Discuss the ways that the director, Jan de Bont, creates a sense of danger and excitement in the final struggle between Jack Tavern (Keanu Reeves) and Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper).
Josephine Odulaja. 10o.
Discuss the ways that the director, Jan de Bont, creates a sense of danger and excitement in the final struggle between Jack Tavern (Keanu Reeves) and Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper).
The film speed was released in 1994. It was directed by Jan de Bont. The film is titled speed for a good reason, the film never lets up in its suspense. The stars in the film are Keanu Reeves who played the part of Jack Tavern who is the hero in the film. Dennis Hopper plays the role of a nasty villain called Howard Payne. The genre of speed is action and adventure and in such films, the things we expect to see are explosions, suspense and tension, combat, car chases, jeopardy, guns, acceleration, love interest, special effects, technology and the sense that a good person is going to overcome an evil person. All of these features are found in speed. The scene which I am going to focus on is the final struggle between Jack Tavern and Howard Payne. This scene is very important because it is in this scene that good overthrows evil, it is in this scene that the nasty villain- Howard Payne is killed.
Jack Tavern is the direct opposite of Howard Payne. Jack Tavern is a young cop while Payne is an old retired cop. Tavern is wearing a white T-shirt whish signifies that he is a good man in contrast Payne is wearing who wears black which signifies that he is the evil one. The differences between them are reinforced visually by the mise en scene which is everything in the scene including the position of the actors, lighting and their costume. Their appearance reinforces their differences their differences. Tavern is dressed casually in a T-shirt while Payne is dressed in a black cop’s uniform and this is significant because of the colour. Black signifies that he is evil. While they were in combat, Tavern lost his gun and uses his hands to fight Payne. Payne has a bomb detonator in his hands and fought with his fists. The fight is choreographed to maximise tension. The fight was situated on the roof of a train. Tension is maximised because the train was moving and because it was in the tunnel, there was very limited space for the two men to fight. It was also an isolated area where no one could help them.