Film comparisons

The three movies I will be comparing are, Moonlight, Kingsman and Skyfall. Whereas, all three of these movies share the trait of having male protagonists, each character comes from a very different background. The character Chiron from moonlight is a black man raised in the American hood by his drug-addicted mother. While both movies have different settings, a similarity can be seen as the character Eggsy from Kingsman lived in similar working-class conditions on an estate with his mother and violent stepfather. Character development can be seen with Eggsy as we watch him work his way up from being working class to middle/upper class. However, since he did this with help from Harry, it is suggested that working class people can’t make a life for themselves without the aid of someone of a higher status. In comparison to both Eggsy and Chiron's characters, the character of James bond is portrayed as a wealthy middle class man. This is shown through how he carries himself and his expensive suits. Masculinity is a key theme in all three movies. At the beginning of Skyfall, we watch as Bond engages in fast paced scenes that are filled with action. This links to the theme masculinity because the concept of fighting and getting into danger is often associated with male characteristics.

A similarity between Chiron and Eggsy, is that they both grew up without a father figure/ male role model. While this forces them both to fend for themselves, a positive development in relationships can be seen as they both find father figures in Juan and Harry. In moonlight, we see Black grow up to be like Juan by selling drugs. It could also be seen that he kept an ornament piece that was part of Juan’s car. This shows the respect that he had for him, despite it seeming like he despised him for indirectly selling drugs to his mum. The final scene of Kingsman depicts Eggsy replicating the pub scene that was previously executed by Harry. This portrays that Harry was his role model and that he looked up to him. Both Chiron and Eggsy's character development was quite different throughout the two movies. While we see Eggsy go from being a troublemaker (as seen when he was shown stealing a car and goes to prison) to saving the world from corruption; we see the character Chiron go from being a vulnerable boy who stays out of trouble, to ending up in prison for smashing a chair on a bully.

Moonlight is a drama film that was set in Miami and directed by Barry Jenkins. The movie is split into three stages of Chiron, the main character's, life. It shows him develop from being a young boy, a teenager and then an adult. The beginning of the movie depicts a young Chiron running away from trouble. His character then encounters Juan- the local drug dealer. The scene portrays vulnerable Chiron shaded in the darkness. This infers his characters fear and loneliness, as the darkness connotes danger. When Juan then offers to take him home, he refuses to utter a word about where he lives. Throughout the duration of the film, I found that there was a small amount of dialogue from the Chiron- his character mostly spoke through his eyes. This shows a frequent use of direct mode of address, which allows the audience to connect and sympathise with his character. The film illustrates representations of gender, race, homosexuality and other issues such as, drugs and bullying.

When compared to Kingsman, Moonlight has a non-traditional narrative that doesn’t follow Todorov’s theory because there was no state of balance at the beginning. This leaves the audience guessing what happened during the scenes that were not shown. However, Kingsman does follow Todorov's Theory as we are shown the equilibrium of Eggsy's life, which involves him living an average life with his family. The equilibrium is then disrupted when Eggsy gets arrested and bailed out by Harry- who then recruits him to be a Potential Kingsman.

Kingsman is a spy/ action film set in London, directed and co-produced by Matthew Vaughn. Kingsman illustrates representations of disability, which is shown through the antagonist Gazelle- Valentines accomplice.