The document provides an analysis of the film Leon. It discusses several aspects of how the responder engaged with the film, including through genre, narrative, representation, and semiotics. It then summarizes the film's plot using the three-act structure: Act One establishes the setting and introduces the orphan Mathilda; Act Two involves Leon training Mathilda to seek revenge; Act Three concludes with the climactic death of the antagonist and Mathilda moving on. Overall, the responder found the film appealing due to their enjoyment of the action genre in which it is categorized.

1. PR3: How we respond to media Products
We start of talking about how we respond to Leon due to a few things
such as:
 Genre
 Narrative
 Semiotics
 Representation
So First is the genre, I enjoy to watch action/thriller type of films this
made me find the film interesting, it also to stereotype on the such film
making assumptions like there is always are hero and a villain to equal
out the rivalry and there is always a victim, a damsel in distress if you
are talking about fairy-tale type action thrillers.
Then there is the narrative, this is the story line and how it affects me
when watching it, there a few scenes that make me uncomfortable and
overs making me feel on edge wanting to see what happens next, to
start off I will talk about the scene where Mathilda is in the room with
Leon it’s the fact that she says” Leon, I think I'm kinda falling in love with
you.” This makes me feel uncomfortable because there are different
ages making it feel like he could be her dad. Then there is the over seen
where Mathilda talks to the receptionist saying “He's not my father. He's
my lover.” This also makes me feel uncomfortable because if I was the
receptionist, I’d call the police or get it sorted out. On the other hand the
good scenes of the film were most of the actions scenes the first would
be where Leon is introduced in the exposition where he is showing the
audience his skills. The second would be where Leon is going after
Mathilda it is a good scene because it shows much the bond between
the two characters have grown and finally the scene where Leon and
Stansfield get blown up, it made me feel as though he was going to
make it until this twist happened just near the end.
Then we have the semiotics did really appeal to me it only seems to
attract the word in the film when it says clean because infact there are
refereeing to killing someone, you’d only know this if you watch the film.
Then finally we have representation, if you like theses sort of films it will

2. attract to you because the people who make it have researched previous
film which makes them know who will like the film and what to write
about for the story for an action/thriller I like action so I enjoyed this film.
This part we will talk about the 3 act structure and apply it to Leon’s
story.
Leon is a film directed by Luc Besson, his more recent work would be
Lucy, featuring Scarlett Johansson, but this film was released on the 18th
of November 1994, which has the actors such as Jean Reno who plays
Leon, the Professional assassin, then there is Natalie Portman which
featured in this film as a very young age making this one of her first
appearance in the movie industry. She plays a 12 year old girl that
meets Jean Reno’s character due to unfortunate event near the
beginning of the film making Natalie Portman’s character getting help by
Jean Reno’s character. Then there is the antagonist which is played by
Gary Oldman which was well known for the Dark Knight trilogy which he
played a similar role but less corrupt. Then there are the lesser main
characters such as Danny Aiello and Peter Appeal’s characters because
they weren’t as much in but still had a good amount of dialog to speak
from. Firstly there was Danny Aiello’s role which entails his character to
assign Leon with his assassinations then there is Peter Appeal’s
character he plays the role of Gary Oldman’s right hand man, his partner
since they both work for the D.E.A.
Now I’ll give you a quick summary of the film told by the 3 act structure,
this contained the following:
 Act One: Exposition
 Inciting Incident
 Act Two: Rising Action
 Climax
 Act Three: Falling Action
 Denouement

3. So Firstly there is Act One, the Exposition basically explains the setting
of the film and some back story for the film. So for Leon this would be
the city of New York, in USA,
in central park, then it goes
to a scene where some
character is picking of
characters, then it reveals
that he is the main character
this shows that both the
setting of the film and the main character is shown on the exposition.
Secondly there is inciting Incident this is where an event is created to the
protagonist making their life changes from the normal lifestyle they
normally have to change due the story’s plot. So in this part of the film
the character Mathilda is shown but also her family is murdered making
Mathilda coming home
to a devastating site
where she walks up to
Leon’s apartment asking
to seek refuge there, so
she would end up like
her family, Then the
killers escape due to
finding Mathilda.
Thirdly there is Act Two, it entails of Rising Action. In the rising action, a
series of related scenes that build up to the climax, in Leon the rising
action is that he agrees to look after Mathilda, due to the actions that
took place in the inciting incident. Then she seeks revenge for her little
brother’s
murder and
is furious at
the Gary
Oldman
character.
Then it
escalates
even

