Holiday Homework 2

Thriller Movie

Over the holidays I watched a Thriller movie called John Q. I have attached the trailer below for this movie and recommended everyone to watch this film as it takes you through the story of a father who will do anything to save his child. The movie contains famous actors such as Denzel Washington which had attracted me to the movie in the first place. I spotted many common conventions throughout the film. As any thriller movie there is a battle between the protagonist (good guy) and the antagonist (bad guy) however I found that in this movie this idea is not as clearly demonstrated. John (The father) makes decisions which can leave the audience in two minds. He threatens the lives of other innocent patients in order to save his own son. In this situation one would weigh up Johns intentions and the severity of his actions in order to reach a judgement in who is in the right. 

Moving on another convention this film had followed well was how there is always 'calm before the storm'. Usually in Thriller movies everything seems fine and normal at first and is hit by a sudden change in events. This usually shocks the audience and sets the main story for the thriller. In this case John's child, Michael suffers a heart attack during a baseball game, later to find out that he will need a very expensive heart transplant to stand a chance of surviving. Prior to the incident we see scenes including Michael were he seems very innocent, optimistic about his future and active. As a audience we see Michael as a protagonist and begin to like his character. After showing his good actions, having a heart attack makes us sympathize with Michael and his family, as the film had previously built up a close relationship between Michael and the audience. We feel sorry for him, because he is a child and what we have already seen from him makes us think that he doesn't deserve to be in such a position. The movie does well to engage the audience as we begin to develop emotions and feelings regarding the situation. Whilst we may question Johns actions at same time we feel sympathy for the young child who has been refused a heart transplant. This tugs on our ethical guidance and naturally we would have our emotions triggered by such a upsetting event. 

Another convention which I had spotted was the use of Mise En Scene by producers to convey a typical thriller film. There were the usage of guns and heavy equipment which sets the scene for a thriller. This also hints at danger and action. Guns are used to create the idea that lives could be lost in this situation, it builds suspense and tension. The lighting within the hospital, which has been taken hostage by John Q, is also very low and at one point electrical lines are messed around with. The use of low lighting also builds suspense as we can only see things vaguely and details are not very clear, this is used for effect as we have a natural instinct, we want to know more and uncover more details. 

Finally a very common film convention I spotted in this movie was the twist at the end. There are a number of twists but one which caught me out was when John Q was willing sacrifice his own heart, killing himself, in order to save his son. We see John rest down on the hospital bed and hold a gun to his head which is followed by a massive bang noise. We automatically presume that he has pulled the trigger and committed suicide, although as we find out later it is not as we first thought. We later see John disguised as a Doctor pushing his sons body into the surgery room in order to go ahead with the transplant. We are automatically shocked as we had first thought the worst. The movie set the scene out to show as though John was fully committed to go ahead with the suicide after a few moments of re-evaluating the situation. Making John rather shaky at first may have hinted this twist. There is also a smaller twist right at the end of the film in which a character is arrested for the hostage situation who we also assume is John. However as the car drives off the camera focuses onto the face of the arrested character and we learn that there is actually an victim of the hostage situation, disguised as John, taking the bait for him.