Taken - Generic Conventions

TAKEN

Taken, a action crime thriller film uses typical generic conventions to emphasise the sub genre.
The narrative of the film centres around crime and abduction of a retired CIA agent's(Bryan Mills) teenage daughter who goes on holiday with her friend to Paris. The film involves her father, the protagonist, searching for his daughter throughout the whole film. 
The weakness in Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is that his daughter has been abducted, and so people can make him do things in desperation to get his daughter back, which includes murder. He is seen in peril throughout the whole film, especially towards the end when he comes closer to getting his daughter, as a lot of violence is involved, which is life threatening towards him. An example of this would be when the antagonists have captured him and attached him to a metal pole, which makes the protagonist fallible and weak, at least this is what is portrayed, until he fights against them. 


There is more than one antagonist, as almost everyone else in the film are against Bryan. This is because most of the other characters are involved in the abduction of his daughter, and are determined that he does not get her back, as they do not want to upset their boss, who we see at the end of the film.


The narrative shows us an ordinary situation, where an extraordinary event occurs. One of the girls are dancing to music in the lounge, where the other girl can see her from the bathroom. She is on the phone to her father (Bryan Mills) when she witnesses two large men enter the apartment and take her friend.


In the scene where the two girls get abducted, the micro areas help to add urgency and suspense, and tell the audience that it is a thriller. The camerawork helps add realism and gives the audience an understanding of what is about to happen. There are close ups of her face whilst she is on the phone to her dad, which shows her crying, and so we can tell she is scared. There are also handheld shots used when it shows the view of her friend being taken in the lounge. This creates urgency and danger, and so makes the audience nervous and wonder what is going to happen next. There is an eyeline match of the daughter when she looks over to the lounge at her friend, with a close up of her looking scared and shocked, and so we see why when the camera turns to what she is looking at - the two men in the apartment. There are sound effects that are sharp and quick, which occur when the men enter the apartment. These are parallel sounds as they match what is happening in the scene.


The title of the film relates well to the weakness, as by using the word 'taken', it relates well to the narrative of the film.