Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have researched male policemen and inspectors in crime thriller movies and compared them to the policeman in my movie to represent a particular social group. The policeman in my movie is played by Mark. Morgan Freeman and Eddie Marsan are well known actors that have been in a variety of films.

Morgan Freeman is an actor who has starred in many films such as the crime thriller, “Se7en”, which follows the story of two homicide detectives tracking down a sadistic serial killer who chooses his victims according to the seven deadly sins. Brad Pitt stars as Detective David Mills, a hopeful but naive rookie who finds himself partnered with veteran Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman). Together they trace the killers every step, witnessing the aftermath of his horrific crimes one by one as the victims pile up in rapid succession, all the while moving closer to a gruesome fate neither of them could have predicted. Morgan Freeman has been in a wide variety of films with a mixture of different genres, unlike my actor who has only starred in my movie, so has little experience with acting. One main difference between Morgan and Mark is the uniform they wear, Morgan wears a more relaxed police uniform consisting of a suit and casual hat. Whereas in my movie Mark wears the standard police uniform with the yellow jacket, police badge and hat. 

Furthermore, Eddie Marsan has also starred in many films, as well as crime thrillers, such as “Sherlock Holmes”. Eddie plays a mature, strict and intelligent character as Inspector Lestrade, which is similar to Mark’s mature and intelligent manor. Eddie is 44 years old, which is similar to Mark who is 47, showing that age helps to add maturity to the role and make the scene feel more realistic to the audience. Eddie plays one of the main roles in Sherlock Holmes as he is the head of the police department, however, in my film Mark only plays a minor role as the police officer.

I think that Mark would be a successful representation to social groups as he fits the conventions of a typical policeman role in a crime thriller film.