La Story free essay sample

Rhetorical Analysis Alec Waugh, a British novelist once said, â€Å"you can fall in love at first sight with a place as with a person†. A place can have so much character to not only make a person fall in love at first sight, but to keep that person entranced by love for the place. The city one might picture is Paris the city of love or the islands of Hawaii. However, this city is not the typical city that comes to mind. It is the city with busy streets and beautiful people, Los Angeles. The beaches of Los Angeles can be breathtaking, but it is the personality of Los Angeles that keeps a person around. A story based on a life of a Los Angeles native portrays the city as a land of opportunity. L. A. Story is a romantic comedy set in the city of Los Angeles which â€Å"tells the story of Harris K. We will write a custom essay sample on La Story or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Telemacher, an L. A. weatherman who falls in and out of love with the aid of a talking freeway sign†(wiki). The city is portrayed to be as a character itself with the ideas of the two people that created the story. Mick Jackson, the director, started out as a British television and movie director, while his partner Steve Martin, the screenwriter, is an American comedian and writer.With their differing perspective of the city, they are able to create a world for their Los Angeles resident audience and their foreign audience to fall in love with. Jackson and Martin use situational humor to portray exaggerated stereotypes of the film to convince those interested in Los Angeles of the possibilities the city has to offer. The ridiculous portrayal of the city is exemplified by the driving of Harris Telemacher in the early scenes of the movie. The stereotype of the people of Los Angeles having terrible driving skills is played through Harris.As he leaves for his day to work he skips all of the traffic by going through all of his neighbors’ yards. The part that makes one smile in these unreal scenes is the neighbor’s waving to him as he drives through their yards and checking the time to see if he is on time, and he even fixes his hair ignoring the road in front of him while he cuts across the entire block. This exaggeration of Los Angeles drivers not only give the audience a chuckle, but it presents the idea of how Los Angeles as a city sends a message of how opportunities in the city and endless.The idea is implanted in one’s head of how such an impossible way of driving is actually possible for Harris. This situational humor is an exaggerated stereotype of the reckless drivers in Los Angeles, and the exaggeration in this scene captures the audience’s attention and convinces them about the outrageous possibilities one may have in the city of Los Angeles. This scene is so farfetched that only by living in the city of Los Angeles a person would have the thought to drive recklessly along the pavement and t hrough alleys.The situational humor is there for the audience to see the likelihood of something like this to happen for them to be encouraged about how the city is opportunistic. Jackson and Martin use these embellished conventions of the city and incorporate it into a â€Å"fanciful romantic comedy whose wildest and craziest notion is that Los Angeles, for all of its eccentricities, is a great place to live† (Camby). The portrayal of Harris driving carelessly is important to persuade the audience of how impossibility can turn into possibilities in the city of Los Angeles. A horrific natural disaster is actually common in the L. A. rea, but with the masterminds of Jackson and Martin, a moment usually known for destruction, they make into a funny incident. At the first encounter Harris has with his love interest Sara, an earthquake disrupts their time at lunch. However in the movie, for those that were accustomed to the life in Los Angeles were not affected by the earthquake at all. Sara looks around in confusion as everyone remains the same while their food and drinks fall over the table in the massive earthquake. This obvious overstatement of Los Angeles quakes and the character’s reactions to them is another situation where the rhetors use comedy into play.Although these occurrences of earthquakes are very frequent in Los Angeles, they are not enough for a person living in Los Angeles to ignore it completely and keep going along their business. The contrast between the reactions of those that live in Los Angeles and those that are foreign are presented in this scene to accentuate the absurdity in the scene. Sara looks around dumbfounded as everyone sits still going about their conversations. The foreign and non- foreign audiences are able to appreciate this humorous moment of exaggerated stereotype and engage in the spread of the message.The idea being portrayed here is the fantasy element in the movie. This invention of a place where earthquakes are an everyday occurrence gives the audience the message that in Los Angeles they can also make their fantasy reality. Because these stereotypes are so specific to the city it allows the audience to recognize the many characteristics that Los Angeles has compared to another city. The earthquake portrayed in the scene is so exaggerated it presents the audience how a scene so unreal can be made into reality which gives them idea of how in Los Angeles their dreams can be made into reality.Another particular characteristic that is portrayed of Los Angeles are the ridiculous names that people have in the city. With the many love interests Harris has in the movie, he meets a younger valley girl named â€Å"SanDeE*†. Although her name is not uncommon, the point she makes about the spelling is the situational humor that is portrayed through exaggeration of the outrageous names people have. She is â€Å"the ‘manic pixie dream girl’ type, SanDeE* is— as [one] might discern from the spelling of her name, which includes the star at the end— a bit immature and flaky† (Cam pbell).This absurd portrayal of Los Angeles is like SanDeE*’s absurd spelling of her name. Not