Free Sample Essays > Film and TV
Wisconsin Death Trip
a depressing aspect. Some of the scenes are done in color. Those done in color are Black River Falls during the present, and they show nice things like the marching band and high school football team. The scenes done in black and white show murders and suicides that took place in the same area only a few decades earlier. It seems as if by putting the scenes from the 1890’s in black and white, and the scenes from the present in color; the filmmaker is trying to say that Black River Falls may have changed in appearance, but it’s still the same place it was over a hundred years ago. There are still murders and suicides, but there is no longer that general sense of depression and hopelessness that there once was in Black River Falls. That sense of depression was displayed very well through the filmmaker’s use of black and white in this film.
Violence has always been around. Violence is still around today. Today however, there is a much different public perception of violence. Today people no longer fear violence; sometimes it can even be humorous. In Black River Falls during the 1890’s violence was just as common as it is now, but people were afraid of it. They were afraid because there were much less resources at the time. There were no hospitals or ambulances. And should you fall victim to this violence? You would be humiliated even after your death because people would still talk about you because there was nothing else to talk about. This general sense of fear, humiliation and desperation among the people of Black River Falls Wisconsin during the 1890’s, was portrayed well through the filmmakers choice of film techniques.