Bronson Critique

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The scene I chose to critique is a scene very near the end of the movie Bronson (2008) that shows almost everything the movies about in but a mere 2 minutes and 41 seconds. First, I would like to talk about the story of the film to get you all caught up.

Bronson is an english drama based on the real life of Michael Peterson, played by Tom Hardy. Michael Peterson was a young working class english man with an aptitude for violence who, after a petty robbery, was sent to prison whereupon he changed his name to Charles Bronson and became Britains most famous prisoner and served a total of 30 years in solitary confinement at the time of the movie and is still in prison to this day serving a life sentence even though he never committed a homicide. 

Now lets talk about the scene, it takes place near the end of the movie so there is much to talk about. A lovely and dainty orchestral soundtrack is played over the sight of Charles Bronson, painted entirely in black with a complimentary hat and glasses, painting a face onto a man who is tied to a post with an apple in his mouth, while the security guards wait impatiently by the door. This scene, to me at least, is Bronson making the man experience what its like to be Bronson. Bronson has almost erased himself from the scene while painting what seems to be an idealized version of his face on the man. When he finally completes the work Bronson places his glasses over the mans eyes and the hat on to his head before finally exclaiming, "Aw yah, thats a piece of me". Upon hearing this, the man turns to Bronson, seemingly looking him in the eye before a singly large tear rolls down his face. Almost as if for the first time experiencing what it feels to be Charles Bronson and this not only scares him, but saddens him. And through all this it stays very clear that Bronson has no intention of hurting the man in any way.

Now that we've talked about whats in the scene, lets talk about how its presented. The cinematography is very real yet has a definite style of the shadows and blacks being crushed, yet the glowing of the lights and their reflections is increased. This makes the scene appear different in an almost darkly surreal way. When the camera is following Bronson, he is consistently changing how far he is from the camera, which never follows him creating a distinct sense of separation from our protagonist. The brief bit with the prison guards looks very plain and is almost static, with the only moving figure being the warden who storms off, leaving nothing but stillness and music. When the camera is facing the man tied to the pole, his painted on eyes stare directly into the camera, which kind of makes the audience uncomfortable. This only changes once Bronson adjusts his head to look upwards, bathing it into light instead of dark. Once Bronson shouts that the man has had enough the music stops, the calm still atmosphere is destroyed and it is with such htat the scene draws to a close. 

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