Introduction
Cinema representation of death is an important issue particularly in documentaries (Ryan and Lenos 23). This paper presents a critical comparative analysis of how death is represented in the documentary Silverlake Life: The View from Here and the fictional movie Die Hard. The analysis exposes the strong divergence between documentary and fiction representation of death. The focus is more on Silverlake Life: The View from Here because of the movie’s unique portrayal of death. The difference in death representation between documentaries and fictional movies is strong because while fiction allows for more flexibility in how events are portrayed, documentaries seek to expose reality and stimulate more emotions from viewers. The way death is portrayed in a movie will influence the viewers’ emotive reactions.
Death Portrayal in Silverlake Life: The View from Here
Silverlake Life: The View from Here is a nonfictional autobiography that exposes users to the death that is real, true, and slow. This movie directly exposes the issue of death from Tom Joslin’s documentation of his continuous physical deterioration caused by AIDS. Peter Friedman post-produced the movie and used editing to expose different stages in Joslin’s self-documentation of his life, his illness, and his gradual dying process. The movie provokes viewers to judge their personal lifestyles with regard to how death is portrayed in the movie and the general themes of the movie as a whole (Sobchack 245).
Analysis
The way death is portrayed in Silverlake Life even differs from other documentaries because only the viewer witnesses Joslin’s death. According to Shoback, at least “two viewers are ethically implicated in their relations with the viewed event, both the filmmaker viewing the death through the camera and the spectator viewing the film that makes the death visible” (244) because the director is the subject of the movie and does not see himself die.
Notwithstanding the fact that nobody is actually capable of witnessing their death, the decision to document his death remains an ethical issue. The director exposes death in its authenticity and also shows the impact of AIDS especially on homosexuals by editing the movie in a way that the viewer becomes acquainted with his partner Massi and sees how Joslin dies. The viewer is exposed to the gradual process of death from the eyes of Joslin’s partner, and this makes the film more concerned with the ethics in the significance of the rationality of homosexual love conveyed in the film.
The emphasis of Joslin’s love for Massi is significant both during the narrative and the production of the movie. The movie focuses both on the process of dying from AIDS and the love shared between homosexuals. The movie also depicts Joslin’s family’s reaction and approach to his homosexuality through interviews with family members. From their narratives, it is obvious that Joslin’s family members care about him but they try to avoid the issue of homosexuality during the interviews.
Massi’s narrations explain that Joslin’s family did not consider him as Joslin’s partner. Massi is a major contributor to the movie as he takes over the camera after Joslin’s condition makes him lose his ability to move. Massi turns the camera to face him as he offers narratives and takes shots. Massi has to take care of both the documentary and the real aspect of Joslin’s life and Massi accomplishes this by caring for Joslin while filming him even after Joslin dies. Some seconds after the death of Joslin, the audience is shown an unstable Joslin’s frail body.
Joslin obviously had his objective for making Silverlake Life: The View from Here. And though the viewer may try to find out his rationale for the movie, it should be noted that this is not the first time Joslin will delve into an autobiographical movie. He integrates many clips from his previous autobiography, Black Star: Autobiography of a Close Friend into Silverlake Life: The View from Here. Black Star is an autobiography describing homosexuality and his self-realization. Joslin’s choice to produce a movie portraying his life, sickness, and death is not appalling considering that he was a professional movie maker and film lecturer. His unyielding fondness for regularly recording his life protects the audience from the ethical guilt of seeing him die. Moreover, he was the one that planned, wrote, and filmed the documentary.
One of the final scenes shows a death certificate bearing Joslin’s name on it and the camera focuses on the part of the certificate that indicates that Joslin was not married. This is followed by a scene in the life of Joslin when he shares a passionate kiss with his partner. The aim of the documentary is not to solve issues of photophobia or homophobia in society but simply to portray death’s reality. The movie concentrates on the real lives of people infected with AIDS and shows the interaction between two men who were deeply in love during and after a real death.
Silverlake Life: The View from Here portrays death in a different way from what is usually shown in fictional movies. Silverlake Life jerks the viewer to the reality of death and provokes the emotions. The next section of this paper analyzes the portrayal of death in the movie Die Hard.
The portrayal of Death in Die Hard
Die Hard was directed by John McTiernan in 1988 and is believed to be one of the best current cases of a post-classical blockbuster in Hollywood. It has inspired three more sequels and various imitations, most of them clearly inferior to McTiernan’s 1988 film. The movie was also responsible for making Bruce Willis a star and one of the most outstanding performers in the movie industry (Weinberger 52).
Hans is a protagonist and is one of the characters that die in the movie. Hans’ death is portrayed in slow motion and the shot is taken from a high angle. The viewer does not see when his body falls down and his death is not as gruesome as other characters’ deaths; therefore, this makes it easy for the viewer to ignore any emotions.
Another death portrayed in the movie is that of McClane’s. Even though his body is mutilated, it is expressed through a gaze structure that arranges the scene through careful selection of the shot angle. This technique usually connects rivals, while friends are usually shot in one frame. McClane’s death is depicted by expressing an increase in the pain he experiences by exposing the viewer to his bodily wounds constantly. As the wounds increase, the viewer is made aware of the McClane’s increasing pain and vulnerability.
Conclusion
Cinema representation of death is a major issue particularly in documentaries (Ryan and Lenos 23). This paper represents a critical comparative analysis of how death is portrayed in the documentary Silverlake Life: The View from Here and the fictional movie Die Hard. The analysis exposed the strong divergence between documentary and fiction representation of death. The focus was more on Silverlake Life: The View from Here because of the unique portrayal of death in the movie. The difference in death representation between documentaries and fictional movies is strong because while fiction allows for more flexibility in how events are portrayed, documentaries seek to expose reality and draw more emotions from viewers.
Joslin’s documentary exposes the viewer to the gradual process of death and a review of deaths presented in Die Hard, a fictional movie, shows what is portrayed as a death in fiction is totally different from the real process of death. While Joslin’s Silverlake Life draws emotions from the viewer, Hans and McClane’s deaths in Die Hard indicate the lack of emotion that fiction movies draw from the viewers.
Joslin’s documentary has a more realistic portrayal of death not only because it is a documentary but also because it is an autobiographical narrative directed by the subject experiencing a slow process of death. The depiction of death in fictional movies, such as Die Hard, is done with the intention of pulling the same emotions from the viewers because the director intends to pass an already scripted message to the viewer. The viewer is exposed to the reality of death in Joslin’s Silverlake Life and the reaction of a viewer will depend on the viewer’s emotive characteristics.
Works Cited
Ryan, Michael, and Melissa Lenos. An Introduction to Film Analysis: Technique and Meaning in Narrative Film, London: Continuum, 2012. Print.
Sobchack, Vivian C. Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Print.
Weinberger, Everett. Wannabe: A Would-Be Player’s Misadventures in Hollywood, London: Macmillan, 1997. Print.