The extract opens with a bird’s eye view shot of the disabled and
able-bodied brothers’ bedroom, which acts as an establishing shot. This helps
to immediately display the division between the boys as there is a great
distance between them.
The scene uses a difference in colours which connotes the division
between the brothers. The able bodied brother has dull colours on his side
which makes him seem unhappy. Whereas the disabled brother’s side is bright and
vibrant which makes him seem happier and more spoiled.
This is a counter type to the typical and normal representation of
disabled and able bodied people because the disabled person appears to be
happier than the able bodied person.
The sound throughout this clip is in clear contrast to what
appears on screen when the able bodied brother is thinking in the bedroom. The
brother’s voiceover, when contrasted with the upbeat, non-diegetic music,
connotes his malicious thoughts to kill his brother, thus making the voiceover
more violent and dramatic. Not only this but the editing throughout represents
the anger the able bodied brother feels towards his disabled brother because
whilst the able bodied brother is speaking about how he killed/wanted to kill
his brother, there is an eye line match which shows the audience that the able
bodied brother is staring angrily at his disabled brother.
Furthermore, the montage of the evolution of man begins with the
explosion of the big bang which could represent the pent up anger felt by the
able bodied brother. This explosion is swiftly followed by a sequence of clips
that show aggressive examples of man and animal. This is reflective of the
views and opinions of the able bodied brother towards his disabled brother in
that he is angry and filled with aggression towards him.
All of the camera shots and editing go perfectly with what is
being said in the voiceover thus giving the viewer a sense of the reality in
which the brother’s live because you can see what the able bodied brother means
whilst hearing him explain this. An example of this is when both brothers are
sitting at the bus stop next to a random man. David, the able bodied brother,
is speaking about how his brother must be accompanied at all times to prevent
“sickos dragging them off” and as he mentions this, the camera switches focus
from David to the random man without moving the actual camera shot. This
switch, in and out of focus, draws attention to the man and what David is
trying to convey through his voiceover. This camera shot is extremely effective
because the audience begins to understand how David feels about constantly
having to watch out for his brother and protect him from people who may wish
his brother harm.
Not only this but some of the camera shots convey, not only
David’s emotions towards his brother, but what life must have been like for
David and Ben. When David, the able bodied brother, is outside school and
agreeing to go to a party, you can see Ben, his disabled brother, peering out
from behind him. This shot connotes the feeling that Ben has been lingering
behind David constantly throughout his life, always there and waiting when he
wants to go out or have fun. It conveys an atmosphere that’s suffocating to
David and connotes a sense of sympathy towards him.
The mise en scene and sound towards the end of the clip instantly
flips the reader’s emotion and empathy by highlighting how difficult and
upsetting Ben’s, the disabled brother’s, life must be. The clip does this when
the explosion happens outside the school after Ben is forced to go home on his
own. When the explosion occurs, David, the able bodied brother, cheers. This
could simply be because of the explosion but his joy connotes the feeling that
he is also cheering at the idea of being free from his brother. This causes the
audience to feel empathy towards Ben as he is forced to go home alone, despite
looking extremely scared and unprepared and so is clearly not loved or wanted
by his brother.
The sound also creates this feeling of empathy by mirroring and in
turn, highlighting Ben’s emotions with sad, non-diegetic sound as he is sent
home by David. The heartbreaking, orchestral music is accompanied by sounds of
children playing when the camera zooms in on Ben’s face. This moment, when a
soundscape is created, connotes the idea that Ben is still a child in his mind
and so despite being upset (which is shown through the music) he is still
thinking of himself and his brother playing when they were younger. This
connotation is backed up by what is being said in the David’s voiceover.
Whilst the camera and sound focuses heavily on how Ben is feeling, the
voiceover is explaining how David and Ben had rarely spent time apart when
growing up. This knowledge further makes the audience feel empathetic towards
both brothers as you soon get the feeling that neither of them is happy with
the other, despite being related and growing up so close together that they
“had never been more than half a mile apart.”
Overall, this clip is, in ways, a stereotypical representation of disability but includes moments when it is counter typical to how disability is commonly represented in the media. Ben, the disabled brother, is largely represented as being content and happy but towards the end shows glimpses of depression and the feeling of isolation. From this we can tell that this clip is not stereotypical or counter typical but that it includes a combination of both representations thus making it a new, and more realistic, take on disability.