregnant with his baby however the audience don’t know any better either. She manages so stab the murderer after he stabs her ‘’pregnant’’ tummy, but as he is about to dye she pulls out a rubber pregnant tummy, so in this sense you could say she is a protagonist as well, to create even more of a twist. Without a protagonist of some sort the film would probably be too predictable, which is why twists conform to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre.
Action sequences can help a lot in a thriller genre. Going back to suspense and tension, with an action sequence tension will build in the audience because they won’t know the outcome. Say the action sequence is a fight, or a struggle between two people, or a car chase, if the protagonist is involved, the audience should hopefully, if the film is done well, be sat in their seats glued to the screen hoping that the unsuspecting character won’t get hurt. Action sequences conform to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre.
The whole film is full of puzzles, mysteries, twists and surprises. These help when keeping the audience guessing, as soon as they may think one thing, it immediately becomes apparent that that would be impossible.
About half an hour from the end, the audience finds out who the murderer is, the protagonist who is played by Ethan Hawke, after spending the entire film wondering who the murderer is, they then find out it is the least expecting character, this always has a big impact on thrillers because the suspense builds up in the viewers heads while they’re wondering how the film is going to end. After physically seeing the murderer in action it goes to seven months later which is part of a second twist, Agent Scott devised a plan of pretending to become pregnant, she knew he was watching her the whole time, it was just a case of waiting for him to make an appearance again, however again the audience didn’t know this was going on, they thought that she was genuinely pregnant as she had a one night with the murderer before she knew he was a psycho. This is another way of how taking lives conforms to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre.
To conclude the ways that ‘Taking Lives’ conform to or subvert to what I consider to be the forms and conventions of a thriller genre I would say that with suspense, tension, the use of protagonist’s on more than one occasion and the way that the audience can relate to them, the action sequences and the puzzles the mysteries the twists and surprises, this is what creates a thriller, the right use of each one of these in the right places makes a excellent film, which is exactly what D.J Caruso did in ‘Taking Lives’. He kept the audience guessing almost every step of the way, and revealed the whole story in a very clever manner to make a bigger impact on the audience, so when the film is over they think to themselves that they had no idea that’s how the film was going to end.
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