Individuality In The Giver

In a supposedly utopian world where everyone lives in conformity, people will discover that individuality and freedom of choice prevails protocol. In the movie The Giver directed by Phillip Noyce, Jonas, the protagonist, was given a gift of humane emotions and memories that were, a long time ago, wiped out to “restore” peace with one another. With this gift, Jonas soon realizes the significance and impact of genuine emotions that comes with freedom of choice. Through the filmic techniques of two dramatically different displays of colors, different camera movements, and close-up shots, Noyce includes the viewers in on Jonas’ journey to discover the importance of individuality. The first filmic technique that Noyce used to emphasize the difference between the utopian world and the real world is through a display of two very distinct colors. The first 20 or so minutes were all shot in grey, black, and white colors, stressing the “sameness” objective the community leaders wanted. As Jonas becomes the Receiver and starts feeling and understanding all

By having close up shots of Jonas but further shots of other characters, Noyce highlights how Jonas is different compared to his peers. Most of the time when these close up shots appear, there is usually a voiceover of Jonas. This allows the audience to also get lost in Jonas’ thoughts and progress through the movie with him. Also, because Jonas has more individual close up shots, it isolates him from his peers. Furthermore, the film could be implying that he’s different from the rest of society; that Jonas already has a sense of individuality that he was not aware of. Hence, aside from the colors and camera movements, the close up shots of Jonas also enable viewers to distinguish the two worlds and get a hint on Jonas’ characteristics even before he received the