Red (Robert Schwentke, 2010)

How is the main character constructed? What filmic tools are used to accentuate and highlight that construction? What are the objectives, desires and challenges s/he faces?

The film Red is a very impressive movie in the fact that the film has no relation to the colour red. I found it very effective how the story was centred around a retired agent, which essentially what RED stood for( Retired Extremely Dangerous). The protagonist Frank Moses is portrayed to be a very reserved character, he is a more relaxed version of your typical action hero figure. What I like about this portrayal he doesn't completely take charge himself but he allows his comrades to take the shining in this as well. It is very interesting that Bruce Willis plays this role as in a lot of action films that he plays in, most notably the Die Hard Series, he is a dominant figure in all of those figures, taking absolute control of the situation that beholds him. This is not the case in the film RED. One scene in particular that would stand out is at the end when Frank Moses(Willis) is put in a predicament to save his companion, Sarah Ross, a typical action figure hero would be very abrasive in his action to save the one in distress; whereas in this particular film there seemed to be a lack of emotion from the protagonist.