Compare and Contrast Essay

Compare and contrast 2 out of 3 films watched, analysing the similarities between them with specific details on; mise-en-scene, location and script.

    In this essay I am going to compare and contrast Tyrannosaur by Paddy Considine and Harry Brown Daniel Baber. In both films I have come across some similar issues that have been presented in a specific way in each one of those two films. Some of these issues include: revenge, domestic as well as sexual abuse and lastly rage. To show this the directors of these films have chosen specific locations, costumes, scripts etc. and that is what I am going to focus on.

    The language used at the beginning of Tyrannosaur by the main character Joseph is vulgar and violent, he says things like “f***ing c**t” and “f***ing money”. We can see clearly that he is very angry, but the language he uses shows how Joseph deals with his rage. In this scene we also see him killing his dog which signifies he is not in the right state of mind. He must be going through something much worse than just losing money because I don’t think anyone would be capable of killing their own dog if there wasn’t something very serious and unbearable happening in their lives. Also Joseph killing his dog could mean he is trying to transfer his pain so that he doesn’t feel upset anymore or think about something else that’s happened. As a result of this the audience would feel sympathetic towards Joseph as they are able to see that he is going through something very painful and maybe blames himself for that.

   In Harry Brown there isn’t as much swearing, but it is mainly used by the members of the local gang and drug dealers. For example Noel, the main antagonist when he’s arrested he says “you f***ing c**t” to a police officer, this is the same kind of language that Joseph uses at the beginning of Tyrannosaur. In this case it shows how a stereotypical male teenager behaves. We can see in the scene Noel being very confident, even though he is being arrested he acts like he is going to get away with anything and that in his mind he is the more powerful and that the police cannot do anything. This makes the film seem very troubling and dramatic as we can see that even though the police do everything they can, they have little power over what the gang is going to do next and as a result of this it makes the audience feel tense about the fate of the protagonists.

   The costumes of Harry in Harry Brown and Joseph in Tyrannosaur are very similar. Harry is wearing a black suit with a big beige/brown coat over it and similarly Joseph is wearing a black coat over his brown trousers and a shirt. This shows that they are the main subjects in their films as they both stand out from everyone else. It suggests their importance as they both are dressed very smart. The audience can relate to the characters as the costumes relate to their ages because this a typical costume an older man would wear. It is easier for the audience to follow the characters because they would know what to expect from them in terms of behaviour and their actions.

   Loneliness is also one of the themes demonstrated in those two films. Tyrannosaur shows this through the whole presentation of the main character, Joseph. We always see Joseph wondering by himself, he lives alone and when he is in his house by himself the lighting is really dark, low key intensity and hard quality. This suggests that he has no one to talk and that there is no light in his life anymore so he is very lonely and miserable. We can see Joseph talking a lot with a young boy called Sam. They connect quite closely and so we can tell that he is the only person who Joseph has any interaction with. Whenever they talk to each other Joseph seems a bit happier which shows how much their relationship means to him because he has no one else he could talk to who would understand him.

When Joseph lets Hanna stay at his house after she gets abused by her husband, there is an extreme close up from Hanna’s point of view of a picture of Joseph’s wife. This is where we officially find out who he is missing and also who might be the reason for his constant anger at everything around. Joseph insults her honour a bit when he compares her to a ‘Tyrannosaur’, but then he also says that she was “beautiful but full of forgiveness”. This shows how much he misses her and that is why he feels very lonely as he used to have her to talk to until she died. When Joseph describes his wife the description also matches Hanna. This suggests that he got very attached to Hannah because of the similar features she shares with his wife. As a result of this the audience feel emotional because they can tell how much Hanna reminds him of his wife and how hard that must be for him to feel that way again.

