Event #3

With the recent death of Gary Speed, especially with him being a popular Leeds United midfielder back in the early 90s, I found myself both saddened and confused by his decision to take his own life. Even more bizarre was the fact I had watched him live on television just 12 hours previously, in which he seemed absolutely fine.

As grim as it may be, I find it quite interesting that something can be covered up so well only to be revealed in a flash to be the complete opposite. If you take this tragedy and put it into a film context, it would be equivalent of a sudden tragedy within the plot, especially if it is a a twist or a reveal.

I think that twists in film should not just be there to suddenly change the plot, and to give it a new path to follow, but to actually make an impact on the events that have happened previously. For example if you take Gary Speed, if he had been in some kind of accident which meant he could no longer manage the Wales international team, then this would be a full stop so to speak, and everything else that happens is a new sentence.

However, because of the nature of how he died, the life that we thought he had been living has now come under scrutiny, and demonstrates that all was not well, and certainly wasn't as peaceful as everyone thought it was.

The emotions this evoked:
Confusion
Sadness
Grief
Guilt

As I have mentioned with regards to this particular twist affecting and undermining everything that had happened beforehand, it left me with a sense of guilt and what if? Of course there was nothing I could personally have done about it, but there was definitely the huge feeling of disappointment that nothing was done when it was necessary, and could have been prevented.

A film that springs to mind with regards to this is The Orphanage or El Orfanato to give it its native title. The plot twist at the end when Simon is discovered to have been locked in the cellar for the majority of this film, as a result of his mother's accident, changes the entire backstory completely. It isn't just a case of it being a single, unavoidable event that simply ends something; but instead something that makes the audience almost frustrated that all along it could have easily have been prevented, and the mother could have been reunited with her son.
The Orphanage, while it is being mentioned, is another great film, one that I recent rewatched. I think the way that J.A Bayona uses such erratic, grainy old footage of the children back in their time, is very, very unsettling. For me, it establishes a really disjointed, unnatural feel, and I absolutely love this. It's something that I would like to use myself in future pieces of work.

It is also worth noting that the response to the death of Gary Speed from football fans all across the country was fantastic. At Leeds United, I believe it was a case of something good coming out of something terrible, with the union of everybody, and the new found camaraderie. I believe that within a film, having a positive reaction from the characters to something tragic can often be hard hitting and leave a lasting memory with the viewer. It feels like a stark contrast to what has happened, and for that reason the positives seem to be a lot stronger than they normally would.