Bellybutton Lint

After watching the Ben Hur movie clip, the first thing that came to mind was the focus on people. The movie would show scenes of people; all doing one thing or another, and it would not place much focus on the setting, but enough just to get some background. In doing this, there was much emphasis placed on the facial expressions. The characters would express through their faces how they felt extremely well, and it would create the tone of the scene. This is very different that more modern movies where the mood is less generated by faces, and more by dialogue or other means. In order to use the face to create the mood in Ben Hur, the movie would often show extended scenes of just the face, that is, the scene would be longer than a normal facial shot, just to convey the level of emotion. There was also much lighting rhetoric done in the movie. The lighting was used for many things, such as to convey action, mood, or emphasis. When showing action, there would be moving shadows, such as Christ carrying the cross. When showing mood, the light level would be changed to something where the hue, density, and intensity more appropriately reflects the mood, such as after Christ is crucified, the lighting is dark and sparse, which reflected the dark and depressing atmosphere.

Filed under: English 150, Rhetorical Analysis on April 12th, 2007