Kautsar Achouchen How are messages and values communicated in Dear John (2010) and Atonement (2007)?

Kautsar Achouchen In this essay I am analysing the messages and values that are in my two films, Dear John and Atonement Dear John is an American romantic drama film that was produced by Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey and Ryan Kavanaugh. Starring; Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried. It was released in America on the 5th of February 2010. Atonement is a British drama war film that was produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster. It was released on the 7th of September 2007. Dear John is about a character who comes back from the army and lives with his father at home near a beach. He meets this girl called savannah and he starts to hang out with her. Savannah looks after a little boy that is autistic and his dad is a single parent. John and start dating and then break up because he is going to war. After his dad passes away he goes to war. John and Savannah break up but soon meet each other again. Atonement is about a girl called Cecelia and a boy called Robbie who have known each other since their childhood. They secretly have a relationship and Briony (Cecilias sister) sees them making out one day and claims to the police that Robbie raped Cecelia. Robbie ends up going to prison and Cecilia is angry with Briony. For Robbie to be let out of prison he has to join the army and thats what Robbie ends up agreeing to do. Cecilia and Robbie do not see each other until years later in a cafe. This movie does not follow any theories. Dear John is a linear movie because the story progresses in a chronological order and the story is clear. The messages and values expressed in Dear John are shown through many scenes. The messages and values in this scene is that long distance relationship could work if you try hard enough. One of the scenes is when John and Savannah send letters to each other whilst John is in the middle of the war. The messages and values are shown through Savannah and John sending letters to each other. The letters represent them expressing their love to one another without being near each other. They are communicating through the letters and that shows that they value each other. The audience straight away discovers that Savannah and John have a strong bond because they are continuously writing letters to one another. The audience knows how much they value each other and the messages and values connect straight with the audiences understanding. There are a lot of long shots and close up shots in this scene. The long shots are of John in his sorroundings and Savannah in her sorroundings. The close up shots are mostly of the characters facial expressions when reading their letters. Part of this scene is Asynchronous because the scene is a parallel narrative. This is going back and forth until they have read one anothers letter. The lighting in this scene is the same because the scene is sad so the natural light is dull and the lightning used such as more light makes the scene more clearer to see. Although it changes to different places that both Savannah and John are in. The editing is clear and shows the messages and values clearer.

Kautsar Achouchen The message and values shown in this scene is that one should never give up on love. The sound in this scene is non-digetic. The non digetic sound is when the character is read each others letters out and the voice from another persons voice is playing. This scene is positioned in both places that John and Savannah are in. The next scene is when John is with his dad in the hospital. The scene is filmed only on a close up shot and a long shot from where you can see John sitting next to his dad in a c hair and with the letter in his hand. John is reading his letter to his dad because he doesnt know how else to tell his dad his true feelings. This part is asynchronous because as John reads out the letter to his dad about his past as a child and the coins, the scene changes and goes to the past and shows the coins being made and John as a child. These are flashbacks of Johns past. The cut away shows that the messages and values expressed here are that never forget the memories you have had created in your past. John knows that his dad is going to die and the audience discovers eventually that the dad is going to die aswel. The lighting in this scene is dull and only the hospital lights are visible which makes the scene seem sadder and the audience gains the message that John is caring about his dad and this shows that his dad values him a lot. Regardless the fact that John is not that close to his father anymore, he makes the effort and talks about the coins which shows the audience that at the end of the day, his dad values him a lot. The mid shot is John sitting close to his dad and holding his hand which shows that John is very serious. On the other hand, the scene when John fights Randy and hits Tim by accident gives the audience a different message. There are a lot of close up shots and long shots of John having the fight. The lonng shots are of John and his sorroundings and the close up shots are after John gets angry and punches Randy. This shot shows his facial expressions. John eventually stops when Savannah gets in the way and is angry at him. John values Savannah too much to hurt her. The scenes include the theory of John Berger because at the beach, there are woman at the beach. This objectifies woman but also gives the audience something to look at although it is a really quick shot. The lightingjohn punches is very bright and this shows that the scene is full of action. For example when John punches Randy in his face. However the tension that builds up causes the audience to get a different message of what is going to happen. This scene is synchronous because the characters can hear each others dialect. This shows that they are in a conversation. This scene involves reverse shots due to the fight between John and Randy. This scene also involves Savannah and John being happy but eventually have a fight which leads to John letting his anger out on Randy. This edit is called wipe. The messages and values throughout the scene give the audience an impression of how much Johns relationship with Savannah actually values to him and the audience witness how Johns message of being angry is eventually shown through him punching Randy. Moreover, these three scenes show the audience different messages and values that I have mentioned, that are expressed in different ways like when there are parts of emotion tense times. The micro-elements that are in these three scenes

