Narrative Evaluation

Opening Two Minutes of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

-Who is the hero and who is the villain? How do you know?

Bacon and Eddie are portrayed as the film's protagonists and the policemen pursuing them are portrayed as the antagonists. This is achieved by making the audience relate to the two protagonists through their humour and mannerisms, whilst the police are portrayed as simply getting in their way. Although in the eyes of the law, Bacon and Eddie are the villains, the audience wants them to succeed and thus they are the heroes.

-Where is the story set? What does this tell you about the film genre?

The opening is set on a dirty street corner of London. This is common within British socially realistic (Brit Grit) films. It allows the audience to relate with the characters by understanding more about their surroundings and backgrounds.

The audience is aware that it is set in a lower class area, and is therefore aware that Bacon and Eddie are attempting to con and scam lower-class people out of their money by selling them fake and stolen goods. This demonstrates their questionable morals, representative of the themes within the film and its genre.

-How many principle characters are there?

There are two principle characters - Bacon and Eddie. It is typical within the genre for the plot to revolve around either a duo or small, close group of main characters. The small amount of central characters allows the audience to more fully identify with them as there are less of them to try and understand.

Having a duo or small circle of main characters, as opposed to being part of a large group, such as in The Football Factory,also allows them to be closer to one another. This allows the audience to identify with them as individuals rather than as part of a big crowd. The familiarity they have gained with eachother from being in a small group also allows them to more easily perform complex organised crimes and scams, demonstrated in the opening two minutes. The large group in Football Factory becomes chaotic and leads to unorganised, destructive crime, suggesting that the duo in Lock Stock would allow them to be more efficient and productive.

-How is the story told? Is it in chronological order or does it switch between time-frames?

The story is told in chronological order. This could be an attempt to enhance the simplicity of the plot and helps the audience to make sense within the chaos and action.

-How is this reflected in the other five films?

Main Characters - Heroes and Villains

-In all of the other films apart from This is England and Crank, the main characters are displayed clearly with the use of a still shot portrayed in the style of a graphic novel.

-By putting them all together at the beginning of the film, it emphasises their links with one another.

-The main characters are all shown to be close and connected in some way. This is similar to Lock Stock in that a small group allows them to perform complex crimes with ease.

-There are never more than three principle characters

-There are no villains portrayed the openings in any of the six films, as all main characters are placed on the same stage of moral high-ground as all are essentially criminals.

Locations

-All films are set in lower-class urban areas

-Many show graffiti and other vandalism within stereotypically white working-class accommodation, such as in This is England [left]

-This suggests that the themes of crime and violence within the films stem from the working-class roots of the main characters, allowing the audience to further understand their drive, morals, and motives.

Time frames

-All openings are in chronological order and set up the rest of the film

-However, some openings such as those from This is England and The Football Factory use montages of archive film footage to set the scene in their openings. This provides the audience with increased background knowledge so as to make it easier to understand the underlying themes the writers of the film were trying to portray.

Overview

At first glance, the six films seem very different in their openings. Whilst in RocknRolla a monologue is spoken by a fundamental character, This Is England uses a stereotypically "Skinhead" song to represent the themes and characters coupled with a montage of clips to do with patriotism and violence. However, all six openings are surprisingly similar, using the same techniques to portray the locations and the motives and relationships of the main characters.

By comparing these films, we will now be able to make educated decisions when we begin filming for our own film, using similar techniques as the directors and writers have in these established screenplays.