“When the police arrest him he is compliant but has an almost euphoric look on his face.” Derek Vinyard was a bright child pulled into a world of darkness and influenced by a cowardly old men who could not accept their world, their neighborhood, becoming a place for equality and knew just how to manipulate the minds of middle class youth to feel the same.
In this particular scene, Vinyard is being arrested for the brutal murder of two men attempting to hi-jack his deceased father’s car. While he is being arrested, he is grinning an eerie grin that leaves the viewer with a sour taste in their mouth. How could anyone in his situation display a face of joy? With the shadows engulfing his figure, and the opaqueness of his swastika matching the darkness, the viewer can see this moment was his total descent into madness. We are introduced to Vinyard’s character this way, but later in the film, once we see his evolution and have an idea of the events that led up to the moment of his arrest, we see that he was not always this hate filled. In any other film, and a close up on an arrested person would not be so heavily contrasted. The lighting in this shot suggests his total loss of what morality was (and still is today). In any other film, the lighting would still allow for the character to be completely shown, but in this shot, a side of Vinyard’s face is partially shadowed.
The choice of lighting in this particular scene, and the scene being shown at the beginning of the film, foreshadows the events that are to come and set up Vinyard’s life for the viewer. It shows how easy an innocent child, from a hardworking family, bore from a mother that tries to do her best by him, can be completely and totally transformed.
This blog was due Friday at 5 P.M. It is very late. I will give you partial credit, but will not read any late blogs after this. Why is the face partially shadowed. The reason is important.
ReplyDelete