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Hobo with a Shotgun is a thriller and indie film that has elements of dark humor, satire, and excessive violence. The movie follows a hobo that takes a boxcar to Hope Town, which the audience soon realizes isn't so hopeful. The sign has Scum Town graffitied on it, and the place is completely trashed. The hobo explores the town and meets the antagonists of the film Drake and his two sons, Slick and Ivan. Their family runs the town and owns everything.
The hobo was wanting to start over and buy a lawnmower to start a business cutting grass, but with all the corruption in the city and the robbery at the pawnshop decides to take matters into his own hands, buys the shotgun, and starts dealing with crime happening all over the town. This film is fascinating because its mise en scene is highly stylized, very exaggerated, and extremely formalistic. It also has themes related to the medieval era and religion in a sense that stands out throughout the movie.
The medieval themes within the movie intertwine with the symbolism of religious figures.
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For example, at the start of the film, Drake can be seen as the 'king' of Hope Town as nobody messes with him, and his sons and the cops have been corrupted to side with them. His sons could be looked at as the princes in the film, and they both want to be like their dad and inherit Hope Town one day. Drake could be connected to the devil also because he is the leader of all the corruption and crime that goes on within the film.
He even kills his brother at the beginning of the film in front of a bunch of townspeople. His sons could represent demons and carry out the 'devils' work. Also, this film has lots of graffiti linking this town to hell. At the start of the movie, when the hobo rides into town, we see the sign with scum town written on it and right under it says, 'Where the railway ends, and Hell begins!' This associates Hope Town with being the last place anyone wants to go, and nothing good happens there. Towards the end of the film, there is a final fight scene where the hobo goes against Drake, and it resembles a medieval revolution. You have the king, which is Drake, the knights, in this case, are the cops that serve the king, and then the peasants who are all the poor and less fortunate people led by the hobo. Even though the hobo meets his demise in this fight, the peasants finally rally behind him and turn on the 'king' and his 'knights.'
The director chose interesting clothing options for the villains in the film as well. The villains are all well-dressed in white and black. The color white usually symbolizes purity, and it's ironic because villains are not traditionally associated with being pure human beings. White could also symbolize power and success, and having the black dress shirt could symbolize deep down that Drake is the root of all evil in Hope Town. The director also chose to make this film more toward the formalism side of realism to the formalism scale, and this is apparent throughout the movie. Most of the violence is fake and exaggerated. Drake controlling all the law enforcement is not plausible, and obviously, the summoning of 'The Plague' could never really happen, but it fits the film and the whole medieval tone in this movie well.
Hobo with a Shotgun Film Response. (2022, May 27). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/hobo-with-a-shotgun-film-response-essay
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