Paradigmatic analysis on the example of a fragment from a film about Indiana Johns

Indiana Jones & the last crusade

Lets start… … with … with paradigmatic analysis of the video. 1. Movement of the man on the market 2. Meeting with the partner 3. Men in black 4. The runaway

Place We see the Arabic market. A man goes down the market. Some kind of a market somewhere in Asia, may be in Arabic country… In Turkey. On the railway station. &

The appearance of the man «The Englishman is going through the market. What does he do on the Arabic market? May be it is a tourist and wants to buy souvenirs, but he even doesnt speak Arabic and he is on the food market, where he cant buy souvenirs». «The Englishman is going through the market. What does he do on the Arabic market? May be it is a tourist and wants to buy souvenirs, but he even doesnt speak Arabic and he is on the food market, where he cant buy souvenirs». «Mr.Brodey looks really strange here, he is only one person who wears a suit and a hat instead of traditional Arabic clothes. But he does not feel himself awful. He seems to feel like a fish in a water. He looks self- assured». «Mr.Brodey looks really strange here, he is only one person who wears a suit and a hat instead of traditional Arabic clothes. But he does not feel himself awful. He seems to feel like a fish in a water. He looks self- assured». «He looks like a foreigner: his clothes is different from other peoples. He was nervous. Just if he was late somewhere. It is a typical behavior of foreigner. Maybe, it was a little bit exaggerated». «He looks like a foreigner: his clothes is different from other peoples. He was nervous. Just if he was late somewhere. It is a typical behavior of foreigner. Maybe, it was a little bit exaggerated». «Going through the crowd the man looks like an alien: he has another clothes and I think he looks like European aristocrat». «Going through the crowd the man looks like an alien: he has another clothes and I think he looks like European aristocrat». «Man absolutely uncommon for the place in the centre of attention. He's wearing European suit with an European hat». «Man absolutely uncommon for the place in the centre of attention. He's wearing European suit with an European hat».

Communication «When a trader offers to the Englishman water, he refused him (at that moment, we expect a very usual answer: Im not thirsty, but he explains his refusal by the fact that water is the place, where fishes spawn. It is a very unexpected explanation, is not it?)». «…Moreover he tries to be polite in his refusals, but this politeness looks very comical because he knows that people do not understand him but still he explains why he do not want to buy goods». «…Moreover he tries to be polite in his refusals, but this politeness looks very comical because he knows that people do not understand him but still he explains why he do not want to buy goods». «He doesn't understand the comfort distance in east countries, he thinks that all the people around him are addressing him and he's trying to answer them all, which is absolutely unnecessary here».

Language «When the Englishman is going through the market, he asks people around him: Does somebody speak English or… ancient Greek?, its strange to ask even about English on the Arabic market (although, its an international language), not to mention Greek». «He doesnt even understand the language they speak It looks a bit funny». «He speaks uncommon: he don't know the local language, and he is asking for someone who speak the languages that he knows».

Speech to speakto keep silence askingtalking himselfone personeverybody in a low voice in full voice ©

Movement :«I tried to build a probable scheme, smth like a rough paradigm of behaviour of the hero from the video fragment». movement not to moveto move to some destinationchaotically absent-mindedly ©

So, We can see the Englishman who has arrived to the Arabian country, most likely on affairs, who was not here before, and does not know local language, customs, people and traditions. These can explain his appearance, strange movement and ridiculous speech.

Meeting «H «He meets a man who is familiar for him. This man belongs to that society, but he speaks English and therefore we can consider him as go-between. He wears special clothes and feels himself as the part of society. He do not look over, he is not afraid or confused. He connects European man and Arabian people». «This man meets his companion. Obviously, he is local or he is familiar to this place and its habits. Looks like, this meeting was planned. That was not unexpected for me. This scene was predictable from the previous one».

The appearance of stranger «A strange man comes to them. He looks also untypical for such places. He wears black suit and black hat and black sunglasses, leather gloves and coat for such hot country, he looks like a man from mafia who just come out from his car». «Then appears two persons who pretend to look not as the part to that society, but honestly they only pretend. They wear very official suits, but it is only a mask to defraud European man». «The strangest scene is the meeting with two men in black».

Greeting «The spokesman nodded, greeting the Englishman. Of course, it was expected, he d nod too, but he just moved aside». «Actually i do not understand the sense of the scene with greeting. But it looks funny ».

Exposure «When the spokesman said who is he, the Arab immediately understood he lied (because he knew, there are no museums in Iskanderun)». «He believes them, but another man guesses that they are not whom they want to seem. This fact proves us that different parts of one society will understand each other. European man did not understand them because as I have said he does not belong to this society».

Behaviour of Mr. Brodey «The Englishman was proud of himself, of his popularity, so when the Arab four times said him: Run!, he just steadily repeated: Yes, yes… (it seemed, someone just enumerated his advantages once again, and he got accustomed to this, and agreed with everything)». «Another unpredictability in the behavior was that Mr.Brodeys friend asked him to run, while Mr.Brodey did not even move. He just repeated: Yes, yes and continued staying. His friend tries to distract strangers, but Mr.Brodey just stayed. He make out that he did not hear. May be he is not afraid of anything or he is sure that his friend will defend him». «Then man in red hat asks European man to escape and to run. Firstly the man did not catch his words because he even did not expect a trick. Then the man in red hat and men in black suits, speaking figurative, begin to communicate. The European man does not interfere. The European man stands far from them because he does not understand their «language». «He was like from another planet and refused to understand that his companion wanted to save him. As for me, it was very strange and unpredicted, because everybody, who were in such situation, tried to rescue by any chances, but here we see that he even doesnt think about it and doesnt understand, that he is in danger». «He's limited by his world-view and ingenious (look at his reaction to invitation of counterspies: "My reputation precedes me."), he cant' even imagine that here may be smth dangerous and he does't provide any reaction to hint abount danger, nor to several advices to run».

Runaway «After that fight, the Arab and the Englishman run to the shop, where the Englishman should conceal himself. But when he came to the shop, it just was… away. Because it wasnt just a shop, but a car. It was very unpredictable». «Then they began to run… So the adventures started. In general this scene looks really intriguing. And such a strange behavior of self-assured Mr.Brodey makes me feel something typical for heroes from adventure films. Because a lot of troubles are around them and they are always in danger, but some strange way they always stay alive and with a lot of money».

Comical effect Comical effect «As for COMICAL EFFECT, it is because of mismatch of expected things and what we really watched. Some clichés of our expectation were destroyed, and so, endings of this or that scene were really unpredictable, unexpected and, so – really funny and comical». «The man looks completely different from any local people. He don't speak local language, even asking "Does anyone understand a word I'm saying here?". E.g., his remarks about water and meat (Uh, water? No, thank you, sir. Fish make love in it. / No, thank you, madam. I'm a vegetarian.) show him as a nice oddity, increasing the effect». «As it seems to me, the comical effect can be explained by incompatibility between heros actions and viewers expectations. Probably, the contrast begins to work already, when instead of an experienced incognito traveler and adventurer we see an absent-minded old man, who absolutely doesnt care about his safety. In the situation, when the hero, for example, arrives at a station or gets into trouble, we expect him to hide his arrival or to run because the situation is too dangerous and he is told to do this... But he behaves often in a diametrically opposite way, and that causes laugh».

So… Generalizing…

Thank you for attention!