Meaning of Hot Fuzz

Both style and content contribute to the meaning of the movie, style contributes to the fact that it was a Edgar Wright film as it had his signature techniques in it; Fast editing, Whip pans and crash zooms, Repeated lines or snippets of dialogue, Parodies of film genres, Deadpan humour in fast-paced moments. Content gives us the storyline of the film.

 

"A review (perhaps 400-1200 words) typically includes personal impressions and evaluations of a movie’s content and techniques. A good review may touch superficially on topics that might be explored in more detail in a longer formal analysis. An analysis (perhaps 1200-12,000 words) attempts to determine how the film actually uses various cinematic techniques and elements of film or narrative form to make a viewer react in a certain way and why it makes viewers come away with certain opinions about it." ~ Christopher P Jacobs 

Meaning is is what the audience get from the film aka thier opinion, this quote states that it includes personal impressions and evaluations of the film. also how they use editing to add effect to the scene to woo the viewers and emphasise the scene's importance 

 

It was very exciting to see Simon Pegg and Nick Frost team up to become ‘Police Officers’ Nicholas Angel and Danny Butterman in Edgar Wright’s police parody production of Hot Fuzz which also holds elements of other genres such as Horror, Action. It is set in the sleepy town of Sandford, full of farmers and dusty village lanes. It was no place for London’s best cop Nicholas Angel, but the poor guy really had no choice since his excellence made everyone look bad. 

Being as dedicated as he was, he tried to make the best of the village know as ‘Village of the year’ but it turned out that nobody was as serious as he was, but little did he know, he wouldn’t be bored for long as Wright and Pegg bring a horror mystery aspect to the story in which Angel is left to solve before a mystery killer kills every last person.

 

In the opening scene, the audience see a man in police uniform walking towards the camera– who turns out to be Angel and he introduces himself as ‘Police Constable Nicholas Angel’ by showing us his police badge, already we can guess that there is something sinister to happen because of the low key lighting. From here, Wright uses Angel as a voice over as we are given his progression through the police force through a series of jump cuts or whip/pan shots through editing to represent how fast he had gotten to his current position. This shows the audience that he is efficient, and as sharp and as quick as the cuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My first impressions of Nicholas Angel are exactly how I imagined a police officer to be – stodgy, serious and completely sedulous. It was from the way he dressed, always neat and tidy with his hat pressed against his white shirt when he was addressing someone. We also see his personality through the editing used when he charges people which are a quick  juxtaposition of shots in which teens are having their prison pictures taken in high key lighting alongside images of Angel doing paper work in a much darker scene.  This emphasis’s how much work he does and how consumed he is within it and that he’s surrounded by it, this scene can be compared to work done in the movie Domino.

 

 As his opposite, there is Danny Butterman, his partner, who takes on the stereotypical lazy policeman role along with the rest of the Sandford police force who have yet to take their jobs seriously. Initially, their relationship is very unbalanced as they first meet when Angel arrests him for drunk driving, a scene which was very comedic to watch and connotes how idiotic this town may be. It was worst way Angel could have met his new partner.

However, they become closer as shown through the increase of mid-shots and medium close ups with the two together. It also this friendship that loosens Angel up, this is shown especially when the two are relaxing at Danny’s house and the intimacy is shown through their proxemics.

 

Throughout the film, there are many references to different movie sub-genres such as Horror. The villain that we see after the theatre show takes on a stereotypical form of a black cloak with a shadowed face that makes it obvious to the audience that they have bad intensions; the scene even has a misty red glow in low key lighting that also suggests danger. I especially like the technique used in which the mise en scene shrinks periodically through jump cuts with a dramatic non-diegetic violin  sound that resembles  those used to create fear in films such as Scream and Hitchcock’s Psycho. However it links to comedy when we see the comedy of manners represented through the actors as the gasp dramatically then there is a scream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another sub-genre represented is the action genre as Angel meets and elderly man who has an endless supply of weapons. I especially like the way the screen cuts to darkness and the lights snap on to reveal a crate of weapons. But whereas in other action films, it would reveal three or four large crates, Hot Fuzz continues to reveal more and more weapons which made it funny to the point where you wonder:

 

‘How many weapons could this old man really have?’

 

There is also a sense of a buddy drama quite similar to Michael Bay’s Bad Boys where they stand side by side, after a shoot out with the elderly locals, and an arching shot is used showing that they are now a team and but the moment is made comedic when Angel makes a conventional action movie reply to shooting the enemy – ‘You’re a Doctor, deal with it’ along with a serious expression and a gun in his hand whereas Danny’s goofier reply is ‘Yeah, Motherfucker’ in an American accent which symbolises that he feels as if he is finally living his dream as a policeman in action then they both turn around in synchronised movement and Danny slips on his glasses just like the Bad boys film.

 

There is also a significant structure to Hot Fuzz which differs from previous layout which normal have three sections to it. Here, we have The crossover point is actually before anything kicks off,” continues Wright. “Danny makes Nicholas watch Point Break and Bad Boys 2 back-to-back and because it’s late, they both fall asleep in front of Bad Boys 2. I like the idea that even though they’re asleep, the Michael Bay-isms are permeating in their subconscious. After that point Nicholas becomes more like a badass cop!”

Overall, I liked the movie. It had the perfect balance of simple humour as well as presenting different sub-genres to add comedic effect. In my viewing, I spotted horror, action, western as well as a cruel sense of humour shown through the murders of citizens such as the murder of the flower shop owner in which a pair of garden shears are pierced viciously through her jugular and blood squirts out as if it were a leaking pipe. It defiantly had it moments of laughter as well as it’s slow moments and although the general storyline was quite predictable i.e. that he would end up liking Sandford and that he would solve the mystery, I fully enjoyed watching the scenes that led up to it and would recommend it to those who love a light laugh on a good night in.