Themes Of Landscape And Wilderness In Cinematic Films - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... 2. Examine the scope of landscape and wilderness in films.
3. Highlight the nature of landscape and wilderness as characters within films.
Despite the progressive change, which land undergoes, two key predictions can be made about land, especially with regard to the establishment of new landscapes: i.e. landscapes transpire in light of people’s expectations, as well as their previous encounters, or landscapes evolve from a shift in mindset and from a changed connection between the environment, society and self. This means that changes that are embedded on a landscape are not typically similar to changes that are wrought on land. According to Sobieszek, the theme of landscape has undergone a dramatic change since early times, especially between the 1950s and 1980s. It is clear that a relatively new order of landscape has engulfed cinematic films that seem to take hold of the imagination of not only the writer and film director, but the audience, as well. The radical change in the perception of landscape is that from a solid yet permanent view to one that is marred by treachery and transmutation. In essence, different media create new landscapes. For instance, in the film Walkabout of 1971, Roeg offers what can be perceived as a typology that showcases photography of locations such as Australian auk lands in the late 20th century. Roeg embodies a formalist concept by rendering the settings of landscapes devoid of human presence through settings such as deserts, flat horizons, vacant highways and fields (Harper and Rayner, 2010, 71). All these locations convey an essence that is at odds with the echo of Hollywood fictions. This allows films to level the meanings that they are originally meant to convey. Landscape in cinematic films adopts quite a different stance compared to still images, which are frozen depictions of landscape. Landscape in cinematic films incites the feeling of culture and cross-over between popular cinema and photography. Historically, landscape is initially associated with painting, and this is evidenced by the numerous depictions of landscapes in exhibitions and art museums around the world. Launched in the seventeenth century, the portrayal of emerging infrastructures of channels, harbours and roads that ran through sheltered country sides illustrates the claim that landscape depiction and description through picture is a product of the shift from feudal to capitalist economies (Harper and Rayner, 2010, 58). This paper argues that landscape facilitates new perceptions and venues of analysis and interpretation of cinematic films. Simply put, landscape emerges when the setting becomes the subject of the cinema rather than an object within the entire cinematic film. When applied to films, landscape enables a variation from plot, characters and psychology towards elements that are rarely taken into account in mainstream film. The main challenge thus becomes the discussion of landscape as a comprehensive expression in its own right, as well as its own agenda in other instances. Landscapes can be appreciated as encompassing numerous interacting ideas, traditions, as well as inventions rather than something that is either out there or can be fixed on films. This paper will conduct a discussion within the realm of films over the period between the year 1970 and 2009. This is a period marred by a number of uncertainties and upheavals, as well as immense successes in the media industry and especially with regard to films. Through this period, there has been immense focus on film and landscape as avenues of the contested perception of individuals, and how film makers investigate the practices, properties and traditions of global cinema that is ...Download file to see next pagesRead More