Coming down the Mountain - Disabled representation

Coming down the Mountain - Essay

The extract starts with a bird’s eye view of a bedroom, shared by two brothers. We can tell straight away that there is a complete contrast between the two boys; there is a divide down the middle of the room. The Disabled brother’s half is brightly coloured, implying that he is quite childish. Whereas David’s side is plain black and white, showing us that he is a lot more mature in comparison to his brother, Ben. Furthermore, with David’s bedding being stripped, it could show that he feels trapped and stuck in the same routine with his brother. The camera pans around David at this point, this makes us as an audience member feel very intimate with David and because of it being a close up shot, we can see all of his personal angles and thoughts.

Furthermore, within this scene there is a voice over/ the subjective voice of David speaking. This conveys the idea that the only way to communicate is to talk directly to the audience, this shows us that this extract is in his point of view and could be relatable to the majority of the audience as he is more superior to his brother. Shown by the use of his voice over and his disabled brother not really having much of an opinion.  A montage is used to show the stages of evolution, the clip is black and white; this links with David’s bedroom and implies that David thinks that we all came from the same thing, therefore we shouldn’t be treated any different. In addition to this, a sound motif is used when David has a voice over and this same soundtrack is used within all of his voice overs, conveying the idea that he slips into his own world and the music only stops when someone interrupts his train of thought.

There is then an establishing shot of where this particular family lives, in an estate of flats.  There is a sound bridge of a song when we get taken into the kitchen/dining room, which continues to play on what we can assume to be a radio. Already we know that they are quite family orientated due to them having breakfast together. Shot reverse shot is used within this scene, where David realises that Ben has eaten all the Weetabix. The shots are close-ups so as an audience, we feel quite awkward and emphathise for David and his anger for his brother getting away with eating all the cereal.  The shots are also eye level; showing that they all have equal importance in the house. In this scene, we also see a divide in the two brothers and how they are treat by their parents. The attention is focused on Ben in the house; this is shown through the selective focus. Ben is in focus whereas David is usually slightly blurred; furthermore, their mother only kisses Ben when she leaves for work. There is a reaction shot of David, he seems disheartened and slightly fed up at that they get treated differently. It seems that in the household, Ben is more superior than David because his parents treat him a lot more like a child and focus more on him and his needs rather than what David wants/likes. Moreover, it is also shown that Ben, being disabled, needs more help than David; he needs help to the toilet so there isn’t another ‘accident’ implies this. Implying that disabled people aren’t very dependent and rely on others.

In the next scene, Ben and David are at the bus stop; because the scene is now set outside, the focus is more on David and the camera focus/shots single out Ben. At the bus stop, a montage/passage of time is used during David’s voice over, this indicates that, again there is a difference between the two brothers. David can sit and wait patiently whereas Ben has to walk around and be constantly moving. There are different insert shots used; close ups, mid shots and long shots to show the speeding up of time and to emphasise Ben’s impatience. During this scene, there are flashbacks to holidays/trips that the family have been on, throughout these flashbacks, David is at a higher angle than Ben (when he is getting the kite out the tree) this indicates that he is superior Ben even when with the family but only when outside of the house. It could also show that Ben looks up to David when outside of his comfort zone and uses him as his barrier to block out the world in which he is different.

In the next scene, David has more screen time than Ben, this shows that Ben is insignificant when outside the house and people tend to ignore him. When David is talking to a friend, there is a cutaway where just behind David, Ben is standing and waiting for his brother. There is selective focus here and Ben is cut off from David and his able friend; this implies that again, people don’t associate with Ben and he gets left out a lot. It is also shown that Ben is out of his comfort zone outside of the house as he is clutching to his bag and says “I want to go home” which seems to be where he is most comfortable. It is further shown that Ben is not independent and is uncomfortable outside when he is on the bus by himself. There is a clear difference between him and the able students on the bus; because he is alone, he sits still and tries to be as unnoticeable as possible. His un-comfort is shown through the close-up as we can see all his emotions.

Overall, throughout the extract David (being the abled brother) is more superior than his disabled brother Ben. This is shown through the camera angles and focus during the scenes, furthermore, when outside of the house, Ben is almost hidden and blocked out into the background. Whereas, David has the majority of the camera time. Ben, as a disabled person, is represented as being dependent on others, quiet and somewhat invisible to those around him at school.