Genre: The genre of the documentary is focused on the socio-economic / political topics, as the documentary itself is based on the idea of Capitalism, that some people get what they want because they have money and land, but others lose out because they do not have the same social status or wealth. It also looks at politics and where countries that are meant to be 'free' are actually governed by other people and most of the decisions aren't ours. It later turns slightly biological as it touches upon the topics of human biology, human addiction and human disease. There are also elements of Sociology, as the documentary goes on to explain human behaviour, social pathology and human nature.
Style - Textual Analysis: The documentary begins with a black screen, as small bold white font appears on the screen. Darkness rolls over each line once a new line appears, but when pieced together, the sentences create the quote, "In a decaying culture, Art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay and unless it wants to break faith with its social function, Art must show the world as changeable, and help to change it." by Ernst Fischer. This quote means that art must be a real representation of the world around it as this is it's aim as a social function, so if the environment around it is decaying, the art must show this. Also, art must show that the world is changeable, as art is exposing what is around us, especially if its bad, it must act as a warning to it's audience that we should change how we're living. This is a relevant quote to the documentary as the feature is to expose how we're living is unjust and unfair on some groups and that we should change it; so this documentary is acting as a warning like art does.
Once the quote fades away we hear the non-diegetic sound of static (white noise), this then fades into a audio clip of a news report about unemployment. As this happens a image of flickering television static with a blue / aqua tone to it fades into the screen, now we can hear more audio clips of news reports about banks, loans, economic crisis all overlapping each other while the faint white noise is present in the background. As the audio clips roll on, we hear some audio clips that aren't news reports, often advertisements for tobacco or alcohol, showing us that we're overall a consumer, no matter how much financial trouble our country is in.
Abruptly all the news clips stop and only one non-diegetic audio clip can be heard, this is a male explaining how his grandmother taught him to play Monopoly, this is now the voiceover for the documentary (Peter Joseph). The image of the static is now becoming blurred and more fluid, much like a liquid. As the voiceover continues, Joseph explains that his grandmother bought everything she could and would always win, telling him "One day you'll learn to play the game", linking to the idea of Capitalism. The image is now zooming out, to reveal a water droplet with static inside, as accasional smoke flickers in the background, as the background turns into a blurred cityscape. As Josephs voiceover continues, we see a close up of a pavement, the water droplet hits the pavement and spreads the static like fluid across the floor as a slight booming sound is heard as Joseph explains that in the end "It all goes back in the box".
We see another low angle close up of pavement by a car as the liquid is spreading across the pavement and down the road. This image fades into a close up of a briefcase, surrounded by the spreading liquid which fades into a close up of a shoe, being drowned as Josephs voiceover becomes more fast paced and dramatic as he explains "What happens when you climb the ladder of success and the thrill wears off?". We now see a long shot of Times Square, New York; here the television screens show static and the liquid is flooding the roads and rising upwards. Finally we see a close up of a mans face, as he is drowned by the liquid, this could mean that consumerism and capitalism is drowning us and taking over our lives.
Suddenly the whole shot becomes blurred and is covered in static as it flickers and turns to a yellow, 'sepia' effect as we hear loud white noise and a high pitched screech.We see an extreme close up of a mans eye, then a mid shot of him, which fades into a horizontal pan of advertisements and billboards with no sound, only static when the shots change.
A medium long shot is then shown of a homeless child lying down, then a close up of his face as we hear a faint humming in the background. We then see an over the shoulder shot of the man, looking on at the child, which quickly jumps to him looking on at a rich couple sat outside a restaurant. Close ups of the rich couple eating and laughing and drinking are shown in slow motion as loud mechanical noises are played. We see a close up of a large TV screen, showing a TV show based on two rich, spoiled girls which is shown by their nice cars and mansion, this is combined with cutaway shots to the homeless boy, showing the two extremes of our society.
We see a close up of the mans face and his blank reaction, as he picks up his briefcase off the floor in slow motion, and walks away from it all, this shot then fades to black. There is a close up of his feet and electronic, melodic music plays as white credits fade in and out of a black screen, with cutaway scenes of the man walking through a city environment. These features, such as the expensive CGI for the liquid, the polished production with no camera wobbling and the effects used such as static, tells us that this production had a larger budget than films such as Supersize Me.
Form: The introduction to the documentary is in an abstract style as there is many images that don't make sense unless you look into what they mean, such as the liquid spreading represents consumerism and the imagery of the homeless boy combined with the rich couple mean nothing unless you compare them against each other to see how status and wealth changes. There is also an element of narrative as we follow the story that Joseph tells about his grandmother and we also follow the story of the old man reliving his life.
Audience: I think the audience for this documentary is anyone from the ages of 18-50, this is because the feature is very factual and focuses on the socio-economic / political genres, that many young people or teenagers may not show a particular interest in or understand. At times this documentary is very serious and full of terminology especially when focusing on the social pathology and biological side of things so this makes it very intense and I believe adults will be interesting in this, but not really young people as programmes aimed at young people aren't usually educational. Adults may be interested in this feature as it affects them, especially when voting on things such as elections as some people who want to become leader will either inforce or reject Capitalism and it will effect the way in which we live. It has been viewed 11,182,999 times on Youtube and therefore shows its watched by a wide audience, especially as it's available in 30 different languages.
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