Language is also used to emphasise the convict’s aggressiveness. The convict specifically emphasises the words ‘roasted’ and also ‘tear him open’. These words are emphasised to scare Pip and also to shock the audience. It draws the audience into the story and makes us feel Pip’s intimidation. The convict’s terrifying image adds to the forbidding setting.
Julian Jarrold’s version of the convict is shown to be incredibly daunting and intimidating. 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. The convict is dressed in old dirty clothes and looks very ill groomed, this adds to the audience’s understanding of him as an escaped convict.
Lean uses some effective techniques to show the characters. He shows the vast landscape with tall-silhouetted gibbets to indicate just how small and vulnerable Pip is. The use of light and dark is very effective when me meet the convict. Pip remains in the light but the convict’s face is shrouded in darkness to convince the audience of his an evil nature. Pip’s lightened appearance shows his innocence and makes the audience wonder why such a nice boy is in such a dark and gloomy place. After the confrontation, Pip is seen scrabbling home across the marshes as quickly as possible, against the same eerie landscape.
The setting in Jarrold’s 1999 interpretation is less stereotypical. It is not dark and the sky is sunny. There is a very high-pitched note, which appears haunting and creepy to the audience. Just before we see Pip’s head peep out of the wheat field, from the convict’s point-of-view, we hear breathing and this causes suspense, as we cannot see anyone. The setting of a wheat field is less traditional and does not prepare us for when the convict chases Pip, as no one would expect to find a convict in the middle of a wheat field. The golden reeds add to the peaceful tranquillity of the first shot, and therefore relax the viewer. Jarrold uses his own ideas and makes the opening more intriguing and exciting. At the beginning we have no idea what is going to happen and because of this Pip’s running come as a shock, and therefore has more impact. This provides the audience with an immediate incentive to continue watching. We then follow the dramatic chase that Jarrold has constructed through a wheat field and the graveyard. Jarrold’s use of point-of-view shots give the audience a chance to feel more involved in the film and to help them to feel the confusion of the chase. The wheat field itself is Jarrold’s own notion and is not mentioned anywhere in the written novel. However, this really helps to show Pip is trying to hide but that he cannot escape.
David Lean chooses to display his elaborate title and credit sequence before any screenplay is seen. This would most likely have been because the audience of his time would have expected this. They would feel that once a film had started, it had really started. His elaborate title uses a very old fashioned and ostentatious font, which is very fitting of the film. The sound in Lean’s opening sequence uses music from that is very dramatic and up lifting which helps to confirm this film as an epic.
Once Lean’s title has been shown the camera shot shows a close-up on an open book that in fact Dickens’ novel. This really confirms that Lean is trying to make a book-to-film conversion. During the time at which the book is shown we hear the narration of a now, older Pip. The script is simply taken from the dialogue of the text, indicating that Lean’s version is close to the novel.
However, Jarrold uses a completely different approach and places his title and credit sequence after the opening. This is a much favoured technique of modern directors as it gives the audience a taste of what is to come before announcing its title. A lot of what happens in the opening of Jarrold’s version is confusing and little information is given about the characters. Jarrold try to make his opening full of suspense and intrigue. Jarrold use his lack of information to make it more surprising for the viewers.
From the way that the 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 cause tension and fear for Pip amongst the audience. Jarrold partly shows the chase from Pip’s point-of-view, pushing through the wheat from the convict trying to catch up with Pip and potentially hurt him.
Jarrold uses loud and bold drumbeat sound effects during the chase. These sounds are repetitive and are used to convey banging feet and a heartbeat, possibly from the convict or Pip.
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 the convict has power over Pip. Pip looks frightened and scared after he trips over fallen branches on the ground. Immediately after this, subjective character vision is used when we can only see the convict’s legs. This causes suspense and worries the audience, as we cannot see the threatening character, making him more mysterious. When we are watching the convict’s legs we cannot see what Pip is doing, making the audience feel anxious for him. When Pip does see the convict, the establishing close-up shot of the convict’s face looking down on Pip shows his power. We can tell that the convict is intimidating. There is a close-up of the convict’s face and then a cut to the birds. The convict is made out to look evil, frightening and aggressive and we can then understand Pip’s fear and anxiety.
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 something alarming is happening to Pip. The audience is left to feel helpless and powerless like Pip. The geese are flying very fast and seemed to have had 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 tension is created, due to the red sky. The scenery of the birds is then faded and the scene blends into the next, which is back to the bleak marshland with the high-pitched haunting music and titles.
In the Lean’s version, some of the techniques used, such as the point-of-view shot of the knot in the tree, are very innovative and, probably, quite unusual for such an old film. A modern audience, particularly a younger one, might not be so moved by this film, as nowadays we are constantly being bombarded with special effects and computer graphics, but an audience in that time would certainly have been captivated from the moment the film began. Jarrold’s version is more for a modern audience. This is because it is in colour, and not too many people like black and white films if they have the option of colour. Also, they are spoiled with digital effects, and state of the art technology helps any to give it that extra enhancement. I personally prefer David Lean’s version it because it had a much bigger effect compared to the other version, with the gloominess and death in every scene due to the colours and had a much better explaining scene with Pip and the convict in the graveyard.