4. further when Leon trains Mathilda to become an assassin so she can
take on her on vendetta. The Second part of the rising action would be
when Mathilda finds out where
Gary Oldman’s character
hangs out, she finds out he is
part of the D.E.A she goes in
undetected with her hidden
weapon. She follows him into
the bathroom to finish the final
blow, when he appears behind the door, one of his goon’s also tell him
when he is face to face with Mathilda that someone killed his guys
because it was personal, just like Mathilda.
Then there is the climax, this is where the story is reached its highest
tension of the
story, so in
Leon’s story
would be the
downfall of
Leon and
Stansfield, they
bit the dust
whilst Mathilda
is free because
Stansfield’s
character won’t hunt her anymore. They both die doesn’t show the
murder but you know they are dead because it shows the dead bodies
lying on the floor.
Finally we come to the last part
of the 3 act structure, the first bit
is about the falling action, this is
where the protagonist and the
antagonist unravel on who is
victories, it is quite obviously due
to what happen in the climax, In Leon the falling action is that Mathilda is
given Leon’s money, she decides to head back to school so this shows

5. that the protagonist over ruled because of Mathilda’s safety and knowing
she is still alive.
To finish off we have the denouement, which is the end of the film or
gathers what happens
in the falling action to
make an ending scene.
In this case it would be
where she is in the
school and heads to
the garden, holding
Leon’s plant, she plants
the plant and then she
says bye as if the plant reminds her of Leon you know this when she
says “I think we’ll be ok here, Leon.”
The next part is where I will talk about the genre theory and apply it to
the film Leon. There are four things to talk about such as:
 Setting
 Character (Representation)
 Iconography
 Style
Firstly there is the setting, the setting in Leon is very easy to identify
because the location is easy to identify but in Leon it is New York, it is
very conventional you can tell this because it is show when the opening
shows central park this show that you can also tell it is New York. This
show of the genre because most action/thriller are based in a big city
well-known of viewers making the film relate to people who live in that
area.
Secondly we have the character this basically who is who in the film, it
easy to know who the antagonist is, it is Gary Oldman’s character
because he is taken a drug every time he plans to kill someone but also
he kills people he even says “I take no pleasure in taking life if it's from a
person who doesn't care about it.” This is the part where he’s confronting
with Mathilda in the bathroom of his workplace. Then we have the
protagonist, you wouldn’t really say Leon is the protagonist but he is the

6. closest to the film has of one because he looks and saves the girl from
being killed a numerous amount of time making him close to one, it’s
hard to say he is one due to what he does for a living, he is an assassin.
Next we have the victim. It is easy to say that Mathilda is the victim due
to her family’s death and seeking revenge to kill Stansfield. You can
identify this when she says “After I've seen the outline of my brother's
body on the floor, you expect me to forget? I wanna kill those sons of
bitches, and blow their fucking heads off!” this shows she want to
become Leon’s apprentice. The lesser known characters in the film
would be Leon’s associate and also Stansfield’s colleagues, these
characters are not well developed because they are not in most of the
film but when they are in the film, they are killing or being killed. On the
other hand there is Leon’s associate he is in near the beginning of the
film helping Leon out then again helping Mathilda out. You’d expect to
see this in an action/thriller so it shows off its genre.
Next we have the iconography this is where we talk about well-known
things that I can see in the film that are iconic to that the genre of the
film. So for Leon it would be; the guns, murder, corrupt officers, abusive
parents, killers, blood. You’d expect to see theses in an action thriller.
This is obviously why Leon has these in its film due its genre.
Finally we have the style of the Leon, you can tell it represents the
genre, the music goes well with the action that is happening but then it
comes together well because of the thriller story that is shown, the film is
well put together making it good and realistic towards its genre.
Then we had to choose our own film then apply how we respond to the
media, I decided to pick from the varied of films, I finally decided to
choose the top grossing film of 2014, it hit the theatres in the UK in
august, Guardians of the Galaxy, I enjoy this film so much it was a
highlight of 2014.
So we have to apply what we did to Leon on to my own chosen and I
have chosen guardians of the galaxy and the things I’m going to talk
about are:
 Genre