only is the spelling of her name another exaggeration of the atypical things people in Los Angeles do, it is the representation of how in Los Angeles one can be anybody and do anything they want, even add a star to the end of their name. Examples of people having unusual names are apparent in Hollywood, with celebrities like Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow naming their child Apple, or Sting and Frances Tomelty naming their baby girl Fuchsia (Crerar).However, Jackson and Martin take it another step up and take her names spelling and adding a star at the end of it to make the name even more ridiculous. With this exaggeration, the audience is given the message that in Los Angeles anything is possible, even having your name spelled with a star at the end or maybe even a hyphen. The audience is engaged in the message of the movie because of the humor that Jackson and Martin use in these exaggerations of the situations.The audience that lives in Los Angeles can relate to this and und erstand how this is unlikely and understand the comedic aspect and are able to relate this to the message of the possibility in Los Angeles. The audience that does not live in the city can also understand the message the rhetors are trying to present with their sense of unusualness of the name being spelled like that too. The effect of the rhetors understanding where their audience is coming from gives them a better idea of what type of humor to use. This is why the conventional view of Los Angeles is presented in exaggeration to show the fantasy of the movie.This fantasy gives the audience the idea of the possibility they can find in the city. Los Angeles, known for its streets filled with robbers and thieves is portrayed in a humorous way when Jackson and Martin use situational humor to exaggerate this stereotype. Harris and SanDeE*, just after finishing dinner, wait in line to pull out money of an ATM machine. The unusual part of this scene is in the background where they are actually on the opposite line of a bunch of robbers who are waiting to take their money after they get it out of the ATM machine.Harris gives hands them money as if it is a routine that everyone in Los Angeles is use to. Of course people know that this definitely does not happen, but this exaggeration gets a chuckle out of the audience. This scene is not meant to frighten the audience how robbers will take their money if they were to visit Los Angeles because it is portrayed in a satirical way. This comical scene is another example of the message Jackson and Martin convey to the audience. Harris creates a world that makes it seem like everything is from his imagination.How his imagination is actually portrayed through his life shows the audience that if they are in Los Angeles they can make their fantasy a reality also. This scene is so farfetched that the audience is able to believe that anything in their wildest dreams can even be made into something real. The situational humor of the ATM machine focuses on the stereotype and evidently is able to convince those that are interested in Los Angeles that their biggest dreams can come true. The most apparent example of showing how the city brings possibility is when the characters observe a painting with their own interpretation.The scene is with Harris and his friend admiring a painting. However, the camera angle comes from the canvas itself so the only image that is shown to the audience is the face and reaction of Harris and his friends. They describe the painting and their feelings towards it with remarks like, â€Å"look at the way he’s holding her, it’s almost filthy†. The anticipation to see the actual painting is finally resolved when the camera moves and the audience is left to see that the painting is a rectangular mix of red paint. This funny moment is of the stereotype of the artists of Los Angeles.People in Los Angeles are so eclectic and modern their paintings can be interpreted in so many ways. It is directly relatable to the message how in Los Angeles one can live any way they want. Nothing can stop them from believing in what they can and cannot do. The characters can interpret the painting any way they like and no one is stopping them from saying it is wrong. However they completely exaggerated their interpretations of the painting saying how a man is holding a woman and clearly there is no apparent picture or outline of an actual person.The audience laughs at the ridiculous comments they make about the painting only to understand the message that is presented to them in this humorous way. Their exaggerated comments on the painting allow the audience to also think in the same ways as the characters. Jackson and Martin are able to use this situational humor to present the possibilities in Los Angeles. The possibilities of analyzing a painting relates to the possibilities of the city itself.For the characters it is possible that the painting is filthy and dirty to portray the message of how the audience can think or do anything they wanted and it can be a possibility. Throughout the movie, the city is given a voice to communicate to Harris. This character of Los Angeles is portrayed through the talking freeway sign. From the beginning Harris encountered this sign which gave him advice about his life and helped him through his time of confusion. The sign was very humorous because it was so unlikely for an actual sign to be communicating with an actual person.This situational humor of how Harris stand their actually speaking to the freeway sign is another example of how the audience is encouraged to believe the opportunities Los Angeles has to offer. Harris begins to trust this sign and after just one conversation with it, does not think that it is at all weird. The audience believes that anything is possible in Los Angeles because Harris makes it possible that a freeway sign can help him with his life and able to talk to him. This scene conveys to the audience that in Los Angeles anything can happen; their dreams can become a reality, even a freeway sign can come to life.