Comparison. UPLOADED ON 6-11-17

                                               

Comparison between Moonlight, SkyFall and Kingsman. 

Throughout all three of these films there are many different similarities and differences presented. Both Skyfall (2012) Dir. S. Mendes and Kingsman (2014) Dir. M. Vaugh contain many similarities compared to Moonlight (2016) Dir. B. Jenkins. The main similarities between these films is that the led protagonist is a male character even though they are all presented in different lights. They all have elements of drama within them although Skyfall and Kingsman are action movies.

In all three films the main protagonist is male and each of them somewhat fit to the stereotype held against them. James Bond had the persona of a lady's man in a suit who was on a mission to save the world, like a superhero. His character meets the appearance of societies dominant ideology, white, middle age, of power and rich which widens the viewers that they get because people were either like him, wanted to be like him or wanted to be with him. Bond was of a higher class which was shown by the way he talks, dresses and who he is associated with in the film. Kingsmans there was a development in the film of his class and character throughout the film and by the end of the film he was on the same level as James Bond in Skyfall. When we first meet Egzy, he was stereotyped as a typical 'white lad' from the estate, this is shown in a scene when he is in a pub drinking a pint of beer with his friends and he is then in a car chases listening to Dizzy Rascal. This represents the middle class top down approach of how the movie was created as is shows the typical stereotype. The film has this approach as the director M. Vaughn was from a middle class background, going to school in Buckingham and child to Robert Vaughn this means that he would have never experienced living life on a council estate and has to use media and what he hears to build a stereotype to allow him to develop this character. On the other hand, Moonlight represented the male protagonist in a completely different light, he wasn’t your typical ladies' man and in the beginning, he wasn’t represented as the typical boy from the hood, he was presented with a sense of vulnerability to him which was shown by the way he was treated by others especially his mother. He somewhat links to Egzy as both their characters develop in the movie and somewhat better their lives, the audience build a connection with them as the movies go on. Egzy goes from a boy who from the estate who's mothers boyfriend is abusive to a well established agent and Chiron finds himself as a person throughout the movie and by the end of the movie we see that he has found acceptance in his sexuality.

Moonlight stands out the most from the other films as the conventions are different. The whole plot and story line is different from your average Oscar winning movie, it shows the main character not only being black but he is also gay. There is a sense of personal identification with Chiron and Jenkins, however, Jenkins concedes that Moonlight is far more autobiographical for McCraney than himself, Chiron’s youthful loneliness struck a familiar chord. In having the main protagonist, a queer African-American man, Moonlight represents a perspective little seen on screen before - all at once dealing with race, class, masculinity and sexuality. This had the audience in contrivance as they didn’t know how the different elements of the film work as in having a drug dealer that had feelings and cared for the wellbeing of a child as in many modern movies they are perceived as cold and heartless. Another main difference between moonlight and the other films is the way in which it is driven, both Skyfall and Kingsman are action driven whereas Moonlight it is emotionally. Kingsman and Skyfall had the audience in suspense with all the crime fighting and trying to beat the antagonist whereas Moonlight was more sympathetic and the audience had an emotional connection with Chiron.  

There is a big budget difference, this effect the way in which the film would be produced and created. The budget of Skyfall was 200 million USD, this is shown by the way in which they are able to go from country to country and have high speed stunts like a train crashing underground and blowing up buildings. Adding to the elements of excitement and thrill the movie holds. Kingsman was the next most expensive film, it cost 104 USD to create the film; this enabled them to buy music to use for different senses, for example, Drizzle Rascal. Furthermore, they were able to shoot longer scenes as they were able to pay both the actors and editors. This is shown by the way in Kingsman the actors speak about everything that’s happening or is about to happen, on the other hand, Moonlight the least expensive film costing only 4 million USD had more elements of the audience thinking for themselves. This is shown when the Chiron and Blue were having a convocation at the table and Chiron asked if Blue sells drugs and if his mother takes drugs and instead of having a big argument as you may see in high budget films he just got up and walked away. And without much words the audience knew what has happened. All the music that is heard throughout the movie was specifically made for the individual scenes giving it more of a unique feel to it. Throughout there were many beautiful shots.   

There is a link with sexuality between Skyfall and Moonligt, its is not very noticeable as it is very subtle in Skyfall due to the conventions of the film and doesn't fit the persona that has been made up about James Bond over the years. It is shown when he is captured by Silver and he waves a gun around Bonds genitals and says that there is a first for everything and Bond replies what makes you think that I haven't done it before. This is didn't raise any upheaval as Bond has had sex with 55 different women over the space of 23 movies.

In the late 1980s, Mendes directed actress Judi Dench in a production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, which garnered strong reviews. The late 1990s marked a big career move for Mendes, who, by this time, had become well-known among colleagues and revered for his stage works. Moving from the stage to the silver screen, he directed his first feature film, American Beauty, which was released by DreamWorks in 1999. American Beauty met with great critical and commercial success, earning Mendes one of his greatest accolades to date—an Academy Award for best director—as well as a reputation as a serious filmmaker. 

 

Jenkins's breakout film was Medicine for Melancholy, a low-budget independent feature released in 2008, starring Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins. The film was well received by critics. After the success of his previous film, Jenkins wrote an epic for Focus Features about "Stevie Wonder and time travel" and an adaptation of the James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk, neither of which entered production. He later worked as a carpenter and co-founded an advertising company called Strike Anywhere. In 2011, he wrote and directed Remigration, a sci-fi short film about gentrification. Jenkins became a writer for HBO's The Leftovers, about which he commented, "I didn't get to do much." 

I feel as though Moonlight was the better film of the three, because it showed many different conventions in a film that is not so common. It was also not your typical everyday movie, you never knew what to expect, many of the camera angles that it had was slanted representing Chiron's life which added more elements to the movie. There should be more films like this as it could really help those who are dealing with these sorts of problems in their everyday lives, giving them something to relate to.