The two films i am going to compare are;
I Am Legend and Dracula.
In this essay i am going to be focusing on the critical approaches of Narrative, Audience, Genre and social/historical context using the films I Am Legend and Dracula.
I am Legend focuses largely on Genre critical approaches as it uses a lot of religious iconography. For example in the picture below they show a poster that says 'God still loves us'. So even though they have pushed the technology to the limits and, in turn have nearly ended society, God still has a place for them and God will forgive them. They also use the dialogue ‘God be with us’ so this stresses the religious iconography even more and they also say a couple more lines that links to religion for example ‘God didn’t do this, we did’. This means that they take the complete blame for everything and are repenting their sins and don't want God to not forgive them/accept that they know what they have done wrong.Also they say ‘God told me he had a plan’. This means that God may have planned this which would raise questions in the audience that God must have known this was going to happen and did not intervne. However you could also argue that he wanted to teach them a lesson and knew they were going to get a cure and this would then teach the human race to be careful. It is a pretty tough lesson but one that may have had to be learnt. Also in the movie you can see rosary beads hung in the car. A rosary is a form of prayer and this is why it links to religious iconography. Compared to I Am Legend, Dracula has very strong religious iconography as one of the ways to kill Dracula is with a cross. The cross is a symbol of the cross that Jesus was crucified on. In the movie Dr. Van Helsing does finish Dracula off by getting two candlesticks and makes a cross out of them. Which represents the Religious iconography.
In I am Legend The narrative critical approach starts where the main character is isolated. That in itself could be scary. In New York City on your own would be scary if there was not a outbreak. So that he is in the middle of a human crisis could be quite scary. He does however have his dog with him that people could be comforted by. The movie goes on where he is trying to make a cure using his blood because he is immune to the disease. Then he dies and gives the cure to the woman who separated him from his family in the first place. Then sacrifices himself so the cure can be used on other people. You could argue that the story in I Am Legend is non-linear because the use of flashbacks may cause it to be non-linear. As well as the questions raised throughout the film are not answered in a linear style and are answered in a non-chronilogical order. Their not as clear and transparent as a 'normal' horror film as the audience may not be used to the way the story plays out. However in Dracula it is a linear story. There is a beginning, middle and end. The story plays out as rumours of Dracula he threatens the safety of people then he gets sighted and then eventually killed and everyone is fine. This is an example of a linear horror film.
The audience and social appeal of I Am Legend at the time it was released was received with great appeal. One reason I think this may have happened is because science and technology is advancing with rapid speed and diseases such as cancer gets a lot of research put into and the audience are left with questions in their mind all the way throughout the film of 'What if this happened with our diseases in real life?' And with the way technology etc is advancing it seems like it is a high possibility that it could happen. I think that the audience in the time Dracula was released may have enjoyed I Am Legend as technology wasn't huge but was just starting to take off and money was being invested into it so the audience may have thought 'What if we put enough money into technology and medicine that this happens?'. This may have been a scary thought for many people who wont have used any technology. I think Dracula would have been received well at the time that Dracula was made as they had a fear of monsters. Being haunted was a huge fear back in the 1950's and 1900's especially by monsters that were like humans but had something wrong/different about them. I don't think Dracula would be as popular in the present day as their isn't any 'realism' in monsters and with films such as Monsters Inc which represents monsters as friendly and not a danger that stresses even more that their is nothing to fear about different 'beings'. This could also be supported by films like E.T. You could also link E.T to Frankenstein as he was an outcast and 'different' from the rest of society. But he wasn't dangerous unless people scared him or harmed him. This is the same in E.T he is completely harmless but people are scared because he is different. Dracula could be thought to be different however he tries to cause trouble and wants people to be scared of him. But you could still argue that he wanted to be accepted and wanted someone like him in the world instead of being the only vampire. So if you thought about it the audience could start to feel sorry for Dracula but no-one does so you could argue that this is why he turns evil and ties to take people with him.
