Compare how the suspense and atmosphere are created in the opening scene of two different versions of Charles Dickens Great Expectations
Compare how the suspense and atmosphere are created in the opening scene of two different versions of Charles Dickens Great Expectations
By Kyra Hale
"Great Expectations" is a well-known classic novel. Over the years there have been many adaptations of Charles Dickens' enthralling story. My intent in this essay is to compare how Julian Jarrold, in 1999, and David Lean, in 1946, interpret the opening chapter for film and to decide whether they are successful in creating atmosphere and suspense.
Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations in the 1800's. David Lean created his film in 1946. The setting for this film is "bleak" and "desolate" as the book states. The setting echoes Pip's feelings and how alone he feels without his parents. The establishing shot shows Pip in the background as very small in comparison to the vast marshland. The long shot is used to full effect showing Pip in the background as a tiny, innocent orphan. David Lean shows this primary setting to gain our sympathy.
The clouds look dark and ominous, and the trees look like intimidating faces. We view these things through Pip's eyes, because David Lean wants us to feel sorry for him, so he lets us into Pip's imagination and draws us into his thoughts. These visions reveal how Pip is like a "small bundle of shivers" as the book describes him. Pip sees things which are not really there, and therefore we are shown how intimidated he feels by the empty churchyard. The camera zooms in to show Pip's eyes and then the swaying trees. David Lean does his utmost to prepare us for Magwitch.
If you look very closely at the scene of the graveyard you can see distinct triangular shapes. This shows the evil setting, with the sharp triangular shapes shown by the church. This helps to set the scene and create atmosphere. Dickens shows the church this way as it is preparing us for the ill-fated, evil future. When Pip goes over to the grave of his mother and father David lean shows this particularly to gain the audience's sympathy. We are also made to feel more pity for Pip as his five brothers are said to be dead. This alone with the previous setting of a lonely boy on his own in the immense marshland, contributes to Pip's vulnerability.
Language is used in David Lean's version of Great Expectations to be both comical and informative. The convict speaks ungrammatically and this informs the audience that he is uneducated. This humour is amusing; a prime example is when Magwitch says, "I wish I was a frog, or a eel." Here where he isn't using "an" it sounds awkward and is therefore humorous to people watching the film as it makes his appearance seem less threatening. He looks iniquitous but when he cannot even speak in proper English it makes a mockery of him. Comedy is also used when Pip says "over there" and refers to his mother. Magwitch runs, but Pip was just referring to a grave; however, it made Pip seem powerful because he scared the older, intimidating character.
Language is also used to emphasise the convict's aggressiveness. The convict specifically emphasises the words "roasted" and also "I'll rip ya heart and liver out". These words are emphasised to scare Pip and also to shock the audience. It draws us into the story and makes us feel Pip's intimidation. Magwitch's terrifying image adds to the forbidding setting.
When we first meet Magwitch we can see immediately how intimidating he can be. We are shown a close-up of his face simultaneously to him jumping onto the scene. This close-up view is being used to show us ...
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Language is also used to emphasise the convict's aggressiveness. The convict specifically emphasises the words "roasted" and also "I'll rip ya heart and liver out". These words are emphasised to scare Pip and also to shock the audience. It draws us into the story and makes us feel Pip's intimidation. Magwitch's terrifying image adds to the forbidding setting.
When we first meet Magwitch we can see immediately how intimidating he can be. We are shown a close-up of his face simultaneously to him jumping onto the scene. This close-up view is being used to show us what Magwitch is thinking and also to show the anger and hatred in his face, which is used to scare the audience. This close up view was also used to prevent us from seeing what Pip was doing when the camera zoomed up on Magwitch, therefore we are worried for Pip and this causes suspense. Julian Jarrold in the new version of Great Expectations used this same technique.
Magwitch is an evil, intimidating, large man who has a lot of power over Pip. In the beginning he is always shot in darkness, whereas Pip is always shot in bright light to emphasise his innocence. This is particularly noticeable when Magwitch is in control, trying to tilt Pip over the gravestone. There is a cut between Pip and Magwitch to show Pip's vulnerability and a close-up of his face is shown, highlighting his terror. Pip is shown as the total opposite to Magwitch and looks innocent, charming and neatly dressed. As Magwitch looks angry, hateful and dirty, we presume that this is what he is like, and is a bad person. Pip is shown running home, this highlights terrible malignancy of his ordeal.
The main difference between this film and the one written by Julian Jarrold in 1999 is that this is black and white, as technology was not very advanced. The classical graphics at the beginning look too romantic for the storyline. The black writing on the white background is very conventional. The opening music doesn't appear to fit the story because it is light-hearted. This is like life as it changes it is also like a dark/light/dark reference. First and last the music is bold with suspense, but it changes in the middle. After the credits the music fades and the screen dissolves to just an open book, shown with a close-up view. The narrator gives us information about the plot and is very faithful to the book, unlike the 1999 version.
The music throughout the film is used to create atmosphere and suspense. The desolate feeling of the first scene is emphasised by the music of just wind and sea gulls. The trees are just creaking for ages. The audience is hearing everything that Pip is and this helps us to understand his apprehension. The wind then crescendoes and the trees croak louder to create suspense and set the scene, up to the point where Pip screams. The scream is shocking and makes us see his fear simultaneous to his meeting with Magwitch. We can hear Magwitch's chains before we see him and this is foreboding, but also with this suspense is created, as we do not know what the noise is.
