Thriller Analysis - Taken

Our group split up the analysis so each of us analysed 40 minutes of the film each:
Rebecca Ogunmola: 1st 30 minutes
Abigail Odum: 2nd 30 Minutes
Billy Camden: Last 30 Minutes

Taken is a 2008 French/American action thriller film. This film is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language. Neeson plays a former Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operative who sets about tracking down his teenage daughter after she is kidnapped by slave traders while traveling in France.
(Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taken_(film)

Themes:
The themes within the thriller of 'Taken' show how the protagonist (Bryan Mills) has to over come obstacles and tasks to rescue his daughter and in doing so he kills people.

The first theme within the thriller is when Bryan (protagonist) is on the phone to his daughter and she is telling him that men are taking her friend and are coming for her, in order for Bryan to try and help and save his daughter he tells her to keep calm and shout everything out to him about the appearance of the kidknappers, after this actiob has taken place, Bryan speaks on the phone to one of thwe kidknappers and declares that he will find and kill them men. This is the point in the film when Bryan sets off on his mission to find and save his daughter.

Another them used within the thriller is in a car chase when Bryan arrives in Paris to find his daughter. Bryan steels a car but is being followed by a french police officer, he soon figures out that he is being followed and if he is captured then he will be sent back to America and will never see his daughter again. As score music is added the tension rises and Bryan is trying to escape from the police officer. He goes off road and leads the officer to a construction site and forces him into a crane which kills him. Bryan is now away from the officer and can carry on to find his daughter.

Another key theme of the thriller is when Bryan arrives at a house in Paris where he has been told that his daughter is being held captive there. As he arrives he is met with a series of obstacles, firstly he has to try and convince two men that he is with the police and he is there to discuss business, after that he further discusses his 'police enquiries' but within that interrogation, he finds out a lot of information, he tries to find our who their leader is (which would help him find his daughter), he also finds out who the man was who he spoke to on the phone by asking him to say 'good luck' (a sentence spoken by the man who captured Byan's daughter on the phone'), after discovering these men were involved with the kidknapping of his daughter, he kills them all and searches the building for his daughter.

In one scene, Bryan is tied up to a pipe and there are a number of antagonists who attempt to kill him, in order to save his daughter, Bryan has to over come this capture and escape from the villains. The tension rises as score music is added into the equation and then Bryan pulls down the pipe and kills all of the antagonisys who were attempting to kill him. After over coming these obstacles he then goes on to persue and find his daughter.

Another theme tied within the thriller is at the very end when Bryan comes face-to-face with his daughter but she is being held by a man with a knife to her throat, this is bryan's last obstacle to overcome before he can be reunited with his daughter so he knows he can not afford to make any mistakes, he points the gun at the kidknappers head and when he begins to talk bryan quickly takes a shot and kills him when he is not fully focused. This act finally reunites the father and daughter and all obstacles put in the way of the protagonist have been over come.

Narratives
Enigmas are created within the film as the audience wonder what sort of occupation Bryan had that made him leave his family that even his own family didn’t know what he did we find out later on in the film that he used to be a spy that worked for the government which mean that he had to put his job before his family. Other enigmas raised that wasn’t answered later in the film was opening of the gates at the concert and who the man was that wanted to kill the singer. Also as peter was walking away from the house he called someone and gave them information about Kim and her friend, this created enigmas as to who peter was calling and what type of person he is. From the time of the kidnapping and when brain finds out information about the men the enigmas are solved and we able to find out that the people peter called are pimps that have come to use the girls for prostitution and that peter was the ‘spotter’. More difficult enigmas created were such as what kind of man jean Claude was as he claimed to be a friend of Bryan but there was no sign of loyalty or true friendship as the film proceeded we found out that he knew all about the kidnapping that has been happening to many travellers and that he didn’t care as long as he got money out of it even if it means his own friends child being abducted.
Suspense is created in individual scenes for example at the concert when the singer is trying to get away we see a mysterious figure holding a knife the audience automatically thinks someone is going to get hurt, but then we see a glimpse of the skills which Bryan states he has later on in the film. Suspense is also created when the police in France knock Bryan out and hang him to a poll it makes the audience wonder if Bryan is going to die and what would happen to his daughter, but once again the audience is proven wrong with Bryan beating up the men around him killing them and continuing to get his daughter. As he gets on the boat again he is noticed by the antagonist who alerts the rest of his people we feel that as he didn’t notice they will capture him and kill him, but he some how is able to kill them one by one without them finding him first.

Information is revealed to the audience through the characters experience as his on the phone to his daughter everything she is describing to him us as the audience our able to see it visually, with finding out clue of to where his daughter might be we also find out at the same time as him as he unravels them. For example Bryan finding Kim’s jacket in a camp place with a girl, he takes the girl and finds out how and who gave her the jacket. we as an audience was unable to see this before it happened.