The Beach
Directed by Danny Boyle. An adventure, drama and thriller.
Thriller Clip:
The main character 'Richard' meets a strange Scotsman who goes by the name of 'Daffy Duck'. The next morning Richard finds a hand drawn map, pinned to his door of a hidden island in the Gulf of Thailand which they briefly spoke about the night before. After he recieves the map he finds Daffy has commited suicide.
Danny Boyle uses many signifiers in this film.
He uses dull grey-ish colours throughout the beginning of the film which lead to the idea that throughout the dull greyish colour this is when Richards agenda and outlook on life is at the worst. This is at the pivotal moment when Richard finds suicidal Daffy dead in his room. Danny Boyle creates tension by using cross-cutting and a series of close-up shots to create emotion. As soon as Richard walks through the door into Daffy's room he immediatley shuts the door behind him, this creates claustrophobia signifying an enclosed space. However, During the time Richard stays on the tropical island the lighting is more brighter and colourful which can then tell us that this is when Richards outlook on life is at its best. When the three characters swim to the island it shows Richard swimming infront of the other two characters to show that he is the leader and that he is leading the characters into trouble.
When Richard travels to Koh Phangan with Sal. Richard's experiences of The 'perfect' life on the exotic island are soon to be gone. Richard finds that this is the moment his life on the island changes. We understand this with the camera techniques as it follows him with a hand held camera to shows distortion. The lighting is permanently dark within the mise en scene.
Like in the more traditional thrillers an ironic character would normally be carrying a briefcase, in this case Richard is carrying a rucksack which we never get to see what is in it until he gets on the island. This can signify his personallity as we dont get to see the full, real Richard until the end when he had an epiphany.
- This screenshot shows the hand drawn map given to Richard from Daffy.
Close up shot get the audience involved.
This screenshot shows the enclosed space where Richard
finds suicidal Daffy in his hostel room.
Theres a voiceover throughout the film to bring the audience into the action and make them feel apart of it.
The way it has gone down the wall can show that this is the pivotal moment where Richards life is falling to a landing spot.
Low angle shot makes Richard look like he is in control of the
situation. he is powerful.
This shot shows noir lighting with little, not so flamboyant lighting seeping through the small windows in the top of the mise en scene signify that although this action of Daffy diying can show that there can be some hope in this situation. As Richard had just found out before he found the body that Daffy had given him the only map to the tropical island.
