Scene Analysis: Oh... the MISERYY

In this specific scene, Annie Wilkes provides Paul Sheldon with a typewriter. She wants him to write more Misery books. However, Annie got Paul the wrong typewriting paper, so Paul asks Annie is she could kindly step out of the house for a bit just to get him the correct batch of paper. Annie, hesitant at first, accepts and is on her way to the little convenience stores back in town. As Annie drives away, Paul decides to somehow try to escape from that freak’s house. With his one and only help, he uses a bobby pin to unlock his door leading him directly to the living room and the kitchen. All this, is shown to the audience through point of view, various canted angles, as well as several medium and close up shots.

Paul leaves his room and starts probing around this empty hose as he wheels himself around in physical pain. He passes through the room where Annie keeps all her medicine hidden. As he enters that room, an angle of destiny is used as Paul Sheldon desperately grabs the pills from the top shelf. He then proceeds to the living room. In the living room, we are shown a pan of the living room and Paul is filmed at a medium shot, sometimes close up, where we can see clearly facial expression and the emotions that he was releasing. After hunting and examining the living room, the kitchen was his next stop, and possibly his final stop in the house.

Once at the kitchen shot, the viewers are given a pan of the kitchen and a point of view shot as well from Paul’s position. As he peruses throughout the kitchen, he spots the kitchen door that could help him escape the house. We are then shown a ground shot when Paul is crawling his way to safety. As he reaches the door, he struggles to reach for the door knob. However, the door knob on that kitchen door was like as if he is reaching for his last hope. Suddenly, it seems as if his whole escaping plan just might not work out after all. Shown with a long shot, we see Annie driving and approaching the house. Closer… and closer… and even closer! Ahhhhhh!!! This is where a shot reverse shot also comes into play. As Paul hears the car approaching, he scurries back to his wheelchair so he could reach his room in time before she got a chance to enter house.

As Annie is walking towards the house, Paul is wheeling himself to safety. As Annie gets her keys to open the front door, Paul is locking and closing the door with the bobby pin. Right there, a match cut was used to link their simultaneous movement. Thankfully, Paul made into his room in all safety in time; nonetheless he was dripping in perspiration.

I found this overall scene to be quite stressful. I personally got so into the movie and I couldn’t even take my eyes off the screen. With the use of an enthralling soundtrack playing in the background and action happening... it was too much to handle! The purpose of this scene was to mainly link the characters. Showing how Annie was the antagonist, in a way, and Paul being the protagonist. Paul was having thoughts of leaving that house as soon as possible, and Annie wanted the opposite, meaning she was locking and isolating Paul inside the house. Taken as a whole, this movie is one of my favourite movies. Hence, having such great tension and action and winning an Oscar.

JAAWS!

If ever there was justification for being terrified of sticking a toe in the ocean, it's “Jaws”. Director Steven Spielberg's fantastic piece of art really had its sheer ability to grip an audience. Before even viewing the movie, who knew a movie made in the mid 1970’s would have carried such action and suspense. This movie completely exceeded my expectations for a typical 70’s movie.

As this movie beginned, we were put in a dark atmosphere on Small Island, community of Amity, a vacationer, named Chrissie Watkins in the dark getting chased by another guy on the beach, decides to take a swim in the water, while its pitch black, and all of a sudden… after all the screams of joys, the area goes quiet. There are no surrounding sounds. We then swiftly see this young lady getting attacked and we see all this happening through the Sharks point of view. Early morning on the next day, Martin Brody, new chief police of Amity was put on the search to investigate this horrifying and tragic incident.

As the movie went about, more deaths seemed to just occur. As parents enjoyed and soaked up the sun as watching their children and other children playing, a group of children went racing towards the ocean to play some games and have fun splashing one another in the water. One child, named Alex Kintner, decided to go surfing. With the incorporation of several jump cuts, where the camera man shows the audience the kids splashing the water everywhere, in a matter of seconds the suspenseful music switches on and you further know something bad was about to happen or has just happened. All children rush immediately out of the waters, as they leave the ocean empty. Come to think of it, maybe the ocean wasn’t that empty after all… Within minutes Alex Kintner was pronounced dead.

Now, if you think the beginning of the movie was intense, wait until you see the few last scenes shot in the movie. Midway through the film, we are shown that three men were going to go on a little escapade and try their best to sail the oceans and capture the hidden monster whose taking lives as we speak! In this scene where we see Quint, chief Brody and Matt Hooper, there were a lot of selected types of camera movements that occurred. For example, the majority of the techniques that was used were the use of canted angles. As this long and treacherous journey develops for the three young men, unfortunately, Quint was the one to be attacked and killed by the shark, and his body is dragged under the water so no one can try to save him. After a terrifying and exhausting trip, chief Brody and Matt Hooper are the ones to finally capture this beast and once again peace, happiness and safety is yet again restored back into this little community of Amity.

All in all, even though this is one of the older movies, with all the techniques incorporated, including camera movement, sound effects and the many use of transitions, I would have to say that Jaws is a quite interesting movie to watch and, surprisingly, clutches on to your attention as soon as you hear the dangerous, yet threatening music play softly in the background. Dun, dun, dunnnnnnn!!!