The setting in the new film by Julian Jarrold in 1999 is less stereotypical. It is not dark and the sky is sunny, unlike the older version. The setting of a cornfield is less traditional and does not prepare us for when Magwitch chases Pip, as no one would expect to find a convict in the middle of a cornfield. The yellow reeds add to the tranquillity of the first shot, and therefore relax the reader. At the beginning we have no idea what is going to happen and because of this the shock has more impact, when Pip begins to run. There is a synthesiser repeating a very high-pitched note which appears haunting. Just before we see Pip's head peep out of the cornfield, from the convict's point of view, we hear breathing and this causes suspense as we cannot see anyone. The mis-en-scene appears empty until the character suddenly appears, creating atmosphere when we suddenly see Pip pop out from in-between the corn. We wonder why he is running so fast and from what.
From the way that this first scene is filmed it creates immense suspense. The camera moves quickly and this alarms us as we do not have time to see clearly why or where Pip is running to. Slow motion is then used to show great detail of the surroundings and also to create suspense, and frustration in the audience as we want Pip to run faster to escape this thing which he is running from. This causes tension and fear for Pip amongst the audience. Tracking is used to follow Pip. Sometimes we see the chase from Pip's point of view, pushing through the corn and others from the convicts trying to catch up with Pip and hurt him. This travelling shot helps us to see both the characters point of view.
All which we can hear during this chase is drumbeats, which I think, are timpani drums because they are loud and bold. These sounds are synthesised like the musical note at the beginning, this shows new technology. We can also hear the convict's chains however we do not know that these chains are attached to the convicts legs because we haven't seen him. We do not even know that this person or thing chasing Pip is a criminal convict. The music sounds like it is underwater and this adds to the feeling that this could be just a nightmare, but it is not. The slow motion also contributes to the underwater feeling because objects and people cannot travel, as fast underwater, this is how Pip feels and this frustrates the audience. Other sounds include heavy drumbeats for feet and a heartbeat sound, but we do not know if these are of the convict or Pip. They are very repetitive and this is tedious causing frustration and anxiety in the audience because of this action-packed scene.
When Pip is running he keeps looking back as at this point the film is being shown from the convict's point of view. The tilt of camera shows Pip running and then falling to the ground. This falling shows that Magwitch has power over Pip. Pip looks frightened and scared at he trips over fallen branches to the ground. Immediately after this, subjective character vision is used when we can only see Magwitch's legs, this causes suspense and worries the audience. We can also just see the chains, as the close up shot makes them exceptionally noticeable. When we are watching the convicts legs we cannot see what Pip is doing and this makes us want to move the camera but we are unable to, it causes frustration and suspense for the person who is watching the film. It is at this point that we realise that Magwitch is a criminal convict because of the chains attached to his legs.
In this newer version of Great Expectations Pip is shown to be hiding in between two graves, however without knowing the story we do not know that these are his parents graves. Julian Jarrold does not try to get as much sympathy from the audience in comparison to David Lean. He does not state that all of Pip's five brothers and parents are dead. In fact you would not know this unless you had read the book. Julian Jarrold has edited parts of the text, which the book originally stated and made it shorter, in fact there is very little speaking, except Pip crying out "Mummy!" This is the only thing, which reveals that Pip might be hiding between his parent's graves. This beginning relies mostly on action and less dialogue, which is different in comparison to the older version. It uses technological advances such as Sound effects (SFX) and complicated editing to produce suspense and create atmosphere in the opening scene.
An example of technological advances is when Magwitch is looking for Pip hiding. The camera spins round to show the confusion of the convict as we see everything from his point of view in these shots. This shot is disorientating and confuses the audience. We can intimately feel the convict's eyes flickering around on the large building and as we cannot see the whole picture this is annoying and causes suspense. We also feel as if we are being whirled around and cannot see things clearly or tell where we are.
When Pip does see Magwitch the establishing, close-up shot, of Magwitch's face looking down on Pip shows his power, and this is significant in the film at the end, when Magwitch returns. It shows the amount of power Magwitch has over Pip, and from the hoarse scream, which comes from Pip's mouth, we can tell that the convict is intimidating. There is a close up of Magwitch's face and then a cut to the birds. Magwitch is made out to look evil, frightening and aggressive and we can then understand Pip's fear.
When the screen suddenly cuts to birds and the sound of them flying above the ground we cannot see what is happening to Pip. These birds cause suspense as we are just being shown a small part of the scenery, but we know that this is happening simultaneously to whatever the convict is doing to harm Pip. The audience is left to feel helpless. The geese are flying very fast and seemed to have a startled panic, this could be to show how scared Pip is or the birds could have been shown like this as if they are hurrying to get home before sunset. The sun is shown in the sky to be setting. From this one shot we are told a lot about the setting because we can tell it is now late evening and also a lot of suspense is created. The scenery of the birds is then faded and the scene blends into the next, which is back to the bleak marshland with the titles.
The titles in this film are used to create suspense unlike the David Lean version. After the break with the birds we do not know what has happened to Pip and we just see the vast marshland with no one around. The isolation of Pip is tormenting because anything could happen to him now that the angry convict has him. Intrigue keeps the audience watching and listening intensely to see Pip.
In this new version as well as the old one Magwitch is shown to be incredibly daunting and intimidating. The close-up shot is used to show what he is thinking and we can see anger in his eyes. Although no dialogue is spoken we can see from his fixed stare on Pip and his angry scowl that he intends to do harm to him, otherwise he would have had no other reason to chase him. Magwitch is dressed in old clothes and looks like he hasn't has a shave or a haircut in months and this adds to the reasoning that he is an escaped convict. Pip on the other hand looks neat and tidy like in the David Lean version and is like his character, innocent.
Due to technological advances each film is different because of the time in which they were made. Each film is also interpreted differently by the director and therefore the decisions made are completely different. One thing which is certain, is that Great Expectations will live on for many years after this essay is written and will be interpreted by several more directors. I think that David Lean's black and white version will also continue to be seen as a classic while Julian Jarrold with his psychological thriller approach marks the development of new, dramatic technology.
