Representation

After conducting research on 3 different opening sequences I can currently say the representation of crime drama tends to focus on the social class area combined with aspects of regional identity. I know this primarily through my research from the TV show Sherlock and Casino Royale. Both in these instances there was a clear representation of social class, typically the working class are deemed reckless, clueless and commonly idiotic or on occasion have shown elements of 'street smarts' such as in Snatch wherein gypsies appear to 'outdo' the other classes around them. The upper class are typically redeemed to be either overly 'posh' and eccentric or sophisticated and erudite, this can however mean that typical villains are shown to be very sophisticated, this is notable in numerous films from the James Bond franchise in which typical characteristics of the villains is the archetype of sophistication. The middle class tend to be the primary focus of 'everyday' characters which means the common heroic characters are often middle class or upper class while villainous characters are either working class or upper class. Very often in films (specifically films from film noir) of crime drama it appears that the heroic characters often have a clear sense of 'right and wrong' however they are typically shown to be reckless and have some sort of 'dark side' towards their character, for instance a character maybe a detective who is very passionate about his job to the point that he will do almost anything to solve a case, without considering any health and safety regulations or taking into account what could happen to other people around him. In terms of gender, crime films tend to focus more on representing women as very weak, feeble or as a 'damsel in distress' whilst the men are often shown to be very heroic, tough and intelligent but often have a very dark past or are in a great deal of stress over something around their life. This can be seen in crime films such as Scarface in which the male character is exceedingly protective over his sister, to the point where he kills his best friend just to ensure his sister does not have a boyfriend who is involved in crime. Sometimes the male heroic characters are actually criminals however these characters often have a clear distinction of right and wrong and very often have certain limits such as ensuring no one is killed who does not deserve to be so that common civilians are never harmed. Scarface is a prime example of this as the main character is shown to be a villain throughout and even calls himself "the bad guy" however there is a very famous scene in Scarface where the main character very aggressively refuses to kill two young kids in a car which ultimately results in his own death by the end of the film, this shows that the main character is not purely evil as even though he does do very horrific things he does have his limits and can see what is right and wrong.  Another representation that is often shown in crime films is the representation of age, very often young characters are shown to be reckless and do not have a clear image as to what they should do and what they shouldn't. This corresponds with the older people shown as they are typically shown to be very sophisticated, organised and have a clear understanding about what their role is. For example there maybe a scenario in a police station where a young new recruit has just enrolled and is forced to work with an older policeman that has been working at the police station the majority of his life, typically the representation here would show the young recruit as clueless who consistently gets involved in cases which he does not know how to handle whilst the older recruit has to mentor him and teach him about right and wrong. I think some of these representations would be interesting to use in our final project, specifically the 'troubled' detective type figure, this would be interesting to use/subdue as it is very typical of crime films and subverting the representation in some way could be very interesting to use. The representation of women being overpowered by men could be interesting to show in our project as it could be easier to show this as opposed to other representations. In terms of age it would be very difficult to show as all of the members in our group are of a similar age so differentiating between age groups would be hard unless we will be able to allow auditions of much older people. I think differentiating between social class would be good as it is an area which is very often explored in crime films, the fact that the middle class and upper class are very typically shown to be heroic whilst the working class tend to be more reckless could be interesting to subdue which will mean if we were to subdue this it would involve using the middle class as the villains whilst the working class are more heroic. My original idea was to show the working class as innocent and overpowered by the middle class, this could potentially stay the same as if the working class are shown to be innocent then it would naturally make them seem more heroic.