The Selfish Giant Analysis

In this analysis, I am going to be focusing on how and why the director creates meaning by her use of themes and micro-features: cinematography, sound, Mise-En-Scene, performance and editing.

The Selfish Giant is a 91 minute, social-realism, crime drama directed and written by Clio Barnard and produced by Tracy O’Riordan. It was produced on the 25th October, 2013 in the UK. It is based upon a novel of the same title which was written by Oscar Wilde. Clio Barnard has also directed a film called ‘The Arbor’ which was filmed in Bradford which is the same filming location as The Selfish Giant. I personally believe that this film is aimed at teenagers who are aged fifteen and above because it is very intense and we are introduced to a vulnerable world, drowning in poverty, that we may not normally see or hear about and Clio Barnard does an excellent job of displaying the brutal realities of such a world and not at any point does she shy away from showing us these realities. The film stars Conner Chapman (Arbor), Shaun Thomas (Swifty- Arbor’s best friend), Sean Gilder (Kitten- the scrap dealer the two boys meet), Rebecca Manley (Michelle ‘Shelly’ Fenton- Arbor’s Mother) and Elliott Tittensor (Martin Fenton- Arbor’s older brother). It is about two thirteen year old friends, Arbor and Swifty, both from families struggling to make a living, who come across a scrap dealer named Kitten and from there on, get involved with the dangerous life of scrap-dealing in order to provide money for their families, which, towards the end, leads to tragic consequences.

Clio Barnard

(Spoiler Alert) The film has the themes of: family, friendship, class, desperation, determination, theft, greed, anger, betrayal, jealously and survival.  Arbor is greatly dependent on his tablets that help to prevent his outbursts. The audience realise that he has to take medication when his Mother asks him “have you taken your tablet?” during an argument in which Arbor is becoming extremely angry, which suggests that he quite probably has ADHD. Family is a theme because deep down, Arbor clearly has a very close relationship with his Mother and Clio Barnard shows this by the meaningful scenes which feature them hugging and comforting one another. Also, it becomes known that Arbor and Swifty’s main priority is to earn money in order to support their financially deprived families and the audience realise this in a scene during the earlier stages of the film in which the two boys earn quite a large amount of money and instead of spending it on themselves, they plan to spend it on the electricity bill and a new sofa, which was very un-selfish of them. This therefore confirms that the title ‘The Selfish Giant’ does not refer to either of them but in fact is referring to Kitten because all he wanted was to make a large profit from the scrap the boys were collecting and he was not at all concerned about the extreme danger they were both put in. Arbor and Swifty have a very strong friendship and the audience discover this almost immediately in the opening scene in which Swifty is calming Arbor down and a close up is used to show their hands interlocked. Clio Barnard purposely used this shot to represent the tight bond between the two of them and their hands stay interlocked to show how they will always be there for one another which gives the audience false hope that they will stay together throughout the film and will not leave each other’s side. As the film develops, Swifty takes a great interest in horses and appears to be very natural when handling them whereas Arbor does not share this talent and is more interested in collecting as much scrap as possible. Kitten then begins to favour Swifty because of this, leaving Arbor feeling betrayed and jealous. There was a particular shot that stood out for me which displays these themes which is a wide shot of Kitten and Swifty standing next to one another as Arbor is stood away from them, Barnard included this shot in the film to represent how Arbor feels as if he is being torn apart from them because ‘he is not good enough’, despite how hard he tries. Arbor then becomes more and more greedy and desperate to make money and dangerously steals scrap including off Kitten himself which gets him into a large amount of trouble and he is threatened to have his hands put through the wire cutting machine. The Selfish Giant does not focus on Arbor and Swifty trying to escape from the poverty they are surrounded by, like the protagonist in ‘Fish Tank’, but it focuses on them trying to survive in such an economically demanding world.

