1. Emma Upton PR3: Critical Responses to Media Products
How we respond to media products
In this acritical I will be looking at four main areas when analysing film texts. We respond to media
products in many ways, some of the approaches may be in the manner in which we analyse . Genre,
is what type of film it is and generally what typical codes and conviction that film will follow. In this
case, Leon is an action thriller. Narrative is the way the events in the film are put together to present
the story. Semiotics is how to read different signs within the film, and then studying how and why
they are used and included. Representation is how a certain thing is portrayed, for example age, race
and sexuality within media texts.
Leon
The film Leon was produced and released in 1994, and directed by Luc
Besson. The film stars Jean Reno as Leon, Natalie Portman as Mathilda
and Gary Oldman as Stansfield. With the film Leon, it follows a very
typical 3 act linear structure to tell the story of the film, which consists
of a exposition, inciting incident in Act 1, rising action, climax in Ac 2
falling action and the denouement in the final Act 3.
The beginning of Leon establishes the character, setting and theme, this
is the exposition. We meet Leon, the main character (Jean Reno)
presented as a hit man, shortly after we meet Mathilda (Natalie
Portman). The setting is established instantly with the opening scene as
the first few shots of New York. The inciting incident occurs when
Mathilda’s family is murdered by a mob of drug dealers ordered by Stansfield. In act 2, the rising
action is when we then see Leon ageing to take care and look after Mathilda, and find out she wants
revenge for her brother. Leon then agrees to train
Mathilda how to ‘clean’ and how to get revenge.
Leon then kills Stansfield’s colleagues. This then
escalates to a standoff between Stansfield and
Leon, that results in them both dying and Mathilda
escaping, which is the climax. The final act 3, the
falling action in Leon is when Mathilda visits Leon’s friend, and given Leon’s money. The ending or
denouement of Leon is the planting of Leon’s plant.
When we analyse films, we can look at certain things within the film that establish the genre, for
example setting, character and style. With the film Leon we can tell the film is a very conventional
action thriller film, by the codes and conventions used. With the setting included in Leon, the film is
set in New York which is a very conventional setting for action thrillers. The connotations
surrounding New York are that it is very powerful, wealthy and known as a very crime ridden place.
Most action thriller films include a protagonist and an antagonist, in Leon the protagonist is played
by Leon (Jean Reno) and the antagonist being Stansfield (Gary Oldman).Mathilda plays the side kick
role to Leon and becomes his protégé learning how to ‘clean’. Mathilda is a very unconventional
character for an action thriller; usually the women in action thriller films are very over sexualised.
However, because she is only 12 years old, she and Leon have a relationship more similar to a father
and daughter relationship after her family is killed by drug dealers. She takes the role of the

2. Emma Upton PR3: Critical Responses to Media Products
character looking to get revenge on the drug dealers for killing her younger brother, which is a very
conventional story line for action thriller films. The character Leon is also a very unconventional
character for an action thriller film, usually the protagonist is also very sexualised, for example in 007
James Bond films. Usually the protagonist in an action thriller is a womaniser and very fit and good
looking; however Leon is very odd and spends most of the time on his own, which is very
unconventional to action thrillers.
With the iconography included in the film Leon, as
previously mentioned we see the New York skyline
which is a very popular use of iconography within
action thrillers set in New York to make it completely
obvious of the location of the film. Then around the
beginning of the film we see Leon take out and kill all
of the drug dealers, it then shows Leon threatening
to kill the lead drug dealer. He has a knife to his
throat and a phone in the other hand on the other
side of the man’s face. This is a clear representation
of life and death, the knife to his throat represents death and the phone represents a life line, a way
to get out and live. Another form of iconography that is used is the ending of the film, when
Mathilda plants Leon’s ‘best friend’. This represents Leon’s death, and as the plant grows, represents
Leon living on through the plant, Mathilda will never forget Leon.
Another way we can analyse films is through the style of the film. The film uses non diegetic sounds
to build up intensity, and get faster when an action scene or a serious scene is about to happen
which creates a narrative enigma. Also, usually lighting represents the serious elements to the film,
for example when a scene has very dark lighting is used to represent the seriousness of the scene. It
could also represent life and death. Death through scenes with dark l ighting, and light scenes
representing life and hope. All of these elements are conventional to the action thriller genre.
Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction is a crime, drama, thriller film directed by Quentin Tarantino
and stars John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis
and released in October 1994. The film shows the actions of two hit men
(John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson), a gangster’s wife (Uma Thurman) and
an aging boxer (Bruce Willis). The film jumps from story to story throughout
the film, and we are left to match up the story order on our own. The
characters are all connected by the character Marsellus Wallace, being Mia’s
(Uma Thurman) husband, Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega’s (Samuel L
Jackson and John Travolta) boss and also the character that pays Butch
Coolidge (Bruce Willis) to throw the fight. The story intertwines and we see
the lives of them all told in a non-linear narrative.
The film Pulp Fiction is a postmodern media text that features many
different postmodern techniques. The audience will consciously identify the postmodern elements

3. Emma Upton PR3: Critical Responses to Media Products
within the film and recognize the majority of them. There are 6 main postmodern features that are
included within Pulp Fiction: Intertextuality, Parody, Pastiche, Reflexivity, Bricolage and Self-referentiality.
Intertextuality is where the media text purposely includes other media texts, for example in Pulp
Fiction within the Jack Rabbit Slim scene it shows a waitress dressed as the iconic figure, Marilyn
Monroe, stood in her most iconic pose in the film Seven Year Itch. Also, within the background of the
Jack Rabbit Slims scene, we see girls dressed similar
to those in the film Grease, the Pink Ladies.
Parody is when that particular media text purposely
copies another media text in a very humorous way,
in pulp fiction we see this used when the two
characters, Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega are
dancing, John Travolta parodies himself in his
previous film, Saturday Night Fever. This is one of
the films he is most well known for.
Pastiche is when a media text imitates very closely
the work of a previous artist, this is very different to
parody as with pastiche it celebrates rather than
mocks the work it is imitating. This is also very similar
to intertextuality. We see this in use in the same
scene previously mentioned, where the waitress is
dressed as the iconic figure, Marilyn Monroe, stood in
her most iconic pose in the film Seven Year Itch.
Reflexivity is where the filmmaker refers to that actual film making process within the mise en scene
or narrative, which purposely breaks the illusion of the TV show or film, is real. This is clearly used in
the scene where Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace are sat in the car before going into Jack Rabbit Slims,
Mia draws a square with her fingers in mid-air, this would not appear in real life; however appears
on screen, breaking the illusion the film is real.
Bricolage is when the film references a mix of
genres and/or historical eras within a shot or
scene. We see this in Pulp Fiction when the
Marilyn Monroe waitress does the iconic stance,
within the mise en scene we see a lot of clear
references to different times, e.g: Background
characters dressed as if they were in different
times, the girl with a perm and short dress suggests 1990’s, whereas most other things in the scene
suggest 1950’s. This is also featured in the scene when Mia Wallace takes drugs in the toilet, and
taking drugs in toilets was a very common sight in the 1990’s.

4. Emma Upton PR3: Critical Responses to Media Products
Self-referentiality is where the producer of the media text or an actor makes a clear direct reference
to their previous work. We see this in Pulp Fiction in the car scene it references a similar scene to
John Travolta’s previous work, Grease. Mia Wallace mentions Fox Force Five, which is a reference to
the characters in the film Kill Bill. Finally, when the Mia and Vincent are dancing, John Travolta
parodies himself in his past film, Saturday Night Fever.