Hot Fuzz (2007)
Rated: R (USA) - BBFC Rating: 15 | Running Time: 121 mins | Genre: Action/Comedy
Produced by:
Tim Bevan (Producer)
Eric Fellner (Producer)
Nira Park (Producer)
Natascha Wharton (Executive Producer)
Karen Beever (Associate Producer)
Ronaldo Vasconcellos (Line Producer)
Writers:
Edgar Wright
Simon Pegg
Starring:
Simon Pegg (Nicholas Angel)
Nick Frost (PC Danny Butterman)
Martin Freeman (Met Sgt.)
Bill Nighy (Met Chief Insp.)
Director:
Edgar Wright
Music by:
David Arnold
Cinematography:
Jess Hall (Director of Photography)
Costume Design by:
Annie Hardinge
Distributed by:
Universal Pictures (International)
Rogue Pictures (USA)
Production Design by:
Marcus Rowland
Box Office:
After a week of its release in the UK, the film generated £7.1 million; in the US, it grossed $5.8 million, which made the film the highest “per-cinema” average of any top 10 film of that week.
After two weeks in which Rogue Pictures expanded the cinema count in the US, the film grossed $4.9 million.
Worldwide, Hot Fuzz grossed $80.1 million and earned nearly twice the amount that Shaun of the Dead made in 9 weeks in the US; in other countries, this gross was triple the amount.
Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) has an impeccable record with the Metropolitan Police in London, with his arrest record being 400% higher than any other officer on the force. His team soon realise that his skills are outshining their own, making them look like utter slackers on the job. With this said, his superiors forcibly promote Angel to Sergeant, but it comes with a price: he must go to the 'perfect' village of Sandford against his will, where there had not been any crimes recorded within the last 20 years.
During his first few hours at the crime-free village, Angel finds himself kicking out a bunch of underage drinkers from the local pub, soon arresting them for disorderly conduct on the streets; one of these being his new partner, Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). Danny is a goofy and overeager character and pesters his partner for answers of what his job life was like in London, believing him to be a real-life "Bad Boy". He is the son of the amiable Police Chief Inspector, Frank Butternman (Jim Broadbent) and loves action films. For Angel's character, Danny's behaviour is all too childish, thus he dismisses this but Danny's puppy-like enthusiasm only increases Angel's frustration.
For the next few days, Angel is distressed by the lack of activity within the village, and the only close-to-exciting things he has done is chase a runaway swan along with a shoplifter; but things start to get interesting once the two local thespians are murdered by a dark cloaked figure with a hatchet, who appears for the first time. Angel is convinced that something sticky is happening in Sandford and does not understand why his team believe this was 'a gory traffic accident' if there were no skid marks on the road.
These 'accidents' continue to occur, and the next day, businessman George Merchant is found dead in his home. Police were quick to say this was an explosion that happened during breakfast as the crime scene was covered with bacon and beans. Angel is still suspicious of what is going on and once again believes this to be a murder. The following Saturday, Angel witnesses Tim Messenger - a reporter - being decapitated by a stone that fell from the roof of the Church. Messenger had previously asked Angel to meet him at 3PM behind the Church to tell him a secret. Not knowing what this was, Angel gets frustrated and confronts his team, who still count this as an accident.
Angel tries to solve these mysteries, without realising it was his partners birthday, thus he decides to get a peace Lily from the local flower shop. As soon as he steps outside to his car, a dark figure appears stabbing the shop owner in the neck with a pair of gardening shears. Angel chases after it, but is unable to catch up to the wounded villain. Convinced that it was Simon Skinner, the manager of Somerfield, Angel takes his team to confront him. Angel makes a convincing case, outlining all that he had discovered, but once he finds out that Skinner had no wound on his leg, he is left embarrassed; surveillance tapes of the store also established that Skinner was at work all day.
Feeling like he should give up, Angel realises that there is more than one killer on the loose. His theory is confirmed when he himself is attacked by a hooded figure with a hatchet, in his hotel room. After he defeats the figure, whom he discovers is one of Skinner's employees, he runs to the castle outside the village. It is there that he finds the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance (NWA) and he automatically figures out that it was them killing the locals who, according to them, were ruining their reputation of being Britain's Best Village. In the name of the Law, Angel attempts to arrest the group, only to find Frank and Danny were part of the scandal.
Angel then tries to escape the castle, with the group chasing him, but comes across the remains of others that the NWA had killed. Once Angel is out, the group surround him and Danny fakes Angel's death and stuffs him in the trunk of his car and they drive off for London. At a safe distance, Danny explains that he had no idea of his father's plan and persuades Angel to take his car and go home. Seeing a collection of films at a local supermarket, Angel realises that he must return to Sandford to finish the job he started. Once there, he grabs the amminutions that had been stored in the police evidence room and gears up on a white horse.
