The list above describes and explains various scenes from movies belonging in the thriller sub-genre.
The scenes aim to provide the reader with a series of explanations as to why certain scenes are acted out in an presented in this particular way.
Conventions are the norms or what are generally expected from movies (in the case of the thrillers, it is suspense, intricate plots, murder, etc). Another very important aspect of thrillers are the confrontations that take place between the `main or influential characters' (often the between protagonist and the antagonist) of the movie.
These meetings are often the scenes that build up the most amount of tension as well as lead to the events that have a major impact on the main storyline.
These 'face to face' confrontations can be used in cinema for the characters to find common ground. For example, in the DC production 'Dawn of Justice', in the scene where Superman is flying above Batman, the camera focuses on the Kryptonian while Batman only has his back shown. This implies that the focus of the audience is entirely on Superman and thus no attention is drawn toward Batman.
However, when Superman flies down and confronts Batman, they share the screen and thus the focus of the audience is on both of the characters, thus forcing them (Batman and Superman) to find common ground and sort out their issues.
'Meeting of the minds'
Training Day analysis:
When we watch the Training Day clip, we can immediately see the vast difference between Alonzo (Denzel Washington) and Jake (Ethan Hawkes). They are cut from two different cloths with Lonzo appearing to be a hardcore, confident character who seems to be fazed by nothing and is not easily impressed, while Jake is more of an innocent bystander trying to look into Lonzo’s world.
There are various factors that contribute to this point, the first one being that Alonzo’s cup is full whilst Jake’s coffee cup is empty. This could imply that Denzel’s character knows a lot more or has a considerable amount of experience compared to that of Hawke’s, hence Lonzo’s cup is ‘full’ both literally and metaphorically. Another prop that drew attention was the placement of the salt and pepper shakers on either side of the table. Jake had the salt on his side while Alonzo got the pepper, this could draw us toward the conclusion that Jake is clueless as ‘white’ is often related to images of purity while Lonzo is the ‘blackness’ of the pepper or the world. (CORRECTION: Darker part of society).
The acting of the two can also send out a lot of messages, for example, we might be able to say that Alonzo is a very confident and overpowering individual compared to Ethan Hawke’s role. This idea can be drawn from the way the two men act around each other in the scene. One may notice that Alonzo uses his entire half of the table whilst in conversation with Jake, Alonzo spreads his hands and smacks the table and shouts more than once while Jake keeps his voice down and hardly ever puts his hands up on the table.
Alonzo also goes on a steady pace of encouraging Jake to interact and then quickly puts him down, thus giving us the idea that Alonzo is literally steering Jake into a series of emotions giving him full control or dominance over him. Alonzo can also be said to know the dangers of the world quite well, but is also a dangerous man himself. On the other hand, Jake may not be too used to the idea of how danger the world really is. A good example of this is how Jake reacts when he sees Alonzo cocking his gun. Despite being a policeman, he still appears to be shocked and even afraid of the piece when it is revealed.
