Samson & Delilah
In the film Samson & Delilah directed by Warwick Thornton. The director used the visual techniques of props, hair an makeup and cinematography, to develop deeper ideas about young aboriginal culture and to confront his audience with the cruel reality of life which these young people deal with daily and are powerless to do anything about.
In the first scene if the film, Thornton introduces one of the most, if not the most important prop in the film relating to a deeper idea. The prop itself changes through the film as it's discarded and then recreated by Samson. The prop is the petrol can/bottle, which Samson fills with petrol and then continuosly inhails the stuff through out the film. Thornton used this prop to confront the audience with substance abuse from the get go, Thornton shows that many young Aboriginies conform into substance abuse and that their addiction becomes a part of their everday life. In the first scene Thornton shows Samson waking up and the first thing he does is pick up his petrol can and puts to his face. The petrol can/bottle is tightly entwined with Samson (who's one of the two protagonists of the film), especially after he and Delilah leave their not so cosy small village for the big city lights of Alice Springs, Samson is rarely seen without the petrol can/bottle the clutches of his hands. As the film progresses Samson becomes more and more submerged in his petrol addiction. This shows how Thornton is trying to portray that Aboriginie teens use these potentially damaging substances to escape and protect themselves from their cruel, isolated and violence strickin
Thorton uses the cinematography of the film as a way to put across his message with the lack of dialogue in the movie. An example of this is after Samson has been beaten and has run away, now looking down on his village from afar. In this scene, Thornton uses a high-angle long shot to show Samson looking down on the village, petrolcan in hand, face bruised and a solemn look on his face. This shot shows Samson feeling alienated or segregated from his culture revealed by the distance between him and his village (the village symbolising his culture). This shot puts tribut to the deeper idea that young aboriginal teenagers feel dislocated from their culture which makes it all the more harder to confront the harsh difficulties of their morbidly horrid and unsafe lives. The second shot is a low-angle long shot of Samson walking away from the camera. Samson chooses to walk away from the village because both he and Delilah were separatly beaten with sticks. The shot seems to show Samson turning his back on everything he knows. As Samson walks away, we the audience realise that Samson is also walking away from us, showing the interesting way Thornton has crafted the film, putting small subterranean messages in the shots. In the shot as Samson is walking away, you can see on the horizon that the sun is setting behind the hills. This symbolises Samson walking out of a bright part of his life and into a much harsher and darker peiod, where he is ruled by his addiction to petrol (symbolised by the petrol can/bottle) and is set back by homelessness and poverty. Thorton is trying to make the Australian public see what's really going on behind their backs. He is trying to use these confronting messages with the cinematography of the film to push to the audience that these kids are losing their culture and in afew generations, all that culture will be westernised and lost.
Thorton makes good use of hair and makeup, to illustrate to the audience that young Aboriginies face physical and verbal violence on a daily basis. Many of these youths are beaten, raped or are put in hospital by some way or another. For many of these teens, violence becomes a gateway into substance abuse or becoming violent themselves. In this case we're looking at the scene where Delilah returns silhouetted by the camp fire, revealed to have extensive buising around her eye along with bloodied teeth and swelling on her eye and cheek. This was after she was kidnapped off the street, raped and beaten. While she was being kidnapped, Samson was high on petrol and didn't notice anything until the car had taken off. Thornton used stage blood on Delilahs teeth, her disfigured face was done with eyeliner, shadowing and blusher to create the effect of bruising. The swelling was done using latex/silicon and tissue. Thornton uses these techniques with hair and makeup to shove in the audiences face how hard life is for these young aboriginal teens, the violence that they face constantly and the secerity their injuries.
Thornton uses the visual techniques props, cinematography and hair and makeup to throw at his audience the deeper idea that young Aboriginies feel disconnected from their culture. As a result of this and the violence they face, the youngsters resort to substance abuse to sheild themselves from their troubled lives.
In the first scene if the film, Thornton introduces one of the most, if not the most important prop in the film relating to a deeper idea. The prop itself changes through the film as it's discarded and then recreated by Samson. The prop is the petrol can/bottle, which Samson fills with petrol and then continuosly inhails the stuff through out the film. Thornton used this prop to confront the audience with substance abuse from the get go, Thornton shows that many young Aboriginies conform into substance abuse and that their addiction becomes a part of their everday life. In the first scene Thornton shows Samson waking up and the first thing he does is pick up his petrol can and puts to his face. The petrol can/bottle is tightly entwined with Samson (who's one of the two protagonists of the film), especially after he and Delilah leave their not so cosy small village for the big city lights of Alice Springs, Samson is rarely seen without the petrol can/bottle the clutches of his hands. As the film progresses Samson becomes more and more submerged in his petrol addiction. This shows how Thornton is trying to portray that Aboriginie teens use these potentially damaging substances to escape and protect themselves from their cruel, isolated and violence strickin
Thorton uses the cinematography of the film as a way to put across his message with the lack of dialogue in the movie. An example of this is after Samson has been beaten and has run away, now looking down on his village from afar. In this scene, Thornton uses a high-angle long shot to show Samson looking down on the village, petrolcan in hand, face bruised and a solemn look on his face. This shot shows Samson feeling alienated or segregated from his culture revealed by the distance between him and his village (the village symbolising his culture). This shot puts tribut to the deeper idea that young aboriginal teenagers feel dislocated from their culture which makes it all the more harder to confront the harsh difficulties of their morbidly horrid and unsafe lives. The second shot is a low-angle long shot of Samson walking away from the camera. Samson chooses to walk away from the village because both he and Delilah were separatly beaten with sticks. The shot seems to show Samson turning his back on everything he knows. As Samson walks away, we the audience realise that Samson is also walking away from us, showing the interesting way Thornton has crafted the film, putting small subterranean messages in the shots. In the shot as Samson is walking away, you can see on the horizon that the sun is setting behind the hills. This symbolises Samson walking out of a bright part of his life and into a much harsher and darker peiod, where he is ruled by his addiction to petrol (symbolised by the petrol can/bottle) and is set back by homelessness and poverty. Thorton is trying to make the Australian public see what's really going on behind their backs. He is trying to use these confronting messages with the cinematography of the film to push to the audience that these kids are losing their culture and in afew generations, all that culture will be westernised and lost.
Thorton makes good use of hair and makeup, to illustrate to the audience that young Aboriginies face physical and verbal violence on a daily basis. Many of these youths are beaten, raped or are put in hospital by some way or another. For many of these teens, violence becomes a gateway into substance abuse or becoming violent themselves. In this case we're looking at the scene where Delilah returns silhouetted by the camp fire, revealed to have extensive buising around her eye along with bloodied teeth and swelling on her eye and cheek. This was after she was kidnapped off the street, raped and beaten. While she was being kidnapped, Samson was high on petrol and didn't notice anything until the car had taken off. Thornton used stage blood on Delilahs teeth, her disfigured face was done with eyeliner, shadowing and blusher to create the effect of bruising. The swelling was done using latex/silicon and tissue. Thornton uses these techniques with hair and makeup to shove in the audiences face how hard life is for these young aboriginal teens, the violence that they face constantly and the secerity their injuries.
Thornton uses the visual techniques props, cinematography and hair and makeup to throw at his audience the deeper idea that young Aboriginies feel disconnected from their culture. As a result of this and the violence they face, the youngsters resort to substance abuse to sheild themselves from their troubled lives.
