Identifying Heroes: The Godfather and Pulp Fiction Essay -- essays res

Identifying Heroes The Godfather and Pulp FictionThe form of Classical Hollywood films is, first and foremost, invisible. In a Classical Hollywood film, the narrative is foremost, and style serves the narrative. Camera angles, fervour and editing patterns such(prenominal) as the shot/reverse-shot pattern aim to break up us the best possible perspective on the unfolding returns(1). These events be arranged in a strongly causality-oriented linear narrative, with one event causing the next. This narrative is arranged around a central, active protagonist, whose decisions and actions be the key to the pattern of cause and effect that drives the story(2). This pattern seems so logical, so natural, that the sense of hearing of the classical Hollywood film is supposed to feel that they be receiving the material without the mediating intervention of the filmmaker. The link between heroes and the spectator down the stairs this specimen is therefore one of relatively unproblematic as signment. Even films that featured anti-social heroes, such as the thirties gangster genre, modified the pattern only through and through imposing the strongly moral, tragic sequence of rise and fall the audiences identification remained firmly with the central protagonist(3). Such a situation, under these assumptions, puts the audience in an appargonntly perverse situation, and it is therefore hardly surprising that the infamous hay code of the thirties moved to ensure that "the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin(4)."The assumption of audience identity with the hero was never unproblematic, and of course the classical Hollywood deterrent example of filmmaking partially outlined above never existed entirely without challenge. Nevertheless, it is clear that up to the fifties the classical Hollywood model was relatively applicable and that challenges to it were more often than non ineffective. However, beyond the fif ties, the model became increasingly irrelevant. The reasons for the downfall of the classical paradigm are complex, and related to economic changes within the industry (the forced dismantling of the vertically integrated studio system that placed production, distribution and exhibition roles under the one organisation) as well as wider cultural shifts that occurred during the sixties (the general social upheaval and increasing prominence of counter-cultural challenges ... ...he coffee shop stab around the body of the film isolates one couple at the comminuted moment they make the wrong choice.The cleverness of Tarantinos approach is in insulate the artificiality of his heroes persona, and using that as an approach with which to undermine the audiences admiration of that hero. Just as Coppolas attempts to alienate the viewer from Michael Corleone were only partially successful, so Tarantinos approach is flawed Tarantino was accused of glorifying his criminal heroes, and audienc es do still see Vincent Vega as a modern day Fonze, the embodiment of coolness. A subtext is still, after all, a subtext, and not everybody can be in the ironic audience. Perhaps, though, the real reason that twain Coppola and Tarantino still have problems in avoiding the audience identification with their heroes is the astonishing forte of classical Hollywood forms. The learned patterns of classical Hollywood narratives and the associated identification with a strong central protagonist are likely to take everyplace if given even the slightest chance. This is the price Coppola and Tarantino must pay if they wish to take on this form of filmmaking for commercial advantage.