The Outsider
The Outsider task is broken down to two components, create an outside poster and create our own opening scenes for the film and break them down into a narrative.
We were then divided into small groups to watch three films, A Fist Full of Dollars, Yo Jimbo, and Last Man Standing. Each film had the same storyline of an outsider arriving in a new town and they are introduced to a no family lifestyle and are also sabotaged in some way. All of these scenarios then ended with the outsider getting revenge on their sabotagers. However, all of these storylines were changed in some way due to genre, setting, characters and props which differentiated them all.
The storyline for A Fist Full of Dollars:
- The audience is introduced to the setting of a desert in which the outsider arrives riding on horseback. He arrives in the town and comes across two buildings, one of which a young boy exits and runs into the other one. Suddenly, two bandits push the boy out of the second building and as the boys runs away they shoot bullets at him to make him run faster, which then causes the young boys father to exit the first building, collect him, and then go back inside. While this occurs, the outsider looks on without any emotion or reaction, but continues on his way.
- A sound of a bell is heard as the stranger continues into town and as he continues he catches sight of a man on a mule. As the distance closes between them the outsider then releases that the man on the mule is dead as it continues to walk on. The outsider continues to look at the dead man as he passes and he sees a sign on his back saying "Adios."
- Suddenly, from out of nowhere a chirpy man jogs along the Outsider and warns him that he has to be rich in this town or he is dead. However, the Outsider ignores his warning and continues on again as townsfolk glance at him passing by from the safety of their own homes.
- The Outsider then finally arrives deep into the town and out from a building comes three bandits, all who trade threatening glances with the Outsider. They then repeat what they did previously to the little boy and begin to shoot at the heels of his horse, and the Outsider runs away on horseback to avoid his horse getting injured. The Outsider then sees the chirpy man again and he repeats his warning of "Be rich or be killed." This moment in the scene sets up the equilibrium.
- Entering the local motel, the Outsider is a served a drink and accompanied by the motel owner they progress to the balcony where they overlook the town and they catch sight of the 3 bandits. The motel owner then explains that these 3 bandits regularly enter the town to buy alcohol cheaply and then sell it on for a larger profit. This is the only source of income for the town, and due to this the bandits have control of the town.
- The Outsider then asks the motel owner which one of the three is the strongest and then asks if he can have 3 coffins ready.
- The Outsider then leaves the motel which builds up to the ultimate confrontation between himself and the bandits. He threatents the bandits by saying what they did to the boy was very unfair, and that they should apologise. Of course, this is replied to by the three bandits laughing at him. At this point the music stays still with a long not played to highlight the tension between the Outsiders and the bandits. Once the note ends the scene concludes with the Outsider shooting all 3 of the bandits dead, and then turns to the coffin maker and requests for three coffins (obviously for the bandits).
The storyline for Yo Jimbo:
The scene opens up in a black and white film to the quiet setting of a field. No one is seen apart from the Outsider who is travelling on his own on foot. As he continues, he then halts, confused on which way he should go. To make his decision, he picks up a stray stick and throws it into the air. It slowly falls and down and points in one direction so the Outsider follows it.
- As he continues he then enters a town. While he enters, he comes across a family dispute between a father and his son. The Outsider tries to intervene on the argument, however he pushed to the side by the father and continues to argue with his son. The father continues to shout at his son about how his sons gambling will ruin the family's income. The Outsider then avoids anymore communication with the family and once again journey's further into the town.
- Once the Outsiders is furhter inside the town, he attracts attention to himself as all the townsfolk glance with curiosity at him, but within the confines of their own homes. Suddenly, the Outsider halts as he catches sigh of a small dog walking casually by. As the distance closes between him and the dog, the Outsider notices that what the dog is carrying in its mouth is a dead hand.
- A man then appears to the Outsider and gives him a proposition - to be a bodyguard for him and they will share the wages. Suddenly, a group of men approach the Outsider and circle him one by one, all laughing and mocking him, and they say he will never be a tough man.
- The poor man then ushers the Outsider into his small cafe and serves the Outsider with a drink. Due to the mocking from the gang outside, this then influences the Outsider to change his mind and he tells the man that he will share his wages with him as a bodyguard.
