‘The Full Monty’ stereotypes a lot of things in the film. The ways in which they do this is by portraying that Northerners are fat, lazy, unemployed, there are very poor housing conditions and all we eat is fish and chips. This works well because people who are watching might live the same type of lives that the men in the film do, so relate really well to it.
However in ‘Independence Day’ they stereotype things like the Americans being the rulers of the Earth, and they are the only country who can stop the invasion of aliens. They were also the first country to walk on the moon, and it is made sure people know this at the very beginning of the film, which I think is saying no other country can beat them.
Denotation and Connotation are used in both films, as in everyday life. Which mean the images we see are meant to have a secondary meaning. Some examples are a Porsche, suggests young good looking and rich. People think the old people are always complaining and the stereotyping of teenagers always being in trouble. Another one is women drivers are put across as rubbish and of course nowhere as good as men. People say for example cannot be trusted.
I think that the obvious difference between the two films is that ‘independence Day’ has excellent lighting, sound effects along with great graphics but ‘The Fill Monty’ doesn’t have any of these things, which is a good thing because it would not work as well if it did. However ‘independence Day’ needs all these things because of the type of film it is and how unrealistic it is, which is what makes it so successful.
I think that the director of ‘The Full Monty’ wasn’t the successful at setting the first five minutes and this is because it is not very interesting. If someone give me that film to watch without telling me anything about the film and the first few clips came up of Sheffield I would probably turn it off because it is not at all interesting. I think that he could of done a lot more things with it than what he did, to make it more interesting. However in ‘independence Day’ when the first shot came on of the dark shadow covering the moon, I was interested straight away because I wanted to find out what it was and the way he did it you just knew something was going to happen, so it puts you in suspense. So I defiantly think he was successful in setting the first five minuets of the film.
I think that use of denotation was very successful in ‘The Full Monty’ because what you saw and heard were mostly all true. The way the director portrayed the living conditions and unemployment in Sheffield and the use of connotation was just as successful because it promotes this idea that people actually live like this which makes it real.
I think that in ‘Independence Day’ the use of denotation is successful because what you see with all the special effects. However the use of connotation is very poor I think because it promotes this idea that America are the hero’s of the world and the impression that aliens actually exist.
The first five minutes of ‘The Full Monty’ starts off by ‘Fox Searchlight’ coming up on the screen in white, simple lettering. Then a drum roll follows which is really powerful, it suggests a strong message. Six little cut out figures come up on the screen, which suggests to us that the film is about six men (as the figures are in the shape of men). The title then appears which is white and in lower case lettering, suggesting informality and that it’s genre is comedy with no real meaning. The title means ‘All the way’. Then a black screen appears inside another screen then a voice-over in the style of Pathe News comes on, in standard English. There is a long shot of a city that shows high buildings, factories and houses. It pans over the city and zooms in at the same time – to a caption “Sheffield city on the move”. A shot comes up of cars, vans and buses, showing a town that is busy and always full of people. Flowers come up with a bright blue sunny sky, which shows Sheffield is always bright, cheerful, and in best bloom all the time. Shots of people going to work that promotes an image of people able and willing to go to work.
The steel foundary is the next shot that appears this shot is important because most of Britain’s steel used to come from Sheffield. A policeman is talking to people, being friendly, giving people advice, and telling us that all the people that have jobs working with the public are going to be friendly and polite. A swimming pool is the next shot that comes up implying there is lots of activities to do during the day, so you will never get bored. Scenes of shops and shopping centres, give you the impression that you can go to work then just relax by doing a little (or a lot) of shopping, and there is every kind of shop that you will ever need. Nightclubs and disco’s promote how good the nightlife is in Sheffield and that the party never dies. It shows you how good the housing conditions are and tells us that they are going to build new and better one’s as well.
Then a black screen with ‘25 years later’ on it appears, it goes silent. A derelict steel works factory with lots of dull colours appears. This shows what has happened to the factories in Sheffield after all that time.
The first five minutes if ‘Independence Day’ starts off by the opening credits coming up, they are dramatic, suggesting conflict using special effect. The words “Centropolis Entertainment Production”, followed by the title ‘Independence Day’ both with a silver 3D effect on a black background, with explosive sound effects suggesting that the film is exciting and that something is going to happen. The screen goes black and the information ‘2nd July’ appears on the screen in the same format as the title, with all the same sound effect. A white screen appears followed by the American flag straight away – you get the impression that the film is about the Americans. The flag is on the moon. A plaque comes up which reads:
“We come in peace for all mankind”
Quoted by a man called Michael Collins.
This symbolises America as the heroes, the saviours of mankind. Symbolic music crashes out.
A dark shadow starts moving over the moon, towards Earth. You get the intuition that something dreadful is going to happen. The moon and Earth initially seem bigger than the shadow but then the shadow takes over and swamps Earth in size. This tells us whatever the shadow is going to bring will be bad because of it’s size. We find out that the shadow is a spaceship and then the music rises to a crescendo as it moves over the screen in a menacing manner.
The next shot is cut to Earth in the present, where the words “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) comes up on the screen. The song ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it’ is playing in the background. Next shot is red flashing light that symbolises danger and a ringing phone is the next shot introducing characters via obvious problems with the monitors.
The film I enjoyed the most was ‘The Full Monty’. The reason for this is because I don’t really enjoy watching films that are to over the top; ‘Independence Day’ has to many special effects. Unlike ‘The Full Monty’ it has a meaning much more than aliens in the film it has friendships, love, triumph and adversity and helping one another with the difficulty that life can bring.
