Key themes for both films

The American dream: Badlands- Kit bases himself on James Dean and he wants to be famous like him, if he cant be an actor he wants to be an outlaw, but not as big as he is in the end, also he doesn't have a good job and he also cant keep them for long, first he is a duct bin man then he works on a cattle ranch. When he goes to see Holly's Dad he tries to fill the hole in the board the father is painting. Also Holly's house is a nice white picket fenced house.









Natural Born Killers- Mickey wants to be an outlaw and he states that his competition is Charles Manson. Also when you 'firstly' meeting Mickey he is a butcher boy.

Dysfunctional family: Badlands- Holly comes from a one parent home because her mother died 10 years before. When Holly goes against her father's wishes which is stay away from Kit, he shoots her dog.

Natural Born Killers- Mallory's family is more dysfunctional because her father rapes her and her mother doesn't help her. Also Mickey comes from a dysfunctional family because he had a violent father who also committed suicide in front of him in some fields.

Rootlessness:

Fairy-tale: Badlands- When they are living in the woods and it is just them and it is like domestic bliss. Also when they are dressed up in the rich people's clothes when they are trying to act like a posh couple while leaving.

Natural Born Killers- Their wedding on the bridge, when they cut their hands so their blood mixes and falls in the water 'we'll be living in all the oceans now'.

Animalistic nature: Badlands- When they are living the woods Malik shows a lot of close ups of insects and wood to show that their behaviour at this point and from now on is animalistic.

Natural Born Killers- Mickey and Mallory are shown as rattle snakes in different scenes also Mickey has rattle snakes in a heart as a tattoo, and their wedding rings are snakes. Then when they do something that they see as bad the rattle snakes attack them.

Charles Whitman

In Natural Born Killers he was mentioned, he had killed Scagnetti's Mother.


Charles Whitman served in the Marines before he enrolled in the University of Texas. At the time he was suffering with mental illness and acute fits of anger, Charles killed his mother and wife and than on August 1, 1966, he went atop a 300 foot tower and targeted people below. He killed 16 people and injured many more before he was killed by the police, who stormed the tower.

Charles Whitman was born on June 24, 1941, in Lake Worth, Florida. Charles was a good student and Eagle Scout who left home early to escape a violent father. Also at a early age Charles was taught to handle guns. Charles joined the Marine Corps to be a sharpshooter and then enrolled in the University of Texas, where he met his wife Kathryn Leissner (they married in 1962).

Charles Manson

Charles Manson is a known serial killer, who in the 1960's found a hippie cult called 'the family'. Charles manipulated these people into brutally killing others on his behalf.

Charles was born to a 16 year old runaway for spent some time in jail, because his mother couldn't take care of him he spent a lot of time in homes of relatives and often at special reform schools and boy's homes. He then started committing petty crimes then moved on the burglary and grand theft auto.

After spending some time in prison he was release in 1954 age 19 for good behaviour. In the next year he met and married Rosalie Willis, a waitress. They then had a son together in March 1956 Charles Manson Jr. Charles Manson continued to make extra money by stealing cars and in April 1956 he went back to prison. After Manson had been in prison for a year, his wife found someone new and divorced Manson in June 1957. Once he was released in 1958, Manson started to commit more crimes such as pimping, stealing checks from mailboxes, and conned a young woman out of her money. He also got married again to a prostitute called Candy Stevens (Leona), and fathered a second son, Charles Luther Manson. On June 1, 1960 he was arrested again and his wife divorced.

For the six years that Charles was in prison he befriended the infamous Alvin 'Creepy' Karpis, former member of Ma Barker's gang. Alvin taught Charles to play the steel guitar, Charles became obsessed with making music. He wrote dozens of original songs and even started singing. Charles believed that when he got out of prison, he could be famous. (This is just like Kit and Mickey, but Charles wanted to be a musician)

On March 21, 1967, Charles was once again released from prison. This time he went to San Francisco with his guitar and some drugs it was there he began to get a following. In 1968, he and several followers drove to southern California.

