Task 2 - Research Into Existing Products: Levi Strauss Binary Oppositions - Crime Genre

In the late twentieth century, two theorists by the names Claude Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes developed the idea of "Binary Opposites" which exist only as of cultural creations within the current society. They discovered that representations of words and objects only had significant meaning due to the fact they had an opposite.

In applying this to today's movie's, there are very clear binary opposites in most genres and within those movies. A good example of these Binary Opposites is the Crime genre which most simply focuses on the polar differences between the good and bad, justice and injustice. Within the movie Heat (1995), the opening sequence clearly presents these opposites within how the thief act, how they dress, what they intend to do and on a basic moral ground.

In the opening scene, there is an overall presence that portrays the thieves as being more calculated and more sophisticated than any "normal" band of thieves, and also that they have everything so planned out that they can avoid the Law. One of the most notable Binary Opposites is the use in prop choice and vehicles by the thieves who are supplied with advanced assault rifles and have managed to obtain heavy duty vehicles. On the opposite side of the spectrum however, it is very aware that the security seen the be being robbed are merely equipped with mere handguns and batons showing that very clearly the Law can not compete with these thieves, thus supporting the theory founded by Strauss and Barthes which further emphasises the conventional "bad guys"'s villainy and tone in the movie.

The parallel of who is outwitting who is played with throughout the entire run of the movie with Al Pacino not only being dedicated to stopping the criminals, which plays to the conventions within the genre, but it also shows the audience that these two Binary Opposites aren't in a stable position at any point in the movie. This point is further emphasised later in the movie when the two leads Al Pacino and Robert De Niro have a "face off" in a restaurant, neither of them giving into their set Binary Opposite. The typical opposite that many Crime movies use is having the "Good Guys" be represented as the smart people who are solving the case and figuring it out and the "Bad Guys" be the nonsensical people who are always tripping up over themselves and making mistakes for the benefit of clearly defining these Opposites. Se7en is a good example of this but uses it to the advantage of creating a twist at the climax of the movie, leading the audience to believe that just as the Detectives were about to solve the case, the Villain reveals their carefully calculated plan which is several steps ahead of the Detectives, completely swapping the conventional Binary Opposites that the movie, and other's in it's genre, have set up throughout the story.