Film Analysis - The Selfish Giant (2013)

Film Analysis:
The Selfish Giant (2013) - Directed by Clio Barnard
Starring: Connor Chapman, Shaun Thomas and Sean Gilder

This film is a thrilling, social realism detailing the struggle that two young boys face, scrapping metal and stealing wires, looking for a place to belong. Strong themes of friendship, abuse, neglect, exploitation, teamwork and struggle are evident in this film. The two main protagonists, Arbor and Swifty are young boys who battle their economic state throughout the film, going to extreme lengths, testing their friendship and trust of each other. Like many other films in the social realism genre, films such as 2009’s Fish Tank, The Selfish Giant focuses on one particular area of society, showing a presumably middle class audience that many people live in such ways that we can’t even imagine. The themes are reinforced by the strong and accurate use of micro-features, most notably, cinematography, sound and performance.

The film’s strongest theme is one that resonates throughout and doesn’t become apparent to the audience until very near the end of the story. The title, ‘The Selfish Giant’ refers to the owner of the scrapyard. Originally this story was a tale written by Oscar Wilde, a famous writer from the early 20th century. Barnard, the director wanted to create an adaptation of this tale however put more of a focus on the boys than the Giant. Many of this film’s micro-features helps either separate the boys or bring them closer. Several shots of both Arbor and Swifty are tracking shots that follow them as they walk down the street, seeing two people walking side by side is a universal sign that those people are friends. The bond that Barnard created between the boys is exemplified by the final few scenes of the film in which Arbor is so destroyed by Swifty’s death that he waits by his families home for days just for a chance to give his apologies. Another area in which this friendship is illustrated is in the opening and ending of the film. A close-up shot is used on Arbor and Swifty holding hands after Swifty tries to calm Arbor down from a tantrum, after Swifty’s death this same shot is used in a vision or perhaps flash back that Arbor has, this ties up all the lose ends of their friendship, showing that all the jealously, fights and discrepancies don’t mean anythings as they have a strong brotherly bond.

The contrast between Arbor and Swifty’s characters is fuelled by their differing performances. Arbor (Connor Chapman) is presented as a foul mouthed school dropout who just wants to earn money in order to help his mother. His family is disjointed with him having no father figure and a drug abusing brother. Arbor’s character is fuelled by his rage for not being able to support his family, he acts as though he is the man of the house, giving his mother the money he earns every time she can’t pay for something. Arbor works alongside Swifty (Shaun Thomas) whose family is quite different. He has a mother, father and several siblings however the father is a raging alcoholic and his mother is too weak to defend herself. Arbor and Swifty, because of these neglectful upbringings rely on each other and find themselves in quite a brotherly relationship. The way in which both of the characters are built helps build the tension for the films most climactic moment. Arbor and Swifty reach a level of desperation after they deceive the ‘Giant’ and must steal some electrical wiring that is part of the mainline current. The audience up till this point most likely favours Swifty for not becoming overwhelmed with greed and trying to earn money in a more respectable way than scrapping, Arbor on the other hand seems to only care about money and even sabotages Swifty’s chance of racing the Giant’s horse. Arbor’s character is diagnosed with an attention deficit disorder in order to explain many of the things that he does.

Throughout the film a certain repetitious set of notes is repeated, similar to that of many other thrillers such as 1975’s Jaws, is used to build tension. The soundtrack of a film is necessary in many cases because it can be used in order to describe to the audience what the atmosphere in a scene is supposed to be, even in (especially in) scenes where not much is happening visually, the sound can illustrate and personify the atmosphere. The Selfish Giant uses this very well during Swifty’s death and Arbor’s mourning scene as it uses little dialogue here and keeps the audiences wondering what is going to happen.

The film looks at the state of people who may not be as fortunate, the films main focus is on teenagers who are forced to grow up in these scenarios. Barnard portrays Swifty and Arbor as very different kinds of children, Arbor as an extrovert with ADHD, whose primary goal is to support his family and Swifty as the introvert, whose bond with animals balances him with Arbor showing him to be the ‘sensitive one’ with more experience and knowledge. The entire idea of the horse which Swifty fixates on is a symbol of serenity, the Giant abuses and takes advantage of Arbor and Swifty however the horse serves as a kind of goal or reward for Swifty. Both protagonists strive for different things, this is done to show audiences the contrast and extreme variation that can occur among young people. Barnard’s intention was to show that children are more than what they seem, they can go the extra mile and will do almost anything for those they love, no matter how they appear. Most middle class people watching this film, immediately discriminate them based on their appearance, their accents and the way in which they address life, however Barnard wanted to create a climactic reveal to make audience care about the loss of a child, Swifty, who they at the start of the film would have shunned off.