Blog Post #6 Sports in Film

Today I will be analyzing The Longest Yard, which is a Sports Films and how it is good at helping convey the other genres in that film through its different micro elements, specifically Mise-en-Scene.

The Longest Yard

The Longest Yard is a football movie that is centered around a star quarterback who got into trouble with the law, this getting him arrested. Then this brings up the location which is centered in a prison with the quarterback ("Paul Crewe", The main character) having to put together a football team to compete with the guards of that prison. This is because the prison wants to humiliate the prisoners and make it seem as though they are nothing compared to the guards of the prison, it will also re-assure the public about their prison security and their overall security system. But that doesn't go as planned because the "Coms" win and prove everyone wrong, becoming the crowd favorite and partially restoring their public image in the process.

This connects to my film because the genres of The Longest Yard are also comedy and drama with the football aspects of the movie helps convey the Mise-en-Scene in the movie. The way that it helps convey the Mise-en-Scene is through the costuming, props, and lighting aspects of this film. An example of the costuming is the football jerseys that they wear with the specific aspects of them giving the idea of them being rebels and law breakers. This also shows the representation of the film with them being represented as people who should not be allowed back into society and that they should not be treated as equal people. Another aspect is the lighting with the natural lighting used through the football specific scenes which helps boost the dramatic impact in a specific shot. An example of this would be this:

 

This shot uses the lighting to make the scene feel more realistic, this realism leads to the audience feeling more risk in this scene with the lighting being able to capture the realism in the sport. This in turn makes all of the actors actions feel more detrimental as to the out come of the movie. The lighting used in this scene works so well also because it allows for the audience to better analyze and perceive the characters facial expressions and identify the emotion that comes through the scene. With this one being about the main character motivating his team to win the game. This is identifiable by the seriousness of the actors faces bringing more suspense to the following sequence because of the direness to complete their goals.