The Gunfighter (Eric Kissack, 2014)

Narrative Structure: The Gunfighter is about a man who arrives at a saloon and his conflict with the other people within it, with everyone being provoked by a seemingly omniscient voice around them that reveals their deepest, darkest and weirdest secrets. The short film starts like many other Western style films with the main character walking alone and silently as he enters the saloon. The film ends with a mass gunfight, referred to as “a ballet of death” that kills all but one character (a woman called Sally)… who the narrator reveals that the character will die the next day. The film has a narration throughout. However, unlike traditional narrated films, the characters are able to hear what the voice is saying and react to it and those it talks about accordingly.

Cinematic Influences: Early in the film, a whip pan is used to transition from the surprised look of the main character to the other side of the room where two characters mentioned by the narrator are stood. When the bartender aims his rifle at one of the other character, we get an over-the-shoulder shot to see who specifically he is aiming at. After the gunfight, the camera is positioned low and dollies left to show the lone survivor of the events. All of the sounds in the film are seemingly diegetic which creates a break in the fourth wall as the characters are able to hear things that would otherwise be non diegetic such as the narrator which plays a key part in the film or how one of the characters hears ominous music shortly before everyone pulls out their guns and move into a Mexican Standoff. Despite this, the characters do not react to any other pieces of the score, such as the heroic, victorious music during the main character’s speech near the end. There are multiple times where the camera cuts between shots of the confused reactions of multiple characters in response to statements made by the voice of the narrator. During the gunfight at the end, there are rapid cuts between each character to show them when they shoot each other before cutting to the character who they shot at. The costumes of the male characters are basic and in plain colours of mostly whites and browns to reflect the colour pallet of the saloon that the short film takes place in and contrast the wild violence that takes place at the end of the film. However, the only female character is dressed in brighter and more revealing to fit with the title she is given of “Sally the whore” by the narrator. Along with this, every character appears to have a gun in the film (with all but two having pistols) to indicate the violent actions performed by the characters both before and during the film. All of the characters are loud in their interactions with each other with these interactions get more erratic as the film goes on, showing their frustration. Along with this, all of them look around to try and find the voice, something that would have looked unusual to others if only one character had done this. The voice has a sense of sarcasm to show he finds some form of amusement from the reactions of the characters and it is the only one without a Western accent to imply that it has a form of detachment from the events despite being a part of them. The genre is a hybrid of Western and comedy due to its setting as if it wasn’t for being set in the Old West it would likely just be a comedy.

Creating Meaning and Response: The main piece of representation is the way the film reinforces the stereotype of Americans having been obsessed with guns throughout their history along with the stereotype of Outlaws and Cowboys in the Western era as lone and amoral gunslingers.