Introduction
Nightcrawler is an American film written and directed by Dan Gilroy. Its main character, Louis Bloom, is looking for work and finds himself occupied in crime journalism. To achieve the success he becomes a participant in the observed events.
Main text
The world of local news is filled with crime episodes shot by citizens. These scenes are often full of violence, but viewers consider them to be normal, they got accustomed to perceiving such stories even more often than other news. This problem is the main objective of the Nightcrawler, as the script is meant to dispute local news’ dependence on crime and violence to appeal to viewers. The idea can be seen through the whole film, which compels the audience to meditate on the influence of such news on people’s lives and behavior. Louis, the protagonist, believes that it is not enough to simply report a crime, so he deepens in the very process of it, provoking the viewers to choose aside.
Dan Gilroy builds up a world of irony and incongruity, in which the events are adverse to the values of fairness and justice popularly associated with tales of how poor characters achieve success. Dramatic irony in this film consists of revelation and recognition. It lies in the fact that the audience gets to know all the given information about the main character and the way he works, while the majority of these details become declared to other characters only in course of time. So the viewers are eager to see how the things they already know will be perceived by the characters.
Speaking about characterization it should be mentioned that Louis Bloom is a representative of freelance videographers, who go out in the city at nighttime, shoot crime scenes and sell the materials. He is the hero of this film, who is represented being the antihero. Bloom is surrounded by the opposition (police officers) and supporting characters (Nina Romina, Rick Carey); their presence makes the film look more realistic. The protagonist is made evil to gain popularity among the audiences. Today a lot of films about good people and true heroes are shot, so an opposite wave of bad characters attracts viewers more. Louis Bloom is an interesting character also due to the lack of information about his personal life. The audience is to participate in the creating of the protagonist and to assume his backstory. Such technic appeals to the viewers, as it allows them to contribute to the script.
Watching this film the audience orients on the protagonist’s objective, so the Nightcrawler adheres to the unity of action. From the very beginning, Louis Bloom wants to achieve success in work. He tries to put his best foot forward, spends a lot of time searching for a workplace, becomes a freelance videographer, and offers his friend to join him, as together they will have an opportunity to gain more than alone. Their permanent goal of his defines Bloom as a personality, but he goes too far, and this situation becomes the foundation for the preceding events.
Conclusion
Thus, we can say that the writer and director of the Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy, used such writer’s tools as objective, dramatic irony, characterization and unity to attract the audience by enhancing the overall narrative.