Movie Journals |
||
|
Catch Me if You Can
|
Catch Me If You Can 1. View a feature length motion picture of your choice. Focus especially on the first 10-15 minutes. What elements/techniques do you observe in an attempt to capture the audience's attention? The film Catch Me if You Can is set in the 1960’s, and the movie remains faithful to its portrayal of the era even during the beginning credits. The credits are old fashioned but retro-hip, using movement of lines and stick-like figures in a contrast of black on blue colors corresponding to a jazzy instrumental; this type of introduction is not what movie goers today are used to seeing. After the credits, the story begins by using astonishing facts, humor, and emotional pull to capture the audience’s attention. The opening of the film takes place during a “To Tell The Truth” television game show and introduces the main character by telling his astonishing story. The audience is compelled to find out how the facts presented by the game show host could possibly be true. Additionally, the “Based on a true story” header at the beginning of the film makes the audience even more compelled to continue watching because not only did this character successfully pretend to be a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, as well as cash more than four million dollars in bad checks, a real guy in real life did it too. The film moves on during the game show to a flashback to FBI agent, Carl Henratty (Tom Hanks), attempting to get a group of French guards to pronounce his name. The humor is that Henratty has an obvious Massachusetts accent, and he’s getting no where fast. Moments later, the scene switches to the main character, Frank (Leonardo de Caprio), imprisoned in the dilapidated French jail and with his bad cough is apparently very ill. Henratty ignores Franks pleas for help, and in fact, tells him he won’t buy into whatever he’s pulling, reading the extradition papers to Frank even faster and louder. When Frank passes out, Henratty show’s his concern for him and signals to guards to get him to a doctor. This sets up the next humorous scene where Frank makes his escape from the infirmary only to end up slowly crawling through prison because he’s so ill. Throughout the first 10-15 minutes of the movie, the audience gets glimpses of the emotional ties between the characters and captures the audience’s attention in that it must know the how’s and why’s of their relationship. For example, the audience continues to watch to find out why Henratty would ignore Frank’s pleas for help, but yet be the first one to rush to his aid. Essentially the most important factor of grabbing the audience’s attention is the film’s showing of the end first; by previewing the astonishing things the character did, the audience is driven to know how this came to be and how he got away with it. The aspects of humor and emotional pull help to settle the audience into a comfortable zone, letting it know that the movie intends to have a little fun as well as show a story that, even though sounds outlandish, it can relate to. 2. Did you decide on whether you liked the film or didn't like the film in those 10-15 minutes? If so, what contributed to that decision? If not, what held you back from that decision? At first I thought the flashback would be troublesome, but the film managed to keep my attention without confusing the timeline. I reservedly decided that I would like the film because of its humor. My reservation came from the opening scene on the “To Tell The Truth” set which was completely unexpected from the previews I had seen, so I was unsure about what the rest of the film would hold. Karen Walker 30 August 2003 |