Task 3

For my historical text, I will look at the film Bad Boys (1995).

A review of the film:
Source - http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/Bad-Boys-1995-407.html
After a pair of overproduced duds that include the back-to-back Tony Scott eye-burners Beverly Hills Cop II and Days of Thunder, the uber-producing team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer make a welcome return to the kind of no-holds-barred, go-for-the-throat thrill ride that established them as action experts extraordinaire in the mid-1980s. Setting aside any pretensions, Bad Boys is what it is. Viewers can either understand that or direct themselves to a more ambitious action blockbuster. Like the standard action films of the early 90’s, Bad Boys has no problem with being a super-slick, super-fast cops-and-drug lords movie that viewers will probably forget by the time they exit the theater.

The plot resembles that of a cheesy episode of “Miami Vice,” complete with said drug lords, the fiery orange heat of the Miami setting, and enough running and jumping to exhaust even Bruce Willis. In keeping with true buddy-movie formula, Miami narcotics cops Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) both lead very different lives. Lowery is a womanizing rich-kid who also happens to be a dedicated police officer. His partner and best friend, Burnett, is an overworked, undersexed family man with a pretty wife (Theresa Randle) and three kids. Both have just made the biggest drug bust of their careers, confiscating $100 million in heroin. But when a criminal mastermind (Tchéky Karyo) steals the evidence from police storage and Internal Affairs threatens to shut them down, Lowrey and Burnett must find a witness (Téa Leoni) who can help them solve the case. The catch? Lowrey and Burnett must switch identities to gain the witness’ trust.

A more appropriate name for Bad Boys would actually be Beverly Hills Cop Lite. Both this and Cop are Bruckheimer/Simpson productions that feature a savvy African-American Police Officer (in this case, two) investigating the murder of a close friend who is somehow linked to an underground drug ring. While it retains some of the action and wise-guy humor of the Eddie Murphy classic, it also lacks the nuisances and intelligence that made that film so memorable.

Lawrence and Smith are, however, in fine (albeit not exactly star-making) form. The interaction between the wisecracking duo is so smooth and displays such a good chemistry, it’s as if they’ve done all this before. Since the film opens with the two of them jabbering away, you get the idea that they started during a previous adventure. The interesting note about the casting is that both of the leads play the “wise guy.” We see how different they are through how they use their sense of humor. The switch even takes a stab (no doubt, unintended) at making a social statement about people adapting to a completely new lifestyle.

The real star here is Director Michael Bay. Bay (who cut his teeth directing high-octane television commercials and music videos) treats every action sequence like a photographed stage production. He keeps the camera moving swiftly enough to generate excitement, but stops shy of inducing nausea. Working closely with the editor, Bay favors frequent cuts, but without falsifying the sense of excitement generated. This talent for staging good action is displayed mostly in a getaway chase around halfway through the film and the exciting climax that features a shootout in an airport hangar. A fantastic shot that I feel is worth singling out comes at the end of the getaway chase when Lowrey and Burnett rise from the aftermath in a shot that circles around the heroes as they look on to see the villains get away. This wonderful method tells the viewers what they must face in the best dramatic fashion possible.

This film shows a range of different ways that it is similar to contemporary texts and how it is different from contemporary texts.

The film is similar from urban drama texts now because there is still the use of cars that is a main item used by males in urban dramas. Teenage males are known to drive around in their cars and it is used in many texts today too for example, male teenagers hanging around in their cars is also shown in the film 'Adulthood' because it is a main thing that represents males. Another thing that is the same is that males are still shown to be obsessed with sex because in this film the male shown in the car with Will Smith says "please I am not getting my sex at home". This connotes that these are two main factors that characterise teenage males because this was common in the 1900's and is still a commin factor in 2010. By this we can tell that males are obsessed with cars and sex and that is still the same case.

The thing that is also similar is the use of language that is used by teenage males because in Bad Boys, Will Smith and his friend both use language that might be unappropriate. This language is still used today but there is a slight difference that is there is more aggresive and disrespectful language used today. By this we can tell that this is a similar factor but it has changed slightly as now male teenagers have less restrictions on what is said on screen. Another thing that is similar from historical texts and contemporary texts is the use of propps. This is because in Bad Boys, guns are used and they are used in contemporary texts too. There is also a slight change in contemporary texts because more violent propps are now used for example, knifes, bats and etc.

In addition, the things that are different now is the clothing. This is because in the historical texts, male teenagers do not dress as male teenagers do now. For example there is no hoodies, or tracksuits etc but there is normal clothing that would not really categorise male teenagers today. Another difference in contemporary and historical texts is that there are more violent scenes now. This is because the audience is actually shown the victim suffering now whereas in historical texts, the victim just dies and is not shown actually dying. This happens in the film when the man is shot and he falls off the car but is not shown actually dying. By this we can tell that contemporary films show more suffering of the victims and this did not happen in historical texts.