Quarantine is an American remake of the
Spanish movie Rec. The movies are very similar in the way they are shot they
both have very shaky camera work. However the main cinematic difference was the
quality of the shots of the movies even though they were only shot a year
apart. This change in the quality of the shots show a lot about America and
Europe. The high quality of Quarantine shows the perfectionism of America and
how everything has to be in the best quality. This shows how America takes
pride in itself and wants to show that it is the best. The other movie Rec.
used a more real type of camera it looked like a camcorder. This shows how
Europe looks to be more real. Europe wants to portray their real lives and how
things really are compared to America’s way of trying to show their dominance
and perfectionism.
The
plot of both these stories are very similar. They both start with a woman
reporter who is doing a documentary on the lives of firemen. The sequences of
the shots are very similar except for 2 main things. The first thing is that
the American version shows the reporter going into the men’s locker room and
show the partial nudity of the men while showing the playfulness of sexuality
in America. The scene starts with the woman’s curiosity when she hears the men
in the locker room. She then walks in with the camera man right behind her
following her every move. She encounters a man who is in the shower when he
says, “Griffin: [camera is on him in the shower] You know, I hope that's a
wide-angle lens” (Quarentine). This illustrates the proudness of Americans in
their sexuality when the man says that in order to record his genitals they
need a wider camera signifying he has large genitals. The way the movie and this scene was shot is
to show as if a real camera man were shooting the movie and its one continuous
shot, there were shaky scenes which contributed to the “realistic’ way it was
shot. This shows the nudity necessary in American films in the Spanish version
they replace this scene with the firefighters in a break room just hanging out.
Another factor to the realistic view was that there were no cuts the movie was
continuous, even when the camera fell to the floor the camera was rolling this
created more suspense in the movie because it felt real. One difference was the
fact that in the American movie they only say that there are women who work
there however, they never show them. Opposed to the Spanish version where they
show the women who work at the station this is a very small change because they
never actually show the women working, they just show that they are there. This
illustrates how women are more valued in the European culture and aren’t as
valued in the American culture. There were also some stylistic acting
portrayals which heavily show the culture of each country. In the American
movie the people actually try and exit the building by breaking down the seal
that the CDC put on them while in the Spanish movie the actors just look at the
seal then walk away. This show the conformity of the European culture and the
defiance of the American culture. America has always had to fight for their
rights and freedom and this part of them defying authority for freedom shows
the ongoing struggle of America through history.
The movie quarantine speaks a lot about the
American culture. The first thing that it speaks about is the defiance of
Americans compared to the conformity of Europeans. When the people were being
sealed off by their respective health agencies. Only in the American movie the
people were trying to break out when they were being sealed off and even tried
to cut through the plastic and the characters screaming “They won’t let us out”
(Quarentine), while in the Europeans were just pissed and walked away from the
plastic when they were sealed off. This illustrates how Americans take action
in their defiance while Europeans will just stand by. Another difference is how
the American movie shows the dog while the Spanish movie only says that the dog
is at the vet,
“Ángela: So besides
your father, who do you live with?
Jennifer: With my
mommy, my daddy, and my dog Max.
Ángela: Your dog isn't
here either, right? I can't see him.
Jennifer: No, he's
not.
Ángela: Do you love
your dog?
Jennifer: Yes.
Ángela: Why isn't he
here?
Jennifer: He's at the
vet.
Ángela: What's wrong
with him?
Jennifer: He got sick.”
(Rec)
This shows, the lack of importance for the dog
in the Spanish film which speaks about their feeling towards animals.
American’s value animals more that is why the dog has to be a part of the movie
and have screen time while the Europeans don’t feel that way about animals and
only talk about the dog and never show
it. The major difference was where each disease came from. In the American movie
the disease came from a doomsday cult while the disease in the Spanish version
came from the Vatican. This highlights the two fears of each society. Americans
fear terrorism which is signified by the cult while Europeans fear God which is
symbolized by the Vatican.
Bill Gibron a writer for propmasters
illustrates the movie as basically the same movie besides 2 kills in the plot
one is when the camera man kills one of the infected ones with his camera the
other is when the infected dog kills one of the remaining survivors otherwise
Gibron says they are basically the same movie plot. Another thing pointed out
by Gibron is in the casting. The Hollywood version casted some big name stars
while the Spanish version casted basically nobody. This contributed to some
longer sequences by Hollywood so the stars get their screen time.
Works Cited
Gibron, Bill. "Rec vs Quarantine."
16 July 2009. Web. 31 May 2016.
"Quotes." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 31
May 2016.
