Genre Essay – The Equalizer

The Equalizer is a 2014 blockbuster starring Denzel Washington and Chloë Grace Moretz. This trailer opens with a series of fast changing shots, playing over the deep sounds of a repeating beat. The very first shot of the trailer is a panoramic style shot of the sunset over a bridge in the state of Massachusetts, which is only very briefly shown to us before it fades out and switches to a shot a man walking down the street alongside a diner in the dead pitch black of the night, followed by a close up shot of a book “The Old Man and The Sea” before the shadow of a hand reaches over to retrieve it. This sequence of quick shots can both acquire an audience’s attention and disorient them, in the sense that they are unsure of what is being shown to them, but want to find out more and are presented with the idea that if they even blink they will miss a vital shot of this trailer. The camera shot then switches to a wide shot looking into the diner, where Denzel Washington and Chloë Grace Moretz are positioned separately, yet they begin to engage in conversation about the book that was earlier shown to us. The line “He catch that fish yet?” connotes that this is not a co-incidental first meeting between these characters and that they in fact have a history, presumably which the film is going to be based on. This idea of the characters already having a connection would force upon us the idea that character role assignment is already embedded into this trailer, as we would interpret that Washington is the “hero”, and that Moretz will be his motivation to commit an action, and the “objective” that he will set out to save or protect.

The fact that Denzel Washington is the first person shown in this trailer would indicate both that he is the main character of the film and that this film will be representative of a thriller and crime/action hybrid genre. Denzel Washington is known to epitomise the thriller/action hybrid genre of film, having starred in blockbusters such as American Gangster and Man on Fire. Due to the star of this film being such an icon of this genre as Denzel Washington is, then the trailer has already indicated the genre of this film, less than 5 seconds into the two and a half minute trailer.

The trailer then cuts to a sequence with a voice over of Washington talking about the plot of his book, and he says that an “old man met his greatest adversary, just when he thought that part of his life was over”. We, as an audience will assume that this line reflects his character, and that he has a past which he is trying to move on from. Moreover, this connotes that this part of his life returning is what the text is going to be about and that the return will upset the “equilibrium” of this film, when applying Todorov’s stages of narrative.

The music in this trailer is an aid to the tension built and it plays in harmony with the pace of the action that is going on within the film. This applies in montages such as where Washington is shown attacking a group of supposed gangsters, in collaboration with shots of him walking away where we can see only the back of his head, where the music is both under-laying and dominant. The soundtrack for this trailer is “Beautiful Pain” by Eminem, and it fades out on the occasions that we, the audience, are about to acquire more information, yet it becomes louder and dominant where the lyrics become fitting and necessary with the film. This is shown in cases such as the closing shot of the trailer, where the lines “it’s too late to start over” are played in harmony with an explosion sound within the film footage. These lyrics work in accordance with the ideology of the past always catching up with you, which is further demonstrated earlier in the trailer when Washington says “I promised I would never go back to being that person”.

Binary oppositions are obviously present throughout the trailer, in particularly the suggestion of “Justice vs Injustice”. This is supported even from the title of the film “The Equalizer” which could suggest relations to karma, and adds weight to the idea that no deed ever goes unpunished, and that it cannot be escaped whether it is a good or bad deed done through good or bad actions. Washington appears to embody the role of ‘karma’ in the film, as throughout the trailer he is seen to partake in violence in order to punish or to put things right. This ideology of revenge then further relates to the thriller/crime genre, especially with the introduction of the “Russian Mafia” in this trailer. The Mafia are a notorious organised body of criminals, which have been the basis or been involved in many iconic crime films such as The Godfather or Goodfellas. Alone, the word Mafia connotes crime and intimidation, and the organisation goes hand in hand with the nature of such films, similarly categorised with The Equalizer. Visual codes such as guns, lethal weapons and mass piles of money also appear in the trailer, which further implement the themes of violence and gangster culture into the text. A line of dialogue in the trailer stating “This goes all of the way to the top” which accompanies the image of a Mafia boss gazing out of a high window out onto the city, dressed smartly in a sharp suit, further enforces the idea of the authority that The Mafia have, and that the actions of Washington within this film will be so significant as to involve such a high body as them. Moreover, the line “he won’t stop until he kills you and anyone that you care about” is an indication to how much our supposed ‘hero’ is in danger himself, which only fuels the idea of this film being of a crime genre.