'Age throughout all forms of media
has been portrayed differently depending on who the target audience is. A key
example of representation of older communities from a balanced standpoint could
be the advertising, in this case the trailer for the recent Michael Caine
thriller, Harry Brown. At first the trailer appears to conform to the typical archetypal
viewpoint of older characters in film especially that of the action genre.
Caine is portrayed at
first as frail and lonely as is made clear by dialogue between his character (Harry Brown) and police officers with lines such as 'I am a widower’ as well as a conversation with a friend of his highlighting older communities' vulnerability: I’m scared Harry. I'm scared all of the time'. As the trailer progressed, more common ideologies and stereotypes began to take
shape, especially evident as the hordes of youth gangs began taking the spotlight as the main antagonists of the film. The connotations of these scenes predominantly featuring Caine observing the youths and their behavior ultimately are constructed so that we see Caine's
character as the older victim to rising crime from the young people portrayed extensively throughout the advertising as thugs and truants. This is backed up by the young people in the advertisements garbed in casual mise en scene such as hoodies and other baggy clothing in order to appear more intimidating to the older characters dressed in more formal attire.'
first as frail and lonely as is made clear by dialogue between his character (Harry Brown) and police officers with lines such as 'I am a widower’ as well as a conversation with a friend of his highlighting older communities' vulnerability: I’m scared Harry. I'm scared all of the time'. As the trailer progressed, more common ideologies and stereotypes began to take
shape, especially evident as the hordes of youth gangs began taking the spotlight as the main antagonists of the film. The connotations of these scenes predominantly featuring Caine observing the youths and their behavior ultimately are constructed so that we see Caine's
character as the older victim to rising crime from the young people portrayed extensively throughout the advertising as thugs and truants. This is backed up by the young people in the advertisements garbed in casual mise en scene such as hoodies and other baggy clothing in order to appear more intimidating to the older characters dressed in more formal attire.'
Example answer^
In this clip we see a older, more experienced vigilantly trying to teach a young very unexperienced. He is told to catch a arrow in which he reacts with a cocky response saying how easy it is. As the scene goes on he does indeed catch the arrow but is then shot by two behind him, the point made by the older guy is that he runs in blind and he is naive to his surroundings. Saying before he approaches a situation must map out the area for dangers otherwise he will put himself in danger. The fits in with the stereotype of young people as they are seen as naive and the older people are wiser and this is definitely the case in this clip.
