"Character and Emotional response in the Cinema" and "Kingsman"

"Altered States: Character and Emotional response in the Cinema" by Murray Smith explores the theory that films can manipulate our emotions through responses such as empathy, emotional stimulation,  motor and effective mimicry and autonomic responses such as the startle response. I will be specifically looking at his model of "recognition, alignment, alliance" in which the spectator identifies with the character/s through 3 separate categories.

 "Kingsman: The Secret Service" is a 2014 action/science fiction film by Matthew Vaughn that follows the story of Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (played by Taron Egerton), a young man from a south London council estate who discovers that his late father was a spy working for the "Kingsman" secret service and is then recruited by Harry Hart (Colin Firth), A respected agent who worked with Eggsy's father.

We are first introduced to Harry who adopts the mentor role and father figure for Eggsy in  the future. We See Harry and Eggsy's father on the mission that costs him his life when he nobley  sacrifices himself. Harry is sent to give his condolences to his family, which is where we are introduced to a young Eggsy, who we then recognise as the hero of the story as Harry hands him the medal of valour his father earned for his sacrifice. This is shown  after his mother breaks into tears and the field of view shifts to Eggsy, bringing him into focus as Harry approaches him. The scene then transitions from Eggsy holding up the medal to observe it to the title. We later get a close up of the medal on a necklace as it pans out to show an older Eggsy living in poorer conditions with a negligible mother and an abusive step father. This leads us to align with him as we are visually glued to him and see how his life has turned out after the death of his father. After stealing a car and getting into a car chase with the police, we learn that despite being a hooligan, he still has the right morals as he would rather crash his car than run over a cat and then creates a distraction, allowing his friends to escape as he gets arrested. the spectator evaluates what kind of person Eggsy is and that leads to them creating an alliance with him.

In conclusion, we recognise Eggsy through the use of a jump cut to signify the passing of time and the use of focus to bring him into attention during his introduction, we align with him by learning how his life turned out after the death of his father and the abusive relationship his mother is in, and we form an alliance with him when  we evaluate what kind of man he is and how he turned out despite the unfortunate events that have happened to him.