Taken

Taken
The film taken has many different narrative theories; in terms of media analysis; which has influenced the producer of the film to make the movie in a certain way following certain guidelines.

For example, the film criteria follows the narrative theory created by Tzvetan Todorov which is the point that in every great film there starts out with an equilibrium, then a factor which disrupts the equilibrium and finally a resolution or a new equilibrium. Taken follows this theory as at the start, there is a normal state of world where everyone is happy and contempt however the protagonist feels uneasy over the fact that his daughter wants to go to France to follow a band tour. Once his daughter arrives in France, her and her friend are taken by a group of criminals; based in France; Who drug teenagers in order to sell them on to other criminals. This is the disequilibrium. As the film progresses, there is a chain of events which take place between the protagonist and the villain(s) which involves conflict. As the film progresses further, the protagonist conquers over the villain(s) in the film as Tzvetan Todorov's theory confirms that there is a new equilibrium in the storyline and the characters seem to have learnt from the situations that have taken place. Todorov's theory is that there is a new equilibrium which is almost like a resolution however is not the same as the first equilibrium at the start of the girl as the characters now live their lives differently to before.

Every great film also includes a protagonist; the main character of the film; enigma codes which control how much the audience know at a point in the film. This also holds the audiences interest as they want to find out about more in terms of the storyline. Action codes (events in the storyline which we know to be important in developing the plot/narrative. Taken includes a lot of this for example, an example of an action code is when the protagonist has doubts that his daughter will be safe in France alone with her friend. This is an action code as we as the audience can tell that this may be an important part which builds the narrative. The film as a whole keeps the audience guessing a lot hence why there are many enigma codes. Despite this, it doesn't create a lot of mystery in the film which allows the audience to engage into the films narrative.

The film also follows a linear style pattern which means that it's in the order of beginning, middle and end. It's done in this way due to the fact that its a big budget Hollywood action movie. The genre: action tends to not confuse the audience as much as a sci-fi film hence why they stuck with a linear pattern as its basic layout for the narrative. Also, the genre is the reason why they have decided not to use a multi-strand narrative as this would confuse the audience even more than a non-linear style narrative. A multi-strand narrative in other words involves many characters who are protagonists and the lives of them are followed throughout the story until the very end where somehow their lives are linked together to a set of activities. This confuses the audience a lot hence the reason why the producer of taken decided to keep the film to a standard linear narrative.