INTRODUCTION:
Firstly the genre i have picked is Western. I would like to start by discussing the typical and generic conventions of westerns shown in classic films such as True Grit (1969) and A Fistful Of Dollars (1964) these conventions are things such as the hero normally being lonely and an outcast from villages and groups, Westerns are normally set in the wilderness, forest's, mountains and deserts to present savagery, also westerns being set in the wilderness could indicate what the hero is like. Typical conventions can also be props such as-
- Guns in holsters
- Cowboy hats
- Horses
- Hero looking for revenge or justice
The two films I am analysing will be The Good The Bad And The Ugly (1966) and The Lone Ranger (2013) although 47 years apart, i believe they have things in common and differences between them both.
Both films are similar in a way that they both include typical conventions of western films, E.G- They both have the generic western setting (somewhere hot and in the wilderness). They both include a hero and the villain which is very noticeable who is who if you was to watch both scenes.
They're contrasts between each films, E.G The good the bad and the ugly doesn't implement the Native American's into the film unlike The Lone Ranger that shows them as anti-heroes who fight the enemy and the hero. The Good The Bad And The Ugly was very different when compared to 'normal' westerns back then due to them all using the Cowboys and Indians' storyline. When compared with the Lone Ranger that uses both the The settlers and the Native Americans as Heroes and villains you can see the how complex westerns are when compared with the John Wayne/Clint Eastwood era of western films.
CAMERA ANGLES:
The camera angles in The Good The Bad And The Ugly in this certain scene are very simple but work very effectively due to it being a being tense and dramatic scene with no speech from the characters. During a part of the scene the director implements 25 shots only showing close ups, the director uses the close up camera angle to show how the 3 characters are feeling not only by their muted expressions but also does it in a meaningful way. In another part of the scene they use over the shoulder shots to show the space in the scene and the spacial relationship between the 3 characters. The camera angles that are used in this is where the generic conventions of a western really come into play because they use some of the most simple and easy camera angles a director could ever use and camera angles that are so common when thinking of a western but yet so effective.
When compared to the Lone Ranger it has very complex camera angles, unlike my first film which is a typical western, a typical western film will have many easy camera angles such as a medium shot,wide shot, close ups and extreme close ups (sometimes on the guns or just the eyes). All though both films transition shots, The Good The Bad And The Ugly does fast and slow transitions depending on where you are in the scene, and in parts of the Lone Ranger they hardly ever transition and then in some scenes transition a lot, as you can tell the ways that western films are made has been changed a lot just by the camera angles that are being used.
The Lone Ranger uses camera angles that are very different when compared to my first film. In The Lone Ranger they use medium to long shot to emphasis on the action that they have put into this certain scene, they use a range of different camera angles but tend to transition from the medium to long shots. In one scene their is a fight going on from a distance, as the first characters shoot it transitions to the characters being shot on there horses then transitions to a medium shot of the first characters again it tends to do this to show both characters emotions and to show the audience what is happening in a very simple but effective way.
SOUND:
The sound that both films have in the scenes are very much different. In The Good The Bad And The Ugly they have a quiet, eerie scene that the director created with the type of sound that was put in, although not many sound effects, the background music makes it very tense and atmospheric which makes the viewer enjoy the scene even more, the effect it has on the viewer is very large due to it incorporating generic conventions of a western movie with the added background music which the audience enjoys thoroughly. The background music which is very well known also stops and starts when on certain bits of the scene to add tension and excitement for the audience
The Lone Ranger includes different types of sound including background music and actors speaking as well as sound effects such as explosions, trains and guns being fired. Although the background music isn't being overpowered or been played to loud when watching the film it still has a huge part on how it makes the audience feel when watching the scene, it has such an influence on how it makes the audience feel because it fits perfectly with the sound effects as well as with the actors who speaking during this scene, due to it all fitting in sequence perfectly and so well it makes the audience feel even more excited with all these aspects added.
LIGHTING:
The lighting off both films are very different during the two scenes. Firstly The Good The Bad And The Ugly is about mid day in a hot, open place with little shade, this is such a typical place for this type of scene to be filmed in due to it being in the middle of nowhere which would indicate that they're no rules in that part of the west. They chose to do the scene in this type of lighting due to it making the scene look a lot better than if they did it at night, as well as it helping the three characters show more emotion in there faces. The effect it has on the viewer is large due to the lighting helping the audience understand the scene and the background setting around the characters.
The scene in the Lone Ranger is at night which instead of showing emotion in the characters faces like The Good The Bad And The Ugly, it helps us to identify more things in the scene which would create an exciting atmosphere that daylight maybe wouldn't be able to create. Due to it being a very violent scene, the dark lighting fits perfectly with what is happening in the scene. I think they made the scene in dark lighting to excite the audience and to make it even more dramatic, also the contrasts between lighting all the way through the scene are big in this part of the movie, even though its dark due to it being at night in certain bits of this scene they make it look even darker in places like the forest to not only make the movie look better but also to represent the characters that are in the forest at that certain time.
CONCLUSION:
In conclusion the heroes are very noticeable due to how they look, how they portray themselves and how they act around certain characters, for example in The Lone Ranger the hero is noticeable by the actions he takes to stop the villain and also how he treats characters around him. In The Good The Bad And The Ugly the villain is noticeable on how he treats certain characters and how he portrays himself in certain scenes.
The typical storyline in the 1950's was cowboys and Indians because that's what people was used to growing up watching/reading and it had such a big audience due to actors such as John Wayne playing these "righteous, independent, tough, white cowboy" roles to help defend the "helpless villagers" against "evil, brutal, savage Indians" people don't want to see that because a lot of the story lines are repeated and simple, they would rather watch something that includes other genres like The Lone Ranger because they can expect more from a film like that.
I think The Good The Bad And The Ugly doesn't present Indians as villains because it was so generic to do so back then and during the 1960's the genre was dying fast and needed something to revamp the genre, they decided to not include Indians in and due to it being very different and it made millions because it was a breath of fresh air for fans of the western genre. Adding to this they don't want to see these type of films with this type of plot because it generalizes Red Indians as evil characters and to stereotype somebody as evil because of there heritage or skin tone is very racist and is not done because of that.
It think the Lone Ranger includes both because they wanted the film to attract the younger and older audiences of western films, they also included both because it had hardly ever been done before.
Also the camera angles that they used in The Good The Bad And The Ugly like the close ups of the guns are very typical to do as well as the cutting close ups of the face/eyes before the inevitable final draw because it builds up slow tension that excites the viewer.