7.  Narrative
 Semiotics
 Representation
Firstly there was the genre, guardians of the galaxy is
action/adventure/Sci-Fi. I enjoyed this film because of its genre because
I like sci-fi films but also I like action and adventure because they are
interesting because for one, you would expect to see a space themed
movie when it comes to sci-fi but other than that the adventure makes
you want to explore into the movie and find out what adventures they
attend in the film and I love seeing action films because I like when two
people fight it out for a reason because it gives me a thrill enjoying these
types of films.
Then there is the narrative, like I’ve said previously I enjoy it but a
numerous scenes in the guardians of the galaxy made me feel mix
emotions. For example, at the beginning of the film you are welcomed
with a song by the name off I’m not in love by 10CC and you find out that
the little boy’s mum dies due to cancer which makes me feel sad
because we didn’t get to progress the story with the mother. Then
another scene would have to be where the main protagonist saves his a
women’s life and this is the scene that makes it feels like it’s a superhero
movie and then finally there is the scene where the character groot uses
some sort of light gift which illuminates the room and it made me feel
happy and it was very beautiful scene, I couldn’t fault the film because I
thought it was brilliant in every way and couldn’t find any horrible scenes
that made me hate it in anyway.
Next there is semiotics you could say there were a few that caught my
eye. For example, it was mostly based in space or on other planets,
firstly what struck my interest was all the neon coloured signs that were
in the decapitated space head it appealed to me because it was a space
market, then there was something I couldn’t figure out, it was why they
are speaking English and not their own language so I re-watched the
film and founded out that when the protagonist are getting line-up in a
space prison and their names and info came on the holographic wall it
said that he was installed with a translation implant in the neck which

8. may explain how he and the audience can understand what people are
saying.
Then finally there is representation the reason I like this movie is
because it is a marvel based film and no matter what I’ll enjoy them and
the people who were making this said that it was a risky move to try
Guardians of the galaxy and it was a hit which made it a good risk, so
most comic book fans would want to see this or other sci-fi fans because
if you enjoyed films such as star trek you’d enjoy this because they both
are based in space.
Then again like Leon we talk about the 3 act structure but for guardians
of the galaxy.
Guardians of the galaxy was directed by James Gunn, it released in the
cinema’s on the 1st of august 2014 and its sequel will be out 2017 so we
have a long wait to see how the gang of guardians of the galaxy is
doing. The actors and actress in the guardians are; Chris Pratt as Peter
Quill/Star Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax the
Destroyer, Groot voiced by Vin Diesel, Rocket voiced by Bradley
Cooper. Then the main antagonist as Lee Pace as Ronan, Then you
have the lesser villains and characters who have an important role such
as; Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta, Karen Gillian as Nebula, Djimon
Hounsou as Korath John C. Reilly as Corpsman Rey, Glenn Close as
Nova Prime, Benicio Del Toro as the collector, Laura Haddock as
Meredith Quill she also was shown in the first Captain America even
before Guardians of galaxy was announced. They were mostly the
characters that were in the movie and had some lines to say. To tell you
what the film is about I will have to explain most things or you might not
understand if deciding to watch it for yourself. The soundtrack was a key
part to the film because the director says that “Peter’s mother gave him
a tape with her favourite songs that she loved when she was growing up
and peter throughout plays the mix tape on his Walkman and he
escapes to her era of music as if they are together again” this explains
that it is important and I will mention most of the songs in my summary of
the film.
The film starts off by playing the song I’m not in love by 10CC and the
year 1988 as a boy called Peter Quill is listening to the music on his mix

