Case Study: Taken

Thriller: Taken
Director: Pierre Morel
Production Company: Europa Corp
Release Date: 26 September 2008 (UK
Country where made: France
Awards nominated: None

Synopsis
Bryan a retired-CIA agents daughter, aged 17 named Kim, is kidnapped by a Albanian human trafficking gang while on holiday in Paris. It then entails a chase to save his daughter before time runs out.

As you can see, the synopsis is a common "Bourne" like title and display the cliche action through with Bryan becoming near super-human by the end of the film. However the grittiness of the location and base of the story line involving human trafficking pulls the film into the Thriller genre.

Opening Scenes
The open scene uses a flash back affect with a transition of jittery movement and a halo affect of lighting around the edges providing a feel of looking into the blurred past. We have a few close ups of Kim as a child, as though Bryan who we see briefly when we come back to the present is smiling to himself about, this then leads onto Bryan going out to a shop, which we presume, is for him to buy a present.

After collecting the present we have an almost obsessive parent wrapping up the present with absolute precision. The audience is then allowed to guess that we've moved into the future where Bryan is now getting out of a car in front of a large mansion where a party is taking place. After a brief spat with his Ex-wife Lenore he finally is allowed to give his present to his overly loving daughter Kim. Kim is displayed as an average young girl easily impressed and filled with love, practically leaping to give Bryan a hug.

However after giving her the present and a few moments of love the rich Step-Dad Stuart then comes out leading alone a horse, Kim then totally ignores her real father and screams a girlish little noise and sprints to the horse shouting "I love you I love you" over and over while hugging the horse.

The camera then pulls a 180 degree turn to Bryan, who we see standing while switching to an over the shoulder shot and back again until we see him look down at his own gift lying ignored next to his feet which moments before his daughter was loving. After this shot the audience is imprinted with the emotion of feeling sorry for Bryan, someone who obviously loves his daughter but is totally out down by his replacement, Stuart.

Representation of Gender
Throughout the film females were represented as weak and vulnerable to the events at hand whether at home in perfect safety such as Lenore or the unfortunate girls within the human trafficking market. This is further enforced by all the of the villains being male and Bryan being the only character throughout the film fighting to save his daughter even though Lenore and Stuart had the money to burn.

This is traditional representation which you would expect from most films displayed in other titles such as The Third Man, Psycho etc.