Iconography of Crime Dramas

By Daniel Fotheringham

Guns

• Guns are used in a lot of crime dramas to suggest that there will be a element of danger within the movie as well as suspense.

• An example of films that will use these are Taken as in the movie, Bryan Mills daughter has been kidnapped for slavery and as a result of this he is not afraid on using this weapon.

• This would link to later within the film as some of the characters would use weapons such as these to kill the protagonist.

Drugs

• A lot of crime dramas use a lot drugs to show a sense of danger and that bad stuff is happening within the world.

• An example of a film which uses this is Pulp Fiction as they shows as they show the use of drugs and showing the drugs via buying them in drug deals.

• This links to our film as in the film the villain has done a drug deal with someone else (however, this is done off screen but with all the stuff which happens in the rest of the plot, the audience should be able to know that the villain has done a drug deal) and then bumps into the protagonist on purpose and slip a bag of cocaine in her handbag and therefore she is falsely accused of breaking the law and doing a drug deal. From there on we see the character try to prove her innocence as well as finding out who framed her.

Blood

• Blood is used in a lot of crime dramas to suggest the idea that no one is safe and a sense of realism.

• An example of this is the James Bond franchise as they use a lot of blood to give the idea that it could happen to you.

• This links to our film as later in the film our villain would have committed murders and would try to get away with the crime he has committed however this would have not happened in the first two minutes as we would want the movie to progress before murders would’ve been committed.

False Accusations

• A lot of crime dramas use a lot of false accusations as they show that people can get falsely accused for doing nothing.

• An example of this is The Da Vinci Code as in the movie Robert Langdon is falsely accused for the murder of Jacques Sauniere. (The Louvre Curator)

• This links to our film as in our protagonist is falsely accused for doing a drug deal when in fact our protagonist is truly innocent.

Murder

• A lot of crime dramas contain a lot of murders as they indicate to the audience that no one is safe and it could happen to you.

• An example of this is in the movie Taken as the protagonist (Bryan Mills) has to go on a quest to find his daughter and as a result of this he has to murder the henchman and people who has kidnapped his daughter.

• This would link to the story as later in the movie we would have our villain committing murders to stop the protagonist clearing her name of drug dealing.