9. tape when his grandfather steps into the room and he is summoned to
the room with his family surrounding his mother, his mother is dying due
to cancer so she hasn’t got much time which is why she says “hold my
hand” then her heart stops and Peter runs out of the room with his bag
on back and escapes from the hospital and leaves, then a beam of light
which then he gets abducted for reason he doesn’t know, then it turns to
the next scene and it has gone more into the future into 2014 and this
time he’s not on earth but on a planet known as Morag, we find a
character which is easy to identify when he starts to play his Walkman
which we can identify as Peter then he starts to play the song come and
get your love by Redbone he finds himself finding a mysterious orb
which he doesn’t know the content off suddenly he gets ambushed by
Korath and his men who are unfamiliar of Peter, Peter makes his
getaway with the orb not knowing the consciences that he has brought
upon himself, He escapes to his ship and is able to escape, when he
surprise to see a girl appearing on her ship, then cuts to another scene
and the next song is Go All The Way – Raspberries whilst Quill and his
visitor are chilling on his ship when suddenly he gets a call from the
character Yondu, he is furious to found out he took the item Yondu was
going to salvage and sell to a brooker in Xandar which is home of the
nova corps, then it cuts to a ship showing the characters; Nebula,
Gamora, Ronan and Korath on Ronan’s ship as Korath tells Ronan
about Peter Quills intensions of the orb and tell its being sold in Xandar,
Ronan commands Nebula to go down and retrieve the orb but Gamora
protests and changing his mind and makes Gamora the one to retrieve
it. Then it changes to Xandar and introduces two more characters;
Rocket and Groot, they are scanning for people and it reveals that they
capture targets and get bounty on them and they have Peter on
scanning device, they decide to go after him then it cuts to a scene with
peter talking to the brooker about the orb suddenly Peter mentions
Ronan and the brooker wants nothing to do with him or the orb which
leads to him kicking Peter out, then Peter finds himself talking to
Gamora as she suddenly attacks Peter and takes the orb from him,
there is a huge fight which causes them to fight over the orb whilst Groot
and Rocket just want Peter, the fight ends when they are captured by
the Nova corps and are taken to a holding cell which then it introduces
Corpsman Rey and he decides to send them to a prison, then when they

10. are walking to their cells they walk past a room where an alien is
checking out peter’s Walkman he doesn’t like this so he enters the room
then he is shock upon entry and is tasered to the ground whilst the song
Hooked On A Feeling by Blue Swede plays, Gamora isn’t very welcome
due to her adopted father Thanos who is counted for many deaths, they
eventually meet, Drax which doesn’t truly get metaphors and peter
persuades him not to kill Gamora and they plan to escape via Rockets
plan, during the escape whilst getting there things back Peter realised
that he was missing something, so the others headed back to the ship
whilst Peter went to recover his Walkman, then it turns to the others in
peter’s ship worrying for Peter then Drax spots something coming from
the ship and it’s peter and the song Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by
Rupert Holmes plays. They venture to the place known as Knowhere
and whilst they are going through the song Moonage Daydream - David
Bowie plays. We later find out that that the buyer is The Collector but
before meeting him the characters must wait so Rocket, Drax and Groot
stay at a bar whilst Gamora and Peter are on a balcony and Gamora is
curious about the Walkman and peter shows what it does and he plays
Fooled Around And Fell In Love - Elvin Bishop for her then there are
now able to see the collector. He reveals that there is a gem in the orb
which has an amazing power which in the wrong hands could be
catastrophic, one of collector’s employee touches the gem and it
destroys her and destroys most of the room then they escape just in
time unfortunately they realise that both Yondu and Ronan has come for
something so both Gamora and peter escape, they are chased by
Nebula and a few ships Gamora is corned so she has to head out in to
space and she is shot out of it and Nebula recovers the gem, then Peter
helps Gamora by giving her his mask, then they are picked up by Yondu,
then they make an agreement to get the gem back and they walked
down the corridor pre-mission whilst the song Cherry Bomb - The
Runaways. When they get on the ship a big fight breaks out with most of
the characters when they get to Ronan they are able to take down the
ship and Groot sacrifices himself to save the rest whilst saying “we are
groot”. They are able to get the destroy Ronan’s ship where it crashes in
Xandar all the guardians are accounted for except Groot as he is just
twigs on the ground whilst Rocket cries over it, then suddenly Ronan
emerges from the rubble whilst the song O-O-H Child - The Five

