The key points that I have chosen to
discuss really show the different types of youth and how they are seen through
the eyes of society. The scene in which Super 8 opens with, the children are
all dressed up in smart attire as they pay respect at Joey’s Mother’s funeral.
The camera angle, which is a wide-angle shot, shows the main protagonist Joey
looking content and timid as he holds his Mother’s locket in his hand. This
illustrates that he is an innocent young child, who is involved in one o the
kindest friendship groups as you can see them paying respect in his home for
his Mother. This contradicts
Society and sends out a positive attitude, as these children aren’t violently
bustling through the streets causing havoc. In addition, it’s obvious how much
of an impact Joey’s Mother had on him and his friends, it portrays that Joey
must’ve depended on his Mother a lot before her death. However, when you look
at the opening scene of Attack the Block, the teens are shown as disrespectful
and rebellious youths. The film therefore justifies what Society think of the
youths, because the gang harass the nurse, showing violence. The nurse being
female as well shows a higher case of vulnerability as they are seen as a
weaker individual to men and the gang. This is conveyed through the enclosed
circle the gang have formed around her causing her vulnerability because she
can’t escape without a fight and they have knifes which could cause her death,
she was utterly defenceless. Society stereotypes youths as threats because most
are seen with knifes on many occasions. Also, noting that when the aliens
arrive on earth, they beat the baby alien inside the crate, with a variety of
sticks and metal poles. Once again, Attack the Block conforms to the
stereotypical youth conventions. Furthermore, we can depict the difference in
dialogue and diction in the two films. In Super 8 the youths are well educated
and have perfect diction, then when you look at Attack the Block’s gang members
dialect, you notice that they are very ‘chav’ like and don’t seem well
educated, mainly because they are uneducated and are not attending school,
unlike the group in Super 8. Another difference is the clothing, from smart
attire to tracksuits and scarf’s, which covers their mouths, known as balaclavas.
Resembling the look of the people in the 2011 riots. At the time in which
Attack the Block was made it was around the time of the London Riots, where
gangs were ‘looting’ shops, etc. This conforms to the typical representation of
youth as the gang members in Attack the Block harass people, carry knifes and
this is what was happening throughout the London riots. The gang members in
Attack the Block mirror the individuals in the 2011 riots. Wearing snapback
caps, tracksuits, hoodies, scarf’s around their mouths, this can also mirror
the way in which terrorists look like. This therefore reinforces the way in
which Society perceive the youths.
Furthermore, the next two
scenes that I have decided to analyse in more depth are the alien’s arrivals in
both films. Firstly, in Super 8, we actually didn’t know whether they were
aliens or not, all we knew was that there was a train crash. The youths thought
exactly the same as what we did. Joey and his group of friends simply ran when
the train crash happened, this is a normal thing for any teenage group to do,
because in reality, no one would stand still during a train crash. Although,
when it came to Attack the Block it was a completely different story. Joe
Cornish used a lightning speed effect so it looked like a comet had crashed to
the earth, but instead they dropped crates to the ground, inside those crates
were the aliens. The black, bear like aliens that in-fact were killing
machines. Unlike normal youths, Moses and his gang went into crates armed with
metal poles and Moses is seen carrying a knife, the gang collected the metal
poles from around them and went into the crate and smashed the baby alien to
pieces. They didn’t know what was in there until they came out, there could
have been anything in there and it may have not done anything to them. This
inevitably conveys that people who look like Moses gang would definitely cause
damage or harm to people that are either around them or in the way. Moreover,
we notice that as well as the group of youths in Super 8, Attack the Block’s
gang members are also adventurous. Which you can see by them running into the
crate to kill the baby alien, the group in Super 8 are seen as adventurous as
they take it upon themselves to find out the reason for this crash, whilst
adults and others are seen hiding in refugee camps etc. I think that both
directors have chose to represent youth in this way, to give out a positive
attitude to almost contradict what Society are saying.
Once again, Super 8 contradicts
Society because they are down to Earth and they absolutely adore their
families. Joey’s Mum obviously played a huge part in his and his friend’s life
because of the respect they paid at her funeral. Overall, the representation of
the youths in these two scenes suggests that some youths may act in a smarter
manner and some may be completely ludicrous and self-centred. When looking at
Attack the Block you could say that the estate in which the gang live in has
influenced them to be this way. They are living in an unhealthy environment,
which is full of drug dealers and old rustic buildings. The director for Attack
the Block is trying to get the message across that the environmental issues
that are around can therefore depict what ethics you have and define who you
are. Example; chav’, gang member. The colours in these two scenes are also very
significant when representing the youths. In Super 8, the colours are earthy
and there are some really dark browns and some reds in there, this to me,
implies that it’s quite close to home. The reds can represent a love interest
between the two characters Joey and Alice. This progresses throughout the film,
showing that love can grow at such a young age, representing them as mature
people, contrasting against the gang members in Attack the Block. As we explore
the scene from Attack the Block we notice the cold colours of blue and black,
this represents the feeling in which Moses and his gang feel towards the aliens
that have landed on their ‘territory’ and this can then again their damaged,
criminal side, their cold blood towards their area and people. The colours put
forth the differences between the two groups of youths from the two films, the
browns and reds show heart and the blues and blacks show their coldness! To
look at the films both in more depth, from background information, we notice
some aspects of the films relate back to the film E.T. by Spielberg. The dull
colours from E.T. are seen in Super 8; also the visuals of the alien are also
seen as less scary and more innocent, just like E.T. Both films were actually
influenced by E.T.; however, one is schmaltzy like Spielberg’s original.
