Representation of Ethnicity - Luther

In the opening scene a white man is running from the black man, Luther. When the camera is looking at the white man he is small in the shot and doesn’t make the viewer feel he is an intimidating character. When the camera is on Luther he fills the shot and the camera is looking up to him. This shows how he is a powerful, intimidating character which is a stereo type of thuggish black men. At first the viewer is lead to think that Luther is the bad person in this scene. The viewer thinks this because he is a big black man and it looks like he is wearing a hoody which conforms to the stereotype making the viewer just suppose he is the bad guy chasing an innocent white guy.

When The chase is happening we hear a strange quick noise. It sounds like a noise from the jungle. This gives the impression that the white man is being hunted down by the black man who could be made to look like a predatory character.

The setting for the first scene is in an abandoned factory, this sort of run down urban area is the sort that we would typically associate to gangs and thugs. This stereotype helps the user to think that Luther is the bad person in this scene because black people are perceived to be bad.

When he catches the white man on the catwalk we hear him speak for the first time, he speaks with a street accent which once again makes him conform to the stereotype.

When Luther is talking the camera shot is a close up of his face. The camera is angled up to show that he is an overpowering character and you can see the anger in his face. The way he overpowers the smaller white man is stereo typical of a black man because they are perceived to be aggressive people.

There is a use of parallel editing in the scene where he is questioning the white man. Whilst the white team of police are shown to be going by the rules and being very formal and showing full respect to each other calling their boss “mom” etc. Whereas Luther is shown to be doing the gritty dirty work. This is stereotypical of a black man to not follow the rules and be doing the dirty work rather than the white person.

However after this he goes against the stereotype when he lets the white man fall you can see the hurt and regret in his eyes. This is not what you would expect to see from a black character because you expect them to be heartless because of the hard stereotype we have been taught to think of.