1. Analyse how one or more scenes showed the complexity of a character or individual in a visual or oral text.

The Film ‘The Road To Perdition’, directed by Sam Mendes. Is a story where a father and his son travel across the wide and vast country named America. They are on the run from an unrelenting assassin. The film is set way back in the 1930’s America when the country was in the grip of immense gloominess. Embargo was still the law of the land and gangsters like Al Capone were at the height of their power. The audience is forced to plunge into this Underworld of crime as we follow the Sullivan’s on their journey to Perdition.

During one of the scenes, Mike senior Hug’s Mike Jnr at the end of the scene with a mid shot shows a connection. The music brings warmth, and the fire in the background shows warmth along with the soft lighting. This shows complexity of the character Mike Sullivan Snr as he is a gangster and part of a mafia. He shows his gangster connections when he is at the warehouse with Connor Rooney, Rooney suddenly shoots Finn and Sullivan guns down Finn's two friends who are also there before they have time to retaliate. Mendes uses a high angle shot from Michael Snr’s point of view when looking down on Mike Jnr at the gate outside the warehouse. This shot helps to Reinforces Sullivan’s dominance and authority over his son as the shot looks down on mike Jnr and makes him feel small and powerless compared to his father. These two shots show complexity of the character Mike Snr as he is trying to be kind and caring to his son in one scene and in the next shot, he is looking down upon him as if he is made a disgrace of the Sullivan family name and will never see eye to eye with him again.
Sam Mendes uses low lighting to stress this dark and evil side to Sullivan’s Snr’s nature, predominantly in the early stages of the film. For example, when Sullivan is in his garage making his preparations to go to the warehouse and again when he is at Calvino’s nightclub where he kills two men, he is dimly lit, this effect helps to create the feeling, tone and mood of what is going on and that Sullivan is a dark and dangerous man. Sullivan is not an entirely “horrific man”. Sam Mendes himself has described Sullivan as “someone who carries with him a sense of guilt and regret for the life he has led, but this regret is never stated; it is just felt and seen”. Sullivan tries to protect his family from his work and to prevent his son Michael from following the same path. The complexity of Sullivan’s character is expressed through lighting techniques. Mendes` frequently uses key lighting for Sullivan, showing his face half lit and half in shadow. A good example of this is at the wake for Danny McGovern, when Sullivan is lit in this way. The lighting is also appropriate to this situation where Sullivan’s work life and family life have collided. Lighting is also used to help us understand the change in Sullivan. At the farmhouse when he talks to Michael, he is lit more fully and warmly, and the warmth in the room is also coming from the fire which helps both mikes friendship as father and son become closer. This warmer lighter is used to show that Sullivan has grown closer to his son. Through the clever use of lighting Mendes enables us to understand Michael Sullivan Snr, his world and his relationships.
After Michael Sullivan Jnr has discovered what his father’s job is really about, by witnessing him gunning down three men at a warehouse, Mendes shows a shot of father and son in the car together but between them in the centre of the shot is the windscreen divider. This windscreen divider shows us the separation between both Michaels. It also helps us to understand how family and work are separate things in Sullivan’s life. This shows us a different type of complexity to what we see in other parts of the film because Michael Snr is not impressed at Michael Jnr for witnessing what he has done to these men.
In all the above examples Mendes has effectively used the layout of the shots to enable us to see that Sullivan is a distant, detached and remote man. This shows complexity as in other shots Mendes shows us a completely different man and in fact, a family man who cares for his family and would sacrifice anything for them. The complexity that Mendes shows of Michael Sullivan Snr is confusing as he is so brutally power Hungary when working for the Mafia and he shows such a soft caring side when around his family.