Lastly, I will be discussing the
relationships between the main protagonists and how the friendships they shared
gave them strength and will power to fight on and show how the representation
of youth has contradicted society in Super 8 and that although Moses was a hero
in Attack the Block, he still is a criminal for the way he saved his estate.
Firstly, when looking at Super 8 and we see the scene where Joey saves Alice’s
life from the alien underground; we notice how much strength and courage her
has when he goes to speak to the alien. This is a positive and contradicts
Society, because Joey knew that his friends were behind him and that they
needed saving and he just had full courage and if you were to look at the alien,
you can see innocence in it’s face. You may be thinking, that’s slightly
strange for an alien to look innocent but the alien has a resemblance of ET.
Originally, JJ Abrams wanted to work with Steven Spielberg on Super 8, which is
the alien has resemblance of ET, the features are innocent looking and less
alien like more toy like (It was almost like Super 8 was a love letter to
Steven Spielberg, thanking him for working on it with him and for being a
generally amazing film director/producer). It ends up with the alien
understanding and letting them out
from the underground, this is evidently a positive and you see Joey and his Father
united at the end, which also shows that he did in-fact depend on his Father
before the crash. With Attack the
Block it’s different, Moses the main protagonist out of the gang takes things
into his own hands. He musters up the courage and strength as well for his
friends, to be that heroic person in the film; he jumped from a multi story
building, blowing up the aliens inside the flat. Bearing in mind that we just
found out that Moses is 15 years old and has the courage to do that, it’s
pretty impressive. It’s a shock for the Nurse and the audience to find out that
Moses is only 15 years old, because he is so grown up about this whole ordeal.
Moses has to be the grown up of his gang because of the fact his parents had
abandoned him, he’s had to be grown up from a very young age which makes him
more mature, but he’s going the wrong way about it. The directors getting the
message across that sometimes we don’t need parents to grow up. However, again,
this shows that the Attack the Block gangs do things in a different manner, a
way in which terrorist attacks are done (blowing things up) and a way in which
most of the older generation perceive. It’s basically saying that no matter
what way they become heroic or save the day, it’s that strength comes through
friendship and that no matter what happens, friends and others come before you
do, so this makes Moses the traditional hero. This is representing youth
because a lot of people who are involved in gangs are always sticking together,
they become more like family and less like friends. They grow up together.
Being in groups can cause people to stereotype you though, as being a gang or
someone who would cause some sort of havoc.
Both directors have represented these
youths as being brought up into broken families. Moses doesn’t have a family;
his family is his gang members. Joey has a family, but he lost his Mother, the main
person in his life, it seemed as if he depended on her in the first part of the
movie as you can see him and his friends grieving and he holds her locket in
his hands. Then Joey’s friend Alice is shown as having a broken family too as
she is seen arguing with her Dad. Throughout the films, you see these youths
progress and grow up as they are their own individuals through most of the film
and they needed to be strong a mature to ensure safety for others around them
and to save their estates. This evidently shows that both films are challenging
the stereotypical youth conventions as they are both contradicting how society
feels about youths. They are a lot smarter and mature then they think, they may
act differently and they may be alarming or innocent, but they are still
challenging youth conventions by taking on the parental role (the main
protagonists/antagonists of both films) for them and others. You could say that
Attack the Block reinforces this idea of broken families causing disruption in
the youths, because Moses and his gang members are more corrupted and Moses
being without parent’s shows that he hasn’t had a good upbringing, so he wouldn’t
have manners etc. super 8 challenges youth stereotypes, whereas, Attack the
Block does both challenging and reinforcing.
Overall, after analysing
the two films in high detail, I noticed that youth was represented through the
way in which the actors and actresses were portrayed. Example one, in the
independent London situated film Attack the Block, we notice that the main
characters in the film are a gang of ‘chav’s’. The way in which they speak and
dress are the main give away as to who they are inside, personality wise. In society and media usually any youths
that are dressed in this way are in-fact addressed as troublesome people; they
would usually be seen mugging people or inflicting pain on others, etc. We
first see this happen in the beginning of Attack the Block when it all starts
out negative, however, as the film progresses we notice a change of heart in
the gang of youths, they end up helping people and a lot of positive attitude
is spread throughout the characters. The time period in which this movie was
made in was in 2011, when the London riots were happening, the movie obviously
can relate to this devastating point in history and the director has given us a
sense of nostalgia as they are showing that if this is happening now, what
would it be like in the near future? Furthermore, when we look at Super 8, the
gang of youths that are involved in this film are the opposite of what youths
are thought of today. The film depicts this by the youths involving themselves
in something that is harmless and creative; they wanted to make their own Super
8 film away from the rural area. During the time period of when Super 8 was
filmed, it was set in the time of the 1980’s. The kids in the film had to make
do with what they had and they took it upon themselves to make a movie to spend
their time, rather than causing problems. This film evidently goes against what
the older generations think of us and they do it by their use of language and
positive attitude to their elders who are involved in the film. The
representation of youth in both of these films have their negatives and
positives, for example, a negative could be that no matter what, people are
constantly stereotyped for what they look like or for how they speak or the
place in which they live. Positives of youth in these films are that, youths
will stick together always to help each other out.
