Law Abiding Citizen- Contemporary Film Theory

After watching, Law Abiding Citizen by F. Gary Gray, under the cognitive film theory, the audio/visual interpretations I began to develop were diverse to say the least. This is one of those films, like Silence of the Lambs, where you rooting for the bad guy during the course of the movie. Why this reaction occurs is because of the intent of the director and how he portrayed actor Gerard Butler into a character with a bad ass persona. Viewers also felt excitement in response towards the number of explosions that occurred during this film. Desire could also be an emotion running through the viewer's head as shown from the power that Butler's character has over the justice system and how having that power is somewhat envious. When Butler's character begins to tear open a victim, limb by limb, this evokes a natural disgust reaction within the viewer and this reaction is only complemented by the desperate screams of the victim. The movie itself moves at a constant pace of suspense due to the unpredictability of Butler's character as he is put in situations where the odds are more than against him and as the viewer, you interpret this suspense with curiosity. The use of hard lighting on Gerard Butler shows the director's understanding of the psychoanalytical theory. The voyeurism behind this is the portrayal of the body and how it sends off signals of sexuality towards a female demographic. This film also has a bit of the Ideological theory in how it relates to the broken justice system that affects society in the eyes of the director. Though this film was not critically receptive, it did manage to keep the interest level high for me disregarding the performance by Jamie Fox.