Mock exam

“How do the films you have studied (V for Vendetta and Children of Men) relate to the concept of genre and narrative?”

Children of Men relates to the concept of narrative as it follows most of the rules to be a Classic Hollywood Narrative, whereas V for Vendetta conforms to a few of the Classic Hollywood Narrative rules but it doesn’t conform to them all, meaning that it is also partly a post modernism narrative.

Children of Men has a three act structure, going from the equilibrium to the disruption and ending with a resolution. The equilibrium is when Theo is conforming to the way of life around him and is settling in with the lifestyle of England. This is shown by Theo going into the coffee shop, getting a drink whilst everybody else in there is frozen, crying and is watching the news about the youngest child (aged 18) dying. Theo walks out of the coffee shop when a bomb goes off, jumps a little but carries on with his life. Some people may say that Theo is metaphorically dead at this stage as he doesn’t even feel anything around him. The disruption to the film is when Theo’s wife is killed and Kee reveals to Theo that she is pregnant, Theo feels the pressure upon him that he has to help Kee and the baby get to safety. The resolution to the end of the film is when Theo takes his life to let this baby and new life be born; we see the last shot being the boat at the end. V for Vendetta partly conforms to a three-act structure as we see an equilibrium at the beginning of the film where similarly to Children of Men, Evey and the public have conformed to the way of life of England where there is a totalitarian government. The disruption of the film is when V takes Evey and tortures her to take away her fear, Evey then joins V and agrees to help him. At the end of the film, Evey sends off the train to blow up the government but we only see a sense of resolution within this as we don’t know what actually happens and there is no real closure to the film as it is left on a cliffhanger.

Children of Men shows cause and effect as the death of the youngest boy, the death of Theo’s wife and Theo finding out about the pregnancy are what makes he agree to help them out, if these factors were not revealed then Theo may not have chose to agree to help out. V for Vendetta also shows cause and effect in a way as by V torturing Evey and taking away her fear, she understands how she can help and similarly to children of men, agrees to help V. Children of Men follows opposition and conflict, we see this by Theo’s wife being killed. The audience also sees opposition and conflict within V for Vendetta between the government and their people.

Both of the films that I have studied are character driven, in Children of Men this character is Theo and in V for Vendetta, this character is both Evey and V. Theo drives the narrative forward in Children of Men as he takes on the role of the ‘protector’ when his wife dies and the narrative focus’ on how he is handling the situation and is driving it forwards. In V for Vendetta, V creates events to be able to drive the story forward and creates the narrative. Evey is the character we follow throughout the narrative from the beginning when we see her getting ready in her bedroom.

V for Vendetta and Children of Men are hybrid genres as they both mix two genres together, these are both thriller and sci-fi. Although some people feel that both of these films have many other aspects of genres in them, Children of men showing adventure, drama, sci-fi and thriller and V for Vendetta showing action, fantasy, sci-fi and thriller.

V for Vendetta follows thriller conventions as when we see outside shots, it is usually night time and the shots are very dark, the audience are never too sure what is to happen within the film as there is a lot of suspense and tension. Evey has a lot of fear at the beginning of the film, however, she befriends V and goes out at night so this shows the audience that she is also a risk-taker. V for Vendetta also follows the death convention from thriller films, as V takes his life near the end of the film and many other characters die within the film. Children of Men also follows thriller conventions as in this, we too have dark shots for the outside footage and also indoors at many points too. There is some suspense and tension within the film as the audience does not know what is to happen all throughout the film and are always waiting for something to happen. Although, some people feel that the suspense and tension is vague within the film as they feel that it can be quite predictable as they know that there would be a resolution to the end of the film and that Kee and the baby would get saved, this is because the film follows the aspects of a classic Hollywood narrative. However, there is still fear, adrenaline, danger and excitement within Children of Men so the audience still sees that this film is a thriller.

Both films also follow to the conventions of sci-fi films but not to all of the conventions. They are both set in the future and both have science and technology taking over, this can be seen more in Children of Men with the advertising all around England but we still do see this within V for Vendetta with the voice of London coming across everybodys Tvs and the Tvs always being on in the background of a shot, this is seen when Evey is getting ready at the beginning of the film.

Children of Men conforms to all of the points of Classic Hollywood Narrative, this has been done because there is a deep story line so that it needs to be kept simple to understand the narrative. V for Vendetta conforms to most of the classic Hollywood narrative aspects because this gets a big audience from the classic Hollywood narrative but changes it slightly to make it interesting and not follow all of the points. Both of these films can be seen as slightly confusing the first time that they are seen, although are both still successful. V for Vendetta has a easy enough story line to understand although the flash backs can be seen as a bit confusing to some people the first time that they see the film. Children of Men is still understood clearly as many of the audience are familiar with this structure so know what is to happen, although some people feel that because of this predictable storyline it is not as successful as V for Vendetta as they know what is to happen and can tell the end of the story before the film has finished.

Both V for Vendetta and Children of Men follow thriller conventions more than sci-fi conventions but the directors still chose to make the films sci-fi to make them seem realistic and near the future to scare the audience into realizing that their surroundings are similar to what is happening on these films.