The Human Body: Film Analysis

The human body is a critical aspect to nearly every movie as both a driver of narrative and an aspect of the mise en scene. The role the human body plays in both of these aspects differs between films, as well as how significant the role is. Sometimes the narrative force it drives can be for the assailant, or the protagonist. Other times, the body can show the emotion of someone, or critical information about the person’s position in society. I will be looking at two movies, The Sixth Sense and Dolores Claiborne, and compare and contrast how the two movies use the human bodies in numerous ways. The Sixth Sense uses bodies as mise-en-scene heavily for fairly obvious reason. The mainly do this with the makeup of all the undead that Cole sees. These drastic difference in makeup between the living and the dead makes it clear to the viewer who is cole is seeing and everyone else is not, as besides that they seem to exist to everyone. It also helps the audience infer how the person died, say a car accident or a fire. I think the drasticness of the makeup helps make Cole feel more comfortable with the undead. Malcom for instance, appears

Not only are they taken less seriously by the outdated detective, but they overcame this and won. While not a main theme, it still shows that women can conquer even while placed in an unfair position. While both movies use gender as theme builder, they are for different purposes. So, overall, the human body plays a key role in many different areas in Dolores Claiborne and The Sixth Sense. Also, this is only two movies, and you could probably argue a case for the importance of human bodies as major role players in nearly every movie. I didn’t really consider the body itself as a narrative driver or aspect of mise-en-scene, but after thinking and writing about it, I will definitely look at movies and the people within them