The main theme tells a story of youths being part of a subculture fighting for their survival. In Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam, 1979) focused on the ‘Mods’, was a time to rebel from parents and react against the post war radicalism. In Harry Brown, (Daniel Barber, 2009) there is this sense of injustice of not being part of the society with nothing else to do. Both subcultures wore iconic symbols such as the hoodie in Harry Brown and the long green coat In Quadrophenia to give them their identity.
During the beginning of Harry Brown, in many scenes of the presence of youth, we don’t get to see a clear, visible image of one of their faces, often shown in a long shot. Whereas in Quadrophenia we instantly are faced with the youth, making them seem less threatening.
The scene in the interrogation room, we see a clear contrast between the youths and the policeman. The lighting was dimmer on the potential killers (youths) whereas the policemen were clear and visible, as they had a brighter lighting on them. This creates an evil, creepy feel to the youths towards the audience. In comparison to Quadrophenia in the court, the lighting was bright and both the youth and the policemen were seen as joyful characters. Though like Harry Brown, the youth had this cheeky attitude making jokes towards the police, giving this sense of immaturity. This brings up the Gramsci theory of cultural hegemony, as the police want to be in charge and seem to be a higher class, especially in Harry Brown.
The parents are more evident in Quadrophenia, giving the sense that parents had a more important role at this time. We see a scene where Jimmy gets kicked out of the house and the mum has an argument with him, showing who is in charge of the house. Jimmy cries later on, this suggesting his love for her, even though he pretended not to care. In contrast, Harry Brown doesn’t show much present of the parents with only one scene of when one of the youths was getting taken away by the police. There wasn’t much communication and shows a change in the time periods as the parents have left their child to grow up without any discipline, and seem to have given up on them where there was no sympathy from the mother when her son was getting taken away from the police. The youth don’t even appear to take any interest on their parents with hardly any presence of them.
In both films, the youths have scenes where they run riot on the streets representing the Mcrobbie theory. This is when symbolic violence among the working class is part of social reproduction. In Quadrophenia they ran loose in a touristic place during the day fighting against another subculture in contrast to Harry Brown, they rioted in their own place at night against each other. This suggests that representations have changed in different time periods, where in the past they had the confidence and were able to riot anywhere at any time. In comparison to Harry Brown, they only caused a nuisance at their own territory. The Cohen theory is shown through moral panic. Every so often, a certain category of people are perceived by the media as a threat and creates a panic against moral beliefs. This is evident in both films as the youths are perceived as threats caused by the riots and act without morals, especially in Harry Brown, as more media was around to expose the audience.
Binary opposition is used where the police are seen as the opposite sides from the youths. There is more binary opposition in Harry Brown because the youth are represented as a lower class and are emphasized as the evil ones by the dim lighting. In Quadrophenia, the police seem in much more control as they virtually stopped the riots taking place after the previous looting. Different to this in Harry Brown, the youth seem just as strong as the police, with scenes where the police have almost an out of control situation, this again proving a change in representations of the attitudes between the police and the youth.
In conclusion, we can clearly identify from the two films that British youths have evolved in a less caring and nastier manner, increasing their power over their binary opposition of the police; though this isn’t their own entire fault for why they have changed. This has occurred because of the widening between social classes where the youth appear in a lower class. In addition, the parent’s role doesn’t seem to have the same love and passion for their child as there was in Quadrophenia, and I feel that it is the parents fault for letting their child go by not bringing them up well. For the future, it gives the sense that the youth will only appear less and less respected to others and will seem more violent, exposed by the ever-growing media. The adults seem to want to give their own meaning of the youth and keep on creating their own fear suggested in the Giroux theory of youths being the empty category filled with interests of the adult world.
No comments:
Post a Comment