I am Legend focuses largely on Genre critical approaches as it uses a lot of religious iconography. For example in the picture below they show a poster that says 'God still loves us'. So even though they have pushed the technology to the limits and, in turn have nearly ended society, God still has a place for them and God will forgive them. They also use the dialogue ‘God be with us’ so this stresses the religious iconography even more and they also say a couple more lines that links to religion for example ‘God didn’t do this, we did’. This means that they take the complete blame for everything and are repenting their sins and don't want God to not forgive them/accept that they know what they have done wrong.Also they say ‘God told me he had a plan’. This means that God may have planned this which would raise questions in the audience that God must have known this was going to happen and did not intervne. However you could also argue that he wanted to teach them a lesson and knew they were going to get a cure and this would then teach the human race to be careful. It is a pretty tough lesson but one that may have had to be learnt. Also in the movie you can see rosary beads hung in the car. A rosary is a form of prayer and this is why it links to religious iconography. Compared to I Am Legend, Dracula has very strong religious iconography as one of the ways to kill Dracula is with a cross. The cross is a symbol of the cross that Jesus was crucified on. In the movie Dr. Van Helsing does finish Dracula off by getting two candlesticks and makes a cross out of them. Which represents the Religious iconography.
In I am Legend The narrative critical approach starts where the main character is isolated. That in itself could be scary. In New York City on your own would be scary if there was not a outbreak. So that he is in the middle of a human crisis could be quite scary. He does however have his dog with him that people could be comforted by. The movie goes on where he is trying to make a cure using his blood because he is immune to the disease. Then he dies and gives the cure to the woman who separated him from his family in the first place. Then sacrifices himself so the cure can be used on other people. You could argue that the story in I Am Legend is non-linear because the use of flashbacks may cause it to be non-linear. As well as the questions raised throughout the film are not answered in a linear style and are answered in a non-chronilogical order. Their not as clear and transparent as a 'normal' horror film as the audience may not be used to the way the story plays out. However in Dracula it is a linear story. There is a beginning, middle and end. The story plays out as rumours of Dracula he threatens the safety of people then he gets sighted and then eventually killed and everyone is fine. This is an example of a linear horror film.
The audience and social appeal of I Am Legend at the time it was released was received with great appeal. One reason I think this may have happened is because science and technology is advancing with rapid speed and diseases such as cancer gets a lot of research put into and the audience are left with questions in their mind all the way throughout the film of 'What if this happened with our diseases in real life?' And with the way technology etc is advancing it seems like it is a high possibility that it could happen. I think that the audience in the time Dracula was released may have enjoyed I Am Legend as technology wasn't huge but was just starting to take off and money was being invested into it so the audience may have thought 'What if we put enough money into technology and medicine that this happens?'. This may have been a scary thought for many people who wont have used any technology. I think Dracula would have been received well at the time that Dracula was made as they had a fear of monsters. Being haunted was a huge fear back in the 1950's and 1900's especially by monsters that were like humans but had something wrong/different about them. I don't think Dracula would be as popular in the present day as their isn't any 'realism' in monsters and with films such as Monsters Inc which represents monsters as friendly and not a danger that stresses even more that their is nothing to fear about different 'beings'. This could also be supported by films like E.T. You could also link E.T to Frankenstein as he was an outcast and 'different' from the rest of society. But he wasn't dangerous unless people scared him or harmed him. This is the same in E.T he is completely harmless but people are scared because he is different. Dracula could be thought to be different however he tries to cause trouble and wants people to be scared of him. But you could still argue that he wanted to be accepted and wanted someone like him in the world instead of being the only vampire. So if you thought about it the audience could start to feel sorry for Dracula but no-one does so you could argue that this is why he turns evil and ties to take people with him.
Considering the different times that each film was made they both would have, and have been, successful in each time period that they came out and even today Dracula still gets people scared even though people are not as scared of monsters as they are of the body horror/biological horror in I Am Legend. I think that Dracula would not be that successful in the current time period but to an extent would still scare some audiences. However reversing that i think I Am Legend would have been successful if made when Dracula was (1953).
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