Zane's Notes

Tracker Practise Q.2

Zane Fitzgerald, Oct 01, 2023

Discuss the way in which at least one studied text has manipulated aspects of genre for a particular purpose.

Attempt 1

Purpose

The Purpose of the Tracker is to convey the impact of colonoliasm on the lives of Aboriginal Australians, as well as it’s prevelance within 1922 Australia.

The Plan
  • Paintings subvert the western genre’s violence trope
    • They obscure violence with paintings
      • This atleast partially respects the aboriginal tradition of not depicitng the full images/naming of the dead.
        • Though it is also not really Aboriginal Styled paintings, could also be viewed as the deliberate disregard for their traditions of avoiding the concept of death as a whole.
      • Extradiagetic Audio during the painting scenes
  • The Cast subverts western genre’s protagonist trope
    • Protagonists, The Tracker / The follower (sort of), Neither fit the western archetype. according to this website, a Western’s Protagonist is; “Strong-willed, Individualistic with a temper that can not be tamed, keen to defend himself and his interests.”
      • neither the Tracker nor Follower fit that description fully.
      • The description much more aptly defines the fanatic.
    • The Follower (& veteran) especially show how ordinary people participated in the harmful acts of colonialism, shows how far it reached.

Introduction

Westerns are a portal to a foreign past, they allow a Director to convey their view of society as it was. Rolf De Heer did just this in his notorious 2002 Western; ”The Tracker”. Set in 1922, the film chronicles a unnamed group of whites, led by an unnamed aboriginal man hereafter referred to as the tracker, who assists them in locating a accused aboriginal so he can serve his time on the noose. Throughout the film generic conventions of a Western are subverted to convey the impact of colonoliasm on the lives of Aboriginal Australians, as well as the prevelance of Racism within white 1922 Australia.

BP 1 - Paintings

Westerns as a whole are known for their bold embrace of violence. The tracker is no exception, it depicts “Innocent women and children” being shot by the film’s protagonists, where it differs is it’s presentation of these massacures. The instant before significant events, mainly those involving death or violence, the screen always cuts to a painting depicting what happened, Environmental Diagetic Audio becomes Extradiagetic as we hear the events play out, taking the Viewer out of the Action, but not out of the experience as our Imaginations are forced to fill in the gaps with the image & audio as primer. This helps the

Attempt 2

Purpose

Purpose is to raise awareness of the severity of australia’s shameful and dark colonial history.

The Plan

  • The first massacure;
    • Their shouting and berating of the aboriginal people is displaced by ExtraDiegetic audio of music, “their my people” repeated in various orders, aboriginal language inbetween.
    • As they get more aggressive framing between shots positions whites further up then the aboriginals
    • near the end, we get mutliple close ups of the guns pointing at them, prior to shot we see fanatic smile.
    • Juxtaposition this to the painting, the music cuts out. now the video is obscured and the diegetic audio is entirely unobstructed. this distances the viewer from this single instance of a massacure, and instead exposes the viewer to the screams of multiple abstract/unknown aboriginals, generallising it to the entirety of australia’s history, and how this actually happened.
      • Music of guy talking about “his people” cutting out as his people get shot
      • Juxtaposition of Calm-ish Music —> Gun Shots —> Silence
      • all that
  • Focus on how The Tracker depicts australian culture through the group. predominatly the hesistance towards the actions of the fanatic, especially after the first massacure.
    • great point to refer to is the All men choose song, music is not usually utilised in a Western to this degree, and in a exposition-esque way.
  • Manipulates it’s position as a Western FIlm, omits the most extremely violent scenes by covering them with paintings.
    • Westerns are typically known for their violent scenes, despite this T.T omits them to emphasise the fictional events real counterparts in australian history.
    • all motion is removed from the screen, something unusal in films
  • The hanging of the fanatic, westerns traditionally involve fighting against the law, or leave it out entirely.
    • Instead, the tracker, the character most closely affiliated with the outback, kills the fanatic, the “merciless officier” with a noose while reciting a british style court trial. This turns the traditional Western’s dynamic with the law on it’s head,

Can I even talk about Juxtaposition etc. if it doesn’t explicitly mention Language Features?

