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Textual Analysis Arlington Road
Textual Analysis Arlington Road
Summary:
Arlington Road is a mystery/crime thriller with
psychological aspects which tells the story of a widowed
George Washington University professor who suspects his
new neighbours are involved in terrorism and past
terrorist attacks as the professor becomes obsessed with
foiling their terrorist plot. The film stars famous at
the time actors and actresses by the names of Jeff
Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, and Hope David. I will
analyse the first 5 minutes of the movie as this is the
opening scene which caught my eye the most.
Enigma Codes:
Pellington incorporates many
enigmas in the opening
immediately to purposely
create a sense of confusion in
the spectator and make them
question and provoke the audience to wonder why the
things that happening are occurring. I believe Pellington
has purposely created suspense and mystery in the opening
to provoke many different thoughts from viewers as to
what is happening based on what they know already about
the film from what they have read and/or seen on the
poster, which will carry out
throughout the film connoting
many different viewpoints and
questions which hopefully lead to
the final answer.
The main questions that are immediately triggered from
the opening and were my own questions in order are;
Who is this boy stumbling through the road?
Why is he stumbling?
Why does he seem so lifeless?
Why is he bleeding, who is driving the car?
What happened to the boys hand?
Do these two know each other?
Lastly what are the random sequences in the rest of the
opening?
Locations:
There are two locations in this opening, the street Brady
staggers through and the hospital Michael rushes Brady
to.
The first location is very
typical of the thriller genre
as it shows themes of
isolation which leaves Brady
very vulnerable as he is
staggering through empty
quiet streets where no one is around to help him. At this
moment in time we do not know what has happened to him or
what is wrong. A typical thriller film would have an
antagonist in a chase scene with the boy; however this is
not a typical thriller film so there is no one around him
that couldve hurt him. This leaves the enigma as to what
has happened if there is no one around to inflict this
damage, further creating the mystery and vulnerability of
Brady. This may cause discomfort in the viewer as they
may be fearful of the unknown and be curious of what is
wrong with this seemingly perfectly fine neighbourhood
that caused this damage. In addition, although Brady is
stumbling through the streets, it is portrayed that this
is an everyday quiet environment which may cause little
comfort for the viewer as it
may relate to where they grew
up or live at the moment.
This creates a calm
atmosphere in contrast to the
dangerous atmosphere Brady is
creating.
Use of Sound:
Immediately from the beginning of the opening we hear the
use of non-diegetic sound using very unnerving and
mysterious music to create an early enigmatic atmosphere
to just give a small hint of what is about to occur and
try to get the spectator on the edge of their seat from
the start. A use of diegetic sound would be where we hear
his footsteps and his deep breaths as he stumbles through
the street to show where things become more panicked as
we hear the increasingly faster eventually. This eerie
music plays throughout; it could be argued that we hear
diegetic sound of the voices in Bradys head, the effect
of this is to allow us to assume that the voices that are
Titles:
Throughout the title
sequence we see the
use of motion
graphics and edited
photos and video to
change what appears
to be relatively harmless home video and manipulate it
into more of a twisted sense to create an unsettling mood
with the use of eerie music. This is used to reflect the
films dark tone as things become very twisted in an
instant.
We see the road sign of Arlington Rd to portray that
this event just happened on this road, and that
potentially more twisted things like this happens on this
Intended Target
Audience:
In my opinion, I believe
that the intended target audience for Arlington Road is
for people from their mid to late teens onwards, due to
the violence and gore of the terrorism, profanity and
frightening scenes which may be too much for younger
viewers; such as the opening scene. I also believe this
as there is very may parts of the movie that need to be
pieced together by the audience, which I feel would be
very hard for a younger viewer to comprehend.