Neighborhoods can be depicted very differently depending on the director that created the movie. In my post, I will analyze three different movies to demonstrate how locations and cinematic effects can contribute to the “feel” of the neighborhoods. I will use the movies: Brother From Another Planet (1984), West Side Story (1961), and The Pawnbroker (1964), their film components, and the similarities and differences between them to show how each movie represents a different kind of neighborhood.
All three movies are shot in poor areas of Manhattan, Harlem (Brother From Another Planet and The Pawnbroker) and the Upper West Side (West Side Story) with gloomy broken-down buildings being the locational focus and tension being the moral focus. All three movies seem to incorporate the use of these crowded and typically shadowy locations to emphasize the chaos and dark times that occur throughout the historical periods represented in them. Although the general settings of the movies may in fact be very similar, the effects in each differ drastically.
Brother From Another Planet depicts a ghetto African American neighborhood that is full of vandalism, noise, and violence. The streets are crowded, filled with music and yelling, and something to be avoided when the sun goes down. It is not a neighborhood in which one desires to be lost in. For example, the two white males that found themselves there instead of their intended destination. They were very afraid to be in Harlem, partly because of the neighborhood itself, but mostly because of their own differing skin color. This interaction between characters and the movie’s neighborhood strongly shows the discrimination and stereotypes that were dominate in the past. Another excellent example to use in explaining the “feel” of this movie would be the scene where, once Brother has tried heroin, we are shown what truly happens once the night comes. It begins with a man finding Brother in an alley that is filled with trash. The movie then shows us the people that can be found in the city at night, such as workers, prostitutes, and thieves. People doing anything they can just to get by. Perhaps the most interesting cinematic effect at this point would be the lighting used in the scene, this kind of orange glow that softly illuminates the crimes of the night. It isn’t strong enough to fully expose the setting, but it is enough to give the viewer a glimpse of what it looks like. Similar to how the movie gives us just a glimpse of the issues present at the time (racial discrimination, violence, immigration).
West Side Story uses comparable scenery but has a different purpose. This movie depicts a mix of a White and Hispanic neighborhood. However, it is not a harmonious mixture. In fact, this movie shows the viewer the ethnic tension that was found in the past between the native New Yorkers and the immigrants. The movie uses effects such as dark lighting, numerous street and playground shots, narrow spaces, and colorful characters (compared to their backgrounds) to portray the neighborhood that the Puerto Rican immigrants found themselves in. The “feel” of this movie based on both the effects and the action in the movie, I would have to say, is kind of this cramped and conflicted area where territorial issues, in this case between the Jets (White) and Sharks (Puerto Ricans), are developed into violence.
The Pawnbroker is different from the previous movies predominantly because it is not focused on the current issues present during the historical period of the movie’s release. Instead, the movie uses flashbacks, dream sequences, and black and white to address painful memories and experiences of the main character; Sol. Using these effects, particularly flashbacks, allows the viewer to experience events the way that the character experienced them. And, as explained in one of the readings, because none of the flashbacks are ever verbally narrated to another character, the viewer must make a leap to experience what the witness himself would prefer to forget. As for the movie’s setting, it is designed for a purpose just like that of Brother From Another Planet and West Side Story and, in my opinion; it gives the movie a sort of “torn-apart feel”. By presenting such horrendous outer realities (damaged cities), we can begin to infer about the characters’ inner realities. Just as many of my classmates and I have already done.