Throughout ‘The Selfish Giant’, I noticed that there were many still, long-lasting establishing shots of the countryside which showed sheep and horses. This was an area that appeared safe and peaceful, in which the protagonists could escape to in order to be away from the rough, loud, urban environment they were forced to survive in. However, after these establishing shots, the camera would suddenly cut to the shots showing the scrap yard and the noisy, dangerous machines within it which dramatically contrasted with what the audience previously saw. I personally believe that this was to show how working in a scrap yard was extremely risky and dangerous and to emphasize how the way in which Arbor and Swifty made money to support their families was not pleasant at all. Clio Barnard may have used this contrast to clearly separate our expectations from the realities: we expect that thirteen year old boys, like Arbor and Swifty, to be attending school and living a peaceful life in which they feel safe and have a sense of belonging; these expectations are shown by the establishing shots of the countryside. However, in reality, Arbor and Swifty are constantly putting themselves into large amounts of danger in order to support their families and the only place they feel as if they ‘belong’ to may be the scrap yard in which they work in because they were excluded from school and have quite an un-settling family life. Barnard makes it clear that they do not lead the ‘ordinary’ life that is expected of them so keeps the narrative ‘real’ the whole way through to inform the audience that there are no ‘happy endings’ in such a poverty and danger-driven world. I also believe that the establishing shots were used in order for the audience to reflect on what had happened because they were usually shown after an event had occurred and Clio Barnard clearly did not want to cut straight into another ‘busy’ scene and instead wanted to give the audience thinking time. Additionally, there was foreshadowing of the ending by the use of the shots which showed the electricity wires and this was maybe to inform the audience that a key event was going to take place there although when Swifty was electrocuted when helping Arbor to steal underground cable, it was very unexpected and the audience may not have expected such a brutal ending to their friendship.

I thought that Mise-En-Scene played an important role in the film and I thought that the use of weather was very clever. Throughout the majority of the film, the weather was dull and gloomy; the days were rarely sunny, giving the impression that it was quite cold. This was to represent how the protagonists did not lead a ‘blissful’ life but the complete opposite as they were constantly surrounded by negativity. After Swifty passed away, the weather gradually got worse and Arbor is shown sitting outside Swifty’s house in the pouring rain which can have many interpretations. Firstly, Clio Barnard has made use of the rain to represent how Arbor can never have a bright or happy day again now Swifty has disappeared from his life and the rain is a symbol of Arbor’s immense sadness so he is reflecting on what has happened. Secondly, Arbor is constantly outside Swifty’s house in the rain because he feels guilty and is blaming himself entirely for his death. Another key symbol throughout the film is the horses which are often shown being used for the benefit and entertainment of others and are put into extremely dangerous situations such as horse racing on busy roads. I believe that this represents how Kitten was using Arbor and Swifty for his own benefit because he was willing to put them in large amounts of danger in order to make money for himself and to support his scrap-dealing business.

The performances were truly stunning and incredibly believable and the performance from Conner Chapman, who played Arbor, really stood out for me because he was very natural and his acting did not seem at all forced. The scenes in which he was hugging his Mother were very emotional because it showed how much he cared for her and it is almost as if he is taking on the role of a Father because he is looking after her and trying his up-most hardest to support her. My favourite scene was the one towards the end of the film in which Arbor is lying underneath the bed, just like at the beginning, but instead, his older brother is talking to him rather than Swifty. However, it then shows Swifty in the same place he was in during the opening scene because Arbor is remembering him which emphasizes how much he misses him. There is then the same close up which shows their hands interlocked but this time, they let go and Clio Barnard purposely did this to represent how Swifty has left Arbor and is no longer there for him. There was very limited dialogue during this scene and the ones that followed it because the performances and cinematography were more than enough to create meaning and it also gave the audience time to reflect on the film.

Overall, I really enjoyed ‘The Selfish Giant’ because it was gritty, realistic and kept me gripped the whole way through. The narrative was strong, believable and reached a dramatic and unexpected climax at the end. The micro-features within the film were outstanding and I believe that Clio Barnard has created a fantastic and meaningful piece of work.