Textual Analysis of two films
“Reefer Madness” was originally a musical on Broadway and then was made into a television movie broadcast in 2005 in America staring Alan Cumming and Kristen Bell. This film consists of two storylines as there is a film within the film. Alan Cumming starts as The Lecturer telling a group of parents about the perils of the new drug marijuana, this part of the film is in Black and White. He then shows a film to the parents which tells the story of a young boy called Jimmy who becomes addicted to marijuana, this part of the film is in colour. The difference in colour accentuates the difference in storylines. Throughout the film there are musical numbers, as the character just burst into song, this is what usually happens in musicals.
“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley. It is about a 22 year old Canadian musician Scott Pilgrim and his life. He falls in love with Ramona Flowers but in order to date her he must defeat her seven evil exes. Throughout the film there are many references to video games, such as the name of Scott’s band Sex Bob-omb this is a reference to a character in Mario Kart, Bo-omb.
“Reefer Madness” opens with a man smoking marijuana laughing manically emphasising the fact that the film is about people smoking marijuana will turn crazy. Ominous music starts to play and the title Reefer Madness is written in smoke of the joint. The scene then changes, 1936 comes up on the bottom of the screen and you see a placard saying Tell Your Children on it which is the name of the original documentary released in America in 1936. Alan Cumming’s character, The Lecturer, makes it seem that those who smoke marijuana will turn into flesh eating zombies. The parents viewing the film don’t believe him; they still believe they live in a stereotypical American suburban town. They then break into song; this is the first of many songs, called Reefer Madness! All the parents and The Lecturer start singing and try to escape their children that have smoked marijuana and have turned into zombies. Once this song is over the Lecturer then starts showing the parents the film Tell Your Children. Once the film starts the colours shift and this part of the film is in colour as opposed to Black and White. The Lecturer is in the film but is playing a crossing guard and breaks the fourth wall by speaking to the audience rather than to another character in the scene and looking into the camera. He then introduces Jimmy Harper who is a typical All-American teenager in the 1930’s, he’s in love with a stereotypical American teenage girl called Mary Lane (later in the film there’s a song called “Mary Jane/Mary Lane” which refers to Jimmy’s struggle with his addiction to marijuana, Mary Jane, and his love for Mary Lane.) This opening gets straight into the story and the musical aspect of the film; some films are slow in their openings though “Reefer Madness” is not one of them.
The opening to “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is quite different to the “Reefer Madness” opening. Throughout the film there are references to video games, this starts early as the opening titles for the “Universal” titles is pixelated like an old style video arcade game with the sound distorted also like the old style games like “Sonic the Hedgehog” or “Pacman”. As the film is based on the graphic novel series the film is set out like a graphic novel is. Words appear on the screen like they would in the novel with a narrator reading them; the narrator’s voice is deep and menacing to build suspense. Also sounds are written on the screen for example when the doorbell rings the words “Ding Dong” come up on the screen or when the phone rings it’ll say“Riiiiiiiiing” on the screen. Another reference in the opening to video games is the background sound, when the scene changes you hear a sound like you’d hear when advancing to a higher level in a game. The whole premise of the film is heavily related to video games as with each “evil ex” Scott defeats he goes to the next level. Also when you are first introduced to a character on the screen shows their “stats”. For example Scott’s stats say “Scott Pilgrim, 22 years old, rating – awesome” this is like a players rating in games.
Although there are songs in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”, Scott’s band enters the Battle of the Bands. The songs in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”aren’t like the ones in “Reefer Madness”,as in “Reefer Madness” they just break into song like usual musicals one example of this is when they start singing about Romeo and Juliet. The songs in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” are part of the storyline and are performed for a reason; either the band is at a gig, performing, or in band practice.
Both of these films have distinctive colours. In “Reefer Madness” some of the film is filmed in colour, the films shown to the parents, and some of it is in black and white, the lecturer speaking to the parents. This helps distinguish between the two storylines. In “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” colour also plays a main part in the film, one example of this is at the beginning of the film when the actors names come up, the background are bright colours and keep changing. As the film is set in Toronto, Canada the setting is white and snowy so the bright colours of the costume and hair draws the eye away from the colourless backdrop.
In “Reefer Madness” the costume is the typical 1930’s clothing; it’s what you’d expect an American 1930’s school child to wear. Some of the costume is quite provocative as the scenes in which there are drugs shown. One scene in particular is when Mary Lane has some marijuana; she suddenly turns into a completely different person. The song “Mary Sunshine” shows Mary’s change drastically and the costume changes, she was wearing a blouse and long skirt then as the song keeps going she changes into a dominatrix outfit. She goes from one extreme to another. In “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” the costumes reflect the setting, this film is set in Canada in snow so that most of the characters are wearing coats and scarves. Scott has a coat that he always wears, a green parka, he also wears t-shirts with slogans or pictures on; one example of this is a green t-shirt with a heart and S.P. written in the middle, he wears this on at least two different occasions in the film, the beginning and the end, showing that he wears the same clothes over and over again. In some films the characters have endless costume changes however in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” he is supposed to be an unemployed musician so he wouldn’t have endless clothes to wear.
As “Reefer Madness” is a Mockumentary the body language and facial expressions are exaggerated. The characters exaggerate their reactions to certain things to fit the stereotype. One example of this is at the beginning of the film when Jimmy is crossing the road and the group of girls surrounding Mary Lane start screaming, Jimmy’s facial expression is exaggerated he seems shocked but to an extreme like you would see in pantomimes. In “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” the characters are supposed to be everyday characters although some things that happen would not happen in everyday life, for example whenever Scott defeats an evil ex he punches them and they explode into coins like when you defeat something in a video game, if this happened in real life people would be surprised but in Scott Pilgrim’s world this is seen to be an everyday occurrence. The characters reactions to these occurrences are underwhelming as opposed to “Reefer Madness” their reactions are less exaggerated.
In “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” one of the main characters, Ramona Flowers, changes her hair colour every week and a half; when you see her at first she has bright pink hair then she dyes it blue then green. Her hair is one of the reasons Scott is first attracted to her as it’s different. Knives, Scott’s ex-girlfriend, tries to be more like Ramona so she puts a blue streak in her hair. Compared to “Reefer Madness” the hair colour in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is completely different as they are set in two different eras. In “Reefer Madness” the hair is simplistic and natural as at the time in which this is set people didn’t dye their hair bright colours as they do in modern day.
“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and “Reefer Madness” are two films that defy genre; neither film has any other like it. I chose to analyse these two films because they are just so different to usual films released at the moment. Although “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” was marketed as “Hollywood blockbuster” it still unlike any other film released at the moment. “Reefer Madness” was originally a musical on Broadway a so again when it was made into a film there aren’t any other films released like it.
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