Westerns are a portal to a foreign past, they allow a Director to convey their view of society as it was. Rolf De Heer did just this in his notorious 2002 Western; ”The Tracker”. Set in 1922, the film chronicles a unnamed group of whites, led by an unnamed aboriginal man hereafter referred to as the tracker, who assists them in locating a aboriginal accused of murder so that he can be sent for his time on the noose. Throughout the film Heer has made divergances from the standard Western format in order to amplify the perceived severity, and depict the shamefullness of Australia’s dark colonial history. He reformats the traditional western protagonist, and their tradtionally racist beliefs towards the native peoples to assist in depicting colonial history, while leaving an unforgetable impact on the viewer by subverting how Westerns traditionally depict extreme violence, and rewrites the classic Western final shootout with a ambush turned demonstration of Aboriginal Customs & Laws.

Body Paragraph 1

T.T diverged from the traditional “strong-willed”, “Individualistic” western protagonist, instead self-identifying those traits in it’s antagonist the fanatic, in slow-paced song he is contradictorily described as having an “attitude that’s righteous”, despite “caring not about the consequence”. and contradictorily to traditional Westerns, plays the role of the antoganist. Heer diverges in this way to illustrate how what “righteous” is in the Australian Culture has shifted since these times, seen when the fanatic assumed “they’d give me a medal for it” in reference to an elder the tracker was mourning at the time that he had shot. reinforcing how 1922 Colonial Australia gave absolutely no value to the lives of Aboriginals.

Body Paragraph 2

T.T simultaneously subverts it’s position as a Western Film, and as a Film in general in it’s most climatic scenes in order to amplify the memorability of colonial history shown, utilising paintings rather than film to emphasise how the events really did happen in our dark & shameful history. In westerns the leadup to shootouts and other climatic scenes are typically tense, we are made acutely aware that a life is on the line. In T.T, the leadup is present but not re-inforced, it is cheraded boosting it’s impact when it does arrive. Most prevelantly demonstrated in the First Massacure, when both the follower and the fanatic berade innocent aboriginals, waving guns in faces, their yelling toned out by moderately paced music. Music which suddenly cuts out to Extradiegetic audio of gunshots and screams, as well as a painting depicting what had just occured. The lack of warning and reliance on the viewer to fill in the gaps leaves an impact with the audience, thereby raising awareness to the dark history of Australia.

Body Paragraph 3
  • Run out of time

Conclusion

Heer has manipulated the conventions of the traditional Western Genre, altering Antagonist/Protagonist Stereotypes, the Classic Old Western Final Shootout Climax, and altering it’s approach to high action scenes to best serve the amplification of the perceived severity and shamefullness of Australia’s dark colonial history in today’s context, allowing new audiences to understand the tragedies the aboriginal people went through in their full light.

Attempt 3

The Plan
Body Paragraph 1

Juxtapose these two;

  • Loud Extra-diegetic Audio & Quiet Diegetic audio (Can see what’s happening)
    • Representing how carelessness / Indifference to the actions they are taking, they aren’t paying attention to what is happening in the real world,
    • this is very unusual for a western, which traditionally are very grounded etc.
  • No Extra-diegetic Audio, Loud Diegetic Audio (gunshots) —> total silence (Painting covers screen)
    • Represents the Viewer & the follower being brought back to reality, and the harshness typically present within a western.
    • It manipulates the western genre by diverging away from it, almost blocking out the violence, before audioally embracing it at the climax of the action.
    • Though while embracing the western genre, it covers the screen with a painting.
Body Paragraph 2
  • In the hanging scene, the tracker
Introduction

Westerns are a portal to a foreign past, they allow a Director to convey their view of society as it was. Rolf De Heer did just this in his notorious 2002 Western; ”The Tracker”. Set in 1922, the film chronicles a unnamed group of whites, led by an unnamed aboriginal man hereafter referred to as the tracker, who assists them in locating a aboriginal accused of murder so that he can be sent for his time on the noose. Throughout the film Heer has made divergances from the standard Western format in order to amplify the perceived severity, and depict the shamefullness of Australia’s dark colonial history.

Body Paragraph 1

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