Mean Creek Essay 2

Describe a setting and explain how it influenced what happened in the film that you have studied.

In the film Mean Creek the settings had a big influence on what happened throughout it. The main setting at the water helps manipulate the plot and what is going to happen throughout the story.

The movie Mean Creek was mostly filmed on a creek in a rural area. This creek was mainly muddy greens and browns bringing the film a gloomy feel. At the start of the film the creek seemed to be filled with natural light flowing from behind the trees. As the film progressed the lighting seemed to turn dimmer as the events seemed to get worse. The setting of this film may have influenced the occurrences as it allowed the characters to be vulnerable to the dangers of the water and the intense emotional feel the setting has on the scenes which occur there.
As an audience, having the movie filmed on the water you would assume that the characters are going to be vulnerable to water dangers. Having the movie filmed here influenced the drowning of George as it allowed the ‘accident’ to easily take place. The characters were on the water for more than half of the movie which also allowed the characters to have a bigger chance of getting in water trouble.
The setting also influenced what happened as the swampy feel gave the film the feel of things going very wrong. It was here that the group is confronted with difficult decisions and is forced to make them alone in the emptiness of the creek bank. The sense of loneliness bred in this setting could also be blamed for the accident which happened as it made the characters more vulnerable to making poor decisions. The intensity of this setting may have had an effect on the in- security that the characters may have felt and helped symbolize the hard decisions that the characters had to make.

The setting at the creek influenced the plot of the film as it was the perfect place for vulnerable teenagers to get into trouble without any witnesses except themselves. The settings allowed the characters to make decisions which may have been forced upon them by the elders of the group without any adults to intervene.