Analysis Slumdog Millionaire

Decent Essays
Exploiting the so called ‘real’ India that is perpetually engulfed in illicit activity, overpopulation, pollution, child slavery, corruption, dance numbers and quite literally… shit. With the only chance of escape for the main character Jamal Malik being through a Western mean. Only so British born director Danny Boyle can capitalise on western naievity and pity for monetary gain. Why doesn’t Boyle help raise awareness for India’s very real social, economic and political issues? Englishmen Boyle’s previous films such as 28 Days Later, Trainspotting and Sunshine prove that Boyle’s talent to create shock and awe in an audience has gained him a mass amount of success and has propelled him through the entertainment industry rapidly. …show more content…
Boyle manipulates the naïve western audience of Slumdog Millionaire and capitalises on money through the use of making his audience believe they are watching a film exploring the ‘authentic’ and ‘real’ India and it’s social and cultural issues through the extensive use of various technical elements such as camera angles, shots and movements and Western references, cliches …show more content…
An example of Boyle using references to Western society can be seen littered throughout the first five minutes of the fim, such as the extremely popular American Television show ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ and the fact that the game show host and audience of the Inidan counterpart of the show can relate to being hastled by call centres unrelentlessly. Furthermore, an example of a scene that encapsulates Boyle’s signature talent of creating shock and thrill can be seen when the audience is taken through a whirlwing of angled and distorted shots depicting the chaos that ensues when a homeless Indian boy is blinded with boiling water. Extreme Close Up shots and other film techniques such as lighting and sound are also used to enhance this scenes affect on the audience. Boyle has attempted to emotionally invest his audience using these techniques in order to capitalise on what is know as ‘poverty porn’ to gain attention, acclamaition, and most importantly to Danny,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The final scene is interesting to the audience as it creates suspense and conveys to the audience many themes, such as sacrifice, destiny, and love. The use of cross-cutting from Jamal’s point of view to Salim’s and even Latika’s creates anticipation for the audience as to what is going to happen. Boyle is purposefully showing the shots of Latika running towards the phone and Salim layering money in the bath tub to create suspense for the audience as the figure out what will happen, and how each scene pieces into the end game of the movie. A scene that was particularly interesting and true to the theme of redemption was Salim’s death scene.…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1) Describe the wealth/health gradient illustrated in the film. What does it show? The wealth/health gradient that was illustrated in the film revealed that health behaviors are influenced by economic status; hence, more wealth leads to better health. The film shows that the lower the grade of employment, the higher the risk of heart disease, and every major cause of death.…

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Totalitarian Dictatorship is a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed. This is a form of government that is present in the movies the Hunger games and the Island as well as the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. In these stories hope was the factor that each government tried to take over. President Snow, the antagonist from the Hunger Games, quoted that ” Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This clearly shows the comparison between open space of air traffic with the thin overfilled and jammed lanes in the slum. This scene in the movie shows that the infuriated security guards understood the aspects of slums that they are not aware of. This is the physical structure of the slum from which the guards and police are estranged, regardless of their everyday happenstance with it. Salaam Bombay’s opening scene shows how slum is disorganized and messy with everything muddled up.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The featured documentary ‘Side by Side’ was an enjoyable, informative documentary that discussed the history of the film industries use of emulsion film and the cautionary switch-over to the new digital movie format. Beginning in the late 1800’s with continued development of emulsion roll film by Eastman and the pioneering photography work of Edweard Muybridge and Louis Le Prince the advent of capturing and projecting moving images was at hand. The documentary covers the important developments in the economic and industrial aspects of the film industry, specifically as pertaining to movies and Hollywood in general. Presenting a persuasive argument for the adoption of the new digital medium while extolling the philosophical and existential advantages of traditional emulsion process film.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Orson Welles Citizen Kane

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Orson Welles ' Citizen Kane is a widely acclaimed film and said to be one of the greatest American films. The film is more than 70 years old, but it is still considered as a classic. So what makes Citizen Kane so remarkable? I believe the technical aspects are part of why it is so well regarded. He uses camera angles, audio, lighting and many other techniques effectively to convey the message.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Alexander Hamilton

