The Little Fugitive

Social Context Reflected in The Little Fugitive
In the early 1950s the appearance of films that were serious about the social and historical issues affecting the contemporary society began to emerge. The cinemas often viewed as social realists, or the New Wave targeted capturing the sequence of events in everyday lives, rather than focusing on a single genre. The process was gaining momentum as several countries were recovering from the post-war shortages and a new optimism engulfed the film industry. Moreover, there was an espousal of new technologies and the industries were trying to readjust to the new world order. As it is, if one wishes to define the beginning of this new movement then the successful Little Fugitive (1953) is the epitome of the new wave movement in the history of the film.
The film is a candid study of a seven-year-old boy, who rambles around Coney Island as he has been cut loose from his family. His brother played a dirty trick on him by making him believe that he murdered and is forced to flee in terror. In a way, the Little Fugitive reflects more of the Italian Neorealism social context. The directors give an astounding illustration of the peculiarity of a small boy, adrift to his resources in a lonely island. Shot with motion picture camera at the Coney Island, this kind of style is characterized by events of real life stories of poor or middle class working families. The films were also filmed on location with nonprofessional actors. Typical of the Italian neorealism films, this kind of film genre mostly had to contend with the severe economic conditions of the post-war and used the small resources that were available to record a movie (Ruberto, 2014). When the little boy runs away towards the end of the summer season, and spends one day and a night amidst the overcrowded environment of the beach. A day at the Coney Island, and the small boy is torn between survival and curiosity is the ideal depiction of a middle life society. This was in contrast with the unreal movies shown in the glories of the Roman past where the protagonist always found a solution to their problem. Ideally, the directors in this film understood the realities of a young boy trying to survive on almost nothing on an island where he is, in fact, a fugitive. Yet, they did not fail to show us the unconcerned look and the unexpressive look on the small boy who seemed more focused on his newly found freedom that the guilt of his deeds.
Aesthetic/ Technical Innovations in The Little Fugitive
The goal of the postwar film directors was to replace the artificiality and superficiality of studio filmed movie with images shot in actual locations with a sequence of real life events. Their intent was coming up with video shoots that featured people in their everyday life. They made extensive use of location shooting and omitted nonprofessional extras. The new wave was particularly visible in the Little Fugitive movie as its amusing and unsentimental display of innocence in childhood hit the audience and critics. The directors put the little boy’s face in the limelight as he is going on with his activities unbothered. The little boy is natural, instinctive and portrays the image of a commonplace young child. The image is perfectly casual, his anxieties mild, which pelts the audience into the life of an ordinary child in his pure innocence unworried about his troubles.
Impacts of The Little Fugitive in Later Films
During the glamor of Hollywood, and before the 1950 and 1960s, film directors focused on providing an assortment of films where the characters failed to feature in the everyday human drama. During this period, the protagonist was revered as a super being who had solutions to all their problems. They did things alien to the human life and which the common world found it hard to relate with. However, with time the filmmakers became more keen on producing about the events of human life giving birth to the modern independent cinema. Roughly, the Little Fugitive is largely associated with initiating this movement. Made on a very tight budget by still photography, the film was able to tell the story creating a wave that had been rare felt before. Through its neorealist view, the directors managed to give a paean to the sights, sounds and yet a comforting feeling to the dazzling chaos of the Coney Island. Through its shoestring budget, the film was able to add visual resonance to tiny details of the casual, real and artful life on the beach. At its core, The Fugitive was pioneering independent film which largely changed the film making industry even in its simplicity.
The Little Fugitive Relation with Aspects of the Film Industry
The film is a homogeneous art of storytelling. Images and sound elements play an essential role in the movie making. Virtually, the film is part of the best mass medium which has the ability to reach out to a large group of people. They should also be able to leave a permanent footprint in the minds of the audience. All this would not be possible with certain aspects of the film making art, which brings the perfect balance. Realistically, and irrespective of any genre, this is the success mantra of any movie. Arguably, one of the most influential and vivid film aspects in the Little Fugitive is the Music and Re-recording and Cinematography.
Music and Re-recording
Once the movie is shot, the audio enhances the visual, and music takes the film to an entirely different level altogether. According to Dreher (1931), this is the backbone of the movie. In The Little Fugitive, the obvious toil of the photographers is clearly visible and greatly enhanced by the musical track which the film conceived. Combined with the harmonica, the sound track gives a light and informal mood to the naturally dull moment. Alongside, you have to admire the filmmaker’s dedication to re-recording. The sound is so powerful amidst the large gathering at the beach that that it almost gives an audio formation of the audience feelings and expression.
Cinematography
Camera usage in film shooting is all about composing, frame, focus and following a sequence in the movie. Excellent cinematography not only gives forth to a wonderful film, but also captures the imagination and creativity thus boosting the connection between the audience and the story (Lai, Wu, Sanokho, Christie, & Li, 2014). Unstable camera angles are likely to generate a displeasing feeling hence the viewpoint is crucial. The charming details of the little seven-year-old fugitive is observed through watchful cameras, where the style and alertness of the photographers is clearly reflected in the demands of the visuals. Throughout the film, the audience is in sync with the sequence of the movie.
The post-war new wave brought with it an entirely different genre of films. Amidst the economic boom, directors now understood that they did not have to spend a fortune to make a movie. It was also clear that the people related more with the nonrealistic films as opposed to the underlying meritocratic sentiments of the Hollywood cinemas. More specifically, this new wave cleared the more ambiguous nature of the old unrealistic driven films by introducing a new style of recognition and relation to the real human life.

References
Dreher, C. (1931). Recording, Re-Recording, and Editing of Sound. Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 16(6), p. 756-765.
Lai, P.-C., Wu, H.-Y., Sanokho, C., Christie, M., & Li, T.-Y. (2014). A Pattern-Based Tool for Creating Virtual Cinematography in Interactive Storytelling. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 8698, 121-132.
Ruberto, L. E. (2014). Italian Films, New York City Television, and the Work of Martin Scorsese. 53-70