Slumdog Millionaire Essay
Slumdog Millionaire Essay
An interesting and important character:
Slumdog Millionaire was a worldwide movie sensation as it engages with a wide range of social issues and universal desires. An important and interesting character in the film is Salim Malik, brother to the main character, Jamal. Salim is heavily contrasted to his brother and becomes a main antagonist in the narrative. Director Danny Boyle uses multiple visual and verbal techniques to reveal Salim’s violent and greedy tendencies and to reveal to the audience that money and power do not buy happiness.
Boyle, develops Salim’s violent nature early in the film. One of the first examples is Salim’s violent lashing out at Latika when she laughs at his singing. The characters actions appear over the top and unnecessary and reveal his reactive personality. Boyle also uses music to emphasize Salim’s dark nature. The track Gangsta Blues is played after Salim’s murder of Maman. The track is in the style of an American gangster rap with dark tones and deep repetitive deeps creating a tense and unnerving mood for the audience. Salim never appears to show remorse for his violent actions. He firstly murders Maman then rapes Latika and as the plot develops becomes a paid killer for Javed. The dialogue “I killed Maman and I will kill you too” shows his lack of remorse and his willingness to repeat his violent actions. It is this lack of remorse and Salim’s embracing of violence that makes him so interesting to watch in this film as we see the childhood offences develop into adult cruelty.
Salim is also shown to be greedy as well as violent. In both the exposition and the dénouement there is a point of view shot of Salim filling a bathtub full of money. Boyle makes it clear to the audience through this camera work and the character’s actions that money and power are both incredibly important to Salim. As a child Salim is seen both selling his brother’s prized possession for a few coins and is also seen
An interesting and important character:
Slumdog Millionaire was a worldwide movie sensation as it engages with a wide range of social issues and universal desires. An important and interesting character in the film is Salim Malik, brother to the main character, Jamal. Salim is heavily contrasted to his brother and becomes a main antagonist in the narrative. Director Danny Boyle uses multiple visual and verbal techniques to reveal Salim’s violent and greedy tendencies and to reveal to the audience that money and power do not buy happiness.
Boyle, develops Salim’s violent nature early in the film. One of the first examples is Salim’s violent lashing out at Latika when she laughs at his singing. The characters actions appear over the top and unnecessary and reveal his reactive personality. Boyle also uses music to emphasize Salim’s dark nature. The track Gangsta Blues is played after Salim’s murder of Maman. The track is in the style of an American gangster rap with dark tones and deep repetitive deeps creating a tense and unnerving mood for the audience. Salim never appears to show remorse for his violent actions. He firstly murders Maman then rapes Latika and as the plot develops becomes a paid killer for Javed. The dialogue “I killed Maman and I will kill you too” shows his lack of remorse and his willingness to repeat his violent actions. It is this lack of remorse and Salim’s embracing of violence that makes him so interesting to watch in this film as we see the childhood offences develop into adult cruelty.
Salim is also shown to be greedy as well as violent. In both the exposition and the dénouement there is a point of view shot of Salim filling a bathtub full of money. Boyle makes it clear to the audience through this camera work and the character’s actions that money and power are both incredibly important to Salim. As a child Salim is seen both selling his brother’s prized possession for a few coins and is also seen