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The film, Hamilton, from the directors of American Experience, revealed the story of Alexander Hamilton’s life as well as the journey of his political contribution in the creation of the United States. This motion picture presented several historical events that were displayed in the most captivating way for students to learn from, rather than the typical monotone lectures in secondary schools. With the use of props, accents and even including dramatic flashbacks, the film continuously captivated my attention. There were several actors who gathered together to create the illusion of a first person perspective from Hamilton himself. This is one of the most interesting films I’ve watched in reference to educational films regarding the history of the United States.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bearing all these points in mind, we may assume that although the filmmaker loses some of his power regarding the amount of material viewed and the order of the sections selected by the viewer in his interactive documentary, the audience’s control is still pretty limited. In fact, the director is still the one choosing the knowledge and content he displays, but also the one knowing the exact schema of his work. To illustrate this statement, Fort McMoney remains a relevant example. In opposition with Gifreu, this i-Doc shows that, not only the filmmaker establishes the limits of the content displayed and of the viewer’s action, but he can also himself create a feeling of control for the reader by making him the centre of attention, the important…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.” Known for his infamous creations of film which usually have a depiction of violence and liberal use of profanity, Martin Scorsese has had an overwhelming abundance of success in the film industry. In this essay I will discuss how the director Martin Scorsese uses certain techniques such as long tracking shots, freeze frames and the structure of his films in the films like “Goodfellas” and “Casino”. I will discuss and analyse these cinematic techniques and explain how this is then used to engage his audience to an extent that keeps them eager to watch.…

    • 1260 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gary D Rhodes Movie

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Critical Assessment of a Work by Gary D. Rhodes Gary D. Rhodes of Queen’s University Belfast challenges many current conceptions about Hollywood in his work “ ‘Movie’: How a Single Word Shaped Hollywood Cinema.” Specifically, Rhodes argues that the audience has power over the corporation in this industry. He explains how the word “movie” is a major representation if this idea. Rhodes presents this argument because he has seen how common it has become to accuse corporate Hollywood of finessing it’s viewers. However, Rhodes pushes the idea that the audience is responsible for the way that Hollywood cinema works today.…

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Poverty Inc Film Analysis

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Give a man a fish, he eats for the night, teach a man how to fish and he eats forever. Earth is home to 7.4 billion people -- of those 7.4 billion people more than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day (UNDP). More than 1.3 billion people live on $1.25 a day; or in other words, extreme poverty (UNDP). Poverty is a worldwide hurdle that nobody has yet to knockdown. Poverty, Inc. is a film that shows the untold impacts of foreign aid; moreover, how America, NGO’s (non-governmental organization) and the United Nations are hindering/crippling those they provide aid for; such as, clothes, food, etc.…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Trainspotting Essay

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “’New Scottish Cinema’ suggests a new wave of film production and is often attributed to filmmaking that considers itself alternative or oppositional to other forms of mainstream cinema”, David Martin Jones, (2005:11). Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1995) is a film that worked around the social, political and cultural development in Britain in the late 20th Century. It gives rise to questions of identity, culture, and community. The main theme in this film is about a group of friends with a heroin addiction, and the destructive effects that heroin-taking has upon the individual members of the group. Trainspotting is narrated by Mark Renton, on his need to give up his heroin addiction.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Throughout Jean Rouch’s filmic career he experiments with cinema, pushing the boundaries of ethnographic film, showcasing a range of styles. Chronicle of a Summer embarks on the simple journey of asking strangers if they are happy in order to explore how camera’s change behavior. This film epitomizes Rouch’s exploration of cinematic truth, however, I am left questioning if it is the camera or Rouch who provokes his subjects into performance. Rouch’s exploratory career can be tracked through his two films, Les Maitres Fous and Moi, un Noir, released only 3 years apart but very different, displaying his adventurous, transformative filmic style. Compared to many other ethnographers, Rouch is not concerned with capturing the reality of the lives…

    • 1661 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Syifa Afiah 016201400164 The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American biographical black comedy film, directed by Martin Scorsese. The screenplay by Terence Winter is adapted from the eponymous memoir by Jordan Belfort and recounts from Belfort's perspective his career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm Stratton Oakmont engaged in rampant corruption and fraud on Wall Street that ultimately led to his downfall. Leonardo DiCaprio (who also produced the film) stars as Belfort, with Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend Donnie Azoff, Margot Robbie as his second wife Naomi Lapaglia, and Kyle Chandler as Patrick Denham, the FBI agent who tries to bring him down. Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, and Matthew…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The film Slumdog Millionaire was released in year 2008. It was directed by Danny Boyle who is a British Director and achieved eight Oscar awards for quality of performance in the arenas like cinematography, sound mixing, direction, film editing, etc. This movie is adopted from a novel “Q & A” which is written by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. The movie is picturized in slum part of Mumbai, Indian background. The movie is a package of motivation, love, tragedy, action, eagerness and hate.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays