RESEARCH: Deconstruction 1

Film Deconstruction of ‘Step Brothers’ 

Director:Adam McKay

Year: 2008

Certification: 15

Genre: Comedy

For this film deconstruction I shall deconstruct the first two minutes of the movie ‘Step Brothers’, starting from the end of the opening credits. The whole opening scene is jump cutting between two different families, which both share the similarity of having 40 year old sons still living at home. Finally it reveals that the single Father and Mother of each family get married, this means the opening of the movie is not real-time because they meet and marry within minutes. I shall now take you through how the film manages to display the similarities between the families, and shows the event of the marriage developing.

The first thing the audience experience is diegetic sound just at the end of the credits of a person preparing food, which soon cuts into a visual experience of a close up of a man making nacho’s. After this there is more diegetic sound as you hear the man pressing the microwave oven, and see a close up of this. All these things combine to show the user that this middle aged man is just like a teenager, cooking breakfast in a microwave. At this point there is non-diegetic sound of the song which plays throughout the whole opening scene. This music is upbeat which hints that the film will be a comedy, and also is quite young to help with the image of the middle aged men acting younger than they are. As well as this, the music is fast paced which suits the way time moves really quickly in the opening scene as two people meet and marry in the space of seconds.

Following the music beginning, the audience sees the other family for the first time, with a vertical pan of a man picking out and smelling dirty pyjamas to put on. This immediately indicated that this man is similar to that of the other family, as the first man was dressed in pyjamas like a child as well. Now it quickly cuts back the other family and shows a close up of what the man has prepared for breakfast, which is; chocolate cereal, nachos and a blue fizzy drink. Everything so far has just gone towards contributing how these two men don’t act their age. Next you see a parent for this first time, in this case the original man’s Mother. It is obvious they live together, and the man is still very reliant on the mother. This is from the dialogue of the Mum saying when she’ll be home. The Mum is dressed smart which shows she works and earns the money for both of them. This clip ends with the man lusting over a female on TV, just like a teenager would do. The camera shots in this bit are just all mid-range.

At this point the editing switches to the family which we have not seen much of yet, and shows a long shot of the man playing air guitar just like a teenager. Then his Father walks in, dressed in a formal suit, so you can already see the similarities between him and the other Mother. In a way it’s like two parallel families. Just like the other family, the Dad gives instructions before he leaves so you can see that the man is still like a teenager and treated like one. The mise-en-scene of both houses was very smart, and you’d think both parents are quite rich and it is clearly their house – not the sons.

In the next part of the opening scene it begins with a close up of a posh chandelier, before panning left to what is clearly the Dad giving a speech at a business conference. Then it quickly identifies that the Mum is sitting in the audience, so the audience gets an idea that the two parallel families are about to collide. The editing here does some shot/reverse shot between the Dad speaking and the Mum listening, showing that they are looking at each other. The man is then put off his speech by the woman, and the audience can see they are attracted to each other. The scene then quickly cuts to the couple romancing, and the dialogue shows them realising how similar their families are. Next thing you hear sound of a toast, which is the sound of a speech beginning at a wedding. It quickly becomes apparent that the two parental figures have got married, and there is a slight low angle of the man speaking.

The whole opening scene is combining to show a number of things: Firstly, the similarities between the two families, and secondly to show the parents getting married. The editing is fast paced jumping between two families and then two a marriage. The music is also fast paced, both of these help to show that the time is not real-time and the story is sped up. The mise-en-scene shows that the two families are the same - in particular the two middle aged children. In conclusion, I feel this is a good opening scene as the story is very clear and its fast paced to keep the viewer engaged.