   Similarly Harry Brown shows Harry in an empty house with no one around him. The first shot in the film is when Harry wakes up alone in a double sized bed. Then we can see from Harry’s point of view two black and white pictures of two women which suggest he has lost someone very close to him. The beginning scene when Harry is getting ready to go out is in silent without any sound effects or music, so we can hear everything else in the background. The audience are able to hear every single natural sound of him walking, the water drops or even just the quiet windy sound in the room. This signifies how empty his life is, suggests he has no one around to talk to and is very lonely. Harry goes to visit his wife in a hospital who is very sick and afterwards he mentions to Leonard “I don’t think she knows I’m there anymore”, this suggests that Harry believes that there is not much time left for his wife as she doesn’t communicate with him therefore it feels like she is already gone.

   After Leonard is killed Harry is very upset and when police leave he cries. This suggests Harry has lost the last, closest person he had left in his life and because of that he has lost hope and purpose of life as he has no one to turn to anymore. At Leonard’s funeral there is no one there apart from Harry which signifies that they both were with no one close beside them. This can also suggest something about the location they are in; the area Harry lives in is very isolated and surrounded by local youth, gangs and drug dealers. This could mean that not many people want to move there as they know it isn’t a safe place to live in. It also suggests that maybe the things that are happening there because of the gang has driven away some people making the area isolated from everything else, but because Harry is old he cannot just run away from the gang.

   Both films present the theme of domestic and sexual abuse by the way male characters treat woman. Tyrannosaur portrays this theme by showing James abusing his wife, Hanna. When James gets home, he calls Hanna’s name 4 times “Ha-nna” and urinated on her while she pretended she is asleep. This shows that Hanna is bullied and abused by her husband to the extent that she is too scared to say anything. This shows how much power James has over Hanna and thinks that he is stronger and more empowered just because he is a man. Another scene is shown when James corners Hanna to the kitchen the next morning and says things such as “you were spotted with another man” and “do I smell like a dead animal” this shows he treats Hanna and makes it sound like he watches her every move and is obsessed with her.

   When another night James sees Hanna in her shop with Joseph, he hits her and rapes her. This shows how weak Hannah is in comparison to her husband and because of that she was unable to stop any of it. As a result of this the audience sympathise with Hanna as she is a victim of both sexual and domestic abuse. However when we find out that Hanna has actually killed James that night after he sexually abused her, the audience feelings are mixed as on one hand we think it’s good that she did that because it was her revenge for all of the things James has done to her. On the other hand from the first scene when we meet Hanna we get the impression that she is just an innocent and a very religious woman and then the whole image of her is turned upside down.

    Harry Brown shows sexual abuse when we see Sharon in the drugs den. She is unconscious and probably has taken too much drugs, but the drug dealer only seats next to her stroking her thigh. We also have Harry’s point of view shot on the television which plays a sex tape of Sharon and two guys. The drug dealer says to Harry “50 quid and you can do whatever you want with her” this shows how he uses her sexually obviously without her permission as she is unconscious. Domestic abuse is shown when Noel grabs his “girlfriend” by her neck when they kiss and is very brutal. It shows how Noel thinks that he is more powerful and can do whatever he wants just like James in Tyrannosaur.

   During Harry Brown the audience get mixed feelings about Harry. This is because we first get to know him as an innocent, lonely person who has lost so many people in his life recently and then there is that revenge twist where Harry takes the matter into his own hands trying to get justice for his dear friend, Leonard. Harry and Hanna are shown as anti-heroes, because in the eyes of the audience they are the victims in this whole thing, but then there is this twist in both films where we find out that the whole time we were cheering on for the wrong characters.

   In conclusion, both Tyrannosaur and Harry Brown have demonstrated their themes in a similar way; however it had a slightly different effect in each film. In Harry Brown the violence was caused by the local gang of teenagers who harassed the lives of older generation, however in Tyrannosaur it was about a man treating his wife abusively which led to her exploding and taking revenge upon him by killing him. Also some of the locations and dialogue where quite similar, but the purpose of that was different in each film. Both films presented main characters grieving and living in an isolated environment complementing their loneliness. The directors have worked along the same kind of pattern and because of this it resulted in a couple of twists to the story such as introducing anti-heroes making it effective for the audience to watch as when they find out at the end what each of them has done their feelings get mixed up.