Essay question: what techniques does the director, Danny DeVito, use in the film Matilda to illustrate the character, Agatha Trunchbull, as evil and malicious (mean)? The film ‘Matilda’ directed by Danny DeVito released in 1996, is a film in which the principal, Ms Trunchbull, is depicted as an evil and malicious person through her intimidating appearance, unpleasant personality, the suspenseful lighting and lastly the unflattering camera angles.
To begin with, Ms Trunchbul’s intimidating appearance depicts her as an evil character, because of this, it clearly shows that she is the wicked character in this film. Her appearance does have an effect on the child and on people looking at her because Matilda states “looking at her, you get the feeling that’s is was someone who could bend iron bars and tear telephone directories in half” this statement clearly shows that Ms Trunchbull’s appearance makes the children and people think that she is not a person which they should mess with or get on her ‘wrong side’.
Ms Trunchbull is a very muscular woman, almost a masculine build, with a very bulk neck, big shoulders and thick arms; from this description Ms Trunchbull is not an average woman, being bigger than everyone else within the movie, and most females. It also makes us feel that she would not be an approachable person, and a person children would be scared of. Along with her dark harsh clothing, which is very unflattering, and old fashioned, she is the completely opposite to her niece, Miss Honey, who wears bright, fashionable clothes which makes her look like a nice and approachable person.
Additionally, because Ms Trunchbull is such a cruel person to her students and to even her family, she makes every else in the movie seem nice, and as a viewer her appearance makes us feel as though she is a terrible person, and you wouldn’t want your child to be going to her school because of the ways she speaks, treats and handles her students, makes you scared of being around her, and scared to do anything when she is near.
Therefore, the director, Danny DeVito, has rightfully used an intimidating appearance to illustrate Ms Trunchbull as an evil and malicious character. Secondly, Ms Trunchbull’s unpleasant personality is what makes her known as an unapproachable person, because of things such as the ways she speaks and the way she acts. Throughout the movie when she talks in a deep voice which is also very loud, by doing this it also makes her seem scarier, and makes her see ‘manlier’, which makes her seem more like a boss.
She is yelling on most occasions in the movie, by yelling at the children in their faces it makes them more afraid of her, which shows that she has a terrible personality and isn’t a person who you would want around your children. Furthermore, Ms Trunchbull is always referring to her students as a twat, witch, rat etc. and is always groaning, growling or moaning which is another way she expresses her anger, by using these words and making these types of noises it makes her seem more threatening, intimidating and that she angry, and so that the children know something’s up and someone is going to get blamed for it.
Ms Trunchbull hates kids, why she’s running a school which is full of kids, we’ll never know, but when she is angry she always has to find someone to blame, or take out her anger on, and in scene she throws a child over the fence by her braids on either side of her head, or even in another scene she throws a child out of a window. This shows that when she’s frustrated or she needs a way to release her anger, she takes it out on the kids by throwing them.
Moreover, in the movie, she says “I have never been able to understand why small children are so disgusting. They are the bane of my life. They’re like insects: they should be got rid of as early as possible. My idea of a perfect school is once which there are no children… at all. ” This line which Ms Trunchbull says, it clearly shows by saying that children are the bane to her life, is saying that children are annoying, and are a waste of space, and parents should get rid of them straight away whilst they can.
As a result of this, Ms Trunchbulls unpleasant and disgusting personality, also portrays her as an evil and malicious person, because of the things which she does to her own students, and of the way in which she treats people, whether they are her own students, her family, or other adults. Thirdly, the lighting which is used when Ms Trunchbull is in the scene, helps add to her intimidating appearance, as different lighting portrays different things, which helps illustrate her as an evil person.
All throughout the movie whenever Ms Trunchbull was in the scene bottom and side line is always used, by using this lighting it makes her seem more dangerous, evil, and as though she has no good side. This lighting technique also makes Ms Trunchbull look ugly and unattractive, which helps add to her intimidating appearance by being ugly and unattractive no one wants to be around you. Low lighting is also another type of lighting technique which is used, this is used to create suspense and suspicion, and the also flood the scene with shadows and darkness.
When this type of lighting is used it makes us feel powerless and tense because we know something bad, or scary is going to happen and we can’t do anything about it, and have no control over it. But the complete opposite happens when Miss Honey is in the scene, front and back lighting is used which gives her an innocent appearance, or she is good, or a halo effect. This lighting shows that Miss Honey is the complete opposite of her aunty, Ms Trunchbull, as she is a nice and caring person and is someone which you can approach and not be intimidated.
High key lighting if also used with Miss Honey, because whenever she is in scene, it is always flooded with light which makes it bright and there is nothing to hide. For this reason, by having these two different lighting techniques between two different characters, it helps illustrate that Miss Honey is a sweet and nice person, but also shows that Ms Trunchbull is an evil and malicious character.
Finally, the unflattering camera angles also plays and major part in illustrating Ms Trunchbull as an evil character to the audience because, firstly, low camera angles because it makes Ms Trunchbull seem bigger than everyone else, which makes her look as though she is the strongest, biggest and more powerful and very threatening, this also helps link back to her appearance, because by making her look bigger and stronger than everyone else, it makes everyone else in the movie seem much smaller, and because of this it makes Ms Trunchbull seem very intimidating.
The medium shot is most commonly used as it helps us to understand her personality better, in other meaning, because this hot is of the waist above it shows us her body language and her appearance, and because she has terrible body language when talking to people, it shows that she has a disgusting personality, because she doesn’t really care, and the camera shot helps portray her appearance because, we are able to her face, what she wearing and what she looks and acts like in general.
Extreme is used frequently throughout the movie, this shot makes her look bigger, and helps to express her anger, and helps us the understand better because, with it being closer to her face we are able to see she is angry, because we are able to see her facial expressions and the redness of her face. And so, by using things such as low camera angles, medium shot, or extreme close ups on Ms Trunchbull, it help depict her as an evil and malicious character because it shows us her appearance, facial expressions and body language, which makes her seem angry or shows she is person which is scary and a person we should make angry.
In conclusion, the film ‘Matilda’ depicts Ms Trunchbull is an evil and malicious character, because of techniques such as her intimidating appearance of things such as her bulk neck, big shoulders and thick arms, through to her unapproachable personality because of her continuous yelling and cruelty on her students, to the suspenseful lighting whether it high, side or bottom lighting, to finally the unflattering camera angles which makes her look much bigger than everyone else, that the director Danny DeVito uses, helps characterize Ms Trunchbull as this type of person.