Benny And Joon Essay

In the movie, Benny & Joon By Jeremiah S. Chechik, colour is used in many occasions to develop the audience's understanding of the characters. Specifically, Joon. In the beginning of the film a montage of Joon painting and a train travelling is displayed. Giving us our first impressions of Joon. The next scene where we learn a lot about Joon is when she is snorkeling in traffic. We learn the extent of her disabilities. Towards the end of the movie one of the final scenes is when Benny and Sam visit Joon in the hospital. We learn a lot about joon at this time. Including that she wishes to be able to make her own decisions.

In the first scene Joon is painting on a large canvas with many different colours, they express her emotions and feelings. The scene if very light and has an absence of dark shadows. This allows us to have a clean canvas to develop the character in their mind on. The colors on the physical canvas are red, yellow, orange, blue, and white. These exemplify her friendly, youthful, and loving traits. We Learn lots about Joon and based of of what we learn we make assumptions of how she will be throughout the movie. This scene sets the plain on which we judge
Joon and view her.

The following scene where we learn lots about Joon is when she is “snorkeling in traffic”. In this scene there is a strong presence of white and blue. There is white on Joons dress and the cars surrounding her. This represents her innocence as she does not know that what she is doing is not proper in normal society. The white represents her mental illness and the fact that her actions are not purposefully done to be disruptive to others. The blue in the scene is seen as dots on her dress, cars, and the police officer that stops Joon and speaks with her. Blue represents the fact that Joon is non threatening. As well that she has good intentions and wants to help others, through directing traffic, in this case. The blue on the officer also exemplifies the helpful and non threatening attitude.

The scene towards the end of the movie where Benny and Sam sneak into the hospital to visit Joon, further develops our understanding of joons feelings and character. Joon is wearing a light purple house coat in this scene. This is significant because it shows she is gaining self confidence and beginning to feel dignified. Joon finally feels confident enough to tell others that she wants to make her own decisions. This scene is darker than the others. This tells us that the conversations going on and feelings are deeper and more important. The scene becomes significantly brighter after Sam appears in the window of Joons room. This shows us the importance that Sam plays in Joons life and the fact that he takes some of the weight of Joons important decisions off of her.

In the Movie Benny and Joon, Joon transitions from being unable to take care of herself.
To making important life decisions on her own. We can realize this change through the use of colours throughout the film. We recognize the fact that her mind is cluttered with emotions and isn't grounded through the use of the many colours in Joons painting. We then realize that Joon doesn't quite fit into society through the pure white used to symbolize Joons innocence. As the mood of the movie becomes more serious and Joon takes on more responsibility the scenes become darker and have colours with more complicated feelings. Such as the use of purple signifying Joons self confidence increasing. Many colours throughout the film add to our understanding of Joon and develop her
character.