The film that I would like to analyze is the Slumdog Millionaire, which is a 2008 British drama film, directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay is produced by Simon Beaufoy and the film stars are Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan. (Wikipedia, n.d.). The film tells a story about an Indian teenager, Jamal Malik who comes from a poor, slums area of India. He participates a TV quiz show “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and finally he wins 20 million rupees. During the tour of the game show, Jamal is accused of cheating as he is able to answer all the questions correctly. Jamal recalls the memory of his childhood in the slums of India. Despite his insufficient formal education, his real life and the extraordinary experiences are the answers of the questions raised out by the game shows. In fact, the main themes of the movie have successfully reflected the social situation of India such as poverty, poor living standard, cruel reality, inequality, prejudice and determination. The followings are my analysis on how the narrative structure and editing contribute to its contents and themes of this film.
” Who wants to be a Millionaire” is a television game show created by British origin. The contesters are required to answer a series of multiple-choice questions with increasing difficulty. (Showbiz, 2007) The winner will be awarded with the maximum cash prize for one million. The game show provides audiences with lot of excitement and fun. Given that this television game show has attained a very high audience rating, (“TV Ratings 1999–2000″, fbibler.chez.com). many countries like the USA, Germany Australia and Hong Kong have purchased the franchise of the show to produce their local style television game show. The popularity of ” Who wants to be a Millionaire” becomes worldwide. India has started to release this television game show since 2000. I strongly believes that the increasing popularity of the game show has given the film director an innovative idea to make a film “Who wants to be a Millionaire”. The extraordinary narrative structure and editing method has won the international applauses. In 2009, the film won several core Oscar Award such as Award for Best Film, Best Director, Best Editing Award and Award for Best Cinematography. (Filmibeat, n.d.).
The film is characterized by its flashback narrative structure. It opens in an interrogation room where Jamal is accused of cheating on the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. It aims to set up a stage to draw audience’s attention and curiosity to the further development of the plot. The narrative structure uses a distinct non-linear approach that fits very well with the needs of the story. Each aspect of Jamal’s life is represented through flashbacks that are placed between each question of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” show. I found this very effective as it lets the audience closely follow each part of his life that relates to the questions. Although, the parts of Jamal’s life are not necessarily shown in chronological order, it is still relatively easy to track when the flashbacks are situated throughout Jamal’s life. This is because the content and dialogue of each flashback scene are established well enough to support this kind of non-linear editing.
Before the commencement of the first question, the scene shifts to Jamal as a child. He and his brother Salim are chased by the police with the background sound effect of an India traditional music. Though the jumbled cinematography, Danny Boyle, the director has successfully show the real life of the slum India where Jamal grown up. It is a mirror to reflect the poverty problem of the society. The camera leads the audience jump into the scene in person to stimulate their feeling and senses. A lot of the emphasis is put in the editing and the structure in this film. Hence, this required a lot of good transition between the current and the past. Danny Boyle managed to do this very well with a lot of smooth transitions, both aesthetically and narratively, which is why the film was such a success. The flashback not only gave answers to the question, nor was it just to establish Jamal’s life and the story, this structure also allows Boyle to depict a lot of the political and societal issues resonating in India, while fitting it all seamlessly into a non-linear narrative structure.
Looking into more details of the editing, many different scenes of the movie are often cut together. Since there is no defined chronological order, we frequently see scenes of Jamal being interrogated, then cutting to the game show of him answering questions, while also juxtaposed with scenes of his past. Although they are often cutting back and forth, it is still clear that the duration of the game show is what is happening real-time in the movie, as opposed to the rest of the scenes that are either flashbacks or happening at the same time as the show.
Some of the editing techniques in particular scenes are very unique and interesting. For example, after Jamal was asked what God Rama famously holds in his right hand during the show, the film cuts to when young Jamal and his fellow Muslims attacked by Hindus. In the middle of the chase scenes, Jamal witnesses a girl dressed like God Rama. During this small part of the scene, the editing is cut so that we see many still shots cut in a really fast pace to make the overall effect very jagged and fast. This effect appears distinct from the rest of the scene, telling us that something important is happening. This was a very unique technique as an editing choice, and it was very effective because it allows the audience to identify a moment they feel like they need to pay particular attention towards
The last episode of this film is Jamal and Latika can be reunited again. This scene can give a sense of happiness to the audience. For example, at the end of the film, when Jamal and Latika see each other at a railway station, they finally reunited. This scene can show long-last love of the protagonist’s life. The theme of this film also shows determination because it indicates how Jamal’s fighting and doing things that he is possible to do everything. Jamal have faced the obstacles in the childhood but he became success in current situation. The effect of the plot that Jamal and Latika can be reunited at the end. (Jwilson, n.d.) This reaches a point which gives the audience achieving the element of pleasing satisfaction and happiness.
