Compare and Comparison of Wasp(Andrea Arnold.2003) and Soft (Simon Ellis.2007)

Compare and Comparison of Wasp (Andrea Arnold.2003) and Soft (Simon Ellis.2007)

Wasp and Soft are two short films that are socially realistic. Both of the films are the same genre (drama). Both of the films give an insight of how life is in the working class world, which makes both films socially realistic.  

 

The opening scene of Soft starts off with conflict; Scott is being bullied by a group of young people from his area. The opening scene of wasp also starts off with a conflict, Zoë along with her children make the journey to confront a woman that was looking after her kid. Both films begin with a violent form of conflict. 

It could be argued that Zoë is the antagonist for the reason that she is extremely lenient with her children, allowing them to fall into trouble & struggles. However it could also be argued that she is the protagonist because despite all the struggles she is going through and all the things she is missing out she will still do anything for her kids. Similarly it could be argued that Scott’s father (Lain) could be the antagonist because he doesn’t defend his son, neither does he teach him how to defend himself, stopping him from being the man that he should be in order to protect himself. However you could say that Lain is the protagonist because he too is a victim in this situation. It seems as if when Lain was younger he too was bullied, resulting to him acting the way he did.

The difference between the two films is the structure of the storyline. In Wasp, the structure of the storyline is linear. There is a bad beginning and a happy ending, what the audience expected to happen happened. That the guy Zoë wanted to see (Dave) ended up helping Zoë and her kids. This happens in the last scene when they are all in the car eating their chips. However in Soft the structure of the storyline is non-linear. It starts off with a bad beginning with Scott being bullied relying on his Father to protect him, the Father then is interrogated by the same group of people that bullied Scott, instead of Lain to defend the both of them, he backs down and encourages Scott to ignore them. As Lain and Scott are provoked more and more Lain decides to walk outside and attempts to stand up for himself. Lain’s attempt to shoo them away like a fly fails, they provoke him even more. Surprisingly Scott comes with a cricket bat, and hits the antagonist ( ASBO) in the head. This is not what the audience would of predicted to happen. The director (Simon Ellis) could of done this to emotionally provoke the audience.

 

The fact that both films  are socially realistic, is done to bring awareness to a form of a lifestyle that is experienced in some young people’s life in Britain. There are some young people living through poverty, these films bring awareness of this.