NUR ÇAKIR/114681002

FERİDE ÇİÇEKOĞLU

FTV 529 TERM PAPER

MOVIE ANALYSIS; IN BRUGES

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In this paper, I will be trying to analyze the Martin McDonagh’s “ In Bruges” in

terms of 1) basic elements 2) meaning 3) cinematography and 4) sound.

In the basic elements, I will discuss the movie in terms of;

Title/ Opening Credits Story/Plot/Narrative Characterization Point of View

In the second part, Meaning, I will be addressing the issues of;

Themes/Tropes Intent/ Messages Subtext Metaphors

Third part will be consisting of cinematography which will include;

Film speed Camera Angles Tracking Focus Shot distance Frame

In the final part I will be talking about the sounds in terms of;

Sound effects Sound Bridge Diegetic/Non Diegetic Simultaneous / Non Simultaneous Sound Off-screen sound Direct Sound / Postsychronous Sound

“In Bruges” is a dark comedy which begins with the images of Bruges, a well preserved

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medieval town, while we first hear the non-diegetic soundtrack then the voice-over of the

one of the protagonist Ray (Collin Farrell).

“After I’d killed him, I dropped the gun in the Thames, washed the residue off my hands

in the bathroom of a Burger King, and walked home to await instructions. Shortly

thereafter, the instructions came through. “Get the fuck out of London you dumb fucks.

Get to Bruges.” I didn’t even know where Bruges fucking was. It’s in Belgium “

In the opening, with his voice-over, audience get the idea about the protagonist and

understand why the title of the movie was chosen as “ In Bruges”. All movie was set in

Bruges since its about two Irish hitmen who were sent to Bruges for two weeks by their

boss Harry ( Ralph Fiennes) in order to hide because of their latest hit. After seeing the

images of Bruges in the opening, we see two protagonist Ken (Brandan Gleeson) and Ray

walking in the city. During their dialogue, we are quickly provided with the information that

they are in Bruges because they have to hide since Bruges is the last place they would be

looked for. While they were spending time in the city, their characters comes to surface. Ken

is the quiet one, he enjoys the old buildings and architecture of the city. He is keen to see all

historical places and he doesn’t seem unhappy for being in Bruges unlike Ray. Ray is

interested either for city nor its historical places. He is totally bored that he wants to go back

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to Dublin. Three villain protagonists are different from each other in every way. I use the term

villain here because whatever they

feel during the movie, they are

three hitmen after all. Later in the

movie, there is church scene that

flashes back to the reason why they

are in Bruges ; we see Ray sitting in a confessional admitting next to the priest. He confesses

that he is a kind of person who kills others not because of revenge or anger but only for

money. When priest asks him who he killed, Ray replies “You” then we see Ray shooting

him. After we see priest falling dead to the floor, we see little young boy on his knees

praying. At that moment we understand that one

of Ray’s bullets went through the priest and

struck the young boy’s forehead and this is the

reason that they are in Bruges.

During the whole movie, even though he is a

hitman, Ray feels guilty about killing an

innocent child that he even wants to kill himself. I can say that there is a moral dilemma in

the story that there is a clear distinction

between who you can kill and who you cant

kill since the both characters are hitmen.

Later in the climatic moment of the film

their boss Harry calls Ken and asks him to

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kill Ray because of what he did. According to Harry Ray must die because he killed an

innocent child. At that moment we realize that even though Ken cant seem standing Ray

most of the time he doesn’t want to kill him and he think he deserves to live.

During the movie, there are times that we see

Ray as happy and enjoying the times that we

see Ray as happy enjoying the life but then

there are many moments either that we see his

state of depression.

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When he

gets ready for a date he gave audience

the clear feeling through his facial expressions

that he is not happy because he feels so much

guilt. If I was talking about another movie

including a hitman killing a child, it would

impossible either for me or other audiences to

feel empathy to the protagonist Ray but there is a difference here that Ray himself feels

much guilt that he doesn’t defend what he did. He is unhappy and depressed. Whatever

happens to him, he never stops questioning himself, even in his happiest moments. He wants

to punish himself and tries to commit suicide at the same time when Ken was about to kill

him. It’s a strong scene that Ken was coming to kill Ray as Harry wanted him to do so, then

he saw is about to shot himself so he stops him. Audience clearly gets idea what is happening

to the characters, psychologically. As such, Ken thinks Ray is a good guy who does not

deserve to die. He thinks Ray already suffers enough because of his mistake so he could not

follow what Harry asked him when he saw Ray was trying to commit suicide. Not only he

could not kill him but also he saves Ray’s life by stopping him which is the sign of absurdism.

