Analysing a Scene from "Touching the Void"
October 5, 2021•319 words
Scene: 1:25:33 - 1:26:33
The following scene is a scene from the movie "Touching the Void" based on the worldwide known book "Touching the Void" written by Joe Simpson. In this scene we can see a dehydrated Joe Simpson desperately drinking dirty water to quench his thirst.
Purpose:
The scene shown above shows the viewers how desperate Joe is and how much he craves survival. The scene shows us how Joe is willing to go to any extent and surpass his physical capabilities to ensure that he stays alive and gets back to the camp. Joe’s desperation and crave for survival is represented through him drinking extremely dirty water even though his body is rejecting it, and despite all his coughing, he continues to drink the water due to the fact that he is extremely dehydrated. To summarise what I have just said above, the purpose of this particular scene is to show how resilient Joe was and how desperate he was to survive under this difficult situation and the circumstance he is in.
Visual Elements:
The water is glistening and flowing in a somewhat relaxing manner. This close-up shot could be what the water looks like from Joe’s perspective. Joe is looking at this water as if it is a treasure or reward due to his extreme dehydration. Later, there is another close-up shot of the water. However, the water is perceived as the complete opposite of appealing and contradicts what we previously saw. This seems to be in the perspective of an outside viewer and shows us how Joe glorifies water in this scene.
Script/Voice-over:
There isn't much narration or speech going on in this particular scene, however, Joe states that he “drank litres and litres of it”. The repetition of “litres” emphasises the huge amount of water Joe consumed and how dehydrated he was to have drunk all this water which is clearly dirty and unhygienic.