Hell breaks loose as the NWA try to take down Angel from behind a fountain. Watching the action from the police car, Danny decides that if he wants to live life like the 'Bad Boys' he too must choose to fight. Once by Angel's side, the two manage to battle it out, taking down as many villains as they can. Managing to succeed on their mission, Angel's Superiors arrive to congratulate him on his efforts and plead him to return, but he refuses.
Back at the station, the team decide to celebrate their victory, but in turn, appears an unexpected visitor. Frank had survived his car accident and tries to shoot Angel, but Danny steps in the way to save his dear friend. The station is destroyed as the sea mine is detonated, but fortunately no one dies. Angel and Danny's life becomes all that much better a later on: Danny is promoted to Sergeant and Angel becomes an Inspector. Together, they continue to patrol through the streets of Sandford and take on whatever comes in their way.
Synopsis
Purpose
The main purpose of any film, being the obvious, is to make money and to entertain. With this said, let us focus on the other aspects of the Hot Fuzz purpose…
The positive response Wright gained from the main characters' relationship in his Shaun of the Dead film made him feel as though he needed to reproduce this bond once again. With this being said, the first film had already generated a wide fan base, thus Hot Fuzz did not need as much to capture their attention; these fans were already used to the over-exaggerated, humourous parody style of the films.
Some theorists believe films to be subjective as "in the online age, it is getting harder to conceive a media audience as a stable, identifiable group. Many argue that an audience is just a hypothetical group of people imagined for the sole purpose having a target for a media product", states Julian McDougall (2009). He may be implying here that different audience members would have different reactions towards a film.
More information:
Genre
The genre defines the style of any film, allowing the audience to recognise it from the start. Hot Fuzz mixes different conventions of different genres: Action, Comedy and Drama, allowing for a great comical impact on the audience and allows them to stay interested in the film. Audience members would recognise a particular genre because of how familiar they are with it and offers a variety of emotional pleasures, for instance, sympathy. This should please everyone, as this is a hybrid example of the 3 main genres that most people would pay to watch.
The conventions of a specific genre, for example: guns in an action film (Hot Fuzz exaggerates the many guns used to emphasise an American parody as guns are not used in the UK) are what help the viewers to differentiate genre styles. Conventions use codes, which are a system of signs that are usually put together sequentially to communicate significance. There are 3 types of codes: Technical, Symbolic and Written. Technical codes involve camera techniques: framing, lighting and mise-en-scene; Symbolic codes are anything that has meaning. These are: objects, setting, body language, clothing and colour and these are linked to a specific genre. Written codes are all the writing seen on the screen. These are headlines, captions, speech bubbles and language style.
Hot Fuzz uses the action based comedy conventions such as the main characters being part of the police force, which symbolises action, weapons handling and violence. The comedy aspect is portrayed through the action; comedic elements such as slapsticks are used throughout certain action scenes, but also the comparison between the all-time serious, Nick Pegg and his not so serious partner, Danny. This contrast of personalities is not what would usually be expected within an action film. In addition, Comedy usually lessens the impact of blood and violence within a film. Horror conventions was also added to give a sense of mystery and tension: the black cloaked figure could stereotypically be compared to the grim reaper, a technique used in Scream. Low key lighting and night time settings was also used to fit the conventions of a horror film.
According to BK Grant, a functional film genre is perceived as "collective expressions of contemporary life that strike a particular resonant chord with audiences" (1986).
STYLE
The types of shots, lighting, editing, sound effects and so on, can be used to distinguish a film's genre. We can see that right at the beginning of Hot Fuzz, Angel uses effective sharp movements in his busy London life and the fast paced jump cuts adds to how busy it is there. A voiceover is used here in order for the audience to know more about the main character in a small space of time, giving them the insight on how the character will act throughout the film; this is a good contrast to the longer scenes used when Angel gets to Sandford, showing a much boring environment, through longer scenes, with much less do to. Scenes get more exciting and mysterious as the murders start to happen, and we see Angel back in action trying to solve all the murders as tension grows. Furthermore, the writers of the film were inspired by such films, as Bad Boys, due to the 360 pan shots used - a technique used to show the close relationship between the characters' in Bad Boys which Wright and Pegg purposefully used for Angel and Butterman's buddy-relationship.
Theorists, such as Hartley, suggests that institutions produce:
"Invisible fictions of the audience which allow the institutions to get a sense of who they must enter into relations with".
In simpler words, they must know their audience to be able to target them effectively.
