The opinion piece, A Time of Fear and Loathing, by Helen Razer, provides us with a backdrop to understand the context within which Watt has created Look Both Ways. It can be said that a climate of fear has dominated society in recent times. In 2002 the September 11 attacks took place in America and in 2005, the year Look Both Ways was released, a spate of bombings occurred in London on July 7. These events happened to ordinary people going about their normal, everyday business; the reality for all of us is just how vulnerable we all are at any moment in our lives.
Look Both Ways is a social portrait that considers society on many levels; it presents a commentary on peoples' personal lives, local community and the bigger world picture. Watt has purposely constructed the text in this way to show how the everyday minutiae of our lives are shaped by our connections with others and what is happening around us. This leads the viewer to consider how, just like the characters in Look Both Ways, we are constantly being impacted upon by our connections with others both directly and indirectly. More often than not we will tend to be influenced by the negative news that seems to bombard us in both our interactions with others and the media. In the film the characters all read the news about the Arnow Hill train crash and Rob's death.
When we read Razer's article you will find you can easily identify correlations between what she has written and the themes and ideas of negativity and fear Watt highlights in her film through Meryl's animations and Nick's photomontages. While it is easy to see that Watt is pointing out to the viewer that people are constantly dealing with a narrative of death and disaster being presented to them daily in their lives, it takes a resistant reading of the text to realise the underlying message Watt intends.
What do you think this message is?
NB: The final song of the film, used during the closing credits, is Never Ever Worry by Lord Pretender.
Look Both Ways is a social portrait that considers society on many levels; it presents a commentary on peoples' personal lives, local community and the bigger world picture. Watt has purposely constructed the text in this way to show how the everyday minutiae of our lives are shaped by our connections with others and what is happening around us. This leads the viewer to consider how, just like the characters in Look Both Ways, we are constantly being impacted upon by our connections with others both directly and indirectly. More often than not we will tend to be influenced by the negative news that seems to bombard us in both our interactions with others and the media. In the film the characters all read the news about the Arnow Hill train crash and Rob's death.
When we read Razer's article you will find you can easily identify correlations between what she has written and the themes and ideas of negativity and fear Watt highlights in her film through Meryl's animations and Nick's photomontages. While it is easy to see that Watt is pointing out to the viewer that people are constantly dealing with a narrative of death and disaster being presented to them daily in their lives, it takes a resistant reading of the text to realise the underlying message Watt intends.
What do you think this message is?
NB: The final song of the film, used during the closing credits, is Never Ever Worry by Lord Pretender.
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