Phone Booth

‘Phone Booth’ was directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Larry Cohen. Its release date in the UK was the 18^th of April 2003. Its genre is a mystery thriller. The main character ‘Stu Shepard’ was acted by Colin Farrell; the villain was carried out by Kiefer Sutherland and the detective was performed by Forest Whitaker. This movie is about a man: Stu, who is trapped in a phone booth because he is being threatened by the person on the phone who has him in range of a sniper rifle. If he attempts to leave the phone booth he will be killed. The person on the other line knows many things about Stu, the fact that he cheats on his wife and several other factors.

The reason this movie is a thriller is because it has a criminal who is a potential murderer involved, it has the police, it has a victim and there are also weapons. Stu Sheppard’s flaw is the fact that he is in a confined space with a sniper rifle pointed at his chest and he cannot hang up the phone. The reason to this is that he cheated on his wife and the caller on the other line knows about it and wants him to confess this to her.

The suspense that builds up throughout the film is immense. The audience is constantly wondering if he is going to be shot; he is threatened every time he does not follow instructions. The general setting of the movie is in a phone booth on a busy street. It is impossible for Stu to escape without putting the risk of not only his life but his wife Kelly who is present with the police. This also points out to the audience that all he can do is talk to the caller; he cannot leave without the possibility of being shot.

The caller is also a shadowy figure with a unique voice. He is really obsessed with his task at hand and will do anything to keep himself entertained; even if it puts the lives of innocent people in danger. The high angle camera shots are very effective; mainly because of the situation that is occurring; a person with a sniper rifle from an unknown position in any possible building within shooting range, playing on the fact that nothing escapes his attention.

The most tense and unanticipated part of the movie was when he surrendered himself and yelled “Take me.” The audience didn’t know what to expect until he was shot. It was later revealed that the police shot him with rubber bullets to protect him from the caller.

The ending is superb. The caller apparently survives and while Stu is being sedated and in a state between unconsciousness and consciousness, the caller tells Stu to be careful with his honesty next time or he would be back for him. I think that was a fantastic ending to the film.

I think that Mise-en-Scene is used extremely well in this film. The proximity's between the police, culprit and victim is very spaced out. There is nobody that is too close to one another. The whole film is shot on one street, with one booth and one victim. Very straight forward but with many ramifications; such as if Colin Farell leaves the booth he dies, if the detective gets too close he dies, if Colin Farell doesn't confess or pick up the gun he dies.

The whole film was shot throughout the day with no night scenes which made continuity very easy to pull off. Natural light will have been used for more than 75% of the film.

The primary target audience would be people aged 15-35 due to this being what they are normally interested in. Secondary audiences would be people who enjoy mysteries with action throughout.