Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle) 2009, Pathe , Celador, Channel 4 Films

You need to analyse three extracts from the film and the trailer for your exam. Concentrate on the issue of representation and through your discussion of the trailer discuss how different audiences have been targeted and how the film has been represented or mis-represented in the trailer.

Representation of :

Place
National Identity
Age
Gender
Ethnicity
Issues

Extract 1 Chapter 8-11 (Blinding)Go from the specific to the general...

The extract begins in a rubbish tip in Mumbai. Yellow filters are used with lens flares and dust to show the intense heat and oppressive atmosphere in a large refuse tip on which the children exist by looking for things to eat or re-cycle. The boys are asleep in a makeshift tent trying to take shelter from the heat of the day. They are filthy and flies and covered in flies, perhaps a stereotypical representation of the archetypal ‘slumdog’ conducting an animalistic existence. These places can be found in most countries but in third world countries they produce a livelihood for the very poor despite being dangerous and a serious health hazard. There are often explosions and the diseases that a young person could contract are numerous. Life expectancy in such a desperate environment would not be great so the audience, like the children, see the men who come to take them away from there as saviours. We can almost savour the Coke as we hear the top come off and can understand the sensation of slaking their thirst with this symbol of Western affluence and luxury. Salim says that, ‘ he must be a saint’. In his costume and with his mild manner the head of the gang appears almost saintly perhaps allowing the audience to see how the children view him as omnipotent and messianic.

Most audiences would be cynical at this moment and realise that such a charitable act of kindness would not be usual in a city where survival is only for the fittest and most brutal as evidenced in the rest of the narrative. This saint turns into a demon exemplified in the shot in the rain with low key lighting which shows him in his true light rather than with a beatific smile. It is the abuse of trust by these adults that provides the most horrific scene of the blinding of Arvind. The children are taught to trust and see these men as saviours and are nurtured unwittingly to assist their criminal endeavours. Salim is identified as an attack dog due to his temper and is taught to strong arm the other children as a well trained sheepdog would mind a flock. The damaging affect of these psychological manipulations of young children and the fallout suffered at this young age is only seen later in the film. It is the fatc that Jamal can rise above the humiliations …