Atonement Movie Essay

This essay is presented on the Film “Atonement”, directed by Joe Wright. The movie starts off with a backstory as to how the main character found himself right on the front lines. The Tallis family 's very upper-class English home in 1935, a few years before World War II is expecting a visit from their maternal cousins—the young twins Jackson and Pierrot, and 15-year-old Lola, all of whom have been temporarily cast adrift by their parents ' divorce. The film itself is set during the beginning of World War 2. The French needed an abundant amount of soldiers so they created a system similar to conscription, which is compulsory enlistment for state service typically into the armed forces, which the male protagonist just so happened to be a

Footage is shown of the troops returning from Dunkirk and being sent on trains to camps all over the nation, and the footage looks like newsreels from the time. There is also a great shot of people sleeping in the tube stations during the Blitz, which was “is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower” (History.com Staff pg. 1). Although, the scene was beautifully put together the fact that the soldiers weren 't being attacked created an imprecise sense despair. Since this is a love story the entire movies tone was either heartwarming or sorrowful. The tone helps establish the importance of the relationship each protagonist had with each other and eventually was what helped keep the viewer engaged; wanting so desperately for the director of the movie to answer the question ‘will they end up together at the end?’. In addition, the viewer is supposed to have this underlying desire for Briony to fix the mistake she had made all those years before. It wouldn’t be called cheering for the protagonist per se, but more like restoring the balance of the messed up world the characters find themselves in. The film itself was more focused on the complexity of the character’s situation rather than the historical accuracy which is why half of the movie is