Charles still seeking a career in the music industry, Charles hung out with Dennis Wilson from the Beach Boys. Charles didn't have much luck becoming famous with Dennis but the Beach Boys did record one of his songs 'Never Learn Not To Love' which appeared on the B side of their album 20/20. Through Dennis, Charles met Terry Melcher, Doris Day's son. Charles believed that Terry could advance his music career but nothing happened.

During this time, Charles Manson and some of his followers moved into the Spahn Ranch. Located northwest of San Fernando Valley the Spahn Ranch had been a popular location to film westerns in the 1940s and 1950s. Once Manson and his followers moved in, it became a cult compound for "the Family."

Charles was good at manipulating people, he used different religions and his own philosophy to do this. When The Beatles released 'Helter skelter' (1968) he believed that it was about an up and coming race war in the summer of 1969 and persauded them to move underground. When this didn't happen to told his followers that they should show the 'blacks' how it is done.

Charles then told four of his followers to go to10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, the house was formally owned by Terry Melcher.  On August 9, 1969, the four followers carried out Charles's ordered and brutally murdered everyone inside. But Terry no longer lived there, he had rented the house out to Sharon Tate and her husband. The four murdered her, her unborn baby and four other people who was visiting her (her husband was in Europe). The following night the followers brutally murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their own home.

 In December 1969, Manson and several of his followers were arrested. The trial began on July 24, 1970. On January 25, Manson was found guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. On March 29, 1971, Manson was sentenced to death.

Manson was reprieved from the death penalty in 1972 when the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty. Charles Manson now serves a lifetime sentence and periodically comes up for parole.
Though he's been in prison for over three decades, Charles Manson has received more mail than any other prisoner in the U.S. Charles Manson is currently being held in California's Corcoran Prison.

source: http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/p/charlesmanson.htm

What is the significance about setting and/or place in your chosen American films

In both films there is alot of setting that show significance for the characters or the narrative.

American blockbuster 2

Star Trek into darkness
This film is a sequel, and is successful because it is from a successful TV franchise. It is about the enterprise crew saving the universe from an evil force.

It was released May 2nd 2013 in the cinemas and then released on DVD September 10th 2013. This is good because when it was released in cinemas it is near half term so more people will be able to watch the film. Then the film being released on DVD in september is also good because then it is really close to christmas and the sales will rise. This films rating is 12A meaning there will be a wide audience of teenagers and adluts but the audience is limited because children cannot see this film meaning there will not be as big of an audience.

The production budget for this film is $190 million and it made $228,778,661 in America and $ 467, 365, 246 worldwide. This means that the film as done really well.

The stars:
This film is good because there is a lot of actors in this film that have a big fan base and the fact that there is someone with a big fanbase from England helps the film grow popular.

Chris Pine (Pine nuts):
Zachary Quinto:
Simon Pegg:
Benedict Cumberbatch (Cumberbitches):

The poster:
The poster is good because there is a lot of action going on and it is eye catching. The main audience is male so covering the poster is effective. The fact that the picture invovles a picture of Earth makes it relateable and then the ship that is fallen and is smoking creates questions in the audience.
There is also a lot of different posters which is effective because then there is a lot of advertisement around and it appeals to a wider audience.


The trailer:

I didn't watch this film because I don't like the star trek franchise to begin with but if I was to watch it, it would be mainly because of the actors, I have seen them all in other things and liked their acting.

How far do the two films you have studied for this topic present similar messages and values ?

In both films Badlands and Natural born killers they had the same message of the American dream, which is that you can be rich and famous. In Badlands Kit doesn't have the best career opportunities as others, he starts out as a bin man and then he works at a cattle ranch. This shows that he doesn't doesn't have the American dream but wants it because he dresses and does his hair like James Dean. In Natural born killers Mickey is first a butcher and then goes to prison, he also wants to be famous but he is influenced by not just films but television and music as well. Both men believe that if they can't achieve fame the right way they will achieve it through other ways, even Kit says that he wants to be an outlaw.

