D. W. Griffith On The Makers Of Atonement

In the early twentieth century a director called D.W. Griffith of the United States proved that film narratives can be improved by adjusting the way in which the film is put together (Bywater & Sobchack, 1989). Griffith developed ways to counteract the little dialogue there was in those days and intensify the drama and emotion he could provoke in his fictional films (Fabe, 2004). He had three main methods: utilising the foundations of “filmic” mise-en-scene with his cast, filming his movies more creatively and editing his films to add “complexity” (Fabe, 2004). Griffith’s filming methods have been passed on throughout the century and have not stopped short of Atonement, directed by Joe Wright (IMDB, 2009). This is a film whose narrative is
Some ideologies in this film are based entirely around social class of the 1930s. The ideology that poor people are not trustworthy was demonstrated by the upper class in this film. This is a reason why Robbie was believed to be the criminal because he was a working class gardener who did not receive the respect that he deserved even after attending Cambridge University (Wright, 2007). When Briony tries to repent for what she did Robbie exclaims “you just assumed that for all my education, I was still little better than a servant, still not to be trusted” (IMDB, 2009). Another example of this ideology is where Cecilia and Robbie assume that because Robbie did not commit the crime then it must have been the other young man that worked there. Cecilia wanted Briony to tell everyone “whatever [she] could remember of what Danny Hardman was doing that night” (IMDB, 2009). They were wrong. Briony knew that it was Cecilia’s and her own older brother’s friend, Leon (Wright, 2007). These ideologies were displayed accurately as they generated renewed tension between the three prominent characters of Atonement’s narrative: Briony, Robbie and