Movie analysis

I analyzed the final scene from the movie The Jacket starring Keira Knightley and Adrien Brody. Overall, this movie was about a soldier from the Gulf war. He was shot and he died but yet he never actually died. The basis is that he ends up in a mental hospital and he can’t remember what happened in his past so the treatments they give him are suppose to help him remember. So as he is remembering he begins to find out information that can help him change the future. He more or less is time traveling. Kiera Knightley helps him figure out what happened in the past so that he can change the future. The movie intertwined through the same characters at different stages of life. For example, the little girl he met in the begin played a key role when he was seeing the future because he was the same age but she was 20 or so years older, which showed him the time travel aspect. This is a crazy movie but it is really good and I highly recommend it!

PERSONAL

I personally really enjoyed this movie. I had never heard of it and so I was unsure what to think. After watching it I was glad though. At first I thought it was a little creepy because the guy kept dying. After I understood the basis of the film however I really enjoyed it. Even though time travel was involved the movie never repeated anything so it did not cause confusion. I like movies that are easy to follow.

HISTORICAL

The movie is from 2005. It was directed by John Maybury. It is a sci fi film. The character was in the Gulf War but the history of the war was never given. Other than that the movie does not really tie into history because it is so fictional.

TECHNICAL

I chose the last scence to analyze. The technical components were really good.

LIGHTING

The lighting is natural in this scene because they were outdoors. The rest of the movie the lighting was dark and so in this final scene the brightness represented happiness. The final scene was the sort of happy ending that summed the whole movie up.

COMPOSITION

The composition of this scene is a mixture of far away and close up. When Adrien Brody’s character is talking they tend to be more closeup to catch the drama of his character. When Kiera Knightley is talking however it tends to be farther away and get more of her surroundings in the shot. This may be because his character’s lines are more informative and you need to focus but yet her lines are more in response to him.

SYMBOLISM

This final scene is repeating the opening scene with Kiera Knightly, but yet the future has changed because of his semi time travel. When the characters are driving away there is a shot looking in through the windshield at them. A dream catcher is hanging in the window and this is symbolic because all along his character has been in a dream like state. He bounces from reality to images in his mind. Also, she changes cars from the first scene this is mimicing which was more of a truck and she was aggressive and stand off-ish, but in this she has changed to a more loveable character and she is driving a VW bug. The first scene was at night. Night represents more of a dark and gloomy time, but this replica scene with the happy ending is shot during the day. Behind his character a semi truck drives by honking. This just shows the truck stop middle of nowhere type setting. The music sets the mood for a finally.

ETHICAL/CULTURAL/CRITICAL

This is kind of hard to decipher in this scene. The culture would be that it is two American’s looking happy talking on cell phones and driving a nice car. It is a typical stereotype but I dont think that this ties into the movie. The final scene is critical because it sums up the whole movie. By repeating the opening scene it shows how it has changed because of his time travel and the events leading up to that moment.