Also the media plays a big part in our the main characters are influenced. In Badlands Kit is influenced by James Dean who is a film star in the 1950's, he was seem as the first teenage heart throb and everyone love him at the time. The girls fancied him and the men wanted to be him because he was cool and handsome. Kit dresses like him and does his hair like him also in certain scene Kit trys to react in a cool way like getting out a cigarette and leaning on the fridge after killing Holly's father. This is more naive then Mickey's influence. Mickey has a lot more media to be influenced by for example rock music and violent films. Natural born killers highlights different media texts in different parts of the film for example in the diner scene Mallory puts on grunge music and starts dancing, the lady behind the counter switches the channels on the television before turning it off. When the two men come in one man flirts with Mallory and then makes BEEP BEEP sounds at her which shows that even cartoons such as Roadrunner have a violent influence on it audience. This is shown through Mallory attacking this man and then Mickey shooting his gun and the bullet stopping before hitting the women in the head.

Also that fact that in both films the main men hardly show any emotion for what they have done. Kit is to concerned on being cool and looking after Holly. Where as Mickey see it as a game, this is shown in the diner scene when they are picking which person to kill and save. It is only when they kill someone that showed them kindness to they feel remorse, in Badlands Kit puts the body in a train carriage so it would be out of the sun and goes behind it to kick out and rant at himself. In Natural born killers Mickey goes outside of the hut and sees horrible faces, Mallory covers the body in a blanket and then they both get bitten by rattle snakes.

How far do the American films you have studies for this topic depend on well established narrative and/or genre conventions

Badlands rounds along the typical narrative for a 'lovers on the lam' genre as well as Natural born killers. Both couples are in love and the family is the obstacle that they have to over come, so they kill them and go on the run.

But these films do not convey the conventions in the same way, for example in Badlands Kit is shown to have all the dominance in the murder of holly's father by showing him in mainly low angles, also Holly stays away from the two men. Where as in Natural born killers Mallory gets involved in the murder of both her parents, this is because of Mallory being raped by her father and her mother not helping her. Also in the murder scene in Natural born killers is more fast pace and there is a lot of things going on to explain the situation, for example while Mallory is sleeping her bed sheets have smiley faces on them but when she stands up the walls have sad faces on them which shows that she is happier in a fantasy life which suggest her naivety. In Badlands Kit spends more time talking to Holly's father about taking her away and then shoots him and then ttys to look cool, like James dean by get a cigarette out and leaning against a fridge, Holly wants to help her Father and is naive about his death. Badlands don't conform to the convention of having a dysfunctional family in the way that the father doesn't do anything to harm Holly but he is a single parent, Holly's mother died 10 years before. Also the Father killed Holly's dog as punishment. Where as in Natural born killers Mallory's parents are more dysfunctional because the father raped Mallory and the mother died help also the mother look ill and was lying in bed. The way Mallory's father reacts to things is really violent because he swears and insults people. This is reflected in the show he was watching before Mallory appeared.

The opening scenes to both films are very different in the fact that in Badlands it shows that Kit is a dustbin man and is picking up rubbish and daring his friend to eat a died dog, this shows that he is beneath people and he isn't living the American dream like he wants to, he walks through the street the shots getting smaller and closer as he gets closer to Holly. Where as in Natural born killers the opening scene is more violent and shows how media creates a more violent life style for us. This is shown through different filming methods such as cartoon, 8mm and 16mm film. Also a lot of their actions are like a video game, this is where it shows that this film is a satire. Where as in Badlands it is more realistic and linear. This is a reflection on how we live our lives, in the 1958 people's lives who shielded from violence and life could be described as slow where as in 1994 with media and video games life speed up and violence was more seen and accepted in the eyes of the audience. The couple in Natural born killers were seen as murderers and cop killers were as in Badland Kit is shown as a celebrity through him giving away personal items to the surrounding people and answering their questions. Another thing that Badlands did differntly to Natural born killers is that they had Holly doing a voice over explaining their story but it sounds impersonal as if she is reading a fairytale, this voice over is consistant all the way through the film.