The character George Clooney is playing in 'The American' is very typical of a thriller. This is because in the thriller genre we usually see a more older, mature man (between 40's-50's) to be taking full control and playing an important role. As we can see, this is what George Clooney is doing. We can notice that George Clooney is a more mature man because of the clothes he is wearing. He is wearing a suit, which symbolises that he is an important man who holds a lot of power and is quite wealthy. However, in his right hand he is holding a gun which is a typical use of iconography within a thriller. This is because we expect guns, knifes etc. Showing a weapon that is going to be involved throughout the film on the poster is also typical of a thriller because it builds the audience up to expect that there is going to be a lot of shootouts and violence and seperates the film from different genres. Straight away in the poster, George Clooney is seen to be in the middle of chasing somebody or getting away from something. This follows the typical narrative of a thriller as the audience can already expect the action they are going to be experiencing throughout the film.
The woman in the background of the poster behind George Clooney is also very typical of a thriller. This is because George Clooney plays the part of an Assasin(Jack), and we always expect a character like him to have a sexual love life(like Daniel Craig in the Bond films) with conventionally beautiful women. These women are usually strangers or prostitutes that they have met within a journey or a mission. This is because Jack(and other similar thriller characters) do not have the opportunity to have their own girlfriends or wifes because of the career they have chosen as it is too dangerous. The prostitute in the background(Carla) that Jack pays for, grows into more and they fall in love with eachother. Jack decides to give up his job as an Assasin and too run away with Carla. However, when he tells his boss, he sents assasins to kill Jack in Italy and then finally comes himself to kill him. This is a typical thriller narrative as it is a love story but it is complicated as it faces consequences and danger within it.
The character that Liam Neeson plays in "Taken" is a middle aged man and also father who is between his 40's-50's. This is typical of a thriller as we expect male characters his age within the genre to play the main roles as they are more mature, they hold a lot of power, they have the weapons etc. The audience can also tell that Liam Neeson is a more mature serious character by the clothes that he is wearing. He is dressed all in black with a long black leather coat holding typical thriller iconography of a gun. The look on the characters face is determined and serious like he is in the middle of a crisis, his connotes that there is going to be a lot of action and revenge within the film. His daughter who gets taken is also typical of a thriller as we expect the victim abducted usually young girls who are vulnerable and have no control on what is happening to them. Typical thriller iconography is shown on the poster (a gun) in the hands of Liam Neeson. This is also typical for the poster to show a part of thriller iconography as it separates the film from any other genres. The gun also symbolizes that the film is going to be action packed with a lot of shootouts etc. There is not much audio-visual style shown within the poster, however the colours used are very dark and dull, this reflects on the seriousness and significance of the story line within the film. The colours are also typical of a thriller as very dark colours are usually used: such as grey, black and blues.
The Narrative of the film is that Bryan's daughter(Kim) gets abducted by Albanian sex traders while travelling in France, meanwhile her father(Bryan) tracks down his daughter straight after she phones him that she is about to be taken. However, Bryan has an advantage on tracking Kim down as he is a former CIA colleague. The whole chase is a race against time as on the poster it shows a timer and above it says "Time is running out". Bryan is told that he only has 96 hours to find her, otherwise he never will. This is a typical thriller narrative as it ticks all the boxes for thrill and suspense, we don't know what is going to happen next and if her father is going to get to her in time. We as the audience sympathize with Kim as she is a young vulnerable teenager, who we want to be safe and back home. The theme of this thriller is revenge. On the poster it says "They have taken his daughter, he will hunt them, he will find them, and he will kill theme" The words hunt, find and kill are written in bold writing to show the process of what he is going to do to find these men.
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