Boogaloo and Graham Film Analysis Esaay

Michael Lennox's 2014 short film, Boogaloo and Graham has represented the youngsters to be naive, pure and a symbol of hope. Set in 1978, Belfast during the happenings of the troubles where the average families of the northern island were in conflict with the British government altering their lifestyles for decades. When the biggest impact of the chaos would have been on the flourishing lives of the children of those times, due to the violence and threats on the other side of their fence. Lennox has portrayed jamesy and Malachy, children, during the troubles to have a youthful enthusiasm supporting the representation of their naiveness and purity which were successfully highlighted by the use of conventions of genre of subject and form. This short film utilises the generic conventions of the bildungsroman as the children pass through their rite of passage along with the use of visual codes and audio codes to emphasise the point of view and change in mood.

The genre of the bildungsroman normally has a protagonist who is naive and makes discoveries about the adult world. In this short film the protagonist, jamesy is a young, inexperienced and confused boy who is clueless about the events happening in his surroundings. We initially see his character at the beginning when the chicks are shown, during this scene followed by many others jamesy has a confused facial expression. His mouth is open in shock along with his eyebrows slightly raised emphasising his confusion and unawareness of the significance of the events that are taking place. Confusion is a sign of inexperience which connects to his naiveness, a person who has little to no experience is considered naive and pure as they are not exposed to the reality that is taking place in that instant. Another example of jamesy’s innocence is when he questions the relationship between his parents. He doesn't understand the concept of affection and love, when their parents mention the pregnancy, jamesy is lost because he wasn't exposed to the concept of sex this marks his pureness. Along the journey of the few months that the short film displayed, we got to see jamesy and malachy’s rebellion, a phase that marks their rite of passage. The argument between the children and the parents, their action of escaping and trying to protect their chickens is a form of rebellion that the children took despite the consequences. This was the transition from them being inexperienced to being experienced as from that moment on they understood the idea of death. Hence through the conventions of the genre bildungsroman, the children were represented to be innocent and later on understanding.

The short film has made use of the visual and audio codes to represent the children as a symbol of hope and heighten their innocence. The film gives the viewers both the parent's and children's points of view. The dark and gloomy starting scene is what the adults as in the parents see. The bright and happy scenes, for example, the children spending their time with the chickens are what the children’s perspective of the world is. Majority of the time the camera is positioned to make the rooms appear larger than they actually are. This technique creates the allusion of the viewers seeing the world from the children’s perspective. This makes us the viewers feel empathy towards the children. With the feeling of empathy, we also tend to believe that the children are innocent. As it is in human behaviour to believe that the innocent are the ones to feel empathy for. The choice of using close up shots has enhanced the representation of the children’s innocence. Jamesy generally has a confused facial expression which was able to be clearly seen with the use of close-up shots. The use of dialogue was able to show the naiveness of jamesy perfectly whilst adding humour to the film. “Is mummy a whore?” , “Contra- what?”, “Germans!” these little outbursts of jamesy’s made this film enjoyable as it was the perfect representation of children. Children are the symbol of honesty as they have not learned to lie yet and their inexperience and naiveness are generally showcased in incidents where they blurt things that they don't fully understand. For example “germans!” Jamesy is simply saying things he might have heard but doesn't know the context which represents his innocence and inexperience. Lastly the soundtrack “why do fools fall in love?” by Frankie Lymon is used as the background sound when the brothers take their chickens for a day outing on a summer's day. This scene is hilarious as the children foolishly acting which corresponds to the music hence it highlights the innocence of the children and hope of love.

In conclusion, Lennox has represented the children in the short film Boogaloo and graham as innocent, inexperienced and naive through the use of film conventions and bildungsroman generic conventions.