Comparing 12 Angry Men and Red Balloon

The two films we watched this week were vey different. 12 Angry men had a very small setting. Only one room. It then focused dialog and and camera work in order to move the story along. The use of camera angles allowed the director to create a mood for the audience. Simply changing the height in which a scene was shot allowed the mood of the scene to change. Dialog in the film was crucial as it was the main source in which information could be shared with the audience. It also was used to show a major point in the film, the cayotic  nature of the united states judicial system.

Opposite of this is Red Balloon which used little dialog but rather change in scenery to move the story along. We see the balloon and the boy going from place to place, while interacting with the environment. From this we are able to gain perspective on the life of the boy and also how people react to the balloon. Seeing how people from different scenes react to the balloon allows us to gain information to build the underlying story.

The two films are similar in the fact the they both hold deeper meaning than what is on the surface. 12 Angry men is a critic on our judicial system in that we a too quick to judge a situation and that everyone brings their own bias into situations which clouds their judgement. Red Balloon is about the change in the expectations of child hood for children following world war two. And the expectations for children to exceed what we now would consider real expectations for children.