Spoorloos: Horror or Just Suspense?

Spoorloos (1988) has been considered a horror film by many critics, but, similar with Freaks, I'm not so sure I agree with that claim.  While I feel that the third act of the movie definitely falls into the horror category, most of the film comes off more like a drama or suspense film.

The third act of the movie incorporates enough "scary" elements that mirror the horror genre.  I mostly talking about the ending bit where the protagonist, Rex, wakes up to find that he has been buried alive.  This scene calls back to the idea of eternal loneliness, which was what Saskia's biggest fear was.  This scene makes the audience feel uncomfortable as it focuses on Rex screaming for help and trying to pry his way through the coffin or crate, and then, quite out of nowhere, he starts laughing.  But his laughter is an uncertain one; it sounds like he is on the verge of crying, but he does not actually cry.  The audience does not typically know what to do if they were ever in this kind of situation, so the uncomfortable-ness builds up to a sort of fear. Not just for Rex, but for themselves.

The reason I stated that the first two-thirds of the film are not necessarily horror is because these kinds of horror elements are not represented as strongly.  The audience is allowed to observe Rex's fall into mad obsession, but only at snippets at a time, such as the scene where he goes to his computer and Saskia's name shows up all over the screen, replacing the names of his past girlfriends.  Other than that, the movie creates a lot of suspense and drama (especially the scenes with Raymond planning his abduction), but they are not presented as "scary".  These scenes come off more like a character analysis; the audience is put in a position of observation and evaluation.  Fear is not as important here.

Killing Sheep is Difficult

If anything lost me, it was this dog mask...

Killer of Sheep (1979) is an American drama film by Charles Burnett about a man dealing with his jaded working-class life and family.  It is critically praised all across the board and is considered a huge breakthrough in African American film.  It's also a difficult film.

This isn't to say that the film is difficult to understand; I knew what was going on for the most part and I did not get lost very often.  It also is not difficult due gut-twisting scenes of violence and other immoralities; there are virtually none of those (unless the parts in the meat factory count).  It is a difficult film because it is difficult to pay attention to.  Why is that?

I think it has to do with the way the narrative is laid out.  Generally speaking, traditional American story-telling in films (or in any media) is told in a linear sense, with a clear beginning, middle and end, and with a very obvious protagonist, antagonist and conflict of interest.  The audience does not get that kind of story here.

Killer of Sheep's story is told in the fashion of traditional African tribal legends and fables, such as the Igbo people's stories found in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.  Often with these types of stories, there is a vague overarching plot with varying subplots.  These subplots are told in an episodic, non-linear fashion, and the point of view often switches from character to character, making identifying a definite protagonist a bit tricky.  The "episodes" don't really end, either; they tend to leave off on open-ended notes, but often are not actually finished.  (This could be so that the next orator can add his or her own sort of "ending", with hopes of continuing an oral narrative chain.)  There is also a heavier emphasis on the characters' actions, as opposed to the traditional American stories, where the emphasis is on the characters' reactions.

Telling the story this way may be the film trying to juxtapose African Americans' livelihoods and their heritage.  It is a neat way of looking at narrative in general, but it may be hard to invest in if it breaks every rule of story-telling that the audience grew up with.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Showdown

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) is arguably the most well-known Western film from Hollywood, and with good reason.  The writing, acting and directing is done well enough to keep the audience on the edge of their seats with every duel.  Let's take a look at my personal favorite standoff: the final one (be warned; there will be some spoilers here).

Towards the end of the three-hour-long film, we have a final showdown among the good "Blondie" (the Man with No Name), the ugly Tuco, and the bad Angel Eyes.  They stare each other down in the middle of a dusty graveyard where $200,000 is buried.  The problem is that only Blondie knows which grave the money is buried in.  He takes a rock, writes the name on the bottom with his cigar, and places it in the center of a rocky circle.  This is all done in almost complete silence as the camera cuts back and forth between Blondie walking calmly to the circle and Tuco and Angel Eyes looking at him with hatred and greed.

The music, an ominous reprise of the main theme, starts to play quietly as the trio slowly takes their places around the circle, spreading out and keeping their eyes on each other and the rock with the name.  Tuco is trembling and looks very nervous, Angel Eyes has a grim scowl on his face, and Blondie is calm and confident.  As the trio slows to a stop in three equally spaced-out positions, the music begins to crescendo, and the camera draws closer on each of their faces.  Here is where the suspense starts to really build.  The camera begins with a medium pan shot of all three characters, and then drops to close-ups of each character at a time.  The close-ups grow more intense with the music, and soon the audience is seeing just the characters' eyes and their hands near their guns, with the cuts happening quicker and quicker.  Tuco's hand is trembling a lot, suggesting growing nervousness, Angel Eyes slowly moves his hand across his belt, and Blondie's hand is still as a statue.  This keeps going for quite a few minutes as the audience is left guessing what will happen; it has been clearly established that each of these characters are very quick and very skilled shots, so it is really difficult to know who will shoot first and who will come out of this alive.  Suddenly, the music swells and then...!

Nothing.  The music quickly quiets down and the camera fixates on Angel Eyes' gaze for a moment, still in a close-up.  He then finally decides to draw his gun.  In a speedy second, the camera cuts to a medium shot of Tuco drawing his gun, then to Blondie pulling his trigger, and then to Angel Eyes falling to his death.  This part personally made me jump; the random slow-down of the music and camera tricked me into thinking that nothing would happen and the three would put aside their differences, but then the bullets started flying!

The duel ends with Tuco realizing that his gun was empty as Blondie continues shooting at Angel Eyes' corpse until it conveniently falls into an open grave.  Tuco yells at Blondie for taking his ammo and trying to get him killed.  Blondie just strolls past dust clouds towards the rock, picks it up and reveals that he never wrote the name on there, like a boss.

Awara is a Musical...kind of?

Awara (1951) is a Bollywood film about the son of a rich judge growing up in the slums and turning to a life of crime.  The 2+ hour-long story is told in flashback, with the film beginning during the court scene that resulted from all the drama.

There are several songs in the film, which could lead to the audience classifying it as a musical, but I'm personally on the fence with this topic.  While a musical typically has--what else?--musical numbers that the cast will break out in dance and sing to, the songs are there to provide much more than just cheesy, distracting entertainment.

The songs in a musical are supposed to progress the story along, explaining the situation or how a character feels about said situation.  This is where Awara sort of falls flat.  While the songs do explain the situation or a character's feelings, most of them are sung after the situation or feelings have already been explained through normal dialogue, making the songs seem unnecessary.  In the beginning of the movie, we see the protagonist, Raj, growing up in the slums with his poor, single mother.  He is kicked out of school and is forced to turn to crime in order to provide money for his mother.  This is all shown in detail in very long scenes.  Then, more time progresses and we see Raj as an adult, singing about how he is a tramp and was forced to take up a life of crime.  This song is about something that the audience already spent 30 minutes watching in detail. 

This would not be so distracting if the song took place during the scenes when he was growing up.  Take another musical, for example, The Nightmare Before Christmas.  When Jack Skellington sings about finding Christmas Town, he's singing as he explores the place and its wonders.  This is a lot more effective because it saves time and moves the story along, so the song does not seem pointless.

Awara is a very strong Bollywood narrative with pretty visuals and interesting characters.  While the songs are nice to listen to, I do not think they were all that necessary, or at least, were not used effectively enough.