Kautsar Achouchen clearly bring out the messages and values that are shown between John, his father, Randy and Savannah. The main message and value is that love does not always have a happy ending. Atonement is a non-linear movie because the story is not in a chronological order and the story keeps going back and forth between Cecilia and Robbie. There is no happy ending so it does not follow Todorovs theory of equilibrium is restored. Atonement is a very emotional movie that has a great impact on the audience. The messages and values restored in these scenes are similar to Dear Johns. When Robbie gets arrested, there are a variety of long shots and close up shots. There are long shots showing the taxi and Cecilia running towards the taxi with Robbie in it and also there are close up shots of both characters facial expressions. There are more close up shots of Brionys facial expressions as she watches the action happening from the window. The lighting is very dull and dark which gives the audience the message that this is a negative scene. Regardless the fact that Robbie goes into war, Cecilia and him send letters to one another. The lighting in this scene is dark as well which signifies that its a sad scene. In this other scene, is when Cecilia and Robbie are spending time together secretly. This shows how much Robbie actually values her that she is having this relationship in secret. This scene involves a vast amount of close up shots and mid shots. The close up shots and mid shots give the audience more understanding of their facial expressions and the place that they are at. The mid shots show the characters and parts of their surrounding and shot reverse shot is used to show that Cecilia and Robbie are in a conversation. This scene involves them at the fountain and only Robbie and Cecilia go to that fountain. The lighting is bright and its sunny which makes the audience believe that this is a happy scene. However, it quickly changes when he throws something into the water and she gets angry and dives into the water to retrieve it. In this part the lighting goes a tiny bit darker. This suggests that the atmosphere has changed and the characters mood has changed. The last scene is when Robbie just met Cecilia at the caf. There are mid shots taken to show the position in which both Cecilia and Robbie are sitting in. Also it clearly shows their facial expressions. The messages and values that are expressed to the audience are that Robbie is not quite ready for being involved in the army. There are a lot of long shots, mid shots and close up shots showing the surrounding of both characters and also the positioning. For example, long shots are used to show Robbie sitting in the caf and Cecilia walking in. There are close up shots of Cecilia hesitating before entering the caf which shows her facial expression and there are mid shots of Robbie and Cecilia in a conversation, showing their facial expressions and part of the surrounding. All three scenes suggest that the messages and values that I mentioned are expressed differently. The main message and value is that there are always things going to come in the way between you and the one you love. This relates

Kautsar Achouchen back to the genre of romance because unlike the other movies this movie has a sad ending. In addition, both movies compare in ways that the messages and values portrayed are through their feelings. Both movies have a range of shots at different scenes to make the scenes more tense, sad or happy. In the movie Dear John, there are parts of the scenes where there is an asynchronous part. However, in Atonement the movie is synchronous from the beginning to the end. Dear John and Atonement are both romantic movies which include some drama in it. Both movies do not follow Todorovs theory. In both movies, the male always chases back after the girl that they love. This suggests that it is a typical thing to have in a romantic movie. Both the movies start of happy and turn into sadness. The two movies are both aimed at females mainly due to the fact that females are the ones that enjoy romantic movies the most due to stereotypical ideas. Atonement is more dramatic than Dear John and the colours are dull most of the time. Whereas, Dear John has light colours nearly throughout the whole movie except for three scenes. In both Dear John and Atonement, both the actors that fall in love with the girl go into war. However, Dear John has a far distance relationship and Atonement does not have that in the movie. The messages and values in both movies are that its easier to express their feelings through letters and to never give up. In both Dear John and Atonement, letters are involved to express feelings. In conclusion, even though both movies contrast because of the setting they were made in and the difference of the storyline, they still both give the same messages and values. The messages and values that they connote relate back to the genre of romance and how both the male actors are always the dominant protagonists and there is always a female protagonist which is portrayed as the damsel in distress. For example in Atonement Cecilia is in trouble because of what had happened with Robbie and in Dear John, Savannah gets in trouble because of the fight between John and Tim.