1. The Fight Club
The Fight club is Film by David Fincher; the movie is about a business man with insomnia who is
living a boring life in the same routine. That all changes when he meets Tyler Durden and after his
flat sets on fire he and Tyler end up forming an underground fight club that leads into something
much more.
A hypodermic model is being passively influenced by a media text.
Alexander Walker - "a toxic experience ... an inadmissible assault on personal decency ... and on
society itself. It resurrects the Führer principle. It promotes pain and suffering as the virtues of the
strongest. It tramples every democratic decency underfoot." This statement made by Alexander is
very right wing; he says that the Fuhrer principle is being resurrected in the movie. Implying that
everyone who watches this film will become Nazi’s. Although I agree that the movie is quite
influential I wouldn’t o as for to say that it will defiantly convince people to do copy certain aspects
of the film.
An example of a movie influencing violence is the James Bugler case, the movie which was referred
to in that circumstance was child’s play 3, with this example you can see how people are worried
about how movies can affect the way people think, I personally don’t think that the movie can
influence any kind of negative behaviour, I think that it made people more aware of the problems
that some people face and how drugs can affect the way people think and act.
The BBFC case study had a few problems with film before they made i t an 18, one of the reasons
they put for this was the use of extreme violence, and explicit scenes. Another concern was that it
would encourage bare knuckle fighting and terrorist groups. There is also the glorification of alcohol
and suicide attempts betrayed in the film. So for these reasons the BBFC requested some cuts to the
film and finally gave the certificate of 18.
Uses Gratification Theory
.Diversion – Escape from everyday problems and routine – The only part in the film that shows a
distraction from life is the buying of ikea products to try and help fill the hole in his life and also
because he feels like he doesn’t feel anything anymore he goes to support groups.
.Personal relationships – Using the media for emotion and other interaction – this is a very popular
aspect in the media industry as everyone is affected by relationship issues and family problems so
people will produce shows like EastEnders and coronation street. This film has a few aspects of
personal relationships but I don’t think they are in anyway related to what others are used to.
.Personal Identity – Finding yourself reflected in texts; learning behaviour – From watching Fight
Club I think that most people, me included fin tem self’s relating in some way to the character
played by Edward Norton. Simple because his life is depicted as repetitive and boring and most
people these days can find themselves in a routine hat is exactly that, although maybe not as bad.
A lot of people also find themselves not being able to sleep at night, like myself so this could make
us reflect more with the character and be influenced by the things he does. Also with the character
Tyler Durden being played by Brad Pit and being shown as the man in charge and really popular and
2. cool it could influence people to act like he does and want to dress like he does because they want
to be the way he is in the movie or maybe even just look like him.
.Surveillance – Information that could be useful for living – As a media student, finding new
techniques from films is something I try and do a lot, and after watching Fight Club I noticed an
editing technique that David Fincher used which helped emphasise certain points in the film he
wanted to get across. This was simply representing Edward Norton’s boring film life with slow
dragged out cuts and then showing the action and more thrilling part of his life in the film with fast
cuts and fast moving shots.
3. Juno
(2008)
The movie is about a 16 year old girl named Juno, who became pregnant after having sex with her
friend, the movie is heavily based around the problems and relationships that are formed during the
pregnancy, Juno finds a couple who are willing to adopt the baby when it is born but there are also
other circumstances which are added to her situation. (Coming of age, comedy, romance and drama)
Reception theory (Stuart hall) – Reception theory is basically how we react t films based on certain
aspects in our lives, such as age, gender, and ethnicity. According to Hal rather than textual factors
that defining an audience response, the contextual factors help shape it, individually for each
audience member.
There are 3 factors of the reception theory, these are preferred, negotiated and opposed.
Preferred – This is how the director wanted you to see the film.
Negotiated – Is when you agree with the general themes and understand the message it is sending
but didn’t really enjoy the film in other aspects.
Opposed – Is when you completely disagree with the movie in every way, and think that the themes
and message it emits is wrong.
Negotiated – When watching the film I didn’t find it that interesting, even though it was a short film
it seemed to last for ages. At some parts became boring. I feel that as a male the movie didn’t appeal
to me but as it was about people in my age range I did find some parts of the film relevant to me.
There was a prominent difference between the social classes in Juno. The two main classes are lower
class, and upper class, as middle class I do not relate so certain circumstances that would affect Juno
might not affect someone in my class.
We watched the film in lesson to study it, I feel that because I was concentrating on editing
techniques and other curriculum related subjects I didn’t enjoy the film to its fullest, this most likely
made my opinion negotiated, as I did appreciate the thought that was put into the soundtrack of the
film and the way it was filmed.
4. The film was sent to the BBFC wanted o be rated a PG, but was passed at a 12A because of uses of
swearing and the many sex references that are mentioned during the film.
We did a survey in class about Juno and other people’s views on the film and here are the results.
The majority of people that took my survey were male.
As you can see most people are negotiated towards the movie. I think this can be linked to
our age. This is shown below.
5. Judging from my results I feel like the women who took the survey enjoyed the fi lm more than the
males.
