Comparison Between 'Diana And Michael X On Death Row'

Module C: Advanced English Essay
Prescribed: Justice Game - cases Diana and the Dock, Michael X on Death Row
Related: Bowling for columbine (2003)
2009: Analyse the ways conflicting perspectives generate diverse and provocative insights. In your response, make detailed reference to your prescribed text and at least ONE other related text of your own choosing. (20 marks)

While composers may present diverse viewpoints, their foremost intention is to influence a subjective response to an objective reality. When driven by this motive, it is natural to expect the rise of insightful yet contentious opinions and outlooks. This correlated Oscar wilde Geoffrey Robertson’s nonfiction account of the “Michael X on Death row” and “Diana on the Dock” trials in Justice Game, along with the documentary Bowling for Columbine (2003) directed by Michael Moore, explores the enduring concerns of violence in a gun controlled America. Both Robertson and Moore consider the act of different representations of events, personalities and situations to ultimately impose their own beliefs to underline the nature of conflicting perspectives.
In the Michael X on Death Row
trial, Geoffrey Robertson questions the legitimacy of capital punishment and seeks to expose the inhumanity behind this punitive practice.
Robertson manipulates language to metaphorically characterise Michael X as a victim who “gave the media what they wanted: he played the uppity nigger with a soul on ice”.
The metaphor of the “soul on ice” demonstrates Robertson’s proactive into the extent to which Michael was wrongly misrepresented by the media as a cold and ruthless dictator. Also, using starkly contrasting diction in close proximity allows Robertson to juxtapose the opinion of Darcus Howe who claimed Michael X “made no impact on anybody” to that of his own conflicting assertion when admits in a poignant tone that “he made an impact on me…” Robertson provides evidence to garner sympathy from responders and employs emotive descriptions of Michael X’s vulnerable, physical state in prison: “his brow furrowed, .. [with] fear and pleading in his
eyes”.

Furthermore Robertson addresses the broader, more controversial issue of capital punishment. Where he hesitates to expose…..He does not hesitate to expose the crimes of Michael X, stating in an abrupt fashion and highly heightened language that “There must have been fear in Skerrit’s eyes… when this man hacked him with a cutlass” elucidates the violent and graphic nature of the crime. In portraying the violent and graphic murder, Roberson does provide reasons as to why to Michael X should receive severe punishment. However, he then utilises bleak visual imagery, presenting a vivid account of the hanging procedure, “his eyes pop…the rope takes large portions of skin and flesh from the side of his face…” Described in clinical detail, it holds negative connotations of cruelty, which encourages responders to realise the barbarity and highly destructive impact of this penalty – a type of punishment which he adds, alluding to colonial history, should not be used for “bequeathing their civilisation to the natives”.
In Bowling for Columbine (2003), Michael Moore satirises American obsession for guns and the inherent need to control their use. In a highly confrontational montage backed up by Beatle’s hit “Happiness is a warm gun”, quick film cuts reveal a contrasting series of images showing blood, suicide, rifles and the purchasing of guns. Moore employs situational irony to show the violence and resulting horrors of excessive gun use in Australia,