When researching revenge I found out that there are two types of revenge; personal and revolutionary. Here are a few movies that I looked up to understand revenge more effectively.
Batman – Dark Knight Rises (Talia al Ghul)
Talia al Ghul wanted revenge on batman (Bruce Wayne) for his involvement in the death of her father Ra’s al Ghul in the first movie batman begins so she teamed up with Bane who not only wants to take over Gotham but broke the batman spirit and his back, to prove that batmans drive and motivation, was too weak to overcome such darkness without becoming the darkness himself. After watching the Dark Knight Rises I am leaning towards doing a revenge story that is personal to the character. The storyline could be similar to this one, my character could be avenging the death of a family member or friend. I think that is a valid reason as to why she would want to kill him so maybe I could work with that.
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet had aspects of Revenge when Romeo was angry at the fact that Tybalt Capulet had killed his Best Friend Mercutio by tracking him down and shooting him. This links to the revenge on a personal level, similar to the definitions of revenge that I have previously looked up. It shows that revenge causes banishment which could be constructive to my project, I could include an act of revenge faced with a consequence that my character has to endure, I could be death or it could be imprisonment. These are aspects I have to think about when creating my film.
Enough (2002)
This film is called Enough is a thriller/drama, starring Jennifer Lopez. I enjoyed this film a lot because it shows the audience how fragile and afraid she is at the beginning of the movie then as the movie progresses she turns into a brave, fighting machine so is prepared to do whatever it takes to protect herself and her daughter.
I like the way she seeks revenge by receiving her own justice for the abuse she got from her husband. The police couldn’t do anything so she took matters into her own hand and trained. This type of revenge links to the type of revenge Menkem was talking about in the interview. If justice can not serve you then deal with the issue yourself. I think that this movie supports the definitions of revenge that I have looked up and gathered feedback on.
Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Freddy Krueger seeks revenge on the children was touching sexually because told on him which lead to his death.
I think that the concept interesting because a rapist is killing them for telling the truth when it should be the other way around and they should be torturing him. I like how the director and writer made you think that these children are dying because they lied about being raped, however, the twist is that died for telling the truth. I thought this film had the scare factor of a horror and I thought the concept is engaging but evokes a lot of emotion in the audience.
I enjoyed the shots used to engage and frighten view such as suspenseful tracking shots, these tracking shots follow the character slowly before Freddy Krueger attacks the characters and kills them. In addition to that, I liked the close-ups showing the audience his metal hand which is lethal. I learnt a more about how this film shows the hand the major of the time to get the audience familiar with the claw that kills so that when you see it you think someone’s going to dies which create anticipation and evokes fear in the audience. I think that looking at these features of the movie has taught me more about how to be suspenseful and what it takes to engage an audience and has given more of an idea of what I want to do.
This film has a lot of special effects used and great editing, for instance, when the characters alternate between worlds; the dream world and real life. I liked how revenge is taken out on Freddy Krueger at the end of the movie, it was phenomenal and made my heart beat really fast. I think that taking him from the dream world where he rules and is successful into the real world where he is hopeless and weak, was excellent. After watching this film, it has benefited me because this film presented to the end result of the antagonist which was death. In addition to that, it shows me how the protagonist took revenge and why the did it. I thought that the flashback was useful because I understand the story more. I think that I could use flashback in my film depending on what I am doing for my creative media project. This movie conveyed revenge as a personal aspect on both the protagonist and antagonists part which was interesting and could be influential to my own idea.
Hard Candy (2005)
It’s about a teenager who meets up with a photographer she met online who turns out to be a paedophile and she gives him what he deserves, including deceit, torture and manipulation. In the end, she gets a confession out of him that he preys on little girls.
She took revenge on the guy for what he has to previous women a lesson by getting a confession out of him that about how he preys on little girls. I think that this revenge is revolutionary because he is sexually attracted to children and that is wrong so she did what she had to do to prevent other girls in the future coming across him. It is revolutionary on a smaller scale.
Hunger Games Franchise (2012-2015)
The Hunger games is an annual event due to the fact, that when civilisation came together under one nation they called it Panama with the wealthiest living inside the capital while the poorer loved on the outskirt. After the citizens living on the outside rose up in rebellion and decided to fight against the capital. However, the rebels lost and ultimately surrendered while district 13 was bombed as punishment for this act of defiance the 12 district had to sacrifice 1 boy and 1 girl as to fight to the death against other children.
There is also revenge because of defiance, I learnt that defiance can also trigger revenge which links to the urban dictionary’s definition of revenge. This is one way that I could portray revenge in my film and understand more about revenge and where revenge comes from along with how it is taken into action.
Katniss and Peeta were from the same district as the hunger games started she found out that he had joined the couriers which were the capitals favourites who had chased her up the tree this act of betrayal forced her to drop a hive of tracker jackers.
Katniss was a citizen of the nation of Panama where she lived in district 12 and volunteered for the hunger games where she watched her close friend be killed this caused her to ignite a rebellion against the capital and President Snow.
After watching the hunger games it has can be risen by an emotional attachment to someone. The hunger games is a great concept and I could use this in my project, maybe my characters love one gets murdered and then he or she goes to find the person who murdered them. However, this concept has been used throughout the film industry a lot, I want to be more original when it comes to my idea.
Conclusion
I have learnt more about the subject ‘revenge’ can be very intense or thrilling (exciting). I am noticing the difference between revolutionary and personal revenge more and more and I’m understanding the subject better. I think that I am preferring personal vengeance as to revolutionary, in my opinion, I think it connects to the audience more. Furthermore, revenge in film evokes several emotions from the audience such as sadness, hope and sympathy towards the victim who is in the film. It also depends on the reason why someone is taking revenge which could make the audience feel hatred, anger and disgust. For example, in the Hunger Games, some of those feelings were towards aimed at the leading protagonist Katniss, on the other hand, some of those feelings were aimed at the antagonist who is The Capital.
I think that revolutionary and personal films are good because they are able to make you think about what side you are on and if you are on the right side, they can help the audience understand what some people may be going through in real life. I feel that I could either make a film so that they audience is rooting for only one side you are on which is the protagonists or divide the audience. Both personal and revolutionary in films and other areas are exceptional at allowing the concept, actors/character and other aspects to evoke certain emotions from the audience. Researching films based on Revenge is going to be very beneficial towards the thought process of my own idea.
Stephanie Corr-Amajor 