Textual Analysis - Joe Gilbert (Panic Room)

Textual Analysis of a Similar Media Product

Title of film: Panic Room

Date of release: 3 May 2002 (UK)

Director: David Fincher 

Genre: Action

Sub-genre: Thriller, Drama
Trailer:

Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart

The film is about a women and her daughter who have just bought a new house in New York. On the night they move in, the house is burgled by the previous owners’ grandson and company, in attempt to steal a large amount of cash in a safe located in the 'panic room'.

The equilibrium is portrayed right at the beginning of the film as we see a woman and her daughter looking around a house they are interested in buying. After they buy the house, its shows them settling in to their new home, we then see both of the two characters asleep in their beds. This is where the disequilibrium comes in as we see three men approach the house and start trying to open the doors and look through the windows, one of these men then gets into the house through the roof and lets the others in, this is the disequilibrium as it is not something that the two people in the house would expect to happen. The new equilibrium happens when the police arrive and arrest the only surviving robber, we then see the women and her daughter looking in the newspaper for a new place to live.

There is also a sense of Levi Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions in this film. Binary oppositions is the contrast between two terms e.g. villain/hero. In this film there is the same principle of opposites as we have the contrast between the Innocent and Guilty. The innocent being the two people living in the house, and the guilty being the three men that are robbing the house. Also there are the opposites of a villain/hero, as the three men robbing the house can be seen as the villains and the womans ex husband, who comes to help them can be seen as a hero, as well as the police can be seen as the heroes.

This film ‘Panic Room’ is in chronological order, meaning that the storyline of the film all runs in order in which it happens, this is used because it clearly sets the plot of the film to the audience, which makes it easier to understand. Also it adds to the realism of the film and follows the general conventions of an action film, where the story is told in order the actions happen.



The narrative structure of this film is closed, meaning that their is a clear beginning and ending to their film, whereas a open narrative such as a soap, has the sense of never having an ending, meaning they can go on and on. Also in an closed narrative such as 'Panic Room' there is a small number of main characters which all share the same story line, whereas an open narrative has a much larger amount of characters which all share and follow their own as well as other peoples story lines, this is known as a multi-strand plot. 


In some ways the characters are typical of the genre which in this case is action. Firstly the behaviour of the robbers is typical of the genre as they are seen as being aggressive and violent  towards the owners of he house as well as each other,  we can tell these men are aggressive as we see them with a gun and other weapons such as a sledgehammer, we also see one of the robbers shoot his own friend. They are also aggressive to the women as one of them says to her 'I will fucking kill her! Do you hear me?'. Also the was they speak is also typical of the genre, the men are always swearing and using threatening language, this could show how they are in control and that they are dominant. 'Any other school yard bullshit you wanna settle, or can we get the fuck back to work', this shows that their is conflict between the group, also the word 'wanna' is slang which is usually used in films like these. The facial expressions of the characters go along with the theory of binary opposition, as the owners who are the innocent, are shown to be scared and worried by what is going on, this is shown by their facial expression and body language (eg. In the photo at the beginning, it clearly shows how they are scared of the situation). However the robbers facial expressions and body language show how they are not afraid of what they are doing, and is also shown as being aggressive (except for one of them who seems to be worried about what they are doing). 

Lastly the clothing of the characters is also typical of the genre, as the robbers are wearing dark clothing, and one of them has a balaclava on which is often used in action films to hide peoples identity. This type of clothing is what is usually seen in action films to represent the villains such as robbers.

The storyline of this film is also typical of the action genre, it follows quite a few conventions that you would expect to see in an action film. For example they have the typical good vs bad battle, it also has fights, struggles, plans to escape, and it even has a chase where the robbers try and catch the owners before the enter the panic room. These are all typical of the action genre as they add excitement and  usually adds suspense as the viewer will always want to know what is about to happen. In this film the viewers will always be thinking if the daughter will survive from her condition and will they ever escape from the robbers.