Water for Elephants Essay

Submitted By jaynephily
Words: 855
Pages: 4
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Title: Water for Elephants
Director: Francis Lawrence
Type of text: Film
Genre: Romance/Drama
Date completed: 2 June 2011

Water for Elephants is a romanctic film starring Reece Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz. This film is about a young boy named Jacob who was going to a university to become a veterinarian, however after finding out his parents passed away in a car accident he was left penniless and decided to join the circus. Jacob encounters many adventures when he joined the circus as a vet such as falling in love with an already married women and training an elephant to work in the circus. The theme never give up is very subtle message in the background but defiantly has a presence. Marlena (one of the main characters) develops many skills such as standing up for what she thinks is right and develops more through the movie.

The themes that stood out to me the most was to never give up. I found this because throughout the film Jacob never gave up. His parents died but he kept on persisting and fighting even though he had nothing left, no house, family or any money but he never gave up. Jacob quoted in the film “ I don’t know if I picked the circus or if the circus picked me” This linked in to never giving up for me because whether he was meant to be on that train to live the life in the circus but he made a split decision that changed his life forever. However further into the movie Jacob still never gave up because he knew that Marlena was not being her full potential working for her husband in the circus and he knew that she could live a better life. So with this in Jacobs mind he kept fighting for their love and even when they were caught trying to get away from the circus life he, still went back again to rescue his friend from being mistreated by her husband.

The character I thought developed the most throughout the movie I thought was Marlena Rosenbluth played by Reece Witherspoon. The reason why I thought that this particular character played a major role in this film was because at the start of the film she was very subject to her husband, August and would have done everything she could for him just as a good house was suppose to even though she knew better. But when Jacob ran away to the circus he knew how crewel August was to the animals and his wife so he made sure that she and the animals lived a better life. August Marlena’s husband was so powerful that anyone would do what he wanted as Marlena says” round here everybody works until they running to the ground and they don’t stop until August says so” and to me this really shows how much August the boss used his power to manipulate everybody. By the end of the movie Marlena was able to stand up for what she knew was right and live a better life with a better man.

The film Water for elephants it was based around a circus in the 1930’s. This therefore meant the film makers had
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