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Night at the Museum was a film made in 2006 and was based on the book written by Milan Trenc. It was directed by Shawn Levy and written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. It was filmed in the United States of America, more specifically New York City, and starred Ben Stiller. The film included characters of different species and time periods all together under one roof. It is a two-dimensional work of art seeing as how it does not have a height, unless of course it is watched with 3-D glasses in a movie theatre.
That opens a whole other conversation.
Night at the Museum was a cinematographic masterpiece that played with the aspects of different time periods. It brought characters and scenarios to life to give the allusion of survival instinct while incorporating the comic relief. It gives off the tone of suspense and rooting for the underdog, yet the humor balances it out so the audience is not too on edge.
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A film with a similar structure could be Jumanji. The film also included characters of all kinds of species from all sorts of time periods that were brought into the modern era that causes chaos. The contrast in the two would be how Jumanji’s survival instinct is abundant and the comedy is an addition whereas in Night at the Museum, comedy is the main genre and the survival instinct is an added bonus. The two films complement each other nicely and include some of the same themes.
They also both have award winning, universally beloved Robin Williams which is probably why the two are classics. T
he visual elements of art in this film are the various amounts of shots used to make up the film. For example, whenever the romans or cowboys were addressed, a high angle shot was used to give the perception of miniature people. The high angle shot makes it known the audience is looking down to someone and gives off the sense of inferiority, even though Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan are regular sized people. There were also plentiful long shots throughout the film to show the immensity of the museum. In the long shots, the viewer is watching from far away, so all the exhibits and different art pieces were shown together to show a nice contrast. There was one particular zoom shot where the film pulls the viewer into the screen and through all of the characters in one continuous shot. All of the art pieces were shown in the same shot and the continuous shot personalized that moment, because it was as though we were all walking amongst them. For every location change or introduction of a new character/time period, there was the establishing shot which establishes the beginning of a new scene and gives the viewer some context as to where, when, and who is going to be taking the screen now. Other aspects of visual components are the elliptical editing, which removes the unnecessary and time consuming actions. Ben Stiller leaving the apartment and then showing up to the museum would be elliptical editing because it is self-explanatory that the character walked to the museum, so showing the actual action would be redundant.
There was also tracking the talent’s movement throughout the action sequences. The film’s pacing was fast and distressed at times and the camera follow the character to give the allusion that we too are running alongside them. The film was constructed of many different shot sequences to clarify the visual elements the writers were striving for. The message of the film progressed through the character development and became quite clear at the end. In the beginning, the artworks were all so different and uncivilized that it was chaotic. Every group acted accordingly to their respective time periods such that the Neanderthals behaved animalistic and the civil war vets reverted to waging a war on everyone they saw. However, once they were taken out of their niches and put into the real world of 2006, they came together to fight for the common goal. Of course at this point it was situational, but placing them in a setting that is neutral where they all seem out of place gave the sense of unity and teamwork.
The iconography of a film is unlike that of a renaissance painting. They do both include identifying, describing, classifying, and interpreting, but in film it’s more of indicating genre rather than symbols. In Night at the Museum, there are both adventure and comedy genre indicators. For adventure, there are the weapons and fight sequences between the established good guys and bad guys. There is the common goal that the whole team focuses on and they go on the mission to accomplish it to defeat the bad guys. Usually there is the dramatic sacrifice and an over the top explosion with the cliché “last words” speech that happens sometimes. In this case, all three within the span of like 45 seconds.
Comedy genre indicators for this movie could include the cartoonish fight sequences between a man and a monkey, sensitive miniature angry cowboys and romans, and lack of intelligence/common sense. The film did allude to other artworks as well, such as the classic painting of Sacagawea and Lewis and Clark by N.C Wyeth. Sacagawea and the men were encased in similar positions they had in the painting. The film set Sacagawea free and she went on to play a key role in defeating the bad guys while the men stayed in the case basically proving they were worthless without her. The film also not so subtly alluded to the Easter Island Statues. The statues are huge heads with large chins that are set up in Polynesia. The film had one of those heads and gave the character a personality and childish dialogue, who also played a key role in helping the protagonist. Egyptian symbols considered artwork, and the film’s plot basically circled around a tablet with ancient Egyptian symbols on it that possessed great power. Another piece of artwork the film alluded to was a famous photo of Theodore Roosevelt astride Little Texas during the Spanish American war. In the photo, he is mounted on his horse and in the film, there is the recurring still of Teddy on the horse leading the charge.
The iconography in the film both made the genre clear to the audience and alluded to other historical artworks in the process. The brains behind the beauty are Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. They cowrote the film together, since they are such great friends and shared a similar vision. Thomas Lennon was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois and move to NYC as an adult. He graduated high school and attended theatre camo at Northwestern University and then NYU. He now lives in LA with his wife and son, occasionally performs as a guest guitarist for a band, and is close friends with Weird Al Yankovic. Robert Garant was born and raised in Cookeville, Tennessee and moved to NYC as an adult. He attended the Tisch School of Arts at NYU, and also lives in LA with his wife and kids. The two have guest starred on dozens of tv shows such as New Girl, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, etc., have done work producing countless movies, and have appeared on a few late night talk shows. They both became an actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and director. They seem almost codependent working on almost everything together.
The historical and cultural context of the movie could be said as preserving history and art by any means necessary. The protagonist brought everyone together to prevent the theft and disrespect of art and the museum. The cultural context could be interpreted as family drives motivation to better oneself and is the compass for moral integrity. Everything the protagonist did was in the name of his son. The film was set in early 2000’s and while there is no comment or confirmation on whether this is true, it almost seems like the film is an homage the city of New York, like it was made for the people. September 11th happened only five years before, and throughout the movie, whenever they weren’t in the museum, there were beautiful shots of the city. It was almost like it was intended for the people on New York. There was also that theme of not letting the bad guys take what belonged to the city and actually destroy the characters that almost paralleled the sentiments during that time period.
The film Night at the Museum is a compilation of various strategically placed shots and camera movements that engage the audience in feeling a survival instinct with that comic relief. The film was constructed in a way that referenced many artworks while in itself giving themes and interpretations.
Summary And Analysis Of Night At The Museum. (2024, Feb 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/summary-and-analysis-of-night-at-the-museum-essay
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