- Both of them catch sight of the coffin maker outside while he is sanding down a new coffee. Without any hesitation one of the gang members approaches the coffin maker and asks him how much has has made lately. The coffin maker then replies how much has made and the gang tell him he has earned a good amount and then laughs as they walk on. The man who owns the cafe then identifies the gang members one by one to the Outsider and reminds him that they are the law in this town, however they use their power for selfish gain. He then continues to suggest that the Outsider skip town because he will not make much profit in town with them around because it will be impossible for him to do so. The Outsider then decides to stay in town as a bodyguard and confirms that he will kill the gang members to solve the problems in the town.
- The Outsider then leaves the cafe, his hand gripped tightly onto the sword in his belt. As he confronts the gang he wants the whole town to watch, and once again with curiosity they look on from the security of their own homes. The Outsider then begins to taunt the gang members, which of course triggers their anger and as they begin to attack the Outsider fights back and slices them all into pieces. After he has finished killing the gang, he then requests that the coffin maker makes three new coffins.
The Story of Last Man Standing:
- The opening scene of this film begins with a voiceover of the Outsider as he explains the narrative through his voice. As the voiceover continues the Outsider travel through the desert on his car on his own. As he enters, town he catches sight of a coffin maker and he drives by they glance towards each other, and then as the Outsider drives on once again, he then catches sight of a dead body propped up against a building.
- The romantic interest is then introduced as the Outsider then halts outside and catches sight of a woman she enters a building. As he has been distracted by the woman, suddenly he is surrounded by a group of bandits who taunt the Outsider and proceed to smash up his car without any remorse as the Outsider tries to stand up to them but fails.
- He then proceeds to the Sheriff's office and demands that they do something about the bandits. The Sheriff does nothing but warns him to protect himself or leave town.
- The Outsider then visits a bar where the barman gives him a more welcome by giving him a drink. However, the warm welcome is then identified when the barman explains to the Outsider that he is his first customer all week. He then explains how there isn't much electricity, business etc in town and the bandits have control of the town. Suddenly, the Outside then arms himself with his guns and leaves.
- He enters the building in which the woman had entered previously and as they enter they both glance at each. However, as soon as the woman sees the guns in the Outsider's hand she then gets scared and runs just as the main bandit enters. Once again, the bandits continue to taunt the Outsider. Then suddenly, without any hesitation or verbal warning the Outsider shoots through the entire building, targeting the bandits and eventually killing them all. He then says, "Get the coffins ready."
These ideas for the scenes can be duplicated into any film and any film genre.
What these three scenes show from all of these films is that the same narrative can be used in essentially any film, but they are categorised into different categories or genres of a film with the use of props, costume and setting. It is easily identified that A Fist Full of Dollars and Last Man Standing are Western films due to the cowboy costumes and the stereotypical setting of a deserted and deserted town, both of which are commonly used features in a Western film. Yo Jimbo also has the same storyline as the other two films, however it is is concluded that it is a Japanese film due to the language use of Japanese in the dialogue. The costume and setting are also heavy conventions of a Japanese film due to the use of robes, kimonos and samurai swords for the costume and props and Japanese architecture for the setting. As well as the costume, props and setting, sound is also a good signfier of narrative and genre for the film. For example, in Last Man Standing it uses a voiceover to explain what is going on and this technique is commonly used now more than it did in the past. Due to A Fist Full of Dollars and Yo Jimbo not using voiceovers, it is easily identified that these films were released a longer time ago then Last Man Standing (Yo Jimbo was released in 1961 and A Fist Full of Dollars was released in 1964).
Our small group task was to take the same features of the different Outsider opening scenes and change them around into our own storyline. We all decided that the genre of this film would be horror. The events went like this:
- The outsider arrives in town
- No family life
- It is identified that the town is a dangerous place
- A sabotage of some form
- An inkeeper/reuge is introduced to explain who are the people from the sabotage
- Revenge
With these events given to us, our small group then had to come with ideas to alter these events with the use of setting, props and setting so the form conformed to a horror or a sci-fi and my group chose sci-fi:
