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Film Study Essay

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The movie

Film study essay
Grade 12

The films reasonable man and tsotsi both deal with how one faces and deals with his past, therefore the theme “emotional journey” is revealed clearly in characters. In comparing and contrasting the characters of Sean and David (Tsotsi). Write an essay of about 700-800 words to discuss which movie best portrays that. Refer to the uniquely filmic issues such as composition, lighting, sound camera shots and angles to smoothly weave them into your reasoning.

2014
Mulondo Nethengwe
English assignment
7/21/2014

How strange, a movie where a bad man becomes better, instead of the other way around “Tsotsi” a film of deep emotional power, considers a young killer whose cold eyes show no emotion, who kills unthinkingly, and who is transformed by the helplessness of a baby. He didn't mean to kidnap the baby, but now that he has it, it looks at him with trust and need, and he is powerless before eyes more demanding than his own. On the other hand, the movie Reasonable man tells a story of a city lawyer who comes across the case of the herd boy from remote, rural Zululand, who killed a one year old baby in the mistaken belief that he was killing an evil spirit known as the tokoloshe. Secrets of Sean from the past were revealed as he tried to help the herd boy, siphon. In such parameters of the two movies the one that best portrays “emotional journey” is that that brought the images to life.

The movie that best portrays the theme at hand, which is “emotional journey”, is tsotsi. In comparing the two major characters, Sean in the Reasonable man and David in the movie tsotsi, the one that brings about more of emotion is David, this is seen in the way and the cinematographic effects such as the lighting, composition, camera shots and angles etc were done. Warm, earthy colours used in the township, cool, sterile lighting used to show train

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