Summer Assignment: The Grey

The movie that I will be analyzing is a thriller movie called the grey. Over the summer I watched this movie and looked out for any typical conventions that showed that this was a thriller movie.

 
The basic story line of the movie is that a plane that is travelling over Alaska plummets towards the ground from 40,000 feet and kills some of the passengers on-board. However a small amount of passengers survive the crash. The men that survived, who are led by the actor Liam Neeson who portrays the character by the name of Ottway, must endure the ferocity of the harsh conditions they have landed in, also accounting the fact they have minimal amounts of food and drink, they have a bigger problem. They are followed by a pack of wolves that stalk them amidst the mercilessly cold weather. They must find a way to stay alive until they are found, if they are found.

This is an image from within the movie which shows the character holding a knife in his hand, which could be a convention of a thriller movie. As well as that there is a seriousness on his face that could suggest he is about to fight something, that something being a wolf. This shot is a mid shot as it shows him from just below the waist upwards.

In this scene the group of survivors are gathered round a fire and are confronted by the leader of the pack of wolves they are being stalked by. This is a long shot as it shows the whole group of the survivors and also the wolf. This is framed well because the group and the wolf fit well in the image and it makes the scene tense by giving a sense of how close the wolf is.

This is an image from the beginning of the film, on the first night of which their plane crashed. It shows the character being attacked by a wolf and fighting back, this is a thriller convention because it shows the elements of a fight scene. As well as that this is a mid shot as it shows the character from just above the waist to the top of his head. The framing is good because it has fit all of the action very tightly in the image and this could make the scene tense.

This image is from the end scene in which the character stumbles into the very wolf den which he was trying to get away from. This low angle over the shoulder shot which is looking up to the leader of the wolves makes it seem as if the wolf is in a higher position than the character, and that the wolf has higher ground and the advantage. The tension created by this shot is a convention of a thriller film.