.

If I should talk about characterization, it is clear that there are three central

characters ; Ray, Ken and Harry. In my opinion both of three characters were fully drawn

from the very beginning since we can read the characters. We can get the idea of what they

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like, what they don’t like, how they are similar or different from each other. We are able to

read their emotions through their dialogues and body languages. When I watched this movie

with my friends, none of them feel anxiety to the Ray but rather empathy. During the movie

we see Ray insulting fat people, Belgians and autistic people but then we understand that he is

suffering an identity crisis because of killing a innocent child and it was the main reason why

he was insulting people. His actions were explosive and childish. It was the boss Harry

everyone feels anger towards him, including me. I think again it was simply because of

Ray’s strong characterization that we totally felt the guilt he went through and in my point of

view its related to his fully drawn characteristics. Ken is also drawn fully that he is a smart

wise guy that he didn’t obey the Harry’s order for killing Ray that, I think audience was

already aware that he would not kill him. Even though these two characters were very

opposite and cant seem to stand eachother from the very beginning, Ken’s thoughts about

Ray changed during the movie. Maybe he would kill him if the order from Harry came out in

the beginning, but then he realized that Ray was suffering so much that he feels empathy

towards him. Thus, at the end of the movie he sacrified his life for saving Ray from Harry.

Both of three characters represents and share one same value that they can not kill a child and

if they do its unacceptable, even if

they are hitmen. At the end of the

movie, Harry kills the midget guy by

mistake while trying to kill Ray and

he says “oh.. I see…” He thought

that the midget guy was a “child” so he himself with his gun after saying “you have

to stick to your principals.” Harry was portrayed as a strictly principled murderous hitman

beside being a family man with a child. Moreover he is a benevolent boss that he protects

his men. In such, when Ken’s wife was murdered at the past ( we didn’t see this part) Harry

found the guy and killed him. Each protagonists are strongly connected their own morals and

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principals. For example; There is also another scene at the end of the movie when Harry was

trying to catch Ray to kill him. He followed him to the hotel and because there was a pregnant

hoteller they didn’t shoot each other at that place but rather talked and decided to go out in

case of not hurting anyone innocent by mentioning pregnant hoteller. Moreover I would say

that, character of Ray changes during the movie because if he would not kill the child by

mistake in church, he would continue killing others without questioning himself. But now ,

he wants to run away to a new life after he learns that Harry wants him dead. He tries to run

away with the train with the help of Ken. Minor characters as Chloe effected the story of

Ray since Ray fell in love with her and wants to get away with her to a new life as a new

man instead of being a hitman. She played a key role in his changing process.

Film in general does not told from a

particular character’s point of view, it was

objective. On the other hand, there are

scenes which are viewed from different

character’s point of view. For example;

when Ken climbs up the tower in the

square Ray doesn’t go with him that

audience meant to be focusing the long

shots of Brugges from the Ken’s

from the very top. He enjoys the

moment, he spends some time there.

Then, he looks down sees Ray walking around. He makes a gun of his fingers and “shoots”

Ray which was a hint to their true nature.

Even though it’s a black comedy,

there are many human drama including

morals, guilt love and existentialism.

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There are key emotive moments which catch the audience. One of them is the church scene

that Ray kills a child by and other scene is when Ken stops Ray while he was about to kill

himself. Narrative has coherent unity that it does not leave the audience with the feeling of

unfilled or confused, whole script was clear and dialogues were well written in terms of

representing the characters their psychologies through the whole movie.

The message that movie gives audience is simply about the violence. Violence brings no

good at all. Each of three protagonists were dead at the end of the movie. In case of

metaphors, I would like to remind that in the beginning of the movie we see how Ray doesn’t

like being in Bruges. He says “ this place is a shithole”. He keeps repeating the word

“shithole” and I think Bruges was a purgatory for Ray if we think in terms of what he had

done in the past. He killed a child that he feels so much guilt and Bruges becomes a place for

him to face himself that he tries to

commit suicide but then he decides to

move on with a new clean beginning

with his life with the help of Chloe.

