Justificaton

Photography is a tool used in film to portray important aspects of a film and debate key ideas. Key ideas such as ethics are debated through the tool of photography and lighting in films. This is shown true in The Usual Suspects, Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind and Gladiator. these films debate ethics and the ideas of what's morally right and wrong, and whether or not actions are justified.

In Usual Suspects the audience is given a sense of pride in the character of Kaizer Soze. Though everything Kaiser Sose does is considered morally wrong by most, but by the end of the film the audience roots for him. The audience justifies everything Keizer does. The use of lighting and photography through the film gives this sense to the audience. This comes along first with the ambiguity of Keizer’s identity. At the very first scene when Keizer kills Keanon. Keizer is shown in a position of power over Keaton. Keizers face is never shown through his entire persona in a cape of low key lighting, and his identity never given. The low key lighting gives him a domineering figure, at this point he is seen as a devil figure. With fire in the background, and high contrast lighting he seems to be the devil himself. The high angles of him on a balcony peeing on fire, gives him a sense of complete and total power over everything. This power is not justified yet to the audience, yet it isn’t condemned. So the idea of Keizer has the possibility to be a good one, with his total power. The justification begins when the audience meets Verbal, a mostly helpless cripple. Through getting to know verbal, he is shown in many high angle shots, making him seem helpless in the hands of others. He is the underdog, and the forced narrator story of the film. Telling the story through fake fear of the cop. The Audience roots for Verbal is as a character through his perceived innocence, illustrated  through cool colors that show peace and innocence. The expression, through the use of innocence, encourages the audience to care about Verbal as a character and the events that happen to him. So when it’s descovered that Verbal is indeed Kaizer Sose, the audience is already attached to the character, and internally rooting for him, simply because of the underdog effect. So when Keizer wins, Verbal wins, meaning the underdog wins, and everyone loves an underdog. This allows for a celebration of his victory, and a justification of all his wrongdoings...

Technology with the power to manipulate memories, and therefore love, is an ethical debate being argued through the film Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. The argument is that in the end it is justified because love will prevail, even with lost memories. When going through the journey of his relationship with Clementine, Joel realizes that the memories are worth keeping, the good and the bad. The formalistic cinema, gives metaphors for their relationship. When Clementine is in the process of being taken, she literally slides back, and is forcefully taken from him. The camera then shows Joel in a long distance birds eye shot, leaving him in a sense of complete helplessness, loss, and loneliness with the process of Clementine being ripped from him. After Joel wakes up from the process of his memories being erased, he is surrounded in his room of cool colors, leaving it to just being only him. However some small symbols of bright, warm colors, representing Clementine are left in the room, showing that even though her memories have been stolen from him, her presence, and his love for her remains. Love will prevail through any turmoil, justifying the erasing of the memories. Joel and Clementine’s relationship was one of love and passion rather than convenience. Their relationship is stronger than the erasing of each other's memories, and that gives them the chance to renew their relationship

Honor and Justice are the key ideas argued throughout the Gladiator. The actions of Maximus are justified by the end of the film because Honor for Rome wasachieved in the end. The death of Commodus is justified through the idea of him being an awful human being and a hinderance to Rome.This is shown throughout the film through the use of photography. The opening scene begins with a gruesome war scene presenting the  questions of justification, as well as  how much  a life is really worth. The use of slow stock captures the vivid colors and intensity of the war,Giving the audience insight into what it felt like and/as well as its intensity . This poses the question of whether or not this war is justified, whether the death and loss is justified. Commedos is given the characteristics of a complete villain, with all of his actions unjustified, leaving him very flat as a character. All of the people he indirectly killed through the legalization of gladiator arenas justified his death in the arena. Maximus’s killing of strangers in the arena is justified to get a revenge on Commedos. The loss  of his Wife and son also justify the revenge on Commedos. The loss is protrayed through a hazy filter, showing the loss of clarity he got on life with their loss, giving him only one goal,revenge on Commodus, who took everything from him, and to restore Rome. This scene of his family's death justifies all of the people he killed himself.