Samson and Delilah
The film Samson and Delilah directed by Warwick Thornton is a film about two young Aboriginal teenagers who run away from home after vicious beatings and must deal with being two young Aboriginals own their own. Thornton uses three visual techniques to achieve his attention in showing the world and Australia in society in particular the reality of life for Aboriginal teenagers. These visual techniques are cinematography, props and make up.  

The visual technique cinematography was used well by Thornton to develop the idea that Aboriginal youth was dislocated from their culture.  An example of this is when we see the  different shots of Samson walking away from his village.  The cinematography of these shots starts with a big shot of Samson looking down at his village.  This shows the distance Samson feels between himself and  his culture.  It then cuts back to Samson at a mid, shot where we can see Samson holding a tin of petrol up  to his face while he sniffs it.  This shows Samson's solution to his problems.  Lastly the camera cuts to a long shot of Samson walking away from his village, his culture, the camera and the audience with his tin of petrol.  This action of Samson's is a physical act of Samson rejecting his culture.  These three completely different shots work very well in union to show the emotions Samson is feeling after he has just been beaten up by his brother and after just seeing the state of Delilah after her beating.  This is done through the angle of the shot when Samson is looking back at his village we see it as a high angle shot.  This gives the audience  the perception that Samson is looking down at the village with a contempt because through the beating he had been made to feel unwelcome and hostile.  After this initial shot mid shot furthers these emotions through Samson leaving his village emotionally and turning to his solution which is the petrol tin and lastly the long shot puts all this together with the physical act of Samson walking away from his village and his culture.  The cinematography of these shots are used very well by Thornton as through these three shots Thornton leaves the audience no chance in realizing that Samson is leaving his Aboriginal culture behind him and more importantly that Aboriginal youth feel disconnected and rejected from their culture.

Thornton uses the visual technique props to develop the idea that life for young Aboriginals is so hard they resort to substance abuse or in Samson's case sniffing petrol as a way out.  This is shown very clearly by Thornton's use of the prop that is Samson's petrol tin.  Samson is seen throughout the film holding onto and sniffing a bottle of petrol.  Through this constant connection between Samson and the bottle of petrol they see Samson's dependence on it as he has a constant need to get away from the problems of his life.  The opening scene of this film instantly creates this clear association between Samson and the bottle of petrol because the first thing the audience sees on screen is Samson waking up and sniffing a tin of petrol.  Further on it the film when Delilah is hit by a car the audience again sees Samson's dependence on sniffing petrol because he can't deal with the fact that the person he loves the most in the world is thought to be dead.  This is shown well by Thornton as when Samson is sniffing the bottle we see a fade out into darkness where the audience can only see the bottle of petrol Samson is sniffing as night falls.  The screen then lightens up as morning comes and Samson is still sniffing the bottle of petrol.  This scene is very effective in showing the affect that petrol has on Samson as we see a whole night pass in a matter of seconds with Samson sniffing the petrol throughout.  This use of the prop is a very important part of the confronting side of this film as we see very visual images of substance abuse as Samson tries to escape the reality of his and other young Aboriginals' lives.

The visual technique make-up was used by Thornton to convey the idea to Australians and the world that young Aboriginals experience a lot of hardship and pain through their everyday lives.  An example of this is when Delilah gets kidnapped and beaten.  This is shown when Delilah returns back to Samson, she is first shown in a long shot where the audience can see her silhouette but have no idea of her condition.  Then the camera cuts to a mid shot of her face where the audience can see the full extent of Delilah's beating through the visual technique makeup.  What the audience sees is one side of her face smashed in, one of her eyes completely closed up through bruising and swelling and her teeth are covered in blood.  The audience can see the result of this visual beating on screen because a makeup artist has applied prosthetics and latex filler to the cheek and eye to give the impression of swelling, blush and eyeliner to give the impression of bruising and stage blood to give the effect of blood on the teeth.  This very visual use of makeup is also like props as Thornton uses it to confront Australian society as Thornton shows the other side of Alice Springs which is supposed to be known as the 'tourist capital of the red center' meaning tourist capital of Australia, yet here is an Aboriginal teenager being violently beaten.  All this use of makeup is very important is showing the audience that violence is a constant part of life for teenagers living on the streets of Alice Springs.  Through makeup Thornton has portrayed this issue surrounding Aboriginal teens.  

These three visual techniques are very effective in developing Warwick Thornton's deeper idea of showing Australian society the reality of life for Aboriginal teenagers.  All three of these visual techniques are very different in terms of the on-screen effect for their audience.  However they all work together in confronting the problems of Aboriginal teenagers experience and making this the great film it is.