11. Stairsteps and they all give each other signals and peter stands up and
faces Ronan and starts dancing to the song and Ronan is very
confused, then Drax fires Rockets invention at Ronan’s staff and it
shatters then it shows peter and Ronan grabbing for the gem in slow
motion, peter is the first to grab it and surrounds them in a cloud of
purple cloud made by the gem, the rest of the guardians face the cloud
of the gem and hook on with each other and peter controls the gem
destroying Ronan and re-capturing the gem and the cloud disappears.
They trick Yondu by giving him the wrong capsule and giving the real
one to the Nova Corps for their thanks to the guardians they rebuilt the
ship and they all leave Xandar and enter the ship and they all ask
“where’s now?” and peter replies by saying “Something good, something
bad... a bit of both.” Then the films end on the song Ain't No Mountain
High Enough by Marvin Gay and the film finishes.
Now I’ll give you a quick summary of the film told by the 3 act structure,
this contained the following:
 Act One: Exposition
 Inciting Incident
 Act Two: Rising Action
 Climax
 Act Three: Falling Action
 Denouement
So firstly there is the exposition this is
where the characters meet for
guardians of the galaxy most of the
beginning is where we meet our
characters from the first scene in 1988
to where we meet Drax in the prison,
you knows that these are the main
characters because they are focused on them throughout the film.
Secondly we have the inciting incident, where the main characters
experience something that change something, for this guardians of the
galaxy I’d say it would be after they escape the prison and they have to
work together get the orb to Gamora’s buyer. This changes what they
were previously going to do, for example Drax wants to kill Ronan,

12. Rocket and Groot wanted to
give other Peter to Yondu.
Peter wanted to gets money
for the orb and so does
Gamora so their lives didn’t
change that much.
Thirdly there is rising action I’d reckon it would be the part after they
meet Gamora’s buyer called the collector and the explosion is created
by collector’s employee but
also when Ronan and Yondu
reach were the guardians are
and they run from them causing
a huge chase to occur, you can
tell this is the rising action
because there is a conflict with Yondu’s crew and Ronan’s people and
they have a disagreement causing it to be the rising action.
Next there is climax this part in the film would be where they are getting
ready on to attack Ronan and
planning on how to, this is the
climax because it is where the
protagonist makes the outcome of a
big decision change so like the
planning of the attack on Ronan.
Then we come to the falling action
where Ronan comes out of the ship
when everyone thinks it’s over causing
the guardians to keep on guard this is
the falling action because you realise
that the antagonist is still alive and they
must solve it quickly before he
destroys the whole planet.

13. Then finally we have the
denouement this scene is
that actual last scene of the
film, you could say it would
be where the guardians are
in the ship and they ask one
another where to next, this is the denouement because it’s the last
scene on the actual film other than the baby Groot scene.
Finally I’ll talk about the genre theory and apply it to guardians of the
galaxy. There are four things to talk about such as:
 Setting
 Character (Representation)
 Iconography
 Style
There are a lot of settings in guardians of the galaxy, for example there
is Knowhere, Xandar and lots more you can tell it sticks with its genre as
sci-fi because most sci-fi films are based on unknown planets and
worlds. People like to see places other than earth which makes people
want to see what it’s all about.
Then we have characters, this is who is in the film, I listed who was in
the film in the intro to this but you can tell that the guardians are the
protagonist, not at first because they are seem to do something that is
illegal but gradually becoming the heroes when the antagonist Ronan is
plotting to get rid of Xandar with the power gem that he poses, when he
says “The Xandorians and your culture are a disease.” It’s like he’s
saying that they are the disease and he is the cure you know this when
he says “No. I will cure it!” Then also you have Yondu, you wouldn’t
really say he’s good or bad because he helps the guardians but he is a
Ravagers they do a lot of things that they but they normally will abduct
life forms and eat them, Which is not a good thing to do. It is well suited
to the genre sci-fi because there is only one human and the rest are
aliens.
Then we have Iconography, this would be easy because you’d expect to
see are aliens, space ships, alien tech these are all iconic to the genre