On the other hand, subtext

might be political as well as

religious.While Harry wants Ray to be punished and killed.

Ken believes that Ray should begin a new life, as a new chance. He says “the boy has the

capacity to change” He believes that he can change so he wants to give him a second

chance. The paintings that we see during the movie give me the idea that subtext could be a

subtext about religion.

We are able to see many Catholic

imagery and theology and we hear a

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discussion between Ken and Ray

about purgatory.

Thus, Bruge became a purgatory for

Ray during the movie. Besides,

Harry was drawn as a powerful wealthy man with his anger and bad

intensions that at the end of the movie is dead. So, subtext could be

simply about high

powers which leading to disasters if not

used in a good ways by the powerful ones.

Besides all of these things that I have talked

about, I also want to discuss the

cinematographic side of the movie in terms

of camera shots, camera angles, frames

tracking and focus. During the movie , most chosen technique was close-ups that we were

able to see and read the characters feelings

and expressions related to situations in the

scenes. We can easily read Ray’s depression

with the close-ups.

There are extreme long shots and long shots that contain large amount of landscape of Bruges.

Through these shots , we almost feel like we are travelling in Bruges, they gave the audience

the feeling of reality. For someone, who never been in Bruges would see the whole places

throughout the movie since Ken was very interested in history and architecture of the town.

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Low and high angle techniques were also used in some parts of the movie. As we know; from the low

Angle view characters look more powerful, aggressive and dominant. On the other hand , from the

High angle characters would seem weak, submissive or frightened. My examples related to these are;

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This the scene where Ray was waiting for Ken in the square while Ken was climbing to the top of the

tower. Ray was insulting the fat guy by saying “elephant” that from the low angle, fat guy appears as

he would kill the Ray since he seems more

powerful and dominant from the Ray. On the

other hand, when we look at the Ray from the

high angle, he seems confused, weak if we

compare him with the fat guy. At the end of the

movie we see Harry from the low angle that we already know he is powerful and strong that he even

has the courage to kill himself in order to stay strict with his principals.

With the full-shots we could see the

complete view of characters, costumes

and the relations between them.

Following and pull back shots were also

used at some scenes but it was more

obvious at the end of the movie when

Harry was running after Ray for killing him. In this scene we also hear the non-diegetic

soundtrack. In my point of view it perfectly fits the situation since it was a tracking

scene at the end of the movie. It gives the audience enthusiasm.

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Before talking about sounds of the movie in final part , I would like to mention about the lighting.

Lighting was low key most of the time which reflects the psychological situation of characters, mostly

Ray’s. It was shot during the winter, colors were leak and cold. Besides all these, I could say that there

was a haptic moment that I could catch throughout the movie when Chloe was smoking that we were

actually feeling the smell of the cigarette. There might other haptic images but this catched my eye at

first.

Finally, I would like to say that I really liked the soundtracks of the movie. Some of my friends

found the musics not related to the movie and they were saying that slow kind of music doesn’t fit the

movie but what I think is they perfectly fit the situation and what characters going through

psychologically. I would not like them if the soundtracks were fast because then we could miss the

Ray’s depression. I already mentioned the non-diegetic soundtrack at the beginning of the movie.

Through the end of the movie there was also another non-diegetic soundtrack which is again one of

the slow musics in the movie. Sound bridge also used in that one because music continues through a

scene change in order to tie the scenes together. Moreover we hear direct sounds also when Ken

was trying to get and when he was throwing coins down from the tower. There are two voice overs

used both in the beginning and at the end of the movie from the Ray’s voice.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

"CINEMATOGRAPHY." College Film Media Studies. 2 Mar. 2010. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

"Deleuzian Film Analysis: The Skin of the Film." – Offscreen. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

"Filmanalytical." : Touching the Film Object? Notes on the 'Haptic' in Videographical Film Studies. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

"FILM SOUND AND MUSIC." College Film Media Studies. 8 Mar. 2010. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/295207/original/Robynn%252BJ.%252BStilwell%25252C%252B%2525E2%252580%25259CThe%252BFantastical%252BGap%252Bbetween%252BDiegetic%252Band%252BNondiegetic%2525E2%252580%25259D.pdf

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