1. PR3 Critical Responses to Media Products
We respond to media products in many ways some of the approaches may be in the manner
which we analyse. Genre which is the type of film, in this case the genre is action thriller.
Narrative, this is the storyline in the film. Semiotics is looking at the signs in the film such as
sounds/music and studying how they’re used. Representation is how something is
represented, for example gender, age, ethnicity and social class.
In this article I will be looking at the above four areas, analysing film texts.
Leon
Leon got released in 1994 and was directed by Luc Besson. This film starred Jean Reno, Gary
Oldman and Natalie Portman. In this
film the 3 act linear structure is
used, exposition/inciting incident,
rising action/climax and falling
action/denouement. At the very
opening scene (exposition)
character, scene and the theme are
established. We see the main
characters being set in the first few
scenes, showing that Leon (Jean
Reno) is a hit man and Mathilda
(Natalie Portman) a 12 year old girl
lives a few doors away from his apartment. The inciting incident happens when Mathilda’s
family are killed by drug dealers. For act 2 (rising action), Leon agrees to look after Mathilda
but she wants revenge on the drug dealers who killed her family. Leon decides to train her
to be a hit man; she then tries to kill Stansfield by herself but fails and Leon kills one of
Stansfield colleagues. The climax is then Stansfield shooting Leon, as Leon is dying he
decides to kill Stansfield and himself for Mathilda’s revenge. Mathilda escaped before Leon
got out of the apartment. For the third and final act (falling action) Mathilda gets the money
that Leon had left for her, the final denouement Mathilda goes back to her private s chool as
she has nowhere else to go, she then goes to the garden and plants Leon’s plant that he said
was his best friend earlier in the film. This suggests that planting his plant is a celebration of
life.
A few elements are used to establish the genre of film, in this case action thriller. From the
start we see large buildings and from that we know that this film was set in New York. This
city is very wealthy, powerful and is known for having a high crime rate. This is very
conventional for the type of genre.
Most action thriller genres have a protagonist and an antagonist, in this case Leon is the
hero and Stansfield is the villain. Mathilda (Natalie Portman) isn’t sticking to the stereo type

2. of action thriller women ‘side kicks’, she isn’t being sexualised because she is only 12 years
old. However, she is still strong and independent as her family were killed by drug dealers.
Leon (Jean Reno) is acting as a father figure to Mathilda even though he doesn’t have any
children, which shows he has to be responsible for her.
We can see from the guns, bombs, exposition, this suggests the film is an action thriller. In
the very first few scenes of this film we see a man (who is a drug dealer) on the phone, Leon
appears behind him and holding a knife to the drug dealer’s neck, the knife is on one side
and the phone is on the other this could represent life and death. At the very end scenes
Matilda plants Leon’s plant which he classed as his ‘best friend’ after the deaths this could
also represent life. All of this is iconic for this specific genre of film.
Non diegetic sounds are used, the sound is very intense, it builds up and gets faster when
something is about to happen which creates narrative enigma. Darker shots suggest
something bad is going to happen, sometimes death. Lighter shots could suggest something
is good is going to happen, also could suggest life. All these elements are conventional to
the action thriller genre.
Dallas Buyers Club
Dallas Buyers Club was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and was released on the 7th of
February, 2014. This film starred Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto.
This films is set in 1985, Dallas. An electrician and hustler Ron Woodroof works around the
system to help AIDS patients get the
medication they need after he is
himself diagnosed with the disease. In
this film the 3 act linear structure is
used, exposition/inciting incident,
rising action/climax and falling
action/denouement. At the very
opening scene (exposition) character
and scene are established. We see the
main character Ron (Matthew
McConughey) at a bull fight. A few
minutes into the film Ron goes to hospital to get some test results back from when he was
ill. He is then diagnosed with HIV and was told he had 30 days to live. When Ron is getting
the treatment for his illness he meets a transgender man named Rayon (Jared Leto), they
become friends. Act 2, Ron learns about alternative treatments that would help his illness,
but can only buy them illegally. He then goes on to sell the treatments in his home town
Dallas, with Rayon. Rayon is a drug addict and decides to sell her life insurance to pay Ron
back for being helping her with her illness. The FDA confiscates all the drugs that Ron and
Rayon are selling to hospital patients. Rayon dies while Ron is abroad buying more
treatment to sell back in Dallas. When Ron gets home he finds out Rayon had passed away,

3. he then takes the FDA to court for not letting him sell the treatment because he has proof it
helps with the HIV. Act 3, Ron is granted the treatment but only for his personal use. This is
considered a success for him after months of fighting the FDA in court.
A few elements are used to establish the genre of film, in this case drama. This genre
depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional
themes such as, alcoholism, Moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, poverty, violence, but in this
case the themes are drug addiction and sexuality. Dramas sometimes have tragic or painful
resolutions and concern the survival of some tragic crisis, like the death and in this film
Rayon dies, Ron also dies 7 years after.
Pulp Fiction
Pulp fiction is a crime, drama thriller, was directed by Quentin Tarantino and was released
on the 21st of October 1994. This film stars John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis and
Uma Thurman. This film is quite confusing at the
very beginning because unlike most films, this is a
non-linear narrative. The plot is about the lives of
two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and
a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of
violence and redemption.
The narrative is very episodic and has small
stories that intertwine with each other, there are
3 main storylines:
“Prologue—The Diner"
Prelude to "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
"Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
Prelude to "The Gold Watch"
"The Gold Watch"
"The Bonnie Situation"
"Epilogue—The Diner"
A lot of post modernism is used throughout this film, through intertextuality, parody,
pastiche, reflexivity, bricolage and self-referentiality.
Intertextuality - In the background at the Jack Rabbits Slim Restaurant scene, there are girls
in pink jackets just like ‘The Pink Ladies’ in Grease. Still in the Jack Rabbits Slim scene we see
a woman dressed as Marilyn Monroe stood in her seven year itch pose.
Parody - In the dancing scene at Jack Rabbit Slim, John Travolta is creating a parody from
one of his previous
films, Saturday Night
Fever.

4. Pastiche - Marilyn Monroe stood in her famous seven year itch pose.
1.
Reflexivity – Mia Wallace draws the square in mid-air it isn’t real but appears on screen,
breaking the illusion that the film is not real.
Bricolage (Baudrillard) - Within the mise en scene in Jack Rabbit Slims when the woman
dressed as Marilyn Monroe is stood over an air vent, we see different references from a
variety of eras such as, 50’s,
60’s and 90’s. This is also shown
When Mia Wallace goes to the
bathroom, we see her taking
drugs this suggest the 90’s
however, the other women
stood next to her have hair
styles that suggest 50’s and
60’s.
Self-referentiality - Referencing the car scene, a similar scene from Grease. John Travolta
references his previous work from his film Saturday Night Fever. Characters in Kill Bill are
from a TV show fox force five which the character in Pulp Fiction ‘Mia Wallace’ talks about
it.