Reading the screen film analysis

Reading the screen film analysis

The film that has been chosen to analyse the music and lighting in is “Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.” Directed by McG and music by Edward Shearmur. The movie stars Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore as three crime fighters who work for an anonymous millionaire named Charlie. The film throughout depends a lot on music; the first thing that I noticed about the music was the fact that it uses a lot of past music from the 1970's and the 1980's giving the movie a nostalgic feeling. This could be to keep the feel of the original 1976 television series, which ran until 1981. Whilst trying to keep this feel, they also try to add a modern spin to it by using a remix of the original Charlie's Angels theme tune in the opening sequence, through doing this, the film can appeal to fans of the original television show and the younger generation of today. All of the music in this film is put across to the audience in a non-diegetic manner, it sets the scene in many ways, and for example, when there is an action scene, the tempo of the music is increased.

An example of this music would be “Firestarter” by Prodigy; it is used in all of the angels fight scenes in the first and second Charlie's Angel's films. This music is probably used because of the fast paced movement and the destruction that is happening in the scenes. The film also uses it for lyrical content as after one of the fight scenes, Alex (Lucy Liu) is in possession of a giant flamethrower whilst the song “Firestarter” is playing. Lyrical content happens often in this film, usually in the fight scenes or in dance sequences.

A large majority of the music seems to be used to connect with the audiences of the film. To do this, a lot of pop cultural references and references to other movies are used throughout the entire film. Most of these references are used when the angels are in disguise. When they are dressed as nuns, “The Lonely Goatherd” is played. This is a reference to “The Sound of Music” which stars Julie Andrews as a nun. Another pop cultural reference is when the angels are dressed as steel welders, “Flashdance” by Irene Cara is played, which is the theme tune to the 1983 film “Flashdance” which is about a girl who is a dancer by night and a steel welder by day. These references are effective as it gives fans off these movies something extra to enjoy and to relate to in the film.

Another major factor that is used in this film is the lighting. I noticed that the lighting is used throughout to distinguish a character and their personality or status. When the angels are on screen, they are constantly in bright lights or white and yellow tinted lights. This could be to show them as angelic and the heroes of the ...