14. because you’d expect to see these types of things in sci-fi films but also
you’d expect to see fight scenes in action films scenes to which would
be why there is a lot of fighting because of the action side of the genre,
the iconic things to do for adventure would be the power gem because
the whole plot was surrounding on getting the power gem to safety
which you could say refers the adventure side of the genre.
Finally we have the style of the Guardians of the galaxy, you can tell it
represents the genre, the music goes well with the action that is
happening but also shows that the certain soundtracks represent his
mother’s era of music, then it comes together well because of the
adventure story that is shown, the film is well put together making it good
and fictional towards its genre because it’s based in space so it shows it
well in all the scenes that it is a sci-fi, action and adventure film.
Finally we will talk about postmodernism in Pulp fiction giving a few
examples, understanding of postmodernism.
Pulp Fiction was directed by Quentin Tarantino and was released in
1994 on the 14th of October, the story is nonlinear because the story
doesn’t go under the 3 act structure but also the narrative doesn’t go in
order so some scenes may be in the past and future which shows why it
doesn’t follow the 3 act structure due to someone seems to be alive in a
later scene if that character dies in a scene before that scene. The main
characters are;
Tim Roth as Ringo, Amanda Plummer as Yolanda, John Travolta as
Vincent Vega, Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield, Bruce Willis as
Butch Coolidge, Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace and what happens in the
film is, The lives of two mob hit men which are Vincent and Jules, a
boxer is butch, a gangster's wife which is Mia Wallace, and a pair of
diner bandits which are Ringo and Yolanda, intertwine in four tales of
violence and redemption.
Now I will talk about the postmodernism in Pulp Fiction, The scene that I
will talk about is the Jack Rabbit Slims scenes where John Travolta and
Uma Thurman are in the Club. I will show what is shown in the scene
that can relate to postmodernism the different types of this are:
 Intertextuality

15.  Parody
 Pastiche
 Reflexivity
 Bricolage
 Self-referentiality
So firstly there is intertextuality, this is where it refers to other media
texts, there are many things in this scene that can be class as
intertextuality. For example, there
is a scene in grease where John
Travolta is in the car you can say
this is intertextuality because it
refers to a previous film that has a
similar Mise en scene, then Uma’s
character talks about her a TV
show that she has been it, called
the fox force five this was also
mentioned in kill bill, then finally there is a scene where a waitress in
dressed as Marylin Monroe and her dress flies up because of the air
vents as seen in seven year itch this is also intertextuality because it
relates to other media.
Next there is parody, this is where they copy media text and convert it
into a humorous manner. For example, in the scene jack rabbit slims you
seen John Travolta dancing with
Uma Thurman and you could say it
humorous because he played a
similar role when he was in the film
Saturday night fever. You could also
say that there was the guy who
introduced them was similar to Ed
Sullivan, you could call these are parody because it doesn’t feel serious
as the actually roles they copy from.
Next we have pastiche this is the opposite of parody because instead of
copying and making it humorous, it imitates previous work and respects
the work and takes homage to the media so in the jack rabbit scene you
can see that the Marylin Monroe scene where her dress lifts up due to

16. the air vents, it is pastiche
because it takes homage to
the director of the film Bill
Wilder.
Next is reflexivity this is where the film crew refers to the Mise en scene
or narrative, breaking the illusion that the film or TV show is not real. For
example, Uma Thurman’s
character draws a square
(rectangle) with her hands and
then the shape appears which
indicates that it isn’t actually
there. You can say this is
reflexivity because you don’t
expect to see a shape magically appear when drawing it with your
fingers so this is how you know it isn’t real.
Then there is bricolage which is a mix of genres or historical eras. So for
example, the scene with Marylin Monroe in it, there are people sitting
around her it mixes with
era because they are
wearing different clothing
which mix with each other
from different generation,
then it shows a scene
when Uma is in the
bathroom and she is
taking drugs that would be
a 90’s thing to do and the women are brushing their hair and those
hairstyles are mostly from the 50’s which you can tell this is a bricolage
scene.
Then finally there is Self-referentiality which is where a producer of a
media text or actor makes direct reference to previous work. For
example, the scene where he is in the same scene from the car this is
self-referentiality because john Travolta is in the car in both scenes.

17. Then there is a scene when Mia Wallace
mentions about her being in a TV show
called fox force five and she describes
her character in the film kill bill, this is
also self-referentiality because refers to
kill bill when it eventually came out, there
is a scene where john Travolta is dancing
and he previously did a film where he was dancing in Saturday night
fever also in grease there’s a scene where he is dancing this is self-referentiality
because he did previous work dancing in films.