life on mars analysis

Life on mars

Life on mars is a British crime drama with sci-fi elements, which centres round a detective who has been sent into the 1970s after being hit by a car, after his colleague was kidnaped in pursuit of a suspect on a case. The main character then wakes up in the 1973listening to the same David Bowie song he was listening to in 2003, “life on mars” which gives the series its title.

Immediately after the main character wakes up the mise en scene has been completely rearranged with items from the 1970’s, in order to infer to the audience that the main character has time travelled. The main character then being to look around at the scenery whilst the camera pans around from his point of view in order to give the audience a comparison between the two sceneries which they were Introduced to.

After looking around the scenery the main character is greeted by a policeman who is wearing one of the old shaped hats, the main character is taken aback and is somewhat sceptical of the policeman’s authenticity even though he  himself is wearing 1970’s style clothing , this is shown in the way the characters facial expressions react to the police officer.

Since the protagonist was standing next to his own car when he got hit it is easy for the audience to assume that the car he wakes up to in the 1970s is his car, he even looks into the car to see what tape is playing and it’s the same David bowie song “life on mars” which leads the audience to infer that it is the protagonists vehical but since hes sceptical about whether he is really in the 1970s he denies that its his car, though when he wakes up he takes a good long look inside the car in as if the sudjest he finds it a coincidence that both his car 2003 and this 1973 car are/were playing the same song.

The 1970s police officers first line to the protagonist is “you seem to have a concussion” which is ironic because later in the episode we find out that in fact he is in a coma, however since the policeman says this it could lead the audience to believe that the scenes prior to him waking up in 1973 where just a dream and this leaves the audience in the dark questioning which reality is authentic.

 After looking at the protagonists police badge the officer then goes on to tell the protagonist that he has been transferred to Manchester which In itself is a play on words since he has essentially been transferred back in time. The protagonist then goes on to reply “this isn’t my car, I was driving a jeep” the officer replies “a military vehical?” which helps to give the audience a sense of time as the jeeps were not sold as normal cars back in the day.

The protagonist then asks for his mobile, the officer replies “mobile what “ since in the1970s mobile phones had not been invented, the director uses serval plays on words in order to give the audience a since of timing.

After the protagonists