Meaning
Form
Hot Fuzz is a Working Title Films production that takes the form of a two hour feature length film, released in cinemas throughout the UK - 14 February 2007 - and the US - 20 April 2007. This Action/Comedy written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg is part of the 'Cornetto Trilogy', a series of Edgar's films, 'Shaun of the Dead' [2004], 'Hot Fuzz' [2007], and 'World's End' [2013]. The name given was due to the scenes added in each film
“Films are subjective — what you like, what you don’t like. But the thing for me that is absolutely unifying is the idea that every time I go to the cinema and pay my money and sit down and watch a film go up on-screen, I want to feel that the people who made that film think it’s the best movie in the world, that they poured everything into it and they really love it. Whether or not I agree with what they’ve done, I want that effort there — I want that sincerity. And when you don’t feel it, that’s the only time I feel like I’m wasting my time at the movies.” — Christopher Nolan
Locations:
~ City of Wells, Somerset - The cast of Hot Fuzz decided to check out this city in the summer of 2006, in which they soon turned into 'Sandford'; it was not the first film Wright made in Wells.
- The Crown Pub at Wells, Somerset (The Pub)
- The Swan at Well, Somerset (Angel's hotel)
- The Bishop's Palace at Wells, Somerset (Sandford Castle)
- The Royal Standard Of England, Buckinghamshire
- The Barn Theatre, Herforshire
- Interior of Supermarket at Hounslow, Greater London
The various scenes in which Angel is doing paperwork was inspired by Tony Scott's editing style used in the film Domino. This was done as all the police officers who were interviewed for the film said that they had never seen the process of doing paperwork dramatised in a film.
How do they link?
Both the Content and Purpose relate as Hot Fuzz was made to keep the audience entertained, linking with the above Hypodermic Needle Theory where it states "... an all powerful media with uniform and direct effects on the viewer or audience." This links with the Content because if the plot line is not interesting, the audience will automatically realise, thus will choose not to watch the chosen film.
This interlinks with the Meaning similar to the way the Content does through the use of Mise-En-Scene and how it is used to show the deeper meaning behind certain scenes. For instance, how Angel uses two guns in the final part of the film to emphasise comedic elements that mimics the ‘American bad boy cop’. The music also builds tension and suspense; the audience at this point will be waiting at the edge of their seats to see if Angel captures the bad guys or not.
•Settings & Props: Small part of the village is shown in the background revealing that the action is taking place within the small town of Sandford. Props, such as the two guns (portraying violence) and the bicycle are used to create a more realistic feel to the film.
•Costume, Hair & Make Up: The lady is wearing a long creme coat which covers her full body, along with a brown scarf which could portray or foreshadow secrecy and the fact that there is more to be discovered. Butterman is wearing his police uniform, showing he is on duty.
•Facial Expressions & Body Language: As Butterman is on duty, one would expect him to be focused and looking as if he were on a mission, which is exactly what his facial expression reveals. He looks serious and is concentrating on knocking the lady off of he bicycle as he looks in the mirror. Her look of horror and shock can be seem as an automatic reaction to what Butterman chose to do as she knows what will happen to her as soon as she hits the car door.
•Lighting & Colour: High key lighting is used, creating a natural and realistic scene; there is no sun therefore, this scene is not used to present a good day, but is possibly showing that something bad will happen (foreshadowing).
•Positioning of characters/objects within the frame: Neither of the characters are central to the frame, indicating both have significance in the scene's action; Butterman is positioned bottom right, revealing the right side of the car. It shows the right door being opened and meanwhile, towards the left, the lady is on her bicycle and ready to crash into the door - not in her control. The frame positioning is good for showing that she was in the wrong place and the wrong time.
•Settings & Props: From this medium
close up shot, it is hard to identify their
surroundings, other that Angel and
Butterman are in a car with a swan.
Although, the greenery in the back and
the slight pathway behind the swan can
suggest that they are on a narrow road.
Props used would be the gun in Angel's
hand and the swan in the back of the car.
Both of these props contrast as the gun
symbolises tension and danger, whereas,
the swan in the background gives this
action scene a sense of comedic purpose.
•Costume, Hair & Make Up: Both are in
their police uniform, suggesting that they are on duty. It contrasts with the previous image of Butterman and the lady as he has now taken his tie off, giving us the impression that he has loosened up. This can also be said about Angel.
•Facial Expressions & Body Language: Both characters look determined to get the job done. This is shown through the seriousness of their facial expressions and also the way both characters are shown to be gripping tightly onto something: Butterman on the steering wheel; Angel on the gun. Further connotations could be that Butterman is steering Angel into playing the hero, as he is the one who possesses a gun.
•Lighting & Colour: High Key Lighting is mainly used in this scene, once again creating a natural and realistic feel to the film. Although this is so, there is still shadows casted on Butterman's left side and Angel's right side, showing a sense of mystery and possibly foreshadowing danger.
•Positioning of characters/objects within the frame: The swan is positioned at the centre of the frame, linking to the fact that this may have purposefully been done solely to create humour. This reduces the danger feel of the action. Angel and Butterman and both to the side of the frame, once again, allowing the audience's main focus to be on the swan.
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