Tsotsi is an African film that shows the contrasts between the rich and poor divide (Binary Opposition) and tells a story in the eyes of a thug and shows redemption and even a thug can change. Which is in the title. Tsotsi is translated into thug in english. This shows that not every thug is a thug all the way through him and even as something small or vulnerable as a baby can change even the hardest of thugs life around. The genre of this film in my opinion is a Crime Drama.

Tsotsi flees to a community of orphans and runaways living in empty drainage pipes outside the city. He learns to look out for himself and to take advantage of the weak and the distracted. Realizing that he cannot properly feed and take care of the baby, Tsotsi spots a young woman with a child on her back and follows her home. Tsotsi (2006) In the street language of Johannesburg, Tsotsi means a street thug or gang member - an appropriate moniker for the main character (Presley Chweneyagae) in this brutal, gripping drama. The basic story of this movie is that Tsotsi, the protagonist of the film and a gang leader, makes a mistake that he regrets almost immediately after he does it. After stealing a car (while crippling a woman in the process, no less), he realizes that there is a baby in the backseat.

Narrative- A thug from Johannesburg is in a gang and causing trouble throughout the town he is in. When he is on one of his jobs in the rich side of the town he comes into contact with a baby that will change his life around. As the film goes on he cares more and more for this baby and he changes his life around and become less of a thug. You see the horrid life he lived at a young age that got him to this point and see the journey he has been on and will take. Only one person sees so much more than he lets on to be (Miriam) and those emotions come out more and more as the film goes on.

The Codes and Conventions of any film is basically the unwritten rules for the colours and lighting for that genre of film. For example if it is a comedy film then the colours will be bright and the lighting will be bright to make a happy emotion for the audience. If it is raining in a comedy film then the audience will suddenly feel down and not find it funny just because what is on screen. For Tsotsi as this is a Action, Drama the colours are dark and pure. It depends what is happening on screen. When Tsotsi is being a thug and hitting people or talking about bad things like when a flashback happens and he thinks about his father and his mother and how his father killed his dog and he ran away and thats how he become homeless its at night. So the colours are very dark and its raining which is a sign of emotion being poured out in the character even if they don’t show it. Its more than likely to show that they are upset or crying. When the audience see’s rain on the screen it changes their emotion as-well so the audience can empathize with the characters on screen. As we are looking through the eyes of the ‘thug’ then we empathize with him as we can see through his eyes but if there was another main character in the film and we didn’t follow his story we would look at him as a bad guy.

When the baby comes into view and the rich side of Africa, then the colours become pure. This is the point in the film that he changes his life. There is a point in the film when Tsotsi tries to stop the baby crying by putting on some music and dancing because he doesn’t know what to do. At first when he brings the baby back to the shanty town and in his shack then its just dark but as he goes along and continues looking after this baby sun shines through the shack and onto him. This could mean that his soul is becoming more pure with the help of this baby and now he has to look after someone else and not him-self for a change.

Already through this film at the beginning of the film the first shot you see is Tsotsi doing a stabbing on a train for money. So the audience reaction is not vert sympathetic towards this character only the character who got stabbed. The clothes he is wearing are very dark with browns and blacks and also leather. These are the clothes and the colors of bad people who commit crimes, you will see throughout the film the changing of clothes is different and more free. By the end of the film his clothes change from dark colors and leather jackets to a white loose shirt and black trousers. White symbolizes pure, church and freedom, with the help of the baby he is a changed person. The contrast from Tsotsi at the beginning from Tsotsi at the end is so different. If the he stayed the same person throughout the film then the film will be changed and he would continue being violent and he would keep on running away form the law. If that baby wasn’t in that film then you wouldn’t of had that story and nothing would of become of him. Baby’s are normally seen; in the eyes of people, immature, vulnerable, not a person yet, can’t cope on their own and they learn from adults. If you change that around, you could describe Tsotsi with the same exact words. But the difference is that he learns from the baby and not the other way round. He is not learning like everybody else does, with looking after this baby, he is learning responsibility and he is now getting feelings towards it. He looks up to this baby like a guru if you like to call it that. He teaches him life lessons without him knowing it.

The genre is Crime Drama. The reason it is Crime Drama because in the beginning you know Tsotsi as a thug, he stabs somebody on a train for money, he steals from a homeless guy in a wheel chair and there is aspects of crime in this film but there is also aspects of Drama in this film as-well like the flashback within the film when he looks back at his Family and the reason why he ran away and become the guy that he has become and that change in his life.

In the crime genre the structure is, there is a murder, then and investigation then it is solved. Within this film, there is a murder and there are knives and guns involved which you would link to the crime genre. There is the good cop and the bad cop and they try to find Tsotsi and how Tsotsi lives is with guns and knives. That is how this can be within the crime genre.

The Drama genre, normally tells you the story about family struggles. Which this does tell you when he goes back into his flashback from how his mother died form how his father treated him and why he ran away and how he ended up in the end. You can also class him changing with the baby in his life is a struggle for him to change his life and he cares for that baby and he didn’t think that he could care for anybody. The first time you see this emotion is when he follows the homeless guy in the wheel chair and starts harassing him. He reminds him of his dog that he had and become ‘crippled’ is how he described him as his dad hurt the dog and the guy couldn’t walk. This is the first emotion that you see from him.

In this film i think there are more elements of the Drama genre then the crime genre because this film is all about redemption and how his life changes and at the very end if he continued because the thug he was he would of ran away from the police and show no emotion but he changed. His clothes changed from being leather and dark to at the very end just a white loose shirt. That is the color of purity. He doesn’t want to give away the baby and shows emotion because he got attached. You could say here that he couldn’t changed without help and now it was time to let go he wasn’t ready. You can also say that as the baby was form the rich side of the country that the poor just need help from that side even if they just care and they will be come better people.

This film is all about the rich and poor divide and how people want to change. There is a scene that stands out to me when he first has the baby and he sees a single mother with her baby and he goes to her to feed his baby. But he holds her to gun point while she breast feeds. For a living she makes chimes and sells them. Tsotsi goes up to them. There is one which is old and rusty and right next to it is one very colourful and inviting and bright. He looks straight thorugh the old rusty one and touches the colourful one with his gun. Here is could represent him. The person he is and the person he will be. A gun shows power and security. As he just looks straight through the rusty one it could show that he is invisible and wants to move away from it and break away. But while looking up the the colourful chime and touching it with his gun this could shows he looks up to people like that but scared to step in that direction. You could say here, he is in limbo. Too scared to move forward but doesn’t want to take a step back.

Representation within this film is Race, Gender and disability. For race, as this film is a African film and the director is not african it shows it through the eyes of a different person. It shows two different parts of the country and what they go through in Johannesburg. Here they are seen as dangerous as Johannesburg has one of the highest crime rates ad as the main character is a thug then it points the audience in that direction. Through gender the male characters are the strongest physically but the females are stronger through mind. So it kind of equals itself out. With the disability is with the guy in the wheel chair. As he is a homeless person it kinds of shows him as weak and cant look after him self and he is vulnerable and a easy victim. In the train station people just walk right by him and not even bother with him. When they do bother with him he is being a target.

Theories- The film doesn’t just go by one theory i think it combines. With the Aristotle theory there is just a beginning middle and end. But i think think this film is more complex than 3 stages within the film. Levi Strauss theory is Binary opposition, this has defiantly got binary opposition between the rich and poor divide. Yladmir Propp theory is 8 types of characters. The hero, villian, donor, dispatcher (messenger) false hero, helper, princess and her father. I don’t think some of these apply but some do like the hero, villain, helper and the princess. The hero would be Tsotsi the villain would be the police, the helper or helpers would be his friends (Gang) and Miriam would be the princess. Izetan Todorov theory is 5 stages within the narrative.

Tsotsi Film Review

1. A state of equlibrium at the outset- Tsotsi being the thug and does what he does best and commits crimes in his gang.

2. Adisruption of the equlibrium by some action- He hits one of his gang members and his gang falls apart.

3. A recongition that there has been a disruption- The baby comes along while he is steeling the car.

4. An attempt to repair the disruption- He tries to look after the baby but cant so he asked for help from the princess.

5. A vein statement of the equilibrium- The very end when he has changed and become a different person.

So i think the 3 theories make up this film and it just doesn’t go by one theory.

In this film you go on a journey with one particular person with a troubled childhood and the ability to change. The catch is that the change in his life was a baby. When he comes into contact with the baby he debates whether or not to give the baby back but as he is getting chased by cops he is forced to keep the baby in his apartment. He is torn between his old life and the new one that is about to come upon him. This film has so many emotional impact on you when you watch it. It doesn’t mean you will cry but you will feel different once you have seen it. When i watched it for the first time the ending got me and thats when i got the emotional impact. In other films you watch the gangster/ thug is the bad person, this film changed your perception of that character. When you see the life of someone that you think is evil it changed your way of thinking about them. The saying applies here ‘Don’t judge a person unless you walk a mile in their shoes.’ With the soundtrack in this film combines very well with the emotion shown on screen. There is a reason why this is one of my favorite films. You have to watch this film to actually know what impact it throws on you. It is not an easy going film to watch.

Structuralism is how a story goes. Its like the structure of the film, its what makes the film up. If you take away a part in the film it changes the whole film all together. The main part of the film is how Tsotsi looks after the baby, but what will happen if you took away the baby? This film will not be what it is. There will be no redemption, no change in his character and the whole story line will be different. I think it will just be a film about a thug and his life. I think it will be still a drama because of what happened in the past to him with his mother dying of aids and his father being a drunk and him running away from home. But without the baby we will not see the other side of him and he wont change.

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Tsotsi is a 2005 South African crime film directed by Gavin Hood and starring Presley Chweneyagae. It’s a serviceable, but cheesy flick.

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“Now look what you’ve done…

you’ve made an old man piss his pants“

Tsotsi Youtube

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A South African hoodlum named Tsotsi lives by a code of violence, and he and his gang of thugs prowl the streets of Johannesburg day and night, attacking those who fail to give them what they want. After casually shooting a woman and stealing her car, he discovers her baby in the back seat. Instead of harming the mewling infant, he takes it home and cares for it. The child acts as a catalyst for the hardened thug to regain his humanity.

This is it. The quintessential example of everything that is wrong with the Academy and in particular its category of Best Foreign Language Film. Whereas the Pest Picture contenders are usually biopics/historical pictures, this category features cheesy, inspirational stories for most of the winning movies.

And that’s a big problem as there are so many better movies from so many countries that are worthy of being recognized, but they never do as the Academy is very easily persuaded with grand sentiment. This story of a criminal being softened with the introduction of a baby into his world is not only clichéd, but predictable throughout.

With that being said, Gavin Hood’s direction is very good and Presley Chweneyagae’s performance is excellent in a very introspective, fine role. I liked the almost sole emphasis on this main character while the supporting players are also memorable in their own right.

Tsotsi is thus sweet and harmless, but barely solid and never great by any stretch of imagination. The crime elements are standard and the baby scenes, though cute, are clichéd. Most of these scenes are competently made and overall solid, but far from original or memorable in any way.

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The score is fantastic, though. They employed modern South African music so well into this very memorable soundtrack. The same goes for the strikingly strong cinematography and a terrific utilization of both its setting, and this entire world of crime and the shanties. Technically, the film’s strong, but otherwise lacking.

Tsotsi is very well directed, superbly acted and phenomenally shot and scored with a particularly strong soundtrack. It has its moments and it’s overall solid and harmless. However, this storyline is incredibly predictable, clichéd and cheesy. It’s a highly competently made, but entirely unoriginal flick that certainly did not deserve its